Remakes always have to find the right balance to strike between being faithful to the original game and introducing changes and ideas of their own, and that balance is even harder to find when the game being remade is as influential and beloved as 2009’s PS3 exclusive Demon’s Souls. FromSoftware started a veritable revolution with that game and essentially created a subgenre single-handedly- so how exactly are developers Bluepoint Games choosing to approach development for its remake?
Though the remake does have plenty of new features to speak of, Bluepoint Games and Sony have ensured that it still remains true to the original vision FromSoftware and Hidetaka Miyazaki (director of the original game) had for it. Speaking in a recent interview with GameSpot, creative director Gavin Moore said that that was the “gold standard” for the team.
“The original creators, Miyazaki and FromSoftware, gave their blessing and they were happy for us to go forward and make this game,” said Moore. “I mean, they gave their blessing, but they didn’t get involved in the actual day-to-day production of the game. Now, all of that development was handled by Worldwide Studios and Bluepoint Games, but we made sure that we stayed true to their original vision. That’s incredibly important. We’re massive fans of Miyazaki’s games, and so making sure that what we created was true to his vision, that was the gold standard.”
Looking back at Bluepoint’s work on the Shadow of the Colossus remake (and the excellent results they achieved with it), it’s not surprising that they’ve approached the Demon’s Souls remake in similar fashion. Based on everything that Sony have shown of the game so far, it looks like exactly the sort of game it needs to be.
Demon’s Souls reportedly went gold toward the end of September, and will be releasing exclusively for the PS5 on November 12. It’s been confirmed that the game won’t have any difficulty options, nor will it feature support for ray-tracing.
