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Essays 04 July 2022, 18:26

Demon's Souls. A subjective list of the best moral systems

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The best weapon in the game, the Northern Regalia, scales with the character's tendency. - Moral systems in games that I remember the most – document – 2022-06-25
The best weapon in the game, the Northern Regalia, scales with the character's tendency.
  1. Genre: Action RPG
  2. Release year: 2009

The game that actually inspired us to write this piece Demon's Souls remake. Interestingly, I completed it almost without noticing that there was some sort of moral system here. It wasn't until I reached the final showdown and became interested in completeng the remaining achievements that I realized what I was missing.

I quickly started researching how the system works. It turned out to be surprisingly complex. In short: our actions have various consequences. Death in body form is seen as evil, but death in soul form isn't. Killing demons and invaders is seen as good, but killing defenseless NPCs has a negative effect.

The consequences of these actions are manifested through the tendencies of the worlds and characters. They can take various shades, too – from completely white to pure black, with intermediate states between the two extremes. The latter mainly affect the statistics of enemies and the hero controlled by the player. On the other hand, extreme values have some more obscure effects. In the case of the world tendency, it could be the appearance of new NPCs or unlocking of new paths, often leading to unique items. As for the tendency of the characters, it influences, among others, the attitude of certain NPCs or the number of HP in soul form. Moreover, the most powerful weapon in the game scales with this stat.

  1. You can read more about Demon's Souls in our encyclopedia

POSSIBLE RETURN

Unfortunately, a similar system hasn't appeared in any other game by FromSoftware. This developer went more towards quests, the completion of which unlocks, among others, different endings. Apart from a few exceptions – such as Shura from Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice – it's difficult to indicate among them the endings that are clearly good or bad. As for the Demon's Souls morality system, taking into account the fact that the developers like to go back to solutions from their previous games, one can hope that it will retur in some form in one of their future games.

Hubert Sledziewski

Hubert Sledziewski

Has been writing professionally since 2016. He joined Gamepressure.com five years later - although he has known the service since he had access to the internet - to combine his love for words and games. Deals mainly with news and journalism. A sociologist by education, a gamer by passion. He started his gaming adventure at the age of four - with a Pegasus. Currently, prefers PC and demanding RPGs, but does not shy away from consoles or other genres. When he's not playing or writing, he enjoys reading, watching series (less often movies) and Premier League matches, listening to heavy music, and also walking the dog. Almost uncritically loves the work of Stephen King. Does not abandon plans to follow in his footsteps. However, he keeps his first "literary achievements" locked away deep in a drawer.

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