A new interview with creative director Gavin Moore and gameplay footage of the Demon’s Souls remake has been released. Here are the details to know before launch.
Demon’s Souls will offer two modes to the player, similar to how Ghost of Tsushima handled resolution. Cinematic mode will offer native 4K resolution at 30 frames per second, while Performance mode will run at dynamic 4K at 60 frames per second. Omnidirectional rolling has been confirmed with eight directions. The camera from the original game has some room for improvement, especially when compared to modern games. So Bluepoint and Japan Studio have modernized it while maintaining the original for die hard veterans. The same can be said for the filters in-game, classic mode retains the closest representation of the PlayStation 3 title.
Built off the back of Shadow of the Colossus, Demon’s Souls will feature a powerful photo mode giving players incredible control over the look of the game. It will only be available when in single player. So hopefully players won’t get invaded and thrown out of the mode in the middle of taking a masterpiece. Fractured mode has been confirmed to be an option in the Nexus, which will mirror the game’s layout, flipping it horizontally. This is a way the developers could offer veterans of the classic title a way to experience it for the first time. The Nexus will also be able to store characters, for a price. No context explaining this was given but this implies players may have the opportunity to pull characters into different save files.
During the interview Moore indicated that less serious, light hearted bugs have not been removed, while major bugs such as skipping areas entirely or hitting bosses through fog walls have been addressed. Sorcery was shown for the first time in the form of the classic souls arrow, and it looks as strong as it was in the original. Moore revealed there were discussions about bringing magic down to the level of other Souls entries, but it has not been changed because of how weak sorcerers are in the early game. Moore was asked about the sixth Archstone, but he felt it wasn’t the place for Bluepoint to reimagine the game’s vision. He stressed many times that Bluepoint strictly adheres to the vision of the original titles.
Another first glimpse from the gameplay seen was the backstab animation with a mace. The animation puts the old slam to shame; it begins with swooping an enemy off their feet before smashing the mace into them. Perfectly in tune with the grittier animations seen. Moreover, the Dualshock 5’s haptic and trigger feedback is much more layered and nuanced than previous designs, allowing the material of what the player is hitting affect the feedback on the controller. The weight system has also been modernized to be in line with other FromSoftware works. The original Demon’s Souls would not allow players to carry every armor set in their inventory but it would allow players to hold 99 of every healing item.
For the remake, this has been flipped. Players can pick up whatever they want but will have a limit to the amount of healing consumables they can carry. The limit will be more severe depending on the strength of the item. This system will be familiar to fans of Bloodborne. A new type of consumable has been confirmed: called Grains. They give the player elemental resistances for a period of time. Some of them can be seen in the Digital Deluxe image showcasing the rewards for purchasing that edition. Another tidbit Moore shared was how the Monk boss battle was carried over one-to-one. Players will have the chance to be summoned as a boss in that fight to impede the progress of other players.
The PlayStation website reveals the incentives to purchase the Demon’s Souls Deluxe Edition which, since Dark Souls 2, has given players items and weapons early to make them more powerful than those who only own the Standard Edition. However, the Demon’s Souls remake is holding two armor sets and one weapon from regular players. The Red-Eye Knight Armor, Boletarian Royalty Armor, and the Ritual Blade will not be in the Standard Edition. While Deluxe exclusive items are a right that Sony has exercised many times in the past, it seems shallow in comparison. For a $20 price hike, three items in exchange doesn’t seem like a fair deal.
These items are ordinary enough to have the title feel like nothing is missing, and the majority of players won’t notice. However these items are also iconic enough that die-hard fans might shell out to get only three items. That’s why Sony is making this move: Because they can. At least players can decide with their wallet how they feel about it.
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