Demon's Souls (PlayStation 5) Review

A RETURN TO WHERE IT ALL STARTED

From the starting splash screens of Demon’s Souls on PS5, you get the sense that your about to go through something incredible. Eleven years ago, From Software released Demon's Souls, a game that would go on to create its own subgenre of video games and if I'm being honest, it’s a game I didn't give a fair chance to back in the day. I only made it to the Nexus on PS3 and gave up shortly after.

I want to start things off by getting into the gameplay of Demon's Souls in a general sense. I do have a little bit of experience in From Softwares games; I beat Dark Souls III, I’m about 20 hours into Bloodborne, and about 30 minutes into the original Demon's Souls. I immediately noticed the biggest change between this remake and the other games; the feeling of moving your character around this world feels incredibly smooth! Even when choosing the 4k 30fps option, this game feels smooth and looks gorgeous. I generally went with performance mode which touts 60fps at 1440p because this is a game that feels great to play at 60fps. Actual mechanics-wise it's your typical Souls game affair with a stamina-based combat system where you gain experience (souls) from killing enemies, and when you die you can return to where you died to get those souls back as long as you don't die on the return trip. Bluepoint has really outdone themselves with their work on this remake, bringing the classic into the modern-day with tons of quality-of-life work done not only on the visuals. The soundtrack for instance is more epic, really crescendoing when you cross the barriers of fog to face a boss. Those bosses by the way look absolutely terrifying!

The big difference from the Dark Souls games is that Demon's Souls isn't an open world. You begin in the hub world of the game called the Nexus and from there you can go into five different worlds whenever you want. Each one comes with its own challenge and its own unique style but I’ll also add here that the Lake of Poison is infamous for a reason.

The story of Demon's Souls is mostly kept to the intro movie, item descriptions, and dialogue between NPCs. This sounds like a bad rollout for the plot but the further you get into the game the more invested you get in the characters and what the bosses are and why they are there. It's definitely a weird way to tell a story but simply put, it just works. I found myself not caring at all in the opening hours but as time went on I found myself reading descriptions and exhausting dialogue from NPCs in the Nexus.

Character customization is far more detailed than in other Souls titles.

The gameplay of Demon's Souls really is what you are coming to the Souls series for and after some time away and going back and finishing Dark Souls Remastered, I get it now. The combat is smooth as hell, especially when compared against previous entries like Dark Souls Remastered and Dark Souls III. If you plan on diving into Demon's Souls, I want to tell you one thing, LEARN TO PARRY. It will change your experience with the game and honestly learning that mechanic makes things so much easier.

If there is one thing the Souls series is known, it’s the difficulty, and well it all started here. Thankfully, like the other Soulsborne games, if you find yourself having a hard time you can summon an online ally which is incredibly helpful. The one thing the game doesn't do a great job of explaining is the World Tendency. Basically, the more you die as a human the harder the game gets by spawning harder enemies. In contrast, the game can become easier by killing bosses while human. This means that when you are undead, you don't lose anything besides souls when you die so it's almost worth it to not be human unless you want to summon, then you have to be. It's really difficult to get across the finer details of this system and it’s just not explained well in-game so a guide may be needed to fully understand.

This game has a wicked soundtrack. The moment to moment doom and gloom yet subtle background music really helps you feel the desolation in the world. When you cross fog gates and go up against one of the many many bosses, there is this grand crescendo into what can only be described as awe-inspiring. There’s this booming composition that you feel. It also helps that the music in the Souls series has always helped enrich the story of each game and that's no different here.

The detail put into every moment of Demon’s Souls is unreal and the screenshots do not do it justice.

I've already started playing Demon’s Souls again. That should tell you how much I’ve enjoyed this game, but in all honesty, the Souls series thrives on replayability as players can test out new builds or just take another look around to see what was missed the first time through. 

This game was the original reason I wanted a PlayStation 5 and it was well worth it. Demon’s Souls has given me a new passion for the series and I'm assuming it's that way for a lot of people. This has been a game people have been asking for a remake or rerelease for a long time and Bluepoint has really done an outstanding job bringing this classic to the newer generation. They mostly left the core idea of the game alone and only brought changes to the graphics and framerate. It is by far the best looking PlayStation 5 launch title and it was a fantastic choice to release it as such. I can't wait to dive back in and see what secrets I can find. 

SCORES

GAMEPLAY - 8/10

VISUALS - 10/10

SOUND - 9/10

CONTROLS - 8/10

REPLAY VALUE - 9/10

OVERALL - 8.8/10

More information about the Demon’s Souls remake can be found on the official website. A copy was purchased by the reviewer. Screenshots were captured using native PS5 features. Featured image from official PS Store listing.

For more PS5 content, check out my review of the delightfully nostalgic Astro’s Playroom or my early impressions of the console’s launch. We recently had a look at the visuals of Resident Evil Village through the Maiden demo exclusively on PlayStation 5 and I gave my thoughts on that experience.