Demon's Souls is a Action-RPGs game was released in 2020 as a launch title for PS5. It was developed by Japan Studio and Bluepoint Games, and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment, and it is also a remake of the 2009's game of the same name originally developed by From Software for PS3.
What I've learned about the PS3 original game is that it's one of the Action-RPGs title that became quite successful back in year 2009 which was hailed for its not just the realistic combat gameplay and dark medieval presentation, but also the core element of the whole game that created the genre known as Soulslike genre which was really known for being the hard as nails difficulty making it the hardest video game ever, which is why it gained critically acclaimed reception at the release and had won several of awards as well as being cited as one of the greatest game of all-time.
The success had led to spawn with numerous of later From Software titles such as Dark Souls which is meant to be a spiritual successor to the 2009's original game are also gained critically acclaim reception, as well as other well-received titles like Bloodborne, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and Elden Ring.
Soulslike genre are also inspired various of different game's developers to create their own Soulslike games like Nioh, The Surge, Lords of the Fallen, Lies of P, Remnant, Code Vain, and the list goes on.
I remember the day in around between year 2013 and 2014 when the PS Plus subscription had offered a monthly free games which they adds games in each month that you can able to download and play on your PS3, so I've discovered Demon's Souls.
I had a go with the 2009's original game on my PS3 just to see how hard the game really is? the answer is yes it's really dead f***ing hard as f**k because it's the game design itself that requires you to keep building up your skill levels, obtaining better weapons, armours, and magics to benefit your attack and defense system, and of course just like everyone else says that you really need to learn how to get good at the game by simply learning all the trials and errors and come up with better strategies are the only way to fight better at the skilled enemies and bosses without getting ass-handed by them, so I've decided to give up playing the original PS3 game which I know that I'm never able to beat the game entirely and decided to skip most of the Soulslike games after my failed attempt on 2009's original game, but not until I played other Soulslike games such as The Surge which is a hella good game that I did managed to beat it, where as others like Nioh is kinda decent but never managed to beat it after being halfway done.
To tell you the truth is that I've nothing to against the game's design choices which I totally respect the whole concept of the Soulslike genre are designed to be a challenging to play, so in around 10 years later I decided to take the risk by picking up the PS5 copy of Demon's Souls...yes guys I just want to give the game a second try to see if I can able to beat the game properly?
The result is hell f***ing yes at last because I've been waiting for very long time to beat the whole campaign which took me a week and the half to finish the game entirely, so thank god for it.
Let's tell you the truth is that I'm playing the PS5 remake which is fully designed for PS5 hardware to improve upon the original PS3 game are the main reason for me to buy one...yep that is me being silly.
So I'm gonna stick back to the review for now because I'm about to say is that this game is actually worth to play which is why I am here to deliver the pros and cons about this masterpiece that I consider this as must play title.
So without go further do, let's start the review.
Presentation
The game takes place in the kingdom of Boletaria ruled by King Allant who misusing the magic power called Soul Arts causes to awakening a dark being known as the Old One and the army of demons began to consume the whole kingdom with dark powers which led onto a war conflict where human army groups are fighting to protect their kingdom against the army of demons, but unfortunately the army of demons had claimed the men's souls turning them into a hideous monsters causing to build up the rise of the demon's army had seized the whole kingdom, and the King then joins the ally with the Old Ones to control the whole kingdom.
Despite the whole land of kingdom are cursed, there are a nameless warrior had bought to the kingdom for the quest to defeat false King Allant and pacify the Old One.
The story in this game is very good which I really liked the opening backstory of explaining how the traitor king and the dark being had conquered the whole kingdom by using such a dark power that summons the multiple of demons had began to spread everywhere on the land and start stealing all human's souls which turns them into a sort of creatures which rapidly growing a population of demon army.
Then you have a player who then wakes up in the hub room called nexus and meets the woman named maiden in black guides a player to go on the quest to defeat numerous of large creatures including false King Allant and silence the Old One in order to save the kingdom.
It's just like every other dark fantasy stories which has a similar concept all about the medieval battles between good human and evil creatures which I really liked the idea that kept the storylines quite interesting in the game.
I also liked the player's appearance of these 10 classes such as Barbarian, Hunter, Knight, Magician, Priest, Royalty, Soldier, Temple Knight, Thief, and of course Wanderer which I really liked how they designed their armour and outfit to make it look more old-fashioned and badass especially the Knight is by far the best looking appearance in any of Souls games.
I got to say most of the enemies are really morbid looking and also wicked like skinny ragged Dregling, slimy large-shield Hoplite, flame headed Blue or Red Eye Knight, crazy looking dog, top-hat Fat Official, thieving Imperial Spy, creepy Scale Miners, long-ass Rock Worm, squiggly Mind Flayer, big-headed crawlies Man Centipede, devil looking Gargoyle, undeaded Skeleton, floating Storm Beast, ghostly dark Reaper, pointy nose Depraved One, freaky giant Mosquito, and that ugly-ass Rat.
The bosses are also quite deadly as f**k like large shell Phalanx, gigantic Tower Knight, skilled sword knight Penetrator, 8-legged Armor Spider, big beast Flamelurker, terrifying Dragon God, weird-armed lady Fool's Idol, flying-winged beast Maneater, mysterious Old Monk, big fatty Adjudicator, tall Old Hero, large flying Storm King, hideous Leechmonger, crooked Dirty Colossus, white-cloaked Maiden Astraea with bodyguard, and of course the false leader Old King Allant.
The presentation itself is looking remarkable for its dark fantasy themes because I really liked the medieval-style settings they put in the game in each location such as world 1 which has a huge stone castle, cliff pathway, the old-fashioned streets, and large looking King's Tower, the world 2 has the city of miners filled with mining areas, the huge tunnel, and the underground lava areas, the world 3 has the dark looking prison room, the creepy looking church, and narrow walkways, the world 4 has the island of shrine that worshiped the storms and mourned the dead, has the gritty looking caves, and then of course the area of stormy weather, the world 5 has the humid looking valley with inhabitants are afflicted by poison and plague, has the huge swamp areas are sorts of sticky, gooey and gloomy things going on, and of course the rotting cavern has unclean environments.
Overall, it has very good story, awesome player's class appearances, morbid and wicked enemies and bosses, and of course remarkable presentation themes.
Gameplay
The game has an option to play single-play offline or online multiplayer, so I had to select offline single-player to focus on entire story campaign.
Your main goal is to prevent the Old Ones from harming the kingdom, so in order to do that you must beat the whole game by defeating all bosses including false King Allant in each world.
You'll start off with the player's customisation which you have 10 classes to select, so each class will have different pros and cons to it such as Soldier has very well-balanced physical combat, Knight has well-rounded choice for beginners, Hunter are really beneficial with ranged weapon, Priest has good amount of defence attributes but struggles to wield many weapons, Magician are skillfully command magic spells with high intelligence but nowhere near quite easy as other class like Royalty for example, Wanderer may not have a decent starting equipment but has high level of luck, Barbarian has the strong class level but not an easy choice for the beginners, Thief are better at the stealth play but has weaker defence level, Temple Knight is another good choice for beginner providing good amount of attack damage level, Royalty is slightly much straight-forward than the Magician in terms of magic stats level.
Once you done creating your player, then the game will begin at the start with 3rd-person perspective on-screen and you will also have a HUD screen interface which displays on each of the corners such as player's status at the top-left corner which indicates player's health, mana, and stamina, where as the bottom-left corner displays the small inventory icons like weapons, items and magics, and finally the souls currencies displayed on top-right corner which I will explain it for later on this review.
Push the left stick to move player around, while holding with the circle button to make player run faster.
Push the right stick to rotate the camera around the player to see the surroundings of the level.
For the combat play, you press the right shoulder button to use quick attack are fast but slightly weak for hit damage on enemies, where as the right trigger button uses as slow but strong attack which makes the highest damage hit on enemies.
You have the left shoulder button which act as the block are used for shielding to protect player from enemy's attack, where as you can also perform parrying by pressing the left trigger button when the enemy's attack are coming close to you then press it at the right time to do perfect parrying to prevent taking heavy damage from the enemies.
You can also evade their incoming attacks by simply tapping the circle button to do dodge roll when any of types of enemies does something like charging attacks as an example.
You can also lock-on target by pressing the right thumbstick button which locks on enemies with the target dot-symbol, and you can switch target by pushing the right stick to change target of the enemies nearby you're facing.
You can switch your single-hand weapon mode onto the two-handed mode by pressing the triangle button, so what it does do is that if you're equipping such as heavy weapons that are difficult to master with one-hand you can switch it to the two-handed mode makes your heavy weapon an easier to swing around, so that adds-up the realism to the combat system.
To keep you in mind, your stamina bar may go down lower when you keep using your ongoing attacks, sprinting, and dodging may cause your player go really tired quick during the combat, so the best way to save your stamina is to not make multiples attacks, sprinting, and dodging so much and wait until the stamina bar goes up a bit, so keep an eye on your stamina bar before you make multiple actions.
You can use the magic power by equipping the catalysts stick, so this will allow you to use types of magic spells like cloak which makes it harder for enemies to spot you, curse weapon boost weapon damage by 50% but lowers your health points, death cloud creates a plague of cloud which infects the enemy, fireball launches a large ball of flame, and etc. but it also drains down your magic power bar which you really need to use one of the item that replenish your magic power bar.
Not only you can use magic power, you can also use miracles which you really need to equip talisman in order to use it, so what it does do is that this will allow you to perform various of the miracles power such as cure which cures up your deadly status like poison and plague, heal that recovers your health points, evacuate transports you back to the nexus with souls, hidden soul makes it harder for black phantoms to spot you and etc.
You can cycle your weapons and shields by pressing the left and right d-pad button depending on which weapons and shields you're equipped with, and you can cycle the items that you're equipped by pressing the down d-pad button, as well as the miracles with the up d-pad button.
Defeating multiples of the enemies are not the only they can drop out the items on the floor, but also can increase your souls currencies which you'll see on the top-right corner of the screen, so what it does is that you can use these souls currencies to purchase stuff at the shop like the items that you really need it for the adventure like the consumables such as herbs and elixir, ammunition like bolts and arrows, weapons such as swords, axes, spears, and shields, sorcery stuffs like magics and miracles, and of course you really need to buy materials for upgrading your weapons as requirement in which you need to meet up a blacksmith that they can forge your weapon you're equipping with the materials turning it into a stronger and tougher weapon that increases your attack points.
You can gain access to your player's pause menu by pressing the option button, so you'll see the list of stuffs like the items that you're carried and collected, the weapons and shields that you have equipped with left and right hand, and you can also see the player's attributes list which explains what your status level you have gained so far.
You can meet up the maiden of black in nexus which you can able to increase your attributes stats by spending it with your souls currencies that you have previously collected, so this will improve upon your player's strength, endurance, intelligence, vitality, dexterity, magic, faith, and luck which means that this will make your player feel stronger to fight against the highly skilled enemies that are tougher to fight with, so the more you build up the stats the better your player performance goes.
I also wanted to say important thing about saving up the souls currencies is that you don't want to lose them because if you get killed by the enemies then you will lose all the remaining souls currencies, so to retrieve all souls currencies back is that you need to head over to the same spot where you died on, so you will see these dark flashy bloodstains that lays on the floor which you need to pick it up as soon as possible, but if you die again without retrieving the remaining souls currencies then you will lose everything which means you had to start over the farming habits again which is huge pain in the ass sometimes but you really needed to be really careful of fighting the tough enemies without keep dying in the game.
Make sure to keep an eye on your weapon and armour because they can break easily later when using it quite often, so you had to meet up the blacksmith to help you repairing your weapon and armour when needed to get it fixed, so be sure to double check on your stuff before it can damage soon later.
You don't really want to carry all the stuffs on your inventory because if you overload with the items and weapons too much then it became really heavy to carry around meaning that your player moves really slow which prevent you from sprinting and dodging during the combat, so you may need to meet up the person who can keep your stuffs on their storage which reduces the heaviness on the player may help you a bit.
So far, the entire gameplay works really amazing for most of it because I find the combat system quite different from any of Action-RPGs makes it feel fluid and sturdy to play which provides many of great fights between the player and enemies.
The whole combat gameplay is about knowing how the fight system actually works in the game which heavily focused on level of realism such as relying on stamina level so every time you start swinging, blocking, parrying, and dodging may depletes your stamina meter bar down making you feel vulnerable to fight back, so instead of going full-on lethal you had to learn to tackle the enemies down by using the right weapon and armour you equipping with and levelling up your souls level for better overall attributes may going to make significant result, and you may need to gather more enough consumables to restore your health and mana, you may also need to collect enough materials to upgrade your weapon may result a huge damage attack on enemies, how many items and weapons you have carried on your inventory may cause the player go slower on combat battle if the whole things becoming too heavy to carry around, and of course you really need to figure it out what are the enemy's and boss's main weak patterns and how to avoid taking multiple damage from these guys because they are just tough as nails with aggressive A.I level they put up in combat giving you an extraordinary ass-kicking which you'll die a lot in the game, so the best way to get good at the game is just to keep playing the game with learning all trials and errors you make to overcome the previous mistakes, so having to figure all the strategies out that I've said before is the best way to prevent multiples of deaths.
I also liked the choices of weapons they included in the game such as swords with fairly balanced stats are reliable to use, daggers are small and fast with high attack speeds, axes are slow and short-ranged but providing heavy damage attack, hammers delivers strong blunt attacks are effective against the armored enemies, spears provides decent damage at a long-range but can be easily parried by enemies, bows are best used to deal with single targets from long distance, catalysts grants players the ability to cast powerful spells, and of course the talismans grants players to ability to cast powerful miracles.
These weapons works amazingly well for any of classes requires with recommendation choice of weapons that works effectively against any types of foes in the game.
I also wanted to point out the most important thing in the game is the default control schemes because I'm not very good with the default control settings which sadly there are no option to customise the button mapping because I didn't want end up keep pressing the wrong button when I'm attempt to attack the enemies or trying to switch from one-hand to two-hands mode, so at the end it not really that bad because I won't mind with their choice, so once you get used with the default controls the better your practice plays.
I really liked the exploration in the game because I love discovering different areas of levels where I can spent time on collecting some rare items and materials, gain access to the new paths, helping out NPCs a favour, and of course killing many enemies as possible to keep farming with souls currencies is what keeps me playing the game, and I really do liked the design overall for several of the areas in the game because I don't find these areas quite difficult to explore around when attempting to find a way to reach at the boss battle locations even though the level design are looked incredibly big, but just about the right amount of the size.
My favourite part of the game is has to be a boss battles because as I'm said about the game is really damn tough to play, but I've managed to defeat all of them with multiple of tries is my reason to keep playing the game because it's part of the fun factor that keeps the game's challenge quite motivating for me to play.
You have many of these insane bosses that I've mentioned above that are really good with their counter-attacks, deadly special moves, uses magics and miracles to weaken the player, and of course their stats level is significantly powerful which you need to be really prepared to fight with hard-ass bosses can give you a ass-whooping time is what makes the game seems stressful but also a fun at the same time.
I also heard many great things about the online multiplayer where you can able to play on co-op mode up to 3 players to team up in a host world where visiting players appear in soul form that can only be returned to their bodies when a boss is defeated, where as the competitive mode where the players can invade another world as a black phantom to engage in combat with the host player.
Not only it has online multiplayer, the game also make use of asynchronous mode for those connected to the Playstation Network which mean when navigating levels, players briefly see the actions of other players as ghosts in the same area that may show hidden passages that is pre-written on the floors that can also help others such as forewarning safe or hostile positions, trap locations and tactics against enemies or bosses.
These are also quite helpful if you're willing to join the game online for its multiplayer as well as getting the hints and tips messages may going to help the players quite a lot makes the game even fun to play on PS5.
Overall, it has amazing combat system, brilliant exploration, epic boss battles, and of course both the offline single-play campaign and online multiplayer modes.
Graphics
The visuals is just pure perfection which I got to say it is definitely the most beautiful graphic design in any of PS5 library showcasing the Sony's 9th-gen hardware providing magnificent results on environmental design on large areas that are sharp as the crisp, the texture mapping are looking clean on surfaces, the landscaping from draw-distance is looking nice and smooth, the use of the lighting and shading effects are well-built on some areas like from lava pit and gloomy places, the use of the animation on players and NPCs are incredibly stunning throughout the game, and of course the options to use two graphics mode are both really good especially playing on performance mode which provides full-on 60 fps just running so smooth without any of performance issues where as the fidelity mode ran on locked 30fps but supports the great amount of graphical details to make the whole game look amazing giving it a cinematic feel to it thanks to better resolution up to 4K and high reflections details, so that being said both of these graphic options are looking nice on PS5 hardware.
Overall, it has magnificent environmental design, stunning overall animation, and smooth performance.
Music and Sounds
The original soundtrack on this game is fantastic because I really liked the epicness of orchestrated folklore music that really fits the dark fantasy action. It sort of sounds like it has Hans Zimmer vibes to it which is reason why I loved the range of choir vocal and heavier intensity of instrumentation. It was composed by Shunsuke Kida did such an stunning job on his score which is completely redone but also captures the magic of the 2009's original soundtrack to make it sounds better.
I got to praise the game for its sound design because it's one of the game that makes the use of tempest 3D audio, so which means if you have one of the 4KTV or Headphones that supports 3D audio which provides a better cinematic sounds experience with rich surrounding noises and bassy booming effects.
I say the voice casting did a wonderful job on their role as NPCs in the game offering a great use of dialogue during the conversation with the player.
Overall, it has fantastic soundtrack, rich sound design, and wonderful voice performance on NPCs.
Special Features
The game has unlockable gallery mode which includes concept art and behind the scene stuffs going on, and it also has new game plus after beating the game once while retaining all weapons, armours, items, and attributes just adds up a replay values.
Overall, a decent features.
Advantages
Remarkable presentation
Amazing combat system
Brilliant exploration
Epic boss battles
Excellent offline campaign solo and online multiplayer
Magnificent visual performance
Fantastic soundtrack
Disadvantages
Lack of customisable button mapping options
Some enemies can be bit overpowered
Final Verdicts
Presentation 9/10 - very good story, awesome player's class appearances, morbid and wicked enemies and bosses, and of course remarkable presentation themes.
Gameplay 9/10 - amazing combat system, brilliant exploration, epic boss battles, and of course both the offline single-play campaign and online multiplayer modes.
Graphics 10/10 - magnificent environmental design, stunning overall animation, and smooth performance.
Music and Sounds 9/10 - fantastic soundtrack, rich sound design, and wonderful voice performance on NPCs.
Special Features 8/10 - unlockable gallery mode and new game plus.
Overall 9/10 - I am happy to say that I did managed to enjoy the game quite more because as I never got to beat the 2009's original game on the PS3, I did give it a second chance with the PS5 remake which I did managed to beat the whole game entirely which turns out to be better than I've expected.
Demon's Souls is a outstanding Action-RPGs game that does the job really well for its presentation, combat, exploration, boss battles, and of course both the single-play and online play are the main reason to pick up and play.
I am glad that the development team behind this PS5 remake did a stunning job of making an improvement over the 2009's original in terms of technical feats, quality-of-life changes, and making an adjustments of the experience that would appeal to the newcomers are easier to getting into with this title.
This game definitely going to be my future top 5 PS5 game list or maybe I don't know what to say because I feel this game deserves an similar recognition as the other PS5 game exclusives which is why I had such a wonderful time playing this game for over an hours.
The cost of the game are usually worth £25 or more for physical copy, where as the digital release on PS Store cost around £70 but it is also included on extra categories in which you can able to access the game for free if you had PS Plus subscription with it.
Is it a must play title for PS5 owners? Yes absolutely if you're a particular fan of the Soulslike genre will likely give the game a worth of shot because this is definitely one of the finest Action-RPGs game on Playstation platform, so please check it out guys.
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