Bluepoint are traitors to the art form. What they did to the atmosphere of Shadow of the Colossus is unconscionable and a similar level of wilful artistic misinterpretation is present here. But maybe there's value in that. Am I not always decrying brain-dead remakes trying for nothing but a recreation of an already existing game? Sure Demon's Souls is locked to a dead console and a proper port would have been greatly appreciated. The remake does look like some Marvel's Spiderman shit. But on paper, I'd like more remakes aiming to defile their predecessor. I don't give a shit about 2009's Demon Souls (as you'll soon see) and respect and reverence aren't words I associate with interesting works of reinterpretation. Maybe a willingness to completely throw out large parts of the original is what you need to remake something so distinct and singular. Maybe I'm such an accomplished contrarian I can find some way to vouch for this game!
Would that it were so simple.
The problem with this and the SOTC remake is not that they supplant the original visions for the games. These are games made for three bucks with a box of matchsticks. For all you know, Miyazaki wanted the game to look like this, and the phantasmagorical appeal was entirely an artefact of its production constraints. A scary thought! No, the problem is they are unwilling to find a new vision to supplant them with. These are dusty, crunchy, low-budget pieces of auteur work rejigged into multimillion-dollar AAA Sony games. The expensive-looking lighting and character models eviscerate any sense of self. Yet they keep the era-specific jank of the core gameplay? This is not a cake you can have and eat. If you must modernise these games (and on an art-for-its-own-sake level, sure) then go all the way. Make some sickly smooth soulslike that bears no resemblance to the original. Make a 500-billion-dollar lighting engine simulator with the basic story and structure of a FromSoft game. It need not actually be one, especially one so recklessly infantile. If you must deface this work, do it properly. I'd probably still hate it, but at least I'd hate it for what it is. This halfway approach is embarrassing and shows the original sin of Bluepoint's remake philosophy. They aren't terrorists or mercenaries or anything so exciting. They're cowards, unable to stand up to the unstoppable force of FromSoft's relentless idiosyncrasies or the immovable object of Sony's desire for a spit-shined AAA Souls exclusive to sell their console. Calling it a remake (I understand it literally is one) is overselling how much artistic contribution Bluepoint brings. They have no understanding or interest in what makes DeS tick. Then, they retain major elements in an attempt to show 'respect' to the original (read the 'Special Thanks' in the credits if you want a laugh). Why? You don't care about that game and wish you were making a different one. So make your own game! I'm begging you! They cannot once make a decision distinct to themselves. It's, for my money, the most spineless piece of art I've seen this decade.
That said, I doubt my ranking of the original Demon's Souls would be meaningfully higher. In a way, I'm glad I played this version so Bluepoint can take the fall. Now I don't need to include as many hand-wavy lines about how "impressive but ultimately unsatisfying" I found it. "It's astounding how much they get right on the first try, and how strongly Demon's Souls ideas reverberate through the next 15 years of FromSoftware games, even if it doesn't cohere in and of itself." We're busy people, we can spare the pleasantries for the version of the game deserving of them. I've heard this is a nearly 1-to-1 remake regarding gameplay, which I've always taken as true. But I find it hard to believe. Did FromSoft really go from this to Dark Souls in 2 years? The gamefeel here is abhorrent, I'm wading through slime with a toothpick whenever I swing a weapon. I-frames are fucked beyond belief, rolling has never felt worse. I 'appreciate' (a cold, cruel word) the approach to level design and boss fights, but I rarely enjoy it. Runbacks are an interesting skill to intermittently test but the constant retreading gets old ludicrously fast. Every bad joke anyone has ever made about poison swamps comes true in World 5. Farmable healing items eliminate the challenge of most bosses and introduce the possibility of grinding, a successful double-fanged approach to ruining the game flow. Flamelurker can suck my balls. I just don't think the game is all that fun.
I had no intention of ever playing this (If I'd written this review speculatively it would look eerily similar) but I needed a 2nd cheap PS5 game to trade in to get Dragon's Dogma 2 at a large discount, and this was mislabelled at a very low price at a local store. Under these circumstances, I recommend it.
Played concurrently with Peggle 2, which it is spiritually indistinguishable from.
Would that it were so simple.
The problem with this and the SOTC remake is not that they supplant the original visions for the games. These are games made for three bucks with a box of matchsticks. For all you know, Miyazaki wanted the game to look like this, and the phantasmagorical appeal was entirely an artefact of its production constraints. A scary thought! No, the problem is they are unwilling to find a new vision to supplant them with. These are dusty, crunchy, low-budget pieces of auteur work rejigged into multimillion-dollar AAA Sony games. The expensive-looking lighting and character models eviscerate any sense of self. Yet they keep the era-specific jank of the core gameplay? This is not a cake you can have and eat. If you must modernise these games (and on an art-for-its-own-sake level, sure) then go all the way. Make some sickly smooth soulslike that bears no resemblance to the original. Make a 500-billion-dollar lighting engine simulator with the basic story and structure of a FromSoft game. It need not actually be one, especially one so recklessly infantile. If you must deface this work, do it properly. I'd probably still hate it, but at least I'd hate it for what it is. This halfway approach is embarrassing and shows the original sin of Bluepoint's remake philosophy. They aren't terrorists or mercenaries or anything so exciting. They're cowards, unable to stand up to the unstoppable force of FromSoft's relentless idiosyncrasies or the immovable object of Sony's desire for a spit-shined AAA Souls exclusive to sell their console. Calling it a remake (I understand it literally is one) is overselling how much artistic contribution Bluepoint brings. They have no understanding or interest in what makes DeS tick. Then, they retain major elements in an attempt to show 'respect' to the original (read the 'Special Thanks' in the credits if you want a laugh). Why? You don't care about that game and wish you were making a different one. So make your own game! I'm begging you! They cannot once make a decision distinct to themselves. It's, for my money, the most spineless piece of art I've seen this decade.
That said, I doubt my ranking of the original Demon's Souls would be meaningfully higher. In a way, I'm glad I played this version so Bluepoint can take the fall. Now I don't need to include as many hand-wavy lines about how "impressive but ultimately unsatisfying" I found it. "It's astounding how much they get right on the first try, and how strongly Demon's Souls ideas reverberate through the next 15 years of FromSoftware games, even if it doesn't cohere in and of itself." We're busy people, we can spare the pleasantries for the version of the game deserving of them. I've heard this is a nearly 1-to-1 remake regarding gameplay, which I've always taken as true. But I find it hard to believe. Did FromSoft really go from this to Dark Souls in 2 years? The gamefeel here is abhorrent, I'm wading through slime with a toothpick whenever I swing a weapon. I-frames are fucked beyond belief, rolling has never felt worse. I 'appreciate' (a cold, cruel word) the approach to level design and boss fights, but I rarely enjoy it. Runbacks are an interesting skill to intermittently test but the constant retreading gets old ludicrously fast. Every bad joke anyone has ever made about poison swamps comes true in World 5. Farmable healing items eliminate the challenge of most bosses and introduce the possibility of grinding, a successful double-fanged approach to ruining the game flow. Flamelurker can suck my balls. I just don't think the game is all that fun.
I had no intention of ever playing this (If I'd written this review speculatively it would look eerily similar) but I needed a 2nd cheap PS5 game to trade in to get Dragon's Dogma 2 at a large discount, and this was mislabelled at a very low price at a local store. Under these circumstances, I recommend it.
Played concurrently with Peggle 2, which it is spiritually indistinguishable from.
4 Comments
@HazeRedux Thank you for the kind words!
Yeah I agree, I only like this slightly less than the original cuz I'm not a big fan of it in general but its definitely not a good remake
Always nice to see others understand remakes like this ARE capable of losing something from the original graphical style. The kind of person who just thinks higher polygon count and modern unity effects inherently means better graphics needs months of deprogramming. What's really tragic is the remakes effectively replace the originals as far as what's going to be put in the digital shops ten years from now. But trying to convince the average Joe that it's possible some things looked and animated better in the ps1 version of Crash Bandicoot is an uphill battle.
HazeRedux
2 months ago