The Demon's Souls remake, lovingly crafted by Bluepoint games, is one of the best games to come out this year. The remaster takes full advantage of the new capabilities afforded to it by the Playstation 5. As far as launch titles go, it is a very impressive game and shows off the power of the PS5 very well.
However, it is first and foremost a From Software game, designed by Hidetaka Miyazaki. It has all his trademarks, from the crushing difficulty and impenetrable upgrade systems to a threadbare narrative, disguising deep lore. And as with all his games, magic plays a vital role in your character's progression. And though you can completely leave the magic system aside for your playthrough, it is just as deep and intricate as any system in this game, and here are some things you may not know about it.
10 There Are Two Types
Demon's Souls and all further Souls games carry this idea forward. Spells in Demon's Souls are divided into two categories, Magic and Miracles. The Magic Spells are mostly offensive spells that scale with your Magic Power stat and are cast by Catalysts. You need to spec into the Intelligence stat to gain Magic slots. Miracles are more defensive and focused on healing and guarding yourself. They scale with the Miracle Power stat, are cast with Talismans and you get slots by the Faith stat.
9 Magic Is Broken
This statement is almost a meme in the Demon's Souls community. However, it is very true. Magic Spells and magic-based weapons are very strong in this game. The basic spells you get at the start have a great damage output and range and can be cast a lot of times with some replenishment items.
As you go on and spec into Intelligence, and buy more and powerful spells, you'll find that Magic is quite unbalanced. And while this is partly because of how Magic works, it also mostly because most enemies, especially early game, are close range. So a powerful ranged attack makes it a lot easier for you.
8 You Don't Need To Be A Magician
The upgrade system in this game allows you a lot of flexibility in your builds. you can specialize in a stat or decide to do a quality build with a few stats. That is true for magic as well. You can decide to do a Knight run, or a strength build going for the biggest, heaviest weapons you can find. You can still have Magic as a solid backup option. The barrier for entry for Magic is really low. You can wield basic spells with only a few points in Intelligence. And these basic spells are much better for ranged damage, compared to the bows you get in the early game.
7 There Are Boss Spells
You can exchange the Demon's Souls you get for spells, just like you do for weapons. Once you have some souls, head on over to Sage Freke or Witch Yuria, and they will give you spells in exchange for the souls. For some souls, there are different spells you can get depending on the vendor you go to.
For example, both Curse Weapon and Light Weapon are spells you can get for the Silver Demon Soul. However, both have different effects. You can get Light Weapon from Sage Freke, and Cursed Weapon from Yuria the Witch. So when you get a boss soul, look around before you spell it.
6 You Can Still Have A Good Melee Weapon
Even if you are going for a full mage build, there are situations where you need an effective weapon. You might be low on Spices and going out to grind lower level enemies, or you might run out of Mana in a tricky area. Later in the game, you will find stronger spells that need more Mana, and you might not want to waste it on the riff-raff before the boss. Either way, you can still have a pretty strong weapon with the Crescent upgrade path. Crescent weapons ditch strength and dexterity scaling in favor of Magic scaling. That, coupled with the mana regen effect, makes them a very good option to carry along with your catalyst.
5 How To Get One
You can apply Crescent effects to a lot of weapons. However, they need the rare Darkmoonstones to upgrade, and they are hard to find. You can still go around hunting crystal lizards and grinding out some upgrade material. You can also get a very good crescent weapon early game, and use all the material you find to get it to +5. Early on in the Shrine Of Storms, you will find a fog gate. If you go left from this fog gate, you will eventually find another left entrance. There will be a pretty difficult enemy - a Black Skeleton wielding Dual Katanas. You can try beating him, but you could just dodge around him and grab the Crescent Falchion behind him.
4 Pyromancy Is, Magic?
Players coming to Demon's Souls from later Souls games might be thrown for a bit of a loop here. Unlike in later Souls games, Demon's Souls doesn't keep pyromancy as a separate type of magic. Instead, pyromancy comes under Magic Spells.
There's also no special Pyromancy Hand or other item needed to cast fire-based spells, so that's a bit easier. You can get a basic Fire Toss spell from Sage Freke for pretty cheap. Other pyromancies will need you to trade boss souls to get.
3 You Can Heal Your Allies
Demon's Souls was also the first instance of the multiplayer system that went on to be so famous in dark souls. Within this system, you can summon other players to help you with bosses and areas, and other players can invade your world to kill you. This system is of great help to people having trouble with a certain area or some bosses.
However, the allies you summon can die too, and there might be situations where your ally is at low health before a tricky area or a boss. However, if you take the Pureblood Demon soul to Yuria, you can get the Relief spell, which fully restores your ally's HP and cures all status effects. Pretty handy.
2 You Can Only Have So Much
You need Magic Slots to equip spells, and each spell takes anywhere from 1 to 3 slots per spell. Stronger spells usually take up more slots, and the number of slots you have depends on your Intelligence stat. You need to have at least 10 Intelligence to get one slot, and further slots unlock at 14, 18, 24, 30, and 40. At 40, you have the maximum number of slots you can get in the game, which is 6. If you're not going for a pure mage build and just want some magic, 1 to 2 slots are more than enough. However, if you're going for a pure mage build, you can get a Ring Of Magical Nature and get 7 slots.
1 Supplement Your Rings
You can only have 2 rings in Demon's Souls. And rings provide a variety of benefits that can really help you out in certain situations. However, you only have two slots, and that means making some sacrifices. If you did allow yourself a smattering of magic, you can work around that limitation. A lot of the buffs and benefits you get from rings, like the stealth from the Thief ring, can be achieved with spells. The Cloak spell you can get, for example, gives you the same effect. Now, this doesn't exist for every ring effect, and you will still need to choose the rings you approach every situation with. However, some magic can make those choices a little easier.