Demon’s Souls Review: Even Dying Is Frustratingly Beautiful

Title: Demon’s Souls

Developer: Blue Point Games

Publisher: Sony

Genre: Action role-playing

Available On: PlayStation 5

Release Date: November 12, 2020

The first thing to know about this Demon’s Souls review is that “frustrating” might not cover the emotions this game elicits. Beautiful probably doesn’t do the launch PS5 title justice either.

It’s both of those things. But that doesn’t really sum up the remake of the popular and incredibly hard original created by From Software. Bluepoint Games worked on the Playstation 5 remake and did a heck of a job. Still, there are some things that hold the game back from being perfect. That’s not a slam on the game. Near-perfect is something more games should strive for. This hits that mark.

Death is Expected in Demon’s Souls

When I first sat down to write this Demon’s Souls review, my first thought was, was I good enough to talk about the game? Then I remembered a very simple truth. Death is expected. At the beginning, it’s the point.

Bluepoint Games did a phenomenal job in making sure that this game is difficult. When you move from one dungeon or parapet to the next, it’s a real sense of accomplishment. The game elicits stress. It also elicits fist-pumping when the boss monsters throughout the story are defeated.

Like the game it’s based on, Demon’s Souls is all about killing you. The series that was born from the first From Software title, Dark Souls, is actually a bit easier by comparison. When you win those battles, you feel a real sense of accomplishment.

When you upgrade your warrior and know that you’re now a bit of a juggernaut, there’s a real sense of fun, running into the fray.

Death is Also Incredibly Frustrating

Because Demon’s Souls makes no bones about how hard it is, death is expected. That’s doesn’t mean it’s not incredibly frustrating. One of the ways Demon’s Souls ratchets up the degree of difficulty is by giving you very few, if any, save points. You need to finish a “run” before you’re going to start off in a new place.

There’s that sense of accomplishment again! That also breeds a sense of deep frustration after a while. the point of this title is to be hard. But at some point, Demon’s Souls feels a bit too hard.

A stamina meter tells you how much you can move and how quickly you can do it. If you’re out of stamina, then you simply aren’t going to be able to dodge.

This is a long well-known feature of the Souls games. As an added bonus, there are some warrior classes that will give you a little bit better range of movement and speed. Likewise, there are some that will feel as though you’re moving with a dump truck on your back.

In some regards, having to start over every time you die is a benefit when talking about the different warrior classes. If, like me, you realize you hate swinging the heavy axe of the palace knight, you can start over, without losing much ground, with the Wanderer.

It’s having to start a level over again and again, and again that becomes frustrating to a level where replayability starts to suffer. No Demon’s Souls review is going to be complete without talking about the difficulty, but I wanted to move on at times, and the idea of facing the same level one more time had me hesitating to take up the PlayStation 5 controller.

Stunning Beauty Is Enough Sometimes

If there’s one word that sums up everything you see and do in Demon’s Souls, it’s “gorgeous.” “Stunning” also works. Gamers are truly blessed that this was a PS5 launch title. There is no doubt that Blue Point outdid itself when it put together the graphics in this gothic adventure.

Even the most mundane scenery shows up in a way that can take the breath away from a player. Again, the PS5 plays a big part in that. Demon’s Souls take advantage of everything the next-gen console has to offer in regards to graphical output and power.

Even if this was on the PlayStation 4, though, you get the sense it would be very pretty. It takes some real talent to make a dank and dark landscape as pretty as this.

It’s even better when you managed to go into a part of the world where there’s a little green. Colors stand out because brown and grey are easily the most prevalent. There’s a little red mixed in every now and then as well. Somehow a landscape that should be bland stands out. That’s a massive accomplishment by Demon’s Souls‘ artists.

Verdict: Demon’s Souls for the PS5 is a fantastic work of art that is going to make you feel bad about your skills at one point or another. It’s not clear if “fun” really fits Bluepoint’s latest project. Certainly, there are some people who will find enjoyment from the grind, but others are going to play this for a few hours and decide to put it down forever. In a way, that means this is continuing the great Souls tradition.