1st11 takes a closer look at Demon Souls... The game of a generation

Imagine back to a time back to when it was 2009…a video game development company based in Tokyo Japan called FromSoftware, decided to release a souls borne action role-playing game for the PS3 under the supervision of Japan Studios called Demon’s Souls.

Little did they know that this would bring them international success, Demon’s Souls didn’t exactly get off to a great start. The game’s early development was problematic and resulted in an unreasonable lack of vision. Regardless of the issues that arose, FromSoftware staff member Hidetaka Miyazaki was able to take the reins on the project and turn it into the classic title that it is today for the PS3.

Although the game met with both average reception and sales in Japan, due to Sony demanding that the gaming difficulty be lowed in order to be more user friendly for the player, Demon’s Souls became both a commercial and critical hit over in the West. With its newly founded success, Demon’s Souls went on to win several awards and began a series of games starting with ‘Dark Souls’, which was released in 2011.

Back in 2020, Bluepoint Games and Japan Studio released a remake for Demon’s Souls on the PS5 as a launch title.

Each world section is split up into six areas, one of them being a Nexus Hub (you go here shortly after you die…maybe quite a few times!) and return back to the world by touching one of the statues. There are also 5 additional worlds dissected into 4 areas with each retrospective boss encounter.

As I had never played Demon’s Souls before on the PS3, I had heard through the grapevine that this game was definitely going to make me think twice about the life decision I had just made. 

Demon’s Souls put’s the player into the position of an adventurer, where you can then customise and select your gender, attributes and gaming statistics based on the different options available to you for a particular class of hero.

The player is then thrown into an unknown land called ‘Boletaria’, where you face off against armies of skeletons (picture Evil Dead 3: Army of Darkness) and other horrific enemies that make you wish that you’d gone out and purchased Animal Crossing: New Horizons instead on the Nintendo Switch.

The battle system is intense, but once you get used to the way that certain enemies attack in Demons Soul’s you can then change a player’s class and combine it with a different array of weapons, which then enables you to open up a variety of combo attacks and a variation of speed.

Once I pressed start and I entered the game, I witnessed beautiful opening scenes and a music score so haunting that it made me realise that I wanted to delve straight into the game. I chose the character class of Soldier, and hoped that it would see me through until my first boss battle (I didn’t actually get that far but hey…give a girl some credit!).

The enemies were relentless and it did on occasion, make some of the attacks feel like a one hit, one kill representing a true Demons Soul’s game.

If you like a game that gives you a decent challenge, relentless never ending enemies and boss fights that are just as epic as the music, then I highly recommend picking up and purchasing Demon’s Souls for the PS3. Or better, still if you want that newer remake feeling, Demon’s Souls is also available to purchase on the PS5.

Enjoy and happy hunting!