#47
Change YoY: NEW! My Rating: 9.1 / 10
The first of four new games on my list this year. Even though the Dark Souls series, and Soulsborne games in general, are some of my favourite types of games, it took me a very long time to get around to playing the game that essentially invented and codified the whole genre. I've never played the original on PS3, as Dark Souls was my first game of its kind, and I just never got around to going back to Demon's Souls until earlier this year when I played the remake on PS5. For the most part it is well-deserving of its reputation as an excellent game, and most of the shortcomings are a result of later souls games improving upon the formula in various ways. The atmosphere the game creates is still impeccable, and the world design has held up remarkably well.
Interestingly, Demon's Souls is a far less challenging game than the later FromSoftware titles in the genre. Most of the bosses are relatively easy, and simple in concept, and the main challenge in a lot of them comes from the extended boss runs should you die to one. The most challenging boss encounter to me were the Maneaters, and that was in large part due to the arena rather than anything the boss itself did, as most of my deaths on it were due to falling off the arena. Even the final (proper) boss I beat on the first attempt without much issue. Overall, it's the weakest of the FromSoftware souls games, the simpler gameplay, less interesting bosses (though there are exceptions), and the world tendency mechanic essentially cutting you out of a lot of story and characters hurt it in comparison, but make no mistake, Demon's Souls is still a wonderful experience.
