VideoGame Skip to Dark Souls
If you are already a fan and you are dying for more, and you haven't played Demon's Souls before, go ahead it will definitely scratch your itch. However, if you are new to the series, start elsewhere, this may have been where the series began, but Dark Souls made a great many needed refinements to the game.
The most obvious is checkpoints, Dark Souls' check points could stand to be closer together at times (especially near bosses) but Demon's souls has none, if you died against a boss, you are catapulted back to the beginning of the level. While you can make the level easier to traverse you still have to move through it and fight several enemies (you usually can't bypass the toughest), and you definitely have to fight the boss again if you want your souls back.
The bosses are generally great, with an interesting 'experimental' quality to them. In that your first fight will usually stomp the crap out of you, and you test the bosses weakness in a scientific way, and then win once you both know what to do and can execute it. The second part is what makes the lack of checkpoint a big issue. Once you have figured out what you need to do, the fight is way less engaging, and retrying becomes a chore. Especially when you lose not because of an error but because of a lag or something. Its also worth noting that this doesn't actually make the game more difficult just more punishing of failure, faster iteration time on attempts would be super.
Fans of Dark Souls and Demon's Souls like to say that the games are 'tough but fair'. Its bullshit in both games, but its more blatant in Demon's Souls. There are environmental hazards that only affect you, enemies that recover from stagger faster etc. Its actually a pretty small issue, all things considered, but its way more noticeable issue here than Dark Souls.
Healing is also better in Dark Souls than here. Having a limit on the amount of Etsus that automatically refills, avoids both trivializing some fights due to a lots of herbs, and making the game unwinable when you have none.
But the real reason you should play Dark Souls instead is stability. There are times where you may lose content for the play-through in Demon's Souls that you have no control over. NP Cs can bug out and disappear forever after you rescue them. Demon's Souls is a fine game, but Dark Souls really improved.
VideoGame Demon's Souls: It'll rip your heart out and you'll love it for that.
Demon's Souls is a game that does not forgive you for your mistakes. The game goes beyond the simple concept we know as Nintendo Hard and goes straight into full on rage inducing difficulty.
But is it unfair? Not at all. Throughout the entire game, you will die countless times, and each time you die, the game gets harder. With each subsequent death you will grow closer to one glorious realization: The game is teaching you. As you continuously get yourself killed for what seems like the most stupid reasons, you will realize that not only could you have prevented your deaths, but the game gives you practically everything needed to do so. As such, the satisfaction you feel upon beating the game's legions of strict challenges is that much greater, and the game is that much better because of it.
The game starts you out with several classes to choose from, although that only determines your starting equipment and soul level, as well as how your stats are distributed. This doesn't mean you're stuck in that role forever. The bashiest knight can take points in magic to blast his foes with fire or the squishiest wizard can pump points into strength to wander about in heavy armor. You're never stuck in any particular role, you're never pressured to build up a certain way, and you're free to build any character you feel like.
The game's atmosphere is absolutely phenomenal. You'll find yourself walking slowly through dark, tight corridors, wondering whether or not there will be another foe around the corner. Each sound will send shivers up your spine, making you recoil at the idea that the next group of foes you fight could end up killing you yet again. This is a large part of what makes Demon's Souls great. The atmosphere combined with the visceral, rewarding gameplay make this game the game that it is.
Overall, I highly recommend trying Demon's Souls out if you own a PS 3. You will fight futilely against all odds, you will die so many times, you will get frustrated, and you will love every second of it.
VideoGame An Interesting First Try
Before we get into it, to clarify: I've only played the PS 5 remake by Bluepoint. I'm aware there are quite a few elements they changed from the PS 3 version, but having never tried that, I can't comment on the accuracy or how faithful it was to the original, so this is about the remake purely on its own merits.
For many years, I'd learned plenty of things about the Dark Souls trilogy and even experienced Bloodborne myself, but Demon's Souls was a mystery to me until I borrowed a copy of the remake from my friend. Having become quite familiar with From Soft's fondness for Mythology Gag and Recurring Element, what struck me most about the game was seeing the original versions of the characters and motifs that they've redone so many times since in increasingly unique and memorable ways - the white-haired king that led his kingdom to ruin, the mysterious stat waifu intricately connected to the state of the world, the knight protecting the maiden, and so on. In a manner similar to Phantom Blood, the simplicity of the tropes and their approach (with the occasional twist) actually made them quite refreshing and standout in a sea of stories that try to twist and overdo everything for the sake of novelty; I wouldn't say anyone other than the Maiden in Black, King Allant, and Astraea/Garl Vinland are particularly memorable (as a player who didn't grow up with the game, at least), but they at least felt distinct and real within the setting.
Going from all those later games with plenty of lore for the bosses and enemies hidden in item descriptions and random dialogue, it was admittedly a bit jarring how few bosses had any explanation to them, or more than a single line from the Archstone description (looking at you, Metal Spider). Again, this is the origin of many From Soft tropes that would get redone and expanded upon in future entries, so I'm not holding it against the game, but I do wish the remake had added a bit more here, though I know Bluepoint is all about going as 1:1 as possible.
I will say, the graphical fidelity of the remake is stunning, easily the best of all seven Soulsbourne titles - it may not have my favorite art direction of them all, but the five worlds are gorgeous to look at and incredibly varied in aesthetics. Personal favorite was World 4 with all the rain, especially in the final boss.
And lastly, the gameplay...well, it's different than I'm used to. A proper mana system instead of a set number of casts per spell, a wide variety (and limited amount) of healing items instead of a replenishing flask, everything adding weight to your inventory, and of course the strange World Tendency system ironically made for quite a learning curve coming from Bloodborne, though I ended up doing okay with a Crescent Falchion and some sort of shield with a few Soul Arrows. The moment-to-moment combat was largely fine, but this game definitely has the weakest boss design of any entry in terms of how many rely on cheap/poor mechanics (Dragon God, Metal Spider, the Maneaters) and others are just...kinda boring. The Storm King and False King Allant were spectacular, though.
Oh, and fuck the poison swamp.
Overall, I'd give Demon's Souls a 7/10 - flawed in many areas, but still providing a (for the time) very unique experience, and it's clear as day how and why From Soft took off like they did from this. I do wonder what a sequel would've looked like if Sony didn't blow up their contract...