Zero Punctuation: Demon's Souls

[the1jesus]

To all the naysayers who take Yahtzee at his reviews, Demon's souls (and it DOES mean one demon with many souls. Its part of the game, check it out before assuming) is a good game. It is, also, a HARD game. However, it is hard in the best sense; all the difficulty comes from the player side, not the game mechanics.

When you die in this game, you'll always realize that it was due to a mistake you made, and one that you correct. In fact, dying in this game isn't so much a game breaker as it is simply a chore, and one you will learn to avoid. You die often enough that you won't mind it, and if you learn from the mistakes you make, you'll soon not be dying at all.

If you take Yahtzee at his reviews, you'd buy none of the games he entertains us with. The problem is, Yahtzee isnt so much a reviewer as he is an entertainer (and who isn't in the video game industry now-a-days) so instead of having ZP be your first choice in game ratings, check out a number of sites, and look up some game play footage for yourself. You may be surprised

 

[ChaosGenesis]

Never heard of it. Can't say I'll even look into this game but enjoyable review as usual. You make my day Yahtzee

 

[beema]

I was initially interested in this game, but more and more it's sounding like something I would completely hate. Checkpoints only after bosses? Come on, in ass-rape games you at least need the ability to save frequently!

I'd probably just end up rage-quitting, by which I mean hurling my ps3 controller across the room and then having to spend an hour painstakingly supergluing one of the buttons back together...again.

If it's too infuriating for Yahtzee, then I'm not even going to bother.

 

[Stylish_Robot]

it's a game that could've been so much better if the devs didn't put in all those restrictions just to make it a "hard" game, no checkpoints, losing your souls but no bank to store them, upgrading requires a ridiculous amount of souls if you don't know how to farm, I can understand them wanting to make a challenging game but making it difficult by inane reasons turned me off on the game

 

[yzzlthtz]

I really don't want to play this. I have no doubt I could probably complete the game eventually but what I've seen is playing this game for a prolonged period of time turns you into a pretentious moron. And I'd rather not scream lawl you just suck! Pussy! etc down the lugholes of people that couldn't beat a stupidly hard game.

You know what no, I'm gonna turn this one around. For funsies mostly. It's not a case of being a failure when it comes to games if you can't beat Demon's Souls. It's a case of failing life if you can.

Now I bid you adieu.

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pussy.

 

[yzzlthtz]

Wow. When Yahtzee says the game is hard I'd already suspected it would be something like this, that hard would inevitably equal piss-poor gameplay that just stomps on you until you've put many a frustration-dent in your wall from throwing your controllers into it.

I can remember NES games with this type of mentality (read: shitty gameplay) that had me chucking the NES pad as far as the cord would let it fly. Thankfully, in the wireless age, we can get a really good throw for a much more satisfying crunch.

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.....
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pussy.

 

[yzzlthtz]

it's a game that could've been so much better if the devs didn't put in all those restrictions just to make it a "hard" game, no checkpoints, losing your souls but no bank to store them, upgrading requires a ridiculous amount of souls if you don't know how to farm, I can understand them wanting to make a challenging game but making it difficult by inane reasons turned me off on the game

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pussy.

 

[PointyDoom]

Great review but there is one tiny, insignificant thing which bugs me; his comments about the hop. In the situation he described, it would have made more sense to block the sword strike and counter-attack rather than to hop backwards, leaving yourself open to attack, getting a sword through the nutsack then declaring the hop to be useless.

That said, Yahtzee is awesome and breathes new life into an Internet ruined by lolcats and Twilight.

 

[coolredmk]

I liked Demon Soul. Instead of dodging a dragons fireballs, I lobbed spells at it until the stupid thing died.

 

[NuclearPenguin]

Im gonna buy Demon's Soul's..
It seems fun actually.
But anyway
Funny as always
Still wondering why you arent doing borderlands.. You probably cant think of anything negative to say.. Yeah thats gotta be it.. Ill keep telling myself that.

 

[yzzlthtz]

I liked Demon Soul. Instead of dodging a dragons fireballs, I lobbed spells at it until the stupid thing died.

it's easier to start the game with magic....well, it was for me. turns all those melee enemies into burn victims right quick, if you can't be bothered to figure out blocking dodging and attacking right off the bat. magic is the best way to beat the "unbeatable" boss at the end of the tutorial, also.

The most challenging class to start as is the barbarian (for me). you get: a club. oh, and : a club. oh and a wooden shield.

(most classes start with full armor of some kind, an ample shield and at least a pretty good weapon, possibly a very good weapon, if not a bow, spell or miracle to boot)

 

[NuclearPenguin]

Im gonna buy Demon's Soul's..
It seems fun actually.
But anyway
Funny as always
Still wondering why you arent doing borderlands.. You probably cant think of anything negative to say.. Yeah thats gotta be it.. Ill keep telling myself that.

Well, you wouldn't be wrong. There isn't much negative to say about it. But there isn't much positive to say about it either. It is a boring and bland shooter that fails to live up to the expectations of both RPGs and shooters as a whole.

A while ago, I had to make the decision of whether to pay 60 dollars for Borderlands or 70 dollars for Demon's Souls. I picked the latter first and I am sooo glad I did. I got borderlands and it was a legitimately unimpressive title.

Borderlands tried something different
You gotta give it that.
Anyway, I personally loved it, it reminded me of Diablo. Shame it doesnt have the potential to live on for years and years to come like diablo did.

 

[NuclearPenguin]

Borderlands tried something different
You gotta give it that.
Anyway, I personally loved it, it reminded me of Diablo. Shame it doesnt have the potential to live on for years and years to come like diablo did.

Yeah, it has potential too.

There's always hope that the sequel will address the faults of the first game like Assassin's Creed II. The big problem is that despite the fact that it touts 87 bazillion guns, most of them perform in the exact same way and even more of them are practically useless.

In the next game, the gun creation system should be a bit deeper. Allowing for more totally zany ideas to take hold.

There also needs to be more classes, more varied abilities, more kinds of weaponry, etc. And...well...more everything would help.

They need the ability to create a personal weapon, from scratch by sacrificing other weapons and taking certain things from them
Say you sacrifice an smg, you can take the rate of fire
And a sniper the scope
And a revolver the awesomeness
And so on.

 

[paralost]

alright a game that makes you want to take a cheese grater to your face. awesome! PASS... if i want to be constantly angry and raise my blood pressure to boiling I'll go get married thank you very much

Neither marriage nor Demon's Souls is as hard as you think they are. Demon's Souls is fair but firm when Compared to old school games like Wizardry, nethack, SMB2 (the real one), Final Fantasy 1, Dragon Warrior 1 or Xcom. All of them would result in a swift death if you didn't prep your guy right and you learned this by dying.

"All of them would result in a swift death if you didn't prep your guy right"
just like marriage lol *nudge nudge* =]

 

[rdrouyn]

it's a game that could've been so much better if the devs didn't put in all those restrictions just to make it a "hard" game, no checkpoints, losing your souls but no bank to store them, upgrading requires a ridiculous amount of souls if you don't know how to farm, I can understand them wanting to make a challenging game but making it difficult by inane reasons turned me off on the game

I never felt like I had to grind while playing this game, I was just using my souls to upgrade weapons and levels as soon as I got them. The game saves your position constantly, so if you have to quit, you can pick up the game right where you left off. Also levels are designed where there are multiple shortcuts you unlock through exploration, so you dont have to beat the same areas all over again if you die.

If you are as terrible at exploration and reading the manual, as Yahtzee is, then yeah this game isn't for you.

 

[Lord_Seth]

Whilst you can't pause the game, you can quit back to the title screen at any time and when you reload, you'll be at the last point where you gained Souls, picked up or dropped an item, gained or lost health, or a myriad of other things.

While you may have made some legitimate points in the rest of your message, I'm sorry, but being unable to pause a game somehow is quite frankly inexcusable.

You can always pause the game by dying

But seriously, if every time you tried to play the game online and someone had the ability to pause the game arbitrarily you would never play online. Most MMOs like World of Warcraft and Multiplayer FPS dont allow you to pause either.

I was under the impression that the portion Yahtzee played was pretty much single player with only very limited access to the other players, so I thought it was odd that there wasn't some kind of pause option for it. Obviously, when you're able to interact directly with other players online, being able to pause it doesn't make much sense. If there was more interaction than the video let on, then I apologize for the misunderstanding.

 

[BlackDodongo]

oh yeah and totally disagree with unfair... when a Giant troll goblin thing runs across a bridge and hits you once, breaking your guard and killing you at full health... life beginings to feel a little unfair. That and bosses who kill you as you walk into the room

Maybe you should have seen the GIANT GOBLIN THAT IS CLEARLY QUITE POWERFUL and tried to get around him some other way. It can be done, and even if you can't find a way, maybe you just need to level or get a better weapon. You know, because this is an RPG and that's what you do in these games.