Souls (Series)

[Moonface]

This thread is for all things related to the Soul's series of games, including the upcoming Demon's Souls remake which got some new information and footage yesterday!



The new information came from various sources, but here's all of it gathered in a list that I found elsewhere:

• Encumbrance is still in and better grasses weigh more - grass system is otherwise intact
  
• They fixed most bugs but kept minor "meme-worthy" bugs and quirks
  
• Locked 4k at 30fps or variable 4k 60 at fps
  
• Plenty of filters, inc. one for the original's aesthetic
  
• Can switch camera perspective back to original
  
• Photo mode included - which pauses the game until you're invaded/otherwise playing with other players online
  
• Higher drop rate for pure bladestone
  
• Confirmed no 6th archstone: "it was discussed, and then we backed off - it wasn't our right to create that extra world"
  
• World tendency and character tendency unchanged aside from improved UI
  
• Most of the original cast re-recorded their dialogue
  
• 3 invaders and 2 allies for 6 players total in multiplayer
  
• Fractured world - confirmed as a mirror mode
  
• Significantly improved character creation, with "thousands upon thousands of permutations"
  
• No difficulty settings - focus on staying true to the original vision
  
• Levels apparently load close to instantly after dying
  
• The game makes use of the PS5's controller's new haptic features e.g. you can feel the trigger tightening as you draw an arrow, and the controller gives feedback when you successfully parry
  
• Omnidirectional rolling (eight directions) is confirmed in
  
• "Once you've chosen a character, what you can do is after you've paid a number of souls for it--in the Nexus--you can actually store your character and then go in and change your character in the Nexus."
  
• Re-recorded soundtrack with full orchestra
  
• All animations redone with motion capture but still match the cadence and speed of the originals
  
• All boss and enemy logic/AI same as original game
  
• No changes to Old Monk
  

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The ability to change your character at any time sounds interesting. I wish I had experience with Demon's Souls to comment on if I think it would be better for the game, but I don't, so as an assumption I'd hope it would be better because you can change what you use in a single file instead of having to make multiple files and switching between them for builds.

As for the new footage, it looks really good just as the first footage did! I'm trying to figure out whether the shield is only meant to block weak attacks, since any huge enemy attacks were being avoided with rolls and at one point in the montage at the end it looked like the player got thrown backwards for taking a big hit when blocking, but I might be wrong. Also, is fall damage not a thing in this game since the player went down a massive drop after the spider that I feel would kill you in something like Bloodborne no matter how high your health is.

[Dragon Lord]

Shields in general in the Souls games are more of a crutch than anything. Newbies will hide behind them thinking it'll save them, but in general using a shield in a Souls game is a terrible habit to form and in the end is going to get you killed more often than not. Rolling attacks has always been the absolute best way to play, and it's why the people who master it are the ones who are the best at the games. Good players only use shields for their secondary effects (like the stamina regen of the 'Grass Crest Shield' in the first Dark Souls game). Blocking attacks with your shield greatly drains your stamina, making it impossible to get decent counter attacks in, while rolling allows you to get more attacks in due to less stamina consumption and also faster recovery time.

If they don't change anything about the fall damage in the remake, then yes, you are able to fall from greater heights without dying. The fall damage in original Demon's Souls was very forgiving compared to the Dark Souls games and Bloodborne. If you watch a speedrun of the game, you'll see a lot of very interesting skips utilizing the lack of fall damage.

The ability to switch your character's stats is just a QoL thing they're bringing over from Dark Souls II and Dark Souls III. Though it'll be interesting to see if they limit it in some way like they did in those games, or if they're going to make it more free to allow players to constantly change their builds. Personally I'm more of a fan of just making a new character for different builds, because different builds require playing the game in different ways, and if you can just change your one character after you've beaten the game, you lose out on that experience.

[Moonface]

The ability to switch your character's stats is just a QoL thing they're bringing over from Dark Souls II and Dark Souls III. Though it'll be interesting to see if they limit it in some way like they did in those games, or if they're going to make it more free to allow players to constantly change their builds. Personally I'm more of a fan of just making a new character for different builds, because different builds require playing the game in different ways, and if you can just change your one character after you've beaten the game, you lose out on that experience.

It seems the ability to change your character is literally having multiple characters that you can swap out, rather than changing the stats or build itself.

The shield blocking sounds similar to just blocking in Sekiro, where it doesn't really do you any good compared to doing a parry (which for Demon's would be rolling). I doubt I'll use the shield to block attacks much since I haven't played a FromSoftware game yet that actually features shields as a mechanic.

[Dragon Lord]

From what I understood of the details, it sounds like what you can do is "store" your character in the Nexus. This will save that character's stats and whatnot, but then allow you to re-allocate your points as you want to make another build, but will not require the player to do another play through of the game.

I'm just an old fashioned Souls player, and I prefer having to go through the game again if you want a new build. I always found it much more fun because like I said, it allowed you to experience going through the game in a completely new way. Some people would argue that it's just going through the same game again, but anyone who has played any Souls game more than once with a different loadout knows that going through a second time with a different type of weapon can be a completely new experience. Going through with a straight sword that you can swing 4-5 in one stamina bar is going to be a lot different than going through with an Ultra Greatsword that you can only swing once or twice, and leaves you open to get counter attacked much longer.

[Moonface]

To add to what you said @Dragon Lord, doing a new run means you can fight bosses with that different build. Unless Demon's Souls has some way to respawn bosses, you'd be unable to do everything using a different build within an existing save unless you do it in a NG+, but that would feel a bit cheap to me since you would be able to start a run with a character that has better stats and equipment than you would have from a fresh run and character.

[Dragon Lord]

Yeah, it definitely takes away from the experience. One of the best aspects of Souls game is doing a new playthrough with an entirely different build and watching yourself struggle on bosses that maybe you completely stomped on your first build. I know in the first Dark Souls game, there are some bosses that are completely trivialized by just suiting up in heavy armor with the highest poise possible, even if it means not being able to roll, and face-tanking the boss until they die, but then you go back and fight that boss with a light armor build and find yourself struggling like hell because you didn't learn how to roll their attacks the first time through with that heavy armor set-up.

[Moonface]

A new video was released yesterday showing more gameplay of Demon's Souls (PS4), and if I'm not mistaken this is the first footage to feature the UI.
I don't really have much to say that I didn't already say about other footage, but I do have a question for those who have played the original game. Do you know why in the first area that gets shown, the player has a line halfway in their health bar that seems to be the limit for where your health can be replenished to? I thought it was just a marker to indicate 50% health, but none of the later footage has the line present, so now I don't know what its purpose is.

[Dragon Lord]

So what you're seeing is the Human/Soul form system.

When in "Human" form, you have your full health, you can summon other players and you can be invaded by other players. When you die, you go into "Soul" form, and suffer a 50% Health penalty and cannot summon other players, though you also cannot be invaded either. In order to restore yourself to Human form, you have to use a consumable item.

That also explains why the player character has a glow to them when you see that line in the health bar.

[Moonface]

So I started Demon's Souls the other day, and I've gradually been getting the hang of it. I do think it's utter bullshit that all of the online components are locked behind PS+ though, especially because the game has trophies tied to the online. I don't know if Bloodborne requires PS+ to play online since I never played that game online, but at least that game doesn't have online trophies so if it does lock that content you're not being put in a position where you need to throw down money on a subscription if you want to achieve everything.

I've so far beaten the Phalanx and Tower Knight bosses in the first area, and the spider boss in the mines. I haven't seen an incentive to use items to return to human form yet since dying in that form darkens the world tendency which just makes shit harder and I don't see why I'd want to suffer with that while I'm still learning my way around areas and learning the enemies and such. I was planning to go further in the lava mines but I got tired of being blocked by the giant lava bearbugs that take barely any damage from my weapons.