One of the highlights of Sony’s PS5 promotional event earlier this week was the trailer for the freshly-revealed Demon’s Souls reboot. A spiritual predecessor of the infamous Dark Souls series, gamers have been begging developers to revisit the property for years. And now, after more than a decade of waiting, their prayers have finally been answered.
The announcement of the title came as a surprise for several reasons. First, the gaming community was expecting the devs to make a Dark Souls 4 rather than give us a return to Demon’s Souls. Second, if they decided to come back to Demon’s Souls, it was assumed the game would simply receive a remaster – much like the original Dark Souls did back in 2018 – and not a reboot.
For casual gamers, a remaster is when an old title gets updated for a current generation of consoles. Here, the old game is repackaged, meaning its textures are updated and its codes altered so that it might function on different hardware. A reboot, by contrast, is when a developer decides to rebuild their game from the ground up.
And that’s what’s happening with Demon’s Souls. In a stunning presentation, the original 2009 launch trailer was recreated shot for shot, allowing for a comparison that produced jaw-dropping results. Not only does the gameplay look a lot smoother and the character design more detailed, but areas have been entirely redesigned to look more complex and feel more lived in.
“There was another big one in there, people have been looking for it for years,” said Eric Lempel, PlayStation’s head of global marketing, during an appearance on the console’s official podcast. “And that was the Demon’s Souls remake… I’ve been fortunate enough to see it, and play it just a bit. It’s absolutely beautiful, it’s stunning. When people see this… especially if they’re fans, they’ll be amazed. And if they haven’t played it, this is the way to do it.”
There’s a small caveat to all this good news, though, and that has to do with the people who are creating the game. Although few would be able to tell by simply looking at the footage, the Demon’s Souls reboot is not being produced by FromSoftware, the team behind its original version, as well as the Dark Souls, Bloodborne and Sekiro franchises. Rather, it’s being done by another company called Bluepoint. Still, hopes are high for the project and we’re certainly impressed with what we’ve seen so far.
