Demon's Souls: New Dark Fantasy RPG from Sony & From Software

[DoctorFinger]

A feature in this week's edition of Japanese games mag Famitsu has revealed Demon's Souls, a new RPG from Sony and From Software (Armored Core) for the Playstation 3.

Described as a the spiritual successor to the cult classic PS1 RPG, King's Field, Demon's Souls is called a "dark fantasy action RPG." But in a departure, the game seems to share more in common with open world western RPGs like Oblivion than the more tightly constrained RPGs we normally get from Japan. "You get only the barest minimum of a goal, and there's nothing forcing you to do anything in the game," Kajii said. "People say to you 'Save the world,' but you can ignore them and keep going if you like." This is an interesting move by Sony, and it plays into the recent assertion that the current crop of consoles are ignoring Japanese gamers (http://www.colonyofgamers.com/cogforums/showthread.php?t=6). I'm also curious to see if the western sensibilites end at the gameplay, or if they entend into the storytelling. An open world RPG, wrapped around a more traditional JRPG story would certainly make for an unusual package.

Demon's Soul will be playable at the Tokyo Game Show later this month, and should be available for the Playstation 3 in Japan next year.

Source - 1UP (http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3170272).

[Gorvi]

One of the many unannounced games they said yesterday that would be at the show. It looks pretty good from the screens that have come out.

[SPBTooL]

It looks very Japanese to me. I think you can have a JRPG style game in an open world. We all knew that someone had to try it at some point.

The JRPGs on the 360 seem to finally be doing well for them over there now.

[Grifter]

I always felt the Kingsfield games left quite a bit to be desired, hopefully that was more a limitation of hardware and less on design decisions and this will be better.

[roboninja]

I always felt the Kingsfield games left quite a bit to be desired, hopefully that was more a limitation of hardware and less on design decisions and this will be better.

It did, but I got the impression that many of the faults were technical limitations. The true open nature of the world was great. I will most definitely keep an eye on this one.

[Xerxes]

I don't know why but seeing word's like Demon and From Software, I just moan a little. Where is Otogi 3? It'll finally make it money. :p

[pomeroy]

I don't know why but seeing word's like Demon and From Software, I just moan a little. Where is Otogi 3? It'll finally make it money. :p

Oh, man. I'd totally forgotten about Otogi. DAMN I want Otogi 3 now.

[Spigot]

Unless it can capture the magic of Otogi, I won't hold my breath. The first Armored Core games were sweet but that franchise is long past stale and I haven't been terribly impressed with much else from them. They just seem rather behind the curve in a lot of ways.

[Xerxes]

Unless it can capture the magic of Otogi, I won't hold my breath. The first Armored Core games were sweet but that franchise is long past stale and I haven't been terribly impressed with much else from them. They just seem rather behind the curve in a lot of ways.

They did make the awesome Chromehounds. I'm not writing From off just yet. I think what did the Otogi series in was the lack of press. It got peoples attention but on only on a gamer level.

[BlackPete]

I kinda wish they'd release screenshots to go along with this PR. Oh well, still sounds promising... I still need to buy a third game for my PS3 to sit alongside Everyday Shooter and Super Stardust!

[Xerxes]

I kinda wish they'd release screenshots to go along with this PR. Oh well, still sounds promising... I still need to buy a third game for my PS3 to sit alongside Everyday Shooter and Super Stardust!

Gorvi made a thread (http://www.colonyofgamers.com/cogforums/showthread.php?t=159)with pictures.

[Spigot]

They did make the awesome Chromehounds. I'm not writing From off just yet. I think what did the Otogi series in was the lack of press. It got peoples attention but on only on a gamer level.Lack of BC also didn't help the Otogi games...

My problem was that I came into Chromehounds about a year too late. I tried it out and while it was essentially like a massively multiplayer Armored Core game (which is awesome), there was nobody really playing it by the time I got my 360 and tried it out.

[Gorvi]

Yeah, FROM are the kings of awesome concepts and lackluster execution. Hopefully this turns out to be one of their few really good games, like Otogi.

[NoName]

I can't wait for any RPG to be coming out on the PS3. I'm in need of using it as more than a BluRay player.