It's hard to overstate how influential Demon's Souls has been since it was first released 15 years ago. FromSoftware's PS3 exclusive started out as a niche classic in Japan, but slowly gained a cult following through word of mouth, while growing imports eventually convinced Sony to make an official localization. And the rest is history.
Demon's Souls arrived at the perfect time when modern video games were settling into a predictable rhythm of annual shooter hits and action adventures that rarely sought to challenge players for fear of alienating them. Mainstream pop culture's adoption of the medium came at the cost of hardship and discovery, and FromSoftware responded with a love letter to the time as it charted its own path forward. Demon's Souls wasn't expected to be a success, and this apathy on the part of its creators helped cement its legacy.
Why was Demon's Souls such an influential game?
Director Hidetaka Miyazaki, who in the years since Demon's Souls has become an industry titan on the same level as Hideo Kojima and Shigeru Miyamoto, aimed to create a dark, unforgiving fantasy adventure. Instead of holding the player's hand, he snatched it away, kicked us in the face, and sent us crawling across the room to get our newly discarded limb.
This philosophy is clear in its initial moments. You create a character and wake up in a strange medieval castle with no idea how to attack, defend, or even move. Instead you are encouraged to use your instincts as you slowly but surely learn the controls and ways to survive in a world that can swallow you whole at any moment. There's a timely precision to the animations that require you to be smart about attacking and dodging. Every small action you take could save your life or condemn you to oblivion.
I found myself hitting the infamous wall with Demon's Souls, finding it too difficult and esoteric to enjoy until I finally broke through. After that, I never looked back.
You are destined to die. Again and again, as you discover what dangers the land of Boletaria holds in its grasp. The idea of losing everything you worked for upon death and having only one attempt to regain your hard-earned loot was unfathomable at the time, and for many players, the failure that solidified Demon's Souls as a game that wasn't for them, and it never will be. But that was only because we weren't prepared to challenge ourselves or accept the design intentions of a game that wanted us to discover its world and master its mechanics by pushing ourselves to the limits.
Demon's Souls was so revolutionary that it not only spawned Dark Souls and its sequels, but also developed clever expansions of the formula with the classics Bloodborne, Sekiro and Elden Ring, the latter being one of the greatest and most critically lauded games ever . It took a lot for FromSoftware to convince the masses of its magic, but it was worth it. There's so much juice in the fruits of Demon's Souls that Miyazaki is still taking advantage of it, and I can't wait to see what the director does next.
And why have so many people tried to emulate demon souls?
The arrival of Demon's Souls and its subsequent mainstream success was a wake-up call for the industry. A reminder that challenge was something audiences were willing to embrace, and how a relentless array of game mechanics and world design could be used as effective storytelling tools.
Demon's Souls and similar games are so immersive because you learn their gameplay and level design in such an intimate way. Because you keep dying and trying again and again to emerge victorious. Combine that with the esoteric storytelling and enemy designs that feed into the lore and your exact role in each game, and it only gets better.
Sony ignoring the success of Demon's Souls and letting the rights to future titles fall to Bandai Namco is a mistake few can match in modern gaming.
Kratos and the World Serpent, God of War (2018)
Games like The Surge, Mortal Shell, Dead Cells, Ashen, Lies of P, Hollow Knight and many, many more are carbon copies of the FromSoftware formula or at least use it as a basis. It's fascinating to look back at the decade and the changes that have occurred since its release and try to imagine exactly how different the landscape would be if Hidetaka Miyazaki hadn't been given a chance. What would triple-A, indie, and our attitude to playing and appreciating difficult games and the worlds they take place in be if things were even just a little different?
It's also interesting to watch blockbusters like God of War and Assassin's Creed, which are unique in their own right, but evidently influenced by the combat and exploration of titles like Demon's Souls. You learn from the best, and FromSoftware has formed a new foundation of innovation that studios draw inspiration from and that is still going strong. His formula is the perfect means to create new worlds by providing us with nuanced ways to explore and appreciate them.
When the 2020 Bluepoint remake arrived, it was a reminder of how timeless Demon's Souls truly is. While Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Elden Ring have iterated on its formula over the years, its core loop of exploration, combat, and curiosity remains unmatched. As it celebrates its fifteenth anniversary, it's hard to ignore how special this game truly is.
Dark Souls is a ground-up remake of Bluepoint Games' FromSoftware classic, launching exclusively on PlayStation 5 in 2020. It improves on the original and sets the tone for many of the Soulslike games that would become wildly popular.
