History VideoGame / DemonsSouls

** Additionally, the game was a quite clear-cut case of HardLevelsEasyBosses compared to the games that came after it; while the ability to farm healing items meant you didn't have to concern yourself with rationing your healing between checkpoints like you did with Estus, this was little compensation for the fact that ''there were no checkpoints'' except when you beat a boss (which broke the game up into fairly clear-cut "levels"). This meant that unless a stage had a major shortcut that you could open, you often had to bull your way through ''the entire level'' to get a single shot at the boss, though such shortcut-free levels are relatively short. Aside from [[spoiler: [[AntiClimaxBoss the final boss]]]], which is deliberately easy, none of the bosses are complete pushovers to the extent of the [[VideoGame/SekiroShadowsDieTwice Mist Noble]] or [[VideoGame/DarkSouls1 Pinwheel]], in that unless you have an obscenely powerful weapon, you will have to put up an actual fight against them, but the game's fairly primitive boss design means that very few of the bosses in the game still stand up as being difficult. Only the Maneaters, Flamelurker, and [[spoiler:False King Allant]] are really considered to offer much real challenge compared to the bosses of later games, with some (such as the Adjudicator) being downright pathetic. Even with the former three bosses, the nonlinear structure of the game makes it easy to encounter them overleveled and overpowered even if you don't grind, which makes them even easier. There is a good chance you will encounter NPC Black Phantoms that cause you more grief than the bosses.

** Additionally, the game was a quite clear-cut case of HardLevelsEasyBosses compared to the games that came after it; while the ability to farm healing items meant you didn't have to concern yourself with rationing your healing between checkpoints like you did with Estus, this was little compensation for the fact that ''there were no checkpoints'' except when you beat a boss (which broke the game up into fairly clear-cut "levels"). This meant that unless a stage had a major shortcut that you could open, you often had to bull your way through ''the entire level'' to get a single shot at the boss. Aside from [[spoiler: [[AntiClimaxBoss the final boss]]]], which is deliberately easy, none of the bosses are complete pushovers to the extent of the [[VideoGame/SekiroShadowsDieTwice Mist Noble]] or [[VideoGame/DarkSouls1 Pinwheel]], in that unless you have an obscenely powerful weapon, you will have to put up an actual fight against them, but the game's fairly primitive boss design means that very few of the bosses in the game still stand up as being difficult. Only the Maneaters, Flamelurker, and [[spoiler:False King Allant]] are really considered to offer much real challenge compared to the bosses of later games and some (such as the Adjudicator) being downright pathetic. Even with the former three bosses, the nonlinear structure of the game makes it easy to encounter them overleveled and overpowered even if you don't grind, which makes them even easier. There is a good chance you will encounter NPC Black Phantoms that cause you more grief than the bosses.

** The other big one: ''world tendency'', the final part of this implementation of the multiplayer system. In short, your actions had an effect on the world at large - act like a jerk and you'd trend toward "Black Tendency", act virtuous and you'd get "White Tendency". This would have various effects on the world, like making monsters stronger or weaker, and opening routes to various pieces of treasure. Moreover, your personal tendency would affect the "Global World Tendency" toward White or Black. While theoretically a neat idea, the tying of the concept to loot made true 100% runs virtually impossible and thus made the concept more an annoyance than anything. Later games replaced world tendency with various branching paths in individual NPC sidequests.

** Tying in to ''that'', the game lacks something that will feel jarring to later ''Souls'' veterans: plunging attacks. You can't attack at all while falling, which is likely to feel very, very strange to players of later games.

* {{Pun}}: "Prison of Hope" ironically puns on [[Literature/BookOfZechariah Zechariah 9:12]]'s "prisoners of hope", both emphasizing how religion structures the prison and how the Fool's Idol offers no deliverance.

* {{Pun}}: "Prison of Hope" ironically puns on [[Literature/BookOfZechariah Zechariah 9:12]]'s "prisoners of hope", both emphasizing how religion structures the prison and how the Fool's Idol will offer no deliverance.

* SerialKiller: Yurt, who begins killing people in the Nexus if you free him.

** You can get some [[Advertising/TheManYourManCouldSmellLike Old Spice]] in the game.

* StupidityIsTheOnlyOption: In order to save Saint Urbain, you are required to fall for the exact same painfully obvious trap that he fell for -- one which his disciples warn you about multiple times, in fact.

* HellholePrison: The Prison of Hope, which is filled with torture chambers, manned by sadistic Mind Flayers, and contains cells so small that prisoners can't sit down.

** Story-wise, [[spoiler:The game has a pretty cut-and-dried, distinct good and bad ending that is decided by a last-minute decision of the player. Later games in the series and by Miyazaki would have the player choose between several flavours of DownerEnding instead.]]

''Demon's Souls'' is a UsefulNotes/PlayStation3 game made by Creator/FromSoftware (in collaboration with Sony's JAPAN Studio), directed by Creator/HidetakaMiyazaki, and published in the US by Creator/{{Atlus}}, Europe by Creator/BandaiNamcoEntertainment, and Japan and SE Asia by Sony. It is most notably the TropeMaker for the entire Main/SoulsLikeRPG sub genre.

''Demon's Souls'' is a UsefulNotes/PlayStation3 game made by Creator/FromSoftware (in collaboration with Sony's JAPAN Studio), directed by Creator/HidetakaMiyazaki, and published in the US by Creator/{{Atlus}}, Europe by Creator/BandaiNamcoEntertainment, and Japan and SE Asia by Sony.

* Antepeice: Several. Generally speaking the level following each archstone will teach the player how to deal with elements that will appear in the boss for that area:

** Additionally, the game was a quite clear-cut case of HardLevelsEasyBosses compared to the games that came after it; while the ability to farm healing items meant you didn't have to concern yourself with rationing your healing between checkpoints like you did with Estus, this was little compensation for the fact that ''there were no checkpoints'' except when you beat a boss (which broke the game up into fairly clear-cut "levels"). This meant that unless a stage had a major shortcut that you could open, you often had to bull your way through ''the entire level'' to get a single shot at the boss. Meanwhile the fairly primitive boss design and variety of attack patterns on display meant that very few of the bosses in the game still stand up as being very difficult, with only the Maneaters, Flamelurker, and [[spoiler:False King Allant]] really being considered to offer much real challenge compared to the bosses of later games and some (such as the Adjudicator) being downright pathetic.
** Story-wise, [[spoiler:The game has a pretty cut-and-dried, distinct good and bad ending. Later games in the series and by Miyazaki would have the player choose between several flavours of DownerEnding instead.]]

* FakeDifficulty: Normally, the game avoids this. Deaths are due to mistakes, and generally your own fault. However, it's in full swing in the Valley of Defilement. The problem is that your enemies are fast, painful, and hardy. You can be painful and hardy, but 95% of the second stage of the Valley of Defilement severely inhibits your movement, disallowing you from running normally, sprinting at all, and rolling, which is the only thing that keeps you alive in this game. The result is being forced to get smashed by giants with clubs when you're barely able to evade them, and even less able to retaliate, the only exception being if you can engage the enemy on the very scarce land, which isn't possible in some cases.

* FatBastard: The Fat Officials, the Adjudicator, the Vanguard demons.
* FirstEpisodeResurrection: The tutorial ends with your death.

** The biggest is HP restoration: there is ''no'' Estus Flask-style free HP restoration item. All HP restoration is instead handled by a selection of dedicated healing herbs. While there were some enemies who served as "money" targets with dedicated drops of said herbs (ala ''Bloodborne'' and its blood vials), part of the problem is that the herbs came in ''four different tiers'' - and the higher tier ones only dropped rarely. You otherwise had to buy the healing items you need. Needless to say, this was a generally unpopular system due to how much grinding it required, and all the ''Souls'' games which followed would play around with how HP restoration worked and how you gained it.

A SpiritualSuccessor / NonLinearSequel, ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'', was released on October 4th, 2011. A second SpiritualSuccessor for UsefulNotes/PlayStation4, ''VideoGame/{{Bloodborne}}'', followed in 2015. Meanwhile, an outright [[VideoGameRemake remake]] for UsefulNotes/PlayStation5 by Creator/BluepointGames and Creator/SIEJapanStudio was announced on June 11, 2020 for release as a [=PlayStation=] 5 launch title.

** Additionally, the game was a quite clear-cut case of HardLevelsEasyBosses compared to the games that came after it; while the ability to farm healing items meant you didn't have to concern yourself with rationing your healing between checkpoints like you did with Estus, this was little compensation for the fact that ''there were no checkpoints'' except when you beat a boss (which broke the game up into fairly clear-cut "levels"). This meant that unless a stage had a major shortcut that you could open, you often had to bull your way through ''the entire level'' to get a single shot at the boss. Meanwhile the fairly primitive boss design and variety of attack patterns on display meant that very few of the bosses in the game still stand up as being very difficult, with only the Maneaters, Flamelurker, and [[spoiler:False King Allant]] really being considered to offer much real challenge compared to the bosses of later games and some (such as the Adjudicator) being downright pathetic. The Phalenx is particularly notable in how it cannot damage you unless ''you'' choose to get close to it.

* NewgamePlus: After completing the game, you return to the beginning with all your stats, souls, items, equipment, and spells on hand. [[HarderThanHard And the enemies are even tougher now.]]

** Likely a foreshadowing of how many times you will die in the game.
* FlamingSword: Just add turpentine.
** Then there are the Dragon weapons, which have ''permanent'' fire effects.

** Additionally, the game was a quite clear-cut case of HardLevelsEasyBosses compared to the games that came after it; while the ability to farm healing items meant you didn't have to concern yourself with rationing your healing between checkpoints like you did with Estus, this was little compensation for the fact that ''there were no checkpoints'' except when you beat a boss (which broke the game up into fairly clear-cut "levels"). This meant that unless a stage had a major shortcut that you could open, you often had to bull your way through ''the entire level'' to get a single shot at the boss. Meanwhile the fairly primitive boss design and variety of attack patterns on display meant that very few of the bosses in the game still stand up as being very difficult, with only the Maneaters, Flamelurker, and [[spoiler:False King Allant]] really being considered to offer much real challenge compared to the bosses of later games and some (such as the Adjudicator) being downright pathetic.

** Tying in to the "you're a soul spirit" idea, fall damage was vastly more lenient here than it would be in later titles. The idea seems to be that, as a semi-incorporeal ''ghost'', falling down isn't as big a deal for you... though you can still take equally big plunges as a human. There's a few places where the game even expects you to make use of your generous fall damage allotment.

** Bosses: The game only has 16 bosses and ''none'' of them are optional except for the tutorial ''Vanguard'' boss, which the player is meant to die to and not defeat.

''"Soul of the lost, withdrawn from its vessel.\\

[[caption-width-right:350:''Brave soul, who fears not death...''

Soul of the lost, withdrawn from its vessel.\\

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/demonssoulsps3ps5_4.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''Brave soul, who fears not death...''[[note]][=PlayStation=] 3 boxart (left), [=PlayStation=] 5 remake boxart (right)[[/note]]]]

->''"Soul of the mind, key to life's ether.\\

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/demonssoulsps3ps5_7.png]]

[[caption-width-right:350:''Brave soul, who fears not death...'']]

A SpiritualSuccessor / NonLinearSequel, ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'', was released on October 4th, 2011. A second SpiritualSuccessor for UsefulNotes/{{PlayStation 4}}, ''VideoGame/{{Bloodborne}}'', followed in 2015. Meanwhile, an outright [[VideoGameRemake remake]] for UsefulNotes/{{PlayStation 5}} by Creator/BluepointGames and Creator/SIEJapanStudio was announced on June 11, 2020.

A SpiritualSuccessor / NonLinearSequel, ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'', was released on October 4th, 2011. A second SpiritualSuccessor for UsefulNotes/{{PlayStation 4}}, ''VideoGame/{{Bloodborne}}'', followed in 2015. Meanwhile, an outright [[VideoGameRemake remake]] for UsefulNotes/{{PlayStation 5}} by Creator/BluepointGames was announced on June 11, 2020.