Demon's Souls: the World Tendency, what it is and how it works

In recent years, especially in titles with a strong role-playing component, the choices made by the player through the actions of his digital alter-egos have assumed great importance in determining the destinies of their adventures. Choosing to play a positive or negative character, in fact, leads in most cases to see alternative endings before the credits. Yet, a real system that is able to modify the entire game world and not just some movies, and that does so not through the simple choice of dialogue lines, but through the actions and skill of the player, has been proposed. only once: we are talking about the World trend (World Tendency) di Demon's Souls Remake, mechanics taken from the original title.

Those of you who have got your hands on the splendid remake made by the guys of Bluepoint games for the launch of PlayStation 5 is discovering how dying can be downright punitive, leading the player to lose much more than just souls. In fact, abandoning your body form too many times will make Demon's Souls more and more difficult. But, perhaps, making the game more difficult may not necessarily be bad, far from it. Let's find out together what World Tendency is, how it works, and why it was, and still is, one of the best game systems that the current videogame panorama can offer you.

Demon's Souls: What is World Tendency, and how it affects the game

The PlayStation 5 remake of Demon's Souls inherits from the original episode one of the most complex and enigmatic game mechanics of recent years, the World Tendency. Such a system affects the conditions of the 5 worlds game of Boletaria based on the player's actions and choices, regardless of whether these are done for good or bad. In fact, depending on the player's successes or losses, the realms behind the archstones could become easier or more difficult, and present different rewards and an altered number of enemies.

At a first level of reading, the World Tendency might seem a very banal system of Karma influenced by moral choices. In reality, it's a much more complex mechanic. First of all, it is good to know that the actions, but also the performance of the player, will determine the strength and aggressiveness of the enemies, the percentage of the drop of the objects left as a reward by the downed opponents, but also, and above all, the appearance or not. of secondary characters, essential for the completion of some quests. Each world that we visit thanks to the touch of the archstone, in fact, will suffer a alteration of its parameters precisely by virtue of our actions, thus going towards a trend that can be Bianca (climbing up to Purely White), Black (reaching up to Purely Black), Or Neutral. Depending on the interactions with the NPCs, the circumstances and the number of our in-game deaths, but also the online dynamics, that is, if we decide to help or invade another player, the trend of the world will turn towards one or the other color. This condition is shown to the player through an icon at the top left of the game HUD, or in the appropriate World Tendency menu which shows the current trend status of the player and each kingdom.

During the first hours of the game, we may not fully realize the importance that World Tendency has on our game. However, as the adventure continues, his influence will gradually grow stronger, modifying both the gameplay and the lore of the title. At the start of the game the World Tendency will be Neutral, halfway between the white and black ones. Whenever we die, abandoning our bodily form and embracing the spiritual soul form, in addition to seeing our energy bar shrink, the trend of the world in which we have been defeated will see its color shift slightly towards black. By continuing to die while in physical form, or by making morally negative choices towards some characters, the world trend will shift more and more towards black. The closer we move towards a purely black trend, the more the difficulty of that kingdom will increase, as well as being invaded more frequently by Black phantom. Dying assiduously will make the game more and more difficult in plain English. But, on the other side of the same coin, the rewards and souls obtained will be greater. Additionally, having a purely White or purely Black trend will also change the game map itself. According to it, some areas will be accessible or not, and some characters with the related quests will show up or not during our adventure. Each condition will have pros and cons; to you the choice.

What World Tendencies exist, and how to switch between them

As we have said, therefore, there is no right or wrong trend, but only the one best suited to what we ask of production. Both affect the game world in a different way with their own bonuses and malus and we recommend, given the nature of the title that pushes you to try different builds, to experiment with new runs by trying them both, so as to touch and discover all the plot implications. . Here is briefly what the three trends of Demon's Souls are and how you switch between them.

The trend with which we will start the title is the Neutral one, in each of the five realms. Color will be the symbol of the neutral trend Grey, present as we said at the top left of the game screen. As the name suggests, with this state of affairs we will not have any bonuses during the game, nor will encounters with secondary characters be activated. Staying neutral is perhaps the best choice in the most difficult realms, however being able to not die for too long, just as avoiding making relevant plot choices will prove impossible as the adventure continues. It will therefore be difficult to maintain a neutral trend for very long.

Especially for novice players, find yourself in no time with a purely trend Black without realizing it will be on the agenda. Each time the word You Are Dead appears on the screen while we are in corporeal form, the bar of the kingdom will oscillate more and more towards the black. Such a situation will make Demon's Souls truly difficult to complete. Enemies will be tougher, some items will be released with greater difficulty, and some particular NPCs will appear. If all this were not enough, we will be invaded more frequently. However, the reward for surviving in this brutal Boletaria will be obtaining a very high number of souls, as well as a greater drop-rate of rare items and equipment.

The latest trend is that Bianca. In this situation, the enemies will be weaker, less aggressive and have less health, while the drop rate of the items will be higher: basically, the game will be smoother. The closer you get to a purely white trend, the more specific events related to some characters will be triggered, as well as some previously unexplored areas of the map will open up. To advance towards the white trend you will need to try to defeat as many bosses as possible while we are in the corporeal form, help other players like Blue Phantom and eliminate the invaders of our world.

The World Tendency of Demon's Souls, 10 years later

As we said at the beginning, the mechanics of the World Tendency has never been re-proposed, despite being a truly complex and fascinating system. How come you ask yourselves? Most likely, precisely because of its complexity. Unlike other systems of karma or multiple choices that have immediately taken hold on the players, but which are clearly explained by the same game we are facing, perhaps in the form of a tutorial, unfortunately the World Tendency is a mechanic that fully reflects the soul of Demon's Souls: it is not introduced to us in any way, but it is understood only through attempts. While today, years after the title PlayStation 3, we can find on the net video tutorials or guides like this that can give us a big hand to get to grips with it, the players of the past generations found themselves in a world that changed around them without understanding why. The World Tendency, in short, it's certainly not a user-friendly mechanic. And it is perhaps precisely for this reason that it has not been revived by the vast majority of today's titles, which aim much more to take the player by the hand and guide him in every aspect. World Tendency was born for Demon's Souls and, at the moment, dies with him, so much so that not even his spiritual heir, Dark Souls, has revived it.

But if it is so difficult and complicated, why is it so fascinating? Because it rewards the bravest. Still following the soul of the game that generated it, those who have the courage to try it and learn to play well can get great satisfaction. Stronger enemies, major invasions, Black Phantom appearances, it's true. But the reward you get is directly proportional. You get many more souls and much faster you level up, while gaining entry to that previously inaccessible portion of the map will put us in front of extremely rare resources, weapons and spells that will prove necessary and right for the advanced stages of the game, as well as than to face the other players. Luck favors the daring and, if you want to know how the story of that secondary character that intrigues you so much will end, you really need to arm yourself with courage and join the fray.

Each trend has pros and cons and depending on the challenge rate we seek, and the aspects of lore we want to discover, black or white may be more or less suitable for our adventure. The advice we give you is to experiment: Demon's Souls offers truly excellent complexity from both a gameplay and story point of view, and playing multiple runs with different trends will allow you to grasp every facet, as well as greatly increase the longevity of the title. That of the World Tendency is a technical and well-structured game mechanic, to date not yet replicated by other productions; not a simple feature developed on moral choices, but a real framework that lives with users and with the game world, and with them it evolves and changes to give ever new experiences.