What are the advantages (if any) to playing Dark Souls vs. Demon Souls. I played a fair bit of Demon Souls back in the day, but never came close to finishing it. So I guess my question is, if I have a hankering for some Dark Soul/Demon Soul-type play are there major advantages to going with Dark Souls over Demon Souls, or is it mostly more of the same with minor improvements? If I go back to Demon Souls I'm probably going to have to restart it anyway both because my skills have completely atrophied and because various community members suggested that my current build (knight in heavy armor) isn't a great choice for a first run through. So I'm wondering if I restart should I just dump Demon Souls and go with the newer game.
My opinion is to dump it. Dying in Dark souls is at worse infuriating. The dying penalty in Demons Souls is infuriating and totally unnecessarily fucking stupid.
Does that mean you don't have to go back to the start of the level if you die? With Demon Souls I started reading walkthrough recommendations on beating bosses before I got to them because I couldn't handle going back through the entire level each time I died just to try another strategy at beating them. In general that's something I never do, but I finally concluded that I simply did not have the time to go back through the entire level a over and over again to figure out how to beat each boss (admittedly my rather mediocre action game skills weren't helping).
Man, I don't know what you're talking about. I mean, you just lose one ring slot, right? One of your other rings is magically sent back to the inventory, replaced by the Cling Ring. Dark is probably better, but both are fantastic and well worth playing. It's just a shame you're asking now - there was a white World Tendency event a week or so ago, which helps with the clunkiest fucking mechanic ever put in a video game. Dark Souls sends you back to the last bonfire. Defending on the boss, that can be very close, or very far. Both games are good about opening shortcuts, though, so you usually (FUCK YOU VALLEY OF DEFILEMENT/LOST IZALITH) don't need to repeat the entire mess
I don't think you can have an unrecoverable build in Demon's Soul. At worst you're required to do some farming. I haven't finished the game either, but it seems the more you go on the easier it gets. Usually you have to figure out what weapon is best for a specific situation, without clinging to some build you like. Class is irrelevant since you get to swap the armor.
Here's one thread where some differences were discussed, and one place where we had a chat about fundamental differences in mechanics that seem quite similar at first glance. I'd say bonfires feel a lot more forgiving than the shortcut-only system of the first, the relevance of armor can let you build a more durable character quickly that can swing through damage thanks to the new poise stat, and in general the pacing of the combat is a lot more forgiving. Pyromancy is split off, and makes for a nice no-stat-reliant fallback for when you feel your build isn't working well for a particular hurdle. They both have strengths, but I would say (and fwiw my wife lasted like an hour on Demon's and has 1000 achievement points in Dark Souls) it's definitely worth it if you are intrigued by the ideas and simply want them to be more accessible and refined. I was never bothered much by the halving of health, as it just became the new normal to me, but for some that's a nice tweak.
Overall, Dark Souls is a bigger, better game. However, Demon's Souls is more polished start to finish - some of the areas at the end of Dark Souls feel a bit rushed. I like the level design in Demon's Souls a bit better, I think, but if you're only going to play one, I'd recommend Dark Souls.
Zone-wise perhaps but pretty much every other aspect of Dark Souls is better polished than Demon's Souls.
3-1 in Demon's Souls is an experience to behold. The whole game is worth playing. It's got some interesting bits that Dark Souls lacks. The invader boss fight, trickster, etc. You'll also spot a lot of influences and direct references to it in Dark Souls. I played the crap out of it, nearly just as much Dark Souls. (but by now Dark Souls has surpassed it)
If you play Dark Souls first, you are unlikely to find Demons' very appealing in terms of going back in mechanics. In contrast, Demons' has a notably steeper barrier to entry in terms of its learning curve, so you may never get off the ground.
That much is true. Basically, they take a couple of early bosses and turn them into generic enemies; they don't even get the standard treatment of being turned red. Oh, and those fucking centipede things.
There's nothing quite like the giant sword wielding red phantom that wanders the swamp of defilement that can easily kill you dead. Or the Red Knight noob slayer in 1-1 surrounded by the blood stains of the fallen. Or the NPC murder asshole that doesn't stop the killing after 1 firekeeper Or the King that can fucking soul drain your ass back a level (what a dick!) Or that jackass with the cursed katana that bum rushes you at the start of the level Or the Dragon Bone Crusher sword which is slower than a sloth but hits like a cinder block Or plague babies, the most hideous thing to be put into a game, period! (skeleton babies got nothing on these most unholy abominations) Etc...
It's actually a meat cleaver, but yeah. Not to mention that I don't think there's a rusted iron ring, so good luck fighting her in the swamp.
You're probably right. It's been too long. I gotta say I love that unconventional boss fight at the end of the swamp with the lady and her loyal knight companion. It's totally twisted and makes you the aggressor "demon" in the situation.
Yeah, I don't remember all that much about Demon's Souls (although I did replay a bit of it a year or two ago), but the Maneater-Mildred-esque woman in the swamp with the giant meatcleaver is definitely one of the clearer things I do remember. And all the times she killed me.
