Demon's Souls - Catch All

Stele wrote:

Demon's Souls servers will run for the foreseeable future!

Love that kind of stuff. But, if they weren't scheduled for shutdown, it might've taken me quite a bit longer to commit to finishing the game. I doubt I'll finish it tomorrow, but this last week I've worked my way up to 1-4, my barrier to finishing this damn fine game.

This thread has died again since the announcement of the servers staying up. I would assume that the players have stopped playing again too. I am sure that is why From Software was shutting it down again.

I will be playing this for the weekend and try to get a little farther.

I'd hardly call a few days between posts, and only a few posts at that, the "again" death of the thread. I took a break because last weekend was a holiday, Tribes Ascend had double XP special, and I'm only a few hours away from the end of my first play-through, so there's no rush.

They must have kept the servers up for me! I've had the game sitting on my shelf for 2 years and only put it in the PS3 for the first time last night. I figured servers would be down and it was a nice surprise to find them still going and get to see some of the online interaction.

Following the guide included with my AU 'Black Phantom' version of the game I started with a Royalty class character. Played through two deaths, each about an hour. Having heard so much about it I expected the starting area to blisteringly hard but really enjoyed it. It's so long since I've been worried about death in a game that I felt like I'd been shaken out of a coma. I'm under no false impressions that I wont be pulling my hair out soon though.

For me, the first 5 hours with the game was the toughest. After I got accustomed to things it was a pretty steady ride to the end.

Yeah, if I'm reading that correctly and you only died 2 times in your first 2 hours of the game, you are pretty damn good at it.

About five hours into my first playthrough as well. I mistakenly chose to start with the Wanderer class (I did zero looking online prior to starting about suggested classes) and got my butt thoroughly handed to me on a consistent basis. I reached the first major boss (Phalanx) but have run into a brick wall. I restarted fresh last night and chose to play as Royalty instead and it makes a world of difference in that you actually begin with a decent ranged weapon and this playthrough has been much smoother.

As many others have said, I definitely feel a greater sense of accomplishment in this game even with all the dying as when you finally start making those breakthroughs it becomes extremely rewarding. It's become my go-to hour before bedtime squeeze the little bit of gaming I can in a busy day game over the past few weeks.

So what's the reason this could never be ported to 360? All I've read is that it was published by Atlus and that Sony declined to publish it themselves.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

So what's the reason this could never be ported to 360? All I've read is that it was published by Atlus and that Sony declined to publish it themselves.

Didn't Sony publish it in Japan? Maybe they retained the rights from that deal.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

So what's the reason this could never be ported to 360? All I've read is that it was published by Atlus and that Sony declined to publish it themselves.

Sony does own the IP, for whatever that's worth, and since it was originally made for Japan and published by Sony, no 360 concessions were made. Also, the team got to work on Dark Souls what seems like right away.

I'm considering buying a PS3 to play this, so I suppose the exclusivity was worth something.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

I'm considering buying a PS3 to play this, so I suppose the exclusivity was worth something.

If it's just this experience you're after - the sequel Dark Souls is on both PS3 & 360, and is being released on PC soon.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

I'm considering buying a PS3 to play this, so I suppose the exclusivity was worth something.

Definitely factored into my PS3 purchase (along with Uncharted, Disgaea, and a few cross platform things that weren't up to snuff on the Wii). It's very worth it. I believe there were even some people in the Dark Souls thread that went back and got it on PS3 too. Something about the 360 shoulder buttons maybe? Or maybe just the online is actually more alive on the PS3, since the first game was there.

Definitely worth playing. While very similar they are two different games. There are things about both that I enjoy more than the other.

radaxian wrote:
Fedaykin98 wrote:

I'm considering buying a PS3 to play this, so I suppose the exclusivity was worth something.

If it's just this experience you're after - the sequel Dark Souls is on both PS3 & 360, and is being released on PC soon.

Dark Souls is the reason I'm thinking about paying $270 to play Demon's Souls.

I know, there's other exclusive games on PS3 as well, and Blu-Ray, etc. etc. But time is limited, and the pile is big, so who knows what other games I'd get to.

Stele wrote:

Definitely worth playing. While very similar they are two different games. There are things about both that I enjoy more than the other.

Indeed. I will always remember Demon's Souls as my favorite of the two, but I recognize that Dark Souls is probably the better overall game. If only they hadn't botched the online so badly in Dark Souls

Fedaykin98 wrote:

Dark Souls is the reason I'm thinking about paying $270 to play Demon's Souls.

I know, there's other exclusive games on PS3 as well, and Blu-Ray, etc. etc. But time is limited, and the pile is big, so who knows what other games I'd get to.

Lots of the great exclusives can be had for very cheap now. You could also just sign up for PSN+ and take advantage of the free exclusive games they're putting up. I realize little of this may not be too relevant since you are time restricted, but there are certainly a few PS3 exclusives that should shoot to the top of your pile if you get one (Uncharted 2, Heavy Rain, and Journey for starters).

Dyni wrote:
Stele wrote:

Definitely worth playing. While very similar they are two different games. There are things about both that I enjoy more than the other.

Indeed. I will always remember Demon's Souls as my favorite of the two, but I recognize that Dark Souls is probably the better overall game. If only they hadn't botched the online so badly in Dark Souls

Yeah the online not having that central server connected to everyone is a big one. And some of the weapon upgrade stuff (fire/lightning outclasses everything for so long), and diminishing returns on skill points, I think that could have been adjusted.

The hub world of Demon's Souls is pretty amazing though. And I think I enjoyed most of the boss fights more. And the light/dark tendency stuff is pretty unique, although far too difficult to manipulate while playing online. And playing offline isn't nearly as fun.

Both games are fantastic though.

How is the online better in DeS? I know it wasn't great for DkS at launch, but it seems pretty good now. I have deliberately co-oped with a Goodjer, etc.

Dunno if they might have changed it since the patches or if it's just better now with less traffic, but back at launch there were a lot of people trying to coop and it not working. Some people just never showed up to each other.

The frequency and rating of messages is definitely down in DkS though. It's not even close. Messages in DeS had hundreds of ratings, but I've never seen any in DkS over +5 or so. They just don't stick around long enough and/or show up to enough people. The messaging system seems like it might as well not be there in DkS.

The primary culprit, AFAIK, is one giant server for Demon's and many smaller servers for Dark. This led to the issues Stele referenced, in addition to a much smaller pool of available players to pull from, meaning it was far more difficult to find players near your level to summon or be summoned by.

I barely payed attention to the messages in Dark Souls and never bothered to write my own past the first couple of hours. They were infinitely more interesting and useful in Demon's Souls, and their absence in Dark Souls really detracted from the sense of camaraderie the first game established so well.

I've always had issues with DkS multi. I only played with a friend once, even though we tried for over two hours to play together. I've also tried to summon players only to have nothing happen. Summoning was so unreliable that I basically gave up on it by the time I finished Anor Londo. I did have a good time helping people fight Gaping Dragon on a separate character, but it still took quite a while for things to work out.

Stele wrote:

The frequency and rating of messages is definitely down in DkS though. It's not even close. Messages in DeS had hundreds of ratings, but I've never seen any in DkS over +5 or so. They just don't stick around long enough and/or show up to enough people. The messaging system seems like it might as well not be there in DkS.

I'm not entirely convinced by the message system in these games. It's a novel idea, but aside from this novelty I'm not sure that it's actually that interesting in the long term. Having played through 1-1 , 2-1 (and some of 4-1) of Demon's Souls just recently I've found the messages are lacklustre. Some are useful like "use ... on the enemy ahead", "watch out" etc. Maybe it's because I'm early but lots are just pointing out things that already seem obvious, or are warning of a trap. Having a hidden trap in a level and relying on users to sign post this just seems a little contrived to me. If you're going to have blind traps, why not design them so that players have a small window to respond and can learn to block in time - offset the difficulty that way.

I do think it makes more sense for things like sharing tactics for a boss fight, and in this situation could in theory replace discussion board chat or faqs if it were free enough. I'd like to see a design where players are given access to a more complex and detailed pool of user generated messages/tactics once they've failed at a fight a few times, or maybe in exchange for XP (souls) etc.

btw - can anyone tell me why I find this message all over the place: "Help I'm in trouble, please rate this message" (or something similar). I don't get it. Only explanation I can think of is that maybe having others rate your message might change the world tendency or something else about your game?

radaxian wrote:

btw - can anyone tell me why I find this message all over the place: "Help I'm in trouble, please rate this message" (or something similar). I don't get it. Only explanation I can think of is that maybe having others rate your message might change the world tendency or something else about your game?

Almost right. Rating your message gives you a heal. So if you're still online and if someone rates you fast enough, you get healed.

I too thought those messages were ridiculous until I asked that same question maybe 30-40 pages back.

I honestly never rated those messages. I saw it too frequently to ever believe it so I never rated it. I also hated "I can't take this."

Those messages are annoying. Dark Souls has far less useless messages.

Anyway...I made my way through Boletaria Palace like a champ then I died after several attempts to figure out a way past the dragon bridge. I am flying blind on this one and I have combed every inch of the area. Any tips to get past the bridge?

Man it's been a while. Wasn't there a side path down the hall right before the bridge? Walking over there made the dragon fly to that area, and then you could run back and sprint across the bridge before he got back, right?

I think that's how I did it, but it's been what seems like years now.

Dyni wrote:

No way, sir. The messages in Demon's Souls were infinitely more useful than the ones in Dark Souls.

Agreed. Maybe it was the player base and the vibe at the time but Demon's Souls was much better with messages.

heavyfeul wrote:

Those messages are annoying. Dark Souls has far less useless messages.

Anyway...I made my way through Boletaria Palace like a champ then I died after several attempts to figure out a way past the dragon bridge. I am flying blind on this one and I have combed every inch of the area. Any tips to get past the bridge?

No way, sir. The messages in Demon's Souls were infinitely more useful than the ones in Dark Souls.

Are you having trouble with getting past the dragon fire, or the end of the bridge with the blue-eyed knights?

If dragon fire, get below 50% encumbrance and figure out the timing. It's pretty easy to make it.

If bridge end, you need to get to a point where you're safe from dragon fire and able to take out the archers without drawing the knights' attention. This part isn't always easy.

Keep at it. The fog beyond this area guards the coolest boss of the series, IMO.

It was the central server and the chance for messages to get seen and rated. Good messages stuck around, bad ones disappeared.

In Dark Souls you're lucky if anyone ever sees your message, or if you ever see any messages with a rating higher than 2.

heavyfeul wrote:

Those messages are annoying. Dark Souls has far less useless messages.

Anyway...I made my way through Boletaria Palace like a champ then I died after several attempts to figure out a way past the dragon bridge. I am flying blind on this one and I have combed every inch of the area. Any tips to get past the bridge?

THIS is where you've been hiding? I thought you were all Dark Souls, all the time, you hussy!

I prefer the occasional, "I can't take this" and "Praise the sun" in Dark Souls than the constant, "I Need Help! Please rate!" I see over and over in ONE section of Demon's Souls. Dark Souls patched that bug. The fourth wall in Dark Souls is far stronger. The third iteration from FROM will be epic.