PS5's Demon's Souls PS5 - What We Know So Far

The PlayStation 5 announcement stream featured tons of blockbuster titles audiences can't wait to play. Some of the biggest reveals included Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Horizon: Forbidden West, but one of the most exciting bits of news was the unveiling of the Demon's Souls remake.

FromSoftware took a huge risk with the Soulsborne genre. It could have easily tripped at the starting line and never taken off. But, the company released Demon's Souls for the PlayStation 3, and now the game is coming back to roost in the PlayStation 5.

If this is your first encounter with Demon's Souls or even the Soulsborne genre, you might wonder what the big deal is. Moreover, you probably want to know as much as you can about the game before you consider purchasing it. Here are the details established so far about the Demon's Souls remake for the PlayStation 5.

The original Demon's Souls was announced in 2008 and released in 2009, several years after the launch of the PlayStation 3. Unfortunately, this knowledge does not help determine when Demon's Souls will launch on the PlayStation 5.

Even though the Demon's Souls remake was announced during the PlayStation 5 reveal announcement, the stream didn't provide any information regarding a tentative release date. The remake could be a launch title for the upcoming console, or the game might not be ready until 2021. Since the Demon's Souls remake is being developed by Bluepoint Games — the same studio responsible for the Shadow of the Colossus and Gravity Rush remasters — it's unclear how long the game has been in the works.

Sony or Bluepoint might reveal more about the Demon's Souls' release date closer to the PS5 launch. Until then, you'll have to content yourself with the fact that it will be ready when it's ready.

Sony was kind enough to include the first look at Demon's Souls during the PS5 reveal event. The remake's trailer demonstrates how the PS5 version will offer graphical improvements over the original PS3 rendition. Fans also got their first glimpse at how classic Demon's Souls enemies and environments will look on the next-gen console.

The trailer shows off some of the artistic liberties Bluepoint has taken to update Demon's Souls for fresh eyes. For example, the trailers for both versions of the game include robed figures walking by a misty lake. While the original lake features a combination of natural rock formations and ruins, the remake only includes ruins in the lake. Moreover, the infamous Dragon God has been hit with the redesign stick.

While the Demon's Souls remake trailer demonstrates that games on the PS5 will look better than those on the PS3, it also drives home that the game won't be a frame-by-frame recreation.

Normally, asking someone to summarize the plot of a FromSoftware Soulsborne game would invite a mixture of exasperation and sympathy since those titles are infamous for their unclear narratives. However, Demon's Souls benefits from fans examining every pixel in the game for over a decade. Since the PS5 version of Demon's Souls will be a remake, many expect its narrative to be identical to the original.

The original Demon's Souls takes place in the kingdom of Boletaria. The land has been consumed by the Deep Fog thanks to a pact between King Allant and a creature known as the Old One, and now soul-eating demons roam the land. Players take the role of a custom protagonist who intended to venture through Boletaria and stop Allant and the Old One — at least that was the plan until the protagonist died five minutes into their adventure

In a twist that helps explain the title, death fails to stop the main character. They are resurrected as a spirit and start collecting demon souls to regain their body and become strong enough to save Boletaria.

Demon's Souls is the prototypical Soulsborne game and introduced many of the mechanics that subsequent FromSoftware games improved upon. The title plays like a slow, methodical action RPG, and players need to kill enemies for souls, which they use to upgrade skills and buy items. 

If the player dies, they are sent to the beginning of a level and have to fight their way back to regain all their unused souls. This isn't easy since players respawn with half health, and all non-boss enemies return. Plus, Demon's Souls doesn't feature any checkpoints. While the dropped souls are lost forever if the player dies again, at least Demon's Souls doesn't put a cap on healing items.

While Demon's Souls' gameplay loop is almost identical to other FromSoftware Soulsborne games, it features a unique World Tendency mechanic that adds new items, areas, and enemies. Moreover, World Tendency comes in two flavors: white and black. When worlds are white, enemies are weaker and drop fewer souls, but they are more likely to also drop items. Meanwhile, Black worlds like to kick you when you're down by spawning stronger enemies, but they drop more souls and rarer loot.

As the Demon's Souls coming to the PS5 will be a remake, you can safely expect similar mechanics to those seen in the original PS3 release.