Zero Punctuation: Demon's Souls
- Thread starter Yahtzee Croshaw
- Start date
The watermark is getting a little annoying. I mean had anyone here heard of the escapist before seeing zero punctuation? If anything every escapist web page should have a little zero punctuation watermark.
Also, for the love of god don't let a video that yahtzee makes turn you AWAY from a game. I had never heard of Demon's Souls before this video but I'm going to buy it now after watching this. What was the last game Yahtzee recommended, Portal? He's gonna hate everything, if you need a recommendation from someone in order to buy a game you need to get a sense of independence.
Also, for the love of god don't let a video that yahtzee makes turn you AWAY from a game. I had never heard of Demon's Souls before this video but I'm going to buy it now after watching this. What was the last game Yahtzee recommended, Portal? He's gonna hate everything, if you need a recommendation from someone in order to buy a game you need to get a sense of independence.
IWBTG by about 20,000 times.Spiner909 said:
Demon's Souls isn't hard in a cheap way. It's a completely different thing. Demon's Souls is just a hard game without being cheap. In IWBTG, things kill you that make you go "That is dumb" or "LOL WAT". In Demon's Souls, things kill you because you suck.
It's a big difference.
It's hard at the start when you're learning the game, getting used to the combat, etc. Once you have a grasp of it, you sail.
For example, I had problems up until 3-2 on my first play through. After that, I only died from movement mistakes, such as falling off of a ledge because I suck, or because I moved in to a position that allowed an enemy to knock me off of an edge. Again, because I suck.
After that, every boss and level was simple. Even further, my second playthrough consisted of non-dying boss fights unless, again, I did something stupid in my movement, the result of sucking at Demon's Souls.
The only thing challenging about the game is learning how to handle situations. Once you understand that every single fight has an incredibly easy way to beat it, the game becomes easy.
Very, very, very easy.
That's not to say that you won't die, because ultimately, we all suck at Demon's Souls.
Edit: The easiest thing you can do in Demon's Souls, and indeed, solves 90% of all fights in the game, is using a bow along with the Thiefs Ring. Shoot an arrow at one enemy and that one enemy will come at you.
Congrats, you've beaten the majority of Demon's Souls.
And yes, that is how the game is meant to be played. Divide and Conquer is one of the canned messages in the game. There's a reason it exists.
I wish Yahtzee had gotten to the point where you invade other people's worlds and they can invade yours. Then he'd have so much more ammo to fire at this game for how much the multiplayer SUCKS.
I mean for christ's sake, the red soul signs are absolutely not worth putting down in the first place since the other person can summon a whole army of blue souls and have you at 3/4 health at max to begin with, along with it being so laggy that a guy with a dagger 20 feet away from me somehow cuts the air into a shape that kills me. Also if anyone casts magic in my general direction, it's so laggy that first of all, the soul arrows never go up or down at an angle, always straight, and they can miss you by a wide range and still hit you somehow. It's just impossible and stupid....
BTW, I agree with the retarded move of not being able to pause in the middle of a level. I can't count the amount of times that's screwed me.
I mean for christ's sake, the red soul signs are absolutely not worth putting down in the first place since the other person can summon a whole army of blue souls and have you at 3/4 health at max to begin with, along with it being so laggy that a guy with a dagger 20 feet away from me somehow cuts the air into a shape that kills me. Also if anyone casts magic in my general direction, it's so laggy that first of all, the soul arrows never go up or down at an angle, always straight, and they can miss you by a wide range and still hit you somehow. It's just impossible and stupid....
BTW, I agree with the retarded move of not being able to pause in the middle of a level. I can't count the amount of times that's screwed me.
I think future games should use Demon's Souls as a lesson. Not so much in the difficulty department, which in the end comes down to poor controls, but with online interactivity. It's not a terrible idea to have a community of online players working together to complete a common mission or task. Each player leaving hints or clues about traps and monsters so that other players won't make the same mistakes. It would certainly be a new direction to take online gaming anyway.
I read through some of the things people put in about how you can get rings in the first level to make it easier.
But I'm also pretty damn sure you can regain your max healthbar by returning to the spot you died at. However, if you die again while going to that spot, you lose the "souls" you collected. I think you still get your health back though. But I took this info from another video review of the game, so I could be wrong.
But I'm also pretty damn sure you can regain your max healthbar by returning to the spot you died at. However, if you die again while going to that spot, you lose the "souls" you collected. I think you still get your health back though. But I took this info from another video review of the game, so I could be wrong.
I never even heard of this game, but already, Yahtzee, you had me convinced I shouldn't get this game, I probably shouldn't even touch upon it.
And I won't even care what other reviews have to say about that game, I'm gonna trust you, Yahtzee, that I shouldn't play this game.
thanks Yahtzee.
And I won't even care what other reviews have to say about that game, I'm gonna trust you, Yahtzee, that I shouldn't play this game.
thanks Yahtzee.
That's not right, you get your max healthbar back by beating a level. That and using a stone of ephemeral eyes. That's it for single player.crystalsnow said:
However, if you die and use a stone of ephemeral eyes, the world gets darker tendency which makes it harder. Also, when you die, you lose all your souls at the spot you died, and everything respawns. You have to get to that spot to get your souls back. If you don't, you lose your souls for good. Also, on your first playthrough you're almost guaranteed to die on almost every level at least once.
Yahtzee, I know you're all for comedy and sarcasm, but you missed a few glaring points that would have made things clearer for those who rely on you to help them choose games.
1: "No checkpoints"
No, there's no checkpoints in the sense that "Oh shit, I died, I'll respawn here and only have to walk five feet to get back where I was", but there ARE game mechanics that function the same way and it seems you either willfully omitted mentioning them or didn't spend any time exploring to find them.
In the first level, the two side towers of the main gatehouse have locked gates; make it down to the bottom from the top entrance via the battlement, and there's a lever you can pull to open them. Those gates stay open, and act like checkpoints because even if you die you can just fight back up the tower and instantly be back on the battlement without having to slog through the entire beginning again.
1a: "No saving until a boss is beaten"
Not true. Above-mentioned unlocked shortcuts STAY even if you quit the game, go somewhere else, or die.
2: "Dodging doesn't do shit"
Dodging works, but it's not a quicktime event. You have to keep dodging or blocking, and the skeleton scenario you described counts as TWO attacks, so you have to respond to both by either blocking, countering, or dodge/rolling. You can't just sit there like a twat and bask in the glory of your dodge. BTW - what he did to you is called a Riposte.
3: "Dragon came out of nowhere"
Sure, it's seem that way if you ran out onto the rampart like a football player chasing teenage skirts, but if you'd explored the castle gatehouse you'd have SEEN that dragon and realized the entire level is one big area, and HE FLIES BEHIND THE GATEHOUSE.
4: "Notes left by other players are worthless"
Again, you didn't play long enough to see this (clearly), but bad comments don't last more than a day. If messages aren't promoted, they're deleted during a server cycle (about once a day).
5: "Only way to get HP back is to defeat a major Demon"
Again you didn't seem to play enough to find this out, but you can also get your life back by helping another player (Via blue-eye stone), killing another player (via red-eye stone), or having a message that is promoted by a certain number of other players as being helpful.
6: "Difficulty.DemonsSouls = Concrete.obj + forehead.obj"
Again, not true. Each enemy simply requires a different tactic to beat, and the game punishes you for running in like Rambo without thinking about it. Once you learn a tactic to defeat each enemy, it's more about keeping up with the new ones and upgrading your armor than banging your head against an impossible wall. One solution does not fit all monsters.
Also, Turpentine kills those dogs MUCH quicker, upgraded armor will help you IMMENSELY against the Tower Knight and his guards, and yes, the underground way is much much easier.
In conclusion, all this stuff I learned on my own because I'm awesome that way, but if the difficulty is like so much water in your treacle, there's an official wiki that everybody who plays the game contributes to where you can quickly learn these hints and benefit from other players' experiences.
The game is great and I think you should give it another go with this knowledge.
- Helba
1: "No checkpoints"
No, there's no checkpoints in the sense that "Oh shit, I died, I'll respawn here and only have to walk five feet to get back where I was", but there ARE game mechanics that function the same way and it seems you either willfully omitted mentioning them or didn't spend any time exploring to find them.
In the first level, the two side towers of the main gatehouse have locked gates; make it down to the bottom from the top entrance via the battlement, and there's a lever you can pull to open them. Those gates stay open, and act like checkpoints because even if you die you can just fight back up the tower and instantly be back on the battlement without having to slog through the entire beginning again.
1a: "No saving until a boss is beaten"
Not true. Above-mentioned unlocked shortcuts STAY even if you quit the game, go somewhere else, or die.
2: "Dodging doesn't do shit"
Dodging works, but it's not a quicktime event. You have to keep dodging or blocking, and the skeleton scenario you described counts as TWO attacks, so you have to respond to both by either blocking, countering, or dodge/rolling. You can't just sit there like a twat and bask in the glory of your dodge. BTW - what he did to you is called a Riposte.
3: "Dragon came out of nowhere"
Sure, it's seem that way if you ran out onto the rampart like a football player chasing teenage skirts, but if you'd explored the castle gatehouse you'd have SEEN that dragon and realized the entire level is one big area, and HE FLIES BEHIND THE GATEHOUSE.
4: "Notes left by other players are worthless"
Again, you didn't play long enough to see this (clearly), but bad comments don't last more than a day. If messages aren't promoted, they're deleted during a server cycle (about once a day).
5: "Only way to get HP back is to defeat a major Demon"
Again you didn't seem to play enough to find this out, but you can also get your life back by helping another player (Via blue-eye stone), killing another player (via red-eye stone), or having a message that is promoted by a certain number of other players as being helpful.
6: "Difficulty.DemonsSouls = Concrete.obj + forehead.obj"
Again, not true. Each enemy simply requires a different tactic to beat, and the game punishes you for running in like Rambo without thinking about it. Once you learn a tactic to defeat each enemy, it's more about keeping up with the new ones and upgrading your armor than banging your head against an impossible wall. One solution does not fit all monsters.
Also, Turpentine kills those dogs MUCH quicker, upgraded armor will help you IMMENSELY against the Tower Knight and his guards, and yes, the underground way is much much easier.
In conclusion, all this stuff I learned on my own because I'm awesome that way, but if the difficulty is like so much water in your treacle, there's an official wiki that everybody who plays the game contributes to where you can quickly learn these hints and benefit from other players' experiences.
The game is great and I think you should give it another go with this knowledge.
- Helba
You sure? I could have sworn that you can get your health bar back before beating the boss.Le_Pecheur22 said:
Oh well, I haven't played the game myself so I don't really know.
The only other way in single player is to use a stone of ephemeral eyes. You can also get it back through multiplayer, but being a black phantom is a retarded crap shoot of whether the lag kills you instead of the player, along with being at every disadvantage possible in the game besides having the demons on your side. Being a blue phantom. The survival rate, I've found, for blue phantoms through the boss fight is about 1/1000000000000. Literally, I rarely get to the point where I can even rate other players because they die so effing quick, and the same happens for me when I've tried to be a blue phantom also.crystalsnow said:
It's not that the game itself is all that difficult...it's that you're coming into it with all the baggage of the last decade of increasingly hand-holding action games.
This little bit of shameless self-promotion describes what it is that REALLY makes the game difficult, and it's not a malfunctioning dodge button.
http://stupididioticramblings.wordpress.com/category/video-games/critiques-and-essays/
Two excerpts:
Is Demon's Souls really THAT difficult? The answer is yes and no. The game itself is challenging, without a doubt. But what's garnering the game its seemingly reveled-in status as "the most difficult game this generation," is not so much the challenge of overcoming the deviously-placed obstacles that it places in your path, but instead overcoming probably the most difficult obstacle to surmount, the obstacle of habit, routine, and human nature.
So in order to succeed at Demon's Souls, you need to confront another deeply ingrained part of your humanity, the fear and panic centers of your brain, and overcome them. You need to overcome them to the point that your logical and tactical brain is in full control, and you begin imprinting new instincts, new habits, through repetition. And again, we come back to the sheer genius of Demon's Souls, and the brilliance of its developers. Taken on a literal level, this is, as many other reviews mention, a brooding dark fantasy game. But beneath the surface is a game that profoundly taps into areas of the brain and the psyche that no other game has ever touched.
This little bit of shameless self-promotion describes what it is that REALLY makes the game difficult, and it's not a malfunctioning dodge button.
http://stupididioticramblings.wordpress.com/category/video-games/critiques-and-essays/
Two excerpts:
Is Demon's Souls really THAT difficult? The answer is yes and no. The game itself is challenging, without a doubt. But what's garnering the game its seemingly reveled-in status as "the most difficult game this generation," is not so much the challenge of overcoming the deviously-placed obstacles that it places in your path, but instead overcoming probably the most difficult obstacle to surmount, the obstacle of habit, routine, and human nature.
So in order to succeed at Demon's Souls, you need to confront another deeply ingrained part of your humanity, the fear and panic centers of your brain, and overcome them. You need to overcome them to the point that your logical and tactical brain is in full control, and you begin imprinting new instincts, new habits, through repetition. And again, we come back to the sheer genius of Demon's Souls, and the brilliance of its developers. Taken on a literal level, this is, as many other reviews mention, a brooding dark fantasy game. But beneath the surface is a game that profoundly taps into areas of the brain and the psyche that no other game has ever touched.
Wow, even the people who seem informed about this game are not. Or are twats. Yeah, it's not as hard as he made it out to be, but it's still pretty hard, and yeah, he was wrong about a few things, but he obviously didn't give too much of a shit, he just played the first level, so it's funny. It works.
Pyromaniac1337 said:
Here's a hint: They hadn't three of those posts were trollbanned and the other one was having technical difficulties and hadn't yet watched it.
TROLL! (wonder if I can get probed for that)