As you’ve no doubt read, Atlus is bringing Demon’s Souls exclusively to the PLAYSTATION 3 this fall. But what changes are they making? How does online play work? And is the game really that difficult? At E3, Atlus’s Aram Jabbari fielded questions…
Aram will be back on the blog to talk more Demon’s Souls, but if you’ve got any questions now, please ask them in the comments area. I’ll make sure he sees them :-)
151 Comments
I want it now.
I cannot wait to get this game. It looks really cool and like it would pose a good challenge
AWESOMENESS!!!
Is there any info on an European release?
The online aspect is such a cool idea.
Won’t probably be answered, but is there any chance of you bringing the game to Europe as well?
To my knowledge, there are currently no plans for a European release, something that would require the involvement of a European publisher, as Atlus does not publish in that region. Still, they said it would never come to North America and now it is, so there\’s always reason to stay hopeful!
is it supposed to be released in europe too this fall? I’m really looking forward for it
Can you reveal details about how deep customization of characters are in the game?
Many thanks!
You will be able to choose from 10 different classes, each of which will affect your base stats, abilities (melee vs spellcasting), appearance (by way of the weapons/armor you start with), and other variables. In addition to simple toggles and sliders, like sex and age, you will also be able to extensively customize your character\’s face.
Of course, as you play a game with your character, you\’ll level and acquire new items, further customizing your avatar.
We\’ll go into more detail about character customization in the near future!
Will there be tons of customization? Like armor, weapons, appearances? I wanna customize my character. And will there be a variety in fighting skills? Or is it just 1 boring attack?
See above re: customization. With regards to combat, while you have the base normal attack and strong attacks, it is important to note that every weapon in the game controls very differently, radically altering your attack range, speed, and style.
Moreover, you have a number of special attacks you can execute should your timing and position in relation to your foe be correct, allowing skilled players to do a lot more to their enemies :)
My friend imported this game and he said it extremely hard.So hard its not even funny…but he also said its his favorite game ATM…Im for sure getting this.
I imported it a month or two ago, fantastic game!
The online sounds like Fable 2 to a certain extent. Will the online only be with people on your friends list? Or will it be with everyone playing the game at that time?
Online is not only limited to your friends list, you\’ll play against everyone. Like was mentioned in the interview, the online is not about menus, modes, or matching up with people, but rather, immersing oneself in a living, breathing world (albeit a cursed one :D)
Wish it came to the US and Japan at the same time…. the combat seems very slow paced. How varied is the weapon/upgrades/ and class system?
The class system mainly determines how you start the game. There\’s no spell or equipment in the game that a class can\’t equip, so even if you start with a barbarian, if you put enough Souls into your intelligence and pick up some good Catalysts and spells, you could eventually become a powerful magician.
The forging system in the game relies partly on minerals you find from enemy drops and partly on named Souls you can only get once per game from the bosses. It\’s how you choose to use these named Souls that plays a big part in your character\’s evolution, because each one can be used to craft powerful weapons and magic, but you can only use them for one thing per playthrough.
It looks pretty interesting to say the least, I’ve actually never heard of this game until now and it looks absolutely amazing.
One question I have is will there be options to turn certain things off like someone coming into my game and forcing me to PvP them? I’ve never actually played an MMO before but I know the language pretty well.
I don’t want to play an offline game, I’d love to be online, seeing stains and notes but I don’t want some ass to come into my game and just demolish me.
The extreme hard difficult ( common sense by the owners of the game ) will be changed for the US release?
We\’re not touching the difficulty. We get off on your tears.
Cool was going to get the asia version cause it was in english but now i will wait for this one. Also when is the release date?
Interesting use of online. I assume that there won’t be difficulty level settings, correct?
P.S. to Jeff- Make sure to link to Zero Punctuation’s review of inFAMOUS this Sunday. He gave it one the best reviews I’ve seen him give a game (for Yahtzee at least).
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/767-inFamous
No, since everyone is playing together in the same world, there will be no difficulty settings. (Or a pause feature, for that matter.)
However, the difficulty does increase or decrease depending on the World Tendency of the server, which is affected by player actions. Certain enemies can become easier or harder, and certain events may also only be accessible at a certain World Tendency.
Strange how Demon’s Souls and White Knight Chronicles have switched places.
Sony went from hyping the amazing WKC to utterly botching the US release by delaying it to March 2010 instead of doing the obvious plan of releasing it soon and adding the extra stuff later on with updates.
And Demon’s Souls was the amazing and under-hyped game that all the old King’s Field fans were screaming at Sony to bring to the US and never thought it would actually happen.
Is there going to be a demo?
There will not be a demo for Demon\’s Souls.
I hear tell that there will be a demon for Demo\’s Souls, though.
Will importers or players on other servers be able to play with us?
Lots of people in the US seem to demand voice chat (I don’t) is that included in the multiplayer?
Will all versions be up to the same patch update, I believe the Asian version is up to 1.21 or 1.01 or some number with a # of updates like gameplay balances and fixing particular issues?
Will the translations be better than on the Asian version? I played the Asian version and one of the messages you can leave for players (possible spoiler?) is unclear compared to what it said in the Japanese version.
I don’t have sound on my PC so I can’t watch the video and my PS3’s browser settings got changed and I can’t fix the window to watch it but the game is amazing and very complex battle system that all play styles can succeed in.
It has not yet been determined whether or not North American players will be playing with players from other regions. As soon as this question has been resolved, we\’ll let the community know, as it does seem to be on a lot of folks\’ minds.
Even in situations where Atlus licenses a product that is mostly or entirely in English, we still go through the game script line for line and make sure it is up to our localization standards. Things like item descriptions, menu text, and yes, the messages you can leave for players (don\’t expect to see \”This is harsh. Evaluate me\” in the NA version), are likely to be redone.
have you guys thought about adding a target lock systema/, from what I just saw of the video of the game playing in the background it looks a little annoying trying to manually hit the enemy.
The poor guy playing in the background probably didn\’t know about the targeting lock system that already exists and is perfectly functional.
anyone else get a friend request from jessica-305 claiming she found you on this blog and then asking if she can download psn games from you?
Of course RIGHT after I imported the Asian-English edition Atlus announced they were bringing it over… I’m still super happy this is going to be coming out over here and I’ll probably end up buying a second copy as this is such a fantastic game.
Finally! I wasn’t sure about importing (as I’ve never done it before,) but now I don’t have to worry since it’s coming stateside.
Can’t wait for this game, it looks great. More RPGs please!
I am soooooo Hyped for this game. it looks amazing.
are there many quests/side quests to look forward to?
There\’s not a quest log as such, but there are plenty of NPCs who will ask you favors. For instance, Selen Vinland will tell you about her missing brother Garl, and ask that you find their family crest. If you do it, you can get a nice reward.
Awesome! thanks for the update on Demon’s Soul.
NEXT up Dragon Age: Origins? :P
@27 You import it comes to the US, you don’t and it never arrives. Either way you lose… same deal in my imports and I’ve imported quite a few franchises (mostly PSP)
@26… I got an invite from “her” but not to ask for games.. yet. lol. Consider me warned.
Anyways, on point: what would make these kind of interviews more interesting, at least to me, is to have more gameplay footage overdubbed with the speaker’s interview instead of just watching the person speak. I don’t know, personally I’d rather see much more actual gameplay once the speakers are introduced.
I used every bit of footage that was provided to me. I agree, I\’d rather watch footage than, well, me.
I hear this game is pretty hard. I wonder if they’re going to pull a Working Designs and change the difficulty or leave it the same.
i have a question —
will the Atlus release be able to play online with the asia/jpn versions?
and from the interview, it sounds like the gameplay and game content will be the same (other than localization issues) — is that accurate?
@ 32…. message her for 2 min and she will ask, she’ll even send you dirty pictures to prove who she is
Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 news!?:/
I have a video shot, but since it\’s in Japanese with a translator, it\’s a complicated edit. We\’ll have it out there soon!
Sweet, really looking forward to this thanks Aram and Jeff!
As an existing owner of Demon’s Souls I wanted to know if my friends who will buy the NA release will be able to play with me? I love this game so much and can’t get enough of it.
this game is sexy, this is a definite buy on my list! :)
Is there any word on a European release?
Imported and played through this game on the original release (which was this February and not last year like speculated in the video).
It’s the best ‘western’ RPG I’ve played since Morrowind in 2002 (it’s made in Japan I know but it’s totally what hardcore folks would describe as a wrpg due to it’s style of play).
Among the top five PS3 titles ever released for me. It really is fantastic.
Eurogamer has posted a great review btw where they gave it a 9.
WOOOOO, I love you Atlus :D
I cannot wait. I can’t wait.
I am all over this one. Backed by Atlus it has to be good.
“It’s the best ‘western’ RPG I’ve played since Morrowind in 2002”
LOL! WTF?
Demon’s Souls is the spiritual successor to the King’s Field games from the very same Japanes developer, From Software.
And don’t ever dare compare this amazing game to braindead and bug-ridden Bethesda garbage.
First, this game was released in Japan and Asia in this year. Both in February I believe.
I imported the Asian version and it was an excellent game, my favourite this year and in my opinion one of the best ‘dungeon crawlers’ ever.
However, I have a couple of questions to Atlus (and I would personally love it if you could get some of From Software developers to talk about the game here):
1. Will people who bought the Asian version be able to play with people who buy the US version?
2. Are From Software doing any modifications to the engine? There were a few things I thought could have used some polish, only to make the game that extra bit polished.
Like the ragdolls from corpses colliding with the player. And also the lack of dynamic shadows on static geometry, I noticed it on dynamic geometry and on the characters where it works nicely.
Also, personally I thought the game could be a little bit more difficult. Some of the enemies and bosses had exploits in their behaviour that might not have been intended.
And yeah even without those minor things fixed I would probably still think this is as good as it is.
Is this game really online? woow this is the first time i know its online.. now im more exited .. cant wait :)
I didn’t wait and ordered the asia version when it came out, so anyway it’s the best RPG I played this gen easily, old school is what we like!!!
Anyway my question is..are we gonna get a sequel? (yeah I know you guy are still waiting the first one but whatever ;p)
And btw can you patch so we have other way to get the pure darkstone/bladestone etc, it makes me cry at night, (people who have the game will understand)
So ehhh, when is Atlus gonna give us Persona 5 exclusively on PS3?
Stupid question: Are we getting a multilanguage release? Spanish is my main language, I can understand English but Im not 100% comfortable. Can I expect a later European multilanguage version? Thanks!
Alas, the North American release of Demon\’s Souls will only feature English in-game. Good question, though! :)
This game looks good
Awesome
Pure AWESOME! =D
Thanks Jeff for the tons of video content… Its fantastic!!
Game looks pretty sweet!
whens it coming out ? …… and how long is it?
Game is coming this Fall, Link. I\’ve asked Aram to come onto the blog and answer questions when he can.
And here I am! Jeff is right; Demon\’s Souls is currently slated for release in Fall of this year. Look for us to announce a specific date in the next few weeks.