History YMMV / DemonsSouls

** The PS3 version has Master Slasher's Trophy. Only two enemies in the entire game drop the Pure Bladestone ore, and the drop rate is broken. The very short version of this is that World Tendency does not go from 1-8 as the game implies, but actually from -200 to +200. When World Tendency is around -100 to -149, the drop rate of Pure Bladestone is in the area of '''2/50000''', lower than from 0 to -99. From -150 to -200 it suddenly shoots back up to a still bad but workable rate of around 1% to 1.3% provided you have minimal Luck (as, contrary to all logical sense, increasing Luck actually tends to reduce the chance of finding it). Good luck getting it if you don't know that. It's infamous enough that Sony outright ''cut'' it and the rest of the max weapon upgrade path trophies from the remake's trophy list.

* ThatOneAchievement: Master Slasher's Trophy. Only two enemies in the entire game drop the Pure Bladestone ore, and the drop rate is broken. The very short version of this is that World Tendency does not go from 1-8 as the game implies, but actually from -200 to +200. When World Tendency is around -100 to -149, the drop rate of Pure Bladestone is in the area of '''2/50000''', lower than from 0 to -99. From -150 to -200 it suddenly shoots back up to a still bad but workable rate of around 1% to 1.3% provided you have minimal Luck (as, contrary to all logical sense, increasing Luck actually tends to reduce the chance of finding it). Good luck getting it if you don't know that. It's infamous enough that Sony outright ''cut'' it and the rest of the max weapon upgrade path trophies from the remake's trophy list.

* VindicatedByHistory: Very much so. The very abstract game design and brutal difficulty did not impress the Japanese press, who gave it mediocre reviews. However, positive word of mouth led to a Western release, which led the game to be looked upon more positively. The tipping point came with the success of its SpiritualSuccessor ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'', which benefited this title not long after. Due to its eventual success and continued good reputation, a remake by Bluepoint Games was made as a UsefulNotes/Playstation5 launch title. Notably, despite being 12 years out of date and changing nothing from the original aside from graphics and a few quality-of-life fixes, the remake has a 92/100 on Metacritic, which is higher than the original's.

* BestBossEver: The intended FinalBoss, [[spoiler: False]] King Allant is easily the highlight of the game's bosses. He's fast, powerful, has a variety of moves and tactics to keep you on your toes, and has an excellent buildup in the proceeding level. While ''Demon's Souls'' bosses are overall much easier and more simplistic than bosses in ''VideoGame/DarkSouls1'' and beyond, King Allant is an excellent capstone to the game, and progenitor for some of From Soft's most acclaimed boss fights.

** Maiden Astraea. [[spoiler: An AllLovingHero who came to the Valley of Defilement to ease the pain of the people that the world had literally thrown away. She eventually realized that "God" was actually The Old One (or at least concluded that no loving God would ever let a place this terrible exist) and, to gain greater power, took on a Demon's Soul. While plenty of other people became demons as well, Astraea's the only one to [[BadPowersGoodPeople use her power to help others]]. Unfortunately, this was NotQuiteTheRightThing, as the grateful residents went on to hunt down any newcomers in hopes of finding new souls to feed Astraea. Additionally, the souls she consumes all feed the Old One, meaning that her continued existence is actively putting the rest of the world in danger, thereby [[ButThouMust forcing the player to kill her to complete the game]].]]

* CompleteMonster: [[EvilOldFolks The Old Monk]] was the husband of Latria's Queen before getting banished for his depravities. Finding the Golden Robes and learning that [[ArtifactOfDoom they contain wicked magic]], the Old Monk uses his newfound powers to [[TheUsurper overthrow the Queen]], before imprisoning her, along with her family and subjects, to the tower's dungeons, having his [[{{Cthulhumanoid}} Mind Flayers]] condemn them to torture and experimentation, resulting in agonizing suffering and death. The Old Monk would also craft a demonic doll containing the Queen's likeness to lure in his prisoners before having his gargoyles carry them to his tower where he extracts the souls from their bodies, before twisting them into becoming grotesque demons to add to his monstrous army.

** The Dragon God is one of the most heavily hyped Archdemons, appearing in the opening cinematic, killing you in the tutorial should you manage to defeat the Vanguard, and generally being recognized in-universe as a major power. Yet its actual "fight" consists of you running behind some pillars, activating a pair of magic ballista and then hitting it in the face while it's totally helpless to retaliate. Not helping things is how none of this damage seems to be of the fatal kind, and not in the common "hit the giant in the heels a hundred times" way. You impale both of its arms and hit a horn on its head a couple of times, and that somehow kills the giant god.
*** However, in story and mechanics, it is implied that it would be undefeatable in any other situation. This TailorMadePrison was built specifically to contain and stop the Dragon God should it ever resurrect. And even ''despite'' these precautions, it still can OneHitKill your character.
** [[spoiler:The final boss fight against the real King Allant is a deliberate example, serving as a victory lap and simple obstacle to the finale. Justified in-universe as he's mutated into a blob that can barely crawl, let alone attack.]]
** The Old Monk, at least while playing offline.[[note]]While playing online, you might get matched with a formidable player.[[/note]] There isn't any explicit hype for him, but he serves as the conclusion of BestLevelEver Tower of Latria – and he also happens to be an Archdemon you can beat to gain access to World 1-3 – and he is just a monk with a couple magic projectile attacks and less health than the Maneaters who precede him. The beefed-up Mindflayers in the stairwell that precedes him constitute a greater threat.

* ItsTheSameSoItSuck: While the 2020 Remake garnered overall positive reception, it frequently catches backlash for sticking too close to the original. Not only are glaring flaws such as the weapon upgrade system kept in- various cases of EarlyInstallmentWeirdness aren't touched, and the bosses weren't tweaked to be more in line with later games quality-wise. The game's similarity to the original has also led many to criticize it's $70 price tag.

** Since the Old One has no role beyond being the source of Colorless Fog, we learn nothing about its thought process. [[spoiler: In particular, making humans into demons who feed on a stream of souls. Is that a [[PetTheDog reward]] or a [[RewardedAsATraitorDeserves punishment?]] Given what happened to Allant once the flow of souls was cut off, someone who chooses to serve the Old One would eventually be subjected to a AndIMustScream.]]

*** However, in story and mechanics, it is implied that it would be undefeatable in any other situation. This TailorMadePrison was built specifically to contain and stop the Dragon God should it ever resurrect. However, it still can OneHitKill your character, despite all the precautions.

* ThatOneAchievement: Master Slasher's Trophy. Only two enemies in the entire game drop the Pure Bladestone ore, and the drop rate is broken. The very short version of this is that World Tendency does not go from 1-8 as the game implies, but actually from -200 to +200. When World Tendency is around -100 to -149, the drop rate of Pure Bladestone is in the area of '''2/50000''', lower than from 0 to -99. From -150 to -200 it suddenly shoots back up to a still bad but workable rate of around 1% to 1.3% provided you have minimal Luck (as, contrary to all logical sense, increasing Luck actually tends to reduce the chance of finding it). Good luck getting it if you don't know that. It's infamous enough that Sony outright ''cut'' it from the remake's trophy list.

** [[spoiler:Old King Allant.]] He's [[LightningBruiser fast]], has wide-sweeping, long-range, defense-penetrating attacks, and has high defense himself; characters that aren't built for melee may have great difficulty with this fight. Oh, and best of all: he has an attack that [[spoiler:''lowers your experience level.'']]

** Dual Katanas. While not gamebreaking for the singleplayer portion, these had [[TierInducedScrappy earned a lot of hate in PvP]]. Their attacks are fast, hard-hitting, and stamina-economic. To top it all off, it can combo a main-hand push into an off-hand attack, back into a main-hand push. The added damage following a push combined with the aforementioned stamina economy makes it possible to kill full-health opponents with one combo. To add insult to injury, it is one of the easiest combos in the game to land, as you can chain into it with three different attacks, all of which are powerful tools on their own.

** The Giant Depraved Ones in the Valley of Defilement. They hit hard, have a lot of health, are not easily stunned, and worst of all, are in a level full of {{Bottomless Pit}}s and poisonous water that removes any and all of your mobility ([[TheComputerIsACHeatingBastard and none of theirs]]).

** Pure Ores are all extremely rare drops from DemonicSpiders (or [[MetalSlime Metal Slimes]] in the case of Hardstone, Sharpstone, Moonstone, and Darkmoonstone), but thankfully the developers decided to show a little mercy; there's at least one corpse or sidequest available near or at the end of each world that'll reward the player with the aforementioned ore. Certainly its an admirable attempt to have this AntiFrustrationFeature guarantee that all builds can have at least one optimal weapon per playthrough and be spared hours of grinding, with the exceptions of the Pure Bladestone, Pure Darkmoonstone, and Pure Moonlightstone. For the Pure Bladestone, the problem is that the only sources of it are the Black Skeleton and Black Phantom Black Skeleton in 4-2 (the latter of which only appears in sufficiently dark World Tendency). Not only are Black Skeletons not slouches in combat and the stone's drop rate is microscopic, but there's also only one each (the three Black Skeletons in 4-1 can't drop the stone) and they're clear across the map from each other, far enough that it's less time to sit through two loading screens than to try to rush past everything trying to kill you to hit both in one go. Contrast this the stone's closest counterpart, Pure Greystone, which not only has a guaranteed sample from a sidequest, but the enemies that drop them are significantly more common, with there being two clusters of three a very short distance away from the Flamelurker Archstone, giving you six shots at it per pairs of loading screens with no other enemies in the way instead of one or two with the entire area between the two. Pure Darkmoonstone and Pure Moonlightstone, on the other hand, are problems for a completely different reason. There are '''no''' static spawns for either of them, meaning the only way to get them are the Crystal Lizards. The Crystal Lizards which have a strictly finite amount of times they can appear per cycle. And you are never guaranteed to get a Pure stone, meaning that it's completely possible to miss out on the final upgrade of your weapon due to bad luck, unless you know how to save scum them, which not even Pure Bladestone does to you.

* AndYouThoughtItWouldFail: After poor initial play-testing responses and Japanese critic reviews, Sony essentially dismissed the game as doomed to failure being one of the last games from the PS3's infamous early days, and refused to publish the game and attach their name for international releases. The game would end up doing amazingly well with Western critics and with sales across both Eastern and Western markets. So much so that Sony would later collaborate with [=FromSoftware=] on later projects and remake the game, published by themselves this time.

** Firestorm has a huge cast range and will oneshot most enemies and even certain bosses. Its only downsides is that it has an insane mp cost, at least have 18 in Intelligence to accommodate for its high spell slot requirement, and the soul and vendor who grants it are all tucked away in not one but two worlds that are ThatOneLevel.

** There is a small glitch in the Tower of Latria stage you could take advantage of so you only have to fight [[spoiler:one of the two Maneaters.]]
** Also, there is a bug that you can use to kill [[spoiler: False King Allant]] ''before'' he even starts moving.

** Not so much a glitch but more of an oversight lovingly christened by fans as the "Cracked Talisman of Beasts"; the Talisman allows for the casting of both spells and miracles at the cost of having a high stat requirement to get the full power of said spell, meaning unless you have a very specific build it severely restricts offensive magic . . . however it doesn't affect the duration and effects of StatusBuff spells and miracles like Warding and Second Chance, greatly increasing a character's versatility. Its main use however is to abuse the spell Cursed Weapon, which grants a flat 50 percent damage increase on a weapon at the cost of draining the user's hp at a fast rate, except if used by an unmet Talisman of Beasts, in which it drains a grand total of 1 hp per second while keeping the 50% boost. If anything, ''[[ViolationOfCommonSense not]]'' meeting the requirements of the stupid thing is far more beneficial in the long run.

* HilariousInHindsight: The reason Demon's Souls was published by Atlus and Namco Bandai outside of Japan was because then-president of Playstation Studios, Shuhei Yoshida, absolutely hated it and refused to have Sony do it. Guess who intro'd the announcement for the remake at the Playstation 5 reveal event? [[note]] For what it's worth, Yoshida had earlier admitted he had really misjudged the appeal of Demon's Souls and the Dark Souls series that would spawn out of it.[[/note]]

** Garl Vinland's squid helmet looks very out of place compared to his armor, and makes his serious character look far funnier than intended.
** Old King Dorans scream in the original. It gets really, ''really'' high pitched and loud for no reason then stops abruptly. It sounds like a tropical bird.

* ThatOneAchievement: Master Slasher's Trophy. Only two enemies in the entire game drop the Pure Bladestone ore, and the drop rate is broken. The very short version of this is that World Tendency does not go from 1-8 as the game implies, but actually from -200 to +200. When World Tendency is around -100 to -149, the drop rate of Pure Bladestone is in the area of '''2/50000''', lower than from 0 to -99. From -150 to -200 it suddenly shoots back up to a still bad but workable rate of around 1% to 1.3% provided you have minimal Luck (as, contrary to all logical sense, increasing Luck actually tends to reduce the chance of finding it). Good luck getting it if you don't know that.

** The Maiden In Black. We're not sure [[MysteriousPast what her deal is exactly]], (though [[EpilepticTrees not for lack of guessing]]) but there's no way it could have been happy. Tellingly, if you attack and kill her, ''[[SorryIFellOnYourFist she apologizes for not being able to die]]'' seconds after resurrecting.

* VindicatedByHistory: Very much so. The very abstract game design and brutal difficulty did not impress the Japanese press, who gave it mediocre reviews. However, positive word of mouth led to a Western release, which led the game to be looked upon more positively. The tipping point came with the success of its SpiritualSuccessor ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'', which benefited this title not long after. Due to its eventual success and continued good reputation, a remake by Bluepoint Games was made as a UsefulNotes/Playstation5 launch title. Notably, despite being 12 years out of date and changing nothing from the original aside from graphics and a few quality of life fixes, the remake has a 92/100 on Metacritic, which is higher than the original's.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Since the Old One has no role beyond being the source of Colorless Fog, we learn nothing about its thought process. [[spoiler: In particular, making humans into demons who feed on a stream of souls. Is that a [[PetTheDog reward]] or a [[RewardedAsATraitorDeserves punishment?]] Given what happened to Allant once the flow of souls was cut off, someone who chooses to serve the Old One would eventually be subjected to a AndIMustScream.]]

* AndYouThoughtItWouldFail: After poor initial play-testing responses and Japanese critic reviews, Sony essentially dismissed the game as doomed to failure being one of the last games from the PS3's infamous early days, and refused to publish the game and attach their name for international releases. The game would end up doing amazingly well with Western critics and with sales across both Eastern and Western markets. So much so that Sony would later collaborate with FromSoftware on later projects and remake the game, published by themselves this time.

* AuthorsSavingThrow:
** Regarding the 2020 remake by [[Creator/BluepointGames BluepointGames]], many fans of the original game were disappointed at the game's various visual differences, such as the lighting in the Tower Knight's arena, and the head designs of the Fluted set and Flamelurker boss. The second trailer for the game released in September 2020 showed that these design choices were altered to be closer to the original game, assuaging fans' fears.
** The remake also makes many quality of life changes that make the game far smoother than the original game. One notable example is the changes to inventory, as now you can chose to store items while in the field, which saves time spent on trips to Stockpile Thomas and helps the flow of levels that need to be done in one take, barring the odd shortcut that can be opened. Another is that you no longer need to go back to the Nexus whenever you want to warp, and can now warp between checkpoints.
** The remake tweaks difficulty in several ways. Bosses are no longer as exploitable, you'll have to finish them off with good old fashioned skill instead of sniping them with magic through the fog gate. Healing herbs also have their equip loads and carry limits adjusted in an attempt to make the second half of the game harder by preventing the player from having hundreds of healing items at the same time, as was possible in the original.

** Firestorm has a huge cast range and will oneshot most enemies and [[UpToEleven even certain bosses]]. Its only downsides is that it has an insane mp cost, at least have 18 in Intelligence to accommodate for its high spell slot requirement, and the soul and vendor who grants it are all tucked away in not one but two worlds that are ThatOneLevel.

* UncannyValley: In the original game, the soldiers in the Boletarian Palace have very low-res, expressionless faces that make them look more like plastic army men than human beings. This is especially obvious in the intro cutscene for the Tower Knight. The valley is at its deepest in the character customization screen, in which any human-looking face is a vaguely malformed, intensely unblinking, low-poly piece of plastic, and it doesn't have the relative benefit of being only a small part of the screen or hidden by the back of your character's head in normal gameplay. Thankfully the 2020 remake has fixed this.

* SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome: The Remake is ''gorgeous''' and was billed as a graphical showcase for next-gen for a reason; everything from the game's lighting, textures, models, weather and FX are wonderfully rendered at a degree that's rarely been seen. Even more impressive, considering the game's default mode runs at a locked 60 fps.