When does Demon's Souls start getting hard?

6SteW6

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I got Demon's Souls awhile back in anticipation of Dark Souls but never really got a chance to play it for awhile. I popped it in about two or three weeks ago and have been playing it on and off since(I don't have too much time for games lately). As of right now I am slightly let down.

Now I am not far into the game I have done 1-1, 1-2, 2-1, 3-1, 4-1 and 5-1 and have only died a handful of times and never lost my souls permamently. Most times I have died were from newbie mistakes like walking off a cliff edge or challenging the 'Red eye knight' my first time in 1-1. The bosses have taken time to understand there patterns and some cost me a lot of grass (Fuck you Adjucator) but have never actually killed me yet.

I haven't come on here to brag or anything I am just curious, is there a defining 'Shit just got real' moment I haven't experienced yet where the game is forever changed? I am a temple knight btw and I found a blessed mace in 5-1 which has been handy so maybe I just got a lucky advantage with that? I am also pretty methodical in my progression, I move slowly with my shield constantly up, I don't rush and I make sure there's no one alive to sneak up behind me. It seems most bloodstains left are from people running around like maniacs.

3-1 was my most challenging level so far, the little squid faced bastards that freeze you then snog you to death sucked until I realized I could sneak up behind them and stab em in the back. But that was really the hardest moment. That was also where I met my first black phantom who destroyed me with a backstab (Ironic right?!)

It is a brilliant game as of right now I am enjoying spending my time exploring each level and stuff and the fear of dying is still there (Especially in boss fights) I just expected to die a lot more I guess.

Anyway again, I am absolutely not bragging or anything just a curious gamer. I thought it would be a slog from the get go and that was what honestly stopped me from playing it for awhile, as I said, I don't have much time for games right now and especially ones that looked so unforgiving. My need for a dark RPG got the better of me and while being pleasantly surprised (The controls and graphics are rock solid) I am slightly confused. I am an average gamer with average abilities but this games giving me a bit of an ego boost :D

Don't be too harsh on me, I am honestly just curious. I am by no means saying this game is a walk in the park, it's just not as hard (so far) as I had heard or imagined it to be. I just want an answer (without too many spoilers) or a level that turned men into quivering children or if it was difficult from the get go or if I am an Uber-Gaming wizard from Mars...it's of course the last one, duh.
 

The_Blue_Rider

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Edit: dont know why i bothered quoting that seeing as im the first reply

Its probably that you already knew what you were getting into, it also seems you've only done the early levels, try doing later parts of the levels, see if it gets harder
 

Robert Ewing

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Invent a time machine.

Go back to before it was released.

Play it before release date.

Get ass kicked terminally.
 

Jak2364

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To be honest, it isn't that hard. All you have to do is pay attention and you'll be fine. In fact, most of the bosses aren't that hard, but there are a few that will give you some trouble. Old King Allant, Flamelurker, and Maneater are the hardest bosses.

Also, i'm not sure if you've played Dark Souls yet, but it IS HARD. It actually is as bad as everyone says it is...at least, so far it is.
 

coldfrog

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Jak2364 said:
To be honest, it isn't that hard. All you have to do is pay attention and you'll be fine. In fact, most of the bosses aren't that hard, but there are a few that will give you some trouble. Old King Allant, Flamelurker, and Maneater are the hardest bosses.

Also, i'm not sure if you've played Dark Souls yet, but it IS HARD. It actually is as bad as everyone says it is...at least, so far it is.
I tend to agree with most of these statements, although I don't think Allant is HARD, but rather he just requires a lot of persistence and patience. Too often I died from just plain not being patient enough to wait to get a few hits in, and I have a feeling the original poster will not have that problem, and thus not much problem with him. Once you know his pattern it just takes a little bit of practice.

That said, there are some pretty nasty levels - The second level of the Storm Shrine sticks out as having multiple nasty bits, that were made harder by a thin area to stand on, or just nasty enemy locations. It's been a while since I played it so I can't think of anything else particularly nasty. Maybe the underground swamp. Where you have to wade through the poison water to get anywhere. And it also slows you down to half speed. Oh man, that one had some nastiness in it.
 

Julianking93

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Well, I played it going in order from 1-1, 1-2, 2-1, 2-2, 2-3 and so on until the end level of 1-4 so I guess that's why it's a bit different for your experience.
Demon's Souls kicked my ass on the later levels but since you're playing the earlier ones first and out of sequence, that probably lessens the difficulty a bit.
The "-2" sections become far more difficult though, like what was said before, it in general isn't that hard. The worst part comes from 1-4 (last level) and 5-2 (everything is poisoned and will kill you) but it's fair in it's difficulty and so long as you don't fuck about, randomly swinging your sword everywhere then you'll be fine... that is until Old King Allant comes and drains your soul level 4 times in a row. At that point, I threw the controller >.>

Jak2364 said:
Also, i'm not sure if you've played Dark Souls yet, but it IS HARD. It actually is as bad as everyone says it is...at least, so far it is.
Also, this.
Dark Souls is far more difficult than Demon's Souls and my only real gripe with it so far is that it seems a lot less fair than its predecessor. I've been surrounded multiple times even in areas I've been careful in and there are so many ledges to fall off that falling will most likely be the reason for most deaths
 

Photon987

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Don't worry.

2-2 and 3-2 have fairly fun bosses, and if you let your guard down, you can be steamrolled pretty quickly. 3-3 can either be pretty easy, or a tense battle to the death.

4-2 is a somewhat irritating level in places. As for the boss, some people hate it, others don't seem to think it is very hard.

5-2... Oh how I disliked 5-2... Have fun with that.

Also, when you can access 1-3 and beyond, those are some pretty good levels. Tricks, traps, strong enemies, and some manly boss fights will see you put what you learned to good use.
 

Ryotknife

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bleh demon souls. Either you hate it or love it. im in the hate it camp. maybe i picked the wrong class (knight) but when you are required to grind for 5 hours straight just to do ONE boss attempt, then the game doesnt become hard it becomes the most annoying grind fest in the history of video gaming. and this is coming from an ex-wow player.

get hit once? sorry thats 15 minutes worth of grinding. Dodging attacks you say? good luck, my character did not have a roll ability. mine had a "faceplant and get slowly back up" ability. lets not forget that using healing abilities or getting hit requires 30 seconds for you to receive control of your char again.
 

lacktheknack

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Maybe you're just really that careful. Although generally, it's traditional for -2 and -3 levels to be much harder.
 

Blastinburn

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You've been playing only recently right, did you start after October 6th? If you did then you were experiencing the Demon's Souls 2nd birthday event where the servers were set to white world tendency until October 17th. White world tendency makes the game easier.

White World Tendency has the following effects:
-Decreases enemy HP, attack and defense power.
-Enemies drop fewer upgrade stones.
-Enemies drop more healing items.
-Attack power is increased in Soul Form. Increases 10% at White, and 20% at Pure White.

Though now that it's October 17th the server's world tendency will be shifted to black, making the game harder. You can check world tendency from the pause menu (item number 4 from the left). The game also never bothers to explain world tendency to the player, though it is mentioned in the manual.
 

6SteW6

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I got the game as an early anniversary gift on Sep 15th and started it on Sep 20th I played the first two levels, let it lay for a few days, did level 3, 4 and 5 in the next few days. I did level 1-2 last night, so maybe that's why I didn't die then but then again I didn't die in level 4 either and was told the Skeletons were tough as hell.

I think most of the people on here are right, I listened to the hype that that's what kept me from buying it for so long. That may have helped me out too I went into it knowing it was a challenge and have being playing rather slowly and methodically. I also found some decent loot in level 3, like a theif armour set that let's me move around quickly and a regenerating health ring that boosts health slowly.

I am playing a Temple Knight atm. I have a blessed mace, purple flame shield and thieves armour (I think that's the name) with a thieves ring, cling ring and that ring that gives you health over a period of time.

And no I haven't played Dark Souls yet but if I truly hope it's not as unfair as everyone says it is. The times I have died in Demon's Soul's it has been my fault (Except once) and I have appreciated that. If Dark Souls is going to cheat me with unfair deaths I might just stick to Demon's Souls NG+ :p

Thanks for the replies all, I was afraid I would meet a couple of people who misread my quiestion and took it as me saying 'I have played this game very little, but I deem it EASY!' I was just curious as to when it got hard.

I may check out 5-2 but 5-1 was my least fave level just because of how hard it was and because of plague...boy how I hated plague, oh and those narrow bridges!
 

krazykidd

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Someone came to brag i see , lol, if you find it too easy give yourself a handicap , also did you look anything up before playing . Imo , the best experience is when you go in blind , like what i'm doing with dark souls , i'm lvl 94 and i habent finished it yet , i'm about 60 hours in and i'm having a blast.
 

6SteW6

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Ryotknife said:
bleh demon souls. Either you hate it or love it. im in the hate it camp. maybe i picked the wrong class (knight) but when you are required to grind for 5 hours straight just to do ONE boss attempt, then the game doesnt become hard it becomes the most annoying grind fest in the history of video gaming. and this is coming from an ex-wow player.

get hit once? sorry thats 15 minutes worth of grinding. Dodging attacks you say? good luck, my character did not have a roll ability. mine had a "faceplant and get slowly back up" ability. lets not forget that using healing abilities or getting hit requires 30 seconds for you to receive control of your char again.
This is exactly how the game has been described to me countless times and the sole reason I asked this question. When exactly does this happen?

I too started as the knight, but rolling wasn't an issue for me I simply removed my helmet and chest armour and was able to move around nicely until I found the thieves armour. The healing isn't bad either, it only take a few seconds and sure it can be interrupted but you can usually find an opening in combat to grab a herb or two.

I haven't had to grind yet but I have heard this come up often, some people say grinding and hunting for killer equipment is a must, whike other's say that it only gives you a small edge in combat. Or maybe I have been accidentally grinding just because I have been visiting levels twice or even three times to be sure I found everything.

And so far the only time I have completely lost control of my character was when I was paralyzed by the squid faces in level 3-1. Usually I am hit and able to put my shield up or roll away before an enemy gets another in.

Again though I am still new to the game so I could be wrong but I haven't seen anything wrong with the mechanics you described so far. As of right now I am in the Love it camp.

I love the flow of combat and the panic of a hard fought battle. I love the surge of joy I get when I find the enemies weakness and I love the level design and enemies. The thing that is giving me the biggest challenge is figuring out how the hell to level up right (I have put stats into str, end and vit. I want to put it into Faith but don't know exactly how that works yet (Will it make my mace stronger in combat or just give me more healing spells? or both?!) Anyway great game so far! I will continue my journey and hopefully not cry too hard when I finally get crushed!
 

6SteW6

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Trezu said:
Play it on Halloween

the Game becomes harder
Yeah I heard that, I look forward to halloween for PBWT I think it will ramp up the games intensity Alot!

krazykidd said:
Someone came to brag i see
Ahh you caught me :( I just want to let all you peasants know I am the god of hard game's and all you people with your feeble minds and puny thumbs must bow down before me!!

krazykidd said:
if you find it too easy give yourself a handicap , also did you look anything up before playing . Imo , the best experience is when you go in blind , like what i'm doing with dark souls , i'm lvl 94 and i habent finished it yet , i'm about 60 hours in and i'm having a blast.
Nah not really, I mean I haven't looked up anything in particular I have stumbled across some boss names while looking at forums similar to this that will be a challenge. I don't beleive in using guides and I am not too worried about messing up in this game. As I hear I cant play NG+ then NG++ and so on, so if I mess something up in one playthrough I can always try again later.

I can't wait to play Dark souls I will be buying it alongside Skyrim. So when I get viciously pounded and violated in one RPG I can jump to another and spend 4 hours foraging for flowers, while silently weeping to myself, my only comfort, the smell of urine drying slowly in my pants.
 

6SteW6

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Arontala said:
Dark/Demon's Souls is rather easy if you just take your time, and be cautious.

The only time when it becomes difficult is when you repeatedly die, which can result in a slippery slope of frustration and sloppiness. If you're not that kind of person, then it's not going to be very hard.
Nah if I find myself constantly dying I take a break for a few, go do something less stressful and then get back to it. Demon's souls has a fish hook effect though, when I have died I want to go back and grab my souls right away, it just doesn't seem right leaving them there, all alone in the darkness :S.
 

T_ConX

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6SteW6 said:
When does Demon's Souls start getting hard?
When you find your first 'The real Demon's Souls starts here' message

Besides that, most of the X-1 areas are pretty easy, and most guides actually recommend hitting the worlds in the order of 1-1, 2-1, 3-1, etc.

Most of the bosses are really hard, specify the ones at the end of 2-2, 3-2, 4-2, and 4-1. I had to abuse some VERY underhanded tricks to get past each of them.

On the other hand, the bosses in 2-3, 3-3*, 4-3, and 5-3 (basically, the end-bosses for four of the five worlds) are JOKES.


... in case you didn't know, the boss in 3-3 can be controlled by another player. All they have to do is invade your world while you're in the area, and they'll be waiting for you at the top of a tower. If they beat you, they get a special item.

Of course, it only does this if it can find a willing player. If it can't (you're not connected to the PSN, or if your uninvited guest decides to leave), it'll have to go to the AI. Not only that, you're the one who gets to decide when the fight starts. If you fight your way up tot he top of the tower, you can just wait outside the boss chamber until your would-be foe gets bored and leaves. If you're REALLY lucky, he'll get SO MAD he'll send you ANGRY MESSAGES... that you won't be able to immediately reply to because you'll be busy making a sandwich...