Atlus' Demon's Souls is quickly earning a reputation as one of the most punishing and cruel videogames of all time. The game is designed to kill you -- and kill you hard. As if to add insult to injury, Atlus has revealed that it's actively logging a death toll for the Demon's Souls, turning your hard fought and painful memories into little more than a statistic.
Yesterday evening, after less than a day on store shelves, the number of deaths in the game's first area registered at over 3,000. Atlus counted the bloodstains of fallen players and boasted of the lives lost that day. While it's not confirmed, I am 100% certain they were laughing as they did this.
"Death toll in Boletaria Castle area one as of 5:30PM PST: 3,479 bloodstains," announced the company.
That was last night. I dread to think how bad it's gotten now. I asked Atlus to keep that death toll running, so hopefully they'll update with more stats and we can see just how badly we've gotten our arses whupped. As for me, I have a copy of the game in transit and I am kind of terrified. Waiting to receive a copy of the game is like being on death row.
Jim Sterling serves as reviews editor for Destructoid.com, head of the Podtoid podcast, and produces a number of news stories, original features, one-of-a-kind videos. With his passionate argumentative style, controversial opinions, harsh delivery, and dedication to brutal honesty Sterling is a name that you can't help but recognize.
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Contest:
9:00 AM on 10.07.2009
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Or where can I import this? Anybody?
This is the best thing that you've ever said. No, really though, I laughed.
I love that the company is recording and displaying this type of information.
Nah: not even close to all the shmups that are coming out. Demon's Souls is like any video game with any sort of challenge.
It's tough for the first few hours or so, but once you get the cling ring in the first 30 minutes, snag a good bow, and understand the riposte timing, it's gravy.
Sick bastards.
This game is rock hard, but only until you get used to it, the fighting is fucking sweet, pure finesse and timing, I love it.
Cling ring is fucking required! Finding that shit is your first objective for sure.
I got back last night, had a couple of hours to play and managed to kill Flamelurker and The Adjuducator! Fucking buzzing! when you've tried so many times and failed, to look at the enemies health bar and think, "shit, it's only one more shot and he's down" the tension is thick, the sweat beading on your brow, knowing that if you die, those 15,000 souls in your back pocket will be stuck, in a confined space with a fucking giant boss enemy, is intense.
Killing a boss is like a shot of dopamine directly into your spine.
The only gaming feeling that comes close is on Monster hunter, when you and 3 guys have spent a whole evening trying to get a rare piece of a certain monsters tail, and then the next day you kill one on your own and get it!
It's that dopamine that i love.
Brutally hard games obviously have a market
I think this game was made for me. If you come in thinking you are playing God of War or any other type of hack and slash game you will die, a lot. I personally like to take my time and carefully go through an area. This strategy has kept me alive and from falling into many of the "around the corner" enemies. I love this game!
Normally I hate games where I have to die over and over again, but this game is so fascinating. Also the combat has a nice weighty feel, and the graphics are amazing. Looking forward to more punishment...
While I'm sure it's not the most hard game ever (I haven't played it yet, but I was pretty sure of that, anyway) I'm sure it is a hard game. With as many people all across the world calling this game incredibly difficult, it comes off like you're trying to sound a little too elite when you say, "it's gravy". But, we shall see.. I'll be picking it up later this week. Still working on Risen at the moment.
The game is hard, yes, but once you 'get' the combat you will absolutely love it and want to fight everything as many times as you can. I have had the Asian version since March and have loved every single minute of it. It is my favorite PS3 game yet.
Don't want it going multiplat though, I don't think I could bear the xbl messages from the little kids who can't get past the first enemy.
Oh well, I guess I'll have to dig around for a preowned PS3 phat.
So far the videos, reviews and comments for this game are reminding me of two other really hard dungeon crawlers: Eye of the Beholder 2 and Wizardry 7. I loved those games but they were hard as hell. Nothing like opening a dungeon door and having half your party disintegrated by the Beholder on the other side before you can even swing.
Tonight I'm gonna start a new character because I read somewhere that you shouldn't use the bosses souls to level up your character and should instead save them to buy unique spells later in the game. Plus I wanna try the royal class that everyone seems to love.
them ore i read the more I want to try it but I'm scared this game is going to kcik my butt into a frustration that will make me give up after 2 hours....
Well..let's see.
I've played around 50 hours of it, and it clicked for me around 3-4 hours in.
The people who say it doesn't click, they play for around 5, then give up forever, without trying to succeed.
Point being, if you try, you'll get there.
@aaronf
Yep! You can kill him, but you don't have to. I never did, even with my alts.
Also, DO NOT USE THE BOSS DEMON SOULS TO FOR CURRENCY! Keep them, and use them on NPCs for more spells/options.
@matte g ebay can get the korean version for $29.99
*sigh*
You don't HAVE to die to proceed (excluding one part in the tutorial), however you WILL die until you learn how to proceed. This is not counter intuitive, it teaches you how to play correctly. In fact it was a major facet of video gaming up until just a few generations ago. Nobody can tell me they didn't die over and over in Mega Man or Mario on the NES until the learned what it took to beat it without dying.
You seem to be the new "Chronic Logic" in terms of making uneducated guesses without experience in the topic.
Demon's Souls is a game that immediately teaches you how to learn from your mistakes, so you don't constantly repeat them (die "over and over", as you say). Couldn't the fact that "X" number of people died so far be because a ton of people bought the game? If everyone died once, and a lot of copies were sold, that would be a higher number right there.
I had my whole day planned around this game
:(
...it helps that I've been playing my Import copy for the past 6 months ;)
He seems killable but I haven't seen anyone do it yet.
I was a knight so I charged him.............. Not my greatest battle stratagy, he took me out in a shot.
@Mags - Yeah, I see it now. Though I did spend 30 minutes killing that f*cking red dragon with the first bow I found because I wanted my soul pile back. Just to go and get schooled by that enormous tower knight. Had to bow and arrow him, too.
Do you play through the tutorial again when you New Game+, because that's the only way I could think anyone would have a chance with the Adjudicator at the beginning of the game. I've only started one character, the Temple Knight (so I could start with a polearm and heal) and it's been good to me so far. Heal makes me a little upset, since EVERYTHING drops healing goods, and I have no way to sell them. IS there any way to sell items you don't need?