Zero Punctuation: Demon's Souls

[yzzlthtz]

I was looking foward to trying this out to =[
Hard I don't mind... but near-impossible is
another thing altogether.

*sniff* I need my RPG fix.

Don't let this review turn you off, this game is fantastic, and not very hard.
And hard in the way that you can actually overcome. People beat the game at level 1 (without advancing a level, but with item upgrades) just to challenge their skills.
I've been playing Dragon Age : Origins on hard. I hate it. If there's a fight that's too hard, it's just too hard. If your characters aren't advanced enough, they're not advanced enough. You can maybe get by with enough potions, but it's a numbers game, not a game game. And all those treasure chests I can't open because no one has lockpicking or whatever?
Fucking stupid.
Demon's Souls you can actually learn from and get better.

You can't open the chests? What kind of adventuring party are you running without a rogue of some sort. For shame

I keep assuming I'll find one.
But I haven't. I'm especially annoyed, since I rolled a mage, and picked the exact same spells that the mage who joins you early early in the game starts with. Apparently, it is far better to roll a rogue. Why did they even let me create a mage or fighter? Or why not change the npcs you meet based on what you rolled? Why do I even need a stupid lockpick skill in the first place? Talk about tired tropes. Most of those chests looked like they were made of flimsy wood.

Turn the difficulty down then if you find it too hard, dont complain that putting it on hard is too hard for you, it obviously means you havent got the hang of using proper tactics yet. I liked playing it on hard because it meant I had to go off and do some side stuff before I could defeat the final bosses of each section or whatever, also HOW did you miss Zevran (Zevran is perhaps plausable given your disposition or Liliana? You didn't go to the pub in an RPG, What kind of maniac are you? Besides the chests aint that great most of them dont have much of value in them aside from some potions.

Dragon Age Origins is a table top RPG pretty much, that's the way it is, don't like tabletop rpgs? Don't complain.

Anyways, I was just trying to get a rise out of people by being continuously overtly critical in reaction to the dumb criticisms of DS.
DA: O is a fine game.

 

[CR34M3 CR4CK3R]

LOL, this is an excellent review!

Is there a way to save this video?

 

[Belbe]

Might be why I have yet to hear anyone even mention this game to me...nice vid haha

 

[ReverseEngineered]

I'm sure I've already commented on this, but I just want to say that this is the best episode of Zero Punctuation I have seen in a long time. I laughed at every joke, I happily accepted the characterization of the game as a sadist laughing at your feeble attempts to overcome his challenge, and every gripe was something I could agree would be a major turnoff. All in all, a gut-busting review that I have watched over and over again.

Welcome to Sussex.

 

[Slaveg]

I'm sorry, Yahtzee, but you've lost my respect after this one. As a gamer and as a rewiever. Until you play it secretely on your vacation.

 

[Hazy]

Whats the matter Yahtzee? Too hard for you?

Yurt the silent chieftain laughs at your pain.

Big talk from a man who got himself locked into a cage in level 3-2.

Yeah. I went there.

 

[Biek]

Whats the matter Yahtzee? Too hard for you?

Yurt the silent chieftain laughs at your pain.

Big talk from a man who got himself locked into a cage in level 3-2.

Yeah. I went there.

What matters is that Yahtzee did not and probably will never get that far.

 

[oldgamer]

Demon's Souls (PS3)

Gamespot Game of the Year:
http://www.gamespot.com/best-of/game-of-the-year/index.html

Yahtzee needs to write a real review or stop calling his videos "reviews" from now on.

"This week, Zero Punctuation reviews Demon's Souls."
"This week, Yahtzee rants about Demon's Souls before playing past level one."

 

[Hazy]

Whats the matter Yahtzee? Too hard for you?

Yurt the silent chieftain laughs at your pain.

Big talk from a man who got himself locked into a cage in level 3-2.

Yeah. I went there.

What matters is that Yahtzee did not and probably will never get that far.

Yeah, and it's a real shame - as this is one of the, if not the, greatest RPGs I've ever played.

And that's saying something.

As much as I've liked past ZP videos in the past - this really isn't one of the better. Playing through the tutorial and then the first level does not a good review make.

Don't get me wrong - It was funny. But alas, from a critical standpoint, I found this to be lacking.

 

[Indecizion]

wow this game seems bloody impossible, i just want to get it to test myself now.

 

[capncrunk]

The chief result of this is many games that are action-rpgs lumped in with actual RPGs, and they skew the demographics which makes actual rpgs appear less popular; the truth is they are as popular as ever,.

LOL I remember when RPG video games (cRPGs) were first developed, this same argument was being had, only it was weather these cRPGs could actually be called 'RPGs' like paper & pencil Dungeons & Dragons games. Basically the argument was that you couldn't call them RPGs at all because you can't really make any decisions outside the very limited constraints of the game, so you aren't really 'role playing' per se. That's why games like Elder Scrolls etc. have tried to make it possible to pick up every non-essential item in the game and all that.

It's all, of course, just elitist gamers trying to flex their knowledge about games and make everyone think they're cool for being so knowledgeable.

That said, it's kind of funny to watch someone have the same argument about some new cRPGs not being real RPGs, like REAL cRPGs, because you can't make a 'moral decision' (which you can in Demon's Souls, actually, killing harmless NPCs darkens your soul tendency, the game's equivalent to alignment, and opens up assassin missions etc). With that logic, one must think that Fable was the first cRPG ever.

Bottom like is, Demon's Souls has a western fantasy theme, character creation and leveling, and all the basic traits shared by most other cRPGs except a lot of dialog and menu-driven combat (wait, Elder Scrolls didn't have menu combat either, is it not an RPG?). Trying to say Demon's Souls isn't in the same genre as other cRPGs because it lacks a feature or two is like trying to say that Peggle isn't a real puzzle game, because square shapes aren't being dropped from the top of the screen to make lines just like Tetris.

 

[RamboThePuppy]

Laughed so hard at this one, Yatzee who always says that all the games are too easy hates a game, because it is too hard =D
The "dodging move that can't dodge shit" is nonsense, if you are too bad to make it work, then it's is just no game for you. I have got the game and I think that this game is not that hard at all.
After the first frustration you will hate the game, but when you stay calm and play on, the game gets REALLY good.

 

[raunchysandwich]

haha

"WATCH OUT THE COWPAT!"

 

[chinangel]

I actually love this game, incredible difficulty aside. Though, you definitely don't play it for the storyline. The Dodge move...yeah I haven't found a use for it. I usually just go with my shield. ^.^;

Still, this game is, without a doubt, only for hard-core gamers who are masochistic. And actually you can beat that opening boss. Doing so nets you a grey demon's soul, and a hiltless katana.

 

[TheMich88]

I think it's curious that gamespot chose Demon's souls as Game of the Year...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgYBivaVco8

 

[psycoking]

It reminds me of this game...

http://robotchicken.wikia.com/wiki/The_Memory_Game

Sounds absolutely terrible.

HA! That clip pretty much sums up the game. In all honesty Demon's Souls really isn't that hard. Like those old classic NES games half of the difficulty is memorizing where the enemies are, how they attack, and what weapon to use against them. Anybody whose ever played a Mega Man game has done this before, and back in those days we use to call that skill. The review was hilarious to watch, as I remember dying many times in similar ways, but I wish Yahtzee had at least said something about the game's economy or the World Tendency crap. And what's with that crap about dodging? Worked well enough for me ^_^

 

[ethaninja]

After watching a friend playing the opening sequence in exactly the same way, I completely understand the frustration. I shall never ever buy this game

Ditto.

 

[Hazy]

wow this game seems bloody impossible, i just want to get it to test myself now.

Nowhere near impossible, actually.
Though, it is incredibly hard if you are incapable of thinking/planning ahead.

Funny story, actually, and it takes place during the tutorial. I was running (not sprinting) up the stairs, when I was blindsided from my right by an enemy.
Naturally, I backsteped, and nearly avoided getting hit.

That's when it hit me - you need to be careful.

Boletaria is easily, without a doubt, the most dangerous world in any video game. Death will come at you in a moment's notice. And it will not react lightly to your mistakes.

However, (as cliched as it sounds) the game becomes MUCH easier when you begin to think about your actions, your armor, your stats, and the enemies you are fighting. You need to be ready to go into battle with whatever may be around the next corner, and if you're able to think that far ahead, the difficulty curve will be decreased significantly.

This game takes skill. There is no luck at play here.
If you're an RPG fan, you absolutely must check this out.

 

[snowman6251]

I think I owe Demon's Souls an apology.

After this review and the extra punctuation on it I argued in Yahtzee's defense to an extent saying that I didn't like the idea of the no checkpoint thing and games being obnoxiously hard, etc.

Well all the talk about the game made me really want to try it out if only to see how hard it really was. Lacking a means to rent games I watched a playthrough of a few levels on youtube and thought it didn't look that bad.

So I bought the game and to be honest I freaking love it. More surprising is the fact that I really haven't died much. I made some noobish mistakes in the first real level. The flamelurker is hard so he killed me a couple of times (but that doesn't even matter because you can get back to his room in like 2 minutes). And aside from a stray death here and there I've gotten through large chunks of the game intact.

Surviving is especially easy if you summon allies. I think Yahtzee was really approaching this game with the wrong mindset. Prioritize your life, not the death's of your enemies, and you won't have to redo it (mostly).

Also whoever said the game doesn't have checkpoints is kind of lying. Every door you open or switch you activate, etc, stays activated after you die. That means you can open a gate that serves as a shortcut letting you bypass large sections of the level in the event of a death. So yeah you have to redo a bit but honestly you can cut out like 10-15 minute sections with a shortcut and some levels have multiple shortcuts.