• Light/Dark
  • Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.

Demon's Souls - still a fine experience without its online services ?

Ars Arcanum

Ars Arcanum

alt account
Banned
Feb 3, 2019
290
Right. So, I have recently started up a new playthrough in dark souls 1 with friends (remastered was on sale, so we all took the plunge) and this has gotten me into a bit of a souls mood.

Since Demon's Souls is the only souls game I haven't beaten, I have been interested in going back to it (I beat that first ooze boss that spawns a bunch of fodder). question is: Is it still viable to play? Obviously the core game is untouched, even without the online features, but I know from my experience with souls, the online component(messages, blood stains) is part of the journey. Still worth it? Discuss.
 

Skulldead

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,448
Yeah, the game still hard, but if you played other Soul game you are going to have no problem at all.
 
Kalentan

Kalentan

Member
Oct 25, 2017
44,581
Yeah. Though there is one boss (arguably one of it's most memorable) that is loses a really cool gimmick without online.
 
Cerulean_skylark

Cerulean_skylark

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account.
Banned
Oct 31, 2017
6,408
Ars Arcanum said:
Right. So, I have recently started up a new playthrough in dark souls 1 with friends (remastered was on sale, so we all took the plunge) and this has gotten me into a bit of a souls mood.

Since Demon's Souls is the only souls game I haven't beaten, I have been interested in going back to it (I beat that first ooze boss that spawns a bunch of fodder). question is: Is it still viable to play? Obviously the core game is untouched, even without the online features, but I know from my experience with souls, the online component(messages, blood stains) is part of the journey. Still worth it? Discuss.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Online can actually break your demon's souls experience. If you want to trigger certain world tendency actions, being online can make these impossible in a single run for various reasons.

Playing offline has always been perfectly fine, except for the old monk, nothing was as cool as accidentally discovering you can be summoned as the boss of a level.
 
Swiggins

Swiggins

was promised a tag
Member
Apr 10, 2018
11,442
I'd say it's still worth playing, the only real difference is that you'll fight the NPC version of the Old Monk fight, which is a push-over, but hey, what're you gonna do.
 
OP
OP
Ars Arcanum

Ars Arcanum

alt account
Banned
Feb 3, 2019
290
Kalentan said:
Yeah. Though there is one boss (arguably one of it's most memorable) that is loses a really cool gimmick without online.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I heard there's a boss that basically has you fighting another player (which is something I've encountered with the glass mirror boss in souls 2) was always curious if that's all the fight was.
 
Cerulean_skylark

Cerulean_skylark

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account.
Banned
Oct 31, 2017
6,408
Ars Arcanum said:
I heard there's a boss that basically has you fighting another player (which is something I've encountered with the glass mirror boss in souls 2) was always curious if that's all the fight was.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Yes, but it's much better than the looking glass knight. Since you ARE the boss, not just a summoned minion.
 
LakeEarth

LakeEarth

Member
Oct 27, 2017
8,163
Ontario
One annoying thing is that booting the game the first time takes an extra minute because it tries and fails to connect to the server.
 
Version 3.0

Version 3.0

Member
Oct 27, 2017
11,138
Absolutely still worth it. I played it offline more often than online. If you want to complete everything, then read up on World Tendency and how to adjust it offline. Otherwise, just play and enjoy.
 
el_galvon

el_galvon

Member
Jun 13, 2019
707
Yes, definitely. You still can experience most of everything this masterpiece of a game has to offer.

It will definitely be "clunkier" since you already played the most refined From Software games, but it still it's very unique in it's atmosphere.
 
zma1013

zma1013

Member
Oct 27, 2017
7,667
A bit of the atmosphere is lost, but otherwise it's a great game even without the online.

Funny enough, not having the ghosts of other players running around makes it feel like a ghost town. It's a lonelier experience for sure.

Feels... dead in a way, which should seem perfect for a a series featuring decaying dying lands but it feels like something is missing.
 
PennyStonks

PennyStonks

Banned
May 17, 2018
4,401
The monk is lame, but the only real issue is that world tendency is controlled only by you. If you die too much and get a dark world it is a pain in the ass to get it back to normal because you don't get other players killing bosses.
 

BigBlue

Alt-Account
Banned
Jun 6, 2019
203
Um yes, it's still one of the best games released on the PS3 with or without online
 
TeenageFBI

TeenageFBI

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,217
Even though I adore the note system and the player ghosts, I actually played this game mostly offline in order to make sense of the world tendency system.
 
Richter1887

Richter1887

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
39,143
Yes.

Not as good as it would feel cause you don't see other players spirits or the sticky white stuff words near every bed but overall it is more than fine.
 

Deleted member 679

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
14,741
Absolutely, still the third best Souls after Bloodborne and Dark Souls 1, in my opinion. It's a remarkable game even offline. The lovecraftian themes and plot, as well as the unique ethereal atmosphere are always great to come back to. The score by Shunsuke Kida still stands out among the rest of the series, that is more "traditionally epic".

By the way, there are private servers for the game that you can still use to get some of the experience back, follow this guide:


LakeEarth said:
One annoying thing is that booting the game the first time takes an extra minute because it tries and fails to connect to the server.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
This is the worst.
 
Ferrio

Ferrio

Member
Oct 25, 2017
18,041
Ars Arcanum said:
I heard there's a boss that basically has you fighting another player (which is something I've encountered with the glass mirror boss in souls 2) was always curious if that's all the fight was.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

You'll never get to experience ruining someones day by using a scraping spear against them as the boss. :(
 
Odeko

Odeko

One Winged Slayer
The Fallen
Mar 22, 2018
15,180
West Blue
If you're playing on PS3 and not an emulator, you can still connect to this server!


The population isn't high enough to make invasions likely but you'll still get messages and ghosts which is nice, and I think the admin added som nice cheat codes regarding world tendency which used to be a nightmare to control.
 
LiK

LiK

Member
Oct 25, 2017
32,017
Yes, it's still a fun experience. I had to play offline to change the World Tendency to my liking during replays.

You'll only miss out on one boss mechanic which required online to make it unique. If you played Dark Souls 3, they did something similar with a boss there.
 
InfiniDragon

InfiniDragon

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,305
Ferrio said:
You'll never get to experience ruining someones day by using a scraping spear against them as the boss. :(
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I just used one back on anyone asshole enough to break it out.

It's like, you wanna fist fight pal? Because you're not gonna have weapons or armor either. Scraping Spear was the nuclear option in that game.
 
Fisty

Fisty

Member
Oct 25, 2017
20,180
Only thing (in 2019) that would be greatly diminished by not having the servers up is Pure Bladestone acquisition. Instead of finding somebody to just hand you one, you gotta painfully farm one. You werent going to find many co-op partners or invaders these days anyway, I certainly didnt in 2014
 
Inuhanyou

Inuhanyou

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
14,214
New Jersey
single player offline souls is still fun...it was designed with that in mind as well after all. not as fun as online experience but still very fun
 
Bulebule

Bulebule

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,803
It still holds up very well in offline. Only part I still hate is the limited amount of crystal lizards per playthrough since they hold unique drops in certain worlds with certain tendencies.
 
InfiniDragon

InfiniDragon

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,305
signal said:
Yes. Enjoy the best bosses in the franchise.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I dunno if I can agree there, everything that wasn't Astraea in VoD was lame, Phalanx was rubbish, Dragon God was a puzzle fight. Maneater was only tough because controls in Demon's were janky.

Allant (the cool one), Tower Knight (EDIT: and Flamelurker!) and Old Monk were great but I honestly think I give the best boss nod to Dark III.

Nameless King, Friede, Gael, Twin Princes, Gundyr, Soul of Cinder, Pontiff, Abyss Watchers; it had so many memorable fights.
 
zma1013

zma1013

Member
Oct 27, 2017
7,667
Bulebule said:
It still holds up very well in offline. Only part I still hate is the limited amount of crystal lizards per playthrough since they hold unique drops in certain worlds with certain tendencies.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

There's always the dupe glitch to get infinite amounts of anything. I have 99 pure bladestone. Yep.
 

Deleted member 17402

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
7,125
It's really interesting to me that some people think to even ask this, given how some people such as myself have played and loved the Souls series to death, yet we never, ever utilized online features.

The idea that this game is somehow less without its online features is so foreign to me. I never viewed these games as requiring the online features to truly experience what was meant to be. I only took online and invasions as something extra. I think if I viewed it through the lens that's posed in the OP, which is whether or not the Souls games are worth playing without online, then I'd be very disappointed. I can't imagine seeing these games as anything but solo experiences. Online never crosses my mind.
 
Chopchop

Chopchop

Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,171
Still well worth playing, but keep in mind that the game's ideas are a lot more experimental than what we got in later Souls games. A lot of areas and bosses in Demon's Souls feel almost like concept levels or rough drafts. Some parts are very gimmicky, and the level design is generally far less forgiving than that of later games. It's interesting to see which ideas carried over into later games and which ones were left behind.

Ars Arcanum said:
I heard there's a boss that basically has you fighting another player (which is something I've encountered with the glass mirror boss in souls 2) was always curious if that's all the fight was.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
In its original form, the boss is a possessed person. A player in the area gets summoned to take the place of the boss, and then someone challenging the boss has to face that player in a PvP fight. This added a lot of variation to the boss fight because if you played as the boss, you could either go easy on the guy, or bring all of your PvP stuff to kick the guy's ass.

Personally, when I challenged the boss myself, whoever played the boss was some asshat who spammed me with equipment break spells and destroyed ALL of my equipment lol. I both lost and had to pay out the ass to get my stuff fixed. The next time I attempted the boss, no one "took his place" and I cleared it without much incident.

Without online, this boss is basically a PvP NPC fight.
 
Last edited:

Deleted member 679

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
14,741
TheFallenSaboteur said:
It's really interesting to me that some people think to even ask this, given how some people such as myself have played and loved the Souls series to death, yet we never, ever utilized online features.

The idea that this game is somehow less without its online features is so foreign to me. I never viewed these games as requiring the online features to truly experience what was meant to be. I only took online and invasions as something extra. I think if I viewed it through the lens that's posed in the OP, which is whether or not the Souls games are worth playing without online, then I'd be very disappointed. I can't imagine seeing these games as anything but solo experiences. Online never crosses my mind.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
The active multiplayer is one thing, but messages and ghosts of other players are always a great part of the experience, in my opinion, as someone who plays mostly solo.

I can't see how online will never cross your mind when playing Demon's offline, since you have to stare at the "Trying to connect to server" for like a minute before you can play. Dark Souls was the one to add the very quick "game will start in offline mode" popup, and only starting with 2 that you could choose offline mode by yourself without turning off your internet.
 

Deleted member 17402

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
7,125
Gbraga said:
The active multiplayer is one thing, but messages and ghosts of other players are always a great part of the experience, in my opinion, as someone who plays mostly solo.

I can't see how online will never cross your mind when playing Demon's offline, since you have to stare at the "Trying to connect to server" for like a minute before you can play. Dark Souls was the one to add the very quick "game will start in offline mode" popup, and only starting with 2 that you could choose offline mode by yourself without turning off your internet.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
You took what I said too literally. It's been years since I played it but beyond reading that it's trying to connect online, I am never thinking of the experience requiring online after the fact. Ever.

Also I never read messages in these games. I might've the first few I came across that were inputted by the game itself, but I never connected online to see what others had to say. It's just not something I think or care to do. I don't view these games as being better with online. They might technically be, but because I rely so much of playing games on myself only, I don't want to view these games like that.
 
Last edited:
signal

signal

Member
Oct 28, 2017
40,170
InfiniDragon said:
I dunno if I can agree there, everything that wasn't Astraea in VoD was lame, Phalanx was rubbish, Dragon God was a puzzle fight. Maneater was only tough because controls in Demon's were janky.

Allant (the cool one), Tower Knight (EDIT: and Flamelurker!) and Old Monk were great but I honestly think I give the best boss nod to Dark III.

Nameless King, Friede, Gael, Twin Princes, Gundyr, Soul of Cinder, Pontiff, Abyss Watchers; it had so many memorable fights.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Original gimmick fights > humanoid rehashes. IMO. Storm King forever.
 
Bulebule

Bulebule

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,803
zma1013 said:
There's always the dupe glitch to get infinite amounts of anything. I have 99 pure bladestone. Yep.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I love the Stockpile Thomas-glitch too, but didn't really help when in one playthrough I didn't even get the pure stone from lizards in level 4-3 (or 3-3, can't remember) at pure black world tendency, even though I killed them all. I was mad :D
 
Caspar

Caspar

Member
Oct 29, 2017
1,402
UK
You could always wait till after the Game Awards next week to see what the likely Demon's Souls remaster/remake looks like. An announcement seems pretty imminent if Bluepoint's twitter account is anything to go by.
 
CRIMSON-XIII

CRIMSON-XIII

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,173
Chicago, IL
Casper said:
You could always wait till after the Game Awards next week to see what the likely Demon's Souls remaster/remake looks like. An announcement seems pretty imminent if Bluepoint's twitter account is anything to go by.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Way more chance to get something like Legend of Dragoon IMO or Siphon Filter. Something completely out of left field that is a lot older that could benefit from a remake. Not something playable within the last generation. I get that folks want it though. It could still happen.
 
Caspar

Caspar

Member
Oct 29, 2017
1,402
UK
CRIMSON-XIII said:
Way more chance to get something like Legend of Dragoon IMO or Siphon Filter. Something completely out of left field that is a lot older that could benefit from a remake. Not something playable within the last generation. I get that folks want it though. It could still happen.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
The whole "Cheers rekindle flames" and "We reset to further adorn the genesis, An era reborn" parts from their latest tease really shout DS, but there's rumours of there being two games in the making at the studio so we could both be right.
 
bbq of doom

bbq of doom

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,606
CRIMSON-XIII said:
Way more chance to get something like Legend of Dragoon IMO or Siphon Filter. Something completely out of left field that is a lot older that could benefit from a remake. Not something playable within the last generation. I get that folks want it though. It could still happen.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I dunno about that. At this point, if it's not Demon's Souls, Bluepoint is pulling a massive troll job. The tweet a few days ago so plainly references DeS they might as well have name dropped it.

 
You must log in or register to reply here.