History VideoGame / DemonsSouls

** On a note unrelated to {{Berserk}}, you can get some OldSpice in the game.

''Demon's Souls'' is a {{Playstation 3}} game made by FromSoftware and published by {{Atlus}}.

** Closest it gets is the tutorial. After that, you kill everything and EVERYBODY (and some of the [=NPCs=] can be so hard they might as well be bosses). 2nd place is the dragon god, because if there weren't balistas on his stage you would be done for.

* EvilPaysBetter: Doing generally evil things, like murdering friendly NPCs or other players, darkens the World Tendency, which causes slain enemies to drop more souls and items.

* LostForever: Many, ''many'' items and demon souls. The main reason for this is because reloading a previously saved file does not mend your mistake; once it's done, it"s done for the entirety of this playthrough. For example, if a crucial NPC dies, anything related to them are lost until you start New Game+. In some cases, you have to make a choice on which item to obtain, losing the other in the process. World Tendencies also seem to affect this greatly. One of the biggest replay values of the game is trying out different options and [[HundredPercentCompletion collecting previously unobtained items]].

** YMMV on Mephistopheles, depending on your play strategy. The rewards she offers [[spoiler: for killing your fellow Nexus inhabitants]] are generally rare or unique, including a ring that can only be obtained by completing the list. Furthermore, her trigger for appearing in The Nexus is Pure Black Character Tendency, [[spoiler: which can only be gained by murdering friendly [=NPCs=] (but not the ones on the list, or you'll miss the rewards), or other players as a black phantom]]. In this case you'll WANT to work with/for her, until [[spoiler: you assassinate the last target and she turns on you, at which point you'll want to run, or kill her]].
** The Penetrator. Full stop.

* RedEyesTakeWarning: The Red-Eyed Knights, The Black Phantoms, [[spoiler:The Dragon God.]]

** The Large Sword of Moonlight is this game's entry in the lineage of powerful melee weapons named Moonlight in [[ArmoredCore From Software]] games.

** YMMV on Mephistopheles, depending on your play strategy. The rewards she offers [[spoiler: for killing your fellow Nexus inhabitants]] are generally rare or unique, including a ring that can only be obtained by completing the list. Furthermore, her trigger for appearing in The Nexus is Pure Black Character Tendency, [[spoiler: which can only be gained by murdering friendly NPCs (but not the ones on the list, or you'll miss the rewards), or other players as a black phantom]]. In this case you'll WANT to work with/for her, until [[spoiler: you assassinate the last target and she turns on you, at which point you'll want to run, or kill her]].

* FridgeHorror: There are some really horrifying implications to some of the things you find out in this game. For example [[spoiler:since there is no God, only the Old One, that means that there's no afterlife in Boletaria, and as we see, the souls of the people who are killed just sit there until either the character finds and uses them, or a demon eats them. Then there's the Monumental's story: [[AndIMustScream in order to preserve the fabric of reality, hundreds of people became half living statues, able only to speak.]] Then, one by one, they began to die until there's only one left, one who had to watch every single one of his friends die and wonder if or when he would be next. Oh, and here's the topper: [[DownerEnding when the player beats the game and gets the good ending, they become a monumental themselves, which means that the fabric of reality is safe from the Old One, only up until the player dies like the previous monumentals did.]] So your choices at the end of the game are to either become a living statue that condemns himself to a fate worse than death for the sake an unbelievably CrapsackWorld, or become the ultimate demon and wipe the world out completely. Hmmmm, decisions, decisions...]]
** Also, one of the game developer's main focus was to give the player a feeling of accomplishment. In this case, [[spoiler: the satisfaction of either being the world's most powerful and evil king, or putting an end to the demon threat once and for all.]] There's no way to know for sure unless there's a sequel.

* BossDissonance: Mario type occurs on a few levels most notably World 5.

* GrumpyOldMan: Blacksmith Ed.

You are one such person; like many others now dead and trapped in the fog with your soul bound to the Nexus. From there, your journey begins...

Infamous for [[NintendoHard being so hard]] due to the game playing with TrialAndErrorGameplay. For this it has [[SleeperHit gained wide praise]], as the game manages to be hard but fair.

In reality, it's hardly Nintendo Hard -- rather, it's DifficultButAwesome in game form, as it encourages you to learn from your mistakes to become an experienced demon slayer. Running headfirst into battle swinging the sword like a madman hoping to hit something will only get you killed, and again, and again...and again.

* AnticlimaxBoss: [[spoiler:After all you've went through getting there, the final boss turn outs to be a barely animate blob. Considering the blob's former form was a contender for ThatOneBoss, beating it up manages to be quite satisfying anyway.]]
** [[FridgeBrilliance When you think about it, it makes sense.]] What [[spoiler: King Allant]] has been reduced to: a pile of sludge that could barely harm a bug, shows how relying on the power of Demon's Souls will ultimately destroy you.
*** Or rather, [[spoiler: King Allant]] was regressing, since the player has cut off his formerly steady supply of souls, and the Old One was now sucking the souls out of him for nourishment.

* BigBad: The Old One
* TheBlacksmith: Ed and Boldwin

** AttackItsWeakPoint: [[spoiler:The Adjudicator boasts not one, but two weak points - a giant gash in its side and the bird on its head.]]

* DugTooDeep: Implied in the backstory of Stonefang, when [[spoiler:the precursors uncovered the Dragon God...and ever since, took measures to ensure it does not get out.]]

* EldritchAbomination: [[spoiler: The Old One.]]

** And then there's...[[spoiler: ''whatever'' that huge thing is in the second part of the Tower of Latria.]]
*** That would be the [[spoiler: the Old Monk's friggin' heart.]]

** The Giant Bearbugs are basically [[MightyGlacier Mighty Glaciers]]. Giant and hugely armoured but extremely slow and they deal fairly low and easily dodge-able damage. Really you just need to quickly move around them and be on your way. The tower of Latria's prison guards could also count as this. They have powerful long range attacks that will tear you to bits if your character doesn't have good magic defense and if you try to close the distance they can hit you with a paralyzing attack before running over and eating your brain.
*** A problem with some of the Giant Bearbugs though is that they're in the way so you can't just go around them.

* EvilPlan: [[spoiler: The Old One has a simple one, collect souls for eating. Allant found this out the hard way.]]
* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: Most boss names say it how it is: [[spoiler:Tower Knight, Armored Spider, Phalanx, Penetrator to name a few.]]

** Of course, god help you if your weapon is on fire when you hit it.

* FridgeHorror: There are some really horrifying implications to some of the things you find out in this game. For example [[spoiler: since there is no God, only the Old One, that means that there's no afterlife in Boletaria, and as we see, the souls of the people who are killed just sit there until either the character finds and uses them, or a demon eats them. Then there's the Monumental's story: [[AndIMustScream in order to preserve the fabric of reality, hundreds of people became half living statues, able only to speak.]] Then, one by one they began to die until there's only one left, one who had to watch every single one of his friends die and wonder if or when he would be next. Oh, and here's the topper: [[DownerEnding when the player beats the game and gets the good ending, they become a monumental themselves, which means that the fabric of reality is safe from the Old One, only up until the player dies like the previous monumentals did.]] So your choices at the end of the game are either become a living statue that condemns himself to a fate worse than death for the sake an unbelievably CrapsackWorld, or become the ultimate demon and wipe the world out completely. Hmmmm, decisions, decisions...]]

* GiantFlyer: The Storm Ruler. Because giant flying doom mantas just aren't giant flying doom mantas unless they're big enough to [[spoiler: sweep most of the arena in massive spines in a single strafing run]].

** The Blueblood sword is probably closer; it requires you to finish arguably the hardest world before it can be forged, it requires a large spread of stats, and its true power requires an unorthodox stat-spread (it scales best off Luck, which is otherwise considered useless). It's quite fast, has massive power and can be enchanted (most of the other candidates can't be), making it an almost instant gamebreaker. As a bonus, it requires forging from a [[MagikarpPower broken sword]].

* {{Jerkass}}: Patches the Hyena, Satsuki, Sage Freke's disciple and the Filthy Woman.
* JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope: [[spoiler:Sage Freke originally starts out as a wizard seeking to understand the power and nature of souls. The further into the adventure, the more...disturbingly fascinated he becomes with the power and knowledge they grant him, until at the end, he urges the PlayerCharacter to ''not'' lull the Old One to sleep, and let the world continue on in its broken, chaotic state, so he can continue to utilize the Soul Arts. By following this advice, the PlayerCharacter does as well.]]
* JustifiedTutorial: It's your entrance into Boletaria. It can be skipped though, but its recommended to go through it for the souls and extra items.
* KarmaMeter: Soul Tendency

** The three primary damage types are physical, magic and fire, 'nuff said.

* LastOfHisKind: The Monumental. There are three others sitting with him but they are all dead.

** [[spoiler:Granted, her alleged impurity becomes more of an {{Informed Flaw}} when you realize that switching her loyalty from God to demons wasn't really much of a change at all - see below.]]

* LostForever: Many, ''many'' items and demon souls. The main reason for this is because reloading a previously saved file does not mend your mistake, once its done, its done for the entirety of this playthrough. For example, if a crucial NPC dies, anything related to them are lost until you start New Game+. In some cases, you have to make a choice on which item to obtain, losing the other in the process. World Tendencies also seem to affect this greatly. One of the biggest replay values of the game is trying out different options and [[HundredPercentCompletion collecting previously unobtained items]].

** While fanarts have made Yuria much cuter than she is (she looks like your standard Western concept of witches, big nose and all, only younger), the Maiden In Black on the other hand seems to be hitting the right spots for some people's... tastes.

* MysteriousWaif: The Maiden in Black
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Mephistopheles [[spoiler:(she will task you with killing the other inhabitants of the Nexus, and will attack you with the Soulsucker when you've accomplished it)]], Miralda the Executioner [[spoiler:(will attack you whether she's alive or a Black Phantom)]] and Yurt the Silent Chief [[spoiler:(one boss fight after you free him in the Tower of Latria, he starts assassinating people in the Nexus).]]

* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: [[spoiler: Release Yurt from his prison, and he will happily begin butchering all the various helpful [=NPCs=] in the Nexus. And when he's done with them, he'll come for ''you!'']]
* NotSoDifferent: [[spoiler: Sage Freke and his follower despise Saint Urbain and his followers as fools worshipping a false and most definitely malevolent god. Likewise, Urbain condemns Freke and his ilk as heretics who rely on demon magic for power. ''Both'' sides are absolutely correct!]]
* ObviouslyEvil: [[spoiler:Yurt the Silent Chief. The menacing voice... the Sauron-like armor... the sinister sickle-like weapon... the statement that "Life is not so precious." Really though, he's in a cage when you meet him. If he is anything, it is not good.]]

* OurGhostsAreDifferent: When you die you return in "Soul Form" (this will probably happen a lot). There are also friendly blue phantoms as well as hostile black phantoms, unusual in that players as well as [=NPCs=] can become them. While [=NPCs=] and their black phantom incarnations are gone for good when you kill them, there are a number of ways for players to come BackFromTheDead.

** On the other hand, males have exclusive access to the Old King armor Set (heavy armor with high fire resist and no stamina penalty), Dark Silver armor set (heavy armor with remarkably high magic resistance) and others.
* RavensAndCrows: They're present in various locations, usually feasting on the abundant corpses. The Shrine of Storms, implicitly even has a ''talking'' crow (popularly called [[FanNickname Sparkly]]) who you can trade "sparkly" items with.

** It's still possible to prevent losing your souls. When you die, ''immediately'' hold down the PS button and select "Quit Game." Start the game back up, and load your save.
* SequenceBreaking: Normally, while advancing in a level, the player have to go through fog gates, usually 3. In world 4-1 however, it is possible to bypass all 3 fog gates and finish the level in 5 minutes.

** The game itself pulls one on you: having NewGamePlus means that you can now go slaughter all those hapless Demons with your overpowered stats a la traditional JRPG, right? Wrong, with each successive New Game Pluses you take, the game gets '''harder'''! TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything indeed.
** Another example is simply having 99 on all stats, due to insanely curving amount of Souls needed to upgrade the more you go on. Full Brushwood Armor set (heaviest in the game) and dual wielding the Dragon Bone/Keel Smasher (also the heaviest in the game), ''and'' still able to keep it under half maximum equip burden for normal rolling? Experienced players' responses would be somewhere along the lines of: "Been there, done that."

* SleeperHit: Developed by a relatively small and obscure developer, released at a time when numerous big titles were coming out, absolutely no advertising or fanfare, NintendoHard...and still sold well. Enough to qualify for a Greatest Hits hits release and extend the lifetime of the servers. Also a critical hit, scoring '''The''' Game of the Year at both IGN and Gamespot. Who saw that coming?

* [[spoiler:TakeUpMySword: In a way. If the player chooses to calm the Old One he or she becomes the new Monumental afterwards.]]

* WorldTree: [[spoiler: The Old One.]]
** Although [[spoiler: according to the Maiden in Black, what we see may actually be The Old One's lair, or at least a massive shell that protects the true creature from harm. Since the Maiden in Black can't actually lull the Old One back to sleep until she's gone a good ways inside, this is a much more likely scenario.]]
* TheWormThatWalks: [[spoiler: The Leechmonger.]]

* XanatosGambit: The majority of the game involves the protagonist doing the legwork for one, since [[spoiler: the Old One will not allow the player near it until there are no longer any demons left to feed it souls. The protagonist has to go out and do the killing before anything can be done about the Old One. So either you feed it souls like it wants, or refuse and wander the fog until you wither away or something kills you, which would also please the Old One.]]
** The Maiden in Black [[spoiler: can wait for someone or a collective to clear the way so she can lull The Old One back to sleep. Of course, the player can decide to double cross her at the end, making himself the SpannerInTheWorks.]]

* YouBastard: When you attack [[spoiler: Maiden Astraea, she]] calls you out on such offensive dickery.

** When you think about it, it makes sense. What [[spoiler: King Allant]] has been reduced to: a pile of sludge that could barely harm a bug, shows how relying on the power of Demon's Souls will ultimately destroy you.

A SpiritualSuccessor / NonLinearSequel, ''DarkSouls'' was released on October 4th, 2011.

Demon's Souls is a {{Playstation 3}} game made by FromSoftware and published by {{Atlus}}.

A SpiritualSuccessor/NonLinearSequel, ''DarkSouls'' was released on October 4th, 2011.

A SpiritualSuccessor has been released on October 4th, 2011, having renamed itself DarkSouls.

* BreastPlate: Notably averted. All character classes wear the armours the way they should be worn.
** Though, played straight with some of the starting outfits - women knights' fluted plate leaves their faces visible and emphasizes their buttocks, while female thieves masks are see-through and their shirts are V-neck.

** Closest it gets is the tutorial. After that, you kill everything and EVERYBODY (and some of the NPCs can be so hard they might as well be bosses). 2nd place is the dragon god, because if there weren't balistas on his stage you would be done for.

Infamous for [[NintendoHard being so hard]] due to the game playing with TrialAndErrorGameplay. For this it has [[SleeperHit gained wide praise for this]], as the game manages to be hard but fair.

Infamous for [[NintendoHard being so hard]] due to the game playing with TrialAndErrorGameplay. Surprisingly, it has [[SleeperHit gained wide praise for this]], as the game manages to be hard but fair.

* {{Jerkass}}: Patches the Hyena, Satsuki and Sage Freke's disciple.

After the world was let known of Boletaria's plight, legend spread of the chaos with in the kingdom wreaked upon it by a beast from the Nexus and of the demons that grew ever more powerful with each soul they devoured. Many people went to Boletaria, either to save it from its plight or were lured by the prospect of the power of souls, but all were lost in its chaos.

You are one such person, but like many others died and are now trapped in the fog with your soul bound to the Nexus. From there, your journey begins...

* [[TakeUpMySword: In a way. If the player chooses to calm the Old One he or she becomes the new Monumental afterwards.]]

* XanatosGambit: The majority of the game involves the protagonist doing the legwork for one, since [[spoiler: the Old One will not allow the player near it until there are no longer any demons left to feed it souls. The protagonist has to go out and do the killing before anything can be done about the Old One. So either you feed it souls like it wants, or refuse and wander the fog until you wither away or something kills you, which would also please the Old One.