Demon’s Souls “Best RPG of 2009”
- Categories: Games, News
- Date: Dec 26, 2009 03:57 JST
- Tags: Atlus, Comparison, From Software, Mass Media, PS3, RPG
Demon’s Souls, notorious both for its quality and difficulty, has been awarded a slew of “best game” awards from the international games media, stealing the limelight from such titles as Dragon Age…
The game tied up “best RPG” and even “best PS3 game” awards from a number of sites:
GameSpot’s Best Games of 2009: Best Role-Playing Game
GameSpot’s Best Games of 2009: Best PlayStation 3 Game
IGN: PS3 Best Role-Playing Game 2009 – Demon’s Souls
GameTrailers: Game Of The Year Awards 2009 Video Game, Best Role-Playing Game
Famitsu’s worthless review gave the game 72.5%, perhaps indicating the publisher wasn’t generous enough in its advertising expenditure. Everyone else seemed to disagree:
Curious that one of Japan’s stagnant RPGs managed to beat out a truly groundbreaking game like Dragon Age…
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well i guess bioware was wrong about jrpg being crap eh?
As retarded as Bioware's claim was, it's still silly to blow off what they said based on one game.
But yeah, Demon's Souls is a part of a really good lineup of RPGs released this year. It's the first time since FFTA that I've played a game without knowing or caring about what time of day it was.
BioWare is based in the city where I live, I actually had the privilege to meet and work with some of their staff on a government project.
Everyones opinion is different when it comes to things. I can't really take this claim as the thoughts of the entire company and everyone in it.
I know you've met people in RL where they've heavily mocked anime and related things and met people who had similar interests. Can't really go and say that e.g. "All americans are idiots when it comes dissing the anime industry when they're so hyped out about men in tights" right?
Call me biased if you want since in a way I've been to both sides of the fence on the issue but that's what I think.
You guyz seem to forget that there isnt one JRPG released through the entire year.
"Most JRPGS" of them are the same, by all rights shouldn't u say FFXIII should get GOTY?
This is like 1 in a million for every Demon Souls u have your Star Oceans, Infinte Discoveries, Last Renmanats, FFXIIIs, Tales of Vesperia etc.
Most of these games dont have choices u cannot be evil, you have to be good and freedom is restricted. Sure Demon Souls beats Dragon Age but should you also got to consider the JRPGs or story book games as whole?
Though I still play and love them :)
Maybe it's just me, but Bioware isn't exactly "evolving" their RPG style either. I haven't played all of their games, but from the few I have, I noticed the game follows the same trend of allowing you a choice of good or bad, and multiple answers which affect the outcome.
Seeing how Mass Effect is evolving Bioware might be returning to the quality they had when they released baldurs gate and hopefully even improving the experience. They claimed this also when releasing dragon age which didn't impress nor disappoint me. However Bioware is one of the few companies of which I like all RPG's they release. Even KOTOR was awesome (and I don't even like starwars!).
ME 2 is "evolving" in a third person shooter... but you are right with DA it was more a NWN3 or KotoR 3 that a successor of BG2...
JRPG has its highlights and its downlights.Some of their stories are truly good,while some are downright ugly.The game system are also the same.For me the best JRPG still Chrono Trigger and the Dragon Quest series.
The best bioware game is stil Baldur gate,KOTOR and NWN.
The most inovative RPG of all time is still the ULTIMA series,now thats old school.
This isn't so much a J-RPG as it is a W-RPG from Japan.
Yep, an Action RPG, or what some people call "stat brawler".
Ironically, it's a better Japanese counterpart to Dragon Age (and most of BioWare's output in general) than most other turn-based tactics JRPGs.
Agreed. When Bioware was talking about stagnant JRPGs, they certainly didn't mean Demon's Souls which is about as non-Japanese as RPGs come.
It's still a Japanese RPG. You can't just pigeonhole JRPGs as a specific game formula and then deride that game formula as formulaic. That's cheating.
You can if most of them adhere to the same formula.
but that would make the original argument pointless, since you first say that JRPGs are stagnant, unchanging, yet you then deny this game to be part of the genre of JRPGs BECAUSE it's different.
People aren't talking in absolutes, just general trends.
Bioware was right about the typical jRPG experience, and Demon Souls breaks out of that tired mold.
Atleats Bioware isnt the one that goes bankrupt after creating their first 3D film (remember Squaresoft,anyone?).
This sort of hardcore RPG has always had a good following in Japan. From Software has been making games like Demons Souls since the PSOne days with King's Field. The Japanese Wizardy games are also very very good. Dark Spire was also a wonderful hardcore dungeon crawler that was released in the US this year (and sold abysmally). These games are not influenced by current American console RPG trends so much as they are influenced by Dungeons and Dragons and pre turn of the millenium fantasy literature. They have a great sense of danger and adventure to them that reminds me of playing pen and paper rpgs with my buds as a kid. I'm glad Demon's Souls is doing so well in the US. It's not a J-RPG that's trying to be a W-RPG. It's just a damn good game on its own merits.
Well.. if you take in ccount that this is ONE JRPG getting good reviews, whereas most of them don't... But more importantly, this game offers something new in gameplay mechanics. Most of the games of that genre in Japan did not...
While I don't completely agree with the Bioware person who said that, I can't help but think that he is mostly right about the disparity between the RPG genre...
Not really. One really good game a year does not discount the statement. Though I think it was a little harsh, it still has some truth to it.
Besides, three words: MAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSS EFFFFFECCCCCCCT 2
uuuhh... "2" is not a word.
I get the feeling he can't spell 'two'
If you went to read the source of that Bioware comment story. You'd know that the guy actually considers Demon's Soul one of the few good JRPG exceptions. In fact, it's one of his favorite game.
Demon's Souls is not a jrpg. It has a very western style to it.
jrpg = japanese role-playing game
jrpg=ff styled games with much talking and very little stat based character development. oh and lets not forget super special teenagers saving the world.
Affirming that Demon's Souls belongs to the same genre as stuff like Final Fantasy XIII and even the last two entries in the Persona series is akin to equating Dragon Age to Civilization. Or equating Final Fantasy to Disgaea.
It's the height of stupidity and inane, moot arguing.
If anything, you can look up their respective Japanese genre descriptions. FFXIII is a "cinematic RPG", Disgaea is a "simulation RPG" (lol), and Demon's Souls is a plain "action RPG". The only thing they have in common is that they show you characters' statuses in the form of numbers, and that's it, they're entirely non-comparable.
So... just quit it.
How about Diablo series can that be compared to Demon Soul?
Yes, seems fair. Even stuff like X-Men Legends or Marvel Ultimate Alliance are fair game. You have to take into consideration how old and mechanically dated the Diablo games are, but they indeed share a good deal of common ground.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
NO
Oh jesus christ, come on..
Do people really not realize that gamespot is payed to give bad/good reviews?
Their sponsors decide what reviews and votes get/win..
Bioware's comment did have merit. Most jrpg are akin to comfort food. Demon's Souls is not a typical jrpg. In fact, it mimics the western RPG.
"Curious that one of Japan’s stagnant RPGs managed to beat out a truly groundbreaking game like Dragon Age…"
This last sentence reeks of weeaboo.
This is Sankaku, no surprise there.
Agree'd. Because wtf would a weeaboo want with a site like this. >_>
"This last sentence reeks of weeaboo"
I loled
true fact.
you'd think people would have learn by now that the word weaboo means nothing in here...
you'd think that people by know would know that weeaboo has long lost any original meaning or effect and has just become a meaningless insult tossed BY A WEEABOO towards other weeaboos they disagree with.
Actually Bioware's the weaboo that happened to get beaten silly by Demon's Souls.
Anyways... not sure which newgame++++ I was on but the game isn't overly difficult, much less on the first play through X_X
Bioware's comment did have merit.
It was just ridiculous that it was Bioware who claimed it was stagnant and had no choices.
Typical Bioware RPG choice,
"I will join you"
"No"
"You will need me on your quest"
"No, I can only choose three people anyways.
"We need all the assistance we can have!"
"No, seriously I don't like you."
"Fuck you, your taking me anyways, oh and I'm going to autolevel along with you as well."
Bioware's comment was right, just that it was a case of the pot calling the kettle black...
yes, obviously - witcher, dao, kotor, mass effect and f3 cannot present any innovation at all.
who needs actual role playing with a world reacting to YOUR actions and YOUR character when you could stare at HD PANTSU through the eyes of generic adolescent angst ridden protagonist nr xyz, who gets the said item delivered to him while enjoying his ride on the railway from lvl 1 schoolboy to lvl 100 master of the known universe.
you obviously are pulling shit out of your ass in this argument, have you even played this game? How could you argue about this if you only know one side?
one of the few jrpgs i havent played is demons soul. from the videos that shit looks kickass. but in no way does it fit into the jrpg scheme. seems im forgetting this isnt a proper image board with post links, sorry.
Can't handle having anyone complimenting anything except ur beloved western superiority, eh?
You just gave me some good laughs, sir.
Can't handle having anyone complimenting anything except ur beloved eastern superiority, eh?
You just gave me some good laughs, sir.
go back to watching avatar, western fag.
Good games are good, who cares if they're w or j? The idea of games "winning" and "losing" is "retarded".
well yeah, Demon's soul is an awesome game (if you don't mind a little difficulty that is), but why is having a recommendation from gamespot a good thing? Are there still people who actually trust them or care about anything they have to say?
We could say the same about Famitsu but it doesn't stop people obsessing over their worthless ratings.
I do. It helps on deciding if the game is something I'll like or not. Even if the rating is bad, for example Monster Hunter, their reviews and videos can help me determine if the game is for me or not. Besides the reviewer is one person, you can't expect their tastes will favor yours.
Famitsu scored it low? No surprise, japs have bad taste in gaming.
Famitsu isn't receiving any money from Atlus, I guess.
The game was made by From Software, Atlus just published it in the west.
And your taste in games are better?