Demon's Souls Turns Two
And to celebrate, Atlus is doing what they do best: world tendency events!
Published: October 7, 2011
The enviable word-of-mouth-powered success of Demon's Souls came as a surprise to just about everyone but those who had played the game. To play Demon's Souls -- really play it instead of listening to the nigh-hyperbolic statements about the difficulty or the variety of environments or the sense of accomplishment or the risk/reward balance -- is to understand why the game developed such a die-hard following.
For one, the game is intentionally vague about just about everything outside of the basic mechanics. Entire parts of the game's functionality are a mystery until one seeks out online wikis and forums for more information. Take, for instance, World Tendency. As you play through the world of Demon's Souls the balance can shift from dark to light (when, say, slaying one of the many bosses) or from light to dark (when, say, you die. Every time you die, in fact). When the World Tendency trends toward light, enemies are easier to defeat. When it turns dark, enemies get harder, and yes, that means every time you die, the game actually becomes more difficult.
Thankfully, the community that sprouted up around From Software's curious role-playing game is a friendly and extremely helpful one -- no doubt one of the biggest reasons for the game's success. Another just might be the commitment that North American publisher Atlus has made to keeping the game relevant. They recently announced the game's servers would stay online into 2012 (despite the fact that the game's spiritual successor is now in stores), and over the past two years have regularly organized events around World Tendency.
Cue the announcement of a second anniversary series of World Tendency events. As of yesterday, the whole of Boletaria (that's Demon's Souls' world, don'cha know) has been washed in Pure White and will stay that way until October 17th. Come then, and for the rest of the month, the world will be Pure Black. So what's the big deal with things being completely White or Black? For one, the game is obviously more forgiving or challenging depending on the Tendency, but there are entire areas that are completely inaccessible unless the world is in one Pure state or another.
Ordinarily, this process would be rather painstaking (read: plenty of deaths, invasions of games, flawless boss runs, etc.), and completely reversing a Tendency is a herculean task -- often something best saved for a New Game+ run through things. In short, this is a big deal, and Atlus is clearly doing it for the fans.
"Two years ago today, Demon's Souls' launch day, was one of the most exciting, unpredictable times in our company's two-decade history," Tim Pivnicny, Atlus' VP of Marketing and Sales, reminisced yesterday. "We recognized the caliber of the game. We were certain that fears about it being too challenging for our market were unfounded. Still, we had no idea what to expect. Our modest launch was immediately exhausted, as was the physical pre-order gift at participating retailers, a collectible booklet containing a tangible 24-track, 71 minute soundtrack CD and 36 pages of full color artwork printed on deluxe paper. Our painstakingly designed and assembled Deluxe Edition--still the only place our official 160-page strategy guide was ever made available--disappeared before the month was up. It became a phenomenon, our biggest title ever. Most importantly, Demon's Souls has achieved a rare status of prestige, owed to the tireless support and promotion of the game from the best community of fans in the world. It's easy for some to take that kind of support for granted, but for us, it would be straight up 5-2."
That's right, Pivnicy is throwing down the DS lingo, kids. Atlus loves this game, gamers love this game and we looooooooooooooooooove the game. There's probably no better time to check things out than now. What better way to hone your skills for the even more difficult Dark Souls? There isn't one, silly. Now go get that game! Or pop it back in if you've already got it to see a world of White -- at least for another week or so.
For one, the game is intentionally vague about just about everything outside of the basic mechanics. Entire parts of the game's functionality are a mystery until one seeks out online wikis and forums for more information. Take, for instance, World Tendency. As you play through the world of Demon's Souls the balance can shift from dark to light (when, say, slaying one of the many bosses) or from light to dark (when, say, you die. Every time you die, in fact). When the World Tendency trends toward light, enemies are easier to defeat. When it turns dark, enemies get harder, and yes, that means every time you die, the game actually becomes more difficult.
Thankfully, the community that sprouted up around From Software's curious role-playing game is a friendly and extremely helpful one -- no doubt one of the biggest reasons for the game's success. Another just might be the commitment that North American publisher Atlus has made to keeping the game relevant. They recently announced the game's servers would stay online into 2012 (despite the fact that the game's spiritual successor is now in stores), and over the past two years have regularly organized events around World Tendency.
Cue the announcement of a second anniversary series of World Tendency events. As of yesterday, the whole of Boletaria (that's Demon's Souls' world, don'cha know) has been washed in Pure White and will stay that way until October 17th. Come then, and for the rest of the month, the world will be Pure Black. So what's the big deal with things being completely White or Black? For one, the game is obviously more forgiving or challenging depending on the Tendency, but there are entire areas that are completely inaccessible unless the world is in one Pure state or another.
Ordinarily, this process would be rather painstaking (read: plenty of deaths, invasions of games, flawless boss runs, etc.), and completely reversing a Tendency is a herculean task -- often something best saved for a New Game+ run through things. In short, this is a big deal, and Atlus is clearly doing it for the fans.
"Two years ago today, Demon's Souls' launch day, was one of the most exciting, unpredictable times in our company's two-decade history," Tim Pivnicny, Atlus' VP of Marketing and Sales, reminisced yesterday. "We recognized the caliber of the game. We were certain that fears about it being too challenging for our market were unfounded. Still, we had no idea what to expect. Our modest launch was immediately exhausted, as was the physical pre-order gift at participating retailers, a collectible booklet containing a tangible 24-track, 71 minute soundtrack CD and 36 pages of full color artwork printed on deluxe paper. Our painstakingly designed and assembled Deluxe Edition--still the only place our official 160-page strategy guide was ever made available--disappeared before the month was up. It became a phenomenon, our biggest title ever. Most importantly, Demon's Souls has achieved a rare status of prestige, owed to the tireless support and promotion of the game from the best community of fans in the world. It's easy for some to take that kind of support for granted, but for us, it would be straight up 5-2."
That's right, Pivnicy is throwing down the DS lingo, kids. Atlus loves this game, gamers love this game and we looooooooooooooooooove the game. There's probably no better time to check things out than now. What better way to hone your skills for the even more difficult Dark Souls? There isn't one, silly. Now go get that game! Or pop it back in if you've already got it to see a world of White -- at least for another week or so.
