Bluepoint Games’ recent Demon’s Souls remake for the PS5 has become one of the biggest sellers on the next-gen console, due more to the legacy of FromSoftware’s Souls series than to anything new coming to it. However, while not every change Bluepoint made to Demon’s Souls has been well received, the new developer certainly went above and beyond in a number of areas when it comes to bringing the classic title to modern gaming.
Among these changes is the amount of detail that went into animations applied to moving assets in Demon’s Souls, which go far beyond what was available for the game’s PS3 version. This extends from everything as simple as the hollow dregs lunging towards the player to animations that differentiate combat from weapon to weapon, even within the same type.
This isn’t to say that FromSoftware has a negative history with creating animations, with some of the company’s most recent titles, like Bloodborne and Sekiro, having complex and fluid movements. The developer’s improvement from game to game is especially noticeable when looking at titles, like Dark Souls 2, and comparing them to the newer games in the Soulsborne catalog. However, with Demon’s Souls‘ original bosses, enemies, and character animations being limited to what PS3 was capable of, the remake has taken full advantage of next-gen technology to make the new visuals shine.
One of Bluepoint’s selling points for Demon’s Souls has been the impressive visuals, which were first shown off at the PS5 reveal event and focused more on the new models and textures. It wouldn’t be until a new gameplay trailer released that players would see what these new updates meant for how the game looks and moves. One of the most impressive changes is the way that every weapon in the game has been given new animations, many of them redesigned to look and feel more fluid with the PS5’s graphical capabilities and immersive DualSense controllers.
However, unlike the weapons in the original game, these new animations just aren’t unique from weapon type to weapon type, with only a few special weapons standing out among their own typing. Instead, subtle differences can be seen from weapon to weapon, with two spears or two straight swords having differing animations between them in order to make each item feel unique. This is best seen outside of the standard hack and slash combat, and emphasized with the animations for the series’ signature backstabs and parries standing out in each of Demon’s Souls‘ weapons.
While the Souls series has plenty of ways to make titles like Demon’s Souls easier — from min/max character builds to special weapons and magic — the simplest techniques players can master are backstabs and parries. It can take some time to get the cadence of these moves down, especially parries that require different timing from game to game, and often from enemy to enemy. However, Bluepoint has added an extra reward for managing to pull off these attacks in the form of new animations, some of which can keep the player protected, as they give a few seconds of invincibility.
Many of these new backstab and parry animations have been completely reworked from the original Demon’s Souls, with simple animations of the player shoving their weapon through an enemy replaced by brutal flurries of stabs and slashes. Even a basic weapon, like a dagger, has been given brand new ways to finish off an enemy, changing from single stabs or throat slits to viciously carving up a target. To continue adding to these new animations, backstabs have also been given multiple animations, depending on whether the player is holding a weapon in one hand or two.
Of course, when it comes to changing all of these animations and altering how each weapon and enemy attacks, Bluepoint ran the risk of completely ruining the feel of the original game. If weapons attack differently and parry animations have been reworked, then it wouldn’t be too uncommon to assume that enough has changed in the game to make some of Demon’s Souls‘ best builds and weapons play completely differently as well. Fortunately, Bluepoint paid close attention to the original cadence of attacks, meaning that anyone with muscle memory from the original game will still be able to fight exactly the same in the new remake.
Considering how fighting bosses and surviving against the game’s brutal enemies means making best use of Demon’s Souls‘ mechanics, changing this cadence in combat could have completely ruined the new experience. Now, veteran players diving into the game to see what is new, or replay the game with improved graphics, can still hang on familiar gameplay, and new players still get the genuine experience from the original. Maintaining the original charm is one of those fine lines with developing a remake of any game, something that Bluepoint has been perfecting with titles like Demon’s Souls and Shadow of the Colossus.
Among these changes, however, there is a massive leap that Bluepoint has taken that steps away from how the game operated and added something that didn’t arrive to FromSoftware’s series until Sekiro. These would be the facial animations that NPC’s and even the playable character have during dialogue scenes, or sometimes when reacting to the environment. It’s a small detail, but even as late as 2016 with Dark Souls 3, FromSoftware still hadn’t started animated facial expressions or dialogue, which created a split between vocal performances and the NPC storylines and side quests in Demon’s Souls.
While the new weapon and backstab animations make the player character feel much more active, these new facial animations make the world around the player feel alive. Sometimes it’s the smaller details that can connect with players and lead them to track down all of the post-game content in Demon’s Souls, so it is always to a developer’s benefit to give these details the much-needed attention. So, with some of the changes coming to the game, plenty of the new features Bluepoint introduced to Demon’s Souls make the game a huge step forward for the series that FromSoftware may want to pay attention to.
Demon’s Souls is available now for PS5.
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