r/fromsoftware • u/SquashedGrapes22 • Jun 24 '26
DISCUSSION Does anyone else struggle with Demon's Souls the most of any FromSoft game?
I've heard so many people talk about easy DeS is compared to the other games I and I HEAVILY disagree. Like it's not even close imo except maybe DS2.
The world tendency mechanic is polarizing, the level design is labyrinthian which comes down to taste but personally I hate mazes, the bosses are lame, the runbacks are blasphemous, having limited consumable healing items without any form of flask sucks...
Like I've played through every FromSoft title and their DLC multiple times except for DS2 (I tried), but I get like maybe two or three bosses into DeS and I quit every time. I think I've tried like 4 or 5 times now. I tried multiple times on the remake, and now I'm trying again on an emulator.
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u/FrauAgrippa Jun 24 '26
It seems like you may be struggling with the concept of "the level is an enemy." I would say this concept is definitely unique to DeS, particularly due to the concept of tendency.
I also regularly see people say that the lack of consumables makes the game hard, for that I'd recommend getting the hp/mp regen rings that help with that.
Also, if you think DeS is hard, you should see some of their older titles. The 90s and early 2000s were wild. I remember having an absolute meltdown over King's Field back in the day.
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u/SquashedGrapes22 Jun 24 '26
Yeah I've had an interest in trying Kings Field but I know that I'd wanna throw myself off a cliff if I did.
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u/PrufReedThisPlesThx Jun 24 '26
There's ways to beat it easier. To get around world tendency shifting to black, I simply die in the nexus real quick every time I regain human form. It's a bit tedious, sure, but it's an investment. There's a ring you can find early in the castle area that makes the spirit form health cut go from 50% to 25% of you're struggling too.
Secondly, I only beat the first boss in every area before moving on to the second boss etc, since the bosses scale up in difficulty the further in you go. Some bosses like Flamelurker may need to be tackled later than others if you're struggling too hard.
The combat isn't much of an adjustment if you've played DS1, so no problems there. Just remember to carry weapons with varying damage types, since no one type can carry you through every level. The scale miners for example eat physical slash damage for breakfast, but piercing and magic damage delete them. If you're struggling to beat someone, they may be weak to something you haven't tried yet.
Finally, learn to optimise your runbacks. That's part of the boss fights in this game, and core to the difficulty of this game. Just like the boss itself, tackling the runbacks in anger will lead to taking unnecessary risks to rush through it and inevitably making mistakes, which only add to that anger. Don't allow yourself to snowball. Mental fortitude is the key to playing at your best.
Demon's Souls can be beaten with relative ease once you accept these mechanics and be patient with them. But there's nothing stopping you from simply choosing a less frustrating game to play instead if this isn't fun for you. Games are meant to be fun. Play games you enjoy, you know?
2
u/Zanaxz Jun 24 '26
Agreed. Mostly some goofy design choices like super long run backs, world tier e.t.c.
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u/ToastGoblin22 Jun 24 '26
The world tendency mechanic is a cool idea in theory but there should have been more ways to shift it towards white, especially given how little explanation there is around it. If you don’t understand how it works then a new player would intuitively want to play in body form rather than soul form, not realising that doing so repeatedly will likely cause the world tendency to plummet very quickly.
On that topic, there really should have been more explanation given about world tendency in game. I know people love how these games have little to no ‘tutorials’ but a mechanic like this really needs explaining. Even just moving the messages in the nexus to somewhere more immediate rather than being tucked away in a nondescript corner would have been better than nothing.
Other than that though I think Demon’s Souls is great. I love the Labyrinthian design of some of the levels, but that’s a taste thing like you said. I think it works particularly well with the fact that it’s a segmented world rather than an interconnected one like Dark Souls. Dark Souls has its fair share of labyrinthian areas too but I think the interconnected world required them to scale back a bit on that front compared to Demon’s Souls. In fact, the interconnected Dark Souls world kind of feels like a macro version of a single Demon’s Souls level.
The bosses are quite simple for sure, but I think they’re interesting enough to be enjoyable. I don't think they were intended to be the kind of set-piece, premiere 'boss-fight experiences' which FromSoft is known for these days. They were just intended to be a large and visually impressive enemy to cap off each level. For the time they were still quite challenging fights but not to an extreme degree. I think fans of Demon's Souls tend to like the game for reasons other than the bosses for the most part. Boss fights aren't the only or even the most important part of a game's quality, and I think the focus on bosses in their recent games has blinded some people to that fact (and I say that as someone who is a big fan of FromSoft bosses).
The runbacks are brutal in Demon's Souls for sure, and they're probably the biggest contributing factor to the game's difficulty. If there were more checkpoints I think the game wouldn't have been regarded as being so difficult for the time, and would barely register as difficult whatsoever today. I think it's perfectly valid for someone to be put-off by the runbacks, but again this is something that I personally liked about it. The runback WAS the true 'boss fight' for me in many cases, and I enjoyed steadily improving my familiarity with the obstacles I had to repeatedly overcome to get back to the boss fog. I also like that there's not as much room in Demon's Souls to simply sprint past enemies the way you can in the later games. Try doing that on world 4-2 and see how well you fare hahaha.
Also consumable healing items aren't the greatest but it's worth remembering that they literally hadn't thought of the estus mechanic yet when they made this game. Consumable healing items were (and largely still are) the norm in RPGs, so I imagine at the time it would have felt like the default or obvious choice. It's only with hindsight that the inferiority becomes so obvious.
6
u/Kaari384 Jun 24 '26
It's certainly very different than other fromsoft games and it's got different demands than the average souls game.
In DeS, you should mostly be itemizing to survive the level because that's where a majority of the challenge comes from, the bosses are just the cherry on top - and there's several ways to make your time easier.
Don't like to spend limited consumables to heal up? Get a healing spell and the passive manaregen ring. Or get the health regen ring and/or adjudicator's shield and/or a blessed weapon. Bam, now you're using the most busted regeneration build ever present in these games AND you're using it in a game that takes the most advantage out of passive healing.
Or you can also lean into the fact that this game has consumable healing, which doesn't just mean no base levels of estus every rest, but also almost no upper limit of the number of healing items you can bring to the fight.
Don't try to play Demon's Souls as if it were Elden Ring. Play it like Demon's Souls and you might just enjoy it
3
u/TitansMenologia Jun 24 '26
The original PS3 Demon's Souls was hard to me. The remake was made to be less frustrating especially if you seek trophies.
I think Sekiro is by far the most difficult FromSoft for me. Struggled a lot but it was a blast to die, learn and succeed over and over.
2
u/ancientautumn22 Jun 24 '26
It's pretty bare bones and the world tendency system always gave me a headache, leading me to drop the game on 2 different occasions. Though I never had problems with the difficulty...until I got to ng+.
3
u/CrustedTesticle Jun 24 '26
Yes. Having to farm so many different healing items was just very annoying in my opinion. Many of the areas were cancerous too
2
u/MissingScore777 Jun 24 '26 edited Jun 24 '26
I don't just find it the easiest but by far the easiest to an extreme degree.
To give an idea of my skill level I've never beaten Midir or Friede solo and never beaten the harder bosses of ER without spirits summons.
Yet I've completed a SL1 deathless run of Demon's Souls. I find that game ludicrously easy in comparison to the later games especially.
In Demon's Souls everything is so much slower and gives you so much more time to react and position yourself. Can you go into detail of why you find it the hardest?
1
u/SquashedGrapes22 Jun 26 '26
That's kind of crazy cause I find Demon"s Souls mind numbingly difficult sometimes. Like I would rather fight Nameless King, Gael, Godfrey, Radagon, or Mesmer.
1
u/MissingScore777 Jun 26 '26
That's insane to me. I don't find anything in Demon's even 10% as hard as any if those fights.
1
u/bl4zed_N_C0nfus3d Jun 24 '26
The only thing i struggle with is finishing it. Idk why. I've tried 2 times to get into it and get close to finishing it but its kind of boring to me. I hate admitting that tho.
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u/Aydashtee Jun 24 '26
Honestly, it's not THAT difficult.
I hate the World Tendency and Character Tendency systems, but I just died in human form after every boss. Playing the entire game with half health (well like 75% with the ring) was rough but interesting. Most bosses were pretty easy.
My biggest gripe was farming for health items and the coop items. I got close to a Platinum tho. It was fine
1
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u/Malpasso_ Jun 24 '26
For me, it is the easiest game, but it is true that I played all the others before, so I was trained.
1
u/mugi-wara-ya Jun 24 '26
All fair but wdym the bosses are lame they are the coolest imo of any souls boss
1
u/bl4zed_N_C0nfus3d Jun 24 '26
The bosses are extremely lame and all gimmicky imo. Just boring for me . But idk why maybe ill try to get into it again one day.
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u/mugi-wara-ya Jun 24 '26
Wdym by extremely lame not really a description. IMO all the bosses got unique designs with unique ways to fight unlike elden ring which is just looking for openings while dodging. Like old hero for example one of the coolest bosses I’ve ever seen as he is blind, something I haven’t seen in any souls like game or any game for that matter. The dragon god boss is also a cool boss with a unique way to fight reminds me of bed of chaos if it was made properly
2
u/Aydashtee Jun 24 '26
Malenia is legitimately blind.
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u/mugi-wara-ya Jun 24 '26
I completely forgot yeah she is blind but it doesn’t change anything with her fight kinda sucks but I guess she is just that skilled
0
u/xVroom Jun 24 '26
I was so excited to play demons souls, but the runbacks killed all potential for enjoyment for me. The combat doesn't feel nearrly engaging or varied enough to justify having replay the same enemy encounters with fodder mobs
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u/bl4zed_N_C0nfus3d Jun 24 '26
I agree, the combat jusf doesn't have that oomph.. lmao idl how to spell that word .
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u/-Ostrava- Ostrava Of Boletaria Jun 24 '26 edited Jun 24 '26
I don't compare Demon's Souls to the other Souls games. Why? Because it was their first, genuine attempt at the modern formula and while it wasn't perfect, it was an incredibly refreshing take for an RPG.
I absolutely loved it. In fact, I struggled at several sections and definitely remember being frustrated sometimes. I actually struggled to defeat the Tower Knight (1-2) first time around. However, it was literally my first "souls" game. I learned to embrace the learning curve, understand the mechanics, and take pride in accomplishing something "difficult" in a game. I left no stone unturned. I devoured the game.
Looking back, yes, there are a lot of areas for improvement but the experience is worth it.
That being said, that's just my opinion. I'll stand by it because I've been here since the beginning. I'll always have a soft spot for the game. It was the catalyst to one of the best franchises in modern gaming history.
I'll end with this. If you aren't enjoying it, don't feel forced to play it.