Man this game is good. It was a masterpiece before, now it's a far more convenient to play masterpiece.

Playing DeS last after the others, and now coming back to it again with this remaster, it's striking how much FROM got right on their first real go. The level design is taut, the action is satisfying, but there are enough weird mechanics to confound and add to the reputation these games have earned over the years. If anything, the next two games feel like the overambitious first attempts.

Extra things I liked:

I can finally make a purdy character. Goes along with how gorgeous the rest of the game looks. For every aesthetic choice Bluepoint made that I couldn't jive with, there was another three that I thought were very well done. I don't feel like the atmosphere takes a hit either, which I was slightly concerned about from pre-release footage.

Photo mode is fun as hell and functions as a crude pause button too.

I swinga da big sword, I make-a the enemies fly. And when I hit a rock snake the controller does a haptic thing to make it feel like rocks are crumbling in my hand.

Things I liked less:

The OST overall is too...orchestral. Too bombastic and not eerie. It loses some of its identity.

Weapon upgrading is more convoluted and farming the resources to fully upgrade a weapon can go from a reasonable timesink to [insert legends of the hidden temple meme]. Fuck greystone farming.

I 100% understand why Bluepoint was gunshy about making too many changes. But I wish they had either overhauled world tendency or made it more legible. In addition, if this game had another 20 weapons that would also be cool.

Facial animations are not good enough to justify the move away from the FROM-style static faces.