FromSoft's Demon's Souls is now a widely popular, and highly beloved classic. It's considered by many as the genesis of a brand new genre of action games, something the community now calls "Souls-like" games. Without Demon's Souls, modern gaming as we know it would be fundamentally different.
This classic RPG is being remade to be launched for the PS5, much to the pleasure of fans. As beloved and critically acclaimed as Demon's Souls is now, this game wasn't well received initially. Its development was filled with setbacks and disappointments that it's a wonder it even got released in the first place.
10 Supposed Follow-Up To King's Field
During the earliest stages of Demon's Souls' development, it wasn't even supposed to be "Demon's Souls." Instead, it was going to be another King's Field title. Prior to being known for its Soulsborne titles, FromSoft was known for Armored Core and King's Field. When Sony approached FromSoft to create an exclusive that would go toe-to-toe with Bethesda's Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, it made sense for the developer to turn to King's Field, which had a similar premise, tone, and atmosphere. This ended up not being the case.
9 Demon's Souls Was Considered A Failure
The development for Demon's Souls, like any other video game development, was riddled with stressful moments and stepbacks. In this case, the development was so underwhelming it was immediately perceived to be a failure early in the production. None of the things the team wanted to work actually worked.
Demon's Souls felt too big for the studio at the time. They were working on a game they almost didn't feel confident with on a console that felt too unfamiliar to them at that point. The team lacked proper vision and could not execute the ones they already had. To say that hopes for this title were low is an understatement.
8 Miyazaki: Savior
Hidetaka Miyazaki was fundamentally unknown before the rise of his masterful brain-children, the Souls games. When he started working for FromSoft, he initially worked on the Armored Core games. Wanting to make a name for himself, he immediately jumped on the opportunity to actualize his vision when he got wind that the studio was working on a medieval RPG title. After learning that the game was expected to be a failure, he saw this as an opportunity to do whatever he wanted. According to Miyazaki, "if all of my ideas failed, nobody would care as it was already considered a failure." Ever the opportunist, Miyazaki's priority was just to fulfill his visions and hope for the best.
7 Massive Overhaul
When Miyazaki got on board and led the development, he wanted to change a lot of aspects of Demon's Souls. Initially, the game was supposed to have a first-person perspective. Miyazaki realized the game would work better if it had a third-person perspective as it will allow the players to appreciate the environments and combat mechanics more.
Miyazaki wanted to devolve as far away from Oblivion as possible. He also didn't want it to be connected to King's Field in any way in terms of story. One of the major changes he incorporated to Demon's Souls was to make it more challenging, to provide a more rewarding experience in the end.
6 Experiences To Mechanics
A lot of the mechanics present in Demon's Souls can be attributed to Miyazaki's personal experiences. The narrative style of the game can be stemmed back from Miyazaki's childhood. When reading his favorite novels, he'd occasionally encounter words and phrases he was unfamiliar with. He would then use his imagination to fill in the gaps and form his own stories. This aspect can be found in Demon's Souls, where the narrative is non-linear, incredibly subtle, and players are given the liberty to fill in the gaps.
Another example of this is Demon's Souls' multiplayer mechanic. Miyazaki once had to work with strangers after being caught in a slippery slope in traffic. Once they got out of the situation, everyone went about their day, never getting the chance of getting to know each other. Miyazaki liked the idea of silent cooperation to overcome an obstacle, and thus the Phantom system was born.
5 A Series Of Fortunate Events
A lot of the things Miyazaki and his team were able to get away with can be attributed to strokes of luck. According to a producer, a lot of the game's aspects would have never been approved if it weren't for the studio's disinterest at the title. It was also fairly lucky of Miyazaki that FromSoft, at the time, were focused on publishing other titles, such as Ninja Blade, as they believed they needed other fallbacks should Demon's Souls fail. Whenever Miyazaki wanted to do something highly unconventional, he would always receive a "shrugged" treatment. It was going to fail anyway, might as well go crazy with it.
4 White Lies
Every time Miyazaki had to provide updates to the higher-ups on the status of the game, he'd always keep things a little bit vague, sometimes not mentioning a couple of mechanics outright. For example, Miyazaki knew that if he stated to Sony executives that the game would be very challenging, he would be asked to remove this aspect. Therefore, he chose to keep this quiet until release. One other thing he failed to mention to the higher-ups was Demon's Souls' unique death mechanics and soul-drop system.
The one person Miyazaki divulged much of the information to was his direct producer at Sony. Amazingly, this particular exec actually agreed with Miyazaki to keep a few things to himself for the time being. He noted that a lot of the other executives and the marketing people would not want the more obscure mechanics of the game.
3 Tokyo Show Disaster
When it was time for Miyazaki and his team to finally unveil their project to the public, the reception they received was brutal. Even though they knew the game wouldn't be received entirely positively, what they got was still grimmer than expected. Game producer Takeshi Kaiji described the whole situation as "nothing short of a disaster."
Those who got the chance to play Demon's Souls at the Tokyo Game Show disliked the game for its challenging nature. The combat was also particularly disliked, with many believing it was still in its early stages despite the game being almost complete. Many went as far as quitting the game at character customization. Things weren't looking good for Demon's Souls. The president of Sony at the time called the title "an unbelievably bad game."
2 Critically Favored, Commercially Neglected
When the game finally came out, it massively underperformed commercially. Demon's Souls didn't even sell more than 20,000 copies in its first week, which is an absolute low by the standards of the industry. Even considering how low expectations were, it still came as an absolute shock and an overt disappointment to the heads at FromSoft and Sony. Demon's Souls' critical reception wasn't as disappointing, though. Despite underperforming, those who did get the chance to play the final version adored it for its medieval setting and rewarding gameplay.
1 Western Audiences Weren't Supposed To Play It
Due to commercially underperforming so terribly, the game was never planned to be released for the western market. The studio planned to imprison the game locally. This is a decision Sony and its president at the time would later end up regretting. Luckily for Demon's Souls, the accessibility of the PS3 allowed the game to placed on the radar of western gamers.
Word of the game spread rapidly and it wouldn't take long then for a third-party studio to release the game internationally. Atlus USA decided to publish the game on US soil, while Bandai Namco opted to release it on the UK market. It was here the game finally received the recognition it deserved. The rest, as they say, is history.