History YMMV / DemonsSouls

* VisualEffectsOfAwesome: The Remake is ''gorgeous''' and was billed as a graphical showcase for next-gen for a reason; everything from the game's lighting, textures, models, weather and FX are wonderfully rendered at a degree that's rarely been seen. Even more impressive, considering the game's default mode runs at a locked 60 fps.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Since the Old One has no role beyond being the source of Colorless Fog, we learn nothing about its thought process. [[spoiler: In particular, making humans into demons who feed on a stream of souls. Is that a [[PetTheDog reward]] or a [[RewardedAsATraitorDeserves punishment?]] Given what happened to Allant once the flow of souls was cut off, someone who chooses to serve the Old One would eventually be subjected to a AndIMustScream.]]

* FanPreferredCouple: The Slayer of Demons is more or less exclusively paired up with the Maiden in Black in fan works. There's also plenty of support for Maiden Astraea and Garl Vinland, which is pretty much semi-canon.

** Messages saying "Sticky White Stuff" placed near [[CuteWitch Yuria]], [[BandageBabe the Maiden in Black]] and [[BreadEggsMilkSquick Ed the Blacksmith's bed]].

* HilariousInHindsight: The reason Demon's Souls was published by Atlus and Namco Bandai outside of Japan was because then-president of Playstation Studios, Shuhei Yoshida, absolutely hated it and refused to have Sony do it. Guess who intro'd the announcement for the remake at the PS5 reveal event?

** While the remake has been well received for being faithful yet visually amazing, the music has not been as well received. The soundtrack is grandiose, but many find that it takes away from the somber and bleak atmosphere the game presents, making fights more epic than they actually are. The Maiden Astraea theme in particular is often cited as the biggest offender, as it sounds like it's trying to turn the fight into a grand conflict rather than an unique track that fit the somber atmosphere the original track helped inspire. Though, it is worth mentioning that once Garl Vinland falls the song returns to the quieter, more melancholy version, making it clear that the music was meant to inspire ''him'' to win, not you.

** While the remake has been well received for being faithful yet visually amazing, the music has not been as well received. The soundtrack is grandiose, but many find that it takes away from the somber and bleak atmosphere the game presents, making fights more epic than they actually are. The Maiden Astraea theme in particular is often cited as the biggest offender, as it sounds like it's trying to turn the fight into a grand conflict rather than an unique track that fit the somber atmosphere the original track helped inspire.

* SpiritualAdaptation: Definitely one of [[http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o312/oracrest/Demons%20Souls/1271717936246.jpg the best game adaptations]] of ''{{Manga/Berserk}}'' yet.

** World 2-2 is one of those areas where having the right gear can help quite a bit, but it still offers a duo of [=NPC=] Black Phantoms set up to ambush and slaughter the unwary, hard-to-kill giant insect enemies that fucking ''explode'' on death, treasures that are placed on narrow ledges over deadly pits and ''in lava'', tight corridors that are hard to fight in, highly damaging explosives, and it tops it all off with a maze of tunnels and Flamelurker, who can and will whoop your sorry ass into next week if you aren't aptly prepared. The level's one mercy, that there's a shortcut to the boss almost at the start, still involves having to very carefully jump down from platform to platform or else plummet to your death. Even the fact that this is probably the most generous stage in the game when it comes to finding loot can be a big problem, since there's ''so much'' of it and you're saddled with an item carry limit, unless your character has a high item carry limit or you use the Ring of Herculean Strength.

** Meanwhile, as far as weapons are concerned, the Gargoyle Crossbow. While there are three enemies that can drop it instead of Pure Bladestone's two, the availability is still arguably worse since with Pure Bladestone you can ignore the Reaper and Shadowlurker and gun straight for the Black Skeleton, whereas there are at best several Rapier Gargoyles between you and the Crossbow Gargoyles, and at worst several Rapier Gargoyles ''and'' Man Centipedes. Also one of the Crossbow Gargoyles is so far away from the other two that it's completely worthless anyway, and you're much better off taking out one or both of the other two, then leaving and returning to the stage. Not helping is that while the Black Skeleton is easy to loot (and Pure Bladestone isn't actually that bad provided you know how to avoid the quirks relating to its broken drop rate), all Gargoyles are somewhat prone to falling off a ledge where they either fall into the swamp and would require you to traverse half the area to get to, or simply fall out of existence outright. Oh, and the Gargoyle Crossbow itself? It shares its problems with the rest of the crossbows in the game, being pathetically weak even with the strongest bolts available, impossible to upgrade, and not possible to precisely aim.

* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: [[Creator/BluepointGames Bluepoint Games]]'s 2020 remake of the game has garnered no small amount of this reaction due to the studio's visual choices. This ranges from perceived changes to the game's overall atmosphere and visual style, down to small alterations such as the size of the Vanguard's eyes and teeth, the "[[GameOver YOU DIED]]" font being changed, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking the HUD icon for the Cat Ring being changed from a low res JPG of an actual cat]].

* VindicatedByHistory: Very much so. The very abstract game design and brutal difficulty did not impress the Japanese press, who gave it mediocre reviews. However, positive word of mouth led to a Western release, which led the game to be looked upon more positively. The tipping point came with the success of its SpiritualSuccessor ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'', which benefited this title not long after. Due to its eventual success and continued good reputation, a remake by Bluepoint Games was made as a UsefulNotes/Playstation5 launch title.

** The Vanguard that likely killed you in the tutorial returns in 4-1 where he is incapable of moving from his spot, leaving him a good target for melee hit-and-run tactics and completely defenseless against magic and ranged weapons.

** In the original, the item you use to give your weapon magic damage is named ''Sticky White Stuff''. The remake makes the politic choice of renaming it "Sticky White Slime".

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Since the Old One has no role beyond being the source of Colorless Fog, we learn nothing about its thought process. [[spoiler: In particular making humans into demons who feed on a stream of souls. Is that a [[PetTheDog reward]] or a [[RewardedAsATraitorDeserves punishment]] given what happened to Allant once he flow of souls was cut off, someone who chooses to serve the Old One would eventually be subjected to a AndIMustScream.]]

* BrokenBase: The biggest point of contention between the original game and its 2020 remake is the latter's redone soundtrack. Naysayers say the new soundtrack ignores the atmosphere of the original and instead puts bombastic orchestras and choirs in everything in an attempt to shallowly imitate ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' and ''{{VideoGame/Bloodborne}}''. Supporters of the remake's soundtrack say that the new songs are just fine, and the former are just pushing their nostalgia to find something about the remake to hate. The largest lightning rods on this issue are the Tower Knight theme, which dropped its iconic "background laugh track" for the remake, and the Maiden Astraea theme, a fan favorite that also happened to get the most dramatic shift in tone between games. (Meanwhile, [[https://www.reddit.com/r/demonssouls/comments/jpc7mm/original_composer_of_demons_souls_music_shunsuke/ Shunsuke Kida, the game's original composer, admitted to liking the redone songs, so take it as one will.]])

** Less of an explicit attempt at a throw is the reduced load times. When traveling from level to level, they are only convenient, but having to only wait a few seconds for a world to refresh while farming healing items makes that farming much more palatable.

** The remake also makes many quality of life changes that make the game far smoother than the original game. One notable example is the changes to inventory, as now you can chose to store items while in the field, allowing you to save time and not have to spend excess time sorting things. Another is that you no longer need to go back to the Nexus whenever you want to warp, you can now warp between checkpoints.

** [[spoiler: False King Allant.]] Located at the very end of his world, he is guarded by various obstacles, including a fog gate that can only be passed after the player has beaten an archdemon, and the breath of a dragon if it hasn’t been killed already. Players are encouraged to backtrack to the starting area to access a building guarded by a BeefGate and obtain a legendary sword before they even try to face him. In spite of this design encouraging a late-game encounter, he is downright slow in an arena that is far too long for his own good, and his moveset is rather rudimentary. Aside from his projectiles, which are telegraphed and thus not too difficult to dodge, you can stay a good distance away from him and easily avoid his attacks due to their limited range and slowness until he leaves himself open with a substantial window for attack. For example, his dash attack takes him a second to cross about half of the arena, at which point he halts, and his maelstrom attack takes a while to build up and leaves him vulnerable until it starts to deal damage.

* TheyChangedItNowItSucks:
** [[Creator/BluepointGames Bluepoint Games]]'s 2020 remake of the game has garnered no small amount of this reaction due to the studio's visual choices. This ranges from perceived changes to the game's overall atmosphere and visual style, down to small alterations such as the size of the Vanguard's eyes and teeth, the "[[GameOver YOU DIED]]" font being changed, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking the HUD icon for the Cat Ring being changed from a low res JPG of an actual cat]].
** While the remake has been well recieved received for being faithful yet visually amazing, the music has not been as well received. The music is very contenous; with some claiming good but many find it takes away from the heavy orchestra, similar to VideoGame/{{Bloodborne}}. That being said, the game's original composer, [[https://i.redd.it/w0oqo9e5dox51.png Shunsuke Kida]], has remaked on how much loves the newer grandoise take.

** [[spoiler: False King Allant.]] Located at the very end of his world, he is guarded by various obstacles, including a fog gate that can only be passed after the player has beaten an archdemon, and the breath of a dragon if it hasn’t been killed already. Players are encouraged to backtrack to the starting area to access a building guarded by a BeefGate and obtain a legendary sword before they even try to face him. In spite of this design encouraging a late-game encounter, he is downright ‘’slow’’ in an arena that is far too long for his own good, and his moveset is rather rudimentary. Aside from his projectiles, which are telegraphed and thus not too difficult to dodge, you can stay a good distance away from him and easily avoid his attacks due to their limited range and slowness until he leaves himself open with a substantial window for attack. For example, his dash attack takes him a second to cross about half of the arena, at which point he halts, and his maelstrom attack takes a while to build up and leaves him vulnerable until it starts to deal damage.

** [[spoiler:The final boss fight against King Allant is a deliberate example. Coming right after the fight with his demonic doppelganger, he serves as a a victory lap and simple obstacle to the finale. Justified in-universe as he's mutated into a blob that can barely crawl, let alone attack.]]