Demon's Souls is a 2009 action role-playing game created by FromSoftware and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 3. It was first released in Japan in February 2009, in North America by Atlus in October 2009, and in PAL regions by Namco Bandai Partners in June 2010. The game is considered a spiritual successor to FromSoftware's earlier King's Field series.
The game takes place in Boletaria, a kingdom destroyed by a dark being called the Old One after it used forbidden magic known as Soul Arts. Players control a hero sent to Boletaria to defeat the fallen king, Allant, and stop the Old One. The game features five different worlds connected through a central area called the Nexus. Combat is difficult, and players must deal with the consequences of dying and returning to previous points in the game. Online features allow players to work together or fight each other in special events.
Developed as a joint project between FromSoftware and Sony's Japan Studio, the game faced early challenges because the team lacked a clear plan. Designer Hidetaka Miyazaki took charge and helped shape the game into its final form. The game's difficulty was meant to honor classic video games and give players a sense of achievement. Miyazaki worried Sony might ask the team to make the game easier for more players.
Announced in 2008, early feedback on a demo of Demon's Souls was mostly negative. Sony initially refused to publish the game outside Japan due to its high difficulty. The game sold slowly in Japan at first but later became popular in Western countries because of positive reviews. It was praised for its tough combat and engaging gameplay, winning many awards. Demon's Souls introduced key ideas that became central to the Soulslike genre and is now considered one of the greatest games ever made. Its success led to the creation of the Dark Souls series. FromSoftware's partnership with Sony also resulted in games like Bloodborne and Déraciné. A remade version of Demon's Souls was released in 2020 for the PlayStation 5.
Gameplay
Demon's Souls is a type of action role-playing game where players control an adventurer. At the start of the game, players choose the character's appearance and gender. These choices affect game statistics, such as strength and speed. Each player begins with a character class that influences their abilities, but these can be changed later by using different weapons. The game world is divided into six areas: one central hub called the Nexus and five other regions. Each of these regions has three areas that end with a boss fight, except for the first region, which has four areas. Combat depends on timing, with different weapons offering unique attack styles and movement speeds. Most actions use a stamina meter, which is important for managing energy during battles. When enemies are defeated, players earn Souls. Souls are used to increase character abilities and buy new weapons, armor, and items. As players improve, more Souls are needed to level up. Players can also find items like weapons and materials for upgrades.
If a player dies during a level, they return to the start of that level. All enemies (except bosses) respawn, and the player returns in a weaker form with less health and lost unused Souls. If the player reaches the "bloodstain" where they died, they can recover their lost Souls. If they die before reaching the bloodstain, the Souls are lost forever. After defeating a boss, players can return to that spot using an Archstone. When not exploring, players rest in the Nexus, a central area where they can trade Souls, store items, and travel between regions. After completing part of the first region, players can choose to explore other regions.
The game includes multiplayer features for players connected to the PlayStation Network. While exploring, players may see other players' actions as ghosts, which can reveal hidden paths or switches. When a player dies, a bloodstain appears in other players' games. Activating the bloodstain shows a ghost of the player's final moments, helping others avoid similar dangers. Players can leave messages on the ground to warn others about safe spots, traps, or strategies. In co-operative play, up to three players can team up in a shared world. Players appear as ghosts until a boss is defeated. In competitive play, players can invade another's world as a "Black Phantom" to fight. If the Black Phantom wins, they return to their game, but if they lose, the host gains Souls and the Black Phantom loses experience. Some multiplayer features are tied to specific game events.
The game uses two systems called World Tendency and Character Tendency. Character Tendency affects the whole game and is shaped by the player's actions. Starting as neutral, players can shift to "black" or "white" tendencies. Black tendency happens by killing NPCs, being hostile to others, or dying often. White tendency occurs by helping others, defeating bosses, or being kind. World Tendency only affects specific regions. Black tendency increases enemy strength but offers better rewards, while white tendency weakens enemies but reduces rare item chances. World Tendency is also influenced by the overall behavior of players in that area. At the extremes of these tendencies, special events and new areas become available.
Plot
Demon's Souls is set in the kingdom of Boletaria. Long ago, the misuse of magic called the Soul Arts caused Boletaria to be attacked by a creature named the Old One. A magical fog called the "Deep Fog" spread across the land, creating demons that ate souls. The Old One was eventually put to sleep, saving what remained of Boletaria. Some survivors lived for a very long time to warn future people about the dangers of the Soul Arts.
In the game's present time, Boletaria's ruler, King Allant, brought back the Soul Arts, which awakened the Old One and its army of demons. Now, Boletaria is being taken over by demons, and humans without souls turn into wild, dangerous creatures. Players control an adventurer who enters the fog-covered land of Boletaria. After dying, the player wakes up in a place called the Nexus, where they meet a kind demon named the Maiden in Black and other characters.
The player is tied to the Nexus until the Old One is put to sleep again. They must travel through five areas of Boletaria, defeat the powerful demons in each region, and gain strength by absorbing the demons' souls. Eventually, the player faces a false version of King Allant, who is actually a demon. After defeating the fake king, the Maiden in Black takes the player—now called the "Slayer of Demons"—to the Old One. There, the Slayer of Demons confronts the real King Allant, who has been changed into a helpless, blob-like demon inside the Old One's body. The Maiden in Black then puts the Old One to sleep once more.
If the Slayer of Demons leaves the Old One, they are celebrated as the hero of Boletaria, which is now damaged but saved. They become a new Monumental to help protect the world as knowledge of the Soul Arts fades. If the Slayer of Demons kills the Maiden in Black, they become a new demon serving the Old One, helping it grow stronger as the fog spreads.
Development
Demon's Souls was created by FromSoftware, a company known for making the King's Field and Armored Core game series. The project was first suggested and supported by Japan Studio. Hidetaka Miyazaki, who joined FromSoftware in 2004 and worked as a coder on the Armored Core series, directed the game. Masanori Takeuchi from FromSoftware and Takeshi Kajii from Sony co-produced the game. Kajii first proposed the idea of bringing back a "lost breed of action game." Early development faced challenges because the team lacked a clear plan. After learning about a failed high fantasy role-playing game, Miyazaki decided to take over the project, believing he could shape it freely since it was already struggling. The game took about three years to complete.
The initial idea for Demon's Souls came from FromSoftware's King's Field series. Miyazaki was inspired by the series' dark tone and high difficulty but did not want the game to be linked to King's Field. Many people still call it a spiritual successor, though Miyazaki wanted to return to gaming basics by creating a challenging, gameplay-focused experience. He aimed to recreate the dark fantasy and intense style of classic RPGs like King's Field and Wizardry on modern consoles, adding online features. Miyazaki acknowledged similarities to games like Monster Hunter and Bushido Blade but said no specific games influenced Demon's Souls. The game's concept changed little during development, and the final version was not playable until late in the process, with some technical issues. The team had creative freedom, which Kajii called "fortunate timing and release schedules."
During development, the Souls system was discussed often. The team decided players should not lose Souls, as this would make the game less rewarding. Miyazaki carefully explained the system to Sony, fearing they might change it if they knew the full details. He also kept the game's high difficulty a secret, knowing Sony might want it lowered. Kajii supported this decision. Miyazaki did not intend the game to be overly hard but wanted it to be challenging and rewarding. One idea, permanent death, was scrapped as too extreme. Combat variety was added by changing how weapons affected movement, similar to The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Bosses were designed around simple ideas and made to be exciting and varied.
The multiplayer features were inspired by Miyazaki's experience driving in snowy conditions. He saw cars pushing each other uphill to move traffic, creating a sense of cooperation. This idea led to the Phantom system, with Black and Blue Phantoms adding variety. The messaging system was designed to be non-intrusive, like text messages. Miyazaki compared it to the brevity of an email to help Sony understand it. The team avoided group play, focusing instead on enhancing single-player content. The Old Monk battle, which allowed summoning a Black Phantom during a boss fight, had many bugs to fix.
The game's story avoided a preset narrative to focus on gameplay. The world's tone and style were inspired by King's Field and influenced by Miyazaki and Kajii, who liked dark fantasy. Miyazaki drew from European folklore, mythology, and movies like Conan the Barbarian and Excalibur, as well as the artwork of Frank Frazetta. Old gamebooks also influenced the design. The dark art style reflected the game's challenging gameplay. The Maiden in Black was added at Kajii's request, with no eyes to avoid weak character modeling. Miyazaki originally planned more worlds, such as a Library and an area for the Nexus, but these were cut. The Tower of Latria and Valley of Defilement were built around themes of man-made and natural evil.
The music was composed by Shunsuke Kida, who had experience with Japanese TV series but few video games. His skill in orchestral music made him a good fit. The music was dark, with pieces for solo violin or piano and full orchestral tracks. Vocal work was choral to match the game's atmosphere. Three tracks featured vocals by Japanese singer Kokia.
Release
Demon's Souls was first announced in early October 2008 in a magazine called Famitsu. The game was playable at the Tokyo Game Show the next week. The demo at the show was described by Kajii as "a disaster" because it was very difficult. Many people thought the game's combat was not finished, and Kajii said the game was not ready for a demo. Sony's president, Shuhei Yoshida, was also unimpressed. He tried playing the game for two hours but could not leave the starting area. He called the game "a very poor quality game."
The game was released in Japan on February 5, 2009, by Sony Computer Entertainment Japan. Because of negative feedback from Sony employees and the Japanese press, Sony decided not to release the game in Western countries. This decision was later regretted by Sony and Yoshida. Sony did create an English version of the game for the Asian market, translated by Active Gaming Media. The Chinese version was released on February 26.
The game's voice acting was in English for all versions. Because of its Medieval European setting, the team chose not to use American English actors. Most actors were Scottish. The game was translated from Japanese to English by Active Gaming Media. James Mountain of Active Gaming Media was the main translator. He tried to make the dialogue sound natural. He did not see the game's art or videos until later in the process. He described the game as an "action-oriented RPG" with knights, dragons, and demons. An earlier version of the translation used old-fashioned words like "thee" and "thy" mixed with modern terms. Mountain thought this version was poor and revised it. He did not work directly with the developers, but he received feedback on translations for game systems like item descriptions. His translations for dialogue and story elements were accepted without further comments.
The game was licensed for release in North America by Atlus. Sony was hesitant to let a third-party publisher handle the game but wanted it to find a good audience. First-party publishing was no longer an option. The North American version mainly fixed grammar and accuracy issues from the overseas version. Atlus knew the game was very hard but was impressed by its quality and decided to release it. Because of its difficulty, Atlus expected low sales. The game was released in North America on October 6, 2010, in both standard and limited editions.
Before the game was released in the United States, it was unclear if it would be released in PAL regions (Europe and Australia). Sony Computer Entertainment Europe and Atlus said they had no plans to publish the game there. On April 16, 2010, Namco Bandai Partners, a company owned by Namco Bandai Games, signed a deal with Sony to publish the game in PAL regions. The European version was released on June 25, 2010, in standard and limited editions.
North American servers for Demon's Souls were planned to shut down in October 2011, two years after the game's release. Atlus decided to keep the servers running until May 2012. Later, after some changes, Atlus said the servers would stay open "indefinitely." The servers were finally closed worldwide in February 2018. This ended multiplayer features, messaging, and the World Tendency system. A few months after the servers closed, fans created a private server to restore online functions.
Reception
When Demon's Souls was released in Japan, critics generally praised it. Dengeki gave the game scores of 95, 85, 85, and 85, totaling 350 out of 400, stating that "fans of old-school games will shed tears of joy." Famitsu scored it 29 out of 40 (9/7/7/6), with editor Paint Yamamoto giving it a 9 and calling it "a game you learn how to play by losing – you'll face sudden death frequently. But! Keep playing… and you'll realize how deep it really is." Another editor, Maria Kichiji, gave it a 6 and said the game was "far too serious… it's not a game for everybody."
In North America, the game received high praise, with an average critic score of 89 out of 100 on Metacritic. Many reviewers noted that the game's difficulty, while challenging, made it more rewarding to play. GameSpot described the difficulty as "fair," explaining that players would "undoubtedly take a lot of damage until you learn the subtleties of fighting each enemy, but combat feels just right." IGN agreed, saying players who "can remember the good ol' days when games taught through the highly effective use of negative reinforcement and a heavy price for not playing it carefully should scoop this up instantly." Game Informer called it "one of the first truly great Japanese RPGs of this generation, and certainly the most remarkable." However, Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine said the game was "best left to the most masochistic, hardcore gamer."
GameZone praised the online features as "innovative" and "perfectly blended into the game," while Game Revolution said the online aspect "turns a solitary experience into a surprisingly communal one." GamesRadar called the game "graphically stunning, too, looking more like the old Ultima games than anything that’s ever come out of Japan," and GameTrailers said the game "nails the dark fantasy look" with "music from actual instruments," though they noted some issues with the physics engine being "jittery." Shortly after its North American release, ScrewAttack named Demon's Souls as the eighth best PS3 exclusive to date.
Before its release in Europe, European critics reviewed import copies. Journalist Keza MacDonald from Eurogamer wrote: "Precisely because the odds are so stacked against you, precisely because the game sometimes seems to hate you with every fibre of its being, when you do finally kill the…boss monster that ended you within half a minute the first time you approached it, the resulting heart-in-mouth euphoria is the purest kind of gaming thrill." Edge explained their positive view on the difficulty by stating, "If gaming’s ultimate appeal lies in the learning and mastering of new skills, then surely the medium’s keenest thrills are to be found in its hardest lessons," concluding, "For those who flourish under Demon’s Souls’ strict examination, there's no greater sense of virtual achievement."
During its first week on sale, Demon's Souls reached the second spot on the sales charts with more than 39,000 copies sold, coming in behind the previous week's top-seller, Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 2. The game sold through 95% of its shipment during its debut, selling out in several stores. According to Miyazaki, initial sales for Demon's Souls were slow in Japan, which combined with negative reactions from trade shows made the team fearful that the game would be a failure. However, positive word of mouth eventually allowed the game to sell over 100,000 copies, which the team considered a success. It sold 134,585 copies in Japan by December 2009.
Atlus had estimated the game's sales at 75,000 units, preparing initial shipments of 15,000 units before positive word of mouth and critical acclaim caused sales to take off. In North America, the game was the eleventh best-selling title during its month of release, posting sales of 150,000 units. By March 2010, the game had sold 250,000 copies in North America. According to Atlus, the game sold triple their original estimates by April 2010. During their fiscal year report, Atlus' parent company, Index Corporation, reported profits of over $3 million. This was almost entirely attributed to the commercial success of Demon's Souls. In September 2010, Atlus announced that Demon's Souls would be released in North America under the Sony Greatest Hits label with a price cut following strong sales, higher than previously expected by the publisher. Its status indicated regional sales of over 500,000 units.
In the United Kingdom, the game's special edition sold out very fast apart from "dribs and drabs." This was classed as a success by Namco Bandai Partners, particularly due to the long delay between the North American and European releases. While units sold did not reach hundreds of thousands at the time, Namco Bandai were confident in the game's future commercial success. Demon's Souls favorable review scores made the fiscal performance of the game unique because of the lack of a supporting marketing campaign. Gaming analyst Jesse Divnich commented, "Demon's Souls is probably one of the most statistically relevant games released in the gaming world as it helps answer an often asked question: how much would a high quality game sell if it was supported by no mass marketing, released by a little known publisher, and was a new intellectual property." As of 2011, the game has sold over one million copies worldwide.
In their 2009 Best and Worst Awards, GameSpot named Demon's Souls as Overall Game of the Year, Best PS3 game, Best Role-Playing game, and Best Original Game Mechanic for the online integration. GameTrailers awarded it Best RPG and Best New intellectual property. IGN also awarded the game Best RPG for the PS3. X-Play awarded the multiplayer Best Gameplay Innovation. PC World awarded it Game of the Year. RPGamer awarded Demon's Souls RPG of the Year 2009, including Best Graphics and Best PS3 RPG. In 2015, Edge ranked the game 20th on their list of the greatest video games of all time. At the 13th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, Demon's Souls was nominated for "Role-Playing/Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year" and "Outstanding Innovation in Gaming."
Legacy
Demon's Souls is called one of the best games ever made. It is known as the first game in the Soulslike type of game. Its popularity led to other games with similar play styles made by FromSoftware, such as Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Elden Ring. These games are also considered among the best of all time. Demon's Souls influenced other games, including The Witcher series, Journey, and Nioh, as well as features on the PlayStation 4.
A new version of the game, created by Bluepoint Games for the PlayStation 5, was announced during the console's introduction in June 2020. Work on the remake started after Bluepoint finished its 2018 remake of Shadow of the Colossus. Demon's Souls was released as one of the first games for the PlayStation 5 on November 12, 2020.