Note: Demon’s Souls is now out with the Asia Version in English language, I have written a little guide for the game here.

For some unknown reasons, I have great interest in Demon’s Souls ever since it was first announced just before Tokyo Game Show 2008. Not even its generic title and From Software (of Armored Core series fame, which I am not a big fan of) can deter my enthusiasm to this SCEJ/From collaboration. Weekly Famitsu just had a second report on the ARPG, which the developers keep saying is the most traditional of all RPGs, so let’s see what has been revealed so far.

Introduction

Demon’s Souls is a combination of dark fantasy and action RPG, something that has been done over and over again but purposely chosen by the developers so that they can make the ultimate version of the genre. The project started when SCEJ’s Takeshi Kajii asked From about sequel plans for his favorite series King’s Field, a popular first person-based RPG from the company. Having spent plenty of time on the Armored Core series, From’s Hidetaka Miyazaki, who is the director for the game, felt it was time to do something different and decided to take on the challenge.

Instead of a sequel to King’s Field, a new IP was chosen so that they can try something new without having to worry about previous games. One of these new ideas is instead of opening treasure chests to collect items, which looks weird when in battlefields, the developers decided that items can be found from corpses that have glow on them.

This is just one of the few conventional RPG elements that the developers is trying to improve on while keeping its fun aspect intact. Basic stuff like longer weapons will stuck in the wall or torch can lights up environment are other things that weren’t considered in the past but will be a part of the gameplay now. “Strategic Action” is also the main focus of the game, instead of relying on button mashing or a test of your reflexes, the game is more about good weapon usage and considered attacking strategy. Even though this means plenty of works needed to be done in the balancing department.

Famitsu noted that SCEJ’s games are obviously more accessible than games like Armored Core and asked if this is an issue during development. Kajii said as a platform holder, SCEJ would like games to be as friendly as possible but acknowledged what makes an ARPG unique and have given From full control in the balancing area. However Miyazaki assures that the game will be reasonably tough.

Prologue

King Boletaria found a shrine in a snow-capped hill faraway and discovered Souls that give immense power to human. With the help of these Souls, the kingdom became strong but it didn’t last long. The greedy King, looking for more power, revisit the shrine but inadvertently unleashed ancient beasts inside. The ancient beasts then let out demons that kill people for their Souls and deep fog that shrouded the whole kingdom, cutting it off from the rest of the world for years. The world sense that the fog will soon spread outside the kingdom and send their last hope into Boletaria to stop it.

However, things weren’t smooth even from the start. The main character (which is you) died on his/her way to Boletaria but was saved by a woman who summon your soul and guide you to the shrine. In order to gain your body back, you’ll have to fight the demons that appear inside the shrine. While there will be story elements like these here and there, the game will not state clearly what players should do next, which give players plenty of ways to experience the game.

Character Customization

Before the game starts, you get to enter your own name, gender, facial structure, hair style and job class. There will 10 different job classes available, the three revealed so far are Knight (shown left), Monk and Thief. Each of the job class has eight different attributes like health, magic, luck, etc. You have to earn Souls during their adventure to increase these attributes. However, since buying items require Souls too, you will need to be careful in using them.

Equipment

Besides character customization, you can customize your character’s armors and weapons too and it will have meaningful effects on how you move and the strategy to use during battles. In the weapons department, your character can wield different weapons with both his/her hands. Sword, axe and magic are among weapons revealed so far. Armors can be attached to four different part of the body.

Game System

Fighting the demons in Demon’s Souls won’t be easy, you are required to study their attacking patterns, find out their weak spots while defending yourself at the same time. Based on Wired’s hands-on during TGS, the game makes use of the shoulder buttons for most of its actions, L1 for blocking, R1 for light attack and R2 for the heavy attack. You can adjust the camera freely with the right analog stick and assign frequently used items to the different buttons (accessing menu while fighting won’t pause the game).

Online Play

Going online allows players to adventure with your friends and if one of you die during battles, you will become a “Soul Body”. By giving out “Soul Sign” when you are still a “Soul Body”, your partners can summon you back into action. Another feature of the Online Play is you can leave notes on the ground to guide your partners of item or enemy location.

The game was playable on TGS2008 show floors and impressions have been good so far although I read complains about framerates but I think it’s something that can be fixed for the final game. From looking at the screens, my major complain will be the lack of color in the game, which reminds me very much of the look and feel in the Valhalla Knights series on the PSP. Sony had recently revealed its release date, which is February 5 in Japan and I have high hopes for the title.

Screenshots

Source: Famitsu report 1, report 2 & Dengeki Online.

Posted in News on Sunday, November 30th, 2008 at 5:02 pm |
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