Is Demon’s Souls a great game?

[u/Mojosodope999]

Guys. Is Demon’s Souls a great purchase? Is it worth it? Should I get it? Compare it to like horizon zero dawn

[u/Mr-Stuff-Doer]

I think my main issue from this game comes from level length. If each world were 5/6 or even 7/8 short levels that were tough, I’d be a lot more okay with the slow pacing and lack of checkpointing. Like, I thoroughly enjoyed Doom Eternal, even on Nightmare, because it’s one super tough encounter, then a checkpoint and some easy stuff before the next big fight. In this it’s just a deadly enemy, then another one, and another, and another, etc.

Also it’s interesting to see the difference in my your enjoyment of figuring things out compared to me.

These past couple years I’ve started getting into the Fire Emblem franchise, and the hardest difficulties of some of the new games are truly brutal. FE13’s Lunatic+ mode in infamous; the enemies have abilities that don’t exist for player characters and are completely OP. Yet I found planning out my run of the game to be wildly enjoyable. Having so many tools and options at my disposal and knowing what they all did, before piecing them together in such a way that I could get through the ridiculously hard levels was really fun and then playing it led to some REALLY satisfying moments, and since RNG is a crucial part of Fire Emblem, it leads to some “FUCK YES!!!” moments that I don’t find in games where you just do the same strategy on each new enemy. I recently did the same planning time for FE14 and I kinda love doing it; having so many options and choices to work with and knowing what each does makes it really fun to piece it all together, and it engages me more than staring at a menu and wondering why there’s an “A” next to the star symbol. And then watching my plan come to fruition is just… perfection.

[u/GameSpiderALD → u/Mr-Stuff-Doer]

Haven't played FE and no its not because I have an unfair hatred of it because my favorite video game character (dante) didn't make it into the smash roster because of all the fe characters! No wayyyyy! I think it stung more that he's a mii fighter costume lol kidding aside I'm just not big on turn based tactic games to be honest, FE has always interested me from a distance but I'm unsure if id be able to get past the moment to moment gameplay, i do like the sound of a lot of customization options though! but I can see the similarities in the way we each talk about these games and its kinda cool! One of the things that I like about all the souls games is the sandbox approach to leveling up, I could make a warrior in the create a character menu, but then spec into being a wizard later on if it suits me, not a lot of games let you change on the fly like that and while there is no respect feature in demon's souls iir the way leveling up works is enough to let you change your guy gradually which is I guess a bit more realistic anyways, I'm just droning on now I'll shut up lmao

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[u/Mr-Stuff-Doer → u/GameSpiderALD]

Well you’re better than 98% of the Smash community, congrats!

Not sure what you mean by moment to moment gameplay of FE. Do you mean it’s turn based? That it’s heavy on RNG?

Yeah I think based on your enjoyment of making your character how you want you’d like parts of FE but be annoyed by levels deciding stats by RNG. But character customization is off the fucking charts. Honestly. Especially the newer games. FE16 is the newest and my god the options. 40 playable characters who you can put into any class you want (gender exclusive classes aside) with so many different weapon types, subtypes, upgraded subtypes, different battalion types, and literally dozens of unlockable skills that can be equipped on anyone. NG+ lets you REALLY go nuts in that game, as any class a character has mastered and any weapon rank they’ve achieved can be bought back using renown (a currency gained in small increments throughout the game that multiplies exponentially with each NG+). Meaning you can start the game by making the character who’s default is axe into a mage with self-healing skills. The variety isn’t so much with stats in FE, but skills and classes. Want a flying unit? Here’s a Pegasus! Want a horse, sure, here you go! Want a dragon, why not! Want to have boosted accuracy? Little bland but sure! Want a small chance to OHKO any enemy with any attack, why wouldn’t you?!

The skills of FE13 and 14 get really crazy (Galeforce allows you to make a second turn for a character if their first turn kills an enemy), but you’re more limited as each character has preset classes they can work with and each class has preset weapons.

For someone who’s only played 4 of these games, I have a bit of an obsession.

[u/GameSpiderALD → u/Mr-Stuff-Doer]

When I say moment to moment gameplay I guess I mean what you actually spend most of your time doing, for example the moment to moment gameplay of devil may cry is hack and slash combo based, I'm gonna be honest though, you starting to convince me to give this game a try, which game would suggest starting with? Unfortunately I just moved across the country and all of my gaming stuff is in a ubox except my ps5 and my switch so it would have to be a switch game (to the best of my knowledge FE is a Nintendo exclusive series)

[u/Mr-Stuff-Doer → u/GameSpiderALD]

“What you spend most of your time doing” in FE16, you can have a 100 hour run, you spend time on a lot of different stuff lol.

Yeah, of course I’m making it sound appealing, I love these games lol. It’s like Soulsborne fans talking up the series to newcomers.

Yeah, FE is a Nintendo series, though most aren’t translated officially yet. If you’re only on Switch, your only option happens to probably be your best one. FE16, Three Houses. That’s the most outsider friendly game in the series, and if you want difficulty, Maddening mode lives up to its name. It’s brutal.

The first in the series got released for Switch temporarily, but I think we passed a cutoff and you can no longer get it, and all other translated games are on other consoles. Though every game has fan-translations and emulating options. But FE16 is the most modern and user friendly, plus has the most varying gameplay and content. Most up to that were mostly just mission, then story, then mission, etc. Three Houses has a small world to walk around and talk to characters in, four endings, gardening, activities to do, and best of all, FISHING.

If I convinced you to play, that’s pretty cool, if you like it, even better. But I know it wouldn’t be everyone’s cup of tea. Even standard turn based games turn some people off, and this goes even further, almost being a copy of the combat in a TTRPG. Including the possibility for permanent death of a beloved character, how fun!

Wow this is long

[u/GameSpiderALD → u/Mr-Stuff-Doer]

Difficulty doesn't scare me away, I am almost literally bashing my head against dmc5s dante must die mode, trying to get the platinum, and I have to say, this is by far the most brutal challenge I've ever faced, I'm curious how maddening mode stacks up by comparison

[u/Mr-Stuff-Doer → u/GameSpiderALD]

Yeah I can tell you’re okay with difficulty, you’re a Soulsborne guy. FE16 was criticized for being easy at launch, even with the hard mode it had, and the first big patch brought maddening, and… oh my god it’s so hard. To the point of almost feeling untested. Like, it’s beatable, but god. IIRC every archer enemy removes 20% of the target’s HP after combat, regardless of if they hit. It basically invalidates defense tanks, ffs. FE13 has a comparable difficulty, Lunatic+. And my god it’s so hard. They don’t fuck around in those modes.