Monumental Mode

I was watching a Demon's Souls-related video on YouTube recently, and the creator mentioned "Monumental Mode" - a mode planned for the game that was eventually scrapped while the game was in development. Apparently, this was basically an optional hardcore-style mode that would see the player's game end completely if they died - even just once - while in soul form. Their character's death would be permanent and their save file overwritten.

I'm a huge fan of DES but this is the first time I've ever heard of this scrapped Monumental Mode. Has anyone else heard about this before now? If so, is there any more information on it?

If this mode never really existed or if there's no other information about it besides what I mentioned above then fair enough, I just thought I'd put this out there since this was totally new DES information to me.

This is the first I've heard of it.

And I see why they scraped it. It's a stupid idea. Why would anyone want that to be permanently saved on a file. Stupid. Glad they didn't follow through with it.

Sounds ... interesting. Although I'm surprised they did scrap it. Perma death modes are generally pretty popular amongst some people, especially in games with multi-player functionality.

I think if someone suggested it here for DS 2 then most people would probably support it.

Although I've never heard of this before mind. It's not one of those conspiracy theories like the Giants Archstone right?

I've heard of this, though I don't recall where exactly.  Maybe one A German Spy's videos?  Not sure.  As I recall it was supposed to be tied to the lore, since in Demon's people who die in soul form are supposed to be gone for good.

Makes sense. Although I guess multiplayer balancing was also an issue. Most games I've played which have had a perma-death mode always had separate servers for this. Due to the lack of a huge budget I could see that they would of prioritized on spending the money elsewhere.

This is something FROM scrapped before the release of Demons. What happened was, if you died, you lose all your stats, (getting reset), any upgraded weapon goes back to base +0, and you lose all your souls. It was suppose to be a way to keep the multi-player option going but FROM thought that it would be something that turned people away from the game so they got rid of it. Also, you had half life and were to be in soul form until you either beat a boss or took an eph eye.

I think it was mentioned by a user that VaatiVidya linked to in the description of his recent "Demon's Souls Lore: Origins" video. The mode was mentioned in a fairly offhanded way, not as if it was some kind of recent revelation, which surprised me because as I said, I had never heard of it before.

@twigsterxd
Thanks for those details. Really interesting stuff. And something that would have no doubt led to even more rage-broken PS3 controllers had From implemented it.

I understand why the second idea was dropped. Was it supposed to be a mode or the actual original design for the game?

I would so do that assuming it wouldn't take up space once dying. I think I would probably become addicted to repeatedly trying to get through the entire game once on monumental mode.

Dogwelder wrote:I think it was mentioned by a user that VaatiVidya linked to in the description of his recent "Demon's Souls Lore: Origins" video. The mode was mentioned in a fairly offhanded way, not as if it was some kind of recent revelation, which surprised me because as I said, I had never heard of it before.

@twigsterxd
Thanks for those details. Really interesting stuff. And something that would have no doubt led to even more rage-broken PS3 controllers had From implemented it.

Gotta love google

@Onion - I can't say for sure, I couldn't see anything on that. But the way it was worded, was it was to be that way. BUT, not as in ALL Demons cd's were produced that way. I think it was gonna be like Dark Souls prepare to die edition. Making an add-on to the cd. But they scrapped it for many reasons.

It's a "Dead is Dead" playthrough.  It would certainly be interesting, considering how much you die in this game.  Might be fun, though.  All those "trouble" spots would become pretty tense, esp if you did it with no farming.

False King Allant in perma death mode on NG + would certainly be cranking up the tension to the max.

Onion Knight wrote:False King Allant in perma death mode on NG + would certainly be cranking up the tension to the max.

Flame Lurker or Old Hero on your very first playthru when you don't know about
NOT aggroing them

twigsterxd wrote:

Onion Knight wrote:False King Allant in perma death mode on NG + would certainly be cranking up the tension to the max.

Flame Lurker or Old Hero on your very first playthru when you don't know about
NOT aggroing them

BP Satsuki also would be hell.

Onion Knight wrote:

twigsterxd wrote:

Onion Knight wrote:False King Allant in perma death mode on NG + would certainly be cranking up the tension to the max.

Flame Lurker or Old Hero on your very first playthru when you don't know about
NOT aggroing them

BP Satsuki also would be hell.

My very 1st playthru was during a PBWT event week. I couldn't get past 1-1 cause they added extra blk phantoms for that event. Once I hooked up with a guy I met in the game, he helped me get thru and I HATED Satsuki MORE than the 2 extra red eyed blk phantoms they added near the end of 1-1.
Also to add to Allant, not knowing about his soul suck move and trying the game at sl 1 and getting grabed lol.

I'm not sure where the name "Monumental Mode" comes from, if anyone has a source on that particular name, it would be appreciated.

The text dump does confirm a 'hardcore mode', whereupon "True Death" occurs when the player dies in soul form. So I assumed it was called True Death instead, but of course that could be what occurs in Monumental Mode. I just don't see that name anywhere, so I'll continue calling it "True Death Mode" for now instead...

Anyways, here's exactly what the text dump says:

-When your HP reaches 0 in ghost form, True Death occurs.
-A player with a True Death has all of their gained experience reset.

-True Death occurs when you die in ghost mode. A True Death resets your items and status to their starting levels.
-To prevent this, rewrite a soul sign and begin multiplay or access the blood mark found at the place where you died.
-When your HP reaches 0, you will die. Be sure to keep distance between the enemy and yourself.
-When you die, you are warped to a stone monolith.

One thing that sounds appealing about this mode is that it wouldn't have deleted your character/ save file. Instead, it would just reload back at a starting point (a monolith placed somewhere in the nexus maybe?), with everything reset. It sounds like it'd allow you to start over again quickly, not having to go through character creation over and over. That'd be a nice way of implementing it.