Demon's Souls

Overview

Demon's Souls is a 2009 action role-playing game developed by FromSoftware and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 3. It was released in Japan in February 2009, in North America by Atlus in October 2009, and in PAL territories by Namco Bandai Partners in June 2010. It is described as a spiritual successor to FromSoftware's King's Field series.

It is set in Boletaria, a kingdom consumed by a dark being called the Old One after its king, Allant, misused forbidden Soul Arts. You play a hero brought to Boletaria to kill the fallen king and pacify the Old One. You move through five worlds from a hub called the Nexus, with heavy emphasis on difficult combat and on what happens when you die.

Combat depends on timing for strikes and blocks, and most actions drain a stamina meter. Defeating enemies earns Souls, which act as both experience and currency. If you die you restart at the start of the level with the non-boss enemies back and with lower maximum health, and you can recover your lost Souls by reaching your bloodstain before dying again.

Online play is asynchronous. You briefly see other players as ghosts, can leave messages, and see bloodstains where others died. Co-operative play allows up to three characters to join a host's world, and players can also invade other worlds in player-versus-player combat.

It was a joint project between FromSoftware and Sony's Japan Studio, and early development was troubled by a lack of clear vision. Designer Hidetaka Miyazaki took over the project. The difficulty was meant to recall classic games and give a sense of achievement. Early reactions to the demo were negative, and Sony passed on publishing the game outside Japan.

Atlus released it in North America on October 6, 2009, in standard and limited editions. Publication in Europe was unclear until Namco Bandai Partners signed a deal with Sony on April 16, 2010, and it came out across PAL territories on June 25, 2010. Japanese sales were slow at first, but word of mouth carried it past 100,000 copies there. In North America it sold about 250,000 by March 2010, then moved to the Sony Greatest Hits line, and it passed one million copies worldwide by 2011.

Critics gave it high scores, with the difficulty often named as part of what made it rewarding. It is often cited as the first Soulslike game and led to Dark Souls, Bloodborne and Elden Ring. A remake by Bluepoint Games came out for PlayStation 5 as a launch title on November 12, 2020.

Screenshots

Game details

Genres

Action role-playing

Developer

FromSoftware

Composers

Shunsuke Kida

Designers

Takashi Nakamura

Writers

Hidetaka Miyazaki

Producers

Masanori Takeuchi, Takeshi Kajii

Directors

Hidetaka Miyazaki

Publisher

Atlus (North America); Sony Computer Entertainment (Japan); Namco Bandai Partners (Europe)

Modes

Single player

Yes

Local multiplayer

No

Online multiplayer

co-op, up to 3 visiting players

Release dates

Editions

Buy this game

Subscription history

Trophies

Trophies38

Platinum possibleYes

Platinum

1

Gold

5

Silver

5

Bronze

27

Total

38

Points

1305

Platinum time

10 to 30 hours

Playthroughs for platinum

3

Online servers running

No

Online note

Official online services ended on 28 February 2018: co-op, invasions, messages, bloodstains and trading went, and the single-player game stays playable. Trading had made some trophies easier. A fan community runs its own servers.

Trophy list shared with other versions

No

Other versions

The PS5 remake has its own 37-trophy list (Push Square).

Missable trophies

• The guide warns that one choice at the Monumental is permanent: answer yes or the Friend's Ring is lost

Grind

• Sage's Trophy: every spell
• Saint's Trophy: every miracle
• Rogue's Trophy: every ring
• Soldier's Trophy: every valuable weapon, plus best-weapon trophies for each upgrade path

• Toughest Soul Trophy All Trophies Obtained Platinum 10.07% of players
• World Uniter's Trophy Old One Put to Sleep & World United Gold 32.31% of players
• Sage's Trophy All Spells Learned Gold 12.56% of players
• Saint's Trophy All Miracles Learned Gold 12.89% of players
• Rogue's Trophy All Rings Obtained Gold 12.06% of players
• Soldier's Trophy All Unique Weapons Obtained Gold 11.57% of players
• False King's Trophy Slayer of Demon “False King” Silver 36.08% of players
• Storm King's Trophy Slayer of Demon “Storm King” Silver 39.53% of players
• Old Monk's Trophy Slayer of Demon “Old Monk” Silver 39.33% of players
• Maiden Astraea's Trophy Slayer of Demon “Maiden Astraea” Silver 38.13% of players
• Dragon God's Trophy Slayer of Demon “Dragon God” Silver 44.19% of players
• Old King's Trophy Conqueror of Old King Doran Bronze 23.65% of players
• Flying Dragon's Trophy Slayer of Demon “Blue Flying Dragon” Bronze 28.76% of players
• Trophy of Hardness Obtained Best Weapon by Hardstone Bronze 20.35% of players
• Trophy of Sharpness Obtained Best Weapon by Sharpstone Bronze 18.47% of players
• Trophy of Distinction Obtained Best Weapon by Clearstone Bronze 18.24% of players
• Master Basher's Trophy Obtained Best Weapon by Greystone Bronze 13.61% of players
• Master Slasher's Trophy Obtained Best Weapon by Bladestone Bronze 11.56% of players
• Master Bowman's Trophy Obtained Best Bow by Spiderstone Bronze 16.48% of players
• Poison Master's Trophy Obtained Best Weapon by Mercurystone Bronze 13.14% of players
• Flame Master's Trophy Obtained Best Weapon by Dragonstone Bronze 18.96% of players
• Blood Master's Trophy Obtained Best Weapon by Suckerstone Bronze 13.86% of players
• Life Master's Trophy Obtained Best Weapon by Marrowstone Bronze 12.09% of players
• Moonlight's Trophy Obtained Best Weapon by Moonlightstone Bronze 13.23% of players
• Darkmoon's Trophy Obtained Best Weapon by Darkmoonstone Bronze 14.19% of players
• Congratulant's Trophy Obtained Best Weapon by Faintstone Bronze 14.49% of players
• Shade Master's Trophy Obtained Best Weapon by Cloudstone Bronze 13.2% of players
• Phalanx's Trophy Slayer of Demon “Phalanx” Bronze 72.95% of players
• Tower Knight's Trophy Slayer of Demon “Tower Knight” Bronze 57.16% of players
• Penetrator's Trophy Slayer of Demon “Penetrator” Bronze 41.56% of players
• Adjudicator's Trophy Slayer of Demon “Adjudicator” Bronze 46.93% of players
• Old Hero's Trophy Slayer of Demon “Old Hero” Bronze 40.22% of players
• Fool's Idol's Trophy Slayer of Demon “Fool's Idol” Bronze 46.64% of players
• Maneater's Trophy Slayer of Demon “Maneater” Bronze 40.26% of players
• Leechmonger's Trophy Slayer of Demon “Leechmonger” Bronze 43.59% of players
• Dirty Colossus' Trophy Slayer of Demon “Dirty Colossus” Bronze 38.64% of players
• Armor Spider's Trophy Slayer of Demon “Armor Spider” Bronze 54.66% of players
• Flamelurker's Trophy Slayer of Demon “Flamelurker” Bronze 46.19% of players

Space and patches

Space neededAbout 8 GB

DLC

No downloadable content was released for the game.

Playable today

Online

Online servers runningNo

The online servers were shut down worldwide on February 28, 2018, ending multiplayer, messages and the World Tendency system. The game stays playable offline.

Services

Service	Status	Shutdown date
Online multiplayer, messages and World Tendency	ended	2018-02-28

Reception

Aggregates

Outlet	Platform	Score	Scale
Metacritic	PS3	89	100

Critics

Outlet	Score	Scale
IGN	9.4	10
GameSpot	9	10
Game Informer	9	10
Eurogamer	9	10
Edge	9	10
GamesRadar	9	10
GameTrailers	8.9	10
PALGN	9	10
GamePro	4	5
Famitsu	29	40

Staff and cast

Staff

Role	Name
Director	Hidetaka Miyazaki
Writer	Hidetaka Miyazaki
Producer	Masanori Takeuchi
Producer	Takeshi Kajii
Programmer	Jun Ito
Designer	Takashi Nakamura
Artist	Makoto Satoh
Artist	Masato Miyazaki
Artist	Hisao Yamada
Composer	Shunsuke Kida

Notes for collectors

• The North American servers were first due to close in October 2011, then kept running until May 2012, then kept running indefinitely, until the worldwide shutdown on February 28, 2018.
• A few months after the shutdown, fans built a private server that restored the online features.
• The game's voice acting is in English in every region, mostly by Scottish actors.
• Atlus first planned a small run of 15,000 copies in North America and estimated total sales at 75,000. It sold about triple that by April 2010.
• Sony made an English-text version for the Asian market, translated by Active Gaming Media.
• The Japanese disc has a different ID (BCJS30022) and Sony lists a separate 01.04 patch for it.

Credits

Region

US

Time to beat

about 27 hours