I played a lot of DS1 and DS2 before beating Demon's Souls for the first time (which was yesterday btw), which is why I'm so surprised by how hard I fell for it. This game is seriously incredible, the bosses, the atmosphere, it all lives up to the hype. It makes me very excited to see how much they return to its formula for bloodborne.

Yes its the best souls game by far and sadly very underrated.

It always throws me how many people go on and on about Dark Souls but never even mention Demon's Souls. It was the first for crying out loud! It's fantastic, I infinity prefer the hub world and leveling up at the Maiden then the way Dark Souls did it, but I still love Dark Souls as well.

This is the one I played for two hours and put down forever, I remember really hating it but I guess I never gave it a fair chance

It's good for sure but man is it breakable. Some of the design is also terrible. Limited spawns on crystal lizard, broken and inscrutable world and character tendency systems, incredibly over powered boss weapons. A good first draft of the souls series for sure.

Ya, I played it after I played Dark Souls and it's great.

You can see the improvements they made on the concept with Dark Souls, and it gave me a bigger appreciation for the work they've been putting into this concept for decades.

@zolroyce: The reason I don't "go on and on" about Demon's Souls is it is more flawed a game. The most inherent flaw is the incredible holes in PvP which can be very easily manipulated (without hacking or breaking any game rules) to completely break the system.

I like the game, and even it's unbalanced nature at times is actually fun because it makes the game legitimately terrifying to play (which I like), but at the same time it's not fair. I still don't feel anything unfair about Dark Souls.

I do always try to mention, when speaking about the nebulous concept of a "Souls" game to always refer to it as "Souls" in which I mean to imply that Demon's Souls fits in with what the genre is. Even with it's own influences (you could argue some of it's influence is from Diablo and Rogue) it's still very much it's own thing and all those games (even Demon's Souls) is a part of that.

Some people feel similarly about King's Field as a series, but I never played those games so I don't know enough about it to actually speak of it when talking about Souls games.

moratorium on all dark/demon's souls talk in 2015 plz?

Yup, it's still the greatest Souls game ever made.

I have my share of complaints about it and I generally prefer Dark Souls overall, but yeah, it's definitely still a great game. It nails its atmosphere amazingly well, and the core of the series' gameplay is largely fully-formed.

I think it also has some of the most memorable (non-boss) enemies of the series: the black skeletons, the rolling skeletons, the man-centipedes, and those fucking mind flayers.

The year bloodborne is coming out? Good luck with that.

@ripelivejam: yeah nah

It's got better atmosphere and a much better soundtrack than Dark Souls.

Individually some areas are incredible and beat anything in Dark Souls but i prefer Dark Souls' world as a whole and it's structure.

I much prefer the way magic works in Demon's Souls but the choices of spells is more limited as is the choice of gear.

World tendency can go fuck itself HARD.

All in all both games have their strengths and weaknesses. I still like Dark Souls the best but Demon's Souls is something special.

Both shit all over Dark Souls II.

it will be as great in 2020.

I've played this game well over 500 hours. I love this game. I even bought it in all regions to get the plat for all three. I have yet to do that, but I'm still slowly working on it. While it is my favorite and constantly go back to it, I do see all the flaws it has. And the things Dark did better, improved upon. And I probably love it so much as it was my 'first'. But man, this game. Me and some buddies on gametz imported the Asian version six months before it came out here. Playing it then and figuring things out with no one else to help and just us talking about the game was what made the game more than anything. But I do still love playing it.

However, Dark is the more polished experience. And more people have played Dark. Dark is not an exclusive, so more people have played it solely on that basis. And this also made Dark the first for many other people who either didn't own a PS3 or fell for the over-hype of "too damn hard".

Yeah I liked it a fair bit. I think on the gameplay side, it might be the weakest. But the bosses are by far the most unique and imaginative in the series. Some of the levels have just amazing atmosphere, perhaps even beating Dark Souls in a few instances. I have some issues here and there, and it definitely loses some luster if it isn't your first souls game, but Demon's Souls is pretty fucking cool on it's own merit. I think it's telling that this game is the one Miyazaki really wanted to make, it goes so much further and compromises way less with it's ideals than the other games. For better or for worse depending on where in the game you are. :P

I think Demon's Souls is very unbalanced. I was able to beat almost all the bosses easily by staying far away and shooting fire arrows, there are only four that are impervious to this strategy (Tower Knight, Flamelurker, Maneater, False King Allant). Magic seemed overpowered as well---I don't use it much, but I played for an hour or two as a Royal and found it much, much easier than melee.

Dark Souls is better balanced. Bosses have more ability to get near you fast so that you can't rely on ranged attacks too much. Magic is more balanced. Dark Souls made me step up my game in a way that I was able to avoid (unintentionally) with Demon's Souls.

On the other hand, human form in Dark Souls is basically pointless if you don't care about online features---I definitely prefer how Demon's Souls gave humanity some meaning.

Demon's Souls also has the best music of the series.

Great game with some rather obvious flaws (not unlike Dark Souls, though the flaws were less severe in that). "Underrated" apparently means 89 on metacritic. This game is very much the definition of "rated."

I finally played and finished Demon's Souls and Dark Souls last year. I have to say that I enjoyed Demon's Souls a little more than Dark Souls. Not sure if that is because I played Demon's first or I just like the way the level are set up. Instead of the "open world" in Dark Souls. Demon's Souls is great and I have high hopes for Bloodborne when it's released this year.

The world didn't grab me like Lordran did, but there was definitely a lot of enjoyable elements to Demon's Souls. Had I played it first, I may have even fallen into the camp of it being my favourite Souls game.

I finished it in the latter half of 2014. Amazing game. I too am confused at the amount of people never talking about it, but always talking about Dark Souls.

I think there are a lot of people who don't even know what it is

Yup best Souls game still. A flawed masterpiece for sure though. I imported it immediately when it came out, because I knew that game was right up my alley, but man some of those game mechanics like the tendency stuff were so confusing at first! It was the amazing atmosphere, likewise music, and inventive boss designs that kept me going though and I'm glad I did, cause once I figured out how the game worked, it was and still is the most fun I had with a game during the previous console generation, despite it's obvious issues. Yup not only best Souls game, but best game from the last generation in my opinion.

I've played all the Souls games in order or release, and I adore them all, but Demon's Souls is probably my least favorite (even though it was my game of the year for that year). I think it has the best atmosphere of any of them, even though the oppressive nature of it can wear you down after awhile. I love a lot of the boss designs, but so many of them were just too easy, or just more gimmicky (Dragon God and the giant flying manta ray). And while I love the aesthetics of most of the areas, I don't necessarily enjoy traversing them (except for Boletaria, that area as a whole might be my favorite zone to play through in the whole series).

The tendency system is something I like in theory, but I don't enjoy the practice of actually manipulating it. I still think that at pure black tendency this game can be the most difficult game in the series (for a base NG playthrough). Otherwise, it's one of the easiest.

Tower of Latria has been all time favorite game level since '09, I can't see that changing either, I can't see anyone achieving that level of gloom and despair again, but I would be very happy to be proven wrong.

also, wasn't the world tendency stuff deactivated at some point?

I think they tried to deactivate it twice but the backlash they got stopped them.

I guess I can finally weigh in on the whole dark vs demon thing now... although I don't want to because it feels like I'm pitting my loved ones against each other. I think I'd have to say Dark Souls 1 is still the better game, but I really cherished my time with Demon Souls, and the moments that landed in DeS hit me pretty hard. All of the Tower of Latria, the Astraea fight, Old King Allant, and that crazy reveal with the final boss all rank among some of my favorite gaming experiences ever. I think my biggest complaints with DeS are that the runbacks to the bosses are too brutal and that healing and warping are both a little convoluted. Ah shit, I can't decide. I gotta go play me that 2nd demon's souls playthrough mmmm.

Yes welcome to the club of true believers who spread the holy gospel of how Demon's Souls is the best and only souls game. When people talk about atmosphere and an amazing world and then mention Dark Souls I just can't believe it. Nexus for life. Alas the Dark Souls somehow rose to prominence, most probably through the multi system release. Oh well, I take solace in knowing that whenever people say Dark Souls is better they are completely wrong.

@humanity said:

Except... opinions.

So, no they're not, and neither are you haha

I must admit, I feel like a heretic for even waiting this long.

Genuinely good games don't stop being good games just because they're older.

@corevi: Online world Tendency has been Pure White for at least a couple years due to people not sucking; so it might as well not exist online.

In some ways it's still the best. I don't know why it took until Dark Souls II for the series to have 360 degree dodging. It's an analog stick.

Absolutely true! I initially thought that experiencing later Soul iterations would have spoiled me on DeS, but From apparently got things right from the start.

@cornbredx: You Darksouls supporters keep telling yourselves that! Obviously @claybrez has seen the light.

@dudeglove said:

I have yet to see their demon souls videos, I can't wait to finally dive in and watch all of them.

@dudeglove said:

At first, having not played DS since 2009, I couldn't remember Latria... then I saw the word "chime" and all the memories flooded back to me. THAT ZONE IS PURE EVIL.

They should put it on PC! I'd love to try it, it seemed cool when they first QL'd in and since then having played DS1, i'd love to try it

I've never beaten it, but I've played it every year since it came out. Love this game to hell and back.

Been playing the souls games since day 1 and Demon's Souls to me was just not on Dark Soul's level. I do love DeS atmosphere and it's defiantly better done but overall every other category DS1 was miles ahead. Can't wait for Bloodborne since i'm confident it will have that phenomenal atmosphere of DeS and the variety/gameplay of DS1.

THAT'S WHAT I'VE BEEN TELLING YOU!!!

It was the gateway drug for my full on Dark Souls addiction. Replayed it myself recently. I agree with TS - the game holds up quite well.

It's a hell of a game.

Heartening to hear people still going back to check out this game. Glad folks are giving it a shot and enjoying it!

Eh. It was pretty lukewarm to me after having played Dark Souls first. It has its moments, but both Dark Souls and Dark Souls II are dramatically better. Demon's has some serious issues and dumb design decisions. But as a first game in a "series" it's alright. (I don't even think I would've liked Demon's Souls without the context of how awesome Dark Souls was though, honestly)

Here's hoping that Bloodborne is totally awesome!

Yep, Demon's Souls is one of my favorites of all time and still best in series. The only thing Dark Souls has on it is tougher bosses. Lost Izalith and crystal caves? Talk about amateur hour.

Dark Souls--both of them--are mechanically better.

That said, I absolutely love Demon's Souls' art direction and level structure so much more. I can't wait for Bloodborne!

When the first trailers hit for Demons I remember seeing the character walk through a miner infested hallway in stonefang tunnel and getting surprise attacked by one of the lizard miners, I thought it was some sort of medieval survival horror game and was immidiately intrigued.

I picked up the U.S. import version of the game (the EU version came something like 3 or 4 months after that) and enjoyed it a lot, but was dumbfounded by most of the systems. I played a tempel knight (cause fancy armour) rolling with a halbered cause I thought reach would be good (I also carried a shield so the halbered was marginally effective) Then I came up against our "friend" the flame lurker as a melee only heavy armour character and got completely annihilated for a week straight. I gave up on the game up until the launch of the EU version, I got to talking with some people and got the urge to try again, by that time a lot more info and strategy tips were online so I got an idea of what was expected of me and did fine after that. I went back and played through recently and still an awesome game even with it's blemishes.

For that reason I'll always remember the frustration of that first playthrough.

Dark for me was a lot easier to get my head around (having played Demons) and it alo marks the moment I discovered GIANT BOMB through the quicklook (so it will alway have a special place in my heart for that) when I was searching for footage of the game to fill the two days between US and EU launch. Dark for me was a lot less painfull to get into and exploring the "open" world was more my speed than the segregated levels of Demons, the idea of going out into this dismal world and finding what was there to find is what probably grabbed me most. I never really got into the online aspect of the games until late in Dark's life when I replayed it to get ready for DS2, I subsequently got hooked again and ended up playing through DS2 constantly dropping my summon sign in front of boss fights to scout out the bosses for my own solo run, or helping coop buddies through harvest valley and showing them the windmill trick to make the boss fight easier after some random dude showed it to me. Also communicating exclusively through gestures in coop is simultaniously the dumbest and best thing ever.

So I guess I like dark better than demons mostly for the continuous world and the exploration of said world, I probably had most fun playing DS2 though with all te jolly cooperation I got into. DS2 is definately a step down as far a world design goes but the boss rushy aspect of the game makes it tons of fun in coop.

anyway I'll stop rambling now, Cheers