Demon’s Souls remake proves FromSoft only makes one game and PS5 has no exclusives. BUT this is one hell of a not-so-exclusive exclusive! The rumors of its difficulty have been greatly exaggerated, not because I got gud but because Royal class + Firestorm. Free MP regen, wow! Throwing blue lasers and fireballs kept me afloat through pretty much the entire game without exception. Ranged sniping can beat any imp with a giant sword!
The first Soulslike is as gray and bleak as you’d guess, reportedly missing the tone of the old OG in its large, expansive, but compartmentalized worlds. Still, there’s a remarkable theory of beauty in its grotesquerie. Visually, it’s arresting and revolting, and that’s deliberate.
A few crusty mechanics and inconveniences remind us that this is essentially still a PS3 game. World tendency, puzzle encounters, soul form, and the dedication to explain almost none of those things in-game vexed me to no end, particularly with how little is often explained in-game, but no final boss? Really? Maybe it was in the unfinished 6th archstone…
As with Demon’s Souls itself, this review will probably piss people off.
Red formerly ran The Well-Red Mage and now serves The Pixels as founder, writer, editor, and podcaster. He has undertaken a seemingly endless crusade to talk about the games themselves in the midst of a culture obsessed with the latest controversy, scandal, and news cycle about harassment, toxicity, and negativity. Pick out his feathered cap on Twitter @thewellredmage or Mage Cast.
