Demon's Souls (2020 video game)

"Discover where the journey began. Master the arts of sorcery and war. Become the Slayer of Demons."

―Tagline.

Demon's Souls
International boxart, depicting the Slayer of Demons facing adversaries
Developer	Bluepoint Games Japan Studio
Publisher	Sony Interactive Entertainment
Producer	Teruyuki Toriyama Yasutaka Asakura Kazuma Kizuka Kentaro Motomura
Director	Gavin Moore
Programmer	Toshitake Tsuchikura Tomohito Ito
Designer	Sho Akimoto Yoshimi Eguchi Masashi Kudo Kenji Tokumaru
Artist	Mark Skelton
Composer(s)	Shunsuke Kida
Series	Souls Demon's Souls
Engine	Bluepoint
Platforms	PlayStation 5
Release	NA: November 12, 2020 EU: November 19, 2020
Genre(s)	Action role-playing
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer

Demon's Souls is a 2020 action role-playing video game developed by Bluepoint Games and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment for the PlayStation 5. It is a remake of the 2009 video game by the same name, originally developed by FromSoftware for the PlayStation 3.

As with the original game, Demon's Souls is a dark fantasy-themed game, set in the decaying kingdom of Boletaria; the kingdom fell to ruin following the release of a mysterious being known as the Old One through the usage of forbidden techniques known as the Soul Arts. Players take the role of a nameless hero referred to as "Slayer of Demons" as they are brought to Boletaria in a quest to kill its fallen king and stop the Old One. Demon's Souls places emphasis on challenging, time-focused combat and resources management, with gameplay revolving around player death and respawn mechanics. The game's core gameplay and world design are largely unchanged from its 2009 rendition, with Bluepoint primarily polishing and refining the original game's fundamentals.

Development on a remake for Demon's Souls began in 2017. Bluepoint Games served as the remake's main developer with assistance and direction from Japan Studio; while not involved with development, Demon's Souls creator and FromSoftware president Hidetaka Miyazaki gave his blessing to the project. The team used the original game code as a foundation to preserve its design and gameplay, while seeking to use the remake as a way to define a visual benchmark for the PlayStation 5. Demon's Souls was officially announced by former Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida at Sony's PlayStation 5 reveal stream in June 2020, and released as a launch title for the console in November of that year.

Demon's Souls received critical acclaim, with several publications considering it as the best launch title for the PlayStation 5 and one of 2020's best games. It was praised for its visual fidelity, technical performance, controls and success in modernizing the original title to modern platforms, though some reviewers lamented Bluepoint's reluctance to significantly alter the design foundations. Demon's Souls was nominated for several end-year accolades, and was a commercial success selling over 2 million copies by February 2022.

Demon's Souls was one of the final projects developed by Japan Studio's before its reconstruction in April 2021, alongside Astro's Playroom.

Gameplay

Demon's Souls is an action role-playing video game played from a third-person perspective, preserving much of the gameplay of the original 2009 game. Players control the Slayer of Demons, whose appearance, gender and stats can be customized. At the beginning of the game, players can choose one of ten starting classes such as Knight or Magician which which possess their specific attributes, stat distribution and equipment to guide the player's playstyle and approach. The starting classes are not fixed and can be further altered as the player progresses through the game and increase different stats or use different weapons from other classes.

As with the original game, Demon's Souls is comprised of five levels which themselves are divided into four sub-levels. Each world is inhabited by multiple regular enemies as well as a boss encounter located at the end of each world. A sixth world called the Nexus serves as the player hub. The Nexus serves as the place in which the player can level up, buy new weapons and gear or upgrade owned ones, and travel into the other enemy worlds.

Gameplay screenshot of Demon's Souls showcasing blocking an enemy while a portion of the stamina meter is depleted. A remake of the 2009 game of the same name, Demon's Souls retains a methodical combat system governed by stamina management, while possessing upgraded visuals, technical refinements and an overhauled heads-up display.

Combat and certain movement like running in Demon's Souls rely on a stamina meter. Combat is designed around management of the the player's stamina, with weapon swings and impact upon blocking or parrying consuming a portion of the stamina meter. Weapons range from daggers and various types of swords to axes, hammers, long-range weapons such as bows and staves which can be used for spells that consume the player's magic meter. Different weapons possess their own animations, timing, area of effect, speed and consumption of the stamina meter, necessitating the player to plan their position and attacks around their advantages and disadvantages. Defeating enemies and bosses rewards players with Souls, which can be used both as experience points to level up at the Nexus, and a s a currency to buy or upgrade various items.

Player death forms a central part of Demon's Souls, with the player losing their collected Souls and all non-boss characters respawning. A player can reclaim their lost Souls if they can trace back to the place where they died, which will be marked with a bloodstain the player can interact with. Whenever the player dies, they return in a condition called Soul Form, which halves their available health and removes the option to summon other human players. In return, players in Soul Form can be summoned to other players' games.

The 2020 remake features several new weapons, armor, rings and an item type called Grains, consumables that grant the player temporary resistance and stat buffs. The remake subtly tweaks the original game's encumbrance system, which governs how much gear can the player carry before it affects their movement speed and stamina consumption. Other new features exclusive to the remake include "Fractured World", which presents a mirror world that reverses the layout of the existing arenas; and a Photo Mode, which uniquely to the remake allows players to pause the game. The Photo Mode also includes several aesthetic filters that can be activated for gameplay purposes; this includes a "classic mode" that evokes the original PlayStation 3 version's color palette.

Development

Demon's Souls was developed by Austin-based Bluepoint Games in collaboration with Tokyo-based Japan Studio and was published by Sony Interactive Entertainment; the original game was developed by FromSoftware and released in 2009. Gavin Moore of Japan Studio, who previously worked with Bluepoint on the Shadow of the Colossus remake as game director, reprised his role for the Demon's Souls remake. Bluepoint's Mark Skelton served as art director, while Chris Voellmann served as technical art director.

Discussions surrounding a remake of Demon's Souls began during the final development stages of Shadow of the Colossus, Bluepoint's first remake project, and development began in late 2017 and lasted for roughly three years. FromSoftware, the original developer, wasn't involved in the remake's development, but the studio and Demon's Souls's director Hidetaka Miyazaki gave their blessing to Bluepoint and Sony.

Demon's Souls was dedicated to Takeshi "Ken" Kajii, the co-producer of the original game who died in 2013; and Andrew O'Neil, Bluepoint's co-founder and vice president who died in June 2019.

Design

Early in the planning stages of Demon's Souls, Bluepoint decided not to re-adjust or change the enemy encounters, creatures and level layout of the original game. Bluepoint's art director Mark Skelton reasoned that the "essence" of the game was in the "brilliant cadence" of those different aspects that formed the "soul" of Demon's Souls. Instead, Bluepoint prioritized graphical fidelity and quality of life improvements for the title.

Art

For the remake's art direction, Bluepoint representatives sat with Moore and discussed to what extent they'd like to take the game's visual elements, and eventually set out to create "something new but familiar" to meet fan expectations. Skelton recalled agreement to "dream big" and reimagine the game's visuals in how FromSoftware would have imagined them had the game was designed around the PlayStation 5. Having studied the original game's concept art, Bluepoint experimented with the tutorial level which they used to push the style "to the edge".

Technology

Demon's Souls was developed using Bluepoint Games' in-house game engine.

Release

Existence about the project was first acknowledged by Bluepoint following the release of Shadow of the Colossus in 2018. Demon's Souls was announced at Sony's "Future of Gaming" PlayStation 5 reveal event, on June 14, 2020, for the PlayStation 5. Following Sony's PlayStation 5 showcase on September 17 of that year, Demon's Souls was confirmed to be a launch title for the PlayStation 5 alongside Insomniac Games' Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Sumo Digital's Sackboy: A Big Adventure and Team Asobi's Astro's Playroom. It launched on November 12, 2020 in North American territories, and on November 19 in Europe and other territories.

Editions

In addition to physical and digital releases, a special digital release for Demon's Souls called the Digital Deluxe Edition is available for purchase. It includes the game's soundtrack, two armors, one shield, one weapon and several items and consumables. In addition, those who pre-ordered either the regular or deluxe digital edition gain access to an exclusive downloadable content weapon called Reaper's Scythe.

Deluxe Digital Edition contents

Reception

Reviews

Demon's Souls received universal acclaim upon its release. As of November 2020, it holds a 92/100 on Metacritic based on 100 reviews. It was the second-highest rated Sony-published game of 2020, behind Naughty Dog's The Last of Us Part II, and the highest-rated PlayStation 5 game of 2020.

GameSpot's Tamoor Hussain called Demon's Souls an "unmitigated success". GameInformer's Daniel Tuck said that Demon's Souls "looks, feels, and runs like a dream". Push Square's Christian Kobza considered it to be the best launch title for any PlayStation console and deemed Demon's Souls an "exceptional remake". Polygon's Michael McWhertor believed Demon's Souls was an "improvement in almost every way" over its 2009 release. Demon's Souls received 20 perfect scores from various publications, including Push Square and PlayStation Universe.

The overhauled visuals received acclaim. IGN's Mitchell Saltzman called Demon's Souls "breathtaking" and was awed by the "staggering" amount of detail expressed by environments and character models. While GameSpot's Hussain called the game an "impressive technical achievement", he in particular praised Bluepoint's usage of its creative vision, "realizing [Demon's Souls' full potential". While preferring the game's performance mode, Push Square's Christian Kobza found the resolution mode to be "crazy good-looking".

FromSoftware president and original Demon's Souls creator Hidetaka Miyazaki admitted to have not played the remake, but praised the updated graphics and visualy fidelity of Bluepoint's work, saying "[he was] very glad to see it get this fresh look, these brand-new current-gen graphics", and was happy that new players could experience the title.

Several figures within the gaming industry considered Demon's Souls to be their favorite game of 2020, including Ghost of Tsushima creative director Jason Connell, Sackboy: A Big Adventure designer Ned Waterhouse and Returnal game designer Henri Markus. Game journalist Jason Schreier listed Demon's Souls among his favorite 2020 games, praising it for being a challenging but satisfying experience.

Sales

Demon's Souls sold over 1.4 million copies by September 19, 2021. Leaked documents and files posted in December 2023 revealed that Demon's Souls sold over 2.08 million copies by February 2022.

Accolades

• 17th British Academy Games Awards
  • Technical Achievement - Nominated
• IGN Game of the Year Awards 2020
  • Best PlayStation Exclusive - Nominated
  • Best Action Game - Nominated
  • Best Remake/Remaster - Nominated
• GameSpot Best Games of 2020
  • Game of the Year - Nominated
• Push Square Game of the Year Awards 2020
  • Game of the Year - 4th Place
  • Game of the Year Reader's Choice - 6th Place
  • Best RPG - Silver Trophy

Gallery

Trailers

Demon's Souls - Announcement Trailer

Announcement trailer

Demon's Souls - Gameplay Trailer

Gameplay trailer

Demon’s Souls – Gameplay Trailer 2

Gameplay trailer #2

Demon's Souls - The Music of Demon's Souls

The Music of Demon's Souls

Demon's Souls - State of Play

State of Play showcase

Demon’s Souls – Launch Trailer

Launch trailer