Critically Analyzing Demon's Souls 13 Years Later...

In this video, Reborn analyzes a classic game, Demon's Souls, in extreme detail.
00:00:00 - Introduction
00:01:23 - Background
00:02:37 - Development
00:04:37 - Character Creation
00:05:59 - Tutorial
00:11:37 - The Nexus
00:15:45 - Difficulty
00:18:20 - Gates of Boletaria
00:19:34 - Health Restrictions
00:23:09 - The Lord's Path
00:26:29 - Healing Mechanics
00:28:27 - Smithing Grounds
00:32:01 - The Tunnel City
00:35:50 - The Underground Temple
00:37:28 - Prison of Hope
00:40:17 - Upper Latria
00:43:10 - The Ivory Tower
00:45:19 - Level Design
00:47:31 - Island's Edge
00:50:13 - The Ritual Path
00:52:50 - Altar of Storms
00:54:44 - Depraved Chasm
00:56:39 - Swamp of Sorrow
00:59:12 - The Rotting Haven
01:01:14 - Inner Ward
01:03:11 - The King's Tower
01:06:45 - Conclusion
Demon's Souls[b] is an action role-playing game developed by FromSoftware for the PlayStation 3 under the supervision of Japan Studio. It was published in Japan by Sony Computer Entertainment in February 2009, in North America by Atlus USA in October 2009, and in PAL territories by Namco Bandai Partners in June 2010. The game is referred to as a spiritual successor to FromSoftware's King's Field series.
Demon's Souls is set in Boletaria, a kingdom consumed by a dark being called the Old One, following its release through the use of forbidden Soul Arts. Players take on the role of a hero brought to Boletaria to kill its fallen king Allant and pacify the Old One. Gameplay has players navigating five different worlds from a hub called the Nexus, with a heavy emphasis on challenging combat and mechanics surrounding player death and respawning. Online multiplayer allows both player cooperation and world invasions featuring player versus player combat.
The game's early development was troubled due to a lack of coherent vision. Despite such issues, FromSoftware designer Hidetaka Miyazaki was able to take over the project and helped to turn the game into what it eventually became. The game's difficulty was intended to both evoke classic video games and provide a sense of challenge and accomplishment for players. This aspect proved demanding for Miyazaki, partly because of his fear that Sony would ask the team to lower the difficulty in order to make the game more accessible.
Announced in 2008, early reactions to the Demon's Souls demo were seen as negative, and the game's high difficulty prompted Sony to pass on publishing the game outside of Japan. While the game met with middling reception and sales in Japan, it became a commercial and critical success in the West. The game was praised for its difficult combat and addictive gameplay, subsequently winning several awards. Due to introducing many of the core elements that would define the Soulslike genre, it has been recognized as one of the greatest and most influential games of all time. Its success sparked a spiritual successor, Dark Souls, in 2011. A remake by Bluepoint Games was released as a launch title for the PlayStation 5 in November 2020.

[@BDSMaestro]

Patches does show up in Bloodborne as a spider in the lecture hall, after you get warped using the tonsil stone

[@BaxBoogey22]

He also shows up in the nightmare frontier and he even drops a boulder on you or kicks you off a cliff again, I can't remember it's been so long.

[@GodWarsX]

This is such a Fromsoft sentence

[@takubear88]

I've pretty much watched every single analysis of any souls game out there and yet here I am, watching yet another hour long one. Good content! Enjoyed the DS1 one as well. I just enjoy long form content to listen to mostly I suppose.

[@casperes0912]

Knowledge truly is power. I'm not particularly good at Souls, but I can easily beat 1-1 first try without deaths. Because I know the level inside out, I know enemy weaknesses, where they are, how they move, etc.

[@faffingabout6905]

This was my first souls game and it's still my favorite

[@ChaosSoulYT]

It is definitely really good! Thanks for watching :)

[@Hero_Of_Old]

Same for me

[@DanH11]

Wow, you're lucky to experience the first in the Souls genre but in it's remade state. Now you should go try Elden Ring. 🫡

[@Hero_Of_Old]

@@DanH11 Elden Ring is great too, but Maliketh is way too hard for me. I can't beat him.

[@veruminfiniteofficial3334]

Same! I played it for the first time in 2010 through 2011, and my life (in terms of gaming) was changed forever.

[@l33_generic37]

There IS a ring to get through water quicker. Its called the sodden ring and its found in the lake area of Latria on pure black world tendency. :)

[@LacesLawless]

What?! Omfg I never knew that

[@dantetouchdown9030]

​@@LacesLawlessonly in the remake though

[@centurosproductions8827]

On the contrary, it's weird that everyone else dies permanently, but *you* come back. The Maiden is the least weird one.

[@jacobelfrink1649]

This and your dark souls analysis are the best long form souls videos I’ve ever watched. I’m sure it takes an immense amount of effort to produce, but I still hope you eventually make videos like this for bloodborne /ds2/ds3. Bravo man. Truly love this content

[@ChaosSoulYT]

After my dark souls 2 let's play is completed, my analysis of it will release. Same for bloodborne, ds3, and elden ring. I also plan on doing mini analysis videos for similar souls likes

[@jacobelfrink1649]

@@ChaosSoulYT fantastic! I can’t wait. Thanks for your engagement! Most creators don’t bother so that was super cool of you

[@Cookiemunster779]

I’m pretty sure the maiden not being present until after the first boss was entirely on purpose and in my mind makes more sense than just getting her right away. No matter what you’ll have souls to level up and realistically you have next to no souls when out of the tutorial. The only caveat id put on this is it’d be nice if she DID show up at the beginning of ng+ because by that point you’ll have a ton of souls and it’s super annoying to be very careful and I hope you have 2nd chance by that point because I was sweating when I went through that

[@trufreedom]

Sweating through an area with a lot of souls is the fun part, I thought. At least for me idk

[@Label07]

Good review. Know what would make Demon's Souls a better game? If it were on Steam :)

[@icurnvs776]

😄

[@pedromello7835]

I just got the platinum on the ps3 version and then this appears on my page. Great video man keep it up!

[@ChaosSoulYT]

Thank you! I really appreciate it! I put lots of work into this! :)

[@ogulbilgi8892]

this was very well done 👍 subscribed

[@scotchandhobbies5674]

Watching this video today, when I literally just beat Demons Souls on PS3 for the first time not 5 hours ago, and all I can think is "damn, I should really play the PS5 remake now" cuz this footage looks beautiful compared to the game I played. Still loved the game tho

[@Undone007]

Surprised this one has so few views on it

[@lifelessexpression7670]

Me too

[@daroostah8940]

Well.......Sony.

[@trianglejefferson]

Dude you are my favorite souls KZbinr! Thank for your awesome videos!!

[@greypolar2720]

My only issue with Demons Souls is the crazy backtracking when you die to a boss. I wouldn't have minded if Bluepoint put a couple extra checkpoints in the zones.

[@LadyOfTheEdits]

That's adding easy mode. That would ruin the game

[@insertedgynamehere___969]

Demon's Souls is great. FromSoftware did alot of things right for their first attempt at the souls formula, but in alot of ways you can tell it was there first attempt

[@radmilk73]

That upgrade system is cheeks. That, the limited inventory, having to farm for healing…grinding in a souls game is criminal. I do like that the poise mechanic isn’t as broken as DS1’s though. The combat is much more tactical as a result. Well, I should say - I’m going to like it when my incompetent ass finally gets use to the fact that I can’t take hit after hit

[@insertedgynamehere___969]

@@radmilk73 I dont think poise was a thing in demons souls

[@radmilk73]

@@insertedgynamehere___969 from what I can tell me neither lol

[@jasperfox6821]

While I would have preferred to show the original game, and just prefer it overall, this was a good video, and I think the remake is growing on me.

[@radmilk73]

Few levels into my first playthrough of the original and…I like it, but I don’t love it. Hopefully it REALLY clicks for me at some point? Right now, I find the level design significantly less interesting than dark souls. That Interconnectedness carried the lions share of immersion that DS1 really made feel. And it’s neat to see all the little prototypings of the things that I think they’d go on to master in Dark Souls.

[@alfredsalas6381]

These long ass videos of ppl breaking down fromsoft games are tremendous! Idk I guess it almost recreates that feeling of talking about a game you love with one of your homies

[@doomraven0]

Love the time it took to put this analysis together and agree with many of your criticisms that a lot of Souls players like to just ignore as a quirk of playing these games. Glad you enjoyed Tower of Latria although i feel the exact opposite. The Mindflayers are ridiculously overpowered "regular" enemies where it is a complete crapshoot if they will instantly stunlock you before you can kill them and on top of that every single room/area looks exactly alike so it is incredibly confusing to traverse, espscially if you die while trying to find your way forward because you don't know where your souls are. Then the run back to the boss, even with the "shortcut" is very long, plus, if you don't kill the random tucked away NPC, you can't actually kill the boss. I get that the obscurity is part of playing these games but that doesn't mean it's good game design. Crappy or completely unexplained things are to From games what bugs are to Bethesda games. They really suck and should not be there but fans toil through anyway because the rest is so good. I felt like the Tower of Latria concept was far more well done in Bloodborne's DLC at the Research Hall. At least there the rooms and floors all had their own look

[@SensDen]

Great video! I just got the Dark Souls video recommended to me and it seemed like you had made a DeS one first so I had to check this out. This is my second favorite souls game and I feel like it's tragically overlooked even with the remake. Glad to see such a well put together analysis on the game. Hope you get some more views and subs with the work you're putting in!

[@ChaosSoulYT]

Thank you, I really appreciate it! This videos do take a lot of effort and I wish it would get a bit more exposure

[@insertedgynamehere___969]

No one played the Demon's souls remake because Ps5

[@jjs5072]

Man. The amount of people that still simp for Astraea, even tho she may be WORSE than Allant in a way, is astonishing to me. Astraea was a Saint that counted with the support, adoration, and approval of the Church of that World and its people, meaning that she had the influence to actually help the people at the Valley in a way that mattered: giving them maybe a new place to live, medicine, food, better life conditions... you know: Real, actual help? What did she do instead? renounced "God", became a demon, and joined the Old One, who objectively was doing worse shit on EVERYONE in the world. Oh, but she did that to "help the poor people in the Valley". So, what did Astraea did, as a new powerful Demon, to help this poor people? She offered their souls to the Old One. Because if you are mindless, you can't suffer. Problem solved!! Misery is no more!!.. Good Lord.... I mean, imagine for a second, that someone of high influence in the Catholic Church went to the most poverty stricken, disease infested, war ravaged country in the World, saying "I'm going to free these people from their suffering", and then just... started lobotomizing everyone. Because, again, if they lose all mind capabilities, they can't suffer. Right??? And even if you tell me that she didn't give the souls of the Valley inhabitants to the Old One (which she absolutely DID), what was her plan anyway? Let the whole World fall to the fog and f*ck all the innocent people in it? Was she going to keep the Valley as the only place unaffected? How? Why should ALL the World fall to the fog and the Old One just because SHE lost faith? It is exactly the same reasoning as Allant: "You fool! don't you get it? No one wishes to go on" Astrea is, at worse, a condescending, privileged, selfish b*tch, making decisions over the lives of those she deems lower than her out of "compassion". Or, at best, a stupid, naive, incompetent fool, that never mind her high influence and position, couldn't find a better way to help the unfortunate souls in the Valley, without dooming them AND the whole World in the process. F*ck Astraea, man!

[@mrshutin2088]

The sodden ring appears down in the swamp of the third arc stone in either pure white or black tendency I don’t remember which but it functions like the rusted iron ring 57:05

[@RandomSkits57]

Nice vid!

[@JamesGowan]

Very good video! You’re certainly entitled to not like parts of the game, but I suppose I’m more of a masochist and liked all the Demon’s Souls levels. But I’m the guy who loves DS2’s SHRINE OF AMANA LOL😅 Keep up the good work!

[@Xpzilla]

bro is rambling, its chaotic, i like it

[@zlodrim9284]

You should clarify that you're analyzing the remake, not the original game. Your title is a bit misleading in that regard.

[@versacehibachi2755]

There is a ring you can get to make you walk faster in the swamp

[@Fathernewman]

In 1-2 it’s 5 dogs not 4, I remember them painfully interrupting my run and basically killing me instantly. Screw those dogs

[@mikeknoebl3390]

really love these videos mate. just one thing!!! i dont agree at all about the point with healing items. first bloodborne stays limited to top 20 blood vials and you cant do anyhting about it but much more important....... the healing system in demon souls is harder for new player i give you that but if you get better at the game which you should and what you point out ever so correctly in every video this healing system makes the game a joke and very easy cause you end up with tons of healing cause you dont need them anymore all the time so yes hard in the beginning but like cheating healing chems from ds2 in later playing.

[@valistrutu]

I played all dark and souls games !! I beat them all and I didn't rage quit .one game make me rage quit ...not just rage quit ,I smashed my pc monitor 😂😂😂😂

[@georgerolandallen]

I don't really get what you're doing here. it's not really analysis to just describe exactly what you do in the level. most of the video is lacking any sort of actual eye. then you describe so much of the level design as "fantastic" without explaining what makes it so fantastic--is it just that it wraps back around with a shortcut? also of course the maneaters would have a move to push you off...it's not unfair, it's just another move. I don't think most people fall off as much as you say.

[@andrewtuttle8402]

69th comment and if I learned anything its that the flame lurker is hard bro.....

[@tequila_tibbs7938]

The remake is absolutely not “objectively” the best version of the game. My opinion is that the original emulated at 4k60 is the best version of the game.

[@theraginggamer3815]

i would have to disagree with bloodborne picking the demon soul's healing system argument. In my opinion it works extremely well in bloodborne because the whole point of the game is to be aggressive so to have a max of 20 vials to quickly use to get back into the fight is a great fit. i do agree that the costs have always been shit.

[@nox_cadit]

57:10 WTH are you talking about!? I literally had the ring you use to walk in deep waters equiped ALL THE TIME. You haven't found the ring, that's not the games fault, it's yours. 😂😂😂

[@insertedgynamehere___969]

Yeah, but actually getting it is a pain in the ass. It's arguably not worth getting because you need black world tendency in Latria Edit: it does not exist in the Original demons souls as well

[@devanthompson482]

It's worth noting that ring isnt in the original ps3 version

[@nox_cadit]

@@insertedgynamehere___969 I know very well that I does not exist in the OG Demon's Souls, but the guy is CLEARLY playing the REMAKE when he showed the swamp, and in the REMAKE the ring is there just waiting to be collected. And no it's not a pain in the ass to get it, it's rather simple and easy.

[@nox_cadit]

@@devanthompson482 I know very well that I does not exist in the OG Demon's Souls, but the guy is CLEARLY playing the REMAKE when he showed the swamp, and in the REMAKE the ring is there just waiting to be collected. And no it's not a pain in the ass to get it, it's rather simple and easy.

[@Slickjitz]

Shame you used the remake. Original art design is far superior. They made some very strange changes in the remake that does not reflect the originals intent.

[@JamesGowan]

PS3 Latria looked great but Bluepoint’s version is just outstanding as is their whole version of the game. I can’t wait for BP’s next game because I’ve read it will be their very first original game and I’m sure it will be special!

[@nox_cadit]

I truly struggle to grapes the idea that the healing system of Demon's Souls, DS2 and BB are worse than DS1/DS3 I HATE the estus flask and for me was the worst thing FS added to their games and they kept it in many of their latter games, even Sekiro and ER. As an RPG game, even though action RPG, we have to have potions, mana potions and stuff like this. Demon's Souls had an actual mana bar that got completely removed until DS3 came out (never played BB so I have no idea is there's a mana bar there). Instead of limiting the spell usage making us resource to mana management they gave us scrolls to limit the casts of a spell. Demon's Souls deals with this much better since we have item burden and equip burden, their version of inventory management, and I loved that so fucking much. We had to actually think if it was worth carrying all those healing herbs and mana restoring spices, or if it was better to carry different weapons and armor to change during the level. Estus flask and spell scrolls are terrible cause now I'm obligated to sit at a bonfire to replenish them instead of keep exploring the level with all the enemies cleaned up. If I want to clear the level using spells too bad for me cause I'll probably be out of casts by the boss, so you completely diminish the possibility of actual ROLE PLAY in a fucking RPG. FS tried to address that in DS2 which I'm really glad they actually tried to address that with the scrolls uses restoring herbs, but they work inconsistently since they do not restore a fixed amount of casts (like the spices restore a fixed amount of mana in DeS), they restore based on a % of the max spells uses you have and that's terrible.

[@sideofpeas]

I dont understand why people are complaining about you using the Remaster vs OG DeS. The mechanics are LITERALLY the same. The only thing thats different is a coat of paint and music changes. And thats all they are complaining about. Its as if a music score change and different, lower resolution graphics will change the fact that the intro is way too lengthy, the game negatively reinforces your mistakes (through lowering health abd making it progressively more difficult), and the lack of things like bonfires and estus flasks, among other things. They also criticise a comprehensive and thorough explaination of a game thats at least 5 times as long from a beginner's standpoint because you're.....comprehensively describing whats going on and going into the design of what these things do on a game design level. Also there is a ring for the swamp, as many have pointed out. However, its only there if you die sufficiently enough to where, while the game grows harder, the devs throw you a bone for once and gives it to you. Every Souls game has a group of annoying fans, whether its DS1 loyalists, DS2 apologists or even Bloodbourne supremacists, but holy shit do these comments show that DeS fans really can't take opinions about their game and will make very tunnel-vision concessions if youre even HINTING at how the remake is, mechanically and functionally (which is what this video is TALKING about) the optimal experience. Oh, and yes, i wouldnt go out of my way to buy a PS3 just so I can play one singular legacy title when I can get a PS5 and potentially play other FromSoftware exclusives. What a joke, most people would go out of their way to get the PS5 (which isnt as rare to get as people think it is) than to get a used, aging console that lost the console war to the 360. Nobody who isnt trying to play the OG Demon Souls is going to get a PS3 when the Remaster is functionally, mechanically the same (if not better due to QoL changes), even if the videogame OST suffers. Give me a break.

[@Biobillybonez]

Was stoked for an hour+ critique but then you state the remake is objectively better, without even talking about the poor music choices or art changes so I stopped right there. Just lol at the use of "objectively". Be better

[@ChaosSoulYT]

Objectively better from a gameplay standpoint. I agree that the music is probably inferior and sometimes misses the point of the original tracks. Art style is a subjective thing too. When I said objectively better I meant from a gameplay sense, as it makes changes that are just better, and improve the gameplay experience.

[@Biobillybonez]

@@ChaosSoulYT Fair take then. I'll give the video a shot tonight, thanks for clarifying

[@machoke666]

Calling the remake the most accessible version of the game is just straight up false - buying a used PS3 and a copy of the original game is significantly easier and cheaper than getting ahold on a PS5

[@minespatch]

And you can get the achievements offline with the ps3 version.

[@Mattroid99]

Honestly I'm not convinced on your take on the Valley, like you said is the worst level in the game by far but the main reasons is that is "Blighttown on steroids" and that the enemy/level is frustrating but you never really explained why it is (Or why being Blighttown on steroids is bad. I would 100% argue that Blighttown is one od the best areas in DS1), if you find the level bad on an objective standpoint you need more concrete and less personal arguments. As you said in the Swamp of Sorrow part, this is not what you enjoy in the Souls games, while what this area is designed to make the players to lose themselves, it's very open and full of things to explore while changing the environment constantly (First there are mostly jellifishes, then a few depraved/giant depraved, then you fight on a long uplifting path with mosquitos and depraved, then slogs, then finally again depraved in a rotted town) but again I wouldn't really say it's the way to go when arguing that an area is the worst.

[@weybye91]

Would love to play demon souls, but I won't support Sony

[@DiedFromCringe23]

Emulator?

[@weybye91]

@@DiedFromCringe23 thats only for the OG DS

[@glohan2122]

@@weybye91 i play demon souls on rcps3 and it runs great if you got a decent pc

[@DiedFromCringe23]

I think that the greatest achievement of Demon's Souls is that it gave birth to the ultimate masterpiece - Dark Souls. I appreciate it for that, but other than that, it's a very average game.

[@botero01]

You´re not playing Demon´s Souls. You´re playing a very vulgar game that trades actual artistic subtlety and potency for fancy shaders

[@ChaosSoulYT]

I agree with your point about the artistic subtlety and also the music, but the code of the entire game is identical, and so is the story and characters, so it still is at its core, Demon's Souls.

[@botero01]

@@ChaosSoulYT I didn´t know they kept the code, but to me all that is the vehicle for the art, so if you destroy the art (as they did) you don´t have "Demon´s Souls" at all. It´s LAUGHABLE how vulgar they are, they made the fucking fool´s idol frown and look "evil" lol, talk about being total simpletons. In Mexico we call these people "nacos". A big shame, but it´s Miyazaki´s fault for not properly supervising the thing. I am NOT excited about anything From-relate if it´s not specifically made by Miyazaki.

[@starmoonseek]

It is incredibly misleading to imply you are analyzing the original game by analyzing this bastardization. It is honestly the slimiest act of clickbait ive seen recently or just plain regardation

[@ChaosSoulYT]

Everything said in this video is also relating to the original. I never say anything in the video that wouldn't refer to the original game. I just use footage of the remake, because it was easier for me to get footage of the remake, then the original

[@clemenscohn7371]

Demon Souls remake is as much Demon Souls as an apple is an ananas. You screwed up mate.

[@woodeyelyegaming1401]

What is different in the remake?

[@clemenscohn7371]

@@woodeyelyegaming1401 Pretty much literally everything. Terrible audio and not getting the visual style of the original (case in point: Fat Officials) being they keypoints.

[@aiellamori]

@@clemenscohn7371 Could you elaborate on the audio? I understand visual preferences are a thing, but absolutely what is terrible about the sound design of the remake? Could you give an example that isn't an opinion and just a hard fact?

[@clemenscohn7371]

@@aiellamori Metals sound like they are hollow. The audio in general sounds like it's about to climax, but the audio guy said no, leaving you with a massive disappointment in your pants. It's bassy, but has no pointe or balance. It's bassy/pressure-issy for the sake of being bassy/pressure-issy with no actual *bang!* moment. A few "modern" anime suffer from that too, Fire Force is a prime example.

[@clemenscohn7371]

@@woodeyelyegaming1401 Ratatoskr just did a video on the subject.

[@PraisetheSun150]

I see your point about the maiden in black not being there when you first spawn in the nexus. I agree that she should be there, but I disagree she should let you level up, I think just a dialogue would be good. I say that because having access to level up that easily would entice players to farm the first level for souls. Once you can kill the red eyes knight, you can probably get like 5-6k souls per run, then circle back to the arch stone before fighting phalanx.