There’s no denying that Demon’s Souls has some spooky elements to it, and the experience of traversing its many levels alone can be quite frightful at times. Even so, there’s one level that stands above all the rest as the absolute creepiest, most disturbing of the lot, the Tower of Latria. The levels in the Archstone of the Tower Queen have consistently been viewed as unpleasant thanks to their offputting atmosphere, but the 2020 remake of the game takes things to an entirely different level. Players will feel dread like never before while traversing this area in all its modern glory.
The Demon’s Souls remake is very faithful to the original game in terms of level design, enemies, and the like. Though there are a few small changes to mechanics (mostly quality of life things), the biggest difference fans will see is the huge graphical improvement. Beyond this, the audio design is also way more advanced. In some cases, this works against the game in certain ways, but in the Tower of Latria, it amplifies everything that FromSoftware was initially trying to accomplish to new heights never before reached in the Souls series.
The atmosphere of the Tower of Latria is really what makes it so creepy. Players start out in the Prison of Hope, a multi-level penitentiary that holds countless emaciated and moaning prisoners. For all intents and purposes, these prisoners have lost their minds, driven mad by the torture they’ve endured in their eternity at the Prison of Hope. As players progress through the level, they hear the screams of unfortunate souls echo throughout the stone halls, along with a steady chiming of bells from an unknown source. Unfortunately for players, it doesn’t take long to find where these bells are coming from: creatures powerful enough to subdue and imprison Sage Freke, the Visionary.
Mind Flayers roam the prison as guards, dispensing torture to its inhabitants in unthinkable ways. These tentacle-headed monstrosities are powerful foes, capable of shooting magic blasts and paralyzing the player. Any unlucky enough to be hit by this attack will quickly find themselves impaled by the tentacles of the beast, killing and heavily damaging all but the best armored of players. Considering what they’ve done to the other prisoners here, it’s honestly a mercy that they opt to kill the player rather than imprison and torture them. There’s also prisoners in Iron Maidens, masses of prisoners all balled up into a single enemy, and a false, four-armed queen that’s worshiped as a goddess.
If all of that wasn’t enough to put players on edge, it actually gets worse as they progress further through the Archstone. World 3-2, Upper Latria, takes all of this imagery and twists it even further. Though the gargoyles aren’t nearly as grotesque, their towering stature and glowing eyes will still strike fear. The entire level is centered around a large tower that holds up a still beating heart of unknown origin.
When players aren’t fighting gargoyles or Black Phantom Mind Flayers, they’ll instead find themselves facing Man Centipedes, cursed abominations of melded flesh and bone. To top it all off, the whole level is riddled with pulsating tendons of flesh above a swamp of blood at the very bottom. As horrid as this description is, it does little justice to the harrowing reality that is Upper Latria. The final nail in the coffin is hammered in after players break the final chain holding up the heart, causing it to fall to the ground and spawn yet more Man Centipedes, indicating that it may not have been a heart to begin with.
There is an argument in the community about how the new and improved graphics of Demon’s Souls on PS5 actually affect the gameplay. To some, the experience is lessened, as there isn’t as much left to the imagination and therefore things aren’t quite as scary or difficult. A great example of this is the first boss of Demon’s Souls. Beating the Phalanx doesn’t require too much skill, but many consider the boss to be easier now than it was in the original thanks to the improved graphics.
In the original Demon’s Souls on PS3, the Phalanx was nothing more than a black blob of indiscernible spears and shields. It was very difficult to make out when it would throw a spear, how many Hoplites were still protecting it, and when it was safe to run in for an attack because of this. In the remake, everything is much easier to see and tell apart, taking away some of the mystery of the fight. It’s the same premise of why some horror movies don’t show the monster until the very end; the mind often imagines things much worse than any animator could create.
Though it could still be argued that this holds true for the Tower of Latria, in most cases the enhanced graphics elevate the horrible atmosphere even more. Being able to see the grisly countenance of the many faces on the Man Centipedes makes their pain and suffering feel so much more real, and the revolting cutscene that plays after the heart is dropped from the chains many times more unsettling when it can be seen in such detail. This holds true for the first area of this Archstone as well.
In the Prison of Hope, having better graphics doesn’t damage the atmosphere at all, but rather makes the whole situation feel more tangible. The prisoners locked up in cages evoke stronger emotions of sadness and fear because they seem real, and the threat of what the Mind Flayers are capable of doesn’t fade away either. Those players whose skin crawled when playing through the Tower of Latria on PS3 are in for an unpleasant surprise, as one of Demon’s Souls best designed levels delivers everything it was meant to and more.
Demon’s Souls is available now on PS5.
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