Fromsoft and Iteration: Demon's Souls

[@PlagueOfGripes]

The Souls format, in a way, mirrors content creation. Subtlety or nuance eventually erodes as we flanderize ourselves to be more marketable and contentious. I can see why level design or tone or character nuance has become less of a focus than more overt, instantly-accessible elements.

[@ennayanne]

loved your souls commentaries back in the day. and you're right, the fire has been fading for a long time. there is less focus on atmosphere and intimate storytelling in the environments and more focus on crazy rollslop bosses with anime movesets designed to live up to the constantly increasing bar of difficulty they've hedged all their marketing bets on ever since "prepare to die edition" came out. Looking back, i still enjoy the artorias of the abyss DLC but i really think that's where these problems started and they only got worse as the series went on. Though, sekiro is an outlier but for completely different reasons.

[@yoman5029]

@@ennayanne "roll...slop?" dear god, i hate the internet's dumb jargon. i don't agree that fromsoft sold out with the strange success of demon's souls, as they try to strike a balance between narrative and gameplay, and i think they succeeded in that aspect. yeah, they did raise the bar of difficulty in elden ring, making bosses more intensive and especially in their recent dlc, but it still has that intricate storytelling and vague storytelling, even if it's not as strong compared to the stories of the souls trilogy. i still love demon's souls for being responsible of spawning a genre that has impacted the video game scene for decades. what can i say? i love the souls games.

[@ennayanne]

@@yoman5029 demons souls didn't have a vague story because there was no need for that. DS1 has a vague story because you're exploring a long forgotten kingdom. why does elden ring have such a vague story? because fromsoft games have vague stories.

[@xsubzerox3412]

​@ennayanne how is lordran and old forgotten kingdom ? Outside of anor londo being abandoned, every main entity and faction still lives here, its a popular land, the birth place of fire and the gods. The So forgotten wouldn't be the right word to use, most humans in lodran, who are the majority of who remain are hollowing because of the fire fading, going mad and so on. The lands between has been through the "shattering" where countless battles were fought amongst the demi gods, those seen as heroes once, are now all gone mad through their new found great runes , even the lands are forever scared by it. Marika's design of removing the concept of proper death ruined most of the sane denizens of the land since they could not die properly, and thus elden ring's vague and fractured story telling is the same reason as dark souls Also demon souls didn't have a vague story, mainly cause all the events of game are recent, hense there hasn't been too many things that happend since Allant awoke old, and anything that happend prior that awakening is not explored or important. Ostrava even talks about allant being his dad and how he remebers bolataria not being like this before. Elden ring and dark souls in contrast spans 100s to 1000s of years.

[@ennayanne]

@@xsubzerox3412 Lordran is in ruins. everyone there is undead. the bearers of lord souls live there but it's hardly thriving. Seath is the only non-dead lord soul bearer and he lives in a reclusive tower full of tentacle women

[@kryssikarpentur5996]

Be safe friend. Don't you dare go hollow.

[@evan.smith016]

Great video man. Hope whatever it is you are going through passes soon. We’re here to support you! 👍

[@vj7248]

True King Allant is my favorite final boss in all the souls franchise. It isn't some Epic Fight.... But just a really shocking moment.

[@LAKTK]

Thank ya so much for making this vid. I'm glad that Demon's Souls is still getting love today (it being my first souls game). I've already been avoiding anything related to demon's souls remake on principle. They've just changed alot of the things I loved for the worst and it just hurts seeing. And hearing they've changed Maiden Astraea's theme (as well as the other music) is just another nail in the coffin for me. They really added to the identity of the boss. Very straight to the point with giving the fight a proper and unique theme. It's something I feel has been lacking in the more modern souls games. But ofc it's my taste at the end of the day. An interesting thing I've noticed about the bosses of demon's souls, is that more than a few actually have safe spots or don't immediately close the distance on you upon entering the arena (Phalanx, Tower Knight, Fool's Idol, Leechmonger, Maiden Astraea, Old Hero, Storm King, and I think Adjudicator and Armor Spider had em too). Gave an interesting feeling of trying to come up with a plan of attack while under fire and let you simmer in the atmosphere. And can't really think of it happening in future souls games besides like... Ceaseless Discharge and Mikolash.

[@lorddervish212quinterosara6]

Here thanks to the Demon Souls Let's Play, love you redphantomman

[@gtfokthxbyecya]

I'm sorry to hear you've been struggling. I hope whatever is causing it gets better for you my friend. You got this 👍

[@behsorcery4552]

The pause you added when talking about the mishandling of Maiden Astraea in the remake was incredibly impactful. Letting the original play to demonstrate the point was a superb editing choice.

[@josephbulkin9222]

I dont know. I played the remake and had an even better time with the game than the original. When you put down Garl, the walk to Astraea gets quieter, which is a really neat idea. But either way, I dont question my actions. Astraea is a literal demon who sold her soul to the old one, who fraternizes with the Depraved of the Valley of Defilement. The most impure demon soul of them all.

[@xsubzerox3412]

​​@@josephbulkin9222she was helping them because they were unfortunate souls you were abandoned and throne away here. She was the most impure of the demons because she was absorbing the souls of people which resulted in taking away their pain and suffering but also making them numb to all other feelings, they attack you so they can give ur soul to her. She was part of the clerics but left them because they did nothing to help the poor denizens of the valley once the plague of demons came. Remember, the valley of defilement existed before the demons came, normal, unfortunate people that were discarded by other societies lived down here, she was trying to ease their suffering. She's not entirely good, but not evil, it's show how the demon soul can twist even the noble of intentions, it is a sad boss fight

[@shrekneutron1587]

Good lord looking at that Wildlands UI was like a come to Jesus moment for my eyeballs. Thanks for the brief comparison lol

[@JellyJman]

This was a really well made video, nice job

[@Deadlitegm]

Near the end you talking about Demon's Souls possibly being one of the most complete narratives? It truly feels like that, the scenario where they had free reign to salvage and create the game they wanted, the pull by the company to put anything out to compete with mainstream appeal, the realization of the shift in the market where people wanted to stop being coddled, by all means this really was lightning in a bottle

[@morcegocinzentoarts4960]

Nicely done, Kell

[@_brutalista]

77 views, 182 subscribers, and a ton of great comments. You know it's gonna be good.

[@xsubzerox3412]

Love me some demon souls appreciation, but if you are going to do all the games, I think it's best you take some healthy criticism to better analyse their future games and present them as fairly as you did demon souls when u contrast the overall experience each game against demons souls. 0:58 kings field heavily informs demon souls, u say later in the video (6:05) that the combat is serviceable and nothing special, which i mostly agree with, and then say its the level design which greatly adds to the experience, which i also agree with, so then kings field should absolutely be apart of the conversation or atleast bear mention since demon souls' level design, traps, atmosphere and mechanical concepts greatly come from the kings field lineage (including shadow tower). It isnt some accident that demon souls didn't have tutorials or wasnt hand-holdy, that wasn't fromsoft trying to go against the trends of modern games, it was just them following the trend of their medieval fantasy games. Their armored core games would have the trend of easing the player into the experience (still difficult tho) with some tutorials at the start and then king field type games would spawn u naked and have an enemy or trap insta kill you right at the start. 4:11 It's funny cause shrine of storms IS the catacombs level of demon souls, it is an ancient burial site of the shamens. Hense why the level is filled with necromancers, ghosts and skeletons. The piston - arrow as a booby trap is ONLY featured in the start of the shrine of storms (4-1) , and to my memory never in any other level outside of maybe 3-1's balista maiden (idk if id consider that a trap since traps are ment to catch u suprised and not have an entire cutscene dedicated to alerting you to them). So that comment against elden ring although funny is disingenuous. Unless you mean traps in a more general way like the dragons and ranged enemies and ambushes, which again is just disingenuous since elden ring has loads of enemies do this, especially balistas in stormviel and the outer rampart defences of leyndell having trebuchet, magic balls in raya lucaria, and nokstella etc. Plus in the open world. 5:27 again very disappointed with how you present demon souls fairly and lament how people underhandedly call them gimmik bosses, and then say somthing like this to modern bosses. Unless ur strategy is spamming ranged attacks from a distance and not be anywhere near the boss, presentation is more than just surface level visuals of the boss, it's about the rythm of the attacks and it also tests how well you can read the boss's animation and react accordingly in numerous ways to avoid and deal damage. These bosses play better with the actual mechanics of the gameplay and hense are alot more enjoyable to more people. The reason demon souls can be called gimmiky is because for some of bosses, they introduce one off mechanics like knocking off the Balance of the tower knight or adjudicator, isn't anything any other boss or enemy has as a common mechanic. It's a one off thing for those two specific fights. Dirty collosus would have been better if the flee projectiles he shoots actually occurred in the prior level and the played is aware of how stepping on fire burns them off. But as it is, it's just a gimmik that exists here. Old hero being blind is also somthing the level prior doesn't actually play around, so it's very unlikely a player would even know or play around here, its a one off. Storm ruler doesn't work outside of the boss fight in the level. Dragon god being a "stealth fight" is just, horrible, horrible concept and horribly executed. Perhaps it would've been better had it been like ancient wyvern in ds3. 10:22 I fail to say how it isolates players, since they can just play offline and not deal with it. I'd love for them to retry the system in future. 15:03 there are plenty criticisms against demon souls, one would be against the games inconsistent or lack of shortcuts. Its great in levels like: 1-1 , 1-3 , 2-1 , 3-1 , 3-2. But non existing in levels like 1-2 , 1-4 , 4-1 , 4-2 , 5-1 5-2 does have a shortcut but it comes just before the level ends ahead of the boss's fog wall, and the player has just as much a chance, if not greater, dying on the path trying to open the shortcut than just doing the boss which comes earlier. Anyway, good luck with the future games, and appreciate it if you took the time to read all this. All the best.

[@slothorne8222]

only about 5 minutes in but I disagree with the hauruh loux take. I think it’s one of the more gimmicky fights in Elden ring, and also really memorable. The fight becomes significantly easier when jumping and it is one of the only fights in the game that really makes the player want to jump instead of dodge. I think it’s the perfect way of doing a gimmick boss honestly, because it has fun gameplay but also has a certain optional mechanic that makes it much easier.

[@ennayanne]

i loved the video, please don't kill the crystal lizards, they are just cute little babies 😢

[@renaigh]

Fear the old blood.