In the wake of wild speculation about FromSoftware's upcoming Elden Ring, Sony Entertainment surprised gamers by announcing a PS5 remake of Demon's Souls, the 2009 FromSoftware game that pioneered the atmospheric storytelling and grueling boss fights iconic to the "Soulslike" genre of RPGs. Will development of the Demon's Souls Remake delay the production process of Elden Ring, or will the gameplay and footage from this remake give fans a better idea of what to expect in FromSoftware's newest franchise?
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is the newest and Dark Souls the most famous, but Demon's Souls is the original Soulslike game, a PS3 exclusive fantasy RPG with a dark storyline that was, appropriately enough, about demons and souls. In a medieval kingdom called Boletaria, a reckless king tampered with forbidden magic, unleashing hordes of soul-devouring demons and spreading grey fog across his land. The player character, a wandering fantasy hero, ventures boldly into this misty realm, only to be squashed flat by a demon and resurrected in a strange chamber called the Nexus, where a mysterious Maiden in Black charges them with gathering the souls of several great Demons.
As the first FromSoftware RPG to be built around Hidetaka Miyazaki's unique game design philosophy, Demon's Souls is a deeply original masterpiece with rough, unpolished mechanics compared to its spiritual successors. For this reason, a remake is a great way to port Demon's Souls over to the PlayStation 5, refining its gameplay for a new generation of gamers while giving the oldest Soulslike high-definition graphics equal in quality to the upcoming Elden Ring. Should fans worry about the Demon's Souls Remake hindering the development of Elden Ring? Probably not, for the following reasons:
Demon's Souls Remake Is Not From FromSoftware
The Demon's Souls Remake is being developed by Bluepoint Games, a studio famous for their high-quality remasters of classic video games. Their most recent effort, a 2018 remake of Shadow of the Colossus, retained the core gameplay elements of the original PS2 classic while greatly improving graphics and adding rich environmental details. Bluepoint's trailer for the Demon's Souls Remake is equally gorgeous, recreating cutscenes from the original with higher fidelity and realistic touches, such as rust on armor and moss on the walls of ruins. From the looks of things, FromSoftware is taking a hands-off approach to the Demon's Souls Remake, trusting Bluepoint Games to do their IP justice while they focus on completing Elden Ring.
Demon's Souls Updates Could Reveal Elden Ring's Gameplay
Developers at Bluepoint have expressed their desire to not merely remake, but to "Re-Envision" Demon's Souls, according to Laptop Magazine, rebuilding its gameplay from the ground up and adding new features such as the currently-enigmatic "Fractured Mode." A design goal like this is high risk, but very much high-reward, especially when all the hard-earned improvements to the Soulslike formula that can be retroactively applied to Demon's Souls are taken into account. At minimum, Bluepoint Games needs to polish up antiquated gameplay elements like awkward dodge rolls and an overpowered magic system. Ideally, they could completely transform the combat system of Demon's Souls, replacing stamina and mana management with original mechanics to discourage both passive defense and dodge spamming.
Bluepoint Games might be collaborating with designers with FromSoftware to implement the same solutions being applied to the combat of Elden Ring. Even if that's not the case, both Bluepoint and FromSoftware are trying to solve the same problems of game design, and any combat mechanics shown in future footage for the Demon's Soul Remake will likely bear strong similarities to the combat of the still-enigmatic Elden Ring.
There's a certain poetry to the recently announced Demon's Souls Remake, juxtaposed with the under-development Elden Ring. Once the PlayStation 5 is released, gamers will be able to play both Demon's Souls and Elden Ring on the same platform – the oldest and the newest Soulslike game displayed side-by-side, a perfect showcase of where FromSoftware's games came from and where they have the potential to go.