Since it was the first of its kind, Demon's Souls was a great game that was held back by a relative lack of polish when compared to the plethora of explosively popular successors it had. The Soulsborne genre has built off of the foundation established by Demon's Souls ever since its spiritual successor, Dark Souls, launched and continued to dominate any competition. These games have been releasing over the course of a decade, and each installment has added many features and quality of life updates (besides just enhanced graphics) that all blend together to create a smooth experience. These changes should be implemented into the PS5 version of Demon's Souls.
Demon's Souls released back in 2009 as a PlayStation 3 exclusive and stood out for being one of the most challenging and rewarding games on the market. During this time period, more and more games were becoming easier to beat, with extensive hand-holding and tutorializing throughout. Demon's Souls was a breath of fresh air that gamers greatly appreciated, but going back to it today can be a jarring experience after playing Bloodborne or Dark Souls 3. The new Demon's Souls remake looks so sleek that customers already have their eyes set on on PS5 just to play it, but it's going to need to piggyback off of what made those classics so enjoyable.
One major complaint about Demon's Souls is its healing system. The game utilized consumable healing grasses that could either farmed or purchased, but the system made it possible to spawn with no healing items at all if the player used them all up. Dark Souls amended this process by using the Estus Flask system, one which made healing items tied to resting at bonfires instead of being a plethora of consumables. However, every Souls game after has brought consumable-based healing back to some degree. The original Dark Souls had a fair healing system that discouraged grinding, and the Demon's Souls remake would be better off if the developers decided to replicate it.
Demon's Souls PVP & Weapon Stance Options
FromSoftware has made significant progress in its online multiplayer, and Demon's Souls' remake should certainly take advantage of this. After Dark Souls released, players received lots of quality of life updates to the multiplayer including password matchmaking systems, dedicated servers, and far better balancing for weapons and items. Dark Souls 2 and 3, in particular, had popular and well-balanced competitive PvP scenes in which players engaged in one-versus-one duels. The multiplayer is a huge part of why the Souls games have so much replay value, and Demon's Souls' remake should take note of the success of its predecessors.
The Dark Souls series dabbled with a few interesting mechanics for the course of only one game and then never used them again. One of the coolest mechanics only used once was the power stance mechanic from Dark Souls 2. If players had high enough stats and were wielding compatible weapons in both hands, they could power stance them and utilize a unique moveset that takes advantage of both weapons. It was an incredible mechanic that added lots of freedom and customization to Dark Souls 2, but the feature was unfortunately dropped in future installments. If it were to return in Demon's Souls, it could add a great layer of variety to the game which could be appreciated by those looking to create completely original builds.
The Souls series has come a long way since 2009, but Demon's Souls' remake is a great opportunity to bring the original game up to speed with the rest of FromSoftware's masterpieces.