So I've been replaying Demon's Soul lately, because after DkS3 DLC I kind of wanted to revisit a Souls game that I hadn't completely played to death and back and this was the only one that qualified. I ran a sorcery build and a Faith build and a DEX build (I did strength the first time I played it), because it turns out this is scandalously short on a replay. I probably enjoyed this more than I did first playthrough? There's still a list of questionable design decisions, but it turns out it's still fun enough to try some different things.
Sorcery: is totally OP. So that's a fine series tradition that goes all the way back. In fairness, for most of the game it's merely very good. A couple specific spells (which you can beeline for early if you know where things are) just snap the game like a twig, though. Firestorm in particular is the single most unbalancing object that From has put in any of their games (it might be the most glaringly overpowered thing I've seen included in
any professionally developed game). This will easily OHKO bosses that are not either human-sized (those don't collect enough hits) or fire-resistant. Here we go, fair and balanced game design:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQmpNbKRoDE Dude is obviously twinked to hell and back, but you don't even need to do that for it to break the game in half. I was overkilling things at 40 Magic and w/out those low-HP damage boost shenanigans in play. And 40 isn't even the damage cap--unlike later Souls games, damage boosts from Magic and Faith
increase linearly all the way to 99 instead of dropping off with STR/DEX in the 40-50 range. What were you guys thinking mk. 1.
Faith: so this is what you do, you guys. Equip Regenerator's Ring. Equip blessed weapon. Cast Regeneration. You now outpace all of the game's damage-over-time effects, and frankly many enemies' regular damage output. There were plenty of boss fights where I didn't need any manual heals, and I didn't even add Adjudicator's Shield into the mix. I guess there are also status cure spells and God's Wrath but man no it's all about stacking those regeneration effects. I like how Faith builds chart a different course to success in every game. In Demon's Souls, you use it to become an unstoppable regen tank. In Dark Souls, you just throw lightning bolts at everything (or holy explosion at things that resist lightning). In Dark Souls 2, you pump Faith to extend the duration of offensive buffs and become an obscene melee blender. In Dark Souls 3 you hahahahahah no, silly me, DkS3 Faith builds are completely fucking worthless, what were you guys thinking mk. 2.
DEX: my bow is better than my melee weapons. Speaking of, sniping Astraea from afar results in different dialogue than you get while fighting Garl in melee. Spoilers, it makes you feel even worse about that fight than you normally do.
Random observations time:
-Over the course of four different files, there are still some types of ore that have never dropped a single time for me. This is dumb and I feel zero regret about abusing the dupe glitch to max out weapons instead of suffering farming with droprates this egregiously parsimonious. (You need absurd amounts of ore to complete a single weapon, too.) Upgrades are also super confusing. Some of the branches start at +3 and some of them start at +6 but some of these can also start at +0 and I'm never clear on whether I miss anything by branching at +0 instead of +3/+6 and there's like a dozen different kinds of upgrades and most of them are useless and what what what. (Naturally there is a separate trophy for maxing a weapon for each individual path.) The weapon upgrade system in each successive From game has only been progressively simpler, and they've all been better off for that.
-Weapon balance is all over the place. I kept wanting to use these cool unique weapons that I found which scaled with my casting stats, but they kept turning out inferior to my generic, storebought weapons or starting gear. Mage chick still had that crescent falchion as her strongest melee weapon at the end of the game (despite it never getting maxed out for lack of highest grade ore, grumble grumble) instead of the neat fire rapier, and Faith chick was still blessed macing everything even though Moonlight and Istarelle look cooler and have more dynamic movesets. Also the unique weapons don't have the HP/MP regen that your upgraded generics get, so there's even less practical reason to use them. I guess this isn't really a surprise. Dark Souls weapon balance was pretty shaky too.
-Tower of Latria and Valley of Defilement are probably still the most viscerally oppressive environments I've had to explore in a game. I'm still genuinely impressed and it's maybe almost enough for me to overlook the persistent drabness of the other zones.
-Has anyone pointed out how inappropriately adorable the Got Equipped With Cat Ring icon is? It looks so out of place in this game. I have to wonder if it was just a picture of Miyazaki's cat or something.
-S.L.O.W. ladder climbing, you've gotta feel every step. You dearly miss the abrading-your-hands-to-a-bloody-pulp sliding and the Bloodborne Yakety Sax climbing here.
-It's hilarious how little fall damage you take in this game, even on a low-DEX build. (High DEX mitigates fall damage in Demon's Souls, one of those little D&Disms that sometimes infiltrate Souls games.) "There's no way I can survive that drop, it would totally be fatal in any other Souls game." *Cid jumps, takes maybe a hundred damage* Until suddenly it's just a little too much for your ankles to handle and that was 90% gravity.
-Some random details in Demon's Souls are just a little too unsubtle to fit with the rest of the village's rustic aesthetic. Sticky White Stuff is the obvious example. The item description for Hands of God also deserves mention here: "There was once a strong man who slaughtered dragons with his bare hands. His God-like fists earned him the title of the 'Legendary Big M.'" Okay? Learn to cryptic harder already, From.
-The Demon's Souls sports bra: best Fromsoft underwear or best Fromsoft underwear?
-Tendency is still shit conceptually and in implementation. I also still hate the half-HP in Soul form thing. I've always gone out of my way to stay human as much as possible in this game, and perhaps consequently I've constantly found myself saying, "That boss attack nearly OHKO'd me from full health in Body form, so there's no way it could be survivable in Soul form."
-Plague lasts for-freaking-ever. I got tagged with it outside the door to Fool's Idol, figured I'd wait a couple minutes for it to wear off (I didn't have any cures handy). Nope. Five minutes maybe? Okay. I guess I'll read and mash the item button to heal until this wears off. ...Okay, does it wear off? It's looking like it doesn't. Fuck it, it's just Fool's Idol, I'll manage. (It finally wore off about halfway through the boss fight.) By the way, I'm still trying to figure out what's in Fool's Idol's non-book right hand. It looks like a baguette.
-I actually fought Old King Doran this time (optional boss, I didn't find him until NG+ on the first file and it was impossible for a slow bruiser without maxed weapons to outslug his healing). Brought the mage to the party. Open with Poison Cloud + Death Cloud, dodge a lot until he says okay, take the sword. Neat, that was easy. While I'm taking the sword, his health keeps ticking down. He passes the HP trigger for THOU HAST CHALLENGED ME FOR REAL HONORABLE DUEL TIME. Then backstab OHKO happens right through 40 VIT and Body form. Holy shit. (It turns out even his normal attacks are near-OHKO territory at max health. What were you guys thinking mk. 3.) The solution is run away and shoot a lot--he dodges almost everything, but the status is still tearing him down the whole time. Eventually I reach his aggro limit and he stops dodging because moonwalking to his start point is more important. Success! Dude has the goofiest death scream, it's right up there with Wilhelm.
-Bosses are still mostly shit as far as challenge is concerned. Flamelurker is genuinely terrifying, but otherwise Maneaters might be difficult if fought fairly and that's about it (sorcery, faith-based explosions, and shooting arrows through the fog wall do not in any degree count as fought fairly). That said, From actually did more of novelty with boss rooms than they generally have in successive titles. Relatively few are just "here is an empty circular arena, or maybe a rectangular one if we're feeling randy." There's a lot going on with elevation, whereas other Souls games rarely if ever give you boss arenas with multiple floors.
