The long-awaited remake of FromSoftware's Demon's Souls will soon launch on the PS5, bringing with it updated graphics, new weapons, and other, more subtle tweaks. Recently, creative director Gavin Moore confirmed whether or not there would be a difficulty setting added to the remake.
Demon's Souls was the precursor to the Dark Souls action game trilogy. It established many of the mechanics that would become a hallmark of the franchise, including combat heavily tied to a stamina meter. Perhaps the most important mechanic Demon's Souls established was that dying would send a player back to their last checkpoint, respawn all enemies in the area, and cause a player to lose their upgrade currency known as souls. A whole Soulslike sub-genre has sprung up in recent years, with many attempts to capture the difficulty and the try, try again combat loop that defines Souls games.
Fans of Demon's Souls and its notorious difficulty will be glad to hear that, in a recent interview with Polygon, creative director Gavin Moore confirmed that Demon's Souls will not have difficulty levels added into the game's settings. "It's true to the original...It's all about learning enemy patterns and learning the environments, knowing in combat when to challenge yourself with that risk and reward combat system." In fact, some changes in the Demon's Souls remake might up the difficulty slightly, including a balancing tweak aimed at limiting how much healing grass players can carry with them.
Demon's Souls Digital Deluxe Edition Bonuses Give Players a Boost
Overall, the changes that are coming to the Demon's Souls remake seem aimed at providing the classic experience, but with higher graphics and fewer bugs. It has been confirmed there will be new weapons and armor, and that some drop rates have been changed, but Bluepoint Games, the developer overseeing the remake, largely seems to be keeping true to the game's core. One notable exception, however, stems from the game's Digital Deluxe Edition bonuses. Among the perks that come with Demon's Souls Digital Deluxe Edition are a number of souls, the in-game currency used for leveling up. Earning (and keeping) souls is an integral part of Demon's Souls gameplay, and a vocal contingent of fans believes simply handing out souls and allowing a player to essentially gain free stat boosts goes against the foundational design of the game.
Aside from the currency and items included in the Digital Deluxe Edition, Demon's Souls is providing a level playing field for all players involved. Although it truly doesn't matter if one person plays on easy while another hard, players who defeat a particularly challenging boss in any Souls game can have the satisfaction of knowing that that everyone else coming to the fight has faced the same challenge.
Source: Polygon
Demon's Souls will be released on PlayStation 5 on November 12.