Demon's Souls: The remake we need right now

 But maybe not the remake we deserve

The 'Souls Game' genre is an interesting proposition. They are a series of games that promise to put you through as much trail and tribulation as they can manage to attempt at skirting the edge of fair play and balance that'll bring you unreasonably close to caving in at any given moment. That being said, the tradeoff is that after setting your blood pressure rising off the charts and putting you in constant life-or-death situations, you'll be all that more relieved once you hit the otherside and pull out a win. (if you hit the otherside) It's a type of game that highlights being unforgiving, but not unfair, and needs to constantly strike a balancing point between the two ideals that often feels a thin as a needle's point. But when they do, and if we're talking about the mainline Souls game which spawned the franchise, then they always do, it heightens that sense of victory to unbelievable vistas. (Take it from the guy who spent 30 Human Effigies last night in order to first reach, then kill 'Darklurker')

This is a formula that has since been perfected, but it started with a little PS3 exclusive game from a while back called Demon's Souls. (And yes, Demon's Souls is the first Souls-Like and not King's Field. Do you have to recollect your experience points upon dying in King's Field? No. But I will concede that there are some similarities between the two games which could imply that one influenced the other.) Now in today's age a great many folk have played and are intimately familiar with the 'prepare to die' antics of Dark Souls, but not so many people have the context of where the franchise started with Demon's Souls, even though back when it came out the game was quite the interesting concept. "A title that was brutal, vague and let other people join your game and try to kill you? How very new and exciting!" This would grow into some success in popularity and, I can only assume, sales, which spearheaded the efforts for the spiritual successor Dark Souls and birthed a new genre unto gaming. (The Miracle of life) But given the original launched 11 years ago, isn't it crazy to think that in 2020 this cult classic is literally the shining spearhead of the next-gen launch title lineup?

And I mean that honestly, no other game which has launched on either console has managed to pop and stand out nearly as gloriously as Demon's Souls. When you look at the other games there is Assassin's Creed Valhalla, a decent game that also launched on last gen, COD, same situation, Spiderman Miles Morales, a seriously gorgeous game but also nothing strictly new in terms of concept, whilst the Xbox gets... wow, nothing interesting at all... (Seriously, Mircosoft, this is embarrassing) Demon's Souls is a game that was made for PS5, and though it's a remake/remaster of a game that already existed, it's also a title that a good number of folk never played before and thus gleans with that inexplicable aura of 'brand new' despite itself. And that has allowed the truly mind-blowing spectacle of the game to just grab audiences and blow them away; Demon's Souls is a next gen system seller right now! Do you think FromSoftware ever pictured that back in 2009?

So as far as most can tell, in terms of gameplay Demon's Souls is a one-to-one with the original, keeping all the brutal punishment of the first game whilst simultaneously maintaining some of the jank. (I.e. Occasionally questionable level design and a goddamn puzzle boss. I don't know if he's as bad as The Bed of Chaos, but I shudder to think) The only addition appears to be a random and currently unopenable door which, as of the writing of this article, hasn't been figured out and makes me personally expect something in the way of surprise DLC. But even then, I doubt many could take a look at this game and struggle to call it a 'remake' considering how much this game evolves in pure spectacle alone. (This ain't no, 'slightly sharper colours in Dishonoured's remaster' scenario) This is a whole different ballgame.

Bluepoint have rebuilt the entirety of the game in a manner that resembles the original, but which takes advantage of all the hardware afforded with the PS5 to evolve the art style. An ominous bare walk towards a far away tower becomes a musky hall sprawled in shrubs and forestry, a spacious but barren temple-space becomes a dark foreboding horror scape, and as I've mentioned in past blogs, the PS3 era fire depths evolve into something mindblowingly vibrant. (I'm a sucker for good fire effects.) It really stands out to me because I've never really thought of the Souls games as titles that were particularly memorable for their graphical fidelity. I mean the games still hold up for the most part, just because of the prevailing artistic intent, but Bluepoint have gone that extra step to make Demon's Souls literally one of the prettiest games on consoles to date, if not the prettiest.

Of course, there have been some deviations from the original when it comes to pure design decisions, but myself and the thousands of others who never played the original would never notice them anyway. Some people have argued that there's an almost steampunk/Lovecraftian element to some of the creatures in the original that gets lost in this new, more uniform, art direction, with a few bosses being entirely redesigned this way. For a purist I can imagine that this could come across as startling or even a bit disappointing, Souls games are renowned for their world building and the manner in which small design choices can spell out huge implications for the story. I can't say if this was true all the way back in Demon's Souls too, I actually have no idea what that game is even about, but I understand those who do find those deviations concerning.

The one aspect about Demon's Souls which really sells the next gen, however, is the one thing that can't be seen or interpreted by those without access to this new hardware, so all we have to go off is the word of those that do. (If that's worth anything to you.) I'm talking about the new haptic feedback mechanics built into the PS5 controller itself which, according to folk who've tried it, is subtle enough not to seem gimmicky yet impactful enough to transform the experience. Reports say that the direction of the character's swing will correspond with the direction of the feedback, with hard collisions rattling on your arm as well. And even something I really don't understand about how missed arrows can be heard from the controller as they whizz past your head. (Are they talking about something similar to how the Wii remote made sounds now and then really inconsistently? Because I'm not gonna lie, I found that rather annoying myself.)

All these come together to make a Demon's Souls remake that looks like a brand new entry to the Souls pantheon for those that never played the original, although I've heard some veterans ponder whether the prevailing similarities tarnish the package. I mean that puzzle boss I mentioned earlier was a big issue for a lot of the original players because he just wasn't very fun or interesting, and he's here completely intact yet again. No one wanted a complete remake of the sort of game that folk in this industry regard as sacred, but maybe a few improvement here and there (more than just the quality of life stuff) could have gone a long way. It's the same way in which we currently hope that the Mass Effect Legendary pack evolves Mass Effect 1 a bit, because just because it was a great game back in the day doesn't mean absolutely everything holds up in the here and now. Still, it makes me smile to think that in today's age it isn't the generic shooters or gimmick-strewn Ubisoft games that are defining this generation but an artistic masterpiece which stuns today as much as it did in the late 2000's.