Demon’s Souls Remake Released

With the launch of PlayStation 5, Demon’s Souls, the game that kicked off the whole Souls-like genre, has received a fresh coat of paint thanks to the efforts of the Bluepoint Games team. As a result, you can now purchase their remake of Demon’s Souls for $69.99 from the PlayStation Store and enjoy a challenging action-RPG experience entirely rebuilt from the ground up.

Here’s the official launch trailer:

And the game’s description:

Entirely rebuilt from the ground up, this remake invites you to experience the unsettling story and ruthless combat of Demon’s Souls™.

From PlayStation Studios and Bluepoint Games comes a remake of the PlayStation classic, Demon’s Souls. Entirely rebuilt from the ground up and masterfully enhanced, this remake introduces the horrors of a fog-laden, dark fantasy land to a whole new generation of gamers. Those who’ve faced its trials and tribulations before, can once again challenge the darkness in stunning visual quality with incredible performance.

In his quest for power, the 12th King of Boletaria, King Allant channeled the ancient Soul Arts, awakening a demon from the dawn of time itself, The Old One. With the summoning of The Old One, a colorless fog swept across the land, unleashing nightmarish creatures that hungered for human souls. Those whose souls were stripped from them, lost their minds – left only with the desire to attack the sane that remained.

Now, Boletaria is cut off from the outside world, and the knights who dare penetrate the deep fog to free the land from its plight, are never seen again. As a lone warrior who has braved the baneful fog, you must face the hardest of challenges to earn the title “Slayer of Demons” and send The Old One back to its slumber.

Key features

Discover where the journey began
Experience the original brutal challenge, completely remade from the ground up. All presented in stunning visual quality with enhanced performance, this is the world of Boletaria as you have never seen it before.

Become the slayer of demons
Venture to the northern kingdom of Boletaria – a once prosperous land of knights, now beset with unspeakable creatures and ravenous demons. Meet strange characters, unhinged and twisted by the world around them, and unravel the unsettling story of Demon’s Souls.

Master the arts of sorcery and war
Perfect and hone your skills in combat – know when to push forward and when to bide your time, as with each missed swing and careless mistake, you risk losing the very souls you’ve worked so hard to collect. The rewards for slaying the strongest foes are immense though, and death does not mean the end – it’s just another state of being.

Face the world’s greatest warriors
Face the world’s greatest warriors in ferocious PvP combat – with online1 invasions adding to the danger of your quest. Or play cooperatively by summoning allies to aid in your fight against the demons.

On top of that, you may also want to read this introductory article on the official PlayStation blog, as well as this quick beginner’s guide.

Surprisingly enough, for how seemingly popular the Souls sub-genre is, the only completed review I was able to find at this point was this one from GameInformer:

Demon’s Souls is the predecessor to a slew of FromSoftware titles, and players can see tons of inspirations for environments and encounters that would reappear later in the Dark Souls series. Having not played the original in ages, this remake was like walking through a fascinating interactive museum in some respects, witnessing the precursors to Blighttown, the Pursuer, and many other series staples. If you’ve already played Demon’s Souls to death, the new Fractured Mode lets you add a little variety to your runs by altering the maps a bit to hopefully throw off your muscle memory and footing.

For newcomers, Demon’s Souls will be the first exploration into the duality of despair and triumph, and hopefully go on to become a starting point for new Souls fans. For veterans, it’s a homage to an experiment that kicked off a fantastic genre. Either way, it’s wonderful that the nascent ethers from the original classic have coalesced and given us this delightful treat.