Demon's Souls

Huh? Easy-mode? Pfffthahahahaha!

"Soul of the mind, key to life's ether. Soul of the lost, withdrawn from its vessel. Let strength be granted so the world might be mended. So the world might be mended."

Demon's Souls is a Play Station 3 game made by From Software and published by Atlus.

The game is set in the Kingdom of Boletaria, which was led to great prosperity by King Allant XII with the use of the power of souls, until it was beset by a strange colorless fog that isolated it from the rest of the world and brought soul-hungry demons with it.

After the world was let known of Boletaria's plight, legend spread of the chaos within the kingdom wreaked upon it by a beast from the Nexus and of the demons that grew ever more powerful with each soul they devoured. Many people went to Boletaria, either to save it from its plight or lured by the prospect of the power of souls, but all were lost in its chaos.

You are one such person, like many others now dead and trapped in the fog with your soul bound to the Nexus. From there, your journey begins...

Infamous for being extremely hard due to the game playing with Trial and Error Gameplay. For this, it has gained wide praise, as the game manages to be hard but fair.

In reality, it's hardly Nintendo Hard -- rather, it's Difficult but Awesome in game form, as it encourages you to learn from your mistakes to become an experienced demon slayer. Running headfirst into battle swinging the sword like a madman hoping to hit something will only get you killed, and again, and again... and again.

The game includes a very unusual online multiplayer mode that avoids direct interaction almost entirely. You will often see ghostly forms of other players fading in and out of your game; you are unable to interact with them in any way, but it adds even more to the atmosphere of the game. When other players die in a dungeon, they leave behind a bloodstain which shows a replay (in ghost form) of how they died or a message that can contain a helpful tip. The ghost-replay can be helpful in showing you how not to die just ahead like that other guy. Useful tips can be rewarded, which gives the player who left them a temporary power boost; however, this doesn't stop some players from giving deliberately bad advice For the Evulz. Under certain conditions, you can receive direct help by sending out a summons that will randomly pull another player into your world, while others are out to kill you for the Souls that you hold and can enter your world uninvited. Fun times.

A Spiritual Successor / Non-Linear Sequel, Dark Souls, was released on October 4th, 2011.

Tropes used in Demon's Souls include:
  • Absurdly High Level Cap: It is extremely difficult to get to max level through normal play, and unnecessary as well.
  • Always Night: Tower of Latria and Valley of Defilement, it's possible that this was caused by the Colourless Fog.
  • Anticlimax Boss: After all you've went through getting there, the final boss turns out to be a barely animate blob. Considering the blob's former form was a contender for That One Boss, beating it up manages to be quite satisfying anyway.
    • When you think about it, it makes sense. What King Allant has been reduced to (a pile of sludge that could barely harm a bug) shows how relying on the power of Demon's Souls will ultimately destroy you.
      • Or rather, King Allant was regressing, since the player has cut off his formerly steady supply of souls, and the Old One was now sucking the souls out of him for nourishment.
  • Anti-Villain: Garl Vinland. Type IV.
  • Awesome but Impractical: Some of the gear you get later in the game, like the Brushwood Armor set have high stats, but they're incredibly heavy and have high stamina penalties.
    • Also, DUAL-WIELDING SHIELDS.
    • Some of the higher level spells and miracles, like Firestorm, Soulsucker, and God's Wrath, fall under this in PVE. Sure, they do huge amounts of damage to enemies. But their charging times are painfully long (Sometimes reaching up to 4 seconds) and can only be done at very close range. And with enemies that can close the distance between themselves and you pretty quickly, and can often kill you in less than a handful of hits, it is usually far too risky to try and use them.
      • They are very helpful against certain swarming enemies, however.
  • Awesome Yet Practical: Many of the more spectacular spells and weapons are every bit as effective as they look.
  • Bald of Evil: Patches the Hyena.
  • Beef Gate: Happens a lot in this game, Shrine of Storms being a notable example.
  • BFS: A few of the two-handed weapons, such as the Northern Regalia or the Dragon Bone Smasher. The latter doesn't even have a blade, it just crushes enemies.
    • Some enemies can also wield this, such as the Penetrator and the Gold Skeletons in the Shrine of Storms world.
  • Big Bad: The Old One.
  • The Blacksmith: Ed and Boldwin.
  • Bladder of Steel: You cannot pause the game at all. The game continues to run whether you're checking your inventory, writing messages, or even changing game options. The only way to stop the game is to quit from the menu. However, enemies don't respawn or chase you without attracting attention, so it's generally safe to park yourself somewhere unless a black phantom invades your game.
  • Blob Monster: Phalanx. Played with however, since it's actually some kind of magical glowy thing covered in slug-like, shield and spear wielding Hoplite monsters.
  • Bloodstained-Glass Windows: Possibly the creepiest fight with a demon happens in the church in the Prison of Hope.
  • Boring but Practical: You can get through certain stages by sniping the demon to death. It takes a long time, so you better have a lot of extra arrows in case you miss. And even then, you might need to go back and get some more.
    • The official strategy guide even flat-out states that the easiest way to kill the red dragon is to do this. Sure, you can kill it with melee weapons, but why the hell would you when it can kill you with one swipe of its tail?
  • Boss Battle: Happens at the end of every section of every level.
    • Attack Its Weak Point: The Adjudicator boasts not one, but two weak points -- a giant gash in its side and the bird on its head.
    • Bait and Switch Boss: At the end of 1-3, you find a typical Fat Official, the likes of which you've been fighting as regular enemies before. At first it looks like he would be the boss, but suddenly he gets stabbed from behind and thrown out by the real boss, The Penetrator.
    • Boss Arena Idiocy: So, just why does the Dragon God park itself right in front of two ballistas?
    • Boss Corridor: A tunnel leads up to the room where you battle Maiden Astraea and Garl Vinland. The corridor leading to where you fight the Dragon God gets extra points for giving you a view of the boss and its primary attack in all its glory. Finally, an example before the False King, after the Blue Dragon. Partial examples before the Storm King and Old Monk - they are only empty after you fight and beat the Old Hero and Maneater in each corridor, respectively.
    • Boss in Mook Clothing: The Black Phantoms
    • Cognizant Limbs: Two for the Maneater (body and tail), and an impressive five for the Storm King (both wings, tail, body, and head).
    • Dual Boss: Maneater, to the dismay of many a player who did not expect last-minute reinforcements
    • Flunky Boss: The Phalanx Demon, The Tower Knight
    • Hopeless Boss Fight: The Vanguard at the end of the tutorial, to serve the plot. Beating him is acknowledged by the game, earning the player a decent reward for his or her trouble...and also nets the player the privilege of being killed in a cutscene encounter with the Dragon God, end-boss of Stonefang Tunnel.
    • Mirror Boss: Old Monk, of the "equivalency" rather than "identical" type. You actually fight another player in Black Phantom form if you are online.
    • Stationary Boss: The Adjudicator (which isn't actually stationary, but is so immobile it might as well be), The Leechmonger, The Dragon God
    • Teleport Spam: Fool's Idol, combining with Doppelganger Spin for Shell Game shenanigans
    • Turns Red: The Flamelurker
      • Also a "Wake-Up Call" Boss. Every boss prior (Phalanx, Tower Knight and Armored Spider) is generally easy to beat once you figure out how. Flamelurker is hard even if you know exactly what to do.
      • Abuse the AI by sneaking behind it and sniping it with spells, bolts, or arrows?
    • Zero Effort Boss: Maiden Astraea, if you kill Garl Vinland.
  • But Thou Must!: When the Monumental tells you its plan to defeat the Old One, you get to decline to helping it. It then points out that your only other option is staying in the Nexus for all eternity, slowly withering away.
  • Call a Rabbit a Smeerp: The Mirdan Hammer, called a Lucerne hammer in the real world. Justified trope; there's probably no Lucerne, Switzerland in the Demon's Souls world.
  • Captain Ersatz: The assassins that you see after the Tower Knight's arch stone look a lot like Altair. The Tower Knight himself bares a striking resemblance to Grunbeld.
  • Chainmail Bikini: Notably averted. All character classes wear the armors the way they should be worn.
    • Though, played straight with some of the starting outfits - women knights' fluted plate leaves their faces visible and emphasizes their buttocks, while female thieves masks are see-through and their shirts are V-neck.
  • Cherry Tapping: Ever killed a boss with a broken sword?
    • Even better, parry a knight's sword WITH YOUR BARE HAND, then kill him with a broken sword.
      • A Something Awful Let's Play once featured a player getting through about two thirds of the game with nothing but bare fists, and later, various knuckledusters. That player eventually got very good at backstabs, which with the given weapon setup, amount to ass-fisting the enemy to death.
  • Competitive Balance: Each character class has (or at least, starts with) its own specialty so as not to make any single one stand out (at the start).
  • Conservation of Ninjutsu: One lone human soul against a veritable army of demons...AHA! Those demons won't stand a chance!
  • Contractual Boss Immunity: Mostly averted; status effects can help a lot (or even be gamebreakers with exploits) when fighting most bosses and strong normal enemies. They are also helpful in PVP.
    • Closest it gets is the tutorial. After that, you kill everything and everybody (and some of the NPCs can be so hard they might as well be bosses). 2nd place is the dragon god, because if there weren't balistas on his stage you would be done for.
  • Contractual Immortality: The Monumental is the only NPC that reacts to being attacked without taking damage and it chides you for wasting your energy. If you choose to lull the Old One back to sleep, however, it dies off-screen and locks you into its role. Granted, you were told about this beforehand.
  • Cosmic Keystone: The Monumental and the player, depending on his or her choice.
  • Counter Attack: It may be pretty hard to pull off (as in if you're timing is off by a millisecond you're eating whatever attack you were trying to stop) but you can parry the attacks of most humanoid enemies, at least those with weapons, if you're using a small shield, some weapons, or even with your empty offhand by hitting L2 at the right time. If timed right it staggers them back and leaves them open, hitting the light attack button immediately after a parry executes a downright brutal counterattack. Swords, spears, and other stabby weapons impale your enemy before you slam them to the ground for more damage than you could hope to do with any other physical attack, usually instantly killing the poor sap you just parried. Blunt weapons smash your target in the pelvis before slamming them in the chest and crushing them to the floor, doing, wait for it, just as much damage as their stabby counterparts. Oh, and the one boss 1-3 that's human? And the sub-boss Garl in 5-3? Yeah these work on them.
    • You are, however, advised not to attempt to parry Garl's Bramd when he starts two-handing it. He'll just plow through your parry and kill you. Similarly, the Penetrator's most dangerous attack, the lunging impale stab of death that autotracks to an extent, is unblockable and can't be parried, and will almost certainly kill you on the spot if you try.
  • Crapsack World: Let's see, there's Boletaria, a kingdom that is considered a paradise on Earth in comparison to other lands, but is supported by an army of slaves (the Dreglings). The land of the burrowers is a dangerously difficult-to-navigate system of mines and caves that go all the way down to molten magma, wherein lie a powerful fire demon and the bones of a dragon god that the burrowers actually expected to revive one day (given that they created a sword with the sole purpose of killing it, as well as two giant javelin launchers to pin the sucker down). The Tower of Latria was taken over by a madman an unknown amount of time ago, but couldn't have been a land of sunshine and roses before the Old Monk showed up, seeing as the place had obviously been set up as a prison from its construction. The land of the Shadowmen is the home of a long lost tribe of warriors who gave far more care to the dead than they ever did to the living, and whose "gods" include a gigantic man-eating monster and a monstrous flying manta ray. Finally, there's the Valley Of Defilement, where all the garbage is sent, whether it's things, animals, or people. It's the garbage dump of the world, and it was a nightmarish place even before the demons came: when the Maiden Astraea came and became a demon, conditions actually improved. The water is toxic, poisoning anyone who isn't a local, and there are plague rats, gigantic maneating insects, the nightmarish plague babies, a monster that is nothing more than a horrendous mass of leeches, and apparently some of the garbage was there so long that it actually gained sentience and started moving around! And let's not forget: There is no god, only the Old One, and there is no afterlife for anyone -- the souls of the dead just lie on the ground, waiting to be picked up and consumed by demons, or the player. This game brings "Crapsack" to a whole new level.
  • Cute Witch: Yuria.
  • Dark Action Girl: Mephistopheles.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: The Maiden in Black. She has a pretty sinister moniker and an overall creepy vibe (what with her wax-covered eyes), and happens to be one of the most powerful demons around. However, she is the only one who can lull the Old One back to sleep, and wants nothing more than to do so.
    • Astraea, the maiden saint; you find her on a pile of human corpses in an enormous pool of plague-infected blood, surrounded and worshiped by the vile things dwelling in the swamp. On the other hand, she seems to genuinely care for the poor once-people in the valley, she doesn't attack you at all, and it's very likely she killed only in self-defense.
      • Those vile things in the swamp? Fucking aborted fetuses.
  • Death Is a Slap on The Wrist: You can die as many times as you want; the only penalty is loss of your currency and a shift in your World Tendency. In-story, this is explained as a phenomenon that only happens when one dies in Boletaria, and continues after the soul is bound to the Nexus.
    • It becomes a lot less cheap if you take the World and Character Tendencies into account. The more you die (except for spirit form deaths, if you've patched), the blacker it gets, and when it's all dark, it becomes harder.
  • Death Mountain: World 2, the Stonefang Tunnels, complete with falling rocks, hot lava and multiple opportunities to fall to your death.
  • The Dev Team Thinks of Everything: Did you happen to defeat the tutorial boss which you were supposed to lose? No problem! Just throw in a huge dragon that you can't fight and have him kill you in one hit!
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: If some of the bosses have names like Dragon God, then yeah.
  • Dirty Coward: Patches the Hyena.
  • Disc One Nuke: The crescent falchion in 4-1. Although it can carry you pretty far into the game if you know what you're doing.
  • The Dragon: Garl Vinland is this to Maiden Astraea, the Big Bad of the Valley of Defilement. When he's gone, she doesn't even bother defending herself.
    • In Boletaria Palace, you'll have to slay (or at least evade) two literal dragons serving the False King Allant.
    • The Real King Allant to the Old One
    • Essentially, the game revolves around you slaughtering your way through the ranks of the Old One's flunkies so you can become its Dragon. Of course, you end up betraying it. Maybe.
  • Driven to Suicide: Ostrava, after seeing his father as a demon.
    • Saint Astraea too, if you kill her knight first and talk to her.
    • The soldier in the Nexus, after enough time passes.
      • Not really "suicide" per say, but it does count in lose terms. He dies because souls that spend too much time away from their body, and it's also implied that without other souls one can go mad due to their own soul being ripped apart but it's less devastating in the nexus, will slowly lose their identity that they had with their body. As you go on talking to him, he slowly loses his memories because he no longer had his identity and was slowly dieing due to, well, being dead. When he finally "dies", he becomes a pile of souls, indicating that his "body" was still there, but there was no "mind" to inhabit it, making it just a shell as his person was no longer bound to the nexus, truly killing him off in a horrible way. Now, this could have been avoided if he had found a way to bring back his body or if he had gone on fighting, thus making it a partial suicide, and he probably knew what was going on but ignored it, as people have told your character the exact same thing.
  • Dual-Wielding: Can be done if you want to, although you need the strength to be able to properly wield both weapons one-handed. And if you want to get ridiculous, you can dual wield two-handed weapons.
    • Dual-Wielding in game is about like Dual-Wielding in Real Life, Awesome but Impractical. To clarify, while you can do all sorts of nifty attacks with the weapon in your right hand, the weapon in your left can parry and do a single, half-inept slash.
      • So, basically, your character isn't ambidextrous.
  • Dug Too Deep: Implied in the backstory of Stonefang, when the precursors uncovered the Dragon God... and ever since, took measures to ensure it does not get out.
  • The Dung Ages: The entire game world (spearheaded by the Valley of Defilement) seems to contain nothing but pain and despair. Made obvious through the vendors, who in several cases are covered in crap and seemingly unable to stand upright. Most of the Mooks have the appearance of terminally ill humanoids.
  • The Eeyore: The Crestfallen Warrior.
  • Eldritch Abomination: The Old One.
    • Also, the Storm King.
    • And then there's... whatever that huge thing is in the second part of the Tower of Latria.
      • That would be the Old Monk's friggin' heart.
  • Elite Mook: The Red-Eyed Knights. Can become Demonic Spiders.
    • There is usually one of these per world. In Boletarian Palace, we have the Red-Eyed Knights; in Stonefang Tunnels, there are the giant bearbugs; in Shrine of Storms, both the Dual-Wielding Black Skeletons and the Golden Skeletons can count (even worse with their Black Phantom counterparts). The winners, however, are the Giant Depraved Ones from the Valley of Defilement, what with being extremely powerful and fast. Their Black Phantom counterparts? Oh boy.
    • The Giant Bearbugs are basically Mighty Glaciers. Giant and hugely armoured, but extremely slow, and they deal fairly low and easily dodge-able damage. Really you just need to quickly move around them and be on your way. The tower of Latria's prison guards could also count as this. They have powerful long range attacks that will tear you to bits if your character doesn't have good magic defense, and if you try to close the distance, they can hit you with a paralyzing attack before running over and eating your brain.
      • A problem with some of the Giant Bearbugs, though, is that they're in the way so you can't just go around them.
  • Equivalent Exchange: A demon's soul for your life.
  • Engrish: Fixed in the USA and European localisation. But in the Chinese/English version, while the NPCs and most important information show Surprisingly Good English, some of the flavor text is borderline gibberish (although it's generally comprehensible).
  • Even Evil Has Standards: Patches, the backstabbing thief, will warn you to stay away from Complete Monster Yurt the Silent Chief.
  • Evil Pays Better: Doing generally evil things, like murdering friendly NPCs or other players, darkens the World Tendency, which causes slain enemies to drop more souls and items.
    • Opting for the ending where you kill the Maiden in Black and become the new demon lord awards you 200,000 souls in New Game+, as opposed to the 60,000 souls you get for the other ending.
  • Evil Plan: The Old One has a simple one: collect souls for eating. Allant found this out the hard way.
  • Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Most boss names say it how it is: Tower Knight, Armored Spider, Phalanx, Penetrator, to name a few.
  • Experience Points: Souls are both these and currency.
  • Exploding Barrels: Found around the place, although they explode only when set on fire. Hitting them with regular weaponry just breaks them.
    • Of course, God help you if your weapon is on fire when you hit it.
  • Fake Ultimate Mook: The Blue-Eyed Knights. They can do a lot of damage to you early in the game, but their attacks are predictable and they're quite easy to outmaneuver.
    • The fireball-using Fat Officials in Stonefang Tunnel can count as this to players who first meet them, as they are the first enemies that use spells if the player hasn't been to the Tower of Latria yet.
  • Failure Is the Only Option: The tutorial ends with you coming face-to-face with the monstrous Vanguard in a very enclosed space. You're supposed to die so that your soul can be bound to the Nexus. If you're good enough, however, you can kill the Vanguard, which nets you a lot of souls. And then you die anyway, so that your soul can be bound to the Nexus.
  • Fan Nickname: Otsdarva of Boletaria.
  • Fat Bastard: The Fat Officials; the Adjudicator.
  • First-Episode Resurrection: The tutorial ends with your death.
    • Likely a foreshadowing of how many times you will die in the game.
  • Flaming Sword: Just add turpentine.
    • Then there are the Dragon weapons, which have permanent fire effects.
  • For Massive Damage: Counter-attacks and backstabs are the most basic ways of achieving this, however some weapons have 'sweet spots' that deal extra damage when you strike an enemy with a certain part. Note that counter-attacks can be trigger on any enemy whose attacks you can block; those Blue-Eyed Knights? One good counter-attack (which is actually easy enough to do consistently) and they're done for the count. You can, in fact, kill everything in 1-1 with a single counter attack before you even level up.
    • The epitome of this is the Secret Dagger, whose sweet spot damage triggers (and thus adds onto) backstab and counter-attack strikes. Add to this that this dagger can have its damage in this area further enhanced by imbuing it with Marrowstone, and your potential for massive damage sky-rockets.
  • Friendly Fireproof: Generally played straight. An arrow launched at you by an enemy will just pass through other enemies, though averted in the case of the Blue Dragon, who will toast anything, allied or not.
  • God Is Evil: There are hints implying that God, the deity venerated by Urbain and his followers, and the Old One responsible for this whole mess, are one and the same.
  • Giant Flyer: The Storm Ruler. Because giant flying doom mantas just aren't giant flying doom mantas unless they're big enough to sweep most of the arena in massive spines in a single strafing run.
  • Gradual Regeneration: The Regenerator's Ring, Adjudicator's Shield and any type of blessed weaponry have this power.
  • Grumpy Old Man: Blacksmith Ed. Boldwin counts, too, but isn't nearly as grumpy as his brother.
  • Guide Dang It: Inverted by making help from other players part of the game.
    • Also, the official strategy guide is only available in the Deluxe edition. Of which production ceased two weeks after the game was released.
      • But was reprinted for the EU Black Phantom Edition.
    • Then there's the Wiki that was written to serve as a guide for the average player. Even some (potentially serious) bugs are noted in the wiki.
  • Hard Levels Easy Bosses: Occurs on a few levels, most notably World 5.
  • Heroic Fantasy
  • Homage: Tower of Latria's swamp looks a lot like ActRaiser's Bloodpool, down to the red bloodied waters.
  • Infinite Flashlight: The light stone on your belt.
  • Infinity+1 Sword: The Meat Cleaver, a large sword made from the Adjudicator demon's soul, has the best stat boosts in the game (it gets boosted by YOUR stats, not the other way around), having A's in strength and dexterity, and an S in Faith, meaning that as long as you work on those stats, its damage scales up much faster than any other weapon in the game. Although it is a bit bigger and slower than other swords, once the player passes a certain threshold, its damage leaves all other weapons in the dust.
    • The Blueblood sword is probably closer; it requires you to finish arguably the hardest world before it can be forged, it requires a large spread of stats, and its true power requires an unorthodox stat-spread (it scales best off Luck, which is otherwise considered useless). It's quite fast, has massive power, and can be enchanted (most of the other candidates can't be), making it an almost instant gamebreaker. As a bonus, it requires forging from a broken sword.
    • While not necessarily superior to either the Meat Cleaver or Blueblood Sword in performance, some of the fully upgraded weapon paths can fall under this due to how many of them require farming for ore to forge. The fully upgraded "Sharp" path is particularly infamous as it requires getting a rare ore which can only be dropped by 2 types of enemies (of which there can only be one of each in the area they drop them) and the possibility of them dropping is incredibly low. Comparatively speaking, forging either the Meat Cleaver or Blueblood Sword is relatively simple (or at least less of a test in patience).
  • Insurmountable Waist High Fence: Kind of zig-zags. You can't jump even by running off ledges, and just about any ledge higher than your knees is off-limits, but with short ledges that aren't meant to block off out-of-bounds areas, you can move against them and hoist yourself up.
  • Jerkass: Patches the Hyena, Satsuki, Sage Freke's disciple, and the Filthy Woman.
  • Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: Sage Freke originally starts out as a wizard seeking to understand the power and nature of souls. The further into the adventure, the more... disturbingly fascinated he becomes with the power and knowledge they grant him, until at the end, he urges the Player Character to not lull the Old One to sleep, and let the world continue on in its broken, chaotic state, so he can continue to utilize the Soul Arts. By following this advice, the Player Character does as well.
  • Justified Tutorial: It's your entrance into Boletaria. It can be skipped, though, but it's recommended to go through it for the souls and extra items.
  • Karma Meter: Soul Tendency.
  • Katanas Are Just Better: Played with. Katanas are only better if you have the DEX to back them up. They also have some of the lowest durability in the game, making you a fine target for those that enjoy the weapon breaking spear. They are, however, very good on your stamina, have a very long range, and can exploit a tactic called pushlocking in PvP to make it all but impossible for the player it's used on to strike back.
    • ...Until the PvP gamers figured out that the easiest way to break pushlocking is to switch weapons.
  • Kevlard: The Adjudicator qualifies, although the Meat Cleaver stuck in his chest was a pretty good indicator of where you had to hit him.
  • Kill It with Fire: An effective tactic against the Phalanx demon.
    • And every enemy in the Valley of Defilement. All that filth must be very very flammable.
    • The three primary damage types are physical, magic, and fire, 'nuff said.
  • The Kingdom: of Boletaria
  • Lady and Knight: Maiden Astraea and Garl Vinland, respectively.
  • Large Ham: Biorr of the Twin Fangs.
  • Last of His Kind: The Monumental. It sits on the higher of two floors, each with long walls lined with dozens of its similarly-dressed companions, all dead, each with a snuffed candle in front of them. The one living Monumental is the only one with a lit candle.
  • Light Is Not Good: Maiden Astraea. A once pious person, she did not take it well when her faith shattered, taking on the soul of a demon and ruling over the corrupted denizens of the Valley of Defilement. She is described as having "the most impure soul."
    • Granted, her alleged impurity becomes more of an Informed Flaw when you realize that switching her loyalty from God to demons wasn't really much of a change at all -- see below.
    • Miracles may seem all dandy and righteous, but when you realize they require demon's souls to learn (not at all unlike spells) and that God is really the Old One, well...
  • Like a Badass Out of Hell: Or out of The Nexus at least.
  • Lost Forever: Many, many items and demon souls. The main reason for this is because reloading a previously saved file does not mend your mistake; once it's done, it's done for the entirety of this playthrough. For example, if a crucial NPC dies, anything related to them are lost until you start New Game+. In some cases, you have to make a choice on which item to obtain, losing the other in the process. World Tendencies also seem to affect this greatly. One of the biggest replay values of the game is trying out different options and collecting previously unobtained items.
  • Made of Iron: All of the NPCs are incredibly sturdy and have a lot of health, but special mention has to go to Biorr. He helps you in your fight against the Penetrator and the Blue Dragon, and both times, he takes the brunt of the punishment, the kind which you'd die from easily, yet he can keep taking all the damage and keep standing up to charge.
    • To put that into perspective, when you see him the second time, Biorr takes repeated blasts from an enemy that would kill you in one hit (at around 600 HP). Biorr takes 20 HP from the attack. This becomes less fun when dealing with enemy unique NPCs (Rydell has more HP than you can max out at in the game).
      • Justified trope when you look at Biorr's equipment. He has the full Brushwood set, a Purple Flame Shield, and possibly a Flame Resistance Ring, meaning that he laughs at flame attacks. This set up can turn make Flame Lurker reasonably easy as barring his claws, he loses much of his fire power.
  • Mega Manning: You can learn powerful magic or abilities from boss demons by taking their souls to Sage Freke, Yuria or Saint Urbain.
    • By taking them to Ed the Blacksmith you can make powerful unique weapons with different effects and uses.
  • More Teeth Than the Osmond Family: The Dragon God.
  • Ms. Fanservice: Yuria, if the fan art is anything to go by. Furthermore, some players get a giggle out of leaving "Sticky White Stuff" messages near her in the Nexus.
    • While fanarts have made Yuria much cuter than she is (she looks like your standard Western concept of witches, big nose and all, only younger), the Maiden In Black, on the other hand seems to be hitting the right spots for some people's... tastes.
  • Multiple Endings
  • Mysterious Waif: The Maiden in Black.
  • Names to Run Away From Really Fast: Mephistopheles (she will task you with killing the other inhabitants of the Nexus, and will attack you with the Soulsucker when you've accomplished it), Miralda the Executioner (will attack you whether she's alive or a Black Phantom), and Yurt the Silent Chief (one boss fight after you free him in the Tower of Latria, he starts assassinating people in the Nexus).
    • YMMV on Mephistopheles, depending on your play strategy. The rewards she offers for killing your fellow Nexus inhabitants are generally rare or unique, including a ring that can only be obtained by completing the list. Furthermore, her trigger for appearing in The Nexus is Pure Black Character Tendency, which can only be gained by murdering friendly NPCs (but not the ones on the list, or you'll miss the rewards), or other players as a black phantom. In this case you'll want to work with/for her, until you assassinate the last target and she turns on you, at which point you'll want to run, or kill her.
    • The Penetrator.
  • New Game+: After completing the game, you return to the beginning with all your stats, souls, items, equipment, and spells on hand. And the enemies are even tougher now.
  • Nice Hat: The Fat Officials wear them. Also, in order to rescue Yuria, the player has to wear one of these hats as a disguise.
  • Nintendo Hard
    • Holiday Mode: Halloween 2009 temporarily made it Nintendo Harder.
      • On the winter solstice of 2009, all of the worlds were set to Pure White Tendency.
      • To fit people's wildly varying perspectives on Valentine's Day, the game went to Pure White Tendency for Valentine's Day 2010 (to correspond with love), but for the rest of the week it went to Pure Black (to correspond with bitterness).
  • Noble Top Enforcer: Garl Vinland.
  • No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Release Yurt from his prison, and he will happily begin butchering all the various helpful NPCs in the Nexus. And when he's done with them, he'll come for you!
  • Not So Different: Sage Freke and his follower despise Saint Urbain and his followers as fools worshipping a false and most definitely malevolent god. Likewise, Urbain condemns Freke and his ilk as heretics who rely on demon magic for power. Both sides are absolutely correct!
  • Obviously Evil: Yurt the Silent Chief. The menacing voice... the Sauron-like armor... the sinister sickle-like weapon... the statement that "Life is not so precious." Really, though, he's in a cage when you meet him. If he is anything, it is not good.
  • Ominous Fog: With soul-hungry demons in it.
  • Only the Worthy May Pass: Only when you impress King Doran with your fighting prowess will he let you have the Demonbrand.
  • Our Ghosts Are Different: When you die, you return in "Soul Form" (this will probably happen a lot). There are also friendly blue phantoms as well as hostile black phantoms, unusual in that players as well as NPCs can become them. While NPCs and their black phantom incarnations are gone for good when you kill them, there are a number of ways for players to come Back from the Dead.
  • Our Souls Are Different
  • Peninsula of Power Leveling: 1st stage after the Tutorial, there's a Red-eyed Knight. You are not supposed to casually take them on until about 30 character levels later. You can, however, poisition yourself so the character AI walks off a cliff and kills itself from falling damage. This enemy respawns every time you enter the stage, and you get a lot of souls from it.
  • Pinata Enemy: The miners with sacks and the Crystal Geckos. Both appear only a set amount of times per playthrough, making them very, very valuable.
  • Purely Aesthetic Gender: Played straight in that gender doesn't affect base stats; averted in that gender does affect which armor the player can wear.
    • Further averted by the female having exclusive access to Silver Bracelets (a gauntlet which increases the amount of souls you get every time you kill an enemy), the Binded armor set (light armor with high fire resistance, zero stamina regeneration penalty, and can be acquired as early as after the first boss) and others.
    • On the other hand, males have exclusive access to the Old King armor Set (heavy armor with high fire resist and no stamina penalty), Dark Silver armor set (heavy armor with remarkably high magic resistance), and others.
  • Ravens and Crows: They're present in various locations, usually feasting on the abundant corpses. The Shrine of Storms implicitly even has a talking crow (popularly called Sparkly) who you can trade "sparkly" items with.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: The Red-Eyed Knights, The Black Phantoms and The Dragon God.
    • One sure way to tell a strong enemy from the rest is whether or not its eyes glow.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: The two dragons in World 1-1. The red dragon is standing at its nest in an attack position, searching for prey, and will immediately come after you if you dare set foot on the bridge several hundred feet away. The blue dragon, meanwhile, is taking a nap.
  • Role-Playing Game: Which is made by the East, but plays like the West (sort of).
  • Save Scumming: Deliberately prevented; the game autosaves almost constantly.
    • It's still possible to prevent losing your souls. When you die, immediately hold down the PS button and select "Quit Game." Start the game back up, and load your save
  • Sequence Breaking: Normally, while advancing in a level, the player has to go through fog gates, usually 3. In world 4-1, however, it is possible to bypass all 3 fog gates and finish the level in 5 minutes.
  • Serial Escalation: Depending on how you play the game, you may end up facing the final boss with the following equipment setup: The armor of an ancient demigod king, a shield dedicated to the judge of fallen warriors, a spear that is considered a Revelation From God (and boosted five times from the souls of demons), a bow forged from the soul of a Demonic Spider, and a divine talisman crafted in the image of the Big Bad. Need I go on?
    • The game itself pulls one on you: having New Game+ means that you can now go slaughter all those hapless Demons with your overpowered stats a la traditional JRPG, right? Wrong, with each successive New Game Plus you take, the game gets harder! The Dev Team Thinks of Everything indeed.
    • Another example is simply having 99 on all stats, due to the insanely curving amount of Souls needed to upgrade the more you go on. Full Brushwood Armor set (heaviest in the game) and dual wielding the Dragon Bone/Keel Smasher (also the heaviest in the game), and still able to keep it under half maximum equip burden for normal rolling? Experienced players' responses would be somewhere along the lines of: "Been there, done that."
  • Shout-Out: The description of the Dragon Bone Smasher sounds awfully similar to another sword in a similarly themed world.
  • Shield Bearing Mook: Hoplites, most Blue-Eye and Red-Eye Knights, certain Black Phantoms. Also includes a Shield Bearing Boss: the appropriately-named Tower Knight, who bears an appropriately-sized tower shield for his stature, and spans several stories in height.
  • Slasher Smile: The Fat Officials sport permanent and very unsettling rictus grins.
  • Sleeper Hit: Developed by a relatively small and obscure developer, released at a time when numerous big titles were coming out, absolutely no advertising or fanfare, Nintendo Hard... and still sold well. Enough to qualify for a Greatest Hits hits release and extend the lifetime of the servers. Also a critical hit, scoring The Game of the Year at both IGN and Gamespot. Who saw that coming?
    • To the point, it's From Softwares' most successful game ever.
      • And it's getting a sequel that is getting a lot of publicity.
  • Slice-and-Dice Swordsmanship: Somewhat. The various straight swords (with the exception of rapier-type weaponry) can be used to both slash and thrust, although their effectiveness in doing so varies. For example, the long sword is a balanced weapon and can be used to slash and thrust, although it's not as effective at slashing as the falchion and not as effective at thrusting as the rapier.
  • Socketed Equipment: Almost every weapon and shield in the game can be imbued with "Transmogrified sprites," or shards of special stone, that can affect how weapons deal damage, what sorts of damage weapons deal, what player abilities can affect a weapon's damage output and by how much, etc.; and can even confer small bonuses to health or mana regeneration. By imbuing mundane weapons with certain demon souls, you can change weapons into special unique versions with vastly different properties. These and other special weapons you find throughout the game can be further enhanced by applying the souls of infant demons.
  • Speech Impediment: Scirvir the Wanderer has a stutter.
  • Spiritual Successor: To King's Field, another RPG made by From Software.
  • Stupidity Is the Only Option: In order to save Saint Urbain, you are required to fall for the exact same painfully obvious trap that he fell for -- one which his disciples warn you about multiple times, in fact.
  • Suspiciously Specific Denial:

Patches: Nothing here is stolen, I swear. I no longer partake in the whole "corpse-robbing" thing. Yeah… No, I'm completely free from my vice. My old mother would be proud indeed!

  • Swamps Are Evil: The Valley of Defilement is a sprawling toxic swamp, populated by all manners of fetid creatures, from giant blood-sucking mosquitoes, depraved people, plagued rats, and is home to the most "impure soul of all." It's also That One Level.
  • Take Up My Sword: In a way. If the player chooses to calm the Old One, he or she becomes the new Monumental afterwards.
  • The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: In the Valley of Defilement, AI human black phantoms (who normally operate under the same limitations as you) are not encumbered (or poisoned) by the swamp at all.
    • Neither is any enemy for that matter. That includes the Giant Depraved Ones, who can't be stunned, have loads of HP, and will relentlessly pursue and attack you with their heavy-hitting giant clubs. Their Black Phantom versions are probably the most hated enemy in the game.
  • Tin Tyrant: Many enemies and bosses including the Tower Knight and the Penetrator, and quite possibly you as well depending on your armor choice.
  • Too Awesome to Use: Both played straight and averted; averted by the main resource in the game, souls, due to the death penalty that promotes using them up whenever you get the chance, but it's also easy to start hoarding other items, even in situations where they would be very useful.
    • The Stone of Ephemeral Eyes certainly qualifies. It can instantly revive you in soul form. But there is only a small, set number of them per playthrough, and the only enemies who have a chance to drop them are the Giant Depraved Ones and the Plague Babies, both located in the much-hated Valley of Defilement.
    • Though with the stone, there's also the fact that defeating a boss has the exact same effect. Sometimes you might just feel that you're so close that you might as well save the stone and defeat the boss in soul form. This won't shift the world tendency towards white (easier) as much as killing the boss in body form, however.
  • Torture Cellar: All around the Prison of Hope.
  • Trial and Error Gameplay: Fitting the game's "hard but fair" image, you're encouraged to repeatedly try against bosses and enemies to try what they're weakest against, and also be aware of what happens if you have to play through a section repeatedly. Messages from prior players can help with this, but there are indeed a few trolls among them.
  • Troubled but Cute: The Maiden in Black. She's gloomy, she's blind, but her voice and demeanor are just precious.
  • Turns Red: When his health is getting low, the Flamelurker burns brighter and he attacks a lot more aggressively.
  • Undead Child: The Plague Babies are this trope ramped Up to Eleven. Why? They're undead aborted foetuses.
  • Unexplained Accent: Just what kind of accent does the Maiden in Black have anyway?
    • The kind of accent someone with a name like "Evetta Muradasilova" has.
  • Unstable Equilibrium: The more you die (except for spirit form deaths, if you've patched), the blacker it gets, and when it's all dark, it becomes harder. It's not too bad as you don't lose your items, plus some good things only appear when the world is Pure Black.
    • Black Tendency is extremely easy to get. White Tendency is much harder to get, which makes the realization that it makes the game easier kind of a Funny Aneurysm Moment (boosting a world tendency towards White requires not dying, killing powerful bosses, and certain Guide Dang It moments, in a game that's unashamedly Nintendo Hard).
  • Ultimate Blacksmith: Ed, who can upgrade weapons using every kind of ore. And he's one of the few remaining lucid people in Stonefang.
  • Vader Breath: The Blue Eye and Red Eye Knights.
  • Warrior Prince: Ostrava of Boletaria, but he tends to be in need of rescue when you encounter him so it stretches this trope a bit.
  • Weaksauce Weakness: The Adjudicator, who is every bit horrifying, has one major weakness: people moving clockwise. Every one of its powerful attacks can be dodged if you run clockwise around it.
  • Whip It Good: A decidedly non-sexual example: Fat Officials in Stonefang carry riding crops instead of their signature Great Axes. They don't hurt a lot, but if you block it, expect it to take off about 3/4ths of your stamina bar, if not completely guard break it. God forbid they follow up with their fire spell.
  • With This Herring: Justified. You go into Boletaria alone, at no one's behest, so you only have the equipment you came in with, which you get to keep after the Vanguard kills you. You also wouldn't know that the currency of the Nexus is souls, so what currency a standard adventurer has would be worthless.
  • World Tree: The Old One.
    • Although according to the Maiden in Black, what we see may actually be The Old One's lair, or at least a massive shell that protects the true creature from harm. Since the Maiden in Black can't actually lull the Old One back to sleep until she's gone a good ways inside, this is a much more likely scenario.
  • The Worm That Walks: The Leechmonger.
  • Wreaking Havok: There's plenty of destructable set pieces in all the worlds, but the real fun comes from killing basic enemies and running into their corpses and enjoying the subsequent flailing of disturbing creature's ligaments.
  • Xanatos Gambit: The majority of the game involves the protagonist doing the legwork for one, since the Old One will not allow the player near it until there are no longer any demons left to feed it souls. The protagonist has to go out and do the killing before anything can be done about the Old One. So either you feed it souls like it wants, or refuse and wander the fog until you wither away or something kills you, which would also please the Old One.
    • The Maiden in Black can wait for someone or a collective to clear the way so she can lull The Old One back to sleep. Of course, the player can decide to double cross her at the end, making himself the Spanner in the Works.
  • Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe: The Maiden in Black speaks like this.
    • So does Old King Doran.
  • You Bastard: When you attack Maiden Astraea, she calls you out on such offensive dickery.

"We have done nothing to you! Leave us be!"

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