Well, 2011's over, so saying "this year" I can't say, so last year, was the first year ever that I had played mostly great games that I really didn't have any plan on originally playing. To name a few, Catherine (which is there to play, but I didn't actually play), Skyrim, Skyward Sword (though I don't think either of the Sky games are that great to me), and Dark Souls, the game I have a question about.

Does anyone have Demon's Souls and played it for a while before eventually giving up to do something else, but still you buy Dark Souls and play that? My brother had just bought Dark Souls yesterday, and while I want to play it, I feel like I shouldn't before I go through Demon's Souls. Do you think it really matters, or should I just start on Dark Souls? Oh, and Happy New Year!

i've never even touched demon's souls but played a bit of dark souls and enjoyed it.

What he said above me. Didn't play Demon's Souls, played Darks Souls, loved it.

Happy New Year to you too! I killed Cthuhlu today! YAY!

For those of you that didn't play Demons Souls and enjoyed Dark S. I'd recommend you try the original as it's an outstanding game on it's own. While not seemingly as large in scope I believe it had a bit more atmosphere.

I've always been interested in the 360 audience since they'll have the purest opinions on Dark Souls. The Demon's Souls nostalgia fanatics are a bit insufferable but also wrong for the most part, but since I myself played the hell out of it it's still hard to say for sure whether Dark Souls is harder. Dark Souls is definitely better in almost every way including boss fight difficulty, but Flamelurker is still arguably harder than Gwyn right?

I don't own a PS3, so I never did get to play Demon's Souls. Believe me, if I ever do get one, I will track a copy down.

I never touched Demon's Souls but I bought and happily finished Dark Souls.

Never played Demon's Souls, played Dark Souls and was incredibly disappointed.

Only has an xbox, so no Demon's Souls. Darks Souls is amazing despite making me want to cut off my thumbs.

I don't own a PS3 so have never played Demon's Souls, but Dark Souls was my GOTY 2011. Loved almost everything about it.

@captain_clayman said:

i've never even touched demon's souls but played a bit of dark souls and enjoyed it.

Same for me.

Never played Demons Souls, but I enjoyed the hell out of Dark Souls. Just play competently and patiently, and you'll find that a lot of the difficulty is exaggerated. Except the Tomb of Giants. That place is where happiness goes to die.

I played and beat Demon's Souls, then started playing through the New Game +. I didn't get to finish as I started playing other games, but I thoroughly enjoyed Demon's Souls. As with Dark Souls, I sold it a few weeks after I bought it. I didn't like the backtracking, or the limit on health potions. The factors surrounding Dark Souls gameplay bored me. When I noticed that I hadn't touched Dark Souls a couple weeks in since the day I bought it, I knew something wasn't as great compared to Demon's Souls.

I don't think Dark Souls is bad, but it seems like they tried to make it harder, whereas Demon's Souls felt that it just required a lot of patience and was always fair. Those are just my $0.02 and I don't think people who like Dark Souls are crazy or anything.

I'd imagine a fair amount of people playing Dark Souls haven't seen minute one of Demon Souls.

Never played Demons Souls but it was and still is the only reason I would buy a Ps3. I was incredibly excited when I heard the spiritual successor would be on the 360. I played Dark Souls and well it is definitely my game of the year even though I haven't made an actual list yet.

He's asking about people who own Demon's Souls from before, but still beat Dark Souls first. He's not asking about who never played Demon's Souls at all before Dark Souls, cause that would be most people.

I finished Demon's Souls before I played Dark Souls.

@Humanity said:

For those of you that didn't play Demons Souls and enjoyed Dark S. I'd recommend you try the original as it's an outstanding game on it's own. While not seemingly as large in scope I believe it had a bit more atmosphere.

I would find that impressive, because that is a big part of why I bought Dark Souls. But I do remember the GB-QL with Vinny and so understand your remark.

Liked Demon's Souls, but never beat it. Loved Dark Souls, but put the game down once I reached the Tomb of Giants.

Needed a break from the game, but unfortunately due to RL, haven't touched it since launch.

@bybeach

Yah man you should really give it a try once you're done with Dark Souls and you get that itch again. Maiden in Black, the Nexus and the way you populate it with NPCs over time is great. The endgame is arguably better and if not "better" then definitely a lot more atmospheric. I'd say the music was a lot more memorable. Also since it's a hub world it's a lot more focused since you know exactly where to go next.

I'd say it's a tad bit harder because you don't get save points near bosses most of the time and theres virtually no shortcuts. While you can horde as many healing items as you can carry, if you fall to your death it's redoing the entire section from scratch.

Never played Demon's Souls and fell in love with Dark Souls. At this point I've sunk more than 250 hours into the game and I'm not thinking about stopping anytime soon. Best game I've played this console generation.

I never touched Demon's Souls because I don't own a PS3. I bought Dark Souls because I heard, despite being hard, it was completely fair and most of the time when you died it was your own fault.

Took me about an hour or two to get the controls down solid. I didn't die that much, it was about 10 hours in when I double died for the first time. On my first run I think I double died maybe three times in total and I never really lost that much because I used my souls before entering new areas.

I think a lot of people are too focused on dying. It's just a part of the game, you aren't going to run out of extra lives and if you get to your blood spot there's no loss at all. The way the bonfires are spaced out you can blow through an area quite easily and get your souls back.

I've played Demon's Souls a rediculous amount and haven't gotten too far in it, probably around halfway through when all is said and done, something about the limitations of the game and my actions while playing it that get me killed constantly. Still, enjoyed my time with it. Dark Souls I had a vendetta against because of my failure to beat Demon's, and I'm 3 achievements away from 1000/1000 on this game. It's better in every way than Demon's Souls, there's simply no question about that. Plus it's on a system where the online isn't utter garbage.

i played demon souls for a day or two and immediately ran away cause i died like 3 times in a row. In the sequel i am super all over it. I just beat the lunar butterfly after a million attempts (i kept messing up my rolling)

I did decide to play Demon's Souls after playing about twenty hours of Dark Souls; I enjoyed every agonizingly regimented second of Demon's Souls. Such a beautifully designed and thrillingly rewarding video game. I felt like a god, nay, I still feel like a god for conquering that game.

S ranked Dark Souls in 101 hours. Never played Demon's Souls because fuck owning a PS3.

I had never played Demon's Souls, because I don't have a PS3, but I bought Dark Souls on 360 on day one and beat it in less than a week.

I own and played a fair amount of Demon's Souls, though never really made much progress as I found the multiple worlds thing to add just a bit too much to an already complex, confusing game. I never knew where to go at all. I much prefer Dark Souls method of having a more seamless world with branching paths. It feels more cohesive, and more like I'm making progress, as opposed to inching my way along all 5 different areas of Demon's Souls and constantly feeling like I'm in the wrong place.

I do want to go back to Demon's when I finish Dark, but I bet I won't see it through all the way.

I gave up on Demon's Souls after a while since it got boring rather fast for me. Playing Dark Souls now.

i beat dark souls and went back to demons souls....

the improvements are staggering... like uncharted 1 to 2 staggering...

I had Demon's Souls, played it for about 10 hours, didn't understand what people saw in it so it was put back on the shelf. Then Dark Souls came out and got rave reviews like the original so I thought I'd give Demon's Souls another go. Lets just say I fell in love with it, beat it and instantly bought Dark Souls. The souls games take some getting used to but when you 'get it' you're in for the long haul.

@slantedwindows: I wouldn't say the improvements are that dramatic. Unless your referring to the online stuff like the covenants. The core gameplay and crafting systems are pretty much identical to me. Although I never NG+ Demon's Souls and I'm only about halfway through Dark Souls.

Also I still can't decide which one is more difficult. I think Dark Souls gives you a lot more help than the original did (Like just shoving the Lightning Spear in your face at Sens Fortress).

Never played Demon Souls but I've finished Dark Souls and loved it, as far as I'm aware they're totally separate so there's no reason you can't play Dark Souls.

Whoa. This thread has this many posts? I'm always surprised to see my threads go on.

I loved Demons Souls. Played it and beat it in about 60 hours. I am loving Dark Souls even more - I am hitting my 80th hour!

@benspyda: Uncharted 1 to Uncharted 2 wasn't a dramatic step up either in terms of gameplay. but the small gameplay changes and improvements make the first one almost unplayable in comparison.

Never played Demon's Soul, played the hell out of Dark Souls and never really had any problems with it. It doesn't even feel like a sequel to me.