Soon FromSoftware’s next game, Elden Ring, will come out. Its announcement at E3 2019 and going silent until just before E3 2021 has left fans desperate to hear anything about this latest offering. Now that the game has been properly revealed, everyone is thankful that the release date is also set to come soon. Sporting a FromSoftware-designed open world, Elden Ring will take players on a journey the likes of which they’ve never seen through The Lands Between. A broken world filled with spirits, this place will provide new adventures around every turn, and sport FromSoftware’s typical art direction while doing it.
Naturally, Elden Ring is inviting plenty of comparisons to the FromSoftware Soulslike games that came before it. However, one of them wasn’t made by FromSoftware - or at least its most recent iteration wasn’t. Bluepoint Games’ Demon’s Souls Remake currently stands as one of the PlayStation 5’s star exclusives, and a testament to the power of the console. The former PS3 exclusive now shines with a level of visual polish not seen in any of FromSoftware’s own games, even if the art style had to take a hit for Bluepoint to get there. There are a number of lessons FromSoftware can learn from this new take on one of its older games, and Elden Ring would benefit greatly from them.
Bluepoint's Next-Gen Presentation
FromSoftware is nothing if not known for its visuals. The fantastical beasts, spells, locales, and people of its worlds shine brightly in all of its games. This owes something to the strong visuals of the worlds the company draws inspiration from, like Berserk and The Lord of the Rings, but a lot of FromSoftware’s strengths come from within. Even Bluepoint, for all of its work adapting and enhancing the visuals for Shadow of the Colossus and Demon’s Souls, couldn’t quite nail From's bizarre art style, causing a couple enemies and bosses to lose some of the mystique that made them special. It’s impressive that the original Demon’s Souls has any visual advantages over its remake, considering that part of the remake’s purpose was demonstrating the sort of models, textures, and lighting possible on the PS5.
However, Elden Ring is getting a PS5 skew too. That’s not to say the game should be held to the same standards as its PS5-exclusive predecessor - it’s already clear that Elden Ring is operating with Dark Souls 3 and Sekiro’s fidelity anyways - but it ought to try modernizing itself a bit. Demon’s Souls Remake is also renowned for its use of sounds and animation. The positional audio in the game is great for hearing enemies in the environment, and the remake even added some environmental sounds that specifically make use of it, like a baby crying from the other side of a window. It would be impossible to talk about Demon’s Souls Remake’s presentation without discussing its diverse, smooth weapon animations. While FromSoftware’s modern games sport a lot more different weapons than Demon’s Souls ever did, an update to how they look when used would be appreciated.
Demon's Souls Remake's Polish and Quality of Life Features
Bluepoint Games' Demon's Souls Remake didn't just enhance the old game's presentation, it also tuned up the gameplay. No individual changes on this front were major, but taken as a whole, they easily make this remake the best version of Demon's Souls to experience for the first game. Eight-way rolling, like what later FromSoftware games use, is backported to Demon's Souls. Jumping is being added to Elden Ring as an equivalent new dodging tool in the player's arsenal, which is a good sign. FromSoftware should continue to implement new quality-of-life features and refine old ones (like Sekiro's unhelpful world map) like Bluepoint tried to.
Some of those new features should be taking advantage of the DualSense controller's new features. As a PS5 launch exclusive, Demon's Souls was expected to have these. The haptic feedback and adaptive triggers made for an immersive experience impossible on any other console. With every motion performed by or around the player felt by said player's hands, many were more sucked into Demon's Souls' world. It was a great experience, and one that FromSoftware has every reason to try and replicate. It would be a lot of work just for one skew, but even just adding some rumbling while a player is jumping or falling would add to the experience.
Elden Ring and the Possibility of Bonus Features
The final lessons Elden Ring should take from the Demon's Souls Remake are that game-altering modes and secret collectathons are great. FromSoftware's games have employed new game plus features for a while, but only Dark Souls 2 aspired to make its second run unique. Demon's Souls Remake doesn't change much in its new game plus, but it does have something else for players to do. By paying souls to a certain altar in the Nexus, players can trigger a Fractured Mode that mirrors the world and player character. This may sound minor, but modes like this can provide a whole new experience for veterans. Whether they be in racing games or the reversed castle in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, these always challenge players to look at obstacles from a different perspective and re-learn the setting.
That would be a great addition to any FromSoftware game, but Bluepoint went above and beyond by including a treasure hunt. This fun bonus originated in the studio's Shadow of the Colossus Remake, in which it tasked hardcore fans to find collectibles hidden in the farthest reaches of the map. After getting all of these, players were treated to a special reward that was not in the base game. The same is true for collecting Ceramic Coins in Demon's Souls Remake. FromSoftware is no stranger to planting hidden objectives around a game's world, but the most obtuse of these are often tied to NPCs and secret endings. Elden Ring is the perfect setting for a more traditional scavenger hunt, spanning its entire open-world map. The reward could be just about anything, but knowing FromSoftware, it would likely be worth it.
Elden Ring releases January 21, 2022 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.