With the PS5 only having been released recently, it might be hard to make the leap into the remake, especially if you haven't really played the game before.
Anyone who's heard of the game is well-aware of the fact that the game is notoriously hard, but that's not the only thing to love (or hate) about the game. The world the player navigates is dense and layered, to the point where there are details the casual player could completely gloss over. That's what we'll be looking at today.
10 The Secret Door
A new addition to the game, despite the fact that developers Bluepoint wanted to make sure the game was as faithful to the original as possible, is a secret door. The secret door is located in Bolteraria, world 1-3. The door doesn't have a clear way in or anything like that, and for a long time, the door stumped the whole internet, until it was finally opened by a speedrunner, and found to contain an armor set.
9 New Shortcut
In 1-4, there was a pretty annoying occurrence where the player would be doing his or her best to get across a bridge that's occupied by a dragon, which is pretty annoying to kill every single time the player is killed. Instead of watching players struggle through all of the enemies awaiting them here, BluePoint did their best to make it easier for the player by allowing them a shortcut around the bridge.
8 The 6th Archstone
While this isn't a change from the first game, BluePoint made sure to keep the element in the game with their remake. There were rumors abounds when the game was first released, and some of them are still floating around.
One of the biggest ones is the idea that eventually, there's going to be a DLC released which would correspond with a 6th area and that mysteriously cracked 6th Archstone.
7 The Crows Will Return
The first time we saw the pair of crows that would make a return in most of the subsequent games in the Souls series was in Demon's Souls. For players who aren't aware of them, they're usually well-hidden, and they provide exclusive rewards if they're traded very specific items, which will help the player reach secret areas or do a variety of interesting things. In Demon's Souls, the crow is called Sparkly.
6 Arch-Demon Musical Track
When fighting the arch-demons at the end of any of the game's areas, usually the area will play the theme of the archdemons. After their defeat, the sound changes entirely. It changes to a somber soundtrack in a minor key, the musical scale most closely associated with sadness. The song is also performed on an organ, which makes it sound very reminiscent of a funeral dirge. The soundtrack makes what should be a joyous occasion nothing if not somber.
5 Defeating The Dragon God Early
When fighting the first boss of the game, the Vanguard at the end of the tutorial level, the player is teleported to a mysterious area.
While the player isn't actually meant to live during this encounter and is supposed to just get killed and end up in the nexus, there's a chance a skilled player can defeat them. If they do, they're teleported to the lair of the Dragon God, who immediately kills you.
4 Level Skip In 4-1
Towards the end of the game, in the 4th area accessed by The Nexus known as the Shrine Of Storms. The first area is called Island's Edge, and while we can't really detail exactly where it is here since it's oddly specific given the fact that it's accessed by walking up a hill to the side of a path, there are plenty of videos around. The path allows you to pass up every fog-gate in the area, taking you straight to the boss.
3 Glitch Sounds
Ever since the remake was initially released, players have been complaining about a series of odd noises that can be noticed really anywhere,e, not just in the Nexus where the sounds most frequently occur. The sounds were written off by Sony as a flitch, and they haven't been fixed in any of the patches that have been released. They're high-pitched metallic scraping sounds, like something out of a horror movie soundtrack and some players have speculated they mean something more.
2 Depressed Knights
If there's one thing that's a constant throughout pretty much all of the Souls games, it's the large swathe of depressed knights hanging out around The Nexus, the Firekeeper's Flame, or a few other hub areas that have been featured in the game.
The knights have been around ever since Demon's Souls, complaining about the state of affairs in the dark fantasy world surrounding them.
1 The Whole Game Is Much Darker Than The Original
While the original game is noted for how dark it is pretty much throughout, both tonally and in certain areas visually, it seems like BluePoint has kind of doubled-down on the haunting atmosphere. Specific areas are pretty obvious examples of this, especially the well-hated swamps that make appearances in pretty much every FromSoftware game. The very enemies themselves in the world are also more ghastly and gruesome.