In Demon’s Souls, an action RPG from BluePoint Games, you play as a warrior who, like many others seeking the glory of the soul arts, is drawn to the desolate kingdom of Boletaria. Once a prosperous realm, Boletaria along with its surrounding lands had been granted a collection of archstones used to imprison an ancient god - The Old One. Now reawakened, The Old One has consumed the land in a colorless fog, and ravaged it with soul devouring demons. You are compelled to fight, but you must decide if your fate is to reclaim the power stolen from this land and use it for yourself, or mend the world and seal away The Old One, once and for all.
To do that you’ll scour dungeons, caves, stormy isles, and enchanted prisons to find the equipment you’ll need to topple the hellish sentries guarding its depths. Using their ill-gotten souls to enhance your abilities, sharpen your skills, and prepare you for the dangers that lurk around every corner.
For a long time I was intimidated by Souls-like games. I mean, anyone who was anyone that played the games would cite that they were unapologetically challenging, and only those with enough perseverance could get through them. Not being one to shy away from a challenge however, my curiosity got the better of me and I dove headlong into my first - the original Demon’s Souls on the PS3. Sure, I was completely unprepared for how unforgiving it could be, and it was of a caliber of difficulty that I’ve not experienced up until that point. However, at the same time if you could overcome those challenges it left you feeling accomplished and wholly satisfied. Something not many games can achieve, at least at that level. Needless to say, from that day on I was a Souls fanatic.
So, with the release of a remake of Demon’s Souls 10+ years after its original release, and as big a fan as ever, I was excited to re-explore the depths of Boletaria. The original probably wouldn’t have breached my top 3 within the “series” if I was forced to rank them, but I did have fond memories of playing it, with it being my first and all. That and I was curious to see if a face lift, and a few quality of life improvements could elevate the game beyond its legacy, especially with it being a much more “bare bone” experience compared to its successors.
After starting the game, creating my character, and reacclimating myself to what was expected from me, the thing that stood out the most from moment one until the credits rolled was that BluePoint created a game that represented the Demon’s Souls experience I remembered playing, not the experience I would have had if I were to go back and play the original today. Which was a solid but grimy and clunky game that you wish you left in the outskirts of your memories and daydreamed about on occasion. What I mean is that while playing this remake, I immediately had the comforting feeling of coming back home from a long trip away, except in this case, someone had cleaned up while you were gone. Everything from the weapons, to the way it controlled, to all of the little tidbits hidden throughout the world, were all as I remembered. Only now it felt modern, had some of the most impressive graphics I’ve seen to date, and featured subtle yet life altering enhancements that made the game that much more enjoyable to play. Plus, the reworked sound design made the satisfaction of unleashing your Soul Ray, parrying an attack, or walking through a boss’s fog gate that much more intense.
Like the original, and pretty much every Souls-like game that came after it, the combat happens in real time. Instead of just jumping into the fray however, you have to be much more conscientious about the moves you make and how you approach enemies, because even the smallest ones can overwhelm you if you get over confident. This in turn means it’s a slower paced game, but the reward for being patient and finally defeating that enemy or boss you were struggling with ends up being that much more satisfying. Which I guess is just a truism for pretty much any game of its ilk.
What’s different is that Demon’s Souls was the first, so in a lot of ways it feels like the essence of a Souls-like, or the framework with which the greatness that’s yet to come would be built. That’s not to say that it’s not still a great game, because it is, but compared to the others it lacks nuance and some of the conveniences that we would eventually see in future games. Which after saying it, sounds a bit like an oxymoron but it’s those conveniences that make the challenge feel fair instead of frustrating. For example, each resting spot is locked behind a boss, and the journey between them can be quite lengthy with no other respites between. Sure, you can unlock a few shortcuts here and there, but even then you’ll be trudging through high risk areas and using your precious resources before you even have a chance to prepare for the fight. And it’s not the fact that you have to re-fight enemies on your way back, that’s something you come to terms with in any Souls-like game, but it's the amount of time it takes to get back there. So if you die, it’s that much more devastating because you’ll have to slog through that whole rigamarole again. In addition to that, because your healing items don’t refill when you rest, and are instead consumable, you’ll find yourself running out of them if you’re having difficulty in one section or another. So you’ll then find yourself having to grind for souls to replenish your stock, souls that you could have used to level up instead. Nitpicky I know, but it’s little things like this that can make a difference.
On the plus side, one of the coolest concepts in Demon’s Souls is World Tendency, where your actions affect the state of each area. Which was much improved over the original since it’s now only you who affects it instead of other players in your server. To summarize it, you could change the tendency of an area by doing good things like defeating bosses, or helping other players and NPCs, moving the tendency toward white, but do bad things like dying in your human form, or killing innocents and it’ll move toward black. A few secrets are even unlocked if you can reach “pure” status in either direction. The biggest drawback/benefit of this is that it will alter the strength of the enemies in each area, as well as the amount of souls they’ll award you when defeated. In white, they’ll be weaker and give you less souls, while in black they’ll be stronger and give you more. Which plays nicely into the risk/reward system these games play around with. My only real complaint regarding it, is that because certain events are locked behind certain states, it can be a bit of a pain to attain them. Especially, when the World Tendency you need to acquire is Pure Black, which can leave you between a rock and a hard place if you’re not prepared. Oh, and if you need it to be Pure White, or if you’re trying to avoid it dipping into black at all, then you’re going to have to get real good at not dying, or spend most of the game in soul form which comes with a hefty penalty of losing ⅓ of your max health. That’s pretty rough if you ask me, because if you die even once in your human form then you can pretty much kiss attaining Pure White status goodbye until your second playthrough. Unless of course you want to help other players defeat bosses using your summon stone, but I had a hard time finding someone to summon me.
Despite some of my gripes, a lot of these things are really just quirks and when you boil it down, the Demon’s Souls remake truly is a remarkable game. It has its frustrations for sure, but I think it’s less about it having inconveniences and more about me being spoiled by the more refined games yet to come. Also, it’s probably a misnomer to say that Demon’s Souls is unrefined per say, because this rendition of it is pure bliss for a long-time fan of the Souls games like me. Not only was it a jaw dropping example of what’s possible on the latest and greatest consoles like the PS5, but it also revitalized a woefully deprecated game in a beloved franchise, and reintroduced it to a whole new generation of fans. It may not be the best one to start with if you’ve never played a Souls-like game since games like Elden Ring, Bloodborne, and Dark Souls 3, are probably better options for that, but it will most certainly quench your Souls-like thirst if you’re looking for more.
The Demon’s Souls remake is an uncompromised modernization of the game that started it all. With an amazing high-fidelity makeover and fine tuned mechanics, long time fans couldn’t ask for more. Except for maybe a sequel of the same caliber. Two soul powered thumbs UP from us!!