Japanese Gamer Beats Demon's Souls in Under an Hour

[Logan Westbrook]

Japanese Gamer Beats Demon's Souls in Under an Hour

​

Some speed runs are impressive, some are kind of depressing, and some are a little bit of both.

For most people, an hour spent playing From Software's devilishly hard game, Demon's Souls [http://uk.ps3.ign.com/articles/112/1128727p1.html] breaks down into about twenty minutes of fighting, another ten of exploring, and a solid half hour running back to their corpse. But for one Japanese gamer, an hour of play is enough time to start the game, finish it, and still have enough time to make a sandwich.

The player, known by his YouTube ID of alternalw [http://www.youtube.com/user/alternalw], blasted through the game in 54 minutes and 54 seconds. He also recorded his entire run and put it online for all to see. It's a little disheartening to watch him get further in the game in eight minutes that I was able to in a dozen hours, but it's fascinating to see all the little tricks he uses to shave seconds off his time. If you haven't finished the game you might want to come back to this later, as the videos are essentially one long spoiler, but if you've put the time in, as alternalw clearly has, it's worth a watch.




Source: Kotaku [http://kotaku.com/5666793/how-to-beat-demons-souls-in-under-an-hour]





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[Distorted Stu]

Pretty much consists of running.. and running.. and running! Still, impressive.

 

[Amethyst Wind]

I never understood speed runs as a concept, it promotes purposefully skipping potential enjoyment.

 

[Kenko]

I never understood speed runs as a concept, it promotes purposefully skipping potential enjoyment.

I think they do it after theyve beaten the game and then do it becauese they can and its a challange in itself to do it.

 

[Stabby Joe]

Speed runs miss the point in my view, Demon's Souls being a game that's better to "relish in", if you will.

 

[Void Droid]

Impressive but not as difficult as some would think, you just run through the level (on any game really) to the end, kill the boss quickly with the knowledge you have from doing so many times already, rinse and repeat.

Still impressive to a certain degree but highly highly boring to both do and watch.

 

[ChromeAlchemist]

Ahh the Japanese, always on hand to show us that the games we struggle with are child's play.

I saw a Japanese gamer finishing a Tetris game within minutes and play with invisible blocks during the credits.
<youtube=8kqKOlcaZuI>

Still impresses me though

What the fuck, I didn't even know you could finish Tetris. He's basically Rain Man. Or D.A.R.Y.L.


Man that movie wasn't how I remembered it at all. Ahh the 80s...

 

[Amethyst Wind]

I never understood speed runs as a concept, it promotes purposefully skipping potential enjoyment.

I think they do it after theyve beaten the game and then do it becauese they can and its a challange in itself to do it.

I might have believed that if they weren't all so dead set on publishing it after completing it.

 

[Kris015]

That's just.. kinda disturbing. And i'm having a hard time even getting to the second boss :S

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

I never understood speed runs as a concept, it promotes purposefully skipping potential enjoyment.

I think they do it after theyve beaten the game and then do it becauese they can and its a challange in itself to do it.

I might have believed that if they weren't all so dead set on publishing it after completing it.

If you did something that amazing, wouldn't you want to share it with the world using the technology of today?

It's not like he's running banner ads pointing to his youtube channel.

 

[Amethyst Wind]

I never understood speed runs as a concept, it promotes purposefully skipping potential enjoyment.

I think they do it after theyve beaten the game and then do it becauese they can and its a challange in itself to do it.

I might have believed that if they weren't all so dead set on publishing it after completing it.

If you did something that amazing, wouldn't you want to share it with the world using the technology of today?

It's not like he's running banner ads pointing to his youtube channel.

Well no tbh, sure I'd want to share it with my gamer friends who would appreciate it, not random faceless strangers that I'll never meet/care about.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

I never understood speed runs as a concept, it promotes purposefully skipping potential enjoyment.

I think they do it after theyve beaten the game and then do it becauese they can and its a challange in itself to do it.

I might have believed that if they weren't all so dead set on publishing it after completing it.

If you did something that amazing, wouldn't you want to share it with the world using the technology of today?

It's not like he's running banner ads pointing to his youtube channel.

Well no tbh, sure I'd want to share it with my gamer friends who would appreciate it, not random faceless strangers that I'll never meet/care about.

This allows you to SHOW your friends that, without having them there to watch you do it. Conveniently allowing the world to see, too.

Live speedruns suck to watch. They are full of restarting, resetting, and playing the same sections over and over.

Because speedrunning is an art, in gaming. You have to get it just right. Ask anyone who has ever done Sonic/Mario speedruns. One slip up, even for tenths of a second, and the record is TOAST.

I had to get under a minute in the opening level of Sonic 4 for a trophy last week, and found that near impossible. I managed to pull of in 50-ish. I look at leaderboards and see...people in the 30s.

 

[Owlslayer]

This is ...sick.
I've heard how over-the-top difficult the game is, and a guy just completed it in less than one hour...?
Damn.
That is all.

 

[Susan Arendt]

I never understood speed runs as a concept, it promotes purposefully skipping potential enjoyment.

I think they do it after theyve beaten the game and then do it becauese they can and its a challange in itself to do it.

I might have believed that if they weren't all so dead set on publishing it after completing it.

If you did something that amazing, wouldn't you want to share it with the world using the technology of today?

It's not like he's running banner ads pointing to his youtube channel.

Well no tbh, sure I'd want to share it with my gamer friends who would appreciate it, not random faceless strangers that I'll never meet/care about.

But surely you can understand why other people might want accolades? Especially if his friends also do speed runs, they're just going to smile, nod, and get on with it if he shows them what he did. Hell, they may even have helped him figure it all out.

I think some folks here are misunderstanding speed runs. The people who do them aren't only experiencing the game that way. They can't - they have to play and play and play the game until they know it SO well that they can just blaze right through it. So they're playing the game the way they're intended - the speed run is just the end result of all of that play time. It's similar to back in the old days, when we'd flip the Atari joystick upside down to give ourselves an extra challenge after we'd beaten a game into submission. Just something new to try with a game you know inside and out.

 

[Gamegodtre]

Bravo sir Bravo

Now if you wanna show how masochistic you must be for memorizing the game to the extent you did to do this, i now issue you the ultimate challenge:
play thru the entire Hannah Montana movie game in one sitting without pulling your hair out and screaming for it to end

 

[A Pious Cultist]

I never understood speed runs as a concept, it promotes purposefully skipping potential enjoyment.

What, you think they do it on their first playthrough? No, he's probably played through it a load of times, now its just more fun to try and make a record.

 

[dududf]

I saw a Japanese gamer finishing a Tetris game within minutes and play with invisible blocks during the credits.

Worth noting, my friend can do invisible tetris as well. I saw him do 7 levels of just invisible tetris.

 

[Amethyst Wind]

I never understood speed runs as a concept, it promotes purposefully skipping potential enjoyment.

I think they do it after theyve beaten the game and then do it becauese they can and its a challange in itself to do it.

I might have believed that if they weren't all so dead set on publishing it after completing it.

If you did something that amazing, wouldn't you want to share it with the world using the technology of today?

It's not like he's running banner ads pointing to his youtube channel.

Well no tbh, sure I'd want to share it with my gamer friends who would appreciate it, not random faceless strangers that I'll never meet/care about.

But surely you can understand why other people might want accolades? Especially if his friends also do speed runs, they're just going to smile, nod, and get on with it if he shows them what he did. Hell, they may even have helped him figure it all out.

I think some folks here are misunderstanding speed runs. The people who do them aren't only experiencing the game that way. They can't - they have to play and play and play the game until they know it SO well that they can just blaze right through it. So they're playing the game the way they're intended - the speed run is just the end result of all of that play time. It's similar to back in the old days, when we'd flip the Atari joystick upside down to give ourselves an extra challenge after we'd beaten a game into submission. Just something new to try with a game you know inside and out.

In a theoretical sense I can understand why other people might want accolades, but I can't say I ever agree with it on any level. Accolades should be a by-product of whatever it is you're doing. Performing a speed run for the challenge is fine. Performing a speed run to get shallow praise is not. Nobody who actually tries to be a hero ever becomes one.

We know speed runs are subsequent playthroughs, but that doesn't mean that they need to do them in such a way that they miss out on what made them enjoy the game in the first place. Subsequent playthroughs can in-fact be more entertaining by your hindsight, you recognise the early clues you didn't pick up on, you use carried-over abilities to engage in more cathartic activities etc, but I just can't help thinking that when the only enjoyment you'll get from finishing a game is that you can do it quickly/in a more challenging way, it's probably time to go find a new game.