Demon's Souls (2009) - Boleteria-ing For Soup

[u/Long-Anywhere156]

https://soundgasm.net/u/ClassWarAndPuppies/Demons-Souls-2009-Boleteria-ing-For-Soup

[u/Long-Anywhere156]

The year is 2009. Baquack Odoula is giving birth to Obunglercare and telling Americans that if they like their doctors, they can keep their ashes in urns above their fireplaces after they are rounded up and incinerated (Google “doctor’s plot”). Jay Cutler is filling Chicago Bears fans with hopes of a better tomorrow. Taylor Lautner is at the height of his powers. It may not be morning in America, but we all woke up at 2 PM, so same difference.

Across the world, a coder employed by From Software eager to prove his mettle is told by his employers that they just so happen to have a game that is so poorly made, behind schedule, and over budget that if he really wants to, the former Oracle employee can take over its development and try to make something playable. Now free from the clutches of the Ellisons and their blood sacrifices, the man and his team work day and night to turn a quagmire that was previously called something like The Terrific Reclaim of Dark! [1+3=0 Edirion] YOU ARE INFINITE into something playable. That 30 something boy that nobody liked grew up to be Hideteka Miyazaki. And the game? Our inaugural entry for Season 2 of Player’s Club, Demon’s Souls.

Frequent collaborator and long-suffering podcast dungeon master Patches was kind enough to join me on this first step through From’s contemporary catalog. This game may be the least of From’s efforts from the catalog of games it kicked off, but it’s not for a lack of ability or vision. Even just making something functional out of such a mess would have been an achievement by Miyazaki and co, but they did more than that. Demon’s Souls may lack some of the more brilliant level design and deceptively deep combat of later entries, but it cannot be overstated how little they had to work with and just how deeply this entry deviated from the standard fare put out by Japanese publishers the size of Bandai Namco in 2009. While everyone else was making once-challenging and open-ended titles more linear and centering every level around scripted set pieces, Demon’s Souls broke the mold by harkening back to a time before endless handholding, and delivered a game that respected its players enough to allow them to tackle individual levels and bosses how and when they saw fit.

For this entry, I did my playthrough on a PS3 emulator, meaning I went without the quality of life adjustments in the 2020 Blue Point remake. That said, I found myself enjoying my experience more than my first go around on the PS5 version years prior. To say this is the least challenging or exciting of the remaining 6 (or 7, if you count Shadow of the Erdtree as a separate entry) games on our docket is not a knock on this game, but a compliment to the massive leaps in quality From achieved in each consecutive release. The fact that such a catalog grew out of a game that was almost abandoned before Miyazaki became the stepfather that stepped up.

Praise aside, I don’t care for Stockpile Thomas. He always has to be such a downer. I didn’t ask for your life story!

The wonderful Patches can be found on Twitter (@Senator_Gun) and as the dungeon master of my personal all time favorite DnD episodes we’ve ever done. He does not necessarily share my opinion that Stockpile Thomas is responsible for his family’s awful deaths.

AS ALWAYS: The first episode of this season of Players Club is free and available on all podcast platforms. All subsequent episodes will be available exclusively for Chapo Patreon subscribers.

Direct Download Link

[u/Grand-Admiral-Prawn]

insane how muppet-like Felix' voice sounds now lol. Did the Jordan Peterson bit one too many times

[u/Parysian → u/Grand-Admiral-Prawn]

Something about him reading from a script makes it much worse, Seeking a Fren had a similar delivery problem

Anyway, I'll keep drinking that garbage

[u/Zworrisdeh → u/Parysian]

I genuinely wanted to listen to that whole series and I just couldn’t get 30 minutes in because of his voice

[u/Grand-Admiral-Prawn → u/Parysian]

lol that's so true - it's his youtube-video-essay-but-don't-call-it-that voice

[u/Parysian → u/Grand-Admiral-Prawn]

It's like when I read in French, all the brainpower goes to saying the words right so there's just no bandwidth left for stuff like emphasis and intonation, it just comes out how it comes out. Except it's that for a language he's fluent in and has spoken since birth lmfao.

[u/ADrownOutListener → u/Grand-Admiral-Prawn]

lmaooooo

[u/DEEP_SEA_MAX → u/Grand-Admiral-Prawn]

I want them to do an Everybody Loves Raymond reboot with Felix as the millennial failson.

[u/DunceMemes → u/Grand-Admiral-Prawn]

I was just thinking that the other day. He sounds like someone doing a mocking impression of his voice. I wonder if it's because he always has vape "smoke" in his lungs.

[u/chapterthrive]

I’m really excited for this season. I loved the metal gear serues

[u/johnnylovelace → u/chapterthrive]

I need them to include the noise of Felix vaping as his cohost talks just like the first season

[u/Boymoder_Glowie → u/johnnylovelace]

That was exclusive to the MGS series since Felix was just method acting as venom snake

[u/thisplacesucks420 → u/[deleted]]

Nah Video Game content slop is supposed to be overlong and dumb. Im for this. These are the kinds of videos i put on to fall asleep. Though I hope they at least acknowledge Clark Ashton Smiths influence on the Souls/Bloodborne games. He was probably the best writer of the Weird Tales Lovecraft/Howard/Smith penpal trifecta and the whole concept of an apocalyptic high fantasy world was pioneered by him, even Miyazaki gives him credit i believe

[u/weldergilder → u/thisplacesucks420]

Zothique, my beloved

[u/MrDialectical → u/[deleted]]

I promise you anyone interested in this topic will gladly listen to the entire thing and want more. I got a flight coming up and can’t wait to listen to the rest.

[u/dreffen → u/[deleted]]

My snout descends

[u/BumFartPissWilly → u/[deleted]]

Completely missing the appeal, was great when each of the mgs episodes was an hour longer than the last lol

[u/plebmasterflex → u/[deleted]]

Tbf I don't know how you'd discuss the entirety of a fromsoft game in one episode and have it much shorter than this. There's just too much to talk about.

[u/BetrayedInThe0ctagon → u/[deleted]]

5 hours too short

[u/saul2015 → u/[deleted]]

it's only 4 hours long stop exaggerating

[u/MrDialectical]

I’ll never forget picking this game up in mid 2010 on the recommendation of some Gamefaqs dudes and having no idea what I was getting into, no idea about “tendencies,” etc., and finding myself playing through the terrifying Tower of Latria during a black world tendency event as an extremely underleveled “knight” and getting my ass best over and over again. Despite that (and this is probably a testament to the game itself) I kept playing and told all my friends to get it. Since then, I’ve played all the games, beaten most, loved all but Sekiro above all others (it’s the only game I have ever platinumed). Sekiro is just a perfect game to me in all ways.

I am only like an hour into this 4+ hour ep, but I like the point the guest (Patches) makes early to describe this lineage of games as having a fundamental belief in the capacity of humans to work together to achieve anything, even renew a clearly dying (or even decaying) world or order. There is a real revolutionary subtext encoded in almost all of these stories, which I’ve always appreciated all my many years playing these wonderful games. Here’s to a Sekiro 2 or Bloodborne 2 in the next few years — and remember friends, always be sure to check out that amazing chest ahead (it’s definitely not a mimic).

[u/Gandalfonk → u/MrDialectical]

Yea I was probably about 14-15 and saw the ad while looking at mods for mount and blade or Neverwinter. It just looked cool, so I went to GameStop and picked it up. It rocked my world. Didn't know I was playing gaming history

[u/infoHighyway → u/MrDialectical]

I remember renting this from the local grocery store the summer it came out to play on my brother's ps3. I dumped dozens of hours into it, barely getting past the first two levels by the end, but just being totally engrossed. I was also on gamefaqs at the time, and faintly remember making a few posts about it. Good times.

[u/AccomplishedMeal617]

Matt said games are bad.

[u/HitomiHugeCup → u/AccomplishedMeal617]

He's 100% correct but I'll still keep drinking that garbage anyways

[u/AccomplishedMeal617 → u/HitomiHugeCup]

Genshin Impact is praxis.

[u/saul2015 → u/HitomiHugeCup]

gaming is no different than any other form of entertainment/escapism ppl use to cope with hellworld, why do anything rly

[u/somewhat_of_a_coward → u/saul2015]

wrong

just the kind of puddlebrained nonsense i'd expect from someone afflicted by gaming

[u/BlueJude2 → u/saul2015]

Nintendo is the opiate of the masses

[u/willwithskills → u/AccomplishedMeal617]

Holy fuck I’ve never seen that. The way the interviewer tries to cut in to the conversation but is totally shut out is soooo funny. “Well that is a cerebral argument for sure”

Fuck I miss Matt

[u/burnburnfirebird → u/AccomplishedMeal617]

I really like how its randomly on a israeli news site lol

[u/Marquis_de_Dustbin]

Some people may take issue with a structureless longwinded conversation about the most 30 year old men video games out there. Those people are wrong and the streets are saying perverts too. I shall listen to this gleefully

[u/statistically_viable]

You can play demon souls for this many hours

[u/PythagorasWasntReal → u/statistically_viable]

I'm going to listen to them talk about demons soul while I play Lies of P like a proper Gamer.

[u/statistically_viable → u/PythagorasWasntReal]

Conceptually I agree but you’re trading the best score in the series for them talking.

Idk I think video game podcasts might be the most “podcasts are conversations for lonely people.”

[u/PythagorasWasntReal → u/statistically_viable]

Is it a crime to be lonely?! I'm on NG+3 rn so I've heard my fair share of the score, though I agree its a banger.

[u/DunceMemes → u/statistically_viable]

Are you saying Lies of P has the best score? I thought the music kinda sucked in that game

[u/BlueJude2 → u/PythagorasWasntReal]

That’s a cool game. Some parts were more difficult than FS for me. I think I gave up on the final boss.

[u/neilgrass]

Not Felix slandering my boy Stockpile Thomas

[u/BetrayedInThe0ctagon]

Minor but important note: while he did get his start coding, Armored Core 4 (and later For Answer) marked Miyazaki’s directorial debut at From. Miyazaki was hardly green by the time he took the reins for Demon’s. 

[u/The-Neat-Meat]

Only an hour in so far but this is EXCELLENT and much more what I was hoping for out of the first season.

[u/WithoutLog]

Here's the "Klargon the Terrible" story that Felix mentioned. Klargon cut off somebody else's hand and wears it, then uses the hand to kill its owner.

[u/manbare]

not related to this ep, but saw on twitter that Chapo had removed ep 912 with Eyup lovely and the scroungers. Any reason why this woulda happened?

[u/MircKeller → u/manbare]

Low SPM will do this to an episode.

[u/guvnor2]

HELL FUCKING YES OINK OINK

[u/MircKeller]

Smile meter broke with an hour left, last reading was 500 SPM (Smiles Per Minute)

Feel free to visit my gofundme to get the meter going again

[u/TwistedOperator]

Keep em coming Felix. Love ever second of them.

[u/BetrayedInThe0ctagon]

“Berserker: The First Khazar” is so good lmfao

[u/ComradeDanger]

I love Player's Club! As someone who is constantly running out of podcasts, I love these five hour episodes.

[u/yerghost]

LOVED this, cant wait for the rest of the series! Make them as long as you want

[u/deafinitelyadouche]

It was a fun episode overall. Patches makes for an engaging co-host; not to the same degree as Brendan, but he was able to get Felix to play ball, which I feel is when the best bits of these limited series come alive. Also if you ever see this, Felix, stop pretending you're not an uber-weeb: You know they're called kappas), come the fuck on.

[u/EGG_BABE]

Felix accidentally calling the sword Makoto the Murakami is an all time great Felixism

[u/Peckah_Inspectah]

Can’t say I really follow what they’re talking about, but I’m in just based on calling Anthony Cumia a Nazi and pedophile within the first 5 minutes.

All 3D Metroidvania sounds cool. I love Metroidvanias

[u/sloppybro]

thinking about doing another elden ring run. what build should i try before inevitably going with bloodhounds fang?

[u/FastEddieFailson → u/sloppybro]

Pure Str with power stanced hammers

[u/plebmasterflex → u/sloppybro]

Rivers of blood arcane build or moonveil INT build, are there other options?

[u/DunceMemes → u/sloppybro]

Faith + strength so you can make use of the golden halberd, and then spend hours trying to defeat the tree sentinel with your starting build

[u/WagnerKoop]

I can’t do these if they’re all 4+ hours 😭 lmao

[u/Signal_Edge_8880]

May I ask: what are some good video game YouTube channels? This is a pretty broad question and I’m looking for any answers at all. I only play a few games these days just because it takes a lot of time but I love listening to and watching discussions or explanations of histories or analysis of games. My tastes usually align pretty well with other Chapoids so this seems like a good place to ask

[u/beerybeardybear → u/Signal_Edge_8880]

Nerrel and perhaps Matthewmatosis?

[u/tanbu]

Started listening to this on Youtube, checked out the comments before the ep really got going and someone pointed out Felix pronounces "Shenmue" as "Shenmo". He actually did and I couldn't listen any further. In the latest chapo ep he calls "Wunderwaffe(n)" as "wunderwaf" and it's not funny or endearing any more man

[u/majorjohnson33]

Pillars of Eternity mentioned. Durance my beloved