Got tips for someone trying Demon's Souls?

[DYin01]

Since The Escapist is full of badass hardcore gamers, I'm sure there are some of you out there who have played Demon's Souls and/or Dark Souls.

I've played a lot of Dark Souls and have decided to get a PS3 and try Demon's Souls as well. I'm very used to all the mechanics in Dark Souls, but I'm sure there are a few major differences between the two games.

My question is easily as follows:
What things should a Dark Souls veteran know before going into Demon's Souls?

If there are any Demon's Souls vets out there who want to try Dark Souls, I'm happy to help, of course.

 

[ClockworkUniverse]

To me, the main difference is that while Demon's Souls is harder (compared to Dark Souls, where most of the difficulty comes from the game not telling you how building your character works), it's also a lot more exploitable. For example, there are several bosses whose arenas have safe locations where you can just stand and pick them off with arrows, and there are several absurdly good grinding spots that can be reached relatively early on.

 

[hazabaza1]

It's real fuckin' easy compared to Dark Souls.
Finished my first playthrough in 12 hours compared to my 50 hour playthrough of Dark Souls.

Heavy armour is also fucking worthless because there's no poise and no mid-rolling so if you do go heavy you're gonna be getting smacked around and fat-rolling like a *****.
Parrying is a lot more effective though. Harder to do, but it can one shot most enemies with a decent weapon, compared to a lot of the Dark Souls enemies who either can't be parried or have a lot more health.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

Biggest things I can think of is that the only checkpoints in each level are only available after you beat a boss.

Also, while in spirit form (which is what you'll spend most of your time in), Your max HP will be 50%. That can be upped to 75% if you find a ring (can't remember the name) in 1-1, the first level. You should be able to find it, as long as you explore.

As always, find a good wiki, because a lot of stuff is simply never explained.

Also, if you thought Blighttown was nasty, that's nothing compared to the Valley of Defilement

 

[krazykidd]

Tips? Be a mage . Tip number two . Don't die . Tip number three , there is ALWAYS a shortcut , so before fighting a boss , find it. Also , do the levels in order . 1-1 , 2-1 , 3-1 , 4-1 . EXCEPT valley of defilement , do that shit last . Last tip , have fun .

 

[ShinyCharizard]

Don't try and fight the first red-eye knight.

 

[Nonomori]

Full health bar is a luxury, do not get attached. Cling Ring is your best friend.

Read about world tendency and personal tendency. It's very important and confusing.

Demon's Souls has a death counter. You're statistic and the game is laughing at you. Enjoy (your death, again, and again, and again). No, seriously, one of my personal favorites, I hope you like it.

 

[crono738]

To me, the main difference is that while Demon's Souls is harder (compared to Dark Souls, where most of the difficulty comes from the game not telling you how building your character works), it's also a lot more exploitable. For example, there are several bosses whose arenas have safe locations where you can just stand and pick them off with arrows, and there are several absurdly good grinding spots that can be reached relatively early on.

This. If you start with the Royalty class, you can pretty much cheese your way through the first several worlds. As Nono said above me, world and character tendency: learn it, love it, because it changes a far amount of things in the game.

If you feel like trolling in PVP, get the scraping spear and enjoy destroying everyone's gear.

Last tip, as krazy said, be a mage. Magic is broken as hell, especially firestorm.

 

[ohnoitsabear]

Get the Meat Cleaver. It is the most bad-ass weapon in any game, ever. Who care's it it's too slow to be really useful, it just kicks too much ass for me to care.

 

[Grape_Bullion]

The failure's (aka me before I grew a pair) method? Look up the item duplicating glitch. Since you've played Dark Souls, I'll assume you're capable. Just take it slow, the controls aren't as tight as Dark Souls's in my opinion, so if you're going to do something, commit to the action, don't decide it's wrong at the last minute, that'll get you dead.

 

[Pfheonix]

You're going to die. ALOT. You got this from Dark Souls... But it's apparently worse. Or so I hear. So... When you rage, kill a kitten, but don't break the television.

 

[BreakfastMan]

Also, if you thought Blighttown was nasty, that's nothing compared to the Valley of Defilement

Screw 5-2. 5-2 seriously just needs to got die in a fire, I hate that level so damn much.

OT: Well, the game is structured much differently than Dark, with hub-based system instead of an open world one. So, getting use to that will take a bit of doing. Magic works much differently too, and there is no pyromancy either. The guilds in Dark don't exist in that one. Also, there is the concept of world and character tendency at play in that game; it basically functions as your characters morality. If you die a lot, you shift world tendency towards the black, enemies get harder, and sometimes red phantoms appear. If you kill a lot of NPCs, your character tendency shifts to black, and you get more souls, but have less health. There are a lot of different events that can happen at pure white or pure black world tendency too; there are a number of side-quests in the game, for instance, that require pure white world tendency, and some items won't appear unless the world tendency is pure white. Think that covers it...

 

[Sande45]

A lot of the bosses have shortcuts so you don't have to complete the whole level every time.

 

[lapan]

Running and rolling speed are a lot higher.

If you die a lot in bodyform your world tendency will get darker and the game gets harder.

The start is a bit grindy since you have a limited supply of grass and have to buy or farm new one if you run out.Later you will have so many souls that you will have too much grass and the game gets a bit too easy.

There is only one checkpoint after every boss, but you usually can unlock shortcuts as you play the level.

Bosses are generally easier than in Darksouls, exceptions being Flamelurker and Maneaters.
I had a glitch with the final boss which made him even easier for me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOAAg1hyV44

Also, if you thought Blighttown was nasty, that's nothing compared to the Valley of Defilement

I had less problems with it than with Blighttown the first time around. Monsters in the Valley drop anti-poison stuff all the time and it takes longer to get poisoned.

 

[Fat Hippo]

Also, if you thought Blighttown was nasty, that's nothing compared to the Valley of Defilement

I had less problems with it than with Blighttown the first time around. Monsters there drop anti-poison stuff all the time and it takes longer to get poisoned.

I bet those bastards at FROM Software are gonna put a swamp level in every Souls game they ever make (hopefully many) just to piss the players off. And they'll just keep making it nastier and nastier. But that's alright, they know we like the punishment.

Also, I wish the OP luck with his playthrough. Goddammit, I wish I had a PS3. As it is, I have to tide myself over with Demon Souls LPs.

 

[Setch Dreskar]

Blast if you had been specifically looking for Dark Souls I am doing a video series on tips and tricks throughout the entire game, though it is a bit rough the second episode will be up soon.

 

[Tallim]

Also, if you thought Blighttown was nasty, that's nothing compared to the Valley of Defilement

I had less problems with it than with Blighttown the first time around. Monsters there drop anti-poison stuff all the time and it takes longer to get poisoned.

I bet those bastards at FROM Software are gonna put a swamp level in every Souls game they ever make (hopefully many) just to piss the players off. And they'll just keep making it nastier and nastier. But that's alright, they know we like the punishment.

Also, I wish the OP luck with his playthrough. Goddammit, I wish I had a PS3. As it is, I have to tide myself over with Demon Souls LPs.

This is where FROM think: People really liked Pyromancy so lets set a souls game in The Great Swamp!

OT: Crystal lizards behave differently. They each have an internal spawn count which starts at 1. Each boss you kill in a world increases all lizard's spawn counter by 1 throughout that world. If a lizard escapes or dies by any means (some are decidedly suicidal) it reduces the spawn counter by 1 and once it reaches 0 it won't ever appear again even if you kill another boss.

Lizards are also the best way to get upgrade material, very very annoying to farm for stuff so grab their drops even if it will get you killed as otherwise you lose valuable material.

They are also subject to world tendency rules so ideally you should aim to kill lizards in pure black world tendency (for better drops), preferably with maximum respawns on them.

 

[ImmortalDrifter]

Biggest thing is this-> Demon's souls is not inherantly easier or harder than Dark Souls. It comes from knowledge of the mechanics. I.E. if you've played Dark Souls, Demon's Souls will be piss easy.

The Backstab window is smaller, but parries are easier.

You'll come to appreciate the Titanite/Ember system and the Bottomless Box... A LOT

Watch out for your world tendancy, though it isn't a big deal if you intend to play online.

Also, while in spirit form (which is what you'll spend most of your time in), Your max HP will be 50%. That can be upped to 75% if you find a ring (can't remember the name) in 1-1, the first level.

Cling Ring.

You'll never take it off

 

[King Billi]

Even though Demon's Souls came before Dark Souls I wonder how many people are actually going to end up playing them the other way around due to Demon's Souls relative obscurity?


I'm a little ways into my first playthrough of Demon's Souls as well and having completed Dark Souls first I would have to say I am finding this game considerably easier in comparison.

The one tip I would give though(Like I said I haven't even completed the game yet) is to completely ignore all wikis and walkthroughs. Dark Souls should be the only orientation you should use in my opinion.

I say this as someone who used a walkthrough nearly the entire time playing through Dark Souls and while I still loved the game to death I constantly wondered what it must have been like for the first round of players making their way through that adventure without any of the help afforded newer players..?

So In playing Demon's Souls I opted to go in as blind as I could and thus far I have to say I'm just loving the deeper sense of mystery and exploraton with the knowledge that I'm truly finding my own way... even if I do have to live with alot of stupid mistakes...

...such as saving up 60000 souls through grinding and spending them on a stupid ring sold by that bastard Patches only to find the exact same ring laying on the ground for free in the very next world I visited! Argh!

I actually ended up killing Patches for that out of frustration... probably going to pay for that as well.