Longtime fans of From Software games, who have survived challenges like Elden Ring and the Dark Souls series, surely know a thing or two about the roots of the "souls-like" genre. Defined by key elements such as "bonfire" checkpoints, limited healing, and notorious bosses, this type of game has gained significant popularity over the last decade. Today, these design principles have become the norm, as we see in new titles like Lies of P.
However, if we look back at the first entry in the Souls series, the innovative Demon's Souls, we encounter a game that breaks many conventions that newer games have relied on. Demon's Souls employs complex, sometimes hostile mechanics that do not follow modern trends of easy progression and a sense of power for players. The sharp edges of this game, just like in Dark Souls, are equally important to its success as the combat and intriguing story. The question remains whether From Software will ever return to such an approach.
Demon's Souls does not hide its ruthlessness: right in the introductory tutorial, it throws you in front of a massive boss that will almost certainly defeat you and take away half your health, with no chance to retaliate anytime soon. This mechanic of dividing between "human form" and "soul form" with half health best describes the overall experience of the game. As many players discovered in Bluepoint's 2020 remake for PlayStation 5, this is just the beginning of the unyielding nature that the game offers.
