WIRED: The New Demon's Souls Remake Tries Too Hard to Be Realistic

[SirDante]

I think Demon's Souls is the perfect re-imagining of the classic. We all saw the game in 2009 and somehow.. Bluepoint has brought our memories, our rose tinted memories into fruition here. This game looks the way I felt it looked in 2009, except, it's how I remember it, but with modern advancements that make it how I envisioned it back in my mimd back then. (if any of this even makes sense lol) In a nutshell, I disagree with Wired and BP did a stellar job. Their magicians!

 

[Awadlx]

Haha. This is the kind of criticism that's intended for audiences like r/games.

 

[jett]

the overdone bloom?

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They got rid of it, and rightfully so, because overbloom and piss filters from that era is the worst thing to ever happen to 3D games visually.

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Too bad no one told Ueda and his team when they made their next game.

The overbearing bloom is literally part of the visual connective tissue that unites all three of Ueda's games. And BP just got rid of it without much major thought.

 

[Fat4all]

the thing about Demon's Souls is it almost looks too good

 

[delete]

The only re-design I'm not happy with so far is Maneater. It just looks kinda goofy and not intimidating at all. Everything else has been excellent. I haven't been to the valley yet, though

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Animations are frequently broken on maneater, a lot of the time when he is flying he has the walking animation. Sometimes when one of them take off it looks like they are walking up some invisible stairs.

 

[Deleted member 27647]

It's cause the original design was racist as fuck, literally just a fat zwarte piet

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I don't think Bluepoint really ended up taking the high ground when it comes to racial portrayals considering what they did with Satsuki.

 

[Kalentan]

Animations are frequently broken on maneater, a lot of the time when he is flying he has the walking animation. Sometimes when one of the take off it looks like they are walking up some invisible stairs.

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That's honestly due to Bluepoint sticking too close to the original AI for Maneater. I feel like no one would have complained if they had tightened up their AI.

 

[aevanhoe]

The game looks stunning. Some design choices are literally art. I think it's one of the prettier games I've played, and it has a strong direction. Honestly, as realistic as it is, it sometimes looks like a painting. It's beautiful, immersive and incredibly tasteful. A lot of people find good taste boring - so this is how I understood the article.

 

[exodus]

It's cause the original design was racist as fuck, literally just a fat zwarte piet

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That was my first impression as well after googling the original, since I couldn't even remember him. Yeah, just looks like blackface.

 

[ghibli99]

I disagree more than I agree, but the clarity/cleanness of the image and damn-near flawless framerate does take away from the "feel" a bit, as utterly bizarre as that is to type. LOL Had we not had the originals, we wouldn't be having this conversation though, but I know that's an unrealistic angle to approach this from.

 

[DoubleTake]

Too bad no one told Ueda and his team when they made their next game.

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THIS. THIS SO MUCH. The same people who would never knock TLG will turn around and say absolutely NOTHING was lost with the art changes in DeS and SOTC Remakes.

 

[JigglesBunny]

Missing the piss filter and excessive bloom? We've come full circle.

 

[Polioliolio]

Hm. See that's weird, because I read the art style as more cartoon like.

 

[Couscous]

It's cause the original design was racist as fuck, literally just a fat zwarte piet

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That's immediately what I thought of as a Dutch person when I saw the original Fat Official.

 

[bbg_g]

I can't believe now people are defending 2008 era bloom.

Literally the meme of that whole generation.

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Look at how far we've come.

 

[Niklel]

Tbh Bluepoint are paid to make games look visually advanced, which usually means realistic and with tons of extra details.
From trailers Demon's Souls look very-very good on technical level, but not super interesting or moody. But I haven't played the game myself yet (maybe this weekend).

 

[Bigmac]

I do agree some characters like the Fat Official or Satsuki were changed more than they needed to. I don't see why they were changed because they aged well enough compared to everything else.

With that said, the original game as it came out was probably not intended to be the way it looked at the end. If we are to take something from Miyazaki's interviews, the game was changed from King's Field into DS without using more budget than necessary. Things like the moonlight sword and a lot of the iconic stuff in DS were basically left overs from KF and other From games.

This is me talking without proof but I doubt Bluepoint didn't talk with From for their input when making the game. From probably told them about each enemy and Bluepoint took that input from them and redesigned some of the characters that were basically left overs into something more unique. That doesn't explain the jesters however.

Who knows what happened but I doubt they changed stuff for the sake of changing.

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With the OG Demons Souls, I would argue that even if it was a frankensteined mess of designs from different games, it all came together as a cohesive whole with good art direction.

Maybe you're right and they did consult with FROM. In interviews they say FROM "gave them their blessing", but there is a chance they still consulted throughout the process. Maybe we don't have the full picture and there was a legitimately good reason for redesigning guys like the jesters or Satsuki.

Either way, I think the remake looks fantastic outside of a couple designs and looks way better than the original, Bluepoint did an amazing job.

 

[dynamitejim]

Here's a video:

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It's like looking at Previs vs. Final CG Render. I swear the OG must've be originally slated as a PS2 game with those textures. Even Dark Souls was a huge leap in terms of texture and geometric detail.

 

[NotLiquid]

I will say this: the mockery around piss filters and bloom feels misplaced. It was an overdone trend, but that doesn't mean that literally every application of it was bad by default. Every single generation of games had overdone trends that crept into the absurd (parallax scrolling, mode 7/scaling/rotation, colored lighting, bloom, etc. Just look at how many early PS4/XBO games relied on wet pavement and showers of particles!) but those still form part of those games' visual identities. There were games like Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Resident Evil 5 that were clearly made with overly warm color grading ("piss filters") in mind and look haphazard with it removed.


(Also: mark my words that in 10 years there will absolutely be "retro" games with overdone bloom, aggressive color grading and faux-camera filters, and Plasticine character models. People will love it. You're going to read this and say, "no way, that visual style has aged so badly!", but that's 100% what people said in the mid-2000s about the possibility of retro nostalgia games that emulated early 3D.)

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I don't think the possibility of me holding any semblance of appreciation toward the seventh gen's oft-meme'd gritty visual presentation and bloom-yellow filters truly became apparent to me until I saw a retrospective video of Killzone and realized how Shadow Fall's very sanitized sci-fi presentation somehow feels more visually boring in the current year compared to the old games. Even as someone who's a bigger fan of design-work that leans toward sleek and stylish, I'm pretty much over some of the more common aesthetical trends of this generation.

 

[exodus]

It's like looking at Previs vs. Final CG Render. I swear the OG must've be originally slated as a PS2 game with those textures. Even Dark Souls was a huge leap in terms of texture and geometric detail.

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Not only detail but Dark Souls and Bloodborne are really when From solidified their art direction. Demon's Souls just felt like a hodgepodge of assets thrown in with little thought. Their later games are far more cohesive.

 

[jett]

It's like looking at Previs vs. Final CG Render. I swear the OG must've be originally slated as a PS2 game with those textures. Even Dark Souls was a huge leap in terms of texture and geometric detail.

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It was a low budget game from a niche Japanese developer with limited resources. As far as I understand it reuses assets and technology from other games. It wasn't something intended to become a phenomenon that would change the landscape of action adventure RPGs. Regarding Dark Souls, that game runs at a sub-HD resolution and with a lower framerate than Demon's Souls, so it's not like the better graphics come without sacrifice either.

From Software has made massive strides since then.

 

[Skittles]

I don't think Bluepoint really ended up taking the high ground when it comes to racial portrayals considering what they did with Satsuki.

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I for one am shocked that a largely white team nails it on one point and falters in another with regards to racism

 

[exodus]

I don't think the possibility of me holding any semblance of appreciation toward the seventh gen's oft-meme'd gritty visual presentation and bloom-yellow filters truly became apparent to me until I saw a retrospective video of Killzone and realized how Shadow Fall's very sanitized sci-fi presentation somehow feels more visually boring in the current year compared to the old games. Even as someone who's a bigger fan of design-work that leans toward sleek and stylish, I'm pretty much over some of the more common aesthetical trends of this generation.

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Shadow Fall is a great example of swinging too hard in the other direction. Early PS4/X1 games went a bit too hard in on colorful aesthetics and avoided color grading at all costs.

Demon's Souls uses color grading very tastefully and to great effect.

 

[Thagirion]

The realism is just life giving you ptsd and trying to kill you while demons is all around you, besides that is a no

 

[MasteroFlich]

I disagree!

never seen a real dragon.

 

[DoubleTake]

Holy shit...I hadnt reached Satsuki yet but...wtf are they doing?

 

[Respawn]

No no no wired

 

[Zemst]

Also while everyone is discussing fat official, overlooking the sexed up Mephistopheles just didn't sit right with me at all.

 

[MorshuTheTrader]

I agree to an extent. There was a dream-like, surreal quality to the original that really added to the overall atmosphere that's lost in the remake. Not that the remake looks bad, but there are aspects I still prefer in the original.

Also people hated the PS360 era bloom, but I prefer it to the neon puke a lot of games went for in the PS4/XO gen lol

 

[Vimes]

The majority of replies in this thread are indistiguishable from gamergate dogwhistling.

 

[Hey Please]

Well good news- The OG title is still available to be played on PS3 and/or emulated on PC.

I guess their WIREs are going get so crossed when Miyazaki's next mushtapiece, Elden Ring comes out and looks to be visually an evolution of the tech used in Sekiro, which in and of itself looked much more realistic than Dank Souls I.

Integration of stuff like PBR and HDR (you know how the bloom was bloom because it was meant to simulate the bright sky against the immediate surrounding without turning down to exposure levels for mid-tones and shadows to unplayable degree on SDR displays) is inevitable going forward for titles aiming for a reasonable measure of realistic aesthetic.

 

[exodus]

Also while everyone is discussing fat official, overlooking the sexed up Mephistopheles just didn't sit right with me at all.

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Huh?

 

[Tagyhag]

They didn't take it away it still runs on Havok. Think they just toned it down some..

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It's there but it's extremely toned down.

 

[Musubi]

Most of the takes about the new Demon's Souls are just so idiotic.

 

[Speevy]

I don't know how I feel about this.

I think that the strong "otherworldly" feel is what contributes to the strong atmosphere in Demon's Souls/Shadow of the Colossus. This is caused in part by the suggestion of parts of the world that you don't see, the use of certain colors, and overcoming the limitations of hardware through smart level design.

I haven't heard these games called anything less than unqualified triumphs in Blue Point's hands, so whether they "missed the point" in certain respects, neither is running at 20 FPS anymore, is it

 

[delete]

I really don't think Bluepoint prioritised realism over atmosphere, the most atmospheric levels were always worlds 3, 4 and 5 from the original and bluepoint have nailed the atmosphere in those levels, especially with the sound design.

Are certain areas less atmospheric then the orginal? Sure I can see the merit in that argument, but I wouldn't consider it to be an overall failure, as it fails to mention what they have added to the world.

Like the vanguard demon in the tutorial area. First of all the boss arena is much more visually appealing with the lighting setup. Second the added details to the vanguard there gives context about why it is there, the chains and binds it's wearing indicate that it was imprisoned there and escaped somehow and found an axe.

 

[Freezasaurus]

OG Demon's Souls looked like poop. I don't know how there could be any other take.

 

[Khasim]

While I can get behind on some of the criticisms regarding the design of some enemies that people have (like the fat dudes, completely different vibe) the world just looks a million times better than the original to the point where I'm honestly amazed at what Bluepoint achieved with this game. I don't even mind the shitty outdated design elements, like item capacity, world tendency literally requiring a guide to understand, not being able to know which weapons can turn into boss weapons until you upgrade specific items enough (while you can see and buy boss spells immediately), the world is so magically beautiful I can't stop myself from playing, and I dropped the original like 3 bosses in because of how ugly and unimaginative it looked most of the time.

 

[Instro]

I haven't played the game, but there seems to be a fair amount lost in translation, even if the overall visuals of the game have been improved tremendously. Admittedly I haven't played Demons Souls in like 15 years, so I'm curious as to how the experience feels without much of a frame of reference back to the original.

 

[Nightwing123]

I'm sorry but I greatly prefer the Remakes look over the original and the remake is more stylized than ultra-realistic.

 

[Pheonix]

No. Just no.

 

[-Pyromaniac-]

Only valid arguments I've heard against the game is some of the bizarre art changes but that's few and far between whereas the rest of the remake seems like a triumph from what I've seen.

SOTC remake was bordering on perfect in all ways.

 

[Fachasaurus]

And Wired tries too hard to have article even when they have nothing interesting to say.

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Bingo.

 

[Koklusz]

the thing about Demon's Souls is it almost looks too good

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I know this is a joke, but it's also kinda true. The game looks gorgeous and polished and everything looks brand new even if it's a pile of rubble, but the original atmosphere of the fantasy apocalypse seems to be gone.

 

[Morrigan]

This article has so much wrong with it I don't even know where to begin (the Vanguard stuff is especially funny considering the original was a re-used asset), but I do love how someone can apparently think a game can look both "too realistic" and also "too Diablo-like" at the same time. Bluepoints are truly wizards!

It takes a somewhat tonally different approach in its use of colours, proportions, and design that gives it an overall shifted visual identity towards something more closely resembling dark fantasy over the original's hazy, dreamy mood and aesthetic

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???

Demon's Souls was 100% dark fantasy. Always has been.

Also while everyone is discussing fat official, overlooking the sexed up Mephistopheles just didn't sit right with me at all.

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....Huh?

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What in Boletaria are you talking about....

 

[Rurunaki]

I agree. My dragon won't stop scratching the screen thinking it was the neighbor's dragon when Inwas playing Boletaria area.

 

[LookAtMeGo]

What a dumb thing to say

 

[Plax]

The game looks much, much better than the original without sacrificing any of atmosphere. Not sure I see the authors point.

 

[jett]

This article has so much wrong with it I don't even know where to begin (the Vanguard stuff is especially funny considering the original was a re-used asset), but I do love how someone can apparently think a game can look both "too realistic" and also "too Diablo-like" at the same time. Bluepoints are truly wizards!

???

Demon's Souls was 100% dark fantasy. Always has been.


....Huh?

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What in Boletaria are you talking about....

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What a bizarre redesign.

 

[Necron]

There are some weird re-design decisions (i.e. fat official being the most egregious) but overall there's more good than bad in the new Demon's Souls.