Since its release back in 2009, Demon's Souls has had a major impact on the gaming industry. Though it's overshadowed by its successor, Dark Souls, and the enormous influence that game and its sequels have had on developers all over the world, much of what made Dark Souls so interesting was first explored and made possible by Demon's Souls. In November, players who missed out on Demon's Souls when it came out on the PlayStation 3 will have a new chance to take a crack at it, with a full remake of the game among the launch titles for Sony's next-generation console.
That means that the new Demon's Souls is fast approaching, so it's time to run down everything we've learned about one of the PlayStation 5's biggest launch titles. Here's what you need to know about the return of the seminal entry in the Soulsborne genre.
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Demon's Souls is the prototypical Souls game, so it carries a bunch of the hallmarks of the formula that has come to define From Software's titles in the years since. You play a lone warrior venturing into a dark fantasy land dominated by monsters and demons, where your goal is to slay enemies to gain the souls they carry. Those souls can be spent on leveling your character up by adjusting your stats, which can alter the game by allowing you to use different weapons, speeding up your actions, or giving you access to magic. If you die, however, you lose what souls you've earned but haven't spent, so planning and strategizing, playing carefully, and managing risk are all key to the experience.
Most of how you play the game is dictated by a stamina meter that determines how much you can run, swing your sword, or block incoming blows. In combat, Demon's Souls is largely about managing your stamina meter and timing, making sure to block certain attacks, dodge others, and strike when you have an opening--without overcommitting and leaving yourself open. Like the other Souls games, part of the fun of Demon's Souls is its difficulty--it's a world where enemies can lay you out with just one or two hits, demanding that you be attentive and careful if you want to succeed.
Expect a lot more detail in the remade graphics of Demon's Souls, adding more depth to the world of the original.Gallery
Demon's Souls takes place in the cursed land of Boletaria, where the king has made use of an ancient power called the Soul Arts, and in doing so, awakened a demon from the dawn of time called the Old One. As a result, the demon has blanketed Boletaria in a dense fog that unleashed all sorts of monsters. Those monsters want human souls, and they've hunted the people of Boletaria, ripping their souls free to feed on them--and leaving the soulless to fall to madness and attack any who've survived.
Your job as a lone warrior venturing into Boletaria is to free it from the curse of the Old One once and for all, but it isn't going to be easy. As with Dark Souls, you should be prepared to die.
Like most of the other Souls games, Demon's Souls also features a multiplayer component. It allows you to either summon other players to help you fight through the monsters and bosses you face, or invade the worlds of other players to add to their woes (and they can invade yours, too). Though you'll need a PlayStation Plus subscription to access Demon's Souls' multiplayer, you will still be able to see the notes other players leave to either warn you of or trick you about incoming threats.
However, the developer behind the remake is Bluepoint Games, which was responsible for the gorgeous PS4 remake of Team ICO's Shadow of the Colossus, a game originally released on PlayStation 2. That remake maintained everything from the original, with updated graphics and additional touches like a photo mode. It's likely we can expect the same treatment here: the classic Demon's Souls gameplay but with a much more impressive, modern presentation.
Giant enemies are a staple of the Soulsborne games, and Demon's Souls has no shortage of them.
So if you're wondering why you should care about the remake of Demon's Souls in 2020, its past performance, coupled with the huge impact of the Souls titles on the gaming landscape in the years since, are pretty good reasons.
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The PS5 sports a few technological advancements over the PS4 and PS3 that are getting worked into Demon's Souls as well. If you've got headphones that support it, you can take advantage of the consoles Tempest 3D AudioTech, which should make Demon's Souls sound even more immersive. Another big push for the console is the haptic feedback baked into the new DualSense controller, although we don't know exactly how that'll amplify Demon's Souls just yet.
The items in the Demon's Souls Digital Deluxe edition seem likely to make it a bit easier to survive the game's opening hours. You'll get some armor, weapons, and items to use, as well as the Demon's Souls original soundtrack. Here's the full list of in-game items:
Red-Eye Knight AmorBoletarian Royalty ArmorRitual BladeHoplite ShieldRing of LongevityPreservation GrainsPhosphorescent GrainsBearbug GrainsA Legendary Hero SoulA Renowned Warrior SoulA Storied Warrior SoulA Large Hardstone ShardA Moonlightstone ShardThe $70 price tag for the standard version of Demon's Souls is a notable change from the usual price for AAA games. For more than a decade, games have been coming in at $60, but most of the games coming to PS5 will cost $10 more. That seems to be an increasing trend among all next-gen games, in fact. For more details, see our Demon's Souls preorder guide.
Standard edition
$70
See at Amazon
Digital Deluxe edition
$90
See at PlayStation
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That said, there's some speculation about what Fractured Mode may be if it does appear in the remake. Mods for the original Demon's Souls randomize the placement of enemies, items, weapons, and more, in order to create a fresh experience--and including something similar in the remake would make sense to make the game appealing to hardcore veterans. But there's still no real information to go on about Fractured Mode, and it's very possible it was never a feature in the game at all. We'll have to wait until November 12 to find out.
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