TheDemon’s Soulsremake has introduced the title to many new fans of the series and has allowed day one fans to relive their journey through Boletaria.Demon’s Soulsis thespiritual predecessor of theDark Soulsgamesand kick-started the entire Soulsborne series. It fittingly created many weapons, items, and enemies that have been slightly altered and featured in sequels.
However, not every idea inDemon’s Soulswas able to make the transition from one game to the other. The World Tendency feature was one of these scrapped ideas, but even though it never fully returned, it was a unique idea that had a fitting place in the game.
RELATED:Demon’s Souls' World Tendency Would Be an Interesting Feature in Death Stranding 2
What is World Tendency and How Does it Affect Demon’s Souls
Like many of the features in FromSoftWare games, the mechanics behindWorld Tendency and its effect on the player is never explicitly stated or explained. Though there is an entire menu dedicated to the feature, it never goes into detail about how to sway each world one way or the other.
A simple way to explain World Tendency is to call it a morality or karma system. Certain actions performed in-game change the World Tendency, and it ranges from neutral to black or white, with black being more chaotic and dangerous while white is easier and more peaceful. And sinceDemon’s Soulsallows players to travel betweenfive different worlds via the game’s Archstones, each area has its own independent World Tendency.
A Black World Tendencyis created by committing heinous acts such as killing NPCs and, curiously, the tendency will shift towards black if the player dies while in human form outside the hub world, the Nexus. Though the former is fairly easy to avoid doing, not at all dying while in human form is a big ask fromDemon’s Souls. This stipulation was likely added to create more difficulty in the game since a player outside human form has less maximum health, but as many veteran players know, it’s best to do the first playthrough completely in spirit form. (Killing one’s self in the Nexus does not impact World Tendency).
A White World Tendency is slightly easier to achieve and is likely the developer’s intended goal for players who do not make an active effort to affect the tendencies. Defeating story bosses will shift the world toward a White Tendency, which makes it fairly easy to keep the sliding scale towards the white.The player can also create a White World Tendencyby defeating Black Phantoms and Primeval Demons, both of which spawn into the world once it has crossed a threshold into Black Tendency, and this acts as a way for players to tilt the scales by challenging difficult opponents.
Each World Tendency comes with its own pros and cons. A white world will have lower enemy health and difficulty, and there will be more healing items found but fewer upgrade materials and souls from defeating enemies.Certain NPCs and areas will also only show up with a White Tendency, so if a player wants to experience more of the game, it is in their best interest to follow this path. On the other hand, a black world raises enemy damage and health but rewards players with more materials and souls as well as spawning the Black Phantoms and Primeval demons. A Black World Tendency poses more of a threat to players but also grants them more rewards.
RELATED:Fire Plays a Special Role in All FromSoftware Soulsborne Games
Why Other Soulsborne Games Do Not Feature World Tendency
There are clearly a lot of different ideas and mechanics that have gone into the World Tendency feature ofDemon’s Souls,but it could have been too ambitious and obscure to be featured inother FromSoftware titles. It is also worth mentioning that the World Tendency works well inDemon’s Soulsbecause it has five distinct worlds that are isolated from one another. Every other Soulsborne game has a sprawling, interconnected world, making it impossible to have different sectioned-off worlds that would have their own tendency. And the idea of having one tendency for the entire world would be far too punishing and difficult to keep track of.
ThoughSoulsborne games love to include hidden features and challenge players, the idea of having an entirely secret mechanic that could greatly affect each playthrough could become frustrating. Especially uponDemon’s Souls’initial release, no player would have known how to change the tendency or what effect it may be having on the world. It has only been through much trial and error and research from the community that World Tendency is fully explained and understood.
Other FromSoftware games provide their own unique challenges and have found ways outside hidden mechanics to affect the difficulty of the game. Each game features items or abilities that act as assistance or debuffs for the player.Sekirohas the examples of Kuro’s Charm(which protects the player from chip damage in New Game Plus) and the Demon Bell (an item that increases the combat stats of enemies) both of these items are optional and, to some extent, the game explains what each item does.
TheDark Soulsseries andElden Ringalso feature similar itemsthat are optional pieces of equipment that can be used if the player demands more of a challenge from the game, but no other game features anything else that resembles the World Tendency ofDemon’s Souls. Fans mostly agree that the idea of World Tendency was a bit excessive and unapproachable, especially for new players, but the ideas behind the mechanic have definitely made their way into the Soulsborne games afterDemon’s Souls.
FromSoftware fans love and expect a challenge from each new title from the developer, so the thought process behind creating stronger enemies who drop better materials was not the problem many had with World Tendency. It was the convoluted manner in which the mechanic was used and the lack of clear explanation that turned players off of the idea. That being said, the World Tendencies do provide a unique experience and challenge that can only be found inDemon’s Souls,and the games that came after ithave adopted and further developed many of the features it had.
Though it is doubtful that World Tendency will ever make a comeback in another FromSoftware game, it is very possible that the developer will continue to use this original idea as an outline to provide other ways to further challenge, punish, and reward the player.
Demon’s Souls Remakeis currently available on PS5.
MORE:Demon’s Souls Remake: Why the Royalty Class is Considered ‘Easy Mode’
