I don't envy Bluepoint Games. Back in 2018, they had the gargantuan task of remaking Shadow of the Colossus, one of PlayStation's most iconic titles from the PlayStation 2. To their credit, they managed to pull it off phenomenally well - dare I say, make it a better experience than even Team Ico's original. It was this stroke of genius that made me confident that Bluepoint would yet again knock it out of the park with the remake of From Software's Demon's Souls. While this was no easy task either, since the Souls community is a little more critical of new projects, they've managed to capture lightning in a bottle yet again. Demon's Souls is a stellar remake and perhaps the best launch title on the PlayStation 5.



As the mostly vague story goes (and true to Hidetaka Miyazaki's cryptic storytelling), Demon's Souls whisks us away to the land of Boletaria as an unsung hero destined to save this dark fantasy realm from the awakening of a slumbering Old One, a great monstrosity that has ravaged the land, leaving it in a state of decay and destruction. By journeying to every corner of the world, your task is to purge its demonic inhabitants consisting of a variety of creatures, nightmares and corrupted souls who now call it home.

Demon's Souls' adventure begins much like the original PlayStation 3 title. You're thrown into a remarkably deep character creation - where I'm sure you'll lose at least an hour of gameplay honing and tweaking a character whose face will be hidden behind a helmet for a majority of your playthrough. The amount of options in this new and enhanced character creator is astounding, and with hundreds of possible creative options, it's possibly the best character creator in a From Software game yet. Well, that's entirely on the shoulders of Bluepoint who went out of their way to make an incredibly deep and rewarding creation process. After picking a starting class and item, you're thrown headfirst into a challenging tutorial, and the rest is quite literally history in the making.



Unlike Dark Souls' more interconnected world, Demon's Souls presents a fragmented Boletaria accessible through five standing Archstones in the central hub area, the Nexus. These Archstones offer gateways to parts of the kingdom, and only by progressing down its long laundry list of biomes and boss encounters, can you make meaningful progress. You don't have to tackle the Archstones in any particular order either, so this level of freedom is something that will be inviting for newcomers who may want to take alternate routes should one prove too daunting to handle. Each iconic area is beautifully recreated from the original Demon's Souls, with no single stone unturned. It's incredibly faithful to the brilliant world design of From Software's classic, and fans of the game should feel right at home again.

This is easily one of the most graphically impressive games I've ever seen...

The most striking enhancement to the Demon's Souls remake is undoubtedly its visuals. This is easily one of the most graphically impressive games I've ever seen, not just in terms of remakes but gaming in general. Bluepoint take full advantage of the PS5's hardware capabilities here, presenting a more viscerally arresting and intricately detailed world than anything we've seen before in a Souls title. The lighting, atmospherics and crisp visual upgrades are a treat for the eyes, adding a more palpable sense of dread to the experience that even rivals the original. It can't be understated just how tremendously talented Bluepoint are, and Demon's Souls is another shining example of how to do a remake correctly - bolster the experience with modern techniques without compromising the game's soul and flare. Demon's Souls may not be the most intricately interconnected world, but that's more than made up by its unmatched presentation and keen attention to detail.



Due to nostalgia goggles, it's easy to overlook the technical limitations and flaws of the original Demon's Souls. However, to give credit where credit is due, Bluepoint took everything that made the original great and simply improved on it until they produced a game that wouldn't even feel out of place today as a new IP. Yet, the core flow and combat of the gameplay is kept in tact - as frustrating as some might find that. Demon's Souls was developed before Dark Souls and Bloodborne, so it doesn't afford players the luxury of newer or more refined mechanics. Some might find this to be a negative for the remake too as it simply embraces some of its more dated game design, but luckily Bluepoint injected enough welcomed changes to make it fresh and less infuriating. The movement has been tweaked to modern standards, but it's still clunky enough that it doesn't lose some of that old-school charm of the original.



With that in mind, convenient new additions and features that were introduced in all Souls games to come simply aren't present here. This is immediately evident from the game's healing items, which are plants scattered around the environment as opposed to an all-purpose refillable Estus flask. That means it's easy to run out of healing items - especially during tough boss battles - forcing players to reconsider the opportunistic moments to heal. There were countless times when I had to return to older areas to grind for more healing items, but when I returned to tackle the challenge again, it came with a sense of greater purpose and a feeling of having the upper hand. Since the prospect of bonfires are non-existent too, you only have the starting totem to spawn from, meaning you'll spend most of your time searching for and unlocking shortcuts back to the beginning of each level. This loop is what kept Demon's Souls one of the more intense Souls game I've ever played, but it encouraged exploration and further engaged players with the familiarity of the clever world design.



On the note of boss encounters, this is where the Demon's Souls remake absolutely shines the brightest. Every single boss encounter from the original is present in this remake, but given the modern upgrade - some with even newer movesets and attacks - boosting the original's iconic boss fights into something a lot more terrifying and daunting. The Flamelurker, for example, remains arguably the toughest encounter in the game (and if you don't plan out your Archstone traversal correctly, you can even accidentally run into this bad boy in the early game). He was a brute, rampaging menace in the original, but this time, he's tougher, more agile and generally hits harder with quicker precision. The Storm King is also one of the most visually astonishing battles that simply needs to be seen to be believed. This is one of the many ways that the remake justifies its existence. This isn't simply a one-for-one remake, but in many cases, a vast improvement over the original.

Demon's Souls is still a brutally punishing affair.

Since this is a Souls ARPG, there's a lot of emphasis placed on player agency and builds. In the early game, and due to the limitations of your starting loadout, it might be difficult to plot a particular kind of build. However, as the game progresses, the options open up and you're able to hone the kind of build you want to make. I opted for a dual-wielding greatsword maniac with heavy armor, but the trade-off was a lack of speed and dodging. Yes, tank-rolling is still a thing, but it wouldn't be a Souls game without running into the inconveniences of proper build optimization. It's not the most refined element since this is based on pre-Dark Souls mechanics after all, but it does enough to make it feel both familiar and fresh to veterans as well.



For those who feared that the remake might nerf the difficulty of the original, worry not. Demon's Souls is still a brutally punishing affair. Thankfully, it's not the most challenging Souls game you'll come across today. Newer Souls-likes (i.e. Nioh) have presented for more imposing difficulty curves - and even in From Software's own collection, I felt both Dark Souls and Bloodborne to be harder - but make no mistake, it's still a game that demands attentive gameplay, focus, and plenty of strategy and tactics if you want to come out victorious. Part of that spike in difficulty might be down to some of Demon's Souls' more dated mechanics, but it tweaks the gameplay enough that it feels modern without taking anything away from the ebb and flow of the original. To that effect, Demon's Souls succeeds on more than one front at being a faithful remake that boosts its source material instead of completely changing it.



Bluepoint Games have once again proven to be masters of their craft with the Demon's Souls remake. The visuals are jaw-dropping, making it feel like the most next-gen game out on the market. However, it does nothing to jeopardize the novelty of From Software's classic; instead, it simply enhances and improves the experience. Everything you love about the original Demon's Souls is kept perfectly in tact here - but just made better in every conceivable way. Whether its the striking graphics, the slightly improved gameplay, or the terrific lightning-fast load times thanks to the PS5's SSD, Demon's Souls has been remade to be greater and a new take on an old masterpiece. Your move, Elden Ring.

*PS5 Review code provided by PlayStation