Newly surfaced footage of FromSoftware's Demon's Souls, dating back to May 2007, reveals a prototype that included an optional first-person camera mode. This early internal showcase, discovered by FromSoftware investigator Lance McDonald, was presented at Sony's "Gameshare 4" event nearly two years before the game's initial release.
The demonstration features a two-minute gameplay trailer highlighting key differences from the final product. Most notably, several sequences exhibit a first-person perspective, reminiscent of FromSoftware's earlier King's Field series. This mode appears to have been an intended toggle, complementing a unique camera system that remained locked behind the player model, forcing the player to always face away from the camera. This contrasts sharply with the modern Souls series' free-rotating and enemy-locking camera, which is foundational to its positioning-based combat.
The trailer also offers a glimpse into early versions of Demon's Souls' environments and enemies. The Vanguard Demon's arena is depicted as largely unchanged, and its moveset appears to have directly influenced enemies in Elden Ring. The Dragon God's arena, however, is shown as an open-air volcanic crater, distinct from the final game's magma cavern. Additionally, the footage includes bipedal snake enemies not present in the released version of Demon's Souls, suggesting FromSoftware's tendency to revisit recurring motifs across its titles.
Accompanying the gameplay was a PowerPoint presentation that contained further insights into the development of Demon's Souls. Striking concept art for bosses like the Flamelurker and an open, grassy area with a large central hole were featured, with the latter bearing a resemblance to areas in Elden Ring. The presentation emphasized Demon's Souls' asynchronous multiplayer, framing it as a middle ground between MMOs and single-player experiences, and even referencing South Park's "Make Love, Not Warcraft." A development roadmap indicated a projected completion date of June 2008, a significant deviation from the game's February 2009 Japanese launch. The repeated mentions of a "worldwide release" also underscore the team's intent for broader availability, despite Sony's eventual decision to publish the game only in Japan initially.
This unearthed material provides invaluable historical context for Demon's Souls, a game that was pivotal in establishing FromSoftware's signature style and a subgenre that has influenced countless titles. The footage reveals how close the game came to a fundamentally different player experience, one that might have made it a cult classic rather than the genre-defining phenomenon it became.