Demon's Souls Review

Demon’s Souls was released for the PS3 in 2009 and is an extremely influential game that led to the creation of an entire sub-genre now known as “Souls/Borne” in the video game market.  It and the games that followed in its footsteps are notorious for their difficulty and, unfortunately, have led to game journalists to start to compare any game with a moderate difficulty level to the original Souls/Borne games, mainly Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls 1, 2, and 3, as well as Bloodborne.  I personally feel that this not only does a disservice to the Souls/Borne games but it also does a disservice to the games that are being compared to the Soul/Borne games.  (If any game journalists out there ever see this review, please, just stop.)

The story of Demon’s Souls is that you are an adventurer who has answered the call to investigate and save the kingdom of Boletaria, which has vanished behind a massive fog wall after it’s king, King Allant got extremely power hungry, and from the demons that inhabit the land.  As you just begin to adventure beyond the fog into the lost kingdom you are killed and your soul gets captured by the Nexus, a place designed to trap the souls of the fallen until the Old One is lulled back to sleep, at which point the trapped souls will be released.  The full story of the game is told in a minimalistic fashion; you have to piece it together through the minimal dialog with the NPCs you come across and the item descriptions of the things you find.  This leads to each player having their own interpretation of the history of the kingdom as well as to what exactly is going on.

Graphically, Demon’s Souls was not that impressive as all the visuals are a bit on the watered down side, even by the standards of the time it came out.  This actually isn’t as big of a negative as some might think because, as muddied down as the graphics are, the graphics actually set the atmosphere of despair and futility that the game relies on to draw the player into the world of Demon’s Souls.  The visual design of each area in the game is unique and gives the different areas a completely different flavor from one another other than the general atmosphere of despair.

Musically, the game is beautiful, that is, when you actually have music because a lot of the areas only use music for key encounters such as boss fights in order to maintain the proper atmosphere that the game is going for.  The only really compliant I have with the music is when the music is changes in the Nexus because the first piece of music in the Nexus is a much more fitting piece than the second one is.  As for the rest of the sound in the game, it is nothing extremely special but it does always fit for the interactions between the player, the environment, and the action that was taken.

The performance of the game is, for the most part top notch, but there are a few areas where the game clearly struggles to keep the framerates up, with the most notorious of these areas being the Shrine of Storms and the boss encounter at the very end of that area.

When it comes to the gameplay, Demon’s Souls shines in most places even though the controls can feel slightly clunky at first but you quickly learn to adjust this and you start to see that is all make sense in the context of the game.  Because of the slightly clunky feel to the controls, combat can feel a bit sluggish but that actually fits the slower paced and methodical combat the game employs.  Once you adjust to the controls, because the game just isn’t as fast paced as the other games of the time, everything begins to flow smoothly and it becomes easy to forget about the once challenging controls.

Demon’s Souls is the progenitor to a whole new sub-genre and, while slightly flawed, that makes it a masterpiece in my eyes.  The punishing difficulty, while not for everyone, leads those who push through and overcome the challenges that are presented to a wonderful sense of accomplishment.  In all honesty, while I think that it is extremely unlikely that we will ever see a remastered version of Demon’s Souls on the current generation of consoles, like we are with Dark Souls, I would happily purchase this game again if it was remastered in any fashion.  The Souls/Borne games as some of my favorites and I would happily buy any of them multiple times and I recommend that if you have never tried any of the games, that you don’t let the difficulty dissuade you from picking one up and giving it a shot, you might just be surprised at how much you like it.

Graphics – 9

Performance – 9

Sound – 10

Gameplay – 10

Story – 10

Replayability – 10

Total – 9.7 out of 10

- Arylin Michelle

Shadow of the Colossus (PS2) Retro Review

Since we saw a release of a Shadow of the Colossus Remaster earlier this year, I thought it would be fun to go back and do a review of the original game on the PS2.  Shadow of the Colossus has been hailed as a masterpiece and I will concede that it is a masterpiece, but it is a flawed masterpiece.  Saying this might get all the fanboys after me with their torches but this is my opinion and they can get over it.

The story of Shadow of the Colossus is told in a rather minimalist fashion.  You, the Wanderer, are led by an unknown being on a quest to slay colossi in an effort to perform a ritual to bring a girl back to life.  Beyond that, it is up to you to piece together the story from the bits and pieces that you learn over the course of the game.  I personally like games that utilize minimalistic story telling because it encourages the player to use their imagination to fill in the blanks which creates a bit more personalized experience.

Graphically, this game was awesome for its time.  The environments, while a bit empty and devoid of life, matched the setting perfectly and were a rather breathtaking view to take in.  The character models themselves, from everything from the Wanderer to Agro and even the colossi themselves, are well designed with the tiniest details taken into consideration in their creation.

For the most part, the game performs admirably but there are times when, in some of the battles with the colossi, that there were some framerate drops.  Due to the size of the environments and the detail when it comes to the colossi models, I can’t say that I am surprised given the limitations of the technology back when it was released.

Musically, the game is a bit minimalist as well, choosing only to use music when it is the most effective in setting the mood for the fights as they are about to begin.  The rest of the sound in the game is fairly high quality as well, though the calls for Agro, the Wanderers horse, and the grunts in the battles can get a bit repetitive.

The gameplay is where this game both shines and fails at the same time.  I say that it shines because the intricate designs of the colossi themselves creates clever puzzles that the player must figure out in order to take down their massive prey and that was one of the things that brought me the most joy.  I also said that it fails as well because of the horribly clunky controls for the Wanderer.  The Wanderer controls about like a greased watermelon and you can never tell if he is actually going to follow the commands that you input into the controller.  On top of that, sometimes the hitboxes are off so that you miss that ledge that you clearly should have grabbed or you die when you clearly weren’t close enough to get smashed by your prey.

All in all, Shadow of the Colossus is a wonderful game that is a work of art but it has a few deeply flawed issues that can, at times, be close to game breaking.  That said, I love this game just as I loved Ico before it and I look forward to one day playing the remaster if I can find a good enough deal on it.

(The scores take the standards of the games at the time of release into consideration as opposed to today’s standards)

Graphics – 10

Performance – 8

Sound – 10

Gameplay – 6

Story – 8

Replayability – 8

Total – 8.3 out of 10

- Arylin Michelle

Dragon Quest Builders Review

Dragon Quest Builders for the PS4 is reminiscent of Minecraft, and why shouldn’t it be?  It is clearly inspired by Minecraft in many aspects of its gameplay while maintaining the charm of the Dragon Quest franchise.  Personally, I am not a fan of Minecraft, though I do find the creativity allowed to be the most enjoyable aspect of games like it.  I actually enjoyed this game enough that, despite its flaws, I was jumping with joy when I found out that Dragon Quest Builders 2 in currently in development.  Full disclosure - I am, however, a huge fan of the Dragon Quest franchise and have been playing them since the original (then called Dragon Warrior in the US) came out on the NES.  In fact, when Square and Enix merged, I was extremely excited because my two favorite franchises would now be under the same roof. 

When it comes the graphical standards of today, Dragon Quest Builders can seem to be a bit underwhelming to some but I personally found them to be perfect for this game.  The character and enemy models are a bit on the cutesy side of things but that actually fits the art style that the series is known for.  Visually, all the enemies in the game keep true to the designs they have had over the many years that this franchise has been active and that is a wonderful thing.  The world itself is designed in a blocky style which fits the style of game that they are going for but luckily the developers managed to maintain Dragon Quest’s artistic flair despite the blocky feel.

Performance wise, the game excelled, running smoothly for me the entire time without any framerate issues at all.  This lack of issues, when it comes to performance, tends to be getting rarer and rarer these days as more and more game companies push their unfinished products out the door for the general public to have while hoping they can fix all the issues at a later time with patches. 

Musically, this game is beautiful, with up dated scores from previous games in the franchise.  All the tracks bring back memories of the other games as it hits all the nostalgic switches in my brain.  There is even an option, later in the game, to convert the music back to the original 8bit soundtrack of the first game in the franchise.

Gameplay in Dragon Quest Builders is, at times, incredibly repetitive as you build your towns up from ruins, fortifying them for the inevitable boss battles at the end of the stage.  That said, all the controls are tight and responsive.  The combat itself is simple but fun and it helps to break up the monotony of the gathering parts of the game.  The amount of creativity allowed in the building portions is simply amazing as well and, if you desire, in the free build portion of your game, you can share your creations as well as view the marvelous creations of others

The story of Dragon Quest builders is a bit lacking as it feels more like a vehicle to get you to new areas and newer materials for building as opposed to a real story.  Each chapter has its own story that plays into the overarching story of the world and each chapter has its own unique cast of characters that are both equally parts charming and goofy, which helps to create a truly special atmosphere over all.

Graphics – 8

Performance – 10

Sound – 10

Gameplay – 8

Story – 6

Replayability – 10

Total – 8.7 out of 10

- Arylin Michelle