Sony's Shuhei Yoshida thought Demon's Souls was c**p
From Software's challenging masterpiece didn't come together till right at the end of development
The boss of Sony Worldwide Studios, Shuhei Yoshida has revealed how unimpressed he was with Demon's Souls when they were given the opportunity to publish From Software's hit RPG.
Yoshida-san admitted being exceptionally unimpressed with Demon's Souls while it was in development and that he, along with much of the Japanese gaming press, severely underestimated what the finished product would be like.
He explained, "Game development in Japan typically is made horizontally, where all assets are made in parallel, so it's difficult to figure out what the final state of the game is going to be. The western-style game development is typically a vertical slice. So in the very early process, the team tried to create a small piece of the experience that resembles the final product."
"What happened with Demon's Souls was until very late in the game's development, we were not able to play the game through," Yoshida continued. "There were frame rate issues and the network was not up and running. We underestimated the quality of the game and to be honest, the media in Japan did the same. For my personal experience with Demon's Souls, when it was close to final I spent close to two hours playing it, and after two hours I was still standing at the beginning of the game. I said, 'This is crap. This is an unbelievably bad game.' So I put it aside."
Of course Demon's Souls and its spiritual successor Dark Souls have both gone on to become cult hits with their innovative online modes and intense and carefully crafted difficulty levels. You win some and you lose some.
Thanks Game Informer.
