Earliest Demon's Souls footage from 2007 shows first-person camera prototype

FromSoftware researcher Lance McDonald has unearthed a previously unknown internal Demon's Souls presentation, revealing the earliest known footage of the game. The material includes a PowerPoint deck and a two-minute gameplay trailer shown at Sony's internal "Gameshare 4" event in May 2007, nearly two years before the game's Japanese release.

The highlight is a few sequences featuring a first-person camera mode reminiscent of King's Field, the spiritual predecessor to the Souls series. The mode appears to have been an optional toggle, occupying a minority of the runtime. Additionally, the prototype camera was locked behind the player character, who always faced away from the screen, similar to the Jedi Knight games.

This camera system would have complemented the first-person mode better but would have drastically altered the experience. The final Souls games are defined by a freely rotating camera with enemy lock-on, which underpins the series' positioning-based combat.

The demo takes place in an early version of Demon's Souls' tutorial area. The Vanguard Demon appears in the same arena as in the release, and its animations and moveset survived all the way to Elden Ring as Erdtree Avatars. The trailer also features enemies absent from the final game: bipedal snake men resembling Dark Souls' man-serpents.

The Dragon God's arena is an open volcanic crater in this version, rather than the magma cavern of the final release. The PowerPoint presentation, narrated by Digital Foundry's John Linneman, includes concept art such as depictions of the Flamelurker and other early design details.