Dark Souls, the spiritual successor to the 2009 PS3 exclusive RPG game, Demon's Souls. After playing through Demon's Souls 3 times, I couldn't resist getting my hands on its sequel (although the only similarity is the 'Souls' name). After having my expectations raised (thankyou Demon's Souls) I really had high hopes for this game before I got it and let me just say it now, this game does not disappoint.
Whether it be exploring a lonely, desolate forest to a beautifully structured castle, the environments in Dark Souls have been professionally constructed to the point where the environments can be appreciated thanks to the tremendous amount of detail From Software have incorporated into this magnificent, fictional world. Because of this, Dark Souls has a respectable characteristic other games lack nowadays, this is one of the contributing factors that help Dark Souls shine in comparison to the competition. In addition to this unique world, both the enemy design and the soundtrack aid this game become mind-mindbogglingly immersible which means rather than spending the expected one hour on this game, you will be playing it for about double that time during your first play of the game. This leads me onto the feel of the game. Dark Souls will last you around 50 hours to complete once, thats right, not a 6 hour storyline like some games this generation (Call of Duty in-particular), this game will last you around 50 hours. With a very steep learning-curve thanks to the game's style (it doesn't hold your hand, in the world of Dark Souls you're alone)nothing is greater than success; whether it be beating a boss or traversing a section of the game you've been working on for a while, the gratification Dark Souls offers in success is huge; this will make you want to keep on playing, making you a Dark Souls addict thus; keeping you coming back for more. In addition to this, once completed you enter NG+ (the + symbolizing the amount of times you've completed the game so it can be NG+++++ as an example) the game's difficulty increases to keep the enemy AI at the same level as you're character's ability, making it worth playing a few times rather than completing a single playthrough then leaving the game on the shelf forever more.
One thing that really stands out in Dark Souls is the soundtrack's music that accompanies the sometimes chilling boss-battles. Bosses in Dark Souls are classified as a stronger-than-usual enemy of which stands out due to it's characteristics making it unique in comparison to other standard enemies. As I just mentioned, the soundtrack compliments the boss battles perfectly (usually reflecting the setting/mood of the boss you're fighting) helping raise the level of immersion and giving you a better feeling whilst battling these infamous characters. As an example, I recommend you check out this song from the Dark Souls soundtrack:[...]
This example reflects the chilling reality of the boss you're battling, all captured perfectly in a musical piece - simply beautiful!
The difficulty of Dark Souls has received critical acclaim for being a difficult however; the reality is once you've learned how to play the game, you will be ok. To succeed in Dark Souls the best thing to do is to learn enemy patterns, with this in mind, once you identify enemy attack patterns then the game will ask for your concentration of which leads on to success. If you are at all worried about the difficulty then fear not, at any point in the game you can summon either an AI character or a real player to help you on boss battles or you can battle them. Thanks to this feature, nobody has an excuse to get caught out on boss battles because you can summon up to 2 other people to help you defeat bosses, additionally, the people who hang around waiting to get summoned usually have good weapon sets and skill increasing your chances of success when battling a boss with either a online player or AI character. With this in mind, I wouldn't worry about the difficulty at all when debating a purchase of this game.
The controls in Dark Souls offer ease and are well-mapped to work with the Playstation 3 controller. Although not as good as something such as Uncharted 3 (Using the L3 button to sprint rather than what Dark Souls does and uses the O button to sprint), they shine in making the game a more enjoyable experience thanks to a smooth, useful control scheme.
Although the graphics in Dark Souls are not as polished as Demon's Souls (It is about twice as big as Demon's Souls so the graphics WOULD take a hit) they still look magnificent and are nicer than some games on the market today. Keep in mind this game has no loading screens so in some areas (Blighttown)the framerate can drop to below-average making the screen choppy; this isn't a surprise though because with the hardware for consoles being so old and the game being so big, there has to be limits.
Throughout Dark Souls you will find weapons, armour sets, spells, items, consumables and treasures all of which can be used by your character to enhance your experience within this fictional world. To buy new items you use a currency called 'Souls' which is taken from killed enemies, this helps you level up your stats making the game easier for you to play as well as buy new items.
To conclude, Dark Souls takes an incredible world, unique soundtrack, varied multiplayer elements and superb enemy design, then mixes it all together to create a package superior to its predecessor, Demon's Souls. Because of this, I would highly recommend this game and if you're debating to get either Demon's Souls or Dark Souls, go for Demon's then move onto the slightly enhanced Dark Souls for the best playing experience. Dark Souls is a game that keeps you coming back for more!
Thankyou for reading, I give this game a 9.2/10.
The PlayStation 3 is Sony’s most interesting home console ever, but what’s most interesting of all is trying to nail down the very best games on a console with hundreds of incredible games. Let’s give it a shot.
We desperately need Motorstorm back. Evolution is no more though and this makes me sad
Sly Thieves in Time
Stay the Party
Portal 2
Dj Hero
Demon’s Souls
God of war Ascension
2 of those games got railed through the “gaming media” during release.
Sly and god of war.
Both of which were fantastic games.
Yes it’s a decent list of popular games with a heavy hand on FPS and no Warhawk or Starhawk 2 of the best games (not sale wise) on ps3.
I would buy a Starhawk again even if it didn’t have a graphics upgrade hell I would even take a new one with micro transactions 😱🤯
I've noticed a recent nostalgia for the PS3 and I don't get it for me it's been my least favourite generation to date and I've been gaming since the NES I just feel like the ambition of the developers outweighed the capabilities of the consoles so I remember lots of games running in the lower end of 20fps range and I remember for the first time ever actually disliking the duelshock 3 and it's curved triggers
Sure there were some standouts and great games but that's the only gen I switched entirely to PC gaming
Maybe the recent nostalgia is because pretty much all of its games are trapped on that console. People want to play them on more modern hardware. hell... if XB can do it then so can Sony. there are competent emulators out there that can run on PS4/5 hardware but Sony just wont let them become official... why is that?
If we are talking least favorite generations (personally) then this one is certainly mine. i had more fun playing 8th, 7th and 6th gen stuff than 9th. And it isnt like i dont have access to do so... the heavy hitters just havent shown up anywhere close to those previous gens. The few here and there just doesnt cut it compared to the likes of constant good games that showed up in 6th, 7th and 8th gen. hell.... I'll even throw in 5th gen has been better than this one.
I tend to agree there's lots of amazing games locked to the PS3 like GTA IV or mgs 4 but then again my issue was never with the content the PS3 had but rather it's performance many other people have said the PS3 felt like it couldn't walk and chew bubblegum at the same time using PSN and downloading a game could take a few minutes to just start a download.
I typically don't worry all that much about performance I've never had a problem with games that run at 30 but games like crysis 2, Skyrim are good examples where the performance was so unstable you would never even touch the top of the frame cap and the hitching was worse than say Goldeneye on the n64
I think emulation is more than possible on the ps5 though it's just that Sony has no incentive to rush it's development it will likely be a ps6 feature if it ever happens at all.
But yeah the 9th gen has been so bad from a content perspective thats a given I see constant articles where people are frequently expressing their disappointment around the industry as a whole right now to much live service competition that sinks longstanding studios and consumes Devs time less ambition and games cost so much to make they have to play it safe.
The 5th gen was easily better than the 9th we had some all time greats crash, Spyro, Tony hawk, mgs, Mario,64, Goldeneye, Mario kart 64 the list goes on. The 5th gave us a new dimension and I remember being blown away by how much more open gaming had become the 4th gen with the mega drive and SNES was great and very easy to still revisit some of the greatest games of all time came out like earthbound, secret of mana, sonic , Mario world etc but saving our games was still not a standard function or a given so gaming was still evolving but it was very impressive to see some of the tricks Devs used like dithering to give us new experiences those earlier gens limitations bred innovation.
if XB can do it so can sony? I didn't know xbox had a cell processor in their older consoles, that's the reason why ps3 was so cool, but also the reason why games are hostage there and no, xbox did nothing similar even though their backward compatbility is good, they always had a similar architecture to their consoles.
Sorry Michael... I guess you missed the obvious part where i said there are already emulators out that do this. and that is what XB is doing... emulators for OG and 360 games. Its why the full slate is not BC on XBO/Series.
Former SIE president Yoshida explained that Sony wanted to work on the sequel to Demon’s Souls with FromSoftware, but the developer turned it down and instead decided to work with Bandai Namco on what would become Dark Souls.
Not sure what Sony was thinking. Wrong people testing the game. It was my favourite game from the PS3 days. Had to import it from Canada because it wasn't available in Europe at the time. Then I bought it again when a local version was available. It was fun to play online and get two separate platinum.
I understand, sony acting so cocky when it came out. But they quickly realized what they were missing on. I remember an interview of Yoshida saying clearly he hated the game.
"But they quickly realized what they were missing on."
So they've been sleeping on Bloodborne too
Sony didn't realize what they had with Demons Souls. It happens. Marvel approached Xbox to make Spider-Man before they went to Sony and Phil Spencer said "thanks but no thanks". You win some, you lose some. Personally I wasn't THAT bowled over by Demons Souls either when it launched on PS3. I thought it was slow and clunky. The remake on PS5, however, is fantastic! So I get why Sony was lukewarm on the franchise. I dont know if anybody could've foreseen what From Software would eventually become.
To be fair, not even From Software knew the huge success it would become. Their revenue target was tiny, as already confirmed by Miyazaki.
Exactly, these nipple head 'journalists' trying to spin this into a story to wield against Sony are ignoring the fact that hindsight is 20/20.
As you correctly point out, Demons Souls was incredibly niche at the time so it's not a surprise that Sony were cautious about investing huge amounts into advertising and support etc.
You can't just find the RIGHT people. This kind of thing didn't exist yet. FROMSOFTWARE started something huge and you could never see it unless you happen to get someone who not only gets a gut instinct but also the will and authority to act on it. You can't look back from 2025, you have to see it in a 2009 landscape. And Demon's Souls didn't even hit big, it wasn't until Dark Souls that it all started hitting, shortly after it's release in 2011.
Hey sometimes you just can’t see the potential.
It’s like the Chicago Bears moving up in the draft to take Trubisky over Pat Mahomes.
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I bought the Japanese version of Demons Souls before US release. Me and my friend heard about it from an online friend in Japan. It took a while for it to become popular in the US. It was a new IP with nothing like it at the time and it wasn’t easy to play obviously. Eventually word of mouth spread about it and sales picked up after launch. I don’t think anyone could have seen how big it would be at the time. It was considered very niche and hardcore games were minimal.
I do wonder if we'll ever see Demon's Souls 2. Sony clearly wanted it. FromSoftware's subsequent releases penetrated the mainstream in ways the developer likely never imagined. Any stigma or negative perception around the original game's release has long passed. Bluepoint's remake sold very well on PS5. I think the time has come to visit the IP that started it all.
With Sony now firmly in bed with Kadokawa now. I think a Demon's Souls 2 and/or Bloodborne 2 is fairly likely.
They also seem to not want to get on Fromsoft's bad side or undercut them in any way. I think it's completely up to FS. (which is kinda funny cause FS themselves makes weird moves with their games whenever it's not Miyazaki helming the project. ie DS2 and Nightreign)
Today marks the 30th birthday of King's Field, a PlayStation title with an incredible legacy – and one which some Western players might be unaware of.
I still have my original release PS1 long box King's Field right here on my shelf. Great game., Looks better on a CRT than you can really appreciate in emulators or screenshots too, or Im just nostalgic. Note: actually it would be kings field 2 in japan but released here as kings field, so I guess its the second game. Great none the less.
It was great. I always wondered what happened to the series/developer. Wasn’t til a few years ago I found out they moved on to the souls games. It’s nice to see them get the appreciation they deserve.
Love this game. Well said, though I would argue that the difficulty, though a turn-off to new players, is what makes it unique.
But maybe that's just me. :-)
My only problem with Dark Souls is the frame rate and the amount of glitches, both of which didn't seem to happen in Demons Souls.
another 10/10
both souls games are my fav games this gen
two truly amazing games
all the praise is well due
masterful works of gaming!