Demon Souls alluded - A masterpiece for the launch of the PS5

Demon Souls alluded

The PlayStation 5 has been available for a while now and I was lucky enough to get a copy. For the launch of the PS5 I got Spider-Man Miles Morales, which really thrilled me again, but offers relatively little playing time in the main story. For many years, titles from From Software have been at home in my games library. This leads to the test of Demon’s Souls as a PS5 remake. I have played the original of Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls, Bloodborne and also Sekiro and am often trapped in the titles for a long time.

This is because the games are not really easy to beat. On many opponents, you bite your teeth out and have to think about how best to tackle them in order not to be stabbed. The titles may not suit one or the other, because none of the mentioned games radiates a lot of joie de vivre.

With the experiences of the past years in the back I wanted to watch the remake of Demon’s Souls. This comes in contrast to the original not from From Software, but from Bluepoint, which specializes in remakes and immediately after completion of Shadow of the Colossus have started with the development of Demon’s Souls for the PS5. I know bluepoint usually does a good job. Nevertheless, the scepticism was great whether the remake would be really good and you inherit From Software properly.Spoiler: It is excellent. But let me go a little further.

The original was released from 2009, 2010 but only here and offered playfully good but graphically not really outstanding. Nevertheless, From Software managed to create an atmosphere that had its charm. You could draw many players into the spell, started a cult around the Souls series. Now Bluepoint comes around the corner and does pretty much everything you can do right with a remake. Those who know Demon’s Souls will be able to skip the following paragraph, but let me briefly explain what it is all about.

You are in the kingdom of Boletaria. Here once reigned a king, who could make his kingdom a flourishing area with the help of the soul arts. The aforementioned arts, however, were of demonic origin and the achievement of the king was not good enough. He didn’t see the beauty, went insane and traveled to the so-called Nexus to free The Old One - the Ancient One - a monster with a pretty big hunger for souls. It comes as it must come: the land falls into chaos everywhere demons and so on and so on. The game introduces you well to the story in which you as a player - before that you can really adjust your character and choose a class - enter. Problem: You will find yourself directly at the start in a fight against an overpowering opponent and will die, whether you like it or not. In the following you will find yourself in the nexus, in soul shape and currently without body.

Demon Souls alluded a masterpiece for the launch of the PS5

And off you go the journey through the kingdom, which you begin by working off various wedges that stand for different areas in Boletaria. Each of these areas has at least one ore demon / boss to slay. On the way to the evil, you gradually slaughter various undead and other nasty enemies.

Each opponent will drop a certain number of souls, which you can collect and later exchange for items and level-ups in the Nexus. If you die - and this usually happens quite often - you leave your entire soul and have the opportunity to cancel it in the next run. Apart from that, you have had bad luck: Not only the game system as such, but also the gameplay of the remake has been taken over 1:1. So it looks exactly like a from-software title. The mechanics and everything you’ve loved about these games will be here, and the soundtrack is also great.

Really new, however, is the mood that the game with the insanely good graphics is able to catch. Especially with HDR, a lighting mood is created, which underlines the scenario excellently. Only a few torches illuminate corridors that lead through the very well designed levels. There could be a coward somewhere behind every corner who’d like to whip a club on your heads. If you are afraid that Bluepoint has changed the level, you don’t have to panic.

Now you could assume Bluepoint lacks courage to fill the gap, but why change something that was already good back then. The actual differences arise in the details, the animations, etc., which nevertheless take nothing essential from the original. Only the user interface has been dusted and made clearer. In my opinion, where one could have improved are the descriptions of the items. The newcomer will be able to do little with Blue and White Eyed Stone, since a more explanatory description would have been useful.

You can really start the game right, but only after you have defeated the first boss - called Phalanx - can you. Only then does a woman appear in the Nexus, where you can bring your level up and do something about the stats. Phalanx is a boss collection of smaller enemies, equipped with a shield and spear at the front, but soft and vulnerable at the back. When hitting different materials, you also notice that Bluepoint uses the new DualSense controller and its haptic feedback.

Here and there I have sometimes had problems with the camera, which partly did not want as I did. The lock-on system was not always as reliable as I would have liked. But that’s whining on a very high level and glitches were extremely rare. You have to say that you have delivered a nearly bug-free game here.

The well-proven multiplayer system is also available here. You can burn a sign to the ground in Soul Shape that other players can see and call you to fight through the level and against the respective boss. If you defeat the boss together, you will get souls and your body again, which will give you a full life record and can only be recovered by using an item.

But beware: You can also be the proverbial asshole, penetrate into other games and assassinate the gamer playing there. This can make you happy, but is very frustrating for your counterpart when you are on the road and get an axe in the back. After all, you leave a not insignificant number of souls, which you have to collect again.

But you will have to make friends with dying, because the degree of difficulty is partly absurd and you only get on with tactics. Especially against bosses that seem to be absolutely overpowering, tactical action is needed. Makes for an infinite amount of frustration, if one blesses again and again the temporal. During various encounters with weapons in my virtual body, I often had the desire to fling the controller somewhere against.

As bad as it is in that moment, the more beautiful it is when you have made it. And that’s exactly what makes the Souls series apart from the atmosphere for me. This includes raising souls to bring the level to a level that makes it easier for other bosses.

If you are not frustration-tolerant and have something against farming or thoughtful gaming, you will not be happy with the game. All other PS5 owners will find a remake with Demon’s Souls that couldn't be better.