Key Takeaways
- Demon's Souls paved the way for Soulslike success, influencing modern games like Dark Souls.
- World Tendency in Demon's Souls was unique but has been shelved for modern quality-of-life features.
- The remake of Demon's Souls offers modern visuals and accessibility, making it the superior version.
Souls games may have been popularized and iconized via Dark Souls, but there would be no Dark Souls without its predecessor—the humble and singular Demon’s Souls. Demon’s Souls’ segmented warp structure and macrocosmic World Tendency system are certainly distinct, for better or for worse, while its core tenets as an action-RPG would be adapted to the punishingly difficult Dark Souls for FromSoftware to refine it into the classic and revered formula that is ubiquitously known and beloved today.
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Demon’s Souls Carved a Long and Hard-Earned Path for Soulslike Success
As the prototypical Souls game, it’s impossible to exaggerate how bewilderingly influential Demon’s Souls has been in the last decade and a half. For all intents and purposes, 2009’s PS3-exclusive Demon’s Souls is the skeletal framework for Dark Souls’ tissue. Now, all subsequent FromSoftware action-RPGs and Soulslikes have continued adding onto that anatomical structure with organs and a nervous system.
Nearly every favorable characteristic of FromSoftware’s modern games can be traced back to Demon’s Souls, whether players adore gimmick bosses, PvP invasions, or quest-related NPCs. World Tendency is now a relic of Demon’s Souls’ past, though, and its game-affecting conditions and consequences don’t seem to be missed terribly.
It is neat that it allowed for unique events and difficulty alteration, but reaching Pure White Tendency in each world or concerning oneself with how to properly manipulate Character and World Tendencies so that otherwise locked content can become available is an unnecessary headache that FromSoftware was arguably right to shelve thereafter. Demon’s Souls itself is archaic and with each new IP FromSoftware produces the original Soulslike game is pushed further into obscurity and obsolescence, which is ironic considering how without Demon’s Souls there would likely be no Elden Ring nor its Shadow of the Erdtree DLC 15 years later.
What Demon’s Souls suffers most from a decade and a half later is how dated its bosses are in terms of being elementary in design with relatively abysmal AI—Demon’s Souls’ Maneaters alone are evidence of this atrocity.
FromSoftware’s Demon’s Souls is No Longer the Best Way to Play the Original ‘Soulslike’
The 2009 Demon’s Souls was developed by FromSoftware whereas the 2020 Demon’s Souls remake was developed by Bluepoint. So, while obviously less impressive in terms of visuals or performance, the former maintains a level of authentic charm.
That said, the remake is basically the same game but with a fresh coat of paint and modern quality-of-life features, making it the undeniable go-to of the two due to current-gen accessibility. Being able to send items to storage or warp between archstones without needing to go back to Demon’s Souls’ Nexus overworld hub—once an Archdemon is felled, that is—gives the remake an added efficiency that the original does not possess. The remake was a launch title for the PS5 and is not only commended as a reimagining of the original but also in terms of current-gen fidelity.
Indeed, the remake is one of the only instances where visuals were held in superb regard among the Souls games and is still considered the best-looking despite not being a FromSoftware title. Each Souls game has a stalwart fanbase, but the original Demon’s Souls, entombed on the PS3, has aged the worst graphically.
FromSoftware’s games have always had tremendously gorgeous art direction, to be clear, but their fidelity hasn’t made a dramatic or considerable bound since Bloodborne shy of a decade ago.
Demon’s Souls’ remake is quite distinguished in its visual polish, particularly its unique animation styles, and confidently dates FromSoftware’s Demon’s Souls as a result. The only reason to hop back on Demon’s Souls for PS3 instead would be a nostalgic element, seeing as that’s where the game was conceived, and the fact that the 2009 Demon’s Souls was actually developed by FromSoftware. Even with the fine craquelure in its oil painting laid bare, knowing that the original, unrefined Demon’s Souls is a FromSoftware game while the remake is not may be enough to sustain purists and loyalists alike.
Demon's Souls
Soulslike
Action RPG
Systems
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation 3
- Released
- October 6, 2009
- Developer(s)
- From Software
- Publisher(s)
- Sony Computer Entertainment , Atlus , Namco Bandai
- Multiplayer
- Online Multiplayer
- Engine
- Proprietary Engine
- ESRB
- M For Mature 17+ Due To Blood, Violence
- How Long To Beat
- 29 Hours
- PS Plus Availability
- Premium
