yeah I mostly just want to believe that instant loading changes something about the experience in some big way, neither positive or negative.
though, when I get a game that lets me reset—and the remake isn’t even this quick—i can fall into bad mental loops where if the first few seconds are “wrong” I’ll just reset and try to do things over again until I get into a perfect groove. and those are miserable moments for me.
It’s just so clear that there wasn’t a competent art director on this project
the demon’s souls remake has a lot of issues but i would not say it’s a “straight downgrade” necessarily. it is a disaster from an aesthetic perspective, but
no one has yet mentioned that the Bluepoint PS5 version runs at 60 FPS with some rare & largely irrelevant drops vs. the original Fromsoft PS3 version - 30 FPS with more-frequent dips during more-relevant sections (during object destruction, on some bosses, and with various effects). this also means the newer version feels more responsive in general.
notably, there is a 60 FPS patch if you are playing in RPCS3, but i didn’t use it when i played through the game recently - either i just didn’t know about it or it wasn’t available yet. not sure if it causes any issues like the old PC dsfix framerate unlock did with ladders or whatnot, but it’s there
i do not think i would ever consider longer loading times a benefit - always found the long loads in demon’s souls just kind of annoying considering how much you are expected to die
UI/menu navigation is, as noted, less obnoxious in a few ways
and yeah, the art design in the remake is actual sacrilege and the incredible music is consistently ruined
jesus fucking christ
i still cannot believe they butchered my favorite use of double reeds in videogames
yeah it is very important that souls games sound more like a radio play than a blockbuster
it’s true
i love majula and alonne’s theme and some other assorted bits but DS2 really solidified the tiresome EPIC theming in the soundtracks that plagued DS3
Always found DS3’s score exhausting to the point where I just turn it off altogether
Elden Ring’s title screen theme is some serious Conan Basil Pouledouris shit and an instant turn on
these games would be so vastly improved if they had more of the occasional interesting ambient electronic stuff that crops up mostly in demon’s and ds1 rather than kindof standard epic score
The Ruby Eye Amulet from Mesopotamia
It’s been a while but Darkeater Midir is a proper dragon fight that shames the many that litter Elden Ring (although I have yet to seek out Placidsex, which I forgot to before completing the game)
yeah I enjoyed the remake for what it was but they definitely screwed the pooch on the music. some areas I think feel fairly faithful, but a lot of the original’s atmospheric high points were just completely fumbled. on the other hand, as @meauxdal pointed out, steady 60fps and nonexistent loading times go a long way to make it a significantly smoother experience than the original. and I respect that the jank of the original is perfectly preserved. also, it’s nice to play it with an active online community, which is sadly no longer possible on the hardware PS3 version. I believe there is some kind of scene with RPSC3 but last I checked getting it working is kind of a pain.
it’s funny though because if I was evaluating it as its own thing I’d probably highly recommend it. like it’s overall well-executed on its own terms, and like I could imagine bluepoint remaking many other ps2/ps3 era games this way and it actually working well. but the things that make og demon’s souls so memorable are idiosyncratic and weird and I don’t know if any modern studio would be able to replicate it… even fromsoft, tbh.
i think you actually can access the archstones fan server on ps3!!! i havent tried it but they have instructions for it on the site in case anyone with a ps3 and copy of demons souls wants to try:
yeah it works fine. i did it around the time the remake dropped.
Dark Souls TC???
Someone tell Toptube. It is time for his triumphant return
finally… dark souls 2 …. Fixed
powerful new Blender tools for importing/exporting currently Dark Souls Remastered stuff but apparently the other souls engine games soonish?
This Blender add-on enables you to import and export FromSoftware asset files, including FLVER models (Map Pieces, Characters, and Objects), Havok map collision, and Havok animations for characters and objects.
It’s powered by Soulstruct, my giant Python library of FromSoftware formats, and Soulstruct Havok, an experimental expansion library.
I developed these tools over the years in parallel with the development of Dark Souls: Nightfall, and finally put aside some time to polish and release them. I hope they serve you well and anticipate whatever mods they enable
