Rare Demon’s Souls prototype shows off first-person perspective, unused enemies that could have rewritten Dark Souls history: “Like watching the mona lisa being painted”
A newly surfaced 2007 prototype presentation for FromSoftware’s Demon’s Souls reveals that the game was once planned with first-person gameplay and an Oblivion-style third-person control scheme. The footage matters because it offers an unusually early view of a game that established many ideas later associated with Dark Souls and the wider Soulslike genre.
The presentation, shared by Souls researcher Lance McDonald, includes planning documents, concept art and gameplay clips featuring altered maps, enemy designs and mechanics absent from the released 2009 PlayStation 3 game. Among the cut material are hostile creatures whose ideas appear to foreshadow elements in later FromSoftware titles, while the prototype already seems to contain versions of the series’ distinctive asynchronous multiplayer systems.
- A 2007 Demon’s Souls prototype has surfaced.
- It shows first-person gameplay and cut content.
- Early multiplayer ideas were already present.