The Land of the Giants. The broken archstone. The level dug up by hackers in recent years in its very unfinished state. It's a large cold place. Nothing else in Demon's Souls is covered in snow.

The Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TMs2E6cms4&has_verified=1

edit: I am now realizing that having Bluepoint create an entire new level for someone else's game seems very unlikely. Regardless of there being a new world to explore they are one of the best Remastering studios. They did amazing things to Shadow of the Colossus for the remake. Crossing my fingers that they worked alongside Fromsoft developers to create the Land of the Giants, but I know it would be unprecedented and is pretty much not a possibility.

I agree that it seems very unlikely, might just be a nod toward the cut content for the intro cinematic is all.

On the other hand, there's at least one other clue of something "new" being added into the remaster. When it first went up, the trailer posted on YouTube by Playstation had a description that read:

From JAPAN Studio and Bluepoint Games comes a remake of the PlayStation classic, Demon's Souls. This remake invites players to experience the original brutal challenge, completely rebuilt from the ground up and masterfully enhanced with a new “Fractured Mode." In addition to beautiful shadow effects and ray tracing, players can choose between two graphics modes while playing: one focused on fidelity, and one focused on frame rate. Coming to PlayStation 5.

The new description makes no reference to different graphics modes or "Fractured Mode." Of course we don't actually know what "Fractured Mode" is, but someone in a reddit thread pointed to the unused mechanic of "True Death" as a possibility.

By the way, also found some screenshots (not from the trailer) posted over at Pushsquare.com. Also pasted below.

Regardless of what new/old things may or may not be added, it's gonna be great. Demon's Souls was the original reason that I bought a PS3. Can't wait to play such a beautiful remake.

I dont think it's too crazy for them to be adding a new area, they added some stuff to Shadow of the Colossus if i'm not mistaken. (I've only played the new version so i'm not sure what they added)

I'm glad they're shaking some things up and that the game has a framerate option (which should be an option in all modern console action games) I hope they get rid of inventory (not equip) burden and other tedious features the original game had. Maybe have it so a third of your health isnt lost in ghost form? Or do people like that?

If it sounds like i'm down on Demon's Souls i'm not, I like the game quite a bit but the (spiritual) sequels made some obvious improvements some of which wouldnt make sense (like estus flasks) but most would.

Aka, the Painted World of Ariamis in Dark Souls 1.

@boozak: I'm of two minds about possible changes/"improvements." There are definitely some things I'd liked changed, but that can be a slippery slope. People will disagree over what, if anything, should change, and you don't want to change too much of what made the game what it was.

But to think out loud a bit, because I'm excited for this and have nothing better to do:

• I agree that item burden should probably just go, as it was annoying while serving no real purpose that I could tell. Although at that point Stockpile Thomas kinda loses his raison d'etre.
• Personally, I think I'd prefer the Scraping Spear and Acid Cloud to just go away, because those were both shitty tools for griefers. But I get that that's a more controversial wish.
• I'd be for making the lizard spawns more forgiving in the style of the later games in which missing one doesn't mean it's gone forever, although it would remove a lot of the desperate urgency to kill those things.
• I wouldn't mind the weapon upgrading being simplified in some way, because you pretty much had to either look up how to make stuff or happen upon it randomly.
• I personally prefer a refilling-style estus flask to consumable health items, as it both limits your healing while doing away with the need to keep farming them, but that would be a truly massive change that I don't think I'd like, it would just change the core experience too much.
• There's a lot of equipment balancing that could be done. For instance, the Meat Cleaver and the Blueblood Sword were quite OP as far as PvE went... making it so you can't enchant either one would help. But on the other hand, I sort of liked that it wasn't all that balanced. I loved my OP Blueblood Sword.
• The world tendency thing was always kinda weird. Any system that encourages multiple intentional suicides in a row to manipulate it should probably be re-examined. But on the other hand, I don't know how you'd "fix" or improve it without just massively changing the whole experience in a way a lot of people (myself included) would object to.

@boozak: In Demon's Souls you lose health in soul form but gain a notable damage buff. That's the trade-off and I don't think taking it out would make the game better.

I don't think it's really a big deal anyway. I played most of the game in soul form, because I didn't want to deal with invaders, and it was also introduction to the series, so I was objectively not very good at it, and I still managed to beat it without significantly more trouble than any other Souls game.

Could not be more excited for this game first off. Demon's Souls is one my favorite game and by far favorite Souls game.

If From was to really work with them I would be cool with the 6th Archstone but otherwise I really hope they do not add it in. I think whats there does work well.

I also hope they do not change too much in general here. As someone who went on to dislike Souls games more and more, the worst thing would be if they brought some of that bloat with bosses and difficulty into Demon's Souls.

Absolutely DO NOT just put estus flasks in it please.

I would be down to change the weapon upgrade system somewhat (there's room for improvement no doubt). Some aspects like that can be tuned up and make the whole game shine. The build variety is not there so much. Although I do not mind the general power of magic in the game.

One thing I'm really excited for is a more developed version of the Yellow Monk boss.

Say goodbye to midi trumpets. I wonder if they'll add conveniences like shortcuts. Boletaria aside, they just didn't put many in. Valley of Defilement became a bit of a rough endeavour. We'll not get the 6th Archstone. It was cut for a reason.

@toughshed: Move both smiths to the hub and we've got a deal.

This is the only "SoulsBourne" game that I haven't played through to completion. I've wanted to play it so bad for such a long time now. This is definitely a feather is the PS5's cap from my point of view.

They added a whole new small area and a new weapon, so they definitely have a lot of talent and the skill to add in a whole new world, but it would be more than they've ever done, and a lot of people would probably disparage it for being a Bluepoint level and not a Fromsoft level, let alone a Miyazaki level. I know it's literally a 'bonus' level, but people will treat the game like a whole package and if it's bad they will think of the game as worse for it, even if it's merely additional content. People suck in that way. I'm just kinda riffing ideas here. It's fun to speculate.

The goofiness of Demon's Souls has become such an important and endearing part of the game to me. That fucking trumpet from the original opening cinematic is just *chef's kiss*. This segment here at 1:08 is both comedy gold and genuinely great.

It also looks like they've totally replaced the Fluted armor set into a generic fantasy armor. And every diehard souls fan on twitter is concerned about what they've done to Flamelurker. His goofiness was important!

Oh I got my guess for what "Fractured" mode is. I'm thinking you activate it by going to the Broken (fractured) Archstone and it's like the Company of Champions to some degree. I don't think they added the True Death permadeath mode. I'm gonna say that.

I would actually want them to change as little as possible and just re-do the graphics because I want this to be true to the original experience which stands apart from the Dark games in a variety ways. If they do want to do a complete “re-telling” or sorts where they change stuff then they should just go all the way and make it as different as possible I guess. Like personally I want grasses because I never liked the flask system but I wouldn’t be too surprised if they changed it since the Dark Souls series is the one most people associate with the Souls brand. It would be a shame if they nudged it in that direction though because Demons was always a very specific off-brand high fantasy as seen through a Japanese perspective.

Yeah, so much of Demon's Souls is tied up in its atmosphere. These new shots look too much like pulling it towards a Dark Souls aesthetic. I don't want it that way.

My arguement is that it felt needless not that it made the game harder. I actually found Demon's Souls to be easier than the other games and it was also my first. (granted I abused the hell out of consumables and magic)

My problem is more of a personal annoyance and less of a design critique. I hate debuffs and it bothers me whenever I have a meter slashed and shoved in my face. I know its dumb. I would honestly have less of a problem with it if it just didnt show how much health I would have if not for me being in 'soul form'.

(and yes Dark Souls II also drove me crazy with how it handled death and a number of other things)

I get the 'keep it as it is' crowds arguement and I dont envy Bluepoint for having to deal with souls fans. (myself included)

They'll casualise the shit out of it, like they have every Souls game past 1

I've spent years hearing people say "Remake Demons Souls!!" and now I'm ready to spend months hearing "NO NOT LIKE THAT".

@efesell: No don't you understand? When they made Dark Souls and every game after Demon's Souls they deleted Demon's Souls off of everyone's hard drives and burned all the discs!

I mean the World Tendency stuff...

@bicycleham: That’s a weird take on people wanting to see their favorite entry in the franchise get a new release especially since all the Dark Souls games have seen both remasters on consoles and PC releases.

As for folks getting up in arms about a few screen grabs counting teeth on demons and complaining - yah that’s dumb.

A few pieces of news for this:

• A few new screenshots and some not-final cover art got leaked on Amazon Australia. Nothing too exciting, honestly, but better than nothing.

• The more interesting news is that the Demon's Souls remake has been rated for release in both South Korea and Japan. Since this typically happens within three months or so of release, there's speculation that it may end up being a launch game even thought it wasn't originally announced as such. That would be a fun surprise.

Demon's Souls will forever be the game i had the most special relationship with that generation. I Imported the Korean version before the EU and US releases where out. So i got to play it when people knew nothing about it, and the wikis where practically empty outside of basic information.

This remake does seemingly nothing different from what i have already played before. But i hope the experience is close to what we got in PS3 so that hopefully people who didn't get to play can now see what it was about. Though there has been countless of other games like. What made is special can not be captured again.

@meierthered: yeah, when my sword bounced off a wall in a tight corridor and I got killed because of it, I knew I was playing a whole different kind of game. That magic can only be captured once. Still, though, there's always room for the next big creative leap. This remake seems to be anything but a creative leap, but I'm holding out hope for Elden Ring.

@development: Same, i really hope Elden Ring will set it self apart as a creative leap as you wrote. If it turns out to be just another Souls without any reinvention of any sort. I'm not sure i will be interested.

I hope the backstabs are still awesome. Best backstabs in the series.

Welp, we got a really spicy new trailer as a part of today's PS5 presentation (EDIT: weirdly the official Sony video got taken down about an hour after it was posted, not clear why, so I'm replacing it with the one on Gamespot Trailers):

Still no date. After the stories about the game already being rated, I was hoping they'd announce that it'll be a launch game. But I guess we still have to wait and see. EDIT: Oh, apparently I missed someone saying that it is indeed a launch title? Score!

It says at the end that it's "Not available on other consoles for a limited time. Also available on PC." Interesting!

A lot to digest about the gameplay, but the thing that struck me--besides how ridiculously pretty it is--is that the camera is considerably closer than in the original game. And it's clear that it's such a ground-up remake that the combat is going to feel a little different. No way to know whether I'll like it better until I get my hands on it.

I'm sure there are folks who are disappointed that it's not exactly the same game, but as someone who still has a PS3 and can go back and play the original whenever I want, I'm excited that this is a true remake, and that it's going to be a little different. I can't wait to try it for myself.

Hey guys they fixed Flamelurker a bit. 1st trailer on left. New trailer on right.

Also they didn't show the Archstone. They showed Boletaria's, Stonefang Tunnel's, Tower of Latria's in the first shot. In the 2nd Nexus shot they showed the foot of Shrine of Storms and Valley of Defilement. This is def on purpose. They know fans are looking for it.

Okay, close this thread.

My remaining concern is the music. It was sweeping and big in the trailer but hopefully its as dingy, discordant, and ugly as the original.

This coming to PC saved me about $400 so that's nice lol.

Apparently Sony are saying the "Also available on PC" text was an error or something. Same with FF16.

Though some are already speculating that since Sony took down the trailer on their official channel, that maybe it means it actually isn't coming to other consoles and/or PC, or they didn't want to announce that stuff yet. But the reason could also be as innocuous as them wanting to add a bit at the end about it being a launch game, which for some reason was announced on the blog but not in the video. No clarification from Sony yet that I've seen.

EDIT:

D'oh, you ninja'd me. But again, interesting! Now we have to wonder whether a PC/other console release is happening at all, or whether they just didn't want to announce it right now.

FWIW, PC Gamer has an interesting few paragraphs about the exclusivity issue:

After publishing a trailer for Demon's Souls today that included the disclaimer "Also available on PC," Sony has set that trailer to private and stated that the end slated, pictured above, was an error. "The incorrect text was a result of human error," a Sony representative told PC Gamer. The representative stated that Demon's Souls is "exclusive to PlayStation 5."

When pressed on whether Demon's Souls is actually a lifetime exclusive to the console or a timed exclusive like Death Stranding, Sony declined to elaborate further, reiterating "Demon’s Souls is exclusive to PlayStation 5."

In August, shortly after porting Horizon Zero Dawn to PC, a Sony corporate report stated that the company "will explore expanding [its] 1st party titles to the PC platform." Demon's Souls seems like an ideal place to start.

The second "when pressed" paragraph is the kind of thing I was hoping for and hadn't seen on other sites. The evasiveness of the answer suggests that exclusivity may indeed be timed and the "human error" was in revealing it too soon.

I don't really care myself, since I'm planning to buy a PS5 and this game at launch anyway, but man, it would be kind of wild to see it on PC and/or other consoles.

While I'm very excited about the game, when I watched it, I thought 'hmm, fans are going to tear this apart'. First off, I don't remember if enemies in the original died in one to two hits as they did in the gameplay trailer here, but it looked easy, like a fast-paced actioner (although the frame rate probably helped). The animations also looked a bit stiff, or slippery. I'm not sure the correct word for it, but it looked a little off. I'm conflicted about the choice to turn off the HUD in the trailer. Not an issue at all, but I don't remember the protagonist being as audible with grunts when attacking. Anyways, I'm excited but I was expecting people to pick it apart and I'm not seeing it. The detail is spectacular and I'm very interested to jump in that world again.

Much like turning the UI elements off for the sake of a better-looking trailer, I feel fairly certain that enemy health was turned down for the sake of going through the area quickly, or they were using a max upgraded weapon or something. It seems vanishingly unlikely that blue-eyed knights will die in one hit in the actual release. Everyone knows how closely difficulty is tied up with the Souls experience, and they're not dumb enough to make it this much easier, even in the tutorial.

There was something about the audio that put me off the demo they showed in the stream. After doing some comparisons it seems like the remaster has severely toned down all striking sounds. Even the backstab felt much less impactful. There was also a shield block "plonk" sound in there that sounded way off.

@atheistpreacher: Maybe, but I think they'd know that people always want to see the correct representation of the game so it doesn't sow any doubt, and it shows us what we'll actually get when we play it. It probably was a 'let's quickly get through the entire first area where everyone can see the new detail in these environments, and show off the boss where you're intended to die'. I just feel like we should have seen the game a little closer to what it's going to be like. Again though, whatever the case may be, I'm excited.

This has the look of a Dark Souls 3 mod. The first blue eyed knight is supposed to stay behind his shield. He's the break guard tutorial guy. It looks great but it won't be the Demon's Souls any of us remember.

Graphically it looks fantastic - way more work put into it than I first anticipated. I agree that a lot of the mood and lighting feels very different but it has been long enough where I don't mind. I'm sure a lot of those areas look a lot better in my memories than they actually are if I were to boot the game up today.

The one thing that is I hope a stylistic choice for the trailer is that the camera seemed incredibly close for a Souls game. I'm hoping this was done to show off textures better and whatnot because you sort of need that 360 situational awareness in these games.

That said yah, I was a lot more excited when they said it's launching on PC at the same time. Whether Sony continues to keep it locked away in their exclusivity vault remains to be seen. I mean if Sony wants to make their own PC storefront where they will sell exclusive PC ports and they get 100% of the profits then please, by all means go for it, cause there are so many Playstation exclusives that would benefit from a PC port.

@shindig: his AI is exactly like that in the original. I played through the whole thing a month ago. For everyone else, yes DeS had weird animations. Yes, DeS had weird sound design. This was the tutorial area. That knight takes 1-2 hits with a knight starting character; it’s very weak because it’s the tutorial.

In debug mode in Demon’s Souls, it gives you a Knight class by default at level 100 with this gear. This would explain why the player had seemingly endless stamina and health, and increased damage. By all indications this was being played with the debug default character with the UI turned off.

Jesus. I don’t even like the art style but I’m not gonna let people just talk out their ass about a game they only have a vague recollection of.

I think this is probably true but with a large chunk of remembering a game being better than it was.

thinking all that got there by the developers by error is wild.

I'm a person who has Demon's Souls as their favorite Souls game and among my favorite games. That's most based on its strength in story, atmosphere, structure, balance with elements such as how many bosses there are in the game, the music, unconventional and surprising/risky elements (two very weird bosses in the game for example).

So a lot does ride on all those elements and hoping they can both translate them and refresh them a bit for the remake. Meanwhile they can update the gameplay and boost that part of the game up.

I expect it to look different. The old game was muddy and undetailed, its an old game. That dingy and muddy quality adds to the overall effect of the game's ugly factor in some cool ways actually but I really don't think that was intentional at all. So the look parts really haven't concerned me at all yet and I think it's looked pretty nice art wise, as again a superfan of Demon's Souls. And technically it looked pretty great to me, if like a very controlled demo.

We will have to see if they mess with too many other elements and get why Demon's Souls is so special to some of us. At the same time I would love a bit of suprise and refinement. The gold standard for me for remakes are the RE 1 and RE 2 remakes for knowing how to ride that fine line.

You should play Demon's Souls and run through the first area when you get to the end game because it will look exactly like that gameplay wise. Any Souls fan has had that experience.

I’m sure it’ll come to pc...in a year

more than fine with me. who care it saved me 400.

Was way worth it for Death Stranding. Ran great for me.

@toughshed: yup, those who can wait should wait. Never hurts to wait.

@toughshed said:

But not entirely for Horizon Zero Dawn, so I remain skeptical.

@efesell: I can also see how it's a whole different experience to buy this strange RPG in 2009 and it being a breath of fresh air vs playing the demons souls content after 11 years of souls games carving their place in the market.

I just watched 3 separate playthroughs of that part to be sure. The second knight turtles up by default, waiting for you to make the move. In the remake footage, he's more aggressive, although seems to hold his shield whilst attacking his with other hand. Although the player's got his shield up so maybe that's why he's going for it.

Maybe I've just never approached him with my shield up.

@shindig: Keeping in mind, once again, this is a scripted ass demo:

I want to say all souls enemies get more aggressive if you have your shield up. Unless you remember how to kick or like to parry baiting out a thrust from spear guys is basically the only way to kill them. So could see it representing "getting lucky" and having bluey go straight into an attack.