OFFICIAL BLOG #4: World Tendency System

[AtlusAram]

THE OFFICIAL BLOG — Entry #4 — World Tendency System
(Written by Quality Assurance Lead Richard Rodrigues)

Part 4 of Demon’s Souls: The Official Blog aims to fully explain the unique World Tendency System and how your actions and decisions can have a dramatic affect on the game world and your experience in it.

Introduction to World Tendency System
In Demon’s Souls, your actions in the world of Boletaria will weigh heavily against your character. This should be familiar to all you gamers out there—maybe you’ve experienced it in the form of “morality,” “karma,” or by another name before. In the world of Demon’s Souls, it’s known as Tendency, and it’s attributed to both your character and each of the regions you’ll traverse.

When you begin play, both Character and World Tendencies start off at neutral. Depending on your actions, they can shift to white or black (Captain Obvious chiming in: good deeds make it go white while... yeah, you get it). But of course, it isn’t as simple as being either black or white, as there are shades along the way that determine the level of Tendency’s effects. So if you’re just a little evil, enemies will only be a little more difficult to down, whereas if you’re a true miscreant, well then you’ve gone and made an already brutally difficult game a lot more brutal.

At any given time you can jump into your Main Menu (although it’s worth noting that accessing the menu does NOT pause the game… stay on your toes) and navigate to a convenient Tendency tab to try and gauge what state your actions have left the world and your character in. Each region’s Archstone is there to represent its respective World Tendency, whereas Character Tendency is represented by a human figurine in the center. For both representations, they’ll gradually shine with an increasingly brighter glow or shift towards a darkness void of any light to depict white and black respectively (hey, who let that guy back here!?).

Good or evil, Light or dark... the choice is yours.

Now that we’ve covered the broader details of Tendency as a whole, I’m sure you’d like to know about the specifics of each—actions and consequences, causes and effects, and what have you. So on that note...

World Tendency
As stated before, each Archstone region has its own World Tendency. These are all completely independent of each other; your actions in one Archstone can never affect the Tendency of other Archstones, and there’s nothing to stop you from simultaneously having one Archstone be a shining beacon of hope and good will while another acts as a blackened bastion for all things unholy. You’ll want to use this to your advantage, since you might find greater benefits in keeping a certain region white while the allure of turning another region black draws you.

I’m supposed to be getting into the finer details, no? Well, I’m going to do things a little backward and start with some effects first and go over causes afterward. In worlds of black Tendency, you’ll find that enemies give you a lot more trouble than usual but also give you more Souls and better drops once defeated. That former point is the result of their attacks being stronger and your HP being lower, a combination we’re sure you’ll love. When World Tendency is white, the opposite is true: enemies aren’t as difficult, your HP is at its max potential (depending on form, of course), but the rewards for putting down enemies aren’t as great as they could be. And as mentioned before, the degree of these effects will grow with how white or black the region is.

So now that you know what you can strive for, here’s what you need to do to get there. When you defeat a boss within a world, it’ll shift Tendency towards white. If you lose your body within a region (which is to say, you die while not in Soul form), it’ll shift Tendency towards black. These are your most basic ways of changing World Tendency, and your only options to initially stray from neutral Tendency. Once you’ve pushed things enough to white or black, new options will open up to help you shift back in the opposite direction. For example, in regions that have achieved a certain level of black Tendency, a special Primeval Demon will appear. Killing it will help shift Tendency back to white. This is the more basic example, however.

Tendency can often determine where you can and cannot go...

Each Archstone region has a special NPC that is deeply rooted in World Tendency. At the further end of white World Tendency, you’ll open up access to this NPC, and will find yourself rewarded with typical RPG goodness: new quest, new item, etc. However, should you not be happy with your white World Tendency, you’ll find that offing the NPCs spawned by it is quite convenient for taking things the other direction. Should you blacken the region enough, you’ll find yourself greeted by its special NPC once again, only you might notice they have a different aura about them this time... Now they’re a Black Phantom NPC, and like most characters in Demon’s Souls, they want you dead. As you might already have guessed, killing these Black Phantom NPCs can greatly shift World Tendency back toward white. As an aside, whether the NPC you’re killing happens to be good or evil, you can always count on their corpse to yield new, usually rare goodies, which will differ depending on their friendliness at time of death. It’s incentives like these that’ll ensure you won’t simply leave World Tendency be.

Character Tendency
Hearing all that talk about Tendency-specific NPCs, you might be wondering about the usual NPCs you’ll find wandering about Boletaria and the Nexus. Wouldn’t sending them to their demise just for the fun of it darken one’s soul a bit? Well that’s where Character Tendency comes in. The blacksmiths kind enough to forge weapons for you, the magic-users always willing to teach you a new spell or miracle, the vendors braving the demon hordes to sell goods out in the field—taking any of their souls or even those of less-important NPCs will shift your Character Tendency black. Although that’s probably the least of your problems, since ending these characters’ lives also means they won’t be forging you new weapons, teaching you magic, or selling you items anymore. That said, the effect on Character Tendency will differ depending on the NPC, so killing that one particular NPC whom you simply can’t stand, might not see you penalized as much.

Choosing to attack friendly NPCs can darken your Tendency...

The special NPCs that factor into World Tendency will also affect Character Tendency in the same way. Slaughtering their friendly forms will darken that figurine on your Tendency menu while taking out their Black Phantom forms will brighten it up. This also serves as your primary method for achieving white Character Tendency, save for one last element of the whole Tendency system that I’ve yet to touch upon.

I’ll let that last segue simmer for a bit while I go over the effects of Character Tendency. As with World Tendency, your max HP is lowered even further if you have black Character Tendency. Another familiar effect is your attack power as a Blue or Black Phantom, which will increase with white and black Character Tendency respectively. In both these cases, the degree of the effect is dependent on how black or white Character Tendency, and yes, they do stack with the similar effects of World Tendency. Should you reach the extremes of the Character Tendency spectrum, you’ll find new things to do in the Nexus. And these new things might just lead to new items, including ones with effects based directly on Character Tendency. Did I forget to mention there was equipment like that? Well, there is. Now about that simmering segue...

Multiplayer
In Demon’s Souls, your actions in the worlds of other players will weigh heavily against your character (feeling of déjà vu entirely intended). You didn’t possibly think that everything you read about in the last blog—invading other worlds, summoning other to help defeat bosses—wouldn’t factor in here too, did you? Well it most certainly does, and you’ve probably already assumed the basics of it.

Usually, red things want to hurt you in this game.

If a Black Phantom invades your world and succeeds in killing you, that’s black points for his Character Tendency. If you happen to have any Blue Phantoms with you that he dispatches, then that’s bonus black points for him. However, should you send a Black Phantom back to their own world in shame, then that’s white points for both your Character Tendency and your World Tendency for wherever it happened. Your secondary means of gaining white tendency in multiplayer scenarios is through co-op play. Should you help a Blue Phantom earn their body back by summoning them and defeating a boss demon, it’ll net you points toward white Tendency, and the more Phantoms you help revive at once, the better. As with defeating a Black Phantom, this will affect both Character and World Tendency.

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Stay tuned for future installments of the official Demon's Souls blog.

-Richard Rodrigues, QA Lead

[sarshelyam]

Fantastic...I was wondering when you'd hit on what is surely bound to be one of the main challenges for newcomers to this game. I still have some trouble nailing it down, and I've had the game for months now...since launch actually.

Keep these blogs up, they're fantastic supplemental marketing.

[Lionsword]

Thanks for the post Aram. I look forward to seeing the next blog!

[BlindsideDork]

World Tendency is the MAIN reason why I want that Stategy guide, hopefully you put some good stuff in there.

[Senku]

This sounds like a dumb question but...

The usual NPCs in the nexus and other places; if you kill them, do they come back? (ie. if I kill the blacksmith, does he come back?)

[Alex]

Originally Posted by Senku

This sounds like a dumb question but...

The usual NPCs in the nexus and other places; if you kill them, do they come back? (ie. if I kill the blacksmith, does he come back?)

I hope not. Dead is dead dude

[Mounce]

I am just wondering, what NPC's in the world would be SAFE to kill? I wouldn't want to touch anyone that's a vital NPC just out of curiosities sake in the Nexus, but how many characters are there that you can kill and not be worried that it'll mess up the game in any way? I know of course, leave Vendors alone, probably, but are there any random and unneeded NPC's just laying around or walking around that are basically useless in every way? If killing them, do they revive? annnnd, you won't lose any quests or anything important? etc....

Because I want to know that if I'm going for a Black tendency, if there are people I can kill without worrying at all about losing important things ahead.

Can anyone help me out?

[Mooglepies]

You can't kill people vital to the plot. There's only one of them though. When you complete the game and enter New Game +, all world tendencies and NPCs reset. If you kill someone, you'll have to wait until you complete the game to find them again.

[Mounce]

Originally Posted by Mooglepies

You can't kill people vital to the plot. There's only one of them though. When you complete the game and enter New Game +, all world tendencies and NPCs reset. If you kill someone, you'll have to wait until you complete the game to find them again.

But, Vendors aren't vital to the plot, but vital for your survival, they won't return until the end of the game too, but that's 'IF' you can get to the end without their help, right?

and stuff like that x.x? Is there nameless NPC's that are useless that you can just butcher for fun?

[Mooglepies]

Yes. Certain sidequest NPCs can be killed for fun. Special items and weapons usually result.

I can assure you though, attack The Old King and see how fun that is. There's a reason there's a trophy just for taking him down.

[Mounce]

Originally Posted by Mooglepies

Yes. Certain sidequest NPCs can be killed for fun. Special items and weapons usually result.

I can assure you though, attack The Old King and see how fun that is. There's a reason there's a trophy just for taking him down.

Hey hey! No spoilers ! I don't even damn own the game yet!

[Mooglepies]

Calm down dear. It's only a joke.

In seriousness, NPCs are for some reason usually much, much hardier than your usual enemies or even the bosses. Black Phantom special character NPCs are just nasty.

I should mention there are also Black Phantom NPCs outside of the people you can actually talk to (as described in the blog/post above). They also usually provide a decent challenge and decent rewards for killing them.

[Mounce]

Originally Posted by Mooglepies

Calm down dear. It's only a joke.

In seriousness, NPCs are for some reason usually much, much hardier than your usual enemies or even the bosses. Black Phantom special character NPCs are just nasty.

I should mention there are also Black Phantom NPCs outside of the people you can actually talk to (as described in the blog/post above). They also usually provide a decent challenge and decent rewards for killing them.

Soooooooo, I should try killing all NPC's to see what they drop near the end of the game? ...........I just don't want to TRY to kill an NPC who's important to surviving.....especially early in the game since they 'come back' at the New Game.

[sarshelyam]

If you're at the end of the game, why not Mounce? Once you make the leap of faith towards actually COMPLETING the game, you're going to be sent back to the beginning as if nothing had happened. All those guys/gals you killed...back again. So yeah, why not?

[Mooglepies]

Depends if you want to keep your character tendency (which doesn't reset once you complete the game) stable or not. Certain weapons deal more or less damage depending on what your character tendency is at that point.

[Cold_Drake]

Originally Posted by Mooglepies

Depends if you want to keep your character tendency (which doesn't reset once you complete the game) stable or not. Certain weapons deal more or less damage depending on what your character tendency is at that point.

killing NPCs is generally not recommended unless you have absolutely no choice.
the only valid reason is probably for Mephistopheles quest.

but then, once you had done that, you should stay at Pure White character tendency.

[Mooglepies]

True enough. I can't bring myself to keep killing off NPCs and I suck as a black Phantom. Need the foe's ring and the ring that Selen has and I'm done with that.

[sarshelyam]

Originally Posted by Cold_Drake

killing NPCs is generally not recommended unless you have absolutely no choice.

That would be preference actually. If it wasn't recommended, would it be a feature of the game? I understand the concern but obviously, if someone wanted to play this way, the design was implemented that it could be played as such. It was a deliberate design choice, not one I'd think you'd want to ignore completely if you're trying to get the most out of the game.

[Mooglepies]

Sure you can if you want. He wasn't disputing that but the fact still remains, killing NPCs makes your life much harder.

Most of the non-special character NPCs drop no loot anyway, meaning you miss out on their services with no reward for doing so. Said NPCs are usually vendors or the like.

[Mounce]

Originally Posted by Mooglepies

Sure you can if you want. He wasn't disputing that but the fact still remains, killing NPCs makes your life much harder.

Most of the non-special character NPCs drop no loot anyway, meaning you miss out on their services with no reward for doing so. Said NPCs are usually vendors or the like.

Well, like, if being in the Black tendency has better rates of Drops >.> then I'd probably wanna experiment in the Black world and face the difficulty, probably.

Just, ideally as you said, I just wanna ensure I know, what NPC's aren't even worth killing, if they don't drop anything? Or if they are just helpful for making everything go evil and Black.

It's not about the worthiness of what they drop, buuut, if they are Vital for good bonuses, services or quests. I like to kill friendlies sometimes, for no reason, so as long as there is no long-term effect of vast negativity.

[Mooglepies]

Define long-term. Once you complete the game everything refreshes anyway.

Some of the NPCs are vendor NPCs, and they usually sell some pretty vital stuff, like the ores you'll want for forging weapons, armour/weapons that you can't get elsewhere, etc.

[King_Zach]

Originally Posted by Senku

This sounds like a dumb question but...

The usual NPCs in the nexus and other places; if you kill them, do they come back? (ie. if I kill the blacksmith, does he come back?)

Yes. The whole entire game until you start new game plus

[Cold_Drake]

Originally Posted by Mooglepies

Define long-term. Once you complete the game everything refreshes anyway.

incorrect.

your Character Tendency and World Tendencies remain the same.

if you know how hard it is to attain Pure White CT in offline mode, you will not kill harmless NPCs without thought.

of course you can try killing Black Phantom in online mode. but sometime your PvE character aren't suitable for PVP.

[DH321]

Hold on a sec... If you kill somebody who's important to the game like someone who can upgrade your weapons/teach you spells................... They're dead FOREVER? WHAT IF IT'S FOR ACCIDENT FOR CHRIST'S SAKE!!!!

[Syra]

Originally Posted by DH321

Hold on a sec... If you kill somebody who's important to the game like someone who can upgrade your weapons/teach you spells................... They're dead FOREVER? WHAT IF IT'S FOR ACCIDENT FOR CHRIST'S SAKE!!!!

You shouldn't do that, they'll still die even if you didn't mean it. How do you expect to accidentally kill them anyway? "Hey there mister blacksmith, I know it says X to talk to you, but I'll use R1 instead, and hit it repeatedly to make sure you listen to me, completely ignoring the swinging of my blade as it pierces your flesh. Oh hey, you're dead? Dude I was trying to buy goods by stabbing you, why'd you go and die!?"

Considering there is no cause to attack anything in the Nexus, it just isn't likely to happen by accident. But if it somehow does, no the game will not forgive you, at least not until you beat it, and cycle around to the New Game+. =X

[Mooglepies]

There's a bit of leeway. Most NPCs won't turn hostile unless you do a significant amount of damage to them; I accidentally attacked Patches in the Nexus yesterday (Telly was on a different channel; I came back and he was standing up with his shield and spear ready) but got away with it because it must have only happened once.

But yeah. Be careful with your NPCs.

[Venusfallen]

Originally Posted by Syra

You shouldn't do that, they'll still die even if you didn't mean it. How do you expect to accidentally kill them anyway? "Hey there mister blacksmith, I know it says X to talk to you, but I'll use R1 instead, and hit it repeatedly to make sure you listen to me, completely ignoring the swinging of my blade as it pierces your flesh. Oh hey, you're dead? Dude I was trying to buy goods by stabbing you, why'd you go and die!?"

Considering there is no cause to attack anything in the Nexus, it just isn't likely to happen by accident. But if it somehow does, no the game will not forgive you, at least not until you beat it, and cycle around to the New Game+. =X

haha that's halarious. glad to know you can make at least one mistake though =] this game sounds amazing so far.

[beastxjason]

attack ostrava lol beastly

[ZomDizae]

Originally Posted by Syra

...Considering there is no cause to attack anything in the Nexus, it just isn't likely to happen by accident....

Tell that to sony's wonderful new L2&R2 triggers. -_-

I DO NOT recommend putting your controller on a table while browsing through stockpile thomas' stuff... It could end badly. (Yes it happened)

[Syra]

Originally Posted by ZomDizae

Tell that to sony's wonderful new L2&R2 triggers. -_-

I DO NOT recommend putting your controller on a table while browsing through stockpile thomas' stuff... It could end badly. (Yes it happened)

Well, I'll give you that one. Those buttons are just annoying at times, I've always hated them. I don't even know why they changed them, it was the R1 buttons that always broke(thanks to me playing too much DMC). >.>