Anime Expo 2009: Demon’s Souls Game and Music Details

The fantasy RPG Demon’s Souls for the PS3 is yet another title I haven’t been following very closely, but I quickly realized this was a mistake at the Atlus Demon’s Souls panel at Anime Expo this weekend.  The game not only looks amazing, but some of the online elements unique and absolutely intriguing.  The gameplay and visual style are also right down my alley, and the Gothic fantasy music heard throughout the trailer immediatley caught my attention.

The funniest thing happened right at the beginning of the panel. After watching the trailer, I leaned over to Dale and said, “This kind of looks like a third-person King’s Field.” Little did I know how close I was to the mark with that comment.

Find out more about the game, it’s influences, and who will be handling the fully orchestrated score after the jump.

So, the trailer opened with this gothic choral track that was definitely unsettling and creepy. I love a game with atmosphere, so this track combined with the dark visual style really stuck out in my mind. Immediately after the video, Atlus PR Manager Aram Jabbari introduced himself and SCE Japan producer Takeshi Kaji to talk about the game.  It had originally been planned that FROM SOFTWARE director Hidetaka Miyazaki would attend, but due to swine flu concerns, he only appeared in pre-recorded video form.

The first exchange between the panelists was surprisngly about the King’s Field series and how Kaji was such a huge fan of the dark ambiance of the series that he wanted to do something similar, and Demon’s Souls is what they came up with.  After scooping my jaw from off the floor, Kaji went on about other influences for the title. He noted that the game looks like it was created for a Western audience, and was influenced by retro RPG titles like Wizardry, and that we should expect the game to be painfully difficult. This was a welcome announcement, as King’s Field games have always been challenging, and had me looking forward to the game even more.

Some of the online features were explained, which are some of the most interesting and unique uses of online-play in a game to date. Players can leave notes as they progress through the game that appear randomly in other players’ games to alert them of nearby loot or danger. These notes can also be used to mislead you, so watch out for liars out there as well. There are also blood stains that you may chance across at various points throughout the game which mark the spot where another player died, and upon stepping on the stain, a ghost-like figure re-enacts the final moments of that player’s life, alerting you to nearby danger. More blood stains obviously mean there’s a serious challenging ahead.

Another element is the cooperative and competitive play. The cooperative mode allows a player to drop a portal when they’re in trouble to bring in another online player to help them defeat a particularly challenging foe. Competitive play is best described as a PVP mode where, if one player dies, he can travel into another player’s game and kill them in order to reclaim his/her physical form in his own game. Crazy concept, but I think it sounds awesome.

Atlus ended the panel by revealing the release date and detailing the spoils program for the title. It’s due out on 10/06/09, and all pre-orders of the standard edition will receive a nifty artbook. There will also be a $69.99 “stop importing” edition that will include the artbook, a cardboard clip cover with the original Japanese artwork, and a strategy guide (you’re going to need this), which is definitely cool for those of you who want to go all out. Unfortunately no soundtrack CD is included.

So, after the panel, we were fortunate to get some time with Kaji to ask him a few questions about the music in the game. Unfortunately despite the King’s Field ties, Koji Endo is nowhere to be seen. Instead, they’ve enlisted the talents of Shunsuke Kida to complete the game’s fully orchestrated score. While Kida doesn’t have many game credits ^[1], apparently he’s big in the realm of Japanese television, and was tapped for his expertise in using an orchestra.

In terms of the musical direction, there will be lots of dark music, sometimes with solo piano or solo violin pieces, but full orchestra will be used at times. There are also three vocal tracks performed by singer Kokia ^[2], a singer who is really famous in Europe and has worked on a few game albums (including Tales of Innocence). The vocal themes are all choral in nature, maintaining the dark Gothic feel from start to finish.

When asked about a soundtrack release, Kajii noted that while there were plans early on to do this, they kind of failed to materialize. He hopes to get things off the ground soon, but don’t expect a soundtrack release quite yet. I hope they get on this, as I seriously want to hear more of the music in this game.

Overall, I was very impressed with Demon’s Souls. I think it’s one of the best looking games on the PS3, and the fact that it’s even distantly related to King’s Field at least in spirit completely blows my mind. Watch for more information about the title as the October release date approaches, and we’ll certainly keep you posted on any news regarding a soundtrack release.

Have you been following Demon’s Souls since it was announced? Do you think the orchestral score by Kida will be worth buying if they can get a soundtrack release put together?