At long last, we have arrived at the end of our adventures in Boletaria and its surrounding lands. The archdemons in the four corners of the world, the Dragon God of Stonefang Tunnels, the Old Monk of Latria, the Storm King of the Shrine of Storms, and Maiden Astraea of the Valley of Defilement all lay dead by our hands.

All we have left to do is ascend to the zenith of the Boletarian Palace to take on the person who doomed the world in his bid for power by waking the Old One from his slumber: King Allant.

Our opponent awaits.

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For people who have experience playing other Soulsborne games, Demon’s Souls is significantly easier than the games that came afterward. Nothing quite illustrates that point like the duel against the False King Allant. When I first played Demon’s Souls way back then, I found this fight extremely tough due to my glass cannon build and lack of experience. And now, with several games under my belt, the fight has been trivialized. There are still few things cooler than a one-on-one duel to cap off a journey like ours, so it still serves as an incredible final setpiece.

And though we missed our opportunity to fight Old King Doran, we did still make the time to take about the twin blades Demonbrandt and Soulbrandt. Lore like this is part of what makes the series. While it’s entirely possible to simply play through these games without putting much thought into the world at large, simply enjoyed the moment-to-moment play, those who desire to explore and understand the world around them are rewarded for their efforts with knowledge of the people and places they interact with along the journey, and how they interact with each other. Although Demon’s Souls is the most traditionally video gamey of the series, presenting itself as a selection of linear levels that can be tackled in any order, it too has a fully realized world waiting for players to discover it.

Having had the idea to do a series on Demon’s Souls for a long time now, I’m so glad that I’ve finally done it. Back when Sam and I were still doing Interactive Friction, we floated the idea of doing Demon’s Souls, but Sam didn’t want to be the one in the pilot’s seat and I didn’t have a good setup at the time. By the time I did, we had both gotten jobs, and all our free time was used up. Thankfully, the PS5 version of Demon’s Souls gave me the perfect opportunity to rekindle this old flame. I doubt I’ll ever play the other Soulsborne games here simply due to their time commitment, but who knows what the future holds…

…I do, of course. Next week, Acharky makes his return as we tackle The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes.

Another archdemon has been defeated, meaning that two more remain before we can challenge King Allant. The Valley of Defilement and the Tower of Latria are all we have left to challenge, and they probably know we’re coming.

So let them know. Let them squirm. There will be no mercy.

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As promised, here are links to both the original Maiden Astraea theme from the PS3 version and the updated one used in the PS5 remake.

While I’ve spoken about it before, it’s worth repeating how much the change in boss battle music bothers me in this case, because of how dramatically different the tone is between versions. The Maiden Astraea boss fight is a tragedy that we, as the player, are inflicting upon two decent people who are just trying to alleviate the suffering of the wretches of the Valley. Unfortunately for Saint Astraea and Garl Vinland, what they are doing has the side effect of feeding souls to the Old One, and for that reason they cannot be allowed to live. The boss battle music reflects the sorrow and melancholy this fight is intend to evoke.

The remake version attempts to capture this same feeling, but it adds so much to the song that the original melody gets lost. Between the Gregorian choir, the haunting female opera singer, violin and brass instrumentation spliced into the mix, it starts to resemble the music we come to associate with traditionally “epic” video game boss battles. This new theme paints Garl Vinland and Maiden Astraea as powerfully villains we’re heroically slaying. I don’t want to feel that way about this battle. I want to feel like garbage for assassinating a woman and her bodyguard/lover.

I lack the vocabulary to dissect these tracks beyond my own surface-level feelings, but Alex Moukala, a music producer, talks a bit about the technical aspects of it in this video. He’s a lot more positive on it, but that’s because all art is subjective. What works for one may or may not work for another and vice-versa.

As for the Old Monk fight, I must admit that I’m disappointed that we won on our first attempt. This might not be as interesting now as it was back in the day, since they’ve reprised this mechanic in the Ringed City with the Halflight, Spear of the Church boss fight. At the time Demon’s Souls came out, this is a mind-blowing boss fight. The idea that other player could serve as your boss fight was such a revelation. There’s a tension there that simply doesn’t exist with an AI opponent. It’s the equivalent of Dante versus Vergil in Devil May Cry, two people with the same skill, playing by the same rules. I always look forward to that fight every time I play Demon’s Souls.

Next time, we finish our adventure. King Allant waits us at the Boletarian Palace.

A new Season of Sin has arrived in Hitman 3, and this time the name of the game is Envy, a sin embodied by our new Elusive Target. The Ascensionist has entered our crosshairs, and it’s time to eliminate her.

And once that’s done, we get to proceed with the Envy Escalation. Maybe with a rival assassin competing for our title, we’ll have an actual challenge this time.

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It was honestly a little disappointing how quickly we completed both the target and the escalation. Both of them fell into our laps with very little effort.

Oh well. Perhaps the next targets will pose a challenge.

At long last, we have the first confirmed kill on an Archdemon: The Dragon God of Stonefang Tunnels. Only three more before we can finally take on the final boss in Boletaria and bring an end to the Old One’s wakefulness.

With that in mind, let us continue our journey.

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As promised, the wiki entry for the Talisman of Beasts.

While the tradition of using item descriptions to tell players about the world’s lore didn’t really take off until Dark Souls, there are pieces of it that you can see here in Demon’s Souls, and the Talisman of Beasts is a prime example. When you save both Sage Freke and Saint Urbain, both of them begin to talk disparagingly of the other while in the Nexus. This stems from Saint Urbain’s belief that the Soul Arts are immoral, and an evil bastardization of the miracles he is capable of.

But the Talisman of Beasts reveals a truth that flips that belief on its head. Specifically, it tells us that the God he prays to in order to unleash his miracles is, in truth, the Old One. As we already know, the power of the Old One is the power of the Soul Arts, the use of human souls as a catalyst for extraordinary feats. While Saint Urbain believes his miracles are the antithesis of the magic practiced by Sage Freke and Yuria the Witch, the truth is that both magic and miracle are one and the same. Both of them are just different schools of the Soul Arts: Two sides of the same coin.

It’s a detail that will totally escape the notice of most players, at least in their first time through the game. However, that only adds to the mystique of the Soulsborne series. The fun is in the discovery, and there’s almost always more secrets to discover.

It’s been another whole month since the last time we played, and like last time much has been added to the game since last we played. Specifically, a whole new expansion has dropped.

Darkness looms over the realm, but for us, it is nothing to fear. Rather, it is our weapon, to be used to decimate our enemies before they ever have a chance to attack us.

With Veigar and Senna at our side, our foes will know the true terror that lurks in the dark.

As always, thanks to Mobalytics for the decklists.

Deck list: CEBQOBIKAQNDCXK6MKTACAIBAUUAEBIFBAEQGAIFAUFQGBIKAGMADUIBAECAKOAA

At its core, the deck’s goal is to use the Darkness cards the various creatures and our champions can generate and use the damage from them to keep our opponent’s board clear long enough to overtake them with value. Once we have, we can close the game either by attacking with our remaining creatures and/or using a leveled-up Veigar’s ability to start pelting them in the face with Darkness. We’re a control deck whose odds of success improve as we extend the game.

To the end, we also have several ways to cycle through our deck. Hidden Pathways is the clearest example, letting us draw 2 cards, with a discount that is easy to activate. The Pokey Sticks can also take down 1-drops with ease while replacing itself for net card advantage. And with Aloof Travelers, we can sift through our deck while denying a valuable card to our opponent.

And of course, we also have a removal suite to go with our champions. If Senna happens to be in play, these spells get even stronger due to their fast speed. And with Stress Defense and Minimorph, we have tools to deal with big problem creatures and keep our own units alive through removal or block.

As far as control decks go, this is as solid as it gets.

We’ve progressed at a clip, taking down a number of bosses in Boletaria, Latria, and Stonefang. None of them stood a chance against us. And even if they did, we only need to emerge victorious a single time.

And yet, we find ourselves taking in upgrade materials for our quality weapons, so let us proceed deeper into Stonefang Tunnel in order to procure the items we need.

Thumbnail by Sam Callahan.

We are unfortunately tackling some of the more annoying stages of Demon’s Souls, particularly the second area of the Valley of Defilement. The stage isn’t frustrating by any means. In fact, it’s fairly easy when compared to its most famous future iteration in Dark Soul’s Blighttown. However, falling off the platform spells a ton of wasted time in trying to find our way back to the main path.

And then there’s the second stage of Stonefang. Again, it’s not a hard stage, but one that is needlessly difficult to navigate due to the lack of recognizable landmarks to orient yourself with. The challenge is less to fight our way through and more not getting lost, since the enemies don’t really fight back.

Thankfully, we managed to bolster that by starting one of the most fascinating areas of the game: The Shrine of Storms. The boss fights here all tell us a lot about the local legends in Boletaria and its surrounding lands. One of the choices I appreciate most is the one to allow us to find the Adjudicator’s Shield before we encounter the Adjudicator as a boss. The item’s description, which depicts the legend of the Adjudicator, allows us to get an idea of the fight before we ever enter the boss room. And if we’re playing for the first time, we can have that experience of being blindsided by the boss’s identity.

And the bosses of the Shrine of Storms only get cooler from here.

PS: I’m growing more and more concerned with Twitch’s response (or lack thereof) to the ongoing hate raid/bot spam phenomenon. I had to block over 25 bots from the start of this stream to the end of it. The bot follows also occurred up to 15 minutes after I had finished streaming.

Fix your platform, Twitch. Or else people will start leaving over experiences like this.

Every now and then, a target from our past returns to gives us another excellent opportunity. This time, in the spirit of Gluttony, that target is The Food Critic.

I had challenged this same target over four years ago, in January of 2017. Back then, I failed. But times have changed, and I’m better than I once was, so let’s give it another shot.

Now, it wasn’t the type of victory that I was hoping for… but it is a victory and I’ll take it.

One of the most amusing aspects of this mission is how we’re lead to believe that since he’s a food critic, the obvious answer is to poison his meal. Except he doesn’t actually eat the food, so you need to think of a different strategy to deliver the lethal blow.

It’s extraordinary how irksome a couple of well-placed guards can be in the course of the average Hitman level. And that’s on top of how open and exposed his table seat is. I’m positive that there’s one weird mechanic or interaction that, if I knew/remembered it, I could get an easy Silent Assassin despite the crowd.

But sometimes, the target needs to go out with a bang.

Our journey has been off to a strong start, easily scaling the castle walls of the Boletarian Palace to unlock the main gate. Once inside, we defeated the Phalanx, starting our adventure off in truth.

Now, we find ourselves in the Stonefang Tunnel, on our way to fight another powerful demon. Beyond, who knows what untold horrors await us as we claim Demon’s Souls.

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It occurs to me that I never explained why we needed to kill that NPC on the right side of the cathedral’s walls, with the sigil in front of him. Had we defeated the Fool’s Idol before dispatching him, we would not have slain the demon. Instead, it would have been resurrected, forcing us to fight the Fool’s Idol again at a later date. Killing him prevents the Idol from returning to life, allowing us to truly eliminate it.

One of the things that From Software does better than almost any other development studio is subtle worldbuilding that encourages players to explore, discover, and learn about the setting at their own pace. Even in these early days, before Dark Souls put them on the map, you can see their deft hand at work.

Rather than leave a note that explains the lore, what we get are fragments in the names and descriptions of the items that we pick up and enemies we fight. There is significant meaning behind the first boss in the Tower of Latria being referred to as the “Fool’s Idol” instead of something like the “Queen of Latria”. The name tells us a lot about the boss and its position in the world and its story. Further compounding this is the addition of the old man resurrecting the Idol, in order to keep it alive as an object of worship. Taken together, in context, implies that there is something far more sinister behind the scenes than we might otherwise suspect at first glance.

What separates this from something like Dark Souls is the time period that we inhabit. In Dark Souls, Lord Gwyn and his allies had already seized fire from the dragons, starting their crusade against the dark. The events that define the player’s quest had already transpired long before we reach Lordran. Here, the apocalypse that set the wheel of fate in motion is still in progress. Many of the people involved are profound figures, but not the stuff of myth and legend that someone like Dragonslayer Ornstein is in Dark Souls. They are the people we meet, work with, and occasionally oppose.

Hopefully, we’ll get to see more of that as the run continues.

Piggy has spoken, and we’re to provide the necessary ingredients for his upcoming meal. Naturally, as we embody Agent 47, each ingredient is lovingly extracted from the bodies of our victims.

The Seasons of Sin continues, and September is the month of Gluttony.

I’m not sure how I feel about this Escalation, even now. The issue with this particular mission that I kept running into is that all of this was dreadfully familiar. I haven’t looked back at all of the content I’ve done on the Chongqing map, but every step of that final phase was something I recall having done before in either a previous escalation or an Elusive Target or something similar.

Obviously, that’s expected to a certain degree. Once we understand the map, we’ll know how to traverse it in order to get where we need to go. And yet, I can’t help but feel that missions like this could be stronger if elements of the map were remixed or rearranged to force players to rethink their tactics.

I don’t feel accomplished because I more-or-less went on auto-pilot for this one: A shame.

We’ve explored the depraved horrors of Snaktooth Island and the inner working of the world inside my PlayStation 5, but now it’s time to go on a real adventure.

An epic quest awaits us in the Northern Lands of Boletaria. With no one else able to step up to the plate, we must take up the mantle of Slayer of Demons, that the Old One is once more lulled into slumber. Whatever King Allant is planning, it can’t be good.

This is Demon’s Souls.

Thumbnail by Sam Callahan.

I was torn on doing this for the channel, and it’s not because I dislike Souls game. This happens to be one of my favorite Souls games, in fact.

What made me nervous is how long it can take to complete a single run of the game. I try to avoid games with large completion times because I don’t want to spend months on end faffing about and getting nothing done. I’m hoping the fact that I’m so familiar with the game, along with its more reasonable length compared to the average Souls games, will bring that down to a more manageable number. That said, I do expect this to be a longer length than my average Let’s Play stream series.

Having said that, I’m still incredibly excited to go through Demon’s Souls. While it doesn’t pull off the “connected world” idea as much as Dark Souls did later on, but there’s still a strong sense of place in every region of the game. Additionally, as we go on, I hope I can talk about and demonstrate how it has some of the best boss battle design in all of video games.

This is going to be a good time.