“Demon’s Souls Remake” Review

Story posted November 18, 2020 in Arts & Entertainment by David Fortunato.

Every so often there comes a game that becomes so beloved and critically acclaimed that it launches a whole new genre. When the original “Demon’s Souls” was released in 2009, it quickly became a fan favorite due to the dark lore, high quality action role playing gameplay and its crushing difficulty.

This game launched the “Soulslike” genre of video games and made FromSoftware a beloved developer. In 2020 with the launch of the PlayStation 5, Sony tasked Bluepoint Games with completely remaking the game from the ground up to take advantage of the new system’s powerful hardware.

The result is taking one of the greatest video games of all time and making it even better. Graphically, the remake is stunning and everything has been remade from areas, to enemies, to weapons.

Places like the Prison of Hope and the Smithing Grounds are just two of the areas that look absolutely stunning. Bosses all look as terrifying as ever with this new graphical overhaul.

Boss fights like the Dragon God, Old Hero and the Maneaters more than live up to the original game’s designs. In most cases, like the Tower Knight or Armor Spider, bosses far surpass their original designs.

But none of this would matter if the gameplay did not hold up to the high standards of the original. Thankfully, the gameplay is as sublime and silky smooth as any “souls” game has ever been.

The best way to describe “Demon’s Souls” is to imagine climbing a mountain without any real safety harness. Be aware this game is hard, insanely hard, but the important part is it’s not unfair.

99 percent of the time, death is a result of the player making a mistake; whether it was not bringing the proper equipment to have the advantage against an enemy, or simply being too under leveled. Unlike its spiritual successor, “Dark Souls”, there are no checkpoints in “Demon’s Souls” when the player dies. They are sent back to the beginning of the level.

However, proper exploration of the level will yield shortcuts to the later areas and make the run back to the boss more forgiving. “Demon’s Souls” rewards the player for exploring every corner of the level whether it’s with new gear, helpful items or interesting NPCs

The story of “Demon’s Souls” revolves around a nameless hero (the player) being tasked with stopping the resurrection of “The Old One”, an ancient and very powerful force of evil. The way this can be done is by slaying the bosses and taking their souls.

The soul aspect is very important, as every enemy killed gives players souls they can use to purchase items, repair equipment and level up. When the player dies, they are trapped in soul form and lose their souls. If they go back to where they died, they can get the souls back, but if they die again the souls are lost forever.

“Demon’s Souls Remake” is the definitive way to experience the game. It plays better, looks better and is a must buy for anyone with a PS5.

Don’t use the difficulty as an excuse, this is one of the best games of all time and should be experienced at least once by every gamer.

Rating: 5/5

 

David Fortunato is a senior majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email dforch2344@gmail.com.