Sony thought Demon's Souls was terrible

[qornea]

Sony’s Yoshida: “I thought Demon’s Souls was terrible”

Head admits not publishing the game outside of Japan was a massive mistake

 

[shibobo]

Haha epic fail Sony. A friend of mine sent me the game from Taiwan.. Soooo glad I got it. One of the best games I've played this generation, maybe even ever.

 

[MOnk]

It's easy to point and laugh now but if I were a Sony executive and I played a game for 2hours that just smashed my face over and over again I would probably also very wary to publish the game. It was a surprise hit for a reason, people were genuinely surprised that such a difficult game would become popular.

 

[Strifehart]

I have to be honest, I just didn't "get" Demon's Souls. I found the gameplay to be slow and unresponsive at best. Challenging, definitely. However, when the actual interface inherently becomes a disadvantage of you surviving or not, then you know there's a problem at the core of the design.

 

[OmegaFenix]

I have to be honest, I just didn't "get" Demon's Souls. I found the gameplay to be slow and unresponsive at best. Challenging, definitely. However, when the actual interface inherently becomes a disadvantage of you surviving or not, then you know there's a problem at the core of the design.

You found it slow and unresponsive because compared to most hack n slash games it is slow. However it fits perfectly within the mechanics of the game. The interface isn't a disadvantage, it just a new mechanic that needs to be learnt. I spent over 130 hours playing the Original Demon's Souls and finished it 3 time getting so far as NG++ at which point the game is 63% harder than the first playthrough and by this time I had grown so accustomed to how my character moves, fights and escapes that I could speed run most levels.

The core design is for the player to accept that they will die, many times over. But, for me anyways, every death, and I have died many times and lost at times 600 000 souls or more, was my own fault. On not one could I say it was the stupid controls or whatever.

Edit: The most souls I ever lost was about 3 or so Million. At which point I was forced to stop playing for about a week to recover. I think I nearly cried.

 

[OmegaFenix]

It's easy to point and laugh now but if I were a Sony executive and I played a game for 2hours that just smashed my face over and over again I would probably also very wary to publish the game. It was a surprise hit for a reason, people were genuinely surprised that such a difficult game would become popular.

Demon's Souls, and by extension Dark Souls, is probably the hardest game to demo. You need at least 4 - 6 hours to feel like ur getting anywhere. I played a Demo of Dark Souls at the Eurogamer Expo just before its release and If I wasn't a huge Demon's Souls fan with many hours under my belt I would have thought it shit as well, which probably explains why the stand so was quiet. If you have no point of reference in a game as devoid of guidance as Demon's Souls you can easily mistake these amazing titles as "Crap".

 

[Strifehart]

You found it slow and unresponsive because compared to most hack n slash games it is slow. However it fits perfectly within the mechanics of the game. The interface isn't a disadvantage, it just a new mechanic that needs to be learnt. I spent over 130 hours playing the Original Demon's Souls and finished it 3 time getting so far as NG++ at which point the game is 63% harder than the first playthrough and by this time I had grown so accustomed to how my character moves, fights and escapes that I could speed run most levels.

The core design is for the player to accept that they will die, many times over. But, for me anyways, every death, and I have died many times and lost at times 600 000 souls or more, was my own fault. On not one could I say it was the stupid controls or whatever.

Edit: The most souls I ever lost was about 3 or so Million. At which point I was forced to stop playing for about a week to recover. I think I nearly cried.

I understand that it's a case of accepting the fact that you will die a lot. However, coming from titles like Ninja Gaiden and Bayonetta, it was quite difficult for me to accept the unresponsiveness of the combat system. That being said, I also know that by design, it's probably a lot closer in terms of "realistic" combat than the games I'm more accustomed to. So I'm not discrediting it completely, I'm just explaining why it didn't "hook" me.

 

[OmegaFenix]

I understand that it's a case of accepting the fact that you will die a lot. However, coming from titles like Ninja Gaiden and Bayonetta, it was quite difficult for me to accept the unresponsiveness of the combat system. That being said, I also know that by design, it's probably a lot closer in terms of "realistic" combat than the games I'm more accustomed to. So I'm not discrediting it completely, I'm just explaining why it didn't "hook" me.

Yeah no, compared to Ninja Gaiden or Bayonetta its a huge adjustment. I think that is the reason it didn't hook alot of people. I personally found Ninja Gaiden II specifically to not really be that difficult and the devs trying to make it more so by allowing the enemies to cheat, like shooting from off screen or grapple you when you break block to attack or something silly like that. DS on the other hand was completely fair.

 

[Strifehart]

Yeah no, compared to Ninja Gaiden or Bayonetta its a huge adjustment. I think that is the reason it didn't hook alot of people. I personally found Ninja Gaiden II specifically to not really be that difficult and the devs trying to make it more so by allowing the enemies to cheat, like shooting from off screen or grapple you when you break block to attack or something silly like that. DS on the other hand was completely fair.

Definitely agree wrt the NG2 AI cheating. That's why I prefer Sigma 2. Default difficulty is easier though, but the harder difficulties are still difficult without being cheap.

 

[shibobo]

It's easy to point and laugh now but if I were a Sony executive and I played a game for 2hours that just smashed my face over and over again I would probably also very wary to publish the game. It was a surprise hit for a reason, people were genuinely surprised that such a difficult game would become popular.

It's just indicative of the A.D.D. generation. Had someone actually taken the time and played a few levels I am sure they would have realised it's not a "terrible" game. There is a market for people who actually like a challenge and not to just sprint through a game and destroy everything in their path by pressing random buttons.

Huge fail by Sony.