Since I barely played more than 30 minutes over the last few days, we're at a point in this month-long experiment of mine where I'm practically all caught up with the gameplay. I only halfway expected this. Knowing that I was going to blog about the game every day for a month, there was bound to be the occasional hiccup period. Something was going to sink, one way or another, and I'd be in a lurch for either writing that day or interesting things to do in the game.
But Demon's Souls is dense. With only nine days left for the servers, we can take this time to look through a deeper lens and see the game for some of its minor intricacies. After all, we live in a post- Dark Souls/ YouTube/ Vaatividya world where the average player is used to over-analyzing anything that series producer Hidetaka Miyazaki's made to this point, and doubling back to Demon's Souls with a more knowing eye is really fascinating.
I used to think of the game's meta narrative in very broad strokes, that the player was the Monumental and that every play through was yet another cycle in its endless, circuitous death march. I still do, much like how I feel that Dark Souls's "age of darkness/ age of man" conceit was a way of saying that the only way to win the game was to not play it at all. Still, Demon's Souls has subtle layers of story that take a more trained eye to see. Thankfully, our internet video deconstruction culture has given us that arguably much-needed boot camp, and we can now see deeper meaning in the smallest details.
Take, for example, the Royalty class. At the character creator screen, classes dictate what the starting stats and equipment loadout can be. The average DeS player know these to be general guidelines, though, since a player with a plan can make any kind of demon slayer they like as the game carries on. But we can glean small pools of depth here. The Royalty class starts with with wizard's armor set, the Fragrant Ring, a Silver Catalyst, and a powerful magic spell that can kill enemies in one hit in the first level of the game. These are powerful gifts in comparison to the other classes. As a member of a royal family, it's telling from a snobby, Gen-X, class warrior perspective that the Royalty has the worst starting stats in the game but packing powerful objects like the weak, though well-funded blueblood that it is.
But in the context of the game, there's more to this story. The Tower of Latria, levels 3-x, is a palace that was overrun with demons and turned into a prison. Inside, we find various instruments of torture along with caged, insane inmates. We also have four very interesting inhabitants. The first is Lord Rydell, the ghost of a knight of Latria locked away in a cell bent on escaping to obtain his earthly remains. He is equipped with a powerful magic fighting staff-type weapon. Above him is the incarcerated Once Royal Mistress (or so is her name in the DeS community). Through her dialog, we find that she was part of the royal court that was thrown into the prison, but remained there as her singing was a balm to the other inmates. Curiously, she sells a rapier and buckler, part of the starting equipment of the Royalty class. Further into the level Sage Freke, one of the two high-level magic instructors of the game, rotting in a cell that can only be opened after obtaining a key from the end of the level, obviously making him a high-profile convict.
Far to the end of the the level, the archdemon boss in 3-3, is the Old Monk. The archstone story of the game goes that the king of Latria, a neighboring kingdom to Boletaria, left on a journey and returned with a brilliant yellow garment. He was changed; cruelly imprisoning his royal family and banishing his queen, making a living doll to take her place. Obtaining his soul and exchanging them will grant either the most powerful spell in the game or a catalyst that multiplies magic power.
Knowing that we also find the rest of the Royalty class's starting armor in the level, we can surmise two important aspects of the game's world. First, Latria is the seat of magic in Demon's Souls. The royal social class is learned in spell casting here, and are bequeathed with magic-enhancing artifacts, perhaps as a birth right. Second, as other members of the royal family of Latria were either banished or locked up (or maybe even killed), you can make an easy leap that the Royalty starting class was part of the Latria bloodline. They didn't make it out of the colorless fog that is mentioned to partition off the Northern Kingdom. Perhaps this person is directly connected to the old king and his parasitic yellow Monk's Collar and is now out for revenge. Maybe they're the child of some doomed member of court, unable to break free of the horrors that surround them since we know that only one person --an unseen minor character-- broke free from the colorless fog. The game gives the player the opportunity to role play while setting up certain parameters to adhere to. They're granted just enough leeway to figure out where these players come from while also concocting what their goals might be without spelling them out completely.
Tonight is back to the grind. I made another low-level build and went through 1-1 this morning planning on a strength/endurance/ vitality build; the most meatheaded of meatheadedness. I'll try for both co-op and PvP with this build.
We'll talk more about it tomorrow
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