Which game do you think is harder? I always say Demons Souls, because they don't tell you what to do at all. You could really say the same about Dark Souls, but really you can just sprint past the enemies and go straight to the bosses on most levels if you wanted to. It's kind of like comparing apples to oranges though I suppose, since they are very different games. How long did it take you to beat each game respectively? In Dark Souls specifically, what clan did you choose and why?
I'm sad, because I haven't played much of Demon's Souls due to lacking a PS3. I do, however, love Dark Souls. From what I've seen, Dark Souls is almost a spiritual remake of Demon's Souls in some ways, really. Many things are very similar, when it comes to locations, weapons and enemies. When I did play Demon's Souls, I found the segregated levels to be less fun than Dark Souls' open world style. Exploration in Dark Souls is much more fun. Dark Souls' combat also feels better, thanks to things like the addition of poise (especially makes PvP much better). I do feel, though, that Demon's Souls is more... Eastern in its designs, while Dark Souls is more Western. I know both are by the same team and the developer is Japanese, but the designs (for areas, enemies, weapons, characters, etc) in DeS seems to have a much bigger influence from Japanese stylings. In the end, however, I feel that, despite being very similar, they are both different enough to stand their ground as separate and unique games. I hope we can say the same of both even after Dark Souls 2 has release. One of the few things that are objectively better in Dark Souls compared to Demon's Souls is the graphics, haha.
I think I have played Dark Souls before I was really bad at it, but I am not sure the names are way to similar, but I enjoyed the story though.
I would say Dark Souls, after spending so many hours on Demon Souls and on new game ++++++, I thought I'm already a master on Souls games but I died even more on Dark Souls than I did with Demon Souls.
Oh gosh, I'm so scared to try new game + lol. I'm not awful at either game but they're so intimidating at times. On a completely unrelated note, has anyone read anything about the dark souls cafe?
Demon's Souls is more difficult, in my opinion, in some aspects like the combat because it's a lot more floaty than Dark Souls, with parries and such, and there is no poise system whatsoever but it's manageable. The levels themselves are very much like Dark Souls since they're not that linear and there are some things you can miss on a first playthrough but to me Dark Souls always felt larger because it was all one cohesive, gigantic world. Demon's Souls is more in keeping with the retro feel that the series perhaps stems from with it's difficulty and sometimes trial and error gameplay.
Now that I have actually played Demon's Souls (beat it already, on NG+ now... got a PS3 for Christmas and had the game from PS+ already), I am wondering why I see quite a few comments in the internet of people saying that DeS is harder than DkS. I kind of feel that it is because of players that played DeS before DkS. I played DkS before DeS. I think this might cause some bias, because when you get down to it... whichever you played first will feel much harder, due to the first blind run being the one in which you are not ready for anything the game has. Eventually, though, you become knowledgeable. You start to know the kind of tricks the game can pull off, so you are much more cautious. I feel that this makes whichever you play second to seem easier; you already know what to expect so you're being much more cautious than you were. Now, I do feel that DkS is harder in some ways but this might, as I said, be part of the bias I talked about. One of the major differences I've noticed is that in DeS you have a lot more ground to walk, whereas DkS seems to be full of fatal falls. The enemies in DkS also seem slightly stronger by themselves, the ones in DeS rely more on being in groups and stunlocking you to death since there's no poise system. Also, I didn't see the big fuzz over Valley of Defilement... it was easier than Blighttown, IMO. It was more a chore than anything, walking through that gigantic swamp searching for loot. Anyway, I've noticed that DkS did reutilize quite a lot of things that were in DeS, even characters. The traitorous shotel wielder (Yurt/Lautrec, though Lautrec was friendlier), the knight who you constantly have to help (Ostrava/Siegmeyer), the wise mage that got imprisoned and his apprentice (Freke/Logan), etc. It was funny to see things like how the cutscene when going to the 2nd level of Latria was reused in Dark Souls when going to Anor Londo (you get carried away by flying enemies, which are also similar looking). A lot of reused enemies too. Kind of bothers me. Of course, despite all the reused things both games end up being very unique and I think that if you like one of them you will like both. The bosses in particular are completely different (well, there are like 2 or 3 exceptions but that's it). Demon's Souls has nothing like the Ornstein & Smough and Dark Souls has nothing like the Storm King, for example. The areas too, though Dark Souls has a few similar areas to Demon's Souls... but Demon's Souls has nothing like Anor Londo and Dark Souls has nothing like Tower of Latria, for example. A thing that is infinitely superior in Dark Souls, though, is the equipment. Every weapon had an at least slightly different moveset compared to similar weapons and there are a lot more weapons. A lot more armor sets too and no gender limitation. In Demon's Souls, it's kind of sad to craft a unique demon weapon and see it handle the same as the regular variation of that weapon type, there's no moveset variation at all. As for the segregated levels... I kind of disliked them compared to Dark Souls' openness at first, but they grew on me after realizing how immense most of the levels are. Boletarian Palace is super long, Tower of Latria is magnificent with the elevators in 3-2 and the swamp of Valley of Defilement is ridiculously big (though very annoying because of the slowed movement). I still prefer the way the world works in Dark Souls but Demon's Souls is not bad at all and the levels have a lot of exploration despite being linear in comparison to DkS. Anyway, this post ended up being way too big, sorry. I should stop it here as I've said the main things I wanted to say.
I think Demons Souls is harder, just because you don't have bonfires. If you screw up, you have to go through the entire level.
But it's kind of the same in both of the games. You usually have long sections after each archstone/bonfire without rest but you eventually find some shortcut or something that allows you to go near the next boss from whatever was your last archstone/bonfire. The bonfires don't make that much a difference other than making areas segmented like the archstones in Demon's Souls.
I agree, Bonfires don't really make a difference in terms of progressing because they are so far and few in between. The shortcuts that we unlock kind of negates the use of Bonfires.
I played for so long before I realized that there were shortcuts to unlock. I felt so dumb when I finally found out haha. Definitely a game changer that's for sure.
Shortcuts definitely are gamechangers in both games, especially in areas like Valley of Defilement and Lost Izalith!
I had no idea that the game had shortcuts. I guess that makes things a bit easier. The reviews I watched said you had to start from the beginning.
Yeah, it has shortcuts and similar things. For example, the first level starts on a bridge with a massive gate in front of it and two small gates on both sides. The gates are closed but you open them up as you progress through the level, gaining access to shortcuts with the small gate and access to the boss pass the giant gate. Most levels have similar things. There are also enemies that don't respawn after you've killed them, which makes it much easier to traverse some areas after you've dealt with them.
The shortcuts are really obscure. One can easily miss it if it's not being searched for. I didn't know there were shortcuts too in Demon's Souls until after I've beaten the first boss guarding the first giant doors.
Of the two, Demon Souls is the more difficult game. Dark Souls bonefines takes some of the difficulty out of Dark Souls. But they're still both pretty touch for most people. Honestly though, I don't see these games as hard at all. They're just old school in approach. Meaning that you have to learn the game. It's not that they're hard. It's just that gamers have gotten so used to games holding their hand with tricks like regenerating health and quick save points that games like the Souls are hard for them.
I could never get very far in Dark Souls. I've played for 10 hours and I'm still stuck in Undead Burg. That boss kills me every time and it's not even that hard I bet. I don't know if it's just my rawness playing with a controller instead of keyboard and mouse (which I use for 95% of my games) or if I just suck at it. Can't parry, keep pressing the wrong buttons, etc etc.
The way it sounds, you just aren't used to the controls if you're constantly pressing the wrong button(s). But for 10 hours, that's strange.
Demon Souls has more precise controls, since there's an occasional delay when you try to heal (seems to especially happen during boss fights), which can cause some frustrating deaths. That's really the only objective thing I can say Demon Souls does better, but other than that, I preferred how Demon Souls environments and atmosphere was consistently more dark and oppressive, and this even carried over into the Nexus (the hub area). One of my few criticisms of Dark Souls is some of the later areas felt weaker than the rest of the game. I also liked the bosses in Demon's better, especially since most of Dark Souls bosses seemed pretty easy. Though admittedly a surprising amount of Demon's bosses were able to be beaten on the first try, but the hardest bosses in Dark Souls didn't give me nearly as much trouble as Demon's hardest bosses (judging both based on playthrough 1). To Dark Souls credit though, the world is extremely well designed. I haven't really played much of Dark Souls since getting probably 60%ish through playthrough two early last year, and even now I can still remember my way around the large majority of the world with ease. Simply put, I prefer Demon Souls by a small margin.
