Compelling points so far. I never played the original, and I think that's why I enjoyed the remake so much. I understand where you're coming from, and can agree with others echoing that I wouldn't want Bluepoint to remake Bloodborne. Edit: finished watching and I can TOTALLY see where you're coming from. The changes you described in Latria alone would make me depressed if they did the same thing to Bloodborne.
God I hope that never happens. I would kill for a remaster at 60 FPS, but they literally shouldn’t even touch anything about it. Just make the gameplay 60 FPS, that’s it.
"second of all, no I can't let people enjoy things, because that would prevent me from enjoying the thing I like the most, which is critical analysis and being a hater." Caught me off guard with that one, I burst out laughing.
During the segment about deliberate changes that missed the point, I wish you had included a segment about the Flamelurker. It was apparent before release Bluepoint didn't 'get' Demons Souls vibe. I say this as in one of the 1st trailers they showed off their design for Flamelurker and it was a generic westernized demon. It looked like it was designed for Diablo, not Demon Souls. Due to minor backlash from that trailer, they did update Flamelurkers' design to be truer to his intended design. But it left a lot of questions about what they had done with any content that wasn't included in trailers and didn't take feedback on. Which left us with what we have now.
Did you want him to copy/paste every point other TH-camrs have made? This video was practically a regurgitation of other peoples’ work already. You know what I’m talking about lol.
The Fat Officials in particular got butched SUPER hard. They were supposed to be masked, corrupted humans with the fatness being part of a disturbingly jolly image that did horrible things. The remake Official are just...gross and bloated while also lacking the dark jolliness which completely defeats the point of this enemy entirely.
One part of the environmental storytelling and lore I like to point out is also in Latria. In the original, the level has these yellow flags, or straps of cloth, spread throughout the level. This obviously, OBVIOUSLY references the Old Monk's takeover and corruption of the area, which the player only realizes later when they meet the boss and see his famously yellow robes, the source of his power. Now Blue Point saw these bits of foreshadowing, figured yellow wasn't scary enough or something, and made all the flags red. RED How do you even miss the point this bad?
A lot of people think the Latria banners are a nitpick but the thing is that it's so emblematic of the remake as a whole that they had absolutely no good reason to change but did so anyway and in the process totally stripped out a piece of worldbuilding and environmental storytelling, and the same people who OK'd that also approved of *all the other changes* in the remake.
This shit right here is why remakes for Souls games should not be given to studios who are going to take such drastic creative liberties. The Souls game's stories, narrative, and world building relies so much on the LITTLE details interspersed through the levels, art, and character design that changing shit all willy nilly without understanding what youre changing runs the risk of completely ruining it. And the tragic part is that 80% of the people who play these games dont engage with that shit and have no idea its there so they'll just defend bluepoint and say all of us are being "nit picky"....sighhhh.
@@ATC43 in fairness, if they don't notice the changes and still enjoy the games as much as any other fan they'd have a point... if not for the fact that so many people who loved the original didn't get hooked to the remake because of that, or in some cases, people who saw comparison videos and such genuinely liked the original more.
@@ATC43 the reason we say you guy are nitpicking is because you just say the same thing over and over again like you guys say the atmosphere is ruined and you repeat that
Now I'm imagining dark souls where they play Ornstein and Smough's theme music as background music for the entirety of Anor Londo and redesign Smough so that he's fleshy and sad.
Exactly what I thought. Or Imagine if they didn't like the duo mechanic and just make you fight them one after the other or something. I would be very disappointed.
the luck of bluepoint is that demons souls was an extremely niche game, if they make these changes in dark souls for example, they would suffer a wave of hate, souls is not about the graphics but the best set of atmosphere and design that counts their stories, and that's why they are such special games
* I know bluepoint was never going to do a dark souls remake because it's not a sony IP, but it was just to give a context that people were "ok" with demons souls because it's not a very popular game, unfortunately
@@fastenedcarrot9570 Personally I complained about the spells NOT working in the remaster, at least the lock on, due to a lazy implementation of higher frames. Plus the bonfire aesthetic was butchered.
I did not play the original. The lullaby argument is what drove this home for me. I cannot imagine how I'd feel of they remade bloodborne and added the music box throughout central Yarnham. It would absolutely ruin the greatest atmosphere I have ever experienced in a video game. Bloodborne was my first fromsoft game and the crippling fear of wandering the streets of yharnum was the most immersive atmosphere of all. Hearing the music box only from outside the gate and finding a way to get to the window was exhilarating. It would dramatically change if the music played throughout, and even worse if they made it soothing and less creepy.
frankly speaking, i think DS1, sekiro and especially elden ring has substantially better and far more creative atmosphere and art than bbs drab constant grey corridors and castle/church spires, but i think theres something about your first souls game's atmosphere that always stays with you. mine was ds1 and its world will always have a really special place in my heart. never have i been more immersed in a video game than my 1st playthrough of ds1 over a decade ago, bb just doesnt come anywhere near to replicating that feeling for me, in fact i remember feeling really disappointed by bb when i finished it the first time, its environments just lacked the creativity and variety of the other games, sekiro and especially elden ring came really close though, especially elden ring, which at some points not only matched ds1, but surpassed it, but the rest like bb, demons and ds3? nah not really, they are fantastic games dont get me wrong, especially ds3 which arguably has the greatest boss/lore moments in fromsoft history! lets see if elden ring dlc bosses can top that, and im sure they will.
@@flamingmanure when I say atmosphere is not just the colors. The true meaning behind the atmosphere for me is the "gothic horror" aspect of it. The way bloodborne's story unfolds aligned perfectly with the changes of the atmosphere, from hunting beasts to literal great ones. I agree that nothing is like a first souls experience, but I believe Bloodborne would've been my favorite regardless. Sekiro was damn near close though! It's the only one that I'm not confident to say it wouldn't be the best even if it was my first. But this purely from a gameplay perspective, not the setting. I did not enjoy the sengoku Japanese era more than the gothic horror. But I would be lying if the many moments like entering the dragon palace didn't leave my jaw on the ground from it's beauty. Elden ring on the other hand is an absolute "meh" for me. Not even close to dark souls. Let alone Bloodborne and Sekiro.
@@flamingmanure colour is not atmosphere, it's a part of it and those games are thematically a different genre to Bloodborne, high/dark fantasy to gothic/Lovecraftian horror, they're not comparable
The most obvious area where the remake contrasts the original is the soundtrack, understated songs are replaced by bombastic melodies. Changes like that affect the tone and give the game a different feel. Having played neither of the two games though I did listen to both osts, I find the original's to be better by its theme, best seen by the difference in maiden astraea's theme from the two games.
Flamelurker’s theme is a better example, I feel like astrea’s is genuinely great for both versions of the game. While flamelurker’s theme sounds “better” in the remake, it isn’t demons souls
@@yamnbam4346 flamelurker was the one theme that felt way out of place in the original. Fighting a giant hulking fire monster that explodes while listening to a funeral song. Didn’t fit at all. That’s the one fight the remake did better, everything else missed the mark.
Well, but he literally didn't. Demon Souls was on a really tight budget. Not even to mention, that some of the concepts weren't even possible with the tech that existed back then. It is just so hilarious to me, that you look at cut corners and say that it was better that way.
Now I’ve never played the original but I will say that the original soundtrack is good and unique but there is a few boss ost that sound better in my opinion such as the penetrator boss fight you can hate on the remake as much as you want but you have to admit the new penetrator them is great
@@chestermicgun agree that the only good thing that they do but then again i wish his theme would be less badass like ds3 theme and more like tower knight theme and atmosphere from demon soul
The thing about the Tower Knight's OG song is that it's a rally chant. It's symbolic of a kingdom putting all of their hope and faith into a giant knight in order to protect the kingdom against intruders that may mean harm to its inhabitants. Changing his theme into a generic orchestral piece is plain stupid.
It was a really badly conceived and performed chant that made thrilling David and Goliath fights sound like three ring circuses both times we had the misfortune of hearing it.
@@d.g.6147 What a bad take. It's fine if you personally didn't like it. That doesn't change the absolute fact that the original score is thematically in line with the story the game is trying to tell. The remake score is a disgrace.
I have to also mention that the change to maiden astrea's theme in the remake completely changes the tone of the fight. In the original it was supposed to make you really think about what it is you were doing and the consequences of your actions. These are real, sentient people you are slaying (sometimes). In the remake it feels like a grand fight with garl vinland with a melancholic tone. It doesn't have the same impact since garl was never supposed to be a real threat to you, although he hit hard and strong, he was designed to be able to be killed easily, you were supposed to be unstoppable, and astrea showed you what that means.
Personally and I will admit I’m a bit mixed on this. I find it more infuriating they didn’t fix Garl’s ai. Seriously in footage of the remake he looks so damn dumb that it takes me out of it. I do get the change of tone being an issue but what frustrated me is Blue Point even saw janky stuff from the original and went,”Yeah thats fine.”
I hate is how they changed Astrea's Direction in her defeat quote. Seriously the amount of Venom and Vitriol in the original line when she says " Take your Precious Demon's Soul" hammered in the tone of her fight, in the remake she sounds so bored like she barely cares that Garl died.
@@Kage-pm6qi yeah. It honestly feels like blue point fucked up so much. Hell the AI is what bothered me about the whole fight because it was something that should of been noticed and adjusted…instead they took liberties with music and such.
@@123darkelf yeah exactly the remake wanted you to remember the fight against the garl vinland, but that was always a shitty fight and they did nothing to change it.
The point about the existence of the remake reducing access to the original is so true and infuriating to me. I'm just imagining this being the basis for future remasters of Demon's Souls to future systems, instead of the true original, and that's just sad. Biggest reason I've kept my PS3: so that it's not forgotten.
The thing about the original demons souls is that sony owns the ip, right? Which means its harder for fromsoft to port the game in the way they want. I think demons souls was just a safe bet for sony to show off ps5 graphics, and bluepoint was just coming of SotC. I think it was more of a timing thing than anything, sure it wasnt handled well but i dont think DS would have been ported or even touched at all, imo this at least brings attention to the original, which is too often overshadowed by dark souls.
What is the most disturbing about this remake is that when they show trailer for this game we saw a completly different design for the flamelurker and people complain so they went back and change it why didn’t they understand that it would be the same for all of the boss ?
The music was everything to me. Scores for film are made to help set a mood and compliment the visuals and story. When they changed the score for DeS so drastically, it changed the experience of the game for anyone playing it for the first time.
I don’t think people will understand the problem until Bluepoint remakes Bloodborne and gives Ebrietas horrible acne, adds six rows of nipples to Mergo’s Wet Nurse, makes Lady Maria look evil when she is one of the kindest people in the lore, replaces Gehrman’s theme with an epic orchestra, makes the music box play through all of Yharnam instead of near the little girl’s house, and so on and so forth.
Except that blue point never really did all that I’ve looked at the old and new boss designs and really the only one that got a really drastic change was like fools idol and armor spider
@@chestermicgun They did do all that. Ebrietas acne: Vanguard Demon Wet Nurse nipples: Adjudicator Evil Maria: Fool’s Idol Gehrman’s theme replaced: False King Allant Music Box: Mistress in Latria I agree that most of the bosses were fine. The Remake is largely fine and even good. Some designs were on par, some aspects of the boss were sub par but the whole thing was on par, etc. Few were improved imo, like Penetrator’s red parts on his armor and adding a storm to Storm King and the sound design. But a good amount of the iconic enemy and boss designs were made gross looking. Like Adjudicator was a weird potato sack with a tongue and tattoos (I want a plushie of the og Adjudicator) but now he just has gross nipples and teeth. Vanguard looks gross and menacing rather than goofy but menacing. Some NPCs were butchered like Satsuki being a horribly racist caricature. And this is not a matter of preference, that is just straight up morally wrong. I wouldn’t mind the design changes if the remake didn’t replace the original, but it did. When you google Demon’s Souls, the remake is the first result. The original is stuck without a remaster or port while the Remake is pushed in front of it. The original will be inaccessible and forgotten in the minds of many. The moment the og one gets ported or remastered, I can appreciate the remake for what it is rather than kind of dislike it for what Sony made it do to the original.
I believe the elegant thing is how everything looks like the things put themselves together instead of being just a pile of stuff. Like in dark souls, the serpent men honestly look like they actually put their equipment together to work well with them. Overall just a lot of things look like they were put together well
Agree 100% on everything said here. The reality is this BP misunderstood the entire 'point' of what the game is about. The game is about Human Greed and the Cruelty we inflict on one another, it is NOT an 'Epic' Demon Slaying game. The Epic Music with the fight of True King Allant is one of my greatest issues with it. In the original that moment made me feel genuinely sick, with the sound track to match it.
They changed the true king allant music to epic? That’s ridiculous lol. It’s so obviously supposed to be an anticlimax that I almost want to wear a tinfoil hat and say they intentionally desecrated the game. I could see them messing up the Gwyn fight in this way, because it’s less obviously an anticlimax (still pretty obvious), but Allant is like a tiny ooze.
You clearly have not played the game. Alant was said to be a good king or at least decent. And though it seems Ostsra has not seen him in a while and maybe only visits little he is nice and raised well He did not sign a deal with the evailent of the devil for power. He grow tired depressed and maybe even crazy and did what he thought would help the world. He is literally a blob mangled and deformed and living inside the Old One with no food or anything but still believes he is helping people and he clearly had nothing to gain from it . He was not greedy or cruel. Play the game then come back and trash the remake
I do think some of the artistic changes might have been done at Sony's behest. The remake feels like a showcase or a tech demo. The kind you'd use at launch to shift consoles.
I think that could be it because if you look at what was done for the Shadow remake, aside from the Sword of Dormin and the special edition content everything remained the same, however I think changes in remakes can sometimes be good as in the case of the dead space remake where there’s a lot more moving parts for lack of a better term, something that’s rather simple like shadow should be left mostly how it is but with dead space you have the ability to change things and still accomplish the same feeling
@@fivehundredeightyseven599 Oh Adam Sandler's creepy adventures, oh yes. Black people in the ISHIMURA sure, logic. Not as bad as DeS remake, but still.
On top of the Adjudicator redesign, it also impacts the concept of its whole mechanic. You cant harm it outside of the wound on its stomach because its made of gold armor, in the remake, unless you are aware of how it was originally, its entirely possible to not have any idea why you cant harm it, and you might not even realize that its the wound that lets your attacks land, it might appear that attacks land at random
This is exactly what happened to me. I was low on health and in a rare occasion of chance, I didn’t have any healing items left. So I was being extra cautious to not die. When I entered the arena I immediately noticed the poor footing I had, but because my focus was where I landing I never really noticed the bird on its head. So basically, I got to the bottom, did my best to dodge and weave and attack, but because it all looks like skin in the remake I had no idea that I NEEDED to attack its weak point first. I died, looked up a guide, and got frustrated at myself for not realizing it had a weak spot I needed to damage first. From the sound of it, if I had played the original then I would have more easily been able to notice the weak point, and then I would have been able to deduce mid combat that I needed to hit it first.
Same here. I didn't buy the overinterpretation and assumption of motives and arrogance on the Tower Knight comment, but then the video delivered VERY GOOD points afterwards starting with the fat official and turned me around
@@Ruffy112 Yeah lol I was like “overgrown plants? Seriously?”, but the fat official redesign point is very fair as someone who only played the remake (first souls game too). The OG fat officials look menacing, snobby, and like complete assholes. The remake one still made me hate him in 1-3, don’t get me wrong, but they looked more disgusting and disfigured than anything. I still kinda got the point when I was playing through, but the original design looked better. Same with the Tower of Latria stuff, although I did kinda like how calm it was, it probably would’ve felt completely different with the scarier vibes of the original. I’d be pissed if someone redesigned my favorite game and ruined the charm/atmosphere of it too. The graphics were excellent on the remake though and I’d say overall it was very good.
I would've forgiven everything else since it's pretty nit-picky, but changing the fat officials to not have the creepy smiling face is the worst artistic choice they could've made
the redisign of the officials is the weirdest thing to me honestly, who at blue point saw the old one and went "lets not only make his whole fit just his body and make him look like he midway through puberty but lets also make him capable of frowning" like the static grin is THE most iconic thing about that enemy and the removed it.
I enjoyed the remake, but only because i didn’t have any clue whet the original was like. But now im wishing bluepoint kept many of the original elements. There were a lot of good points here, like the vibe of Latria being gone and the fat official being gross instead of decadent
I've never understood why studios who remake games don't consult the original teams. At least PCSX3 exists. Replayed the original a while back and it's still a blast.
@@GRstriffe That's changing the lore and the timeline. Demon's Souls isn't Dark Souls or Elden Ring. You're not exploring Boletaria a thousand years after things went wrong. You're exploring it a decade at most after things went bad. it would take a much longer time for vegetation to cover a whole castle.
I love how you explain that in the souls games the inherent look of things and design is there because they cared to make a cohesive world and context.
I think thats a bit of a misguided view. the souls series if anything but perfect. throughout most of the games there is usually massive glaring issues with its world design somewhere. just look at basically the entire final act of Dark Souls 1, where almost all of the great world design kinda falls to pieces and becomes a mess.
@@joedatius Yeah I think you didn't really get what I meant. I never said perfect, I said that he explained why things look the way they look, and also offered insight into Miyazaki's mentality, his "elegance". Most games can't be perfect because we aren't, as someone who's studying art it's pretty much obvious and the DS saga as a whole has moments where it goes downhill. But what always shines through it's the fact that they CARE about making something good and the appearance and the details in old and new games show that, even going back to games like King's Field.
@@LinneRinne sorry but thats not what he was talking about. the entire point about Miyazaki was about not making something ugly. which in itself is a bad quote to try and use because the games are filled with designs and locations entirely focused on looking gross and ugly. Yeah of course they cared but so did the people who made the remake. but caring isn't a measurable quality.
@@joedatius If anything, I don't think we're on the same page here. I believe I see what you're saying and where you think my comments are coming from but I'm not really talking of games being perfect or an unmatched quality because they cared, it's more nuanced than that, and I do not take Miyazaki's comment on just face value. I think the DS saga has elegance to it in a design sense and in general Fromsoft titles do have it even when the game they worked on is terrible like Ninja Blade. And what I meant in my initial comment is that DS has an inherent intentionality aspect to it, which is how their design cares about environments, item descriptions and how things look and even sound in general. Even in zones that I personally would consider to be terrible gameplay wise like DS2's Iron Keep there's a experience to be had and a reason of why it looks like that in lore. But even if you do not agree with me or think I'm tripping I wish you a good day and I respect your opinion.
@@joedatiusWhat do you even mean by world design in this case? Do you mean the way the world has literally artistically been designed or the way the enemies are placed and designed into the world? They’re very different things, but even if the enemy placement and level design is off by the second half, the world design is still very good and fits into the context of the story being told and explored. The original commentator is talking about how the theme of a place fits with its design, an intentional Miyazaki choice and a big chunk of the game’s elegance, again, not perfect.
@@flabbajabba9527there are more instances of gross in the remake than in the original and by using grossness in areas where it wasn't needed the original intent gets diluted
Demon's Souls and Dark Souls always had this magical feeling to them, which no other game ever recreated for me. I've seen a lot of videos that let me to remember this other-worldly feeling, but your vodeo is one of the very best! I will check out the rest of your channel in a bit, but i would really love to see in-depth analyses on the most mundane aspects of these masterpieces☺️ Thank you! For keeping its memory alive and vivid
Certain parts of Bloodborne had it too, imo. The Hypogean Gaol/Yahar'gul, Unseen Village and the Upper Cathedral Ward are so unsettling and otherworldly.
one of the worst things they changed is the meaning of the ost, maiden astraea's one sounds like its garl's one instead of hers(its epic/heroic) while the original gave you a sense of dread and made you think if what you were doing was the right or wrong thing
Elden Ring drew me into FromSoft games and I've been going back to play their old games (recently been playing a bunch of Armored Core games, love it). I grabbed a copy of Demon's Souls on PS3 thinking "Well, I'm not gonna buy a PS5 for this, but at least I can play the old version." Little did I know I bought the better version of the game.
@@jackreeves7 15 dollars for the original version on a console I already own vs 560+ dollars for a console I don't own and a version of the game that heavily alters the art design of the game? Nah I think I made the right choice.
there’s a noclip documentary on the remake (great channel btw) and it’s clear from how the higher ups at bluepoint talk about it that the whole thing was a huge vanity project. just like with SoTC they remade a classic, highly visually distinct game, not because they felt like they could do the original vision justice, but because they wanted to show off their technical prowess and impress everyone with raw graphical power. both remakes are just *gaudy*
@@yaqubebased1961Of course I would rather have a competent studio remake the games i love, but in the end nothing changes for me. They can't delete the original games.
@@MidlifeCrisisJoe I’d be happy with them if they actually cared about the art direction. Too many good games unplayed by masses because graphics are a high barrier for a lot of (imo nonsensical) people. It’s fine to be an optimizer company, but they are just clout-chasers and not vision respecters. I like the visual flair they can bring, just not in SotC, DeS, and hopefully not Bloodborne because they won’t capture its soul.
The Silent Hill 2 remake will be the worse remake ever. Considering the developer, even more so, the trailer alone was so disrespectful that I can not bring myself to acknowledge the remakes existence otherwise cause it makes me so angry.
@@CausticSpacewhat didn't you like about the trailer? i have SH 1-4 originals still. so def my scene, and although diff dev, a remake is better than nothing. i def wish kojima was on board though
@@f_r_e_d Nothing would better than a remake. The game doesn't need to be remade, it was perfect as is. Everything about the trailer is disrespectful to the original.
I honestly cannot believe that Bluepoint saw the Maiden Astraea fight and made the conscious decision that "you know what? This fight needs a really *heroic* sounding boss theme!" Like, what the fuck? The original Maiden Astraea theme was sad and melancholy for a reason. How do you possibly miss that? More than changing Tower Knight's theme to not have the laughing any more, I think Maiden Astraea's theme is the most egregious example of changing the soundtrack for the worse.
I also woul'd not describe it as melancholy, even thou there are certainly those undertones. I'd say the theme is supposed to cause tension in the player, a push towards action and make the situation feel out of controll, where in reality the player controlls the situation fully. The music with its constant beat in the melody tells you "go go go". I may even go as far and say that it is not astraeas boss theme, but the players. After all the player is the aggressor in this situation. Thats my take on it
The "heroic" part of the Astraea theme only starts when you fight Garl and ends when he dies, being replaced with more somber music. I think it's totally fair to musically turn the fight with Garl into an epic confrontation, which then disappears when the hero is dead and his lady is defenceless.
Ok but for real what the fuck did they do to the adjudicator? I thought the implication was that it was supposed to a noble figure. One that judges the souls of fallen warriors and is worshipped at the shrine of storms. There's even a shield depicting the adjudicator being prayed to. (The remake also fucked this up by drawing the art on the shield in perspective and thus losing the look of medieval tapestry that made the original design interesting). If you look at the og adjudicators model it's got intricate patterns over its body and is almost shaped like an antique urn. it's still grotesque, but subtly regal and that's what makes it cool and memorable. They took an ambiguously elegant and revered creature and turned it into some fuckoff ugly monster so they could show off their 4k nipple jiggle physics.
It also had a somewhat cute or funny look with the big goofy mouth, which was a contrast to how insanely dangerously this thing is. It might look a little silly, but it's completely evil. There's a sinister whimsy to it The redesign has none of that, it's clearly pure evil and demonic. I mean ok I guess, but the original is certainly more memorable by miles
they did the same shit with fat officials. In the original they were a sinister figure with a metallic mask that instilled fear and uneasiness. the new one is just some ugly mf
Reading this comment, I get the impression that you haven't looked at the old Adjudicator graphics in the past 10 years... because it looks pretty much the same, lol. Maybe a bit less shiny/gold? But it was a "fuck off ugly monster" from the beginning, lmao.
I will never not feel heartbroken over the fluted armor set being redesigned. For me, it’s the best and most iconic set in the entirety of Miyazaki’s portfolio. I could not contain my excitement when Bluepoint announced this remake. I couldnt wait to use their photo mode on the fluted set. Then one day, for no reason, they just arbitrarily redesigned it. Not one fan had ever complained that Demon’s Souls was held back by its art design. If anything, Demon’s Souls was held back by a restrictive camera system that often made it tough to get a clear view of its brilliant art design. Thank you for your video, I totally agree.
Yep. The old design was distinct and had realism to it. Definitely iconic even at a glance. The new fluted armor is a disgrace, looks like some generic knight armor. It also lacks the realism that the original had like the coif protecting your characters neck, which is now gone in the remake leaving your neck exposed in favor of a scarf... The og helm being in the game doesn't even make up for how badly they botched the rest of the armor
@Maria Flores idk if you played the original Demon Souls, but the female version of the Fluted Helmet looked basically the same, all opened in its front... In fact Demon Souls has a lot of this different designs for different genders of your character.
@@Metalgearfox2000 oh they really did that armor dirty. It went from a sacred silver D&D God-like magic armor to a plain armor plate with extremely exagerated World of Warcraft proportions.... because.... Paladin I guess...
I must admit, I clicked on the video expecting petty nitpicks and such, but was actually quite surprised at how much I liked it and how much I can understand where you're coming from so I subbed instead. I never got to play the OG version, sadly, but if I did, I would also be pretty pissed at the liberties taken by Bluepoint. The changes aren't small and petty at all, but pretty significant. I'm a bit surprised the Miyazaki and crew signed off on it. It would've been amazing had they left everything intact and just updated the sound, graphics, movement, and whatever other stuff that wouldn't infringe upon the artistic element.
The Demon's Souls remake being *the* main PS5 launch title probably played a huge factor. From a development standpoint, they probably wanted this game to be a visual spectacle. That's an understandable goal in theory, but they chose one of the most visually subtle and restrained games on the market to use as a base. Many games like Demon's Souls or SMT: Nocturne are great because their intentional lack of decadence is part of the atmosphere. It's actually kinda nuts that Bluepoint keeps doing remakes for games with very uncommon and avant-garde art styles (DS and Shadow of the Colossus). Bluepoint are obviously experts at optimizing games for the hardware and more gaudy visual styles, and other games like Bloodborne would have been a better fit for their skillset (not saying they should have had a Bloodborne remaster as a PS5 launch title, just that it's more compatible with Bluepoint).
Not to mention the Shadow of the Colossus remake actually came out perfectly fine from what I remember. They did a good job on that. I'm almost tempted to say _someone_ just couldn't beat Demons' Souls and decided to fuck it up.
@@pleaserespond3984I had issues with colossus, lol. The color palette and lack of fog fucked it up for me. Whether the fog was to cover up design limitations or not, it doesn't matter, it is part of the game's identity and I would say the fact that you don't know the real repercussions of your actions throughout the game. IE the fog represents how unaware you are of the consequences that obscured and hidden from your view pretty much until the end.
@@La0bouchere They'd give the Doll look like a creepy Tim Burton-esque design because obviously she's creepy, and they have to make it more obvious. After all, completely disregarding subtlety is Bluepoint's forte.
100%. It's like if a conservator who was tasked with restoring a painting just decided they'd like to paint a new painting over it. Being careful to follow the outline of its "core", of course.
An example of how Bluepoint didn't bother to even pay attention to the original material is the sound effects of the miracles. Originally they had familiar sounds you'd expect to hear in temples, spiritual places where people do religious practice, such as gongs, but Bluepoint replaced them with sci-fi sound effects, probably the first ones they found in some lazy developer's sound effects collection.
@@PenguinsAreColdish it's sony. the last of us 1 already got a remaster and a remake even before reaching its 10th anniversary. and according to an insider, a horizon zero dawn remake is already being planned.
I never got to play the original. I never knew how different the remake was. Now, I feel like I’ve missed out significantly. Thank you for pointing this all out. It’s re-inspired me to seek out a copy of the original game, or at least find a way to emulate it.
RPCS3 can run the game at 60fps, however the only problem I had with the original was that I was trying to play it like Dark Souls 3, which instead doesn't work well due to lack of omnidirectional rolling on lock on and weird rolling bug were if you do attempt to roll at an angle you can possibly roll the opposite way.
You can perfectly emulate it at 60fps, better than the original. You can also play online with other players on a private server. The official servers were shut down.
They also did quite a job on Maneaters. When you enter the arena in original, the first thing you see is a pair of glowing green eyes coming at you from darkess, as this extremely creepy and ominous music kicks in. In remake, you'll see the monster right away and the music is changed to a generic orchestra piece. Not to mention that Maneater's design was changed from a statue embedded with a tortured soul to a hairy gorilla with wings
@@ianwilliams2632 They changed almost all of the music and it sucks. Like - to go along with what the video says about the Adjudicator fight; the original had a bizarre sense of unreality. You walk in and this high-pitched lilting tune begins while a fat rubbery golden man-shape giggles at you and the golden bird nesting in its severed throat screams. It's weird in a creepy circus sort of way and while the fight is absurdly easy, that fight alone was what convinced me to play through the rest of Demon's Souls despite how much it was kicking my ass; because I wanted to see more stuff like that. In the remake, you walk in and there's a giant fat guy with a bird in its severed throat, and generic skyrim style norse operatic boss music starts to kick in. It doesn't feel similar at all, and it sure as hell doesn't feel like the same game.
I think this points to an overarching cultural issue. As advances in technology become the main selling point of games, aggressive development schedules and profit margins clamp down on creativity, people stopped making interesting games. Some of what made old games interesting was the limitations themselves, final fantasy 7 is a perfect example. It’s a very strange game, both in how it plays and how it looks, but it also has arguably one of the most interesting plots of the series. I played it when I was 11, I was too young to know I was playing a mercenary for hire joining an eco terrorist group and going to war with a massive multinational corporation and their legions of demonic genetically engineered soldiers. Demons souls is another great example, the limitations themselves are part of why the game is so good. It’s a strange game. But much like the slop filling media trough at the movie theater, waves of remakes who’s only selling point is flaccid nostalgia capture an audience who have been raised with lower expectations - companies realized they could just keep making dog shit marvel movies for drooling morons and kept doing it. To an extent, it’s on us to stop consuming this garbage, it’s an insult to our intelligence. I haven’t played the remake of demons souls but I could tell by looking at it it would be worse, I didn’t even need to see for myself. It’s gratuitous and ugly, too many particle effects, too much focus on graphics and technology, but that’s exactly the opposite of what makes the game good.
I think this only reflects the game industry in general. When I was learning game design 10 years ago... I was trying to get a job in level design, my task was to build 2 maps, a florest and a canyon, so i made a little plot to each of them and a canyon became an connected with a poison swamp where there was an infection and almost everything was dead and the florest was an really beautiful organized florest because of the people that lived there, so they dint like it, they said that a florest needed to be almost random like nature and a canyon just need to have rocks and cliffs... Those are the things I'm seeing in Demons souls Remake, a bunch of people that learned something from someone but never think about it themselves. Of course that new statue would make more sense in some real aesthetics, but never in the demons souls culture and lore...
Hi Fellow Gamedev here, I think I start to understand the problem. I start to learn Business and Game dev bussines model try to remove the drive from the Bussines analasis like Bussines Managment Canvas That is: "What problem we solve? " Bechause games and art dont solve a problem but satisfy a need. I belive this is a huge mistake misleading prety much everyone. Art been over mistified when in reality is a very mathematical calculative building proces, like you described the canyon. As artis I think our job is to toy lead and manipulate human emotions with all the tools discovered by psyhology, than support it with sience related to the subject to give predictability and reason to the world. What need to be understood Arts problems not driven by the drive to happines, but offten trying to schock people out of they innosence, immerse them deep in a feeling they didnt know they can have.
Bro those designs are awesome I see nature as fungus as random but flowers as pointed and not random they seem random but aren’t you hit the mark on the florist and the canyon is just awesome they said canyon which can mean anything like a death baller or poison swamp in it
I love game devs who don't play games, they're the best. /s Like, seriously, VARIETY and CREATIVITY is king, as FromSoft games prove time and time again. Your ideas sound really good and I would love to see something like this. The fact that they didn't like them only tells me that they don't know jack shit about games, as unfortunately most game companies don't, they're creatively bankrupt. And the funniest thing is that companies like FromSoft exist, showing everybody how it's done... but the game devs just don't care.
Great video and agree. However, I think this video needs a part 2. There’s a lot more examples you could talk about, mainly the score. I’d love to see like another hour long analysis of the environments and themes. Don’t be afraid to do longer videos
Yes, changing the music is the most mindboggling decision Bluepoint made IMO. That's the thing that really me feel like they completely missed the point.
It’s definitely not scary but it’s uncomfortable especially if you know the lore, the only place that still creeps me out in souls born games is new londo and upper cathedral ward
I genuinely believe bloodborne has such a strong base, that unless you pretty much revamp every single detail about it, you can not fuck it up. Like, what can they do? Aside from comically stupid things that no one would try of course. Like what would be a logical design choice that they could make that would be bad? Cause unlike demon souls the designs in bloodborne already are a lot more realistic, and the game already has a huge amount of detail. The enemy designs are also all very clear cut. In fact, most monster bosses in bloodborne, are already gross and bloody, this demon souls remake is more faithful to bloodborne's world feel and look than it is to demon souls's lol
Thanks for making this video. I’ve always had a slight distaste with the “remake” of demon’s souls, and it’s nice to see someone point out what I’ve had issues with. If it was just one or two changes I wouldn’t have cared as much, but it was so many tiny things that didn’t sit right with me. All the fat/gross enemy changes, the attempt at making the ost epic when it was just fine, type A and type B body types ( when they could’ve just removed gendered armor requirements as a whole), and the stuff you’ve already stated in your vid. Another issue with adjudicator’s redesign you didn’t mention. His gold skin helps players realize he’s impervious to attacks. When players see his skin is gold and see they do no damage, they may think he’s wearing armor, or that he’s like the nemean lion, and that his gold skin is impervious. When they changed his skin to look normal, there’s no reason why your sword does no damage. At least before, the gold could’ve been an excuse, but now his skin is normal and there is none. It’s just little stuff like that that pissed me off with the remake. There were other, non-design related issues I had with the game that had no reason to exist. In the original demon’s souls, when you or an enemy blew up an explosive barrel, it’s hit box lingered a few seconds after it had exploded. A remake has no right to leave such a simple fucking issue untouched, especially when they fixed bigger glitches like stock pile Thomas dupe. There’s also the glaring issue of NOT BEING ABLE TO DELETE ANY SAVE YOU MAKE. No previous fromsoft title has had this issue, not even the original demons souls. The worst part is, unlike other titles by fromsoft, fucking up matters in demon’s souls. If you wanted a pure white world tendency weapon and died in human form earlier on, you couldn’t delete the save and make a new one. So now if you make a character and fuck up, or don’t want to play them anymore, they’re stuck on your game until you wipe all of your save data on demon’s souls, which is terrible. I shouldn’t have to wipe my all of save data to remove one character I don’t like anymore. Stuff like that pissed me off and made me just go play the original on ps3.
That was a good read, myself I'm so tired of these many remakes that add little to nothing more to the originals just to make them worse, in fact it keeps spreading this message that "Old = Obsolete". That "No Save Delete thing" really is unexcusable, like what were they thinking.
Here I thought this video was going to be filled with hipster takes. But you know, I actually find myself agreeing with you on the art direction influencing the story of the areas. Well done.
@jamesloucks2562 wouldn't say that, I wouldn't call myself a law person a lot of the changes I don't personally hate because of that but I think for those that do enjoy the environmental story telling, it definitely butchers that to a large extent. Its similar to those that want to change a story put their own stamp on it, like the witcher TV series which is slowly being butchered to the ground. Though the game is still fun.
I love your takes. I think it lost the atmosphere it was too focused on being “next gen” it lost all the aspects that made the game dingy / dark and mysterious. I hated the look of it. I still can’t get over how badly they ruined the fat officials I just feel blue point doesn’t get it.. just don’t get the atmosphere at all. Edit : you even touched on the fat officials bro you are my spirit animal
@@didixtar2863 nah no agonizing screams it felt like they still tried to hard to make it “next gen” and missed the boat on the dark extremely smelly dirty atmosphere that runs through the game. It’s like everything is filthy and grimy/ dingy dark etc it has this atmosphere that even from soft have lost touch with.
@@acherontiaatropos6048 because all they care about is being the latest and greatest with graphics and don’t consider or care about anything else but that, and it really shows in their remakes.
Bro I totally agree with everything you said especially about the Vanguard demon. When they announced they were remaking Demon's Souls the first thing cam in my mind is how they would redesign Vanguard's skull with those yellow eyes and a well textured black helmet that covers his head making his yellow eyes stand out and deliver the feeling that you're actually standing against a demon not just an ugly fat monster. One thing I noticed in the remake is that they made world four raining all the time. I mean people in that world had something like a myth that it's believed that those flying creatures who through you with spears are responsible for weather change especially when it comes to rain. So when they added rain to that world they confirmed that those people's myth was real not just a myth. If they made it rain after killing storm king that would strengthen the original story confirming that those flying monsters including storm king don't have a real effect on weather or rain. They literally made a huge difference in the remake hoping people wouldn't notice it. I mean just imagine the Island's edge area covered in fog with modern graphics that would be insane. But no they had to become masters who know better than those stupid fools who played the original Demon's souls and enjoyed the lore in detail. I hope when a remake of Bloodborne comes out that Miyazaki himself overseas those arrogant devs and directors who think they know better than the original creator.
One of the things that irritates me the most is how the Kris Blade is no longer like, y'know, an actual kris? It's such a small thing but it really exemplifies how bluepoint's changes are all arbitrary and backed by nothing besides "i think we should change this... because we should!".
@@meathir4921 A kris is a specific type of dagger - most have the same wavy patterned blade as a flamberge, but occasionally they are straight bladed. But there are no types of kris that look as jagged and, frankly, poorly crafted as the one in the remake. wikipedia.org/wiki/Kris
The same thing with moonlight Greatsword it’s a faith weapon but now it had a god damn MAGIC FLAME BASTARDS THIS SHIT IS BLASPHEMY AND DISRESPECTFUL TO MIYAZAKI another thing the flame lurker use to be my favorite boss because he looked like a old demonic Viking but now he looks like your damn generic demon from Diablo it’s annoying
@@ZoretsuThat sword type has existed in games long before souls 😂 Tabletop rpgs had them FFS and Miyazaki was just the director, he didn't create crap for game and as Director only makes changes if investors or execs say so the DEVELOPMENT TEAM actually makes the games , not a suit in and office miles away you ignorant fanboy 😂😂😂 And a Kris is a small dagger, original game had alot of known weapons with bad representation.
@@DarkepyonX way to show you have no idea what a Game director actually does its like saying "the movie director dosnt do shit" when he is one of the most important aspects of a movie. He dosnt(usualy) write the script or designs sets, but he sets the tone, he decides what gets made, and what dosnt.
That's generally a big problem that lots of great stories get bastardized being filtered through a mainstream lense. And it was to be expected that Bluepoint would do this to some degree because they wanted the game to appeal to the mainstream to make more money. It also happened to Lovecrafts stories, where the mainstream believes it's about tentacles and monsters while it's true quality is something more profound and nameless that isn't captured by superficial monster design. Or take movie adaptations like Harry Potter: In the novels, Voldemort was eerily cold and stern and that's what made him scary. But in the movies (except 1 and 2) they made him more flamboyant and Joker-like, which is a major mischaracterization in my opinion. The mainstream/ big companies tend to simplify and distort the uniqueness of stories to fit them in a cliche, already-known category, because they want to play it safe and not take the risk that the audience possibly wouldn't like something more special.
bruh this is happening to Dead space remake elsewell.... for example nicoles office or the area that is bright was specifically made like that to have actual people working there and when it gets dark aka lockdown then you're terrified but in the remake, it has fog and is always dark and just looks like a haunted house more than anything even when the original had dark parts they still had a specific style whereas the remake just looks fogged up and doesn't have a art style to it
When I noticed it was being remade by a western company, I noticed it probably fucked the original. Japan and the west have very different approaches to game design, as proved by western developers being outraged by Elden Rings success (some even claiming Elden Rings horrible game design was obviously done by Japanese developers etc). Not saying all westerns developers or games are like this, for example; Skyrim, The Witcher series, Ghost of Tsushima, and Red Redemption are great games. It's just a bit chunky the west think that they are better than the east or the changes they make will make the game better (proven by bluepoint with Demon Souls). Let's just hope fromsoftware's other games don't get the same shit, though some rumors worry me that Bloodbourne is next.
I'm so glad to see someone else say this. I liked the Demon's Souls remake, but this is exactly how I feel about other IPs (my current hot take being God of War), the series changed so much of its identity to appeal to a bigger audience, and the end result is bland. But masses of people love and praise it. Really feels like originality and innovation is at an all time low. Everything fits a neat mold.
As someone who never played the original but loved the remake, this was very compelling. What were they thinking with the sound design of Latria??? I love blue point but wow. They really dropped the ball in many areas and I understand og fans frustrations now.
@@MiguelAviles175 you might need a better soundbar. The clunk of the meat cleaver hitting the ground in Demons Souls remake is the most satisfying thing I’ve heard in any souls game.
When I heard the song I was immediately reminded of the Shrine of Amana and was somewhat disappointed because it seemed like the shrine was just a copy of something Fromsoft did before. Now I learn that the original sound design was fundamentally different. How could they be so wrong in the remake? It boggles the mind.
Man, the first boss in the OG Demon's souls was SO SCARY because you couldn't see SHIT. You had no idea what you were fighting to start with, you had no idea how big the room you were in was. It was just darkness and spears flying at you and you'd get a glimpse of a shield and shit your pants!
@@andr0zzsenpaiI really don’t get the hate at all, I mean the ps5 version is meant to be a ^remake^ and all I have seen is that it is literally copy and paste from the original game in everything, from bosses to weapons to side quests to the design of areas and the puzzle in them. So just because they did few things that many won’t even care about like changing the type of building in area 1 does that make the remake bad? I really wanna know your opinion on that
@@hossam-gc2fj The point was to preserve the original vision, if you like the remake, that's fine, but just remember that's not the original feeling/theming of the game.
Thank you for this, I KNEW something was definetely wrong with the remake when I first tried it but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Everything looked so....''standard''. And that oppressive, sad atmosphere wasn't there anymore.
Yea you're right. As someone who never got to play either game, I would be upset if BluePoint did a Bloodborne remake and took massive liberties with the architecture or enemy design and the story that it tells.
@@SixWings Bro bc of the notification I actually read Ratatoskr pinned on this video and it looks like I copied his pinned comment 😂. This man knows his audience 💀💀💀
That's very different, there is enough details in Bloodborne to make a remake without changing some elements. Demon souls original lacks details, so bluepoint was forced to add new elements.
@@ni9274 Bloodborne doesn't need a Remake. Bloodborne needs a remaster! Or just a 60fps patch and a PC port. Why do you think Bloodborne needs a Remake?
Really could've used some footage of OG Adjudicator when you were talking about how they changed his model. Other than that, great video and analysis as usual ❤
Bluepoint is incapable of understanding the importance of art direction that is under a certain polygon count and texture resolution so they regard it as disposable, just like when your mom doesn't realize all those cards in your closet with Pikachus on them have value and just tosses them in the garbage
The most amazing thing about Demon Souls was its atmosphere! So much, it felt unreal, like a DREAM!! Like when Arthur spoke to Merlin and found him in the land of dreams! Demon Souls is truly art, Demons Souls is truly soul.
@@KomradeKrusher One of the reasons the Remake didn't work for me, Blue point took that out!! Same thing happened with Shadow of the Colossus remake, actually a very similar thing, as Shadow of the Colossus barren land was made as a sort of land between the dead and the living, again, completely unreal, not meant to look real at all, and once again, Blue Point didn't get it.
I knew Bluepoint didn't understand Demon's Souls when i heard they changed--not just updated but outright rewrote--the music. The dude said their job was to make the game not like it actually was but like people remember it. Well, i dunno about him but that's not how i remember Demon's Souls.
The dude is just so dead fucking wrong lmao I went into a playthrough of the original completely blind and cold and loved it and was effected by the atmosphere even when partially paying attention. THIS MONTH. POST-ELDEN RING. And I was startled when the remake was not any of that. I didn't even know about it's reputation. So "oh uhh nostalgia goggles hawhaw technology" is blatantly bull LMAO
@@magnificmango336 Doesn't matter. If Reservoir Dogs got a remake with Tarantino's stamp of approval it wouldn't magically become THE Reservoir Dogs as a result. The OG composer can give his stamp of approval all he likes, Demon's Souls already exists and it's a specific thing with a specific musical identity that shouldn't just be "updated" and changed in this way, regardless of who gives it a thumbs up. There was nothing wrong with the original soundtrack.
7:44 The change that first irked me was the Xanthous King's yellow banners. Bluepoint made them red. They were yellow for a reason. The music and sound design for Bluepoint's Storm King were amazing, though.
Your argument makes a lot of sense. I would add that the real problem with the remake being artistically inferior to the original is that new players will NEVER experience the old one, most likely. So thanks for letting people know they are missing out.
The original game felt dark, stark and almost depressing the world felt picked from a horror novel. The remake was to bright, too full of life. The original really felt like a dying region removed from the rest of the world as if evil had won and the only ones alive are now stuck in this world without hope. It made you feel hopeless like you’re fighting for something already lost with hope being “what could be,” not what is.
Actually, I find that they tried to make it too dark. Original is somewhat ominous but in a more regal manner, it's hazy, almost ascetic in a way, and the remake tried to make it more like the later games, darker like DS, violent like Bloodborne, and more stylish like DS3 (and BB).
The section about the fat officials is where you got me. Changing them from fat and creepy to fat and disgusting made you just feel sorry for them, not hate them. I only ever saw the remake version and I thought this was going to be a "back in my day" kinda thing but I actually feel you. Imagine Mergo's Wet Nurse had a weird great one face instead of the void. Would just take a lot away from her design. I will however still play the remake and I will most likely still enjoy it (or hate it for other reasons at least)
Their metal grin and laugh are stamped in my memory forever. Why in the world would they make it into a generic face like that? Do they even laugh like before ?
Take it to Bluepoint to turn a very interesting Japanese take on western fantasy into a generic western fantasy in the most egregious and expensive way possible. Architectural changes, atmosphere, and other aspects whose details are CLEARLY shown on the concept art for anyone curious on how they may look unrestrained by OG Demon's Souls' graphical limitations which Bluepoint proceeded to entirely ignore. The most telling is when enemy designs like Fat Official were turned into generic zombies especially, which is a deliberate change on their part as dialogue from Rydell SPECIFICALLY references the fat official as "that ebony swine" and the remake removes the word "ebony" from there. The use of color specifically feels inspired by the obnoxious trend in Hollywood of turning every scene into the most overused combination on the color wheel: Orange and teal. Literally every area had its colors nudged in that direction even where it makes no sense. Latria's second half was given a big glowing orange moon specifically for that purpose. Speaking of Hollywood, the soundtrack is Hollywood-ified to the max. So many tracks that had no choral elements in the original now sport a choir for some reason. They put a choir on the bloody Leechmonger, a pile of leeches now has an epic choir blasting your ears out. There's absolutely no restraint with this sorta stuff which completely contrasts with the original's subdued use of instruments to emphasize specific aspects of the each boss' character. Sound design changes were also annoying, especially the constant loud yelling on every sword swing from both the player and enemies. The sounds of impact and explosions also feel jarring with some stuff feeling straight out of a sci fi game. Continuing the trend of sci-fi stuff, the UI is terrible. It's so "clean" it'd feel right at home in space game or something, doesn't belong in a medieval game at all. Worse still is how much it violates pan-and-scan and other rules of UI design which FromSoft are uaually very cautious about.
And you just know they removed the "ebony swine" line because it "might be perceived as racist" on twitter, even though it obviously referred to the black masks/clothes the officials were wearing.
@@MidlifeCrisisJoe I don't like to assume intent too much but that was my first gut instinct too, that they felt it's "racist" and "problematic" to be left as is.
@@SuperMaster000X It's very Hollywood in many ways, including the racism. Satsuki who used to look like a regular badass guy was turned into some generic asian stereotype lol.
Enough minor changes will stack on top of each other until the entire project becomes something completely different to the original. The Demon's Souls remake unironically lacks soul, it's all generic dark fantasy opulence and fluff you'd find in a game like Lords of the Fallen, not Demon's Souls.
I always thought I was losing my mind whenever I told someone I didn't like the artistic changes around the time the Remake came out. Glad to know I'm not alone
They didn't change anything. He actually is not wearing a mask in the original but PS3 graphics players seem to think that it is a mask. The PS5 version he still does the same smile but From Software games never animated their faces so his face is always smiling to give off that effect.
@@TheMeanArena So they did change a lot. His face isn't silver to give the impression of a mask and he's not smiling constantly to keep the appearance of a mask.
@@ThyBigCheddar Because it wasn't a mask in the original. From Software has a history of not animating faces so in order to show his sinister smiling, that is the look he was given permanently. The color itself doesn't matter. The PS5 version has a full facial animation system so he doesn't walk around looking that way but still does the smile frequently.
@@TheMeanArena They have a history of not animating voice acting. They have a lot of facial animations. Their second souls game has characters with animated faces. The colour itself does matter. It matters a lot infact. Because it gives an impression of a mask. I don't know why your so dead set on the theory that From didn't animate the face and just made the face metal colour as opposed to being made to look like a mask. Actual mental gymnastics
@@ThyBigCheddar Well we're not talking bout my mentality, we're talking about a game. He wasn't wearing a mask in the original and he's not wearing a mask in the remake. Yes, they changed the color of his skin, who cares? The shiny effect on his face was just a terrible choice in shader / materials. Same goes with shiny bricks or glowing leaves etc. in the original. Demon's Souls is my favorite game of all time and the remake IMO just elevated the original. I don't care about the small changes here and there as they do not hurt the game.
This is why learning your favorite game will be remade by Bluepoint should send a shiver of dread down your spine. Shadow of the Colossus is my favorite game of all time. I played the ps4 bluepoint remake and it was ruined. I've known for some time Bluepoint on a conceptual level is a problem. This studio's leadership might not have the concept everything existing in a game was a choice based on engine, time, restrictions, hardware etc. If anything is going to be changed, this includes graphical fidelity, genuine care must be given to the original intent. This is why I'm not excited for a bluepoint bloodborne remake--the studio just misses the point on everything. Not sure if Sony or bluepoint but it needs to stop in regards to any remake.
I think the irony for me is that the thing which kept me from really noticing (or caring too much about) these kinds of "arrogant" (and I fully agree; these are arrogant) changes is that I was remembering the way Demon's Souls made me feel in 2009, and those memories were carrying me through; I was effectively projecting my 2009 experience into this game. I also knew there was no reproducing that experience from 2009 for several reasons. (I just assumed Latria was less scary because I had been there so many times before, and didn't really think about it beyond that, for example.) I'm surprised you didn't mention the original Flamelurker design, which had immediate back-lash, and was "restored" to have its original face. It's a shame the kind of clear and more comprehensive criticism featured in this video didn't arise sooner. Excellent video though. Nothing can recapture the feeling of playing Demon's Souls in 2009 for me. I still enjoy this remake for the game-play, but you're right that the things over which Bluepoint glossed pretty clearly indicate that they didn't fully understand (enjoy, or even appreciate) the nuances of original game. Maybe some of these things were at the behest of Shuhei Yoshida, who originally said Demon's Souls was "unbelievably bad." I guess I'm not looking forward to a Bluepoint Bloodborne remake and/or follow-up anymore. 😔
I agree and see what you're saying, I enjoyed my remake play through a lot and didn't see what was wrong but you kinda so carry over your experience huh
There’s no proof that’s even happening… honestly I don’t know why Sony doesn’t just have them get it up to 60fps. Also, one thing that people forget is that Bloodborne was not made ONLY by From, but Japan Studios… which is now defunct. It is certainly possible that they could be filling in JS’s role WITH From on a sequel. Honestly tho, i doubt they are working on revamping a ps4 game. Sony has A LOT of properties that have not seen the light of day since the ps3 or ps2, so I think it’s more likely that any remake they may be working on would be something ps3 era or earlier, which so far has been their MO
This has eerie similarity to the attitude that the Eidos Montreal team had towards the original Thief games when they were marketing their own, new Thief (4). The creative director straight up said that people are looking through rose-tinted glasses at the original games, especially The Dark Project and The Metal Age, and that in his opinion the games just weren't as good as people think they were. And then they showed footage of their "Garrett" shooting guards with the bow and gaining headshot XP. It was so obvious that they either didn't understand what made the originals great or they did but hated it and instead wanted to push their own ego in and create this bombastic action-adventure game instead of the slow-burn, thoughtful immersive experience that the originals were.
I don't think it was quite that way for Demons Souls since there is obvious love and reverence for the original but damn if you aren't absolutely right on Thief. What a debacle. They even shunned the original voice actor for Garrett and he was available.
@@Vespyr_ Indeed. Even if some people don't agree with a lot of the changes the Demon's souls Remake brought to the table, that game still understood the original. Thief on the other hand completely missed the mark. It's even insulting to draw that comparison.
It’s almost like one game was made by people who got creative because they thought it was a lost cause, and the other was made by people who were smug and complacent because they knew a graphically impressive launch title was going to sell. It’s almost exactly like that.
Reminds me of the pokemon company, who "allows themselves" to not have overtime and have EXTREMELY lenient work ethics while also switching out lower level devs like they were straight up expandable because "in the end, it's gonna sell anyway" And the technical qualities of modern pkmn games shows it very clearly, leaving very little room for creative innovation.
While that is a fair point, at the end of the day you haters make up like 5% if not less of the demons souls community. Bluepoint games did a fantastic job at remaking demons souls and received mostly praise for their work, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they are rebuilding Bloodborne as we speak
Man to call Blue Point smug is the biggest of L of this decade. They are passionate and they are fans. The remake is also 50 billion times better than the original. This was an L video
Amazing video !! You nailed it..I hope developers see this video and take it to heart. Just amazing work !! Thank You for bringing this to light to everyone. I have always had problems with the demon souls remake
Yeah, it reminds me of modern historical movies that change the fucking history it's supposed to correctly portray just to push a narrative. It's not really as bad as that, but both examples involve massive egos and people who think they can do whatever they want. Like, did you know that the kingdom of Dahomey (from "The Woman King") didn't "free slaves from the evil whites"? It was actually the OPPOSITE. At that point the slave trade was made illegal and the Brits told the king to pretty please stop selling his people into slavery. Mf said "aight bet" and still kept selling people, only this time ~illegally~
I immediately was put off by the colours in the new version. The original had such restraint in the art direction that no other From game was able to reach. I understand why they made the remake more colourful to give it more screenshot value but in doing so they took away the most unique pillar of it’s entire visual identity. Even with the “classic” filter it looks more like dark souls palette than the intentionally bleak original. The art direction wasn’t aiming for horror. It has a melancholic undertone to it that lets you in on the idea that all these stories are relatable on a human level. Simply making everything look like a slasher film removes that idea and reduces add characters and enemies to moving targets. Demons Souls is still my favourite From game and it’s largely due to the mood in that game. While I respect the work that has gone into the remake. It’s not a replacement nor a retelling of the original experience. It’s something else and something less.
I have to slightly disagree here, the desaturated colours in the original date the game to the seventh generation of consoles where games were legally obligated to not have any colour - But I absolutely agree with the melancholic feel of the music and art direction, Bluepoint missed the mark completely when it came to those, I'm listening to DeS music as I'm writing this and it's so different from any other Souls game but BP still decided to make the music more like a Souls or Bloodborne game when they really shouldn't have. And I'm not even gonna open the can of worms that is the Blizzard-inspired designs.
I just started playing the remake and you are 100% right about Latria! When I got there I felt so calm and at peace, I traversed the level feeling like everything was ok. In contrast to what I remember feeling in the original, that sense of dread and wtf is going on in this place! And of course hearing that loud ass scream of agony and stopping in my tracks and wondering if I should take another step or turn the damn game off. Completely opposite in the remake.
I never played the OG but played all the other soulsborne games but here's my devil's advocate argument: I felt Latria unsettling especially because of the "calm" song. Because I knew what type of game I was playing and I knew that in a souls game when something is "calm" something bad is about to happen. That's what I felt throughout the whole area. Maybe that's what BP tried to do. Trying to make veteran souls player (who never played demon souls) afraid of what's coming next.
Man, a lot of these comments just seem like they didn't even watch the video. Any criticism that isn't an obvious, surface level one is immediately considered "nitpicking", "reaching" or just "bitching"
To be fair, a lot of people just don't understand aesthetics which is reflected in pretty much any remake nowadays The crash bandicoot remake, the resident evil remakes, (I can go on) are all kinda mold themselves into this really transparent "we just threw high end textures and call it a day" ugly uncanny void To many people, especially Sony fanboys just kinda despise anything that doesn't aim for realism in any degree
What they did to Mephistopheles is a crime, just to show how they managed to make the characters open their mouths when speaking, they removed the mask that covered her face and that made her so intimidating and they changed her voice to a more feminine one.
Mephistopheles' mask never "covered her face" in Demon's Souls though. It covered parts of it, specifically the upper half, leaving the mouth and bottom part of her face exposed. The remake made the "holes" for her eyes slightly bigger and made the mask cover more of her lower face. They also gave her a hood. While I personally prefer (most) of the original's design then the core idea of her design, that being a mysterious masked woman dressed in black and gold is very much kept intact and certainly not changed to "show of a moving mouth". As they wouldn't need to change her original mask for that, and certainly wouldn't need to make the mask reach lower on her face. Again I don't personally like it, nor do I think its the best design in general. She has problems in terms of design in both the original and the remake, ironically its the same thing about the designs in each that bothers me but for completely different reasons. In the original the "holes" for her eyes feel too small, while in the remake the feel too big in my opinion. (I think the better solution would be cover them up entirely, as to make it unclear how she sees or if she can even see at all...)
@@bigdumbfatcat2869 ideological? breaking news: women and black people exist. stop inventing issues you child. of all the things in the remake to complain about you choose the two most insignificant and harmless things which were in the original damn game anyway.
It absolutely is not equivalent i barely noticed the statue in either version and sorta just did a that looks cool shrug radahn is one of the most spectacle driven bosses in the most spectacle driven from soft game it’s maybe equivalent to changing like the big statue where u find in Nokron or something
All the more reason why I'm subscribed to you, and I'm gonna stay subscribed! You don't care if people will hate on you, but you care for being informative and explaining why you think as you do. Many people will just say you're wrong, and never give any reason to it, or just dislike your comment, without bothering looking for reasoning. I got so much hate when I commented on some of the design decisions being wrong and fundamentally flawed in the remake.
Right? I keep seeing this with games that had super good graphics (The Order: 1886, TLoUS2, Callisto Protocol, etc), and there will always be an army just waiting in the background ready to praise and defend it, and unironically post "I enjoy them bro, what flaws are you talking about" as if they played an entirely diffierent game. It's like there is a subconscious instinct within these people, that they felt bad criticizing something that looks really beautiful and is tempted to defend them. Well, game studio, you can have your art team waste money and time modeling the most beautiful skin pore on your character, but if your gameplay loop, artstyle, music, and story sucks then your game deserves to be harshly criticized.
I’m glad I’m not alone with this opinion. I cannot get into the remake like I have the other entire DS series, BB, Sekiro and ER. Literally, it’s the art direction that pulls me out of the game
I genuinely hope the fact that elden ring crushingly outsold demon's remake and that is so much more played today than demon's(hell, probably even Bloodborne is more played today than demon's remake) shows them just how much the souls audience cares about these things.
@@iota-09 Yes so instead of a $60 remake we will get a £80 port like what we got with Dark Souls Remastered (YOU KNOW THE THING THAT EVERYONE HATED AS WELL) that took 5 minutes and $0 thanks guys....
@@alumlovescake but the remastered was 40$ and mostly fine as it also fixed a lot of the issues of the original and added a few nice QoL improvements? sure it didn't add much more beyond what people already did with DSFix, but you also need to think about it from a company's perspective... and yes, i'd still rather have a 40€ remastered than a 80€ remake that tramples on the original's core artistic values, in fact, i really hope that's the case for bloodborne; a dark souls style remastered would be perfect for it, even if arguably overpriced.
@@iota-09 Dark Souls Remastered is universally hated, even more then Demon Souls Remake They didn't fix half the bugs and didn't even and omni rolling it was a a simple port to consoles and a simple patch for PC. Nothing more. BB is Sony so we all know it will a $60 remaster/port so I would much rather pay that for something that took actual effort and is actually good And as I said to literary everyone else. You have made up half of these things you are making out are "bits of lore taken out" and most of the things in the og were not art but rather technical limitations.
A central problem with the art design, which I think most people struggle to articulate, is how much more positive space there is in the remake over the original. This is a bit complicated to explain in text. Basically, the human eye and brain are extremely sensitive to contrast. Between colours, in different hues, saturations and shades (especially shades). Between shapes, in 2D & 3D. Between shapes in different positions, rotations and scales. Between the size, shape and composition of different groups of elements. And any combination of the above. Because humans are pattern-seeking animals. We naturally pick up on patterns, and breaks in patterns. Contrast is a break in a visual pattern, so it attracts our attention. Dark against light. Red against blue. A circle among squares. An individual apart from a crowd. We tune out patterns, because they don't demand a lot of attention. If we've seen one bit of it, we don't need to see the rest. We can just extrapolate from what we've already seen. While breaks in patterns get our attention, because we have to determine what we're seeing, and what it might mean. Even if the exception is meaningless, our instinct is to check anyway. That's what positive and negative space are. Negative space is any element of an image that is either a repeating pattern, or a random pattern. Such areas of an image don't attract our attention, because they are predictable. You can even make highly-contrasting visual elements read as negative space, by arranging them in clearly repeating or random patterns. On the other hand, positive space is the elements of an image that are irregular. Such areas of an image attract our attention, because they are unpredictable. They are questions that demand answers. And therein lies the great difference between the original and the remake of Demons Souls. Look at the opening of original Boletarian Palace. The high stone walls, towers and turrets are covered in repeating elements. There's the crenellations and machicolations atop every wall; the quoins running up every outside corner; the arrow-slits in the walls; and the whole thing is covered in a repeating stone brick texture. All the contrasting details of the building are organized so that they read as negative space, whilst still being recognizably a castle. Compare that to remake Boletarian Palace. Putting aside the architecture being a completely different shape in places, it's all covered in irregular details. There's the arched stone decorations; the coloured draping banners; the random and overwrought wooden hoarding around the gatehouse towers and elsewhere; and the damage to the crenellations and the fire in some of the hoarding. All of these things are vastly more eye-catching than the original castle, because they are all pieces of positive space that were not present in the original game. These kinds of changes are everywhere in the remake. Areas that were previously negative space have been filled with detail, making them positive space. Which changes how those environments feel, because now they're more visually-stimulating than they were previously. But it's visual stimulation for no other purpose than the stimulation itself. It's more detail for the sake of having more detail, not in service of replicating the original game's experience. And making previously-negative space into positive space is not an inherent improvement. Because filling an image with positive space makes it feel like the whole image is yelling "LOOK AT ME". And in a videogame, the imagery is yelling for attention constantly. It is exhausting. Negative space gives the viewer a visual rest, and allows the remaining positive space to stand out more through contrast. Good art needs a mixture of positive and negative space. The original Demons Souls understood this. The remake does not.
Well said! Details for details sake. This is what separates the artist from the amateur. The artist understands where details are not needed. The amateur fills the space with details and imagines it to be art.
I think this is incredibly well said. I'll add this; I think much of the motivation behind Blue Points erroneous art style stems from their desire to continue the visual style of Dark Souls 1 and 3. I think they failed tremendously, but Dark Souls 3 especially is very busy. In my opinion, Dark Souls 3 is in a minor way guilty of what you're describing here.
Incredible insight. I'm not planning to play any remakes, but I remember looking around in the original, when i first played it, at whatever detail broke the pattern, such as the mausoleum in 1-1, the giant statue that shoots arrows in 3-1, the shanty town in the valley of defilemnt and the pool of blood in front of maiden astrea. Similarly, in the original dead space, which i also replayed a lot, they built each level from negative space, repetitive corridors, yet in the medical level, there are bloody operating tables, in engineering there are also repetitive corridors, but with pipes, of different sizes, that let off steam, and giant fans spinning somewhere above, and the shadow is projected on the corridor you are walking in. You can even compare dead space 1 with 2, which i think is also "loaded" in positive space. The golden rule of game design, is "less is more" imo. Thats the elegance Miyazaki is talking about. This is what more processing power has done for the game industry. Look at how they made the berserk 2013 adaptation, they animated individual soldiers in the backgrounds fighting, and it looks crappy. In the 1997 version, the fights were showed as frames taken from the manga, colored, with clashing of swords and horses neighing, which was very elegant.
You also explained perfectly why I love DeS and the first two dark souls gsmes way more than the rest of the souls games from soft released after There's a lot of oversaturation of details almost everywhere in posterior souls games
Another instance of this happening in games is Majora's Mask. Where the 3ds remake got rid of the demon face licking the triforce in stone tower temple. Which indicates some evil things go on there. Now it's just generic blocks in the remake. Completely ruins the anti gods vibe in stone tower temple.
Yeah and I was called autistic because I was upset about that. “What does it matter if one texture changed” Like I dunno kind of everything about the vibe of the area?
@@MysteriousStranger50 lol, people don't really get how much symbolism can really add world building. Conveying information without a single word. Unfortunately most people don't notice, or care about symbols, and just chalk it up to aesthetics. It also doesn't help that understanding symbolism isn't something that's really taught. Which adds to the millennial writing style that pisses me off. Where everything is just a reference or derivative of something else.
I'm sorry, there's a demon face LICKING the triforce in the OG version of MM?? What does one type into their search engine to see this? I gotta know. In general, I do feel like MM3D was a bit of a... well, not a mistake, per say, but something that doesn't do its job in remastering the OG. I read somewhere that Aonuma was basically ashamed of MM and tried to sort of nudge it in a different direction with 3D. It's a shame because it's a clear expression of a point in his life where he wasn't in the best of places, but still managed to create something that on the surface is a sad, dark and depressing story, but underneath contains a message of hope. Removing the little things like this make for something that is no longer a faithful recreation of the mental state the creators had been in during the original development, but isn't really lighthearted like its predecessor either. The Deku form not building speed well for lilypad jumps and the Zora form requiring magic to swim fast don't help anything either though.
@@randibillett472 I think the 3DS remakes were perfect in what they set out to do.. but I barely remember playing them because after the first hour the novelty wears off and you're just replaying a game you already know beat for beat. Remakes seem pointless for returning players but are excellent for new comers. No coat of paint can match venturing into these worlds the first time around. Even Link's Awakening remake on the Switch, beautiful job but.. I know what's going to happen. Playing remakes of games you've played is equivalent to looking at old photos. It's nice for a nostalgia buzz but you can't go back. BUT! Again, for new comers it's perfect. Never played Wind Waker till the Wii U port, loved it. Same with Demon's Souls here so I'm not entirely against remakes but from experience and it took me a while to figure this out but I just don't care about remakes of games I've already played... But I'll definitely re-play Bloodborne when that gets a remake. I got the platinum for it, loved the game but my friend beat every boss without leveling at level 4, I tried to do the same, just got past The One Reborn but gave up. Still, to me the game isn't complete until I do this arbitrary level 4 run.
I know I'm late in this comment, but you did a great job describing the issues with the remake. I completely agree that they messed up Tower of Latria the most, especially with the Fools Idol. She's meant to trick poor souls with her false calm beauty that in the image of their queen, but instead made her grotesque for the sake of grotesque. You also brought this up in the video, Miyazaki added in an interview (I can't remember if it was game informer or something else). He specifically did not want to add gross disgusting gore demons for the sake of it. He wanted something "alien like" and "elegant." (Again, sorry, don't remember the exact words just that it's along those lines.) Personally, the music also feels off.
@@thedarkroom6416 They made her look cursed ffs. Her hair is frazzled, and she looks like a damn poltergeist. 22:00 She originally looked like: 21:42 They completely altered her entire character. How are you not seeing it? Are you trolling?
@thedarkroom6416 Are you blind or something? Adjudicator, Vanguard, fat officials are prime examples. They changed them from being eerie, strange creatures to warty, gross enemies. Watching og footage feels creepy to me, watching remake footage just grosses me out, scares absolutely nothing.
@@thedarkroom6416 Sorry if I sounded offensive. I'm just so used to seeing people using "uh, what do you mean grotesque, it is clearly creepy" as an argument, and it pisses me off. Also, you're right, Fool's Idol is not the best example for a grotesque boss design in this remake. But they did change her from something that was supposed to allure people into an evil looking witch. The original had this creepy, yet calm stare, the remake just looks evil for the sake of evil.
So glad you made this video. Even if you forgot the most important change: they changed the Maiden Astraea fight. For one, I get a very heroic vibe from the music. Which I abhor from that fight. You’re supposed to question if you’re truly the good guy you get to this area. And the atmosphere the remake music brings is the total opposite. Second, I think I heard somewhere that her voice actor is the same, but if so, she put absolutely zero emotion in her lines in the remake compared to the original. Either way, whoever it was didn’t seem to care about the situation their character was in. In the original, you can practically taste the disgust and hate in her voice when she says “take your *precious* demon soul”. There’s almost no emotion in the remake. I did enjoy my time with the remake, I had tons of fun invading and getting to play the game online. But I sincerely wish we had gotten a game with more love and thought to the original atmosphere.
That's weird. Miyazaki seems like the kind of person who, if they simply just shot him an email asking nicely, he'd be all "Oh! Fuck yeah you can have our design docs! Hell, I'll give you shit from all the other games I worked on, too! Why would you need art for Armored Core 4? Idunno! Take it anyway!"
This actually happened with the halo remakes. the composers for the remakes soundtrack werent allowed to talk to the original composer. I assume these situations arise because of legal issues. corporations like Microsoft and Sony dont care about the original creators intents because they have full rights to the IP now and they dont want any outside involvement even if they were the original creators
>DS1 remake >hey these primordial serpents look weird and clunky and have goofy voice acting, let's make them look like scary dragons and have grimdark downpitched voices >this onion guy armor should be black and red and have spikes, that would be way cooler >modern audiences might get offended by the amazing chest ahead, get rid of it >Anor londo looks so basic and empty, let's add crates, barrels and piles of rubble everywhere >Ornstein and Smough should be a lesbian power couple
I'd like to see a part 2 to this video, comparing the other worlds between the original and the remake. I've played the remake but not the original. Although I'm fascinated to here more of your thoughts on both.
The remake is visually amazing but my god, it completely murders the feel of the original. The atmosphere and visuals of the original are so unique and captivating
Another thing that sucks is that during the development of any video game, especially the older ones, Hardware played a huge role in limitations placed on the original design. Remakes happen years later when hardware limitations are very different. BluePoint had the opportunity to not only recapture the true feeling of Demon's Souls, but actually improve upon it, being able to fill in these details or add elements that might have once been planed but were cut. Maybe the entirety of the Demon's Soul remake should have been in mirror mode to emphasize that it wasn't trying to be the same lol
I think they went with "bombastic" overdose. Instead of making everything more detailed, fresh and atmospheric they went for "ramp up everything to 12 of of 10". Every time I see how many particles fly around I think they could have sank those workhours and console power to lighting, framerate and textures. Perf mode should be upscaled 4k 120fps while normal 4k 60fps.
I wholeheartedly agree, even though I'm not particularly nostalgic, as I played the original 8 years after its release. This remake is like someone reproduced a Monet painting but with a realistic art style, and doing so also felt like changing the colorimetry and tweaking the designs of some elements. Some people - who don't feel much love for the original - will look at the remade one and say it's the better, "definitive version". Others will validly be more critical of the changes, their purpose, and the distinct (and arguably inferior) atmosphere/aura they create. I sincerely invite those who embrace the remake to reflect on an important conceptual distinction: graphics =/= art-direction. The latter is far more important for a video game to be memorable and enter posterity, as the original Demon's Souls did. The remake, however, is neither faithful to the original art direction nor does it improve upon it. Therefore, the Demon's Souls remake is, indeed, inferior to the original.
Weren't bluepoint also responsible for Shadow of the colossus remake? Its atmosphere also suffered with their changes, but much less so than demon's souls
two notes: Ostrava was isolated from his homeland and father for most of his youth. I think a better point about the oppressive brutalism of the castle-city with the lack of nature being something that was intentional and to do with the degradation within the fog. At the same time a lot of the older textures implied the sort of disrepair and growth; mainly the floor tiles The Vanguard Demon was a reused asset from a previous game. It's definitely a conscious choice to reuse him but it's worth keeping in the back of your mind when considering what From wanted to portray always wished with all the creative liberty they decided to flex that they would've added the cut archstone instead of making it a 1:1 copy of the levels and gameplay but with some cool coins and the penetrator armour
One thing I don't understand really is that while people are complaining about these little changes which have like zero percent effect on Lore implication or gameplay but they are fine with asking Blue point for adding the allegedly cut content and add a whole new area which never existed in the original game. Why?
@@nayyarrashid4661 A short and skinny explanation is because the Archstone itself has always been in the game. Both as a physical Archstone you can walk up to and completely unique UI element in the tendency screen. Combine that with the fact From would later put out some amazing dlcs that built upon lore and unused files you can get why some people may long for such an expansion. A fair bit of the Sixth area is in the game's files!
Demon Souls Remake was my first and favorite SoulsBourne so clicking on the video I was a little confused. After playing through several other of Miazaki’s masterpieces I have grown to love and appreciate all his minute details in his work. You have shed light upon the tarnishing of his original masterpiece, thank you for opening my eyes. In a way DSR is it’s very own Fools Idol…
@@ni9274 They enjoyed the game when they played it, but the video still made them realize that the changes made in the remake are idiotic and make things worse.
@@desirewithinus Is unfortunate that you hate something just because a TH-cam said so. cCap_n is big enough to see the negatives without needing to hate.
Some of you wont know how I feel until Bluepoint remakes Bloodborne and changes the things you like. 😔😔
I agree with you 100 % this is the best video you have done and you said what I’ve been arguing on Reddit since 2020 to massive downvotes lol
Compelling points so far. I never played the original, and I think that's why I enjoyed the remake so much. I understand where you're coming from, and can agree with others echoing that I wouldn't want Bluepoint to remake Bloodborne.
Edit: finished watching and I can TOTALLY see where you're coming from. The changes you described in Latria alone would make me depressed if they did the same thing to Bloodborne.
God I hope that never happens. I would kill for a remaster at 60 FPS, but they literally shouldn’t even touch anything about it. Just make the gameplay 60 FPS, that’s it.
@@greatestcait Bloodborne PC will be the best game ever made *continues breething copium*
Truuueeee lmfao
"second of all, no I can't let people enjoy things, because that would prevent me from enjoying the thing I like the most, which is critical analysis and being a hater."
Caught me off guard with that one, I burst out laughing.
Based beyond belief.
Same
Truly based. More and more people need a wake-up call that criticisms does not equal hate/hatred.
Yeah funny that he would be some close minded i spent 2k on a ps5 rip the ps3 gow 3 wasn't even that good
@@worsethanhitler4022 Que?
During the segment about deliberate changes that missed the point, I wish you had included a segment about the Flamelurker. It was apparent before release Bluepoint didn't 'get' Demons Souls vibe. I say this as in one of the 1st trailers they showed off their design for Flamelurker and it was a generic westernized demon. It looked like it was designed for Diablo, not Demon Souls. Due to minor backlash from that trailer, they did update Flamelurkers' design to be truer to his intended design. But it left a lot of questions about what they had done with any content that wasn't included in trailers and didn't take feedback on. Which left us with what we have now.
Melted dwarf king > generic bulky monster
Did you want him to copy/paste every point other TH-camrs have made? This video was practically a regurgitation of other peoples’ work already. You know what I’m talking about lol.
@@___.51 How could I know what you're talking about? This is the only video I've ever seen about demon souls remake.
The Fat Officials in particular got butched SUPER hard. They were supposed to be masked, corrupted humans with the fatness being part of a disturbingly jolly image that did horrible things. The remake Official are just...gross and bloated while also lacking the dark jolliness which completely defeats the point of this enemy entirely.
Especially because vanguard demon isn't even an original design of demon's souls, unlike the flamelurker.
One part of the environmental storytelling and lore I like to point out is also in Latria. In the original, the level has these yellow flags, or straps of cloth, spread throughout the level. This obviously, OBVIOUSLY references the Old Monk's takeover and corruption of the area, which the player only realizes later when they meet the boss and see his famously yellow robes, the source of his power.
Now Blue Point saw these bits of foreshadowing, figured yellow wasn't scary enough or something, and made all the flags red.
RED
How do you even miss the point this bad?
Yellow is glory and warm care, red is danger and blood, OBVIOUS color theory, right bluepoint?
...
Sigh.
A lot of people think the Latria banners are a nitpick but the thing is that it's so emblematic of the remake as a whole that they had absolutely no good reason to change but did so anyway and in the process totally stripped out a piece of worldbuilding and environmental storytelling, and the same people who OK'd that also approved of *all the other changes* in the remake.
This shit right here is why remakes for Souls games should not be given to studios who are going to take such drastic creative liberties. The Souls game's stories, narrative, and world building relies so much on the LITTLE details interspersed through the levels, art, and character design that changing shit all willy nilly without understanding what youre changing runs the risk of completely ruining it.
And the tragic part is that 80% of the people who play these games dont engage with that shit and have no idea its there so they'll just defend bluepoint and say all of us are being "nit picky"....sighhhh.
@@ATC43 in fairness, if they don't notice the changes and still enjoy the games as much as any other fan they'd have a point... if not for the fact that so many people who loved the original didn't get hooked to the remake because of that, or in some cases, people who saw comparison videos and such genuinely liked the original more.
@@ATC43 the reason we say you guy are nitpicking is because you just say the same thing over and over again like you guys say the atmosphere is ruined and you repeat that
Now I'm imagining dark souls where they play Ornstein and Smough's theme music as background music for the entirety of Anor Londo and redesign Smough so that he's fleshy and sad.
Exactly what I thought. Or Imagine if they didn't like the duo mechanic and just make you fight them one after the other or something. I would be very disappointed.
Also change the Milan Cathedral inspired design to something inspired by ie. Wieskirche or Hagia Sophia.
Also remove Smough's laugh which is on point for his lore
The sheer thought of them replacing plin plin plon with big orchestra terrifies me.
@@Sabbathfaax Dark souls where instead of the sad, somber, tired final boss theme they turn it into bombastic choirs like Old King Allant
the luck of bluepoint is that demons souls was an extremely niche game, if they make these changes in dark souls for example, they would suffer a wave of hate, souls is not about the graphics but the best set of atmosphere and design that counts their stories, and that's why they are such special games
* I know bluepoint was never going to do a dark souls remake because it's not a sony IP, but it was just to give a context that people were "ok" with demons souls because it's not a very popular game, unfortunately
People complained enough about some slightly brighter spells.
I'd give them a pass to change only izalith and izalith alone, should they touch anything else it's war.
@@fastenedcarrot9570 Personally I complained about the spells NOT working in the remaster, at least the lock on, due to a lazy implementation of higher frames. Plus the bonfire aesthetic was butchered.
@@iota-09 I'd change Izalith. Double the enemies and make the lava brighter. Perfect.
I did not play the original. The lullaby argument is what drove this home for me. I cannot imagine how I'd feel of they remade bloodborne and added the music box throughout central Yarnham. It would absolutely ruin the greatest atmosphere I have ever experienced in a video game. Bloodborne was my first fromsoft game and the crippling fear of wandering the streets of yharnum was the most immersive atmosphere of all. Hearing the music box only from outside the gate and finding a way to get to the window was exhilarating. It would dramatically change if the music played throughout, and even worse if they made it soothing and less creepy.
Lol well central Yarnham does ironically have the music box playing only it’s quite faint, however your point is valid.
@@dylanschmeichel2008 only when you're close to the girl's house, no?
frankly speaking, i think DS1, sekiro and especially elden ring has substantially better and far more creative atmosphere and art than bbs drab constant grey corridors and castle/church spires, but i think theres something about your first souls game's atmosphere that always stays with you. mine was ds1 and its world will always have a really special place in my heart. never have i been more immersed in a video game than my 1st playthrough of ds1 over a decade ago, bb just doesnt come anywhere near to replicating that feeling for me, in fact i remember feeling really disappointed by bb when i finished it the first time, its environments just lacked the creativity and variety of the other games, sekiro and especially elden ring came really close though, especially elden ring, which at some points not only matched ds1, but surpassed it, but the rest like bb, demons and ds3? nah not really, they are fantastic games dont get me wrong, especially ds3 which arguably has the greatest boss/lore moments in fromsoft history! lets see if elden ring dlc bosses can top that, and im sure they will.
@@flamingmanure when I say atmosphere is not just the colors. The true meaning behind the atmosphere for me is the "gothic horror" aspect of it. The way bloodborne's story unfolds aligned perfectly with the changes of the atmosphere, from hunting beasts to literal great ones. I agree that nothing is like a first souls experience, but I believe Bloodborne would've been my favorite regardless.
Sekiro was damn near close though! It's the only one that I'm not confident to say it wouldn't be the best even if it was my first. But this purely from a gameplay perspective, not the setting. I did not enjoy the sengoku Japanese era more than the gothic horror. But I would be lying if the many moments like entering the dragon palace didn't leave my jaw on the ground from it's beauty. Elden ring on the other hand is an absolute "meh" for me. Not even close to dark souls. Let alone Bloodborne and Sekiro.
@@flamingmanure colour is not atmosphere, it's a part of it and those games are thematically a different genre to Bloodborne, high/dark fantasy to gothic/Lovecraftian horror, they're not comparable
The most obvious area where the remake contrasts the original is the soundtrack, understated songs are replaced by bombastic melodies. Changes like that affect the tone and give the game a different feel. Having played neither of the two games though I did listen to both osts, I find the original's to be better by its theme, best seen by the difference in maiden astraea's theme from the two games.
Some ost is good. The remake tries a new feel than the original.
@@relton66 While some tracks on their own sound good, they clash a ton with the overall tone of the game
Flamelurker’s theme is a better example, I feel like astrea’s is genuinely great for both versions of the game. While flamelurker’s theme sounds “better” in the remake, it isn’t demons souls
@@yamnbam4346 flamelurker was the one theme that felt way out of place in the original. Fighting a giant hulking fire monster that explodes while listening to a funeral song. Didn’t fit at all. That’s the one fight the remake did better, everything else missed the mark.
@@bigsmall2842 if you think Flamelurker's original theme "didn't fit" then you know nothing about Flamelurker
The concept behind the remake was: “Guess this Miyazaki guy didn’t have enough money to hire a full orchestra! Let’s correct this”
It seemed like that in the videos they released before the Remake released.
Well, but he literally didn't. Demon Souls was on a really tight budget. Not even to mention, that some of the concepts weren't even possible with the tech that existed back then.
It is just so hilarious to me, that you look at cut corners and say that it was better that way.
Exactly,this guy is nitpicking crap graphics and anime statues.lol.when the knight represents the time period
@@jasonscott6067 you're white
@@totallynoteverything1. I know I'm white and?
i’m kinda surprised you didn’t go into detail about the “bloodbourne-ization” of the soundtrack, completely killing unique boss atmospheres
Now I’ve never played the original but I will say that the original soundtrack is good and unique but there is a few boss ost that sound better in my opinion such as the penetrator boss fight you can hate on the remake as much as you want but you have to admit the new penetrator them is great
@@chestermicgun the thing is the penetrator never had his own track
@@GiantDad_ yes he just had the tower knight theme so yes the new theme is better
@@chestermicgun agree that the only good thing that they do but then again i wish his theme would be less badass like ds3 theme and more like tower knight theme and atmosphere from demon soul
@@nhan27. yes I agree
The thing about the Tower Knight's OG song is that it's a rally chant. It's symbolic of a kingdom putting all of their hope and faith into a giant knight in order to protect the kingdom against intruders that may mean harm to its inhabitants. Changing his theme into a generic orchestral piece is plain stupid.
Very cool comment. Never thought of the chant like that
It was a really badly conceived and performed chant that made thrilling David and Goliath fights sound like three ring circuses both times we had the misfortune of hearing it.
@@d.g.6147 What a bad take. It's fine if you personally didn't like it. That doesn't change the absolute fact that the original score is thematically in line with the story the game is trying to tell. The remake score is a disgrace.
@@Nomadestra *What a bad take.*
Oh, you didn't like it? :(
@@d.g.6147 Cope
I have to also mention that the change to maiden astrea's theme in the remake completely changes the tone of the fight. In the original it was supposed to make you really think about what it is you were doing and the consequences of your actions. These are real, sentient people you are slaying (sometimes). In the remake it feels like a grand fight with garl vinland with a melancholic tone. It doesn't have the same impact since garl was never supposed to be a real threat to you, although he hit hard and strong, he was designed to be able to be killed easily, you were supposed to be unstoppable, and astrea showed you what that means.
Personally and I will admit I’m a bit mixed on this. I find it more infuriating they didn’t fix Garl’s ai. Seriously in footage of the remake he looks so damn dumb that it takes me out of it. I do get the change of tone being an issue but what frustrated me is Blue Point even saw janky stuff from the original and went,”Yeah thats fine.”
I hate is how they changed Astrea's Direction in her defeat quote. Seriously the amount of Venom and Vitriol in the original line when she says " Take your Precious Demon's Soul" hammered in the tone of her fight, in the remake she sounds so bored like she barely cares that Garl died.
@@Kage-pm6qi yeah. It honestly feels like blue point fucked up so much. Hell the AI is what bothered me about the whole fight because it was something that should of been noticed and adjusted…instead they took liberties with music and such.
@@123darkelf yeah exactly the remake wanted you to remember the fight against the garl vinland, but that was always a shitty fight and they did nothing to change it.
@@Arkunter yeah. Its like,”AH MUR BADASS MUSIC MAKE BETTER,” but Garl still a dumba-“ITTTTT BETTA!”
The point about the existence of the remake reducing access to the original is so true and infuriating to me. I'm just imagining this being the basis for future remasters of Demon's Souls to future systems, instead of the true original, and that's just sad. Biggest reason I've kept my PS3: so that it's not forgotten.
Good thing it emulates really well too.
no one is going to forget the og stop being dramatic. sure the remake is lacking but stop acting like it stole the original game from us lol
The thing about the original demons souls is that sony owns the ip, right? Which means its harder for fromsoft to port the game in the way they want. I think demons souls was just a safe bet for sony to show off ps5 graphics, and bluepoint was just coming of SotC. I think it was more of a timing thing than anything, sure it wasnt handled well but i dont think DS would have been ported or even touched at all, imo this at least brings attention to the original, which is too often overshadowed by dark souls.
What is the most disturbing about this remake is that when they show trailer for this game we saw a completly different design for the flamelurker and people complain so they went back and change it why didn’t they understand that it would be the same for all of the boss ?
The music was everything to me. Scores for film are made to help set a mood and compliment the visuals and story. When they changed the score for DeS so drastically, it changed the experience of the game for anyone playing it for the first time.
Maiden Astrea theme :(:(:(
The music sounds straight out of dark souls 3 or BB and it's a shame.
The main OST track was the worst offender for me. It went from bizarre and disconcerting -> epic and only slightly offbeat.
What even is Tower Knight without the soundtrack going "HO HOHOHO HO" at you??
Man I REALLY wish there was a toggle in the remake for.the original soundtrack and voice acting
I don’t think people will understand the problem until Bluepoint remakes Bloodborne and gives Ebrietas horrible acne, adds six rows of nipples to Mergo’s Wet Nurse, makes Lady Maria look evil when she is one of the kindest people in the lore, replaces Gehrman’s theme with an epic orchestra, makes the music box play through all of Yharnam instead of near the little girl’s house, and so on and so forth.
Except that blue point never really did all that I’ve looked at the old and new boss designs and really the only one that got a really drastic change was like fools idol and armor spider
@@chestermicgun They did do all that.
Ebrietas acne: Vanguard Demon
Wet Nurse nipples: Adjudicator
Evil Maria: Fool’s Idol
Gehrman’s theme replaced: False King Allant
Music Box: Mistress in Latria
I agree that most of the bosses were fine. The Remake is largely fine and even good. Some designs were on par, some aspects of the boss were sub par but the whole thing was on par, etc. Few were improved imo, like Penetrator’s red parts on his armor and adding a storm to Storm King and the sound design.
But a good amount of the iconic enemy and boss designs were made gross looking. Like Adjudicator was a weird potato sack with a tongue and tattoos (I want a plushie of the og Adjudicator) but now he just has gross nipples and teeth. Vanguard looks gross and menacing rather than goofy but menacing.
Some NPCs were butchered like Satsuki being a horribly racist caricature. And this is not a matter of preference, that is just straight up morally wrong.
I wouldn’t mind the design changes if the remake didn’t replace the original, but it did. When you google Demon’s Souls, the remake is the first result. The original is stuck without a remaster or port while the Remake is pushed in front of it. The original will be inaccessible and forgotten in the minds of many. The moment the og one gets ported or remastered, I can appreciate the remake for what it is rather than kind of dislike it for what Sony made it do to the original.
Just the thought of them doing a remake of Bloodborne terrifies me.
Don't forget every dark level being bathed in supersaturated orange glows from over the top lighting effects.
Don't forget 60 fps/4k graphics
I believe the elegant thing is how everything looks like the things put themselves together instead of being just a pile of stuff. Like in dark souls, the serpent men honestly look like they actually put their equipment together to work well with them. Overall just a lot of things look like they were put together well
Agree 100% on everything said here. The reality is this BP misunderstood the entire 'point' of what the game is about.
The game is about Human Greed and the Cruelty we inflict on one another, it is NOT an 'Epic' Demon Slaying game.
The Epic Music with the fight of True King Allant is one of my greatest issues with it. In the original that moment made me feel genuinely sick, with the sound track to match it.
They changed the true king allant music to epic? That’s ridiculous lol. It’s so obviously supposed to be an anticlimax that I almost want to wear a tinfoil hat and say they intentionally desecrated the game. I could see them messing up the Gwyn fight in this way, because it’s less obviously an anticlimax (still pretty obvious), but Allant is like a tiny ooze.
@@sams7068 imagine gwyn with the soul of cinder ost and an full blown chorus and orchestra substituing the piano :V
Love your Videos smough.
@@viktorpagels7569 Thanks dude
You clearly have not played the game. Alant was said to be a good king or at least decent.
And though it seems Ostsra has not seen him in a while and maybe only visits little he is nice and raised well
He did not sign a deal with the evailent of the devil for power. He grow tired depressed and maybe even crazy and did what he thought would help the world.
He is literally a blob mangled and deformed and living inside the Old One with no food or anything but still believes he is helping people and he clearly had nothing to gain from it . He was not greedy or cruel.
Play the game then come back and trash the remake
I do think some of the artistic changes might have been done at Sony's behest. The remake feels like a showcase or a tech demo. The kind you'd use at launch to shift consoles.
I think that could be it because if you look at what was done for the Shadow remake, aside from the Sword of Dormin and the special edition content everything remained the same, however I think changes in remakes can sometimes be good as in the case of the dead space remake where there’s a lot more moving parts for lack of a better term, something that’s rather simple like shadow should be left mostly how it is but with dead space you have the ability to change things and still accomplish the same feeling
This was the only thing that made me consider getting a PS5 at the time.
Never bought one; gonna start a new run of DeS on PS3 soon.
Sony, more people who don’t understand or respect the art of the original game.
@@fivehundredeightyseven599 Oh Adam Sandler's creepy adventures, oh yes. Black people in the ISHIMURA sure, logic. Not as bad as DeS remake, but still.
That's exactly what the remake was well done
On top of the Adjudicator redesign, it also impacts the concept of its whole mechanic. You cant harm it outside of the wound on its stomach because its made of gold armor, in the remake, unless you are aware of how it was originally, its entirely possible to not have any idea why you cant harm it, and you might not even realize that its the wound that lets your attacks land, it might appear that attacks land at random
Can confirm it took me 30 minutes to figure out this, and that It was not a ranged fight.
I snipped him in the head with a bow, never touched him once with the sword. Didnt even know about the wound untill I read this comment.
Honestly in my first playthrough in the original Demon's Souls, I did not realize how I could damage him, yes I might be dumb, idk
Ohhhh, so that’s why.
I never played the og game.
This is exactly what happened to me. I was low on health and in a rare occasion of chance, I didn’t have any healing items left. So I was being extra cautious to not die. When I entered the arena I immediately noticed the poor footing I had, but because my focus was where I landing I never really noticed the bird on its head.
So basically, I got to the bottom, did my best to dodge and weave and attack, but because it all looks like skin in the remake I had no idea that I NEEDED to attack its weak point first.
I died, looked up a guide, and got frustrated at myself for not realizing it had a weak spot I needed to damage first. From the sound of it, if I had played the original then I would have more easily been able to notice the weak point, and then I would have been able to deduce mid combat that I needed to hit it first.
Basically, the remake has the Demons, but not the Soul
lmao
This comment actually caused me to not watch the video lol. Somes up what I expect the points to be.
@@C2HGaming Eh you still should. It's interesting to see how much thought went into the original.
Elden ring has the Elden, but not the ring.
@@C2HGamingwhy are you reading comments before watching the video you clicked on, dumbass XD
You convinced me at the fat official example. That's actually pretty outrategous.
It's weird as that is like the first thing I heard about the game was the redesign
Same here. I didn't buy the overinterpretation and assumption of motives and arrogance on the Tower Knight comment, but then the video delivered VERY GOOD points afterwards starting with the fat official and turned me around
@@Ruffy112 Yeah lol I was like “overgrown plants? Seriously?”, but the fat official redesign point is very fair as someone who only played the remake (first souls game too). The OG fat officials look menacing, snobby, and like complete assholes. The remake one still made me hate him in 1-3, don’t get me wrong, but they looked more disgusting and disfigured than anything. I still kinda got the point when I was playing through, but the original design looked better. Same with the Tower of Latria stuff, although I did kinda like how calm it was, it probably would’ve felt completely different with the scarier vibes of the original.
I’d be pissed if someone redesigned my favorite game and ruined the charm/atmosphere of it too. The graphics were excellent on the remake though and I’d say overall it was very good.
I would've forgiven everything else since it's pretty nit-picky, but changing the fat officials to not have the creepy smiling face is the worst artistic choice they could've made
@@bluegrave4376 the new design is extra confusing since character dialogue and item descriptions still talk about the fat officials with giant grins.
the redisign of the officials is the weirdest thing to me honestly, who at blue point saw the old one and went "lets not only make his whole fit just his body and make him look like he midway through puberty but lets also make him capable of frowning" like the static grin is THE most iconic thing about that enemy and the removed it.
I enjoyed the remake, but only because i didn’t have any clue whet the original was like. But now im wishing bluepoint kept many of the original elements. There were a lot of good points here, like the vibe of Latria being gone and the fat official being gross instead of decadent
I've never understood why studios who remake games don't consult the original teams.
At least PCSX3 exists. Replayed the original a while back and it's still a blast.
Do you mean RPCS3? It sounds like you merged that and PCSX2 (PS2 emulator) together.
Because they are not changing anything important. Imagine from software being asked if it bothers them anyway to put some plants on the castle
@@GRstriffe That's changing the lore and the timeline. Demon's Souls isn't Dark Souls or Elden Ring. You're not exploring Boletaria a thousand years after things went wrong. You're exploring it a decade at most after things went bad. it would take a much longer time for vegetation to cover a whole castle.
I love how you explain that in the souls games the inherent look of things and design is there because they cared to make a cohesive world and context.
I think thats a bit of a misguided view. the souls series if anything but perfect. throughout most of the games there is usually massive glaring issues with its world design somewhere. just look at basically the entire final act of Dark Souls 1, where almost all of the great world design kinda falls to pieces and becomes a mess.
@@joedatius Yeah I think you didn't really get what I meant.
I never said perfect, I said that he explained why things look the way they look, and also offered insight into Miyazaki's mentality, his "elegance".
Most games can't be perfect because we aren't, as someone who's studying art it's pretty much obvious and the DS saga as a whole has moments where it goes downhill.
But what always shines through it's the fact that they CARE about making something good and the appearance and the details in old and new games show that, even going back to games like King's Field.
@@LinneRinne sorry but thats not what he was talking about. the entire point about Miyazaki was about not making something ugly. which in itself is a bad quote to try and use because the games are filled with designs and locations entirely focused on looking gross and ugly.
Yeah of course they cared but so did the people who made the remake. but caring isn't a measurable quality.
@@joedatius If anything, I don't think we're on the same page here.
I believe I see what you're saying and where you think my comments are coming from but I'm not really talking of games being perfect or an unmatched quality because they cared, it's more nuanced than that, and I do not take Miyazaki's comment on just face value.
I think the DS saga has elegance to it in a design sense and in general Fromsoft titles do have it even when the game they worked on is terrible like Ninja Blade. And what I meant in my initial comment is that DS has an inherent intentionality aspect to it, which is how their design cares about environments, item descriptions and how things look and even sound in general.
Even in zones that I personally would consider to be terrible gameplay wise like DS2's Iron Keep there's a experience to be had and a reason of why it looks like that in lore.
But even if you do not agree with me or think I'm tripping I wish you a good day and I respect your opinion.
@@joedatiusWhat do you even mean by world design in this case? Do you mean the way the world has literally artistically been designed or the way the enemies are placed and designed into the world? They’re very different things, but even if the enemy placement and level design is off by the second half, the world design is still very good and fits into the context of the story being told and explored. The original commentator is talking about how the theme of a place fits with its design, an intentional Miyazaki choice and a big chunk of the game’s elegance, again, not perfect.
when you did find grotesqueness in the original, like in valley of defilement, it had a big impact. In the remake everything is grotesque
No, most things are not grotesque in the remake. I don't think you know the meaning of "grotesque".
@@flabbajabba9527 both games are shit and both of your opinions are shit. End of story.
@@flabbajabba9527 I don't think YOU understand what grotesque means 😂
@@flabbajabba9527there are more instances of gross in the remake than in the original and by using grossness in areas where it wasn't needed the original intent gets diluted
If everything is grotesque, nothing is.
Demon's Souls and Dark Souls always had this magical feeling to them, which no other game ever recreated for me. I've seen a lot of videos that let me to remember this other-worldly feeling, but your vodeo is one of the very best!
I will check out the rest of your channel in a bit, but i would really love to see in-depth analyses on the most mundane aspects of these masterpieces☺️
Thank you! For keeping its memory alive and vivid
Kings field series also has a similar vibe.
Certain parts of Bloodborne had it too, imo. The Hypogean Gaol/Yahar'gul, Unseen Village and the Upper Cathedral Ward are so unsettling and otherworldly.
For sure. I definitely don't ever want Bluepoint touching Dark Souls.
one of the worst things they changed is the meaning of the ost, maiden astraea's one sounds like its garl's one instead of hers(its epic/heroic) while the original gave you a sense of dread and made you think if what you were doing was the right or wrong thing
Elden Ring drew me into FromSoft games and I've been going back to play their old games (recently been playing a bunch of Armored Core games, love it). I grabbed a copy of Demon's Souls on PS3 thinking "Well, I'm not gonna buy a PS5 for this, but at least I can play the old version." Little did I know I bought the better version of the game.
The "better version" is subjective. To me, the remake is overall the better version.
Same here. I wanna play the PS3 version of Demon souls after hearing the Maiden of astreae theme and how bad the remake butchered it.
Good for you
You got the far worse version mate
@@jackreeves7 15 dollars for the original version on a console I already own vs 560+ dollars for a console I don't own and a version of the game that heavily alters the art design of the game? Nah I think I made the right choice.
there’s a noclip documentary on the remake (great channel btw) and it’s clear from how the higher ups at bluepoint talk about it that the whole thing was a huge vanity project. just like with SoTC they remade a classic, highly visually distinct game, not because they felt like they could do the original vision justice, but because they wanted to show off their technical prowess and impress everyone with raw graphical power. both remakes are just *gaudy*
Which is why I'm not too keen on them touching my waifu bloodborne
@@yaqubebased1961Of course I would rather have a competent studio remake the games i love, but in the end nothing changes for me. They can't delete the original games.
This explains why I couldn't get into the SoTC remake enough to complete it even though I have fond memories of the original. They removed the soul.
It's very strange to be proud of the fact that your studio produces no original content, only upscales better work from masters of the craft.
@@MidlifeCrisisJoe I’d be happy with them if they actually cared about the art direction. Too many good games unplayed by masses because graphics are a high barrier for a lot of (imo nonsensical) people. It’s fine to be an optimizer company, but they are just clout-chasers and not vision respecters. I like the visual flair they can bring, just not in SotC, DeS, and hopefully not Bloodborne because they won’t capture its soul.
“They didn’t like the anime warrior guy” is a perfect line to why they changed the art style.
do·na·tion
something that is given for the purpose of charity, usually a sum of money.
Dumb-ass
A person who whines about a remake being "bad" when the original is still available to play
@@relton66 The original ISNT still available to play fully since the servers have been disconnected.
Then quit whining and play the game
Wonder what this thread was about before the comments got (seemingly?) deleted
This is probably how I’m gonna feel when the silent hill 2 remake comes out.
The Silent Hill 2 remake will be the worse remake ever. Considering the developer, even more so, the trailer alone was so disrespectful that I can not bring myself to acknowledge the remakes existence otherwise cause it makes me so angry.
it will be woke trash
@@CausticSpacewhat didn't you like about the trailer? i have SH 1-4 originals still. so def my scene, and although diff dev, a remake is better than nothing. i def wish kojima was on board though
@@f_r_e_d Nothing would better than a remake. The game doesn't need to be remade, it was perfect as is.
Everything about the trailer is disrespectful to the original.
@@f_r_e_d Why Kojima? Kojima wasnt part of original Silent Hill games. He managed to make one demo, that's it.
I honestly cannot believe that Bluepoint saw the Maiden Astraea fight and made the conscious decision that "you know what? This fight needs a really *heroic* sounding boss theme!"
Like, what the fuck? The original Maiden Astraea theme was sad and melancholy for a reason. How do you possibly miss that? More than changing Tower Knight's theme to not have the laughing any more, I think Maiden Astraea's theme is the most egregious example of changing the soundtrack for the worse.
I wouldn't call the original maiden atrea ost melancholic. But i also don't know what I'd call it instead.
Conflicting maybe?
I also woul'd not describe it as melancholy, even thou there are certainly those undertones. I'd say the theme is supposed to cause tension in the player, a push towards action and make the situation feel out of controll, where in reality the player controlls the situation fully. The music with its constant beat in the melody tells you "go go go". I may even go as far and say that it is not astraeas boss theme, but the players. After all the player is the aggressor in this situation. Thats my take on it
The "heroic" part of the Astraea theme only starts when you fight Garl and ends when he dies, being replaced with more somber music. I think it's totally fair to musically turn the fight with Garl into an epic confrontation, which then disappears when the hero is dead and his lady is defenceless.
@@viktorpagels7569 I'd call it "desperate"
This is my biggest gripe. Original Maiden Astraea was my favorite all time boss music. The new shit is too epic and bombastic.
Ok but for real what the fuck did they do to the adjudicator? I thought the implication was that it was supposed to a noble figure. One that judges the souls of fallen warriors and is worshipped at the shrine of storms. There's even a shield depicting the adjudicator being prayed to. (The remake also fucked this up by drawing the art on the shield in perspective and thus losing the look of medieval tapestry that made the original design interesting). If you look at the og adjudicators model it's got intricate patterns over its body and is almost shaped like an antique urn. it's still grotesque, but subtly regal and that's what makes it cool and memorable. They took an ambiguously elegant and revered creature and turned it into some fuckoff ugly monster so they could show off their 4k nipple jiggle physics.
It also had a somewhat cute or funny look with the big goofy mouth, which was a contrast to how insanely dangerously this thing is. It might look a little silly, but it's completely evil. There's a sinister whimsy to it
The redesign has none of that, it's clearly pure evil and demonic. I mean ok I guess, but the original is certainly more memorable by miles
they did the same shit with fat officials. In the original they were a sinister figure with a metallic mask that instilled fear and uneasiness. the new one is just some ugly mf
It's a frog-tongued lipless blob with a duck on its head, dude. No amount of people praying to it is going to make it look dignified.
Dude... it was a fat, headless body with a golden bird for a head. Is this really a hill you are willing to die on?
Reading this comment, I get the impression that you haven't looked at the old Adjudicator graphics in the past 10 years... because it looks pretty much the same, lol. Maybe a bit less shiny/gold? But it was a "fuck off ugly monster" from the beginning, lmao.
I will never not feel heartbroken over the fluted armor set being redesigned. For me, it’s the best and most iconic set in the entirety of Miyazaki’s portfolio. I could not contain my excitement when Bluepoint announced this remake. I couldnt wait to use their photo mode on the fluted set. Then one day, for no reason, they just arbitrarily redesigned it. Not one fan had ever complained that Demon’s Souls was held back by its art design. If anything, Demon’s Souls was held back by a restrictive camera system that often made it tough to get a clear view of its brilliant art design.
Thank you for your video, I totally agree.
And then hiding the original helmet behind a boss that you only get one chance to fight per save? It makes absolutely no sense.
Yep. The old design was distinct and had realism to it. Definitely iconic even at a glance. The new fluted armor is a disgrace, looks like some generic knight armor. It also lacks the realism that the original had like the coif protecting your characters neck, which is now gone in the remake leaving your neck exposed in favor of a scarf... The og helm being in the game doesn't even make up for how badly they botched the rest of the armor
@Maria Flores idk if you played the original Demon Souls, but the female version of the Fluted Helmet looked basically the same, all opened in its front...
In fact Demon Souls has a lot of this different designs for different genders of your character.
@@blueveil3277 they also ruined garl vinland armor.
@@Metalgearfox2000 oh they really did that armor dirty. It went from a sacred silver D&D God-like magic armor to a plain armor plate with extremely exagerated World of Warcraft proportions.... because.... Paladin I guess...
I must admit, I clicked on the video expecting petty nitpicks and such, but was actually quite surprised at how much I liked it and how much I can understand where you're coming from so I subbed instead.
I never got to play the OG version, sadly, but if I did, I would also be pretty pissed at the liberties taken by Bluepoint.
The changes aren't small and petty at all, but pretty significant. I'm a bit surprised the Miyazaki and crew signed off on it.
It would've been amazing had they left everything intact and just updated the sound, graphics, movement, and whatever other stuff that wouldn't infringe upon the artistic element.
The Demon's Souls remake being *the* main PS5 launch title probably played a huge factor. From a development standpoint, they probably wanted this game to be a visual spectacle. That's an understandable goal in theory, but they chose one of the most visually subtle and restrained games on the market to use as a base. Many games like Demon's Souls or SMT: Nocturne are great because their intentional lack of decadence is part of the atmosphere.
It's actually kinda nuts that Bluepoint keeps doing remakes for games with very uncommon and avant-garde art styles (DS and Shadow of the Colossus). Bluepoint are obviously experts at optimizing games for the hardware and more gaudy visual styles, and other games like Bloodborne would have been a better fit for their skillset (not saying they should have had a Bloodborne remaster as a PS5 launch title, just that it's more compatible with Bluepoint).
Not to mention the Shadow of the Colossus remake actually came out perfectly fine from what I remember. They did a good job on that. I'm almost tempted to say _someone_ just couldn't beat Demons' Souls and decided to fuck it up.
@@pleaserespond3984I had issues with colossus, lol. The color palette and lack of fog fucked it up for me. Whether the fog was to cover up design limitations or not, it doesn't matter, it is part of the game's identity and I would say the fact that you don't know the real repercussions of your actions throughout the game. IE the fog represents how unaware you are of the consequences that obscured and hidden from your view pretty much until the end.
inb4 they drop the ball for a bloodborne remake.
@@La0bouchere They put Gehrman in a dress and take his hat off and make him look fat and gross because it's clearly superior to his current look.
@@La0bouchere They'd give the Doll look like a creepy Tim Burton-esque design because obviously she's creepy, and they have to make it more obvious. After all, completely disregarding subtlety is Bluepoint's forte.
100%. It's like if a conservator who was tasked with restoring a painting just decided they'd like to paint a new painting over it. Being careful to follow the outline of its "core", of course.
What "remake" mean ?
Ecce homo moment
Bruh after seeing the original compared to the remake , i really see where people come from when they say this, i agree with your take
An example of how Bluepoint didn't bother to even pay attention to the original material is the sound effects of the miracles. Originally they had familiar sounds you'd expect to hear in temples, spiritual places where people do religious practice, such as gongs, but Bluepoint replaced them with sci-fi sound effects, probably the first ones they found in some lazy developer's sound effects collection.
I’m terrified they’ll do this to Bloodborne. Changing the atmosphere or music would be a crime.
what makes you think they'll even remake bloodborne. it came out in 2015
@@PenguinsAreColdish it's sony. the last of us 1 already got a remaster and a remake even before reaching its 10th anniversary. and according to an insider, a horizon zero dawn remake is already being planned.
@@_dandelliam_ A horizon remake? Gross.
@@_dandelliam_ Gonna make alloy look more butch and focus on how gay she is lol 🤣🤣🤣
@@PenguinsAreColdishPretty ironic considering the Last of Us news that recently came out.
I never got to play the original. I never knew how different the remake was. Now, I feel like I’ve missed out significantly.
Thank you for pointing this all out. It’s re-inspired me to seek out a copy of the original game, or at least find a way to emulate it.
RPCS3 can run the game at 60fps, however the only problem I had with the original was that I was trying to play it like Dark Souls 3, which instead doesn't work well due to lack of omnidirectional rolling on lock on and weird rolling bug were if you do attempt to roll at an angle you can possibly roll the opposite way.
@@dhgmrz17 yeah you need to play it more like ds1, roll foward and backstab everything
Your not missing out I played and beat the original, it's the same lol..the demon souls remake is actually better the graphics compliment it.
Its fairly simple to emulate on the ps3 emulator. thats how i played it.
You can perfectly emulate it at 60fps, better than the original. You can also play online with other players on a private server. The official servers were shut down.
They also did quite a job on Maneaters. When you enter the arena in original, the first thing you see is a pair of glowing green eyes coming at you from darkess, as this extremely creepy and ominous music kicks in. In remake, you'll see the monster right away and the music is changed to a generic orchestra piece. Not to mention that Maneater's design was changed from a statue embedded with a tortured soul to a hairy gorilla with wings
I didn't know they changed the music... sigh, it's definitely a remake, not just a remaster. Very sad.
@@ianwilliams2632 They changed almost all of the music and it sucks. Like - to go along with what the video says about the Adjudicator fight; the original had a bizarre sense of unreality. You walk in and this high-pitched lilting tune begins while a fat rubbery golden man-shape giggles at you and the golden bird nesting in its severed throat screams. It's weird in a creepy circus sort of way and while the fight is absurdly easy, that fight alone was what convinced me to play through the rest of Demon's Souls despite how much it was kicking my ass; because I wanted to see more stuff like that.
In the remake, you walk in and there's a giant fat guy with a bird in its severed throat, and generic skyrim style norse operatic boss music starts to kick in. It doesn't feel similar at all, and it sure as hell doesn't feel like the same game.
@@ianwilliams2632play the og then 😢
@@WeedgokuBonerhitlerplay the original then 😢
@@based-ys9um you are so cringe man
I think this points to an overarching cultural issue. As advances in technology become the main selling point of games, aggressive development schedules and profit margins clamp down on creativity, people stopped making interesting games. Some of what made old games interesting was the limitations themselves, final fantasy 7 is a perfect example. It’s a very strange game, both in how it plays and how it looks, but it also has arguably one of the most interesting plots of the series. I played it when I was 11, I was too young to know I was playing a mercenary for hire joining an eco terrorist group and going to war with a massive multinational corporation and their legions of demonic genetically engineered soldiers. Demons souls is another great example, the limitations themselves are part of why the game is so good. It’s a strange game. But much like the slop filling media trough at the movie theater, waves of remakes who’s only selling point is flaccid nostalgia capture an audience who have been raised with lower expectations - companies realized they could just keep making dog shit marvel movies for drooling morons and kept doing it. To an extent, it’s on us to stop consuming this garbage, it’s an insult to our intelligence. I haven’t played the remake of demons souls but I could tell by looking at it it would be worse, I didn’t even need to see for myself. It’s gratuitous and ugly, too many particle effects, too much focus on graphics and technology, but that’s exactly the opposite of what makes the game good.
I think this only reflects the game industry in general.
When I was learning game design 10 years ago... I was trying to get a job in level design, my task was to build 2 maps, a florest and a canyon, so i made a little plot to each of them and a canyon became an connected with a poison swamp where there was an infection and almost everything was dead and the florest was an really beautiful organized florest because of the people that lived there, so they dint like it, they said that a florest needed to be almost random like nature and a canyon just need to have rocks and cliffs...
Those are the things I'm seeing in Demons souls Remake, a bunch of people that learned something from someone but never think about it themselves.
Of course that new statue would make more sense in some real aesthetics, but never in the demons souls culture and lore...
A canyon's poison swamp, are you a from software dev ? ;)
Hi Fellow Gamedev here, I think I start to understand the problem. I start to learn Business and Game dev bussines model try to remove the drive from the Bussines analasis like Bussines Managment Canvas That is: "What problem we solve? " Bechause games and art dont solve a problem but satisfy a need. I belive this is a huge mistake misleading prety much everyone.
Art been over mistified when in reality is a very mathematical calculative building proces, like you described the canyon. As artis I think our job is to toy lead and manipulate human emotions with all the tools discovered by psyhology, than support it with sience related to the subject to give predictability and reason to the world. What need to be understood Arts problems not driven by the drive to happines, but offten trying to schock people out of they innosence, immerse them deep in a feeling they didnt know they can have.
Bro those designs are awesome I see nature as fungus as random but flowers as pointed and not random they seem random but aren’t you hit the mark on the florist and the canyon is just awesome they said canyon which can mean anything like a death baller or poison swamp in it
I love game devs who don't play games, they're the best. /s
Like, seriously, VARIETY and CREATIVITY is king, as FromSoft games prove time and time again. Your ideas sound really good and I would love to see something like this. The fact that they didn't like them only tells me that they don't know jack shit about games, as unfortunately most game companies don't, they're creatively bankrupt. And the funniest thing is that companies like FromSoft exist, showing everybody how it's done... but the game devs just don't care.
Great video and agree. However, I think this video needs a part 2. There’s a lot more examples you could talk about, mainly the score. I’d love to see like another hour long analysis of the environments and themes. Don’t be afraid to do longer videos
I second this
Yes, changing the music is the most mindboggling decision Bluepoint made IMO. That's the thing that really me feel like they completely missed the point.
+1
Yes
The Maiden Astraea music change is an artistic crime.
I think the biggest atrocity is how they somehow managed to make Tower of Latria not scary
For me, the fat official's redesign is the most criminal
@@grutsthefoodman3645Yep. He can't even do the creepy bow he did to the player in 1-3 bc he's too big.
@@VermilionRen it hurts even more knowing the item descriptions still talk about the fat officials with rocky smile faces
It’s definitely not scary but it’s uncomfortable especially if you know the lore, the only place that still creeps me out in souls born games is new londo and upper cathedral ward
@@grutsthefoodman3645 oof that is so tone deaf
This is why I unironically dread the idea of bluepoint remaking Bloodborne, if that theory is even true or not.
I genuinely believe bloodborne has such a strong base, that unless you pretty much revamp every single detail about it, you can not fuck it up. Like, what can they do? Aside from comically stupid things that no one would try of course.
Like what would be a logical design choice that they could make that would be bad?
Cause unlike demon souls the designs in bloodborne already are a lot more realistic, and the game already has a huge amount of detail. The enemy designs are also all very clear cut. In fact, most monster bosses in bloodborne, are already gross and bloody, this demon souls remake is more faithful to bloodborne's world feel and look than it is to demon souls's lol
You’re dumb,
Thanks for making this video. I’ve always had a slight distaste with the “remake” of demon’s souls, and it’s nice to see someone point out what I’ve had issues with. If it was just one or two changes I wouldn’t have cared as much, but it was so many tiny things that didn’t sit right with me. All the fat/gross enemy changes, the attempt at making the ost epic when it was just fine, type A and type B body types ( when they could’ve just removed gendered armor requirements as a whole), and the stuff you’ve already stated in your vid.
Another issue with adjudicator’s redesign you didn’t mention. His gold skin helps players realize he’s impervious to attacks. When players see his skin is gold and see they do no damage, they may think he’s wearing armor, or that he’s like the nemean lion, and that his gold skin is impervious. When they changed his skin to look normal, there’s no reason why your sword does no damage. At least before, the gold could’ve been an excuse, but now his skin is normal and there is none. It’s just little stuff like that that pissed me off with the remake.
There were other, non-design related issues I had with the game that had no reason to exist. In the original demon’s souls, when you or an enemy blew up an explosive barrel, it’s hit box lingered a few seconds after it had exploded. A remake has no right to leave such a simple fucking issue untouched, especially when they fixed bigger glitches like stock pile Thomas dupe.
There’s also the glaring issue of NOT BEING ABLE TO DELETE ANY SAVE YOU MAKE. No previous fromsoft title has had this issue, not even the original demons souls. The worst part is, unlike other titles by fromsoft, fucking up matters in demon’s souls. If you wanted a pure white world tendency weapon and died in human form earlier on, you couldn’t delete the save and make a new one. So now if you make a character and fuck up, or don’t want to play them anymore, they’re stuck on your game until you wipe all of your save data on demon’s souls, which is terrible. I shouldn’t have to wipe my all of save data to remove one character I don’t like anymore.
Stuff like that pissed me off and made me just go play the original on ps3.
Dude the not being able to delete individual save files thing is why I'll probably never do a second playthrough of the remake
You need to chill dude lol.
@@Blue-Apple-fc9eo probably, heh.
That was a good read, myself I'm so tired of these many remakes that add little to nothing more to the originals just to make them worse, in fact it keeps spreading this message that "Old = Obsolete". That "No Save Delete thing" really is unexcusable, like what were they thinking.
Here I thought this video was going to be filled with hipster takes. But you know, I actually find myself agreeing with you on the art direction influencing the story of the areas. Well done.
It's alot of snobby, hipster takes.
@jamesloucks2562 wouldn't say that, I wouldn't call myself a law person a lot of the changes I don't personally hate because of that but I think for those that do enjoy the environmental story telling, it definitely butchers that to a large extent. Its similar to those that want to change a story put their own stamp on it, like the witcher TV series which is slowly being butchered to the ground. Though the game is still fun.
@@jamesloucks2562 He can have hipster takes at times tbh
@@jamesloucks2562which parts?
@@RevPerdueJosh nothing, he's just mad
I love your takes. I think it lost the atmosphere it was too focused on being “next gen” it lost all the aspects that made the game dingy / dark and mysterious. I hated the look of it.
I still can’t get over how badly they ruined the fat officials I just feel blue point doesn’t get it.. just don’t get the atmosphere at all.
Edit : you even touched on the fat officials bro you are my spirit animal
I agree, except for the Tower of Latria, that are they took it to the next level
You're just nostalgic, you narrow-minded fool.
@@didixtar2863 nah no agonizing screams it felt like they still tried to hard to make it “next gen” and missed the boat on the dark extremely smelly dirty atmosphere that runs through the game. It’s like everything is filthy and grimy/ dingy dark etc it has this atmosphere that even from soft have lost touch with.
They ruined the atmosphere of Shadow of the Colossus as well.
@@acherontiaatropos6048 because all they care about is being the latest and greatest with graphics and don’t consider or care about anything else but that, and it really shows in their remakes.
Bro I totally agree with everything you said especially about the Vanguard demon. When they announced they were remaking Demon's Souls the first thing cam in my mind is how they would redesign Vanguard's skull with those yellow eyes and a well textured black helmet that covers his head making his yellow eyes stand out and deliver the feeling that you're actually standing against a demon not just an ugly fat monster.
One thing I noticed in the remake is that they made world four raining all the time. I mean people in that world had something like a myth that it's believed that those flying creatures who through you with spears are responsible for weather change especially when it comes to rain. So when they added rain to that world they confirmed that those people's myth was real not just a myth. If they made it rain after killing storm king that would strengthen the original story confirming that those flying monsters including storm king don't have a real effect on weather or rain. They literally made a huge difference in the remake hoping people wouldn't notice it.
I mean just imagine the Island's edge area covered in fog with modern graphics that would be insane. But no they had to become masters who know better than those stupid fools who played the original Demon's souls and enjoyed the lore in detail.
I hope when a remake of Bloodborne comes out that Miyazaki himself overseas those arrogant devs and directors who think they know better than the original creator.
One of the things that irritates me the most is how the Kris Blade is no longer like, y'know, an actual kris? It's such a small thing but it really exemplifies how bluepoint's changes are all arbitrary and backed by nothing besides "i think we should change this... because we should!".
I only recently started the Remake and have never played the original but I noticed this. It’s just a curved knife?
@@meathir4921 A kris is a specific type of dagger - most have the same wavy patterned blade as a flamberge, but occasionally they are straight bladed. But there are no types of kris that look as jagged and, frankly, poorly crafted as the one in the remake.
wikipedia.org/wiki/Kris
The same thing with moonlight Greatsword it’s a faith weapon but now it had a god damn MAGIC FLAME BASTARDS THIS SHIT IS BLASPHEMY AND DISRESPECTFUL TO MIYAZAKI another thing the flame lurker use to be my favorite boss because he looked like a old demonic Viking but now he looks like your damn generic demon from Diablo it’s annoying
@@ZoretsuThat sword type has existed in games long before souls 😂 Tabletop rpgs had them FFS and Miyazaki was just the director, he didn't create crap for game and as Director only makes changes if investors or execs say so the DEVELOPMENT TEAM actually makes the games , not a suit in and office miles away you ignorant fanboy 😂😂😂
And a Kris is a small dagger, original game had alot of known weapons with bad representation.
@@DarkepyonX way to show you have no idea what a Game director actually does
its like saying "the movie director dosnt do shit" when he is one of the most important aspects of a movie.
He dosnt(usualy) write the script or designs sets, but he sets the tone, he decides what gets made, and what dosnt.
That's generally a big problem that lots of great stories get bastardized being filtered through a mainstream lense. And it was to be expected that Bluepoint would do this to some degree because they wanted the game to appeal to the mainstream to make more money.
It also happened to Lovecrafts stories, where the mainstream believes it's about tentacles and monsters while it's true quality is something more profound and nameless that isn't captured by superficial monster design.
Or take movie adaptations like Harry Potter: In the novels, Voldemort was eerily cold and stern and that's what made him scary. But in the movies (except 1 and 2) they made him more flamboyant and Joker-like, which is a major mischaracterization in my opinion.
The mainstream/ big companies tend to simplify and distort the uniqueness of stories to fit them in a cliche, already-known category, because they want to play it safe and not take the risk that the audience possibly wouldn't like something more special.
bruh this is happening to Dead space remake elsewell.... for example nicoles office or the area that is bright was specifically made like that to have actual people working there and when it gets dark aka lockdown then you're terrified but in the remake, it has fog and is always dark and just looks like a haunted house more than anything even when the original had dark parts they still had a specific style whereas the remake just looks fogged up and doesn't have a art style to it
Hates mainstream, talks about harry potter 😂😂😂😂😂😂
When I noticed it was being remade by a western company, I noticed it probably fucked the original. Japan and the west have very different approaches to game design, as proved by western developers being outraged by Elden Rings success (some even claiming Elden Rings horrible game design was obviously done by Japanese developers etc). Not saying all westerns developers or games are like this, for example; Skyrim, The Witcher series, Ghost of Tsushima, and Red Redemption are great games. It's just a bit chunky the west think that they are better than the east or the changes they make will make the game better (proven by bluepoint with Demon Souls). Let's just hope fromsoftware's other games don't get the same shit, though some rumors worry me that Bloodbourne is next.
@@yoyothefool5607 since when was the witcher Western dummy
I'm so glad to see someone else say this. I liked the Demon's Souls remake, but this is exactly how I feel about other IPs (my current hot take being God of War), the series changed so much of its identity to appeal to a bigger audience, and the end result is bland. But masses of people love and praise it.
Really feels like originality and innovation is at an all time low. Everything fits a neat mold.
As someone who never played the original but loved the remake, this was very compelling. What were they thinking with the sound design of Latria??? I love blue point but wow. They really dropped the ball in many areas and I understand og fans frustrations now.
Play the og but honestly neither one is really inferior. It's like many things it's two distinct things.
@@MiguelAviles175 you might need a better soundbar. The clunk of the meat cleaver hitting the ground in Demons Souls remake is the most satisfying thing I’ve heard in any souls game.
@@MiguelAviles175 the magic sound effects are the best, most chunky, most powerful sounding magic sounds I've heard in any game
When I heard the song I was immediately reminded of the Shrine of Amana and was somewhat disappointed because it seemed like the shrine was just a copy of something Fromsoft did before. Now I learn that the original sound design was fundamentally different. How could they be so wrong in the remake? It boggles the mind.
Man, the first boss in the OG Demon's souls was SO SCARY because you couldn't see SHIT. You had no idea what you were fighting to start with, you had no idea how big the room you were in was. It was just darkness and spears flying at you and you'd get a glimpse of a shield and shit your pants!
The original Demon's Souls avoided trends and didn't care about sales. The remake does the complete opposite.
Well it was a launch title for the ps5, of course they had to care about sales.
@@luhhtee2547 That's just more proof that the original was a piece of art. Meanwhile, the remake is just a game to "show the power of the PS5"...
@@andr0zzsenpaiI really don’t get the hate at all, I mean the ps5 version is meant to be a ^remake^ and all I have seen is that it is literally copy and paste from the original game in everything, from bosses to weapons to side quests to the design of areas and the puzzle in them. So just because they did few things that many won’t even care about like changing the type of building in area 1 does that make the remake bad? I really wanna know your opinion on that
@@hossam-gc2fjpeople hate just for the sake of hating. Remake was fine.
@@hossam-gc2fj The point was to preserve the original vision, if you like the remake, that's fine, but just remember that's not the original feeling/theming of the game.
Thank you for this, I KNEW something was definetely wrong with the remake when I first tried it but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Everything looked so....''standard''. And that oppressive, sad atmosphere wasn't there anymore.
Yea you're right. As someone who never got to play either game, I would be upset if BluePoint did a Bloodborne remake and took massive liberties with the architecture or enemy design and the story that it tells.
I really hope BluePoint don't get to remake Bloodborne.
@@SixWings Bro bc of the notification I actually read Ratatoskr pinned on this video and it looks like I copied his pinned comment 😂. This man knows his audience 💀💀💀
That's very different, there is enough details in Bloodborne to make a remake without changing some elements.
Demon souls original lacks details, so bluepoint was forced to add new elements.
@@SixWingsSo who remake bloodborne ?
@@ni9274 Bloodborne doesn't need a Remake. Bloodborne needs a remaster! Or just a 60fps patch and a PC port.
Why do you think Bloodborne needs a Remake?
Really could've used some footage of OG Adjudicator when you were talking about how they changed his model. Other than that, great video and analysis as usual ❤
Bluepoint is incapable of understanding the importance of art direction that is under a certain polygon count and texture resolution so they regard it as disposable, just like when your mom doesn't realize all those cards in your closet with Pikachus on them have value and just tosses them in the garbage
The most amazing thing about Demon Souls was its atmosphere! So much, it felt unreal, like a DREAM!! Like when Arthur spoke to Merlin and found him in the land of dreams! Demon Souls is truly art, Demons Souls is truly soul.
brillaint words. I love demon souls
I often describe the atmosphere like "a hazy fever dream" to people, so I think you're spot on.
@@KomradeKrusher One of the reasons the Remake didn't work for me, Blue point took that out!! Same thing happened with Shadow of the Colossus remake, actually a very similar thing, as Shadow of the Colossus barren land was made as a sort of land between the dead and the living, again, completely unreal, not meant to look real at all, and once again, Blue Point didn't get it.
they should have done a remastered version
@@ignacio6454what the fuck are you saying man
I knew Bluepoint didn't understand Demon's Souls when i heard they changed--not just updated but outright rewrote--the music. The dude said their job was to make the game not like it actually was but like people remember it. Well, i dunno about him but that's not how i remember Demon's Souls.
They really changed the music thinking we heard it wrong, they thought that we remember it as a action game instead of a souls game
It's so weird, because apparently Shadow of the Colossus's soundtrack was completely untouched.
The dude is just so dead fucking wrong lmao I went into a playthrough of the original completely blind and cold and loved it and was effected by the atmosphere even when partially paying attention. THIS MONTH. POST-ELDEN RING.
And I was startled when the remake was not any of that. I didn't even know about it's reputation. So "oh uhh nostalgia goggles hawhaw technology" is blatantly bull LMAO
You know the OG composer gave it her stamp of approval, right
@@magnificmango336 Doesn't matter. If Reservoir Dogs got a remake with Tarantino's stamp of approval it wouldn't magically become THE Reservoir Dogs as a result. The OG composer can give his stamp of approval all he likes, Demon's Souls already exists and it's a specific thing with a specific musical identity that shouldn't just be "updated" and changed in this way, regardless of who gives it a thumbs up. There was nothing wrong with the original soundtrack.
7:44 The change that first irked me was the Xanthous King's yellow banners. Bluepoint made them red. They were yellow for a reason.
The music and sound design for Bluepoint's Storm King were amazing, though.
Your argument makes a lot of sense. I would add that the real problem with the remake being artistically inferior to the original is that new players will NEVER experience the old one, most likely. So thanks for letting people know they are missing out.
The original game felt dark, stark and almost depressing the world felt picked from a horror novel. The remake was to bright, too full of life. The original really felt like a dying region removed from the rest of the world as if evil had won and the only ones alive are now stuck in this world without hope. It made you feel hopeless like you’re fighting for something already lost with hope being “what could be,” not what is.
The word you were looking for is _OPPRESSIVE._ The first game felt extremely oppressive and heavy.
The remake absolutely still has that depressing eerie vibe especially in the first area
They give you filters to use and one of them gives it a similar vibe to the OG.
Next they'll be saying they need to add loot boxes, and it'll just be a shit show from there.
Actually, I find that they tried to make it too dark. Original is somewhat ominous but in a more regal manner, it's hazy, almost ascetic in a way, and the remake tried to make it more like the later games, darker like DS, violent like Bloodborne, and more stylish like DS3 (and BB).
The section about the fat officials is where you got me. Changing them from fat and creepy to fat and disgusting made you just feel sorry for them, not hate them.
I only ever saw the remake version and I thought this was going to be a "back in my day" kinda thing but I actually feel you.
Imagine Mergo's Wet Nurse had a weird great one face instead of the void. Would just take a lot away from her design.
I will however still play the remake and I will most likely still enjoy it (or hate it for other reasons at least)
I like the original versions way more. They look like something you just want to punch in the face.
@@infinitedeath1384 Just a punch, even after the implications they did to Yuria?
@@aliekexie8467 Ok maybe a couple more.
Their metal grin and laugh are stamped in my memory forever. Why in the world would they make it into a generic face like that? Do they even laugh like before ?
I actually hate them all the same, OG and Remake, and I played the remake first.
Take it to Bluepoint to turn a very interesting Japanese take on western fantasy into a generic western fantasy in the most egregious and expensive way possible. Architectural changes, atmosphere, and other aspects whose details are CLEARLY shown on the concept art for anyone curious on how they may look unrestrained by OG Demon's Souls' graphical limitations which Bluepoint proceeded to entirely ignore.
The most telling is when enemy designs like Fat Official were turned into generic zombies especially, which is a deliberate change on their part as dialogue from Rydell SPECIFICALLY references the fat official as "that ebony swine" and the remake removes the word "ebony" from there.
The use of color specifically feels inspired by the obnoxious trend in Hollywood of turning every scene into the most overused combination on the color wheel: Orange and teal. Literally every area had its colors nudged in that direction even where it makes no sense. Latria's second half was given a big glowing orange moon specifically for that purpose.
Speaking of Hollywood, the soundtrack is Hollywood-ified to the max. So many tracks that had no choral elements in the original now sport a choir for some reason. They put a choir on the bloody Leechmonger, a pile of leeches now has an epic choir blasting your ears out. There's absolutely no restraint with this sorta stuff which completely contrasts with the original's subdued use of instruments to emphasize specific aspects of the each boss' character.
Sound design changes were also annoying, especially the constant loud yelling on every sword swing from both the player and enemies. The sounds of impact and explosions also feel jarring with some stuff feeling straight out of a sci fi game.
Continuing the trend of sci-fi stuff, the UI is terrible. It's so "clean" it'd feel right at home in space game or something, doesn't belong in a medieval game at all. Worse still is how much it violates pan-and-scan and other rules of UI design which FromSoft are uaually very cautious about.
I like the use of "hollywood-ish" too refer to generic-making stuff hahahah.
And you just know they removed the "ebony swine" line because it "might be perceived as racist" on twitter, even though it obviously referred to the black masks/clothes the officials were wearing.
@@MidlifeCrisisJoe I don't like to assume intent too much but that was my first gut instinct too, that they felt it's "racist" and "problematic" to be left as is.
@@SuperMaster000X It's very Hollywood in many ways, including the racism. Satsuki who used to look like a regular badass guy was turned into some generic asian stereotype lol.
They even made the spells sound like generic scifi lasers, too.
Enough minor changes will stack on top of each other until the entire project becomes something completely different to the original. The Demon's Souls remake unironically lacks soul, it's all generic dark fantasy opulence and fluff you'd find in a game like Lords of the Fallen, not Demon's Souls.
I always thought I was losing my mind whenever I told someone I didn't like the artistic changes around the time the Remake came out. Glad to know I'm not alone
You are not alone my friend...
Nothing like some good old confirmation bias
@Ali Gürsoy no it really wasn't
@@johndodo2062 but it was
@@johndodo2062 that's not confirmation bias means, the more appropriate term would be validation
as somebody who had a very distinct memory of the fat official, it's really tragic seeing what they did to his iconic design in the remake
They didn't change anything. He actually is not wearing a mask in the original but PS3 graphics players seem to think that it is a mask. The PS5 version he still does the same smile but From Software games never animated their faces so his face is always smiling to give off that effect.
@@TheMeanArena So they did change a lot. His face isn't silver to give the impression of a mask and he's not smiling constantly to keep the appearance of a mask.
@@ThyBigCheddar Because it wasn't a mask in the original. From Software has a history of not animating faces so in order to show his sinister smiling, that is the look he was given permanently. The color itself doesn't matter. The PS5 version has a full facial animation system so he doesn't walk around looking that way but still does the smile frequently.
@@TheMeanArena They have a history of not animating voice acting. They have a lot of facial animations. Their second souls game has characters with animated faces. The colour itself does matter. It matters a lot infact. Because it gives an impression of a mask. I don't know why your so dead set on the theory that From didn't animate the face and just made the face metal colour as opposed to being made to look like a mask. Actual mental gymnastics
@@ThyBigCheddar Well we're not talking bout my mentality, we're talking about a game. He wasn't wearing a mask in the original and he's not wearing a mask in the remake. Yes, they changed the color of his skin, who cares? The shiny effect on his face was just a terrible choice in shader / materials. Same goes with shiny bricks or glowing leaves etc. in the original. Demon's Souls is my favorite game of all time and the remake IMO just elevated the original. I don't care about the small changes here and there as they do not hurt the game.
Bro, imagine if Bluepoint remade Dark Souls and made Smough into an actual grotesque fatass instead! 😂
I can see them doing that. Someone link bluepoint to vaatis playlist of interesting facts about dark souls so they don’t gloss over the eye holes lol
.....
they will turn ornstein into a actual golden lion man.
oh god no,
Oh my god. Now I REALLY see where the original fans are coming from when talking about the adjudicators design.
who cares, as long as they dont harm glorious Ornstein 😍😍😍
@@n8doggy733 Ornstein will now be an actual furry
This is why learning your favorite game will be remade by Bluepoint should send a shiver of dread down your spine. Shadow of the Colossus is my favorite game of all time. I played the ps4 bluepoint remake and it was ruined. I've known for some time Bluepoint on a conceptual level is a problem. This studio's leadership might not have the concept everything existing in a game was a choice based on engine, time, restrictions, hardware etc. If anything is going to be changed, this includes graphical fidelity, genuine care must be given to the original intent. This is why I'm not excited for a bluepoint bloodborne remake--the studio just misses the point on everything. Not sure if Sony or bluepoint but it needs to stop in regards to any remake.
I think the irony for me is that the thing which kept me from really noticing (or caring too much about) these kinds of "arrogant" (and I fully agree; these are arrogant) changes is that I was remembering the way Demon's Souls made me feel in 2009, and those memories were carrying me through; I was effectively projecting my 2009 experience into this game. I also knew there was no reproducing that experience from 2009 for several reasons. (I just assumed Latria was less scary because I had been there so many times before, and didn't really think about it beyond that, for example.)
I'm surprised you didn't mention the original Flamelurker design, which had immediate back-lash, and was "restored" to have its original face. It's a shame the kind of clear and more comprehensive criticism featured in this video didn't arise sooner.
Excellent video though. Nothing can recapture the feeling of playing Demon's Souls in 2009 for me. I still enjoy this remake for the game-play, but you're right that the things over which Bluepoint glossed pretty clearly indicate that they didn't fully understand (enjoy, or even appreciate) the nuances of original game. Maybe some of these things were at the behest of Shuhei Yoshida, who originally said Demon's Souls was "unbelievably bad."
I guess I'm not looking forward to a Bluepoint Bloodborne remake and/or follow-up anymore. 😔
I agree and see what you're saying, I enjoyed my remake play through a lot and didn't see what was wrong but you kinda so carry over your experience huh
There’s no proof that’s even happening… honestly I don’t know why Sony doesn’t just have them get it up to 60fps.
Also, one thing that people forget is that Bloodborne was not made ONLY by From, but Japan Studios… which is now defunct. It is certainly possible that they could be filling in JS’s role WITH From on a sequel.
Honestly tho, i doubt they are working on revamping a ps4 game. Sony has A LOT of properties that have not seen the light of day since the ps3 or ps2, so I think it’s more likely that any remake they may be working on would be something ps3 era or earlier, which so far has been their MO
@@mkv2718 they are probably working on a last of us 2 remake.
This has eerie similarity to the attitude that the Eidos Montreal team had towards the original Thief games when they were marketing their own, new Thief (4). The creative director straight up said that people are looking through rose-tinted glasses at the original games, especially The Dark Project and The Metal Age, and that in his opinion the games just weren't as good as people think they were. And then they showed footage of their "Garrett" shooting guards with the bow and gaining headshot XP. It was so obvious that they either didn't understand what made the originals great or they did but hated it and instead wanted to push their own ego in and create this bombastic action-adventure game instead of the slow-burn, thoughtful immersive experience that the originals were.
That game was a fucking travesty.
I don't think it was quite that way for Demons Souls since there is obvious love and reverence for the original but damn if you aren't absolutely right on Thief. What a debacle. They even shunned the original voice actor for Garrett and he was available.
@@Vespyr_ Indeed. Even if some people don't agree with a lot of the changes the Demon's souls Remake brought to the table, that game still understood the original. Thief on the other hand completely missed the mark. It's even insulting to draw that comparison.
It’s almost like one game was made by people who got creative because they thought it was a lost cause, and the other was made by people who were smug and complacent because they knew a graphically impressive launch title was going to sell. It’s almost exactly like that.
Reminds me of the pokemon company, who "allows themselves" to not have overtime and have EXTREMELY lenient work ethics while also switching out lower level devs like they were straight up expandable because "in the end, it's gonna sell anyway"
And the technical qualities of modern pkmn games shows it very clearly, leaving very little room for creative innovation.
It's literally a tech demo for the PS5, it's what makes me so mad
While that is a fair point, at the end of the day you haters make up like 5% if not less of the demons souls community. Bluepoint games did a fantastic job at remaking demons souls and received mostly praise for their work, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they are rebuilding Bloodborne as we speak
@@poordude2175You get what you ask for, that’s what I’ll say.
Man to call Blue Point smug is the biggest of L of this decade. They are passionate and they are fans. The remake is also 50 billion times better than the original. This was an L video
Amazing video !! You nailed it..I hope developers see this video and take it to heart. Just amazing work !! Thank You for bringing this to light to everyone. I have always had problems with the demon souls remake
It's like remastering a WW1 documentary but all characters wear WW2 uniforms, somehow.
Yeah, it reminds me of modern historical movies that change the fucking history it's supposed to correctly portray just to push a narrative. It's not really as bad as that, but both examples involve massive egos and people who think they can do whatever they want. Like, did you know that the kingdom of Dahomey (from "The Woman King") didn't "free slaves from the evil whites"? It was actually the OPPOSITE. At that point the slave trade was made illegal and the Brits told the king to pretty please stop selling his people into slavery. Mf said "aight bet" and still kept selling people, only this time ~illegally~
THIS! THIS IS THE BEST EXPLANATION
What did you expect? It’s a new generation of gaming and it’s getting worse new devs are lazy and want cash plain and simple.
I immediately was put off by the colours in the new version. The original had such restraint in the art direction that no other From game was able to reach. I understand why they made the remake more colourful to give it more screenshot value but in doing so they took away the most unique pillar of it’s entire visual identity. Even with the “classic” filter it looks more like dark souls palette than the intentionally bleak original.
The art direction wasn’t aiming for horror. It has a melancholic undertone to it that lets you in on the idea that all these stories are relatable on a human level.
Simply making everything look like a slasher film removes that idea and reduces add characters and enemies to moving targets.
Demons Souls is still my favourite From game and it’s largely due to the mood in that game.
While I respect the work that has gone into the remake.
It’s not a replacement nor a retelling of the original experience. It’s something else and something less.
I have to slightly disagree here, the desaturated colours in the original date the game to the seventh generation of consoles where games were legally obligated to not have any colour - But I absolutely agree with the melancholic feel of the music and art direction, Bluepoint missed the mark completely when it came to those, I'm listening to DeS music as I'm writing this and it's so different from any other Souls game but BP still decided to make the music more like a Souls or Bloodborne game when they really shouldn't have. And I'm not even gonna open the can of worms that is the Blizzard-inspired designs.
I just started playing the remake and you are 100% right about Latria! When I got there I felt so calm and at peace, I traversed the level feeling like everything was ok. In contrast to what I remember feeling in the original, that sense of dread and wtf is going on in this place! And of course hearing that loud ass scream of agony and stopping in my tracks and wondering if I should take another step or turn the damn game off. Completely opposite in the remake.
I never played the OG but played all the other soulsborne games but here's my devil's advocate argument: I felt Latria unsettling especially because of the "calm" song. Because I knew what type of game I was playing and I knew that in a souls game when something is "calm" something bad is about to happen. That's what I felt throughout the whole area. Maybe that's what BP tried to do. Trying to make veteran souls player (who never played demon souls) afraid of what's coming next.
Or maybe it's because you've aged?
Geez dude it's not that serious.
@@acidthewolf2242 nope, I played the remake first and pretty much had the same experience of the OG comment
@@stevensampson6346 That's great, exception, not the rule.
Man, a lot of these comments just seem like they didn't even watch the video. Any criticism that isn't an obvious, surface level one is immediately considered "nitpicking", "reaching" or just "bitching"
To be fair, a lot of people just don't understand aesthetics which is reflected in pretty much any remake nowadays
The crash bandicoot remake, the resident evil remakes, (I can go on) are all kinda mold themselves into this really transparent "we just threw high end textures and call it a day" ugly uncanny void
To many people, especially Sony fanboys just kinda despise anything that doesn't aim for realism in any degree
What they did to Mephistopheles is a crime, just to show how they managed to make the characters open their mouths when speaking, they removed the mask that covered her face and that made her so intimidating and they changed her voice to a more feminine one.
That's a very good example of "missed the point" actually. Destroy a character's identity in order to show off your improved tech.
I don't want to imagine the horrors they could inflict on Eileen should they remake Bloodborne.
Mephistopheles' mask never "covered her face" in Demon's Souls though. It covered parts of it, specifically the upper half, leaving the mouth and bottom part of her face exposed. The remake made the "holes" for her eyes slightly bigger and made the mask cover more of her lower face. They also gave her a hood. While I personally prefer (most) of the original's design then the core idea of her design, that being a mysterious masked woman dressed in black and gold is very much kept intact and certainly not changed to "show of a moving mouth". As they wouldn't need to change her original mask for that, and certainly wouldn't need to make the mask reach lower on her face.
Again I don't personally like it, nor do I think its the best design in general. She has problems in terms of design in both the original and the remake, ironically its the same thing about the designs in each that bothers me but for completely different reasons. In the original the "holes" for her eyes feel too small, while in the remake the feel too big in my opinion. (I think the better solution would be cover them up entirely, as to make it unclear how she sees or if she can even see at all...)
@@MidlifeCrisisJoe Not even. They removed the mask to show it is a woman. It was ideological, the same reason why the crestfallen warrior is now black
@@bigdumbfatcat2869 ideological? breaking news: women and black people exist. stop inventing issues you child. of all the things in the remake to complain about you choose the two most insignificant and harmless things which were in the original damn game anyway.
8:56 this would be the equivalent of taking away Radahn's tiny horse and giving him a larger one instead.
It absolutely is not equivalent i barely noticed the statue in either version and sorta just did a that looks cool shrug radahn is one of the most spectacle driven bosses in the most spectacle driven from soft game it’s maybe equivalent to changing like the big statue where u find in Nokron or something
@@kingsneaks9735 L
All the more reason why I'm subscribed to you, and I'm gonna stay subscribed! You don't care if people will hate on you, but you care for being informative and explaining why you think as you do.
Many people will just say you're wrong, and never give any reason to it, or just dislike your comment, without bothering looking for reasoning.
I got so much hate when I commented on some of the design decisions being wrong and fundamentally flawed in the remake.
Right? I keep seeing this with games that had super good graphics (The Order: 1886, TLoUS2, Callisto Protocol, etc), and there will always be an army just waiting in the background ready to praise and defend it, and unironically post "I enjoy them bro, what flaws are you talking about" as if they played an entirely diffierent game.
It's like there is a subconscious instinct within these people, that they felt bad criticizing something that looks really beautiful and is tempted to defend them.
Well, game studio, you can have your art team waste money and time modeling the most beautiful skin pore on your character, but if your gameplay loop, artstyle, music, and story sucks then your game deserves to be harshly criticized.
Bro, they turned the Flamelurker into a fucking Diablo monster and then call us whiny? xD
Yeah.. you guys are whiny and autistic. Remake was excellent.
I’m glad I’m not alone with this opinion. I cannot get into the remake like I have the other entire DS series, BB, Sekiro and ER. Literally, it’s the art direction that pulls me out of the game
I genuinely hope the fact that elden ring crushingly outsold demon's remake and that is so much more played today than demon's(hell, probably even Bloodborne is more played today than demon's remake) shows them just how much the souls audience cares about these things.
@@iota-09 Yes so instead of a $60 remake we will get a £80 port like what we got with Dark Souls Remastered (YOU KNOW THE THING THAT EVERYONE HATED AS WELL) that took 5 minutes and $0 thanks guys....
@@alumlovescake Idk I liked the demon souls remake
@@alumlovescake but the remastered was 40$ and mostly fine as it also fixed a lot of the issues of the original and added a few nice QoL improvements?
sure it didn't add much more beyond what people already did with DSFix, but you also need to think about it from a company's perspective... and yes, i'd still rather have a 40€ remastered than a 80€ remake that tramples on the original's core artistic values, in fact, i really hope that's the case for bloodborne; a dark souls style remastered would be perfect for it, even if arguably overpriced.
@@iota-09 Dark Souls Remastered is universally hated, even more then Demon Souls Remake They didn't fix half the bugs and didn't even and omni rolling it was a a simple port to consoles and a simple patch for PC. Nothing more.
BB is Sony so we all know it will a $60 remaster/port so I would much rather pay that for something that took actual effort and is actually good
And as I said to literary everyone else. You have made up half of these things you are making out are "bits of lore taken out" and most of the things in the og were not art but rather technical limitations.
A central problem with the art design, which I think most people struggle to articulate, is how much more positive space there is in the remake over the original.
This is a bit complicated to explain in text. Basically, the human eye and brain are extremely sensitive to contrast. Between colours, in different hues, saturations and shades (especially shades). Between shapes, in 2D & 3D. Between shapes in different positions, rotations and scales. Between the size, shape and composition of different groups of elements. And any combination of the above.
Because humans are pattern-seeking animals. We naturally pick up on patterns, and breaks in patterns. Contrast is a break in a visual pattern, so it attracts our attention. Dark against light. Red against blue. A circle among squares. An individual apart from a crowd. We tune out patterns, because they don't demand a lot of attention. If we've seen one bit of it, we don't need to see the rest. We can just extrapolate from what we've already seen. While breaks in patterns get our attention, because we have to determine what we're seeing, and what it might mean. Even if the exception is meaningless, our instinct is to check anyway.
That's what positive and negative space are. Negative space is any element of an image that is either a repeating pattern, or a random pattern. Such areas of an image don't attract our attention, because they are predictable. You can even make highly-contrasting visual elements read as negative space, by arranging them in clearly repeating or random patterns. On the other hand, positive space is the elements of an image that are irregular. Such areas of an image attract our attention, because they are unpredictable. They are questions that demand answers.
And therein lies the great difference between the original and the remake of Demons Souls. Look at the opening of original Boletarian Palace. The high stone walls, towers and turrets are covered in repeating elements. There's the crenellations and machicolations atop every wall; the quoins running up every outside corner; the arrow-slits in the walls; and the whole thing is covered in a repeating stone brick texture. All the contrasting details of the building are organized so that they read as negative space, whilst still being recognizably a castle.
Compare that to remake Boletarian Palace. Putting aside the architecture being a completely different shape in places, it's all covered in irregular details. There's the arched stone decorations; the coloured draping banners; the random and overwrought wooden hoarding around the gatehouse towers and elsewhere; and the damage to the crenellations and the fire in some of the hoarding. All of these things are vastly more eye-catching than the original castle, because they are all pieces of positive space that were not present in the original game.
These kinds of changes are everywhere in the remake. Areas that were previously negative space have been filled with detail, making them positive space. Which changes how those environments feel, because now they're more visually-stimulating than they were previously. But it's visual stimulation for no other purpose than the stimulation itself. It's more detail for the sake of having more detail, not in service of replicating the original game's experience.
And making previously-negative space into positive space is not an inherent improvement. Because filling an image with positive space makes it feel like the whole image is yelling "LOOK AT ME". And in a videogame, the imagery is yelling for attention constantly. It is exhausting. Negative space gives the viewer a visual rest, and allows the remaining positive space to stand out more through contrast. Good art needs a mixture of positive and negative space.
The original Demons Souls understood this. The remake does not.
Well said! Details for details sake. This is what separates the artist from the amateur. The artist understands where details are not needed. The amateur fills the space with details and imagines it to be art.
I think this is incredibly well said. I'll add this; I think much of the motivation behind Blue Points erroneous art style stems from their desire to continue the visual style of Dark Souls 1 and 3. I think they failed tremendously, but Dark Souls 3 especially is very busy. In my opinion, Dark Souls 3 is in a minor way guilty of what you're describing here.
Incredible insight. I'm not planning to play any remakes, but I remember looking around in the original, when i first played it, at whatever detail broke the pattern, such as the mausoleum in 1-1, the giant statue that shoots arrows in 3-1, the shanty town in the valley of defilemnt and the pool of blood in front of maiden astrea.
Similarly, in the original dead space, which i also replayed a lot, they built each level from negative space, repetitive corridors, yet in the medical level, there are bloody operating tables, in engineering there are also repetitive corridors, but with pipes, of different sizes, that let off steam, and giant fans spinning somewhere above, and the shadow is projected on the corridor you are walking in.
You can even compare dead space 1 with 2, which i think is also "loaded" in positive space. The golden rule of game design, is "less is more" imo. Thats the elegance Miyazaki is talking about.
This is what more processing power has done for the game industry.
Look at how they made the berserk 2013 adaptation, they animated individual soldiers in the backgrounds fighting, and it looks crappy. In the 1997 version, the fights were showed as frames taken from the manga, colored, with clashing of swords and horses neighing, which was very elegant.
Commenting so I can find this later.
You also explained perfectly why I love DeS and the first two dark souls gsmes way more than the rest of the souls games from soft released after
There's a lot of oversaturation of details almost everywhere in posterior souls games
Another instance of this happening in games is Majora's Mask. Where the 3ds remake got rid of the demon face licking the triforce in stone tower temple. Which indicates some evil things go on there. Now it's just generic blocks in the remake. Completely ruins the anti gods vibe in stone tower temple.
Yeah and I was called autistic because I was upset about that. “What does it matter if one texture changed”
Like I dunno kind of everything about the vibe of the area?
@@MysteriousStranger50 lol, people don't really get how much symbolism can really add world building. Conveying information without a single word. Unfortunately most people don't notice, or care about symbols, and just chalk it up to aesthetics.
It also doesn't help that understanding symbolism isn't something that's really taught. Which adds to the millennial writing style that pisses me off. Where everything is just a reference or derivative of something else.
They changed that and key mechanics, including boss fights. Majora's Mask is in my top 5 games ever made, and I hate the remake.
I'm sorry, there's a demon face LICKING the triforce in the OG version of MM?? What does one type into their search engine to see this? I gotta know.
In general, I do feel like MM3D was a bit of a... well, not a mistake, per say, but something that doesn't do its job in remastering the OG. I read somewhere that Aonuma was basically ashamed of MM and tried to sort of nudge it in a different direction with 3D. It's a shame because it's a clear expression of a point in his life where he wasn't in the best of places, but still managed to create something that on the surface is a sad, dark and depressing story, but underneath contains a message of hope. Removing the little things like this make for something that is no longer a faithful recreation of the mental state the creators had been in during the original development, but isn't really lighthearted like its predecessor either.
The Deku form not building speed well for lilypad jumps and the Zora form requiring magic to swim fast don't help anything either though.
@@randibillett472 I think the 3DS remakes were perfect in what they set out to do.. but I barely remember playing them because after the first hour the novelty wears off and you're just replaying a game you already know beat for beat. Remakes seem pointless for returning players but are excellent for new comers. No coat of paint can match venturing into these worlds the first time around. Even Link's Awakening remake on the Switch, beautiful job but.. I know what's going to happen.
Playing remakes of games you've played is equivalent to looking at old photos. It's nice for a nostalgia buzz but you can't go back. BUT! Again, for new comers it's perfect. Never played Wind Waker till the Wii U port, loved it. Same with Demon's Souls here so I'm not entirely against remakes but from experience and it took me a while to figure this out but I just don't care about remakes of games I've already played...
But I'll definitely re-play Bloodborne when that gets a remake. I got the platinum for it, loved the game but my friend beat every boss without leveling at level 4, I tried to do the same, just got past The One Reborn but gave up. Still, to me the game isn't complete until I do this arbitrary level 4 run.
I never got into demon souls and i don't know much about it but this remake gives me serious silent hill HD collection vibes.
I know I'm late in this comment, but you did a great job describing the issues with the remake. I completely agree that they messed up Tower of Latria the most, especially with the Fools Idol. She's meant to trick poor souls with her false calm beauty that in the image of their queen, but instead made her grotesque for the sake of grotesque. You also brought this up in the video, Miyazaki added in an interview (I can't remember if it was game informer or something else). He specifically did not want to add gross disgusting gore demons for the sake of it. He wanted something "alien like" and "elegant." (Again, sorry, don't remember the exact words just that it's along those lines.) Personally, the music also feels off.
Can u describe how they made her grotesque I’m not really seeing it
@@thedarkroom6416 They made her look cursed ffs. Her hair is frazzled, and she looks like a damn poltergeist. 22:00
She originally looked like: 21:42 They completely altered her entire character. How are you not seeing it? Are you trolling?
@thedarkroom6416 Are you blind or something? Adjudicator, Vanguard, fat officials are prime examples. They changed them from being eerie, strange creatures to warty, gross enemies. Watching og footage feels creepy to me, watching remake footage just grosses me out, scares absolutely nothing.
@@Phantom17685 sorry I was mainly talking about the main boss of the area to me she looks good not too diffrent but yeah a lot of stuff was changed
@@thedarkroom6416 Sorry if I sounded offensive. I'm just so used to seeing people using "uh, what do you mean grotesque, it is clearly creepy" as an argument, and it pisses me off. Also, you're right, Fool's Idol is not the best example for a grotesque boss design in this remake. But they did change her from something that was supposed to allure people into an evil looking witch. The original had this creepy, yet calm stare, the remake just looks evil for the sake of evil.
So glad you made this video. Even if you forgot the most important change: they changed the Maiden Astraea fight.
For one, I get a very heroic vibe from the music. Which I abhor from that fight. You’re supposed to question if you’re truly the good guy you get to this area. And the atmosphere the remake music brings is the total opposite.
Second, I think I heard somewhere that her voice actor is the same, but if so, she put absolutely zero emotion in her lines in the remake compared to the original. Either way, whoever it was didn’t seem to care about the situation their character was in. In the original, you can practically taste the disgust and hate in her voice when she says “take your *precious* demon soul”. There’s almost no emotion in the remake.
I did enjoy my time with the remake, I had tons of fun invading and getting to play the game online. But I sincerely wish we had gotten a game with more love and thought to the original atmosphere.
Im surprised, but it seems remake delevopers didn't have access to og demon souls design documents. No artbook, nothing. Which is so odd.
That's weird. Miyazaki seems like the kind of person who, if they simply just shot him an email asking nicely, he'd be all "Oh! Fuck yeah you can have our design docs! Hell, I'll give you shit from all the other games I worked on, too! Why would you need art for Armored Core 4? Idunno! Take it anyway!"
This actually happened with the halo remakes. the composers for the remakes soundtrack werent allowed to talk to the original composer. I assume these situations arise because of legal issues. corporations like Microsoft and Sony dont care about the original creators intents because they have full rights to the IP now and they dont want any outside involvement even if they were the original creators
@@grislyboar3396 Where armored core remakes 😞
because Sony wanted a cheaply made tech demo to sell their overpriced console to normies
>DS1 remake
>hey these primordial serpents look weird and clunky and have goofy voice acting, let's make them look like scary dragons and have grimdark downpitched voices
>this onion guy armor should be black and red and have spikes, that would be way cooler
>modern audiences might get offended by the amazing chest ahead, get rid of it
>Anor londo looks so basic and empty, let's add crates, barrels and piles of rubble everywhere
>Ornstein and Smough should be a lesbian power couple
They fucking would though ugh
I'd like to see a part 2 to this video, comparing the other worlds between the original and the remake. I've played the remake but not the original. Although I'm fascinated to here more of your thoughts on both.
The remake is visually amazing but my god, it completely murders the feel of the original. The atmosphere and visuals of the original are so unique and captivating
This pretty much summarizes bluepoint
Oh so that's why it never felt like a souls game 😅
The atmosphere is just as good. Plus you can always use the classic filter if you want the og lighting so what?
@@hatchell18 The atmosphere is way worse.
Plus the "classic filter" is garbage. It looks alright in the Nexus but everywhere else it looks horrible!
@@comeandgetyour187invitatio6 the atmosphere is amazing no idea what you’re talking about
Another thing that sucks is that during the development of any video game, especially the older ones, Hardware played a huge role in limitations placed on the original design. Remakes happen years later when hardware limitations are very different. BluePoint had the opportunity to not only recapture the true feeling of Demon's Souls, but actually improve upon it, being able to fill in these details or add elements that might have once been planed but were cut. Maybe the entirety of the Demon's Soul remake should have been in mirror mode to emphasize that it wasn't trying to be the same lol
I think they went with "bombastic" overdose. Instead of making everything more detailed, fresh and atmospheric they went for "ramp up everything to 12 of of 10". Every time I see how many particles fly around I think they could have sank those workhours and console power to lighting, framerate and textures. Perf mode should be upscaled 4k 120fps while normal 4k 60fps.
I wholeheartedly agree, even though I'm not particularly nostalgic, as I played the original 8 years after its release.
This remake is like someone reproduced a Monet painting but with a realistic art style, and doing so also felt like changing the colorimetry and tweaking the designs of some elements. Some people - who don't feel much love for the original - will look at the remade one and say it's the better, "definitive version". Others will validly be more critical of the changes, their purpose, and the distinct (and arguably inferior) atmosphere/aura they create.
I sincerely invite those who embrace the remake to reflect on an important conceptual distinction: graphics =/= art-direction. The latter is far more important for a video game to be memorable and enter posterity, as the original Demon's Souls did. The remake, however, is neither faithful to the original art direction nor does it improve upon it. Therefore, the Demon's Souls remake is, indeed, inferior to the original.
Weren't bluepoint also responsible for Shadow of the colossus remake? Its atmosphere also suffered with their changes, but much less so than demon's souls
two notes:
Ostrava was isolated from his homeland and father for most of his youth. I think a better point about the oppressive brutalism of the castle-city with the lack of nature being something that was intentional and to do with the degradation within the fog. At the same time a lot of the older textures implied the sort of disrepair and growth; mainly the floor tiles
The Vanguard Demon was a reused asset from a previous game. It's definitely a conscious choice to reuse him but it's worth keeping in the back of your mind when considering what From wanted to portray
always wished with all the creative liberty they decided to flex that they would've added the cut archstone instead of making it a 1:1 copy of the levels and gameplay but with some cool coins and the penetrator armour
One thing I don't understand really is that while people are complaining about these little changes which have like zero percent effect on Lore implication or gameplay but they are fine with asking Blue point for adding the allegedly cut content and add a whole new area which never existed in the original game. Why?
@@nayyarrashid4661 A short and skinny explanation is because the Archstone itself has always been in the game. Both as a physical Archstone you can walk up to and completely unique UI element in the tendency screen.
Combine that with the fact From would later put out some amazing dlcs that built upon lore and unused files you can get why some people may long for such an expansion.
A fair bit of the Sixth area is in the game's files!
Demon Souls Remake was my first and favorite SoulsBourne so clicking on the video I was a little confused. After playing through several other of Miazaki’s masterpieces I have grown to love and appreciate all his minute details in his work. You have shed light upon the tarnishing of his original masterpiece, thank you for opening my eyes. In a way DSR is it’s very own Fools Idol…
So you think it's a bad game even when you enjoyed playing the game ?
@@ni9274 They enjoyed the game when they played it, but the video still made them realize that the changes made in the remake are idiotic and make things worse.
This is big of you to admit, I congratulate you.
Even bigger to see the failings in things you enjoy.
I enjoyed the game and had a great time,
but some TH-camr said it was trash, so I hate it now.
@@desirewithinus Is unfortunate that you hate something just because a TH-cam said so. cCap_n is big enough to see the negatives without needing to hate.