I don't love Demon Souls, but I have a lot of respect for it

Recently I had the pleasure of playing Demon Souls for the first, and likely last, time. As a fan of FromSoftware’s work with an undying love for the Dark Souls trilogy Demon Souls was always a title I wanted to try but couldn’t imagine myself loving in the same way.

After playing the PS5 remake via PlayStation Plus I can now confidently say it’s not for me, and while I didn’t hate the experience it’s a solid 6/10 in my eyes.

Maybe you’ll feel differently though, so I’d urge you to try Demon Souls if you haven’t already

However after rolling credits I can’t help but admire the game for what it is, and the creativity on display here.

For those who are unaware Demon Souls was first released exclusively for the PlayStation 3 in 2009. Sony came to FromSoftware and requested an RPG that could rival The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion for the Xbox 360, and whether it succeeded on that front is debatable. Now rumour has it that the team originally tasked with creating the game weren’t fond of the brief, so it was eventually passed to Hidetaka Miyazaki, who showed a greater interest in the project.

What we got was something truly remarkable, and while it was the success of Dark Souls in 2011 that really paved the way for the soulslike genre it was Demon Souls that laid the foundation.

I felt this immensely during my playthrough, as if you’ve played the Dark Souls trilogy, Bloodborne, and even Elden Ring, Demon Souls feels like a precursor to just about everything that FromSoftware developed afterwards.

Take the bosses for example, the first of which, second if you count the tutorial one, is called Phalanx. A pulsating blob of flesh covered in shields and spears that’s seemingly impenetrable until you buff your weapon with fire. After this it’s a trivial boss that aims to teach you about using items to your advantage, and it even reappears as a basic enemy in Dark Souls in the Painted World area. Tower Knight follows, who’s essentially the Iron Golem also from Dark Souls. Smack its ankles and it’ll come tumbling down, allowing you to attack its head and actually do damage to it.

You’ve also got the Dragon God, a boss dangerously close to the Bed Of Chaos in the sense you don’t do any direct damage until the end, instead you interact with objects in the arena to deplete its health and eventually slay it. There are of course good old-fashioned fights as well, like Flamelurker and the aptly named Penetrator, which share similarities with Taurus Demon and Ornstein respectively.

Sony Interactive Entertainment

Most bosses in the game are basically living puzzles, with some sort of weakness or exploit required to take them down. Anyone familiar with Yhorm from Dark Souls III or Rykard from Elden Ring will understand the Storm King fight straight away, as it’s yet another boss that requires a weapon hidden in the arena to beat it.

Many of these fights are essentially prototypes of ones found in later FromSoftware games, and while I can’t say I particularly enjoyed most of Demon Souls bosses, I did enjoy what they eventually turned into.

The levels have a similar story. The first world is very traditional, with gothic architecture, undead soldiers, knights, dragons etc. World 3 though is essentially a Bloodborne dungeon, with eldritch horror-like squid monsters pelting you with magic and trying to bite your face off at nearly every turn. There’s even a bit where you cut the chains holding up a gigantic, beating heart and watch it crash into the ground much like the Brain of Mensis in Bloodborne’s late-game. And, just in case you were unsure if this is actually a FromSoftware game there are of course several poison swamps knocking around…

All in all I didn’t like Demon Souls, because it really does show its age despite the gorgeous visual makeover Bluepoint gave it for the PlayStation 5. It’s dated in every sense of the word and while I’m very happy to have seen it through to the end it’s not one I’m looking to revisit anytime soon.

That said, I can't deny that it wasn’t cool to see the origins of my favourite video game trilogy ever, and how it inspired the other FromSoftware titles as well. When you look at Demon Souls as a product of its time I think it’s seriously impressive, and while it misses the mark more often than it hits it you can tell there was a serious attempt to push the boat out with its ideas.

Miyazaki took a project that very few people had faith in and created something special with it, and while it wasn’t hailed in the same way Oblivion was, as was initially intended, it did get enough praise to warrant another game in its style, the first Dark Souls. Looking at FromSoftware’s work from Demon Souls to Elden Ring you can see a clear incline in quality and we just wouldn’t have had that if Demon Souls hadn’t kicked everything off.

I don’t love Demon Souls but my playthrough taught me a lot about some of my favourite games, and I think it’ll make me appreciate them even more for having played it.