While console launch lineups usually have their fair share of lackluster games, thePS5 made it to market with a few heavyweight titles. TheDemon’s Soulsremake is just one of these major players, offering up a deep RPG for early adopters of the console. It stays true to the original, but brings the game forward to an entirely new generation of gamers, showing off the early etchings of theSoulsfranchise. It also just so happens to be one of the best looking games ever made.
If fans needed any indicator of how big of a generational leap the PS5 is,Demon’s Soulsis a clear example. The amount of detail found in its environments, both from a distance and up close, is exceptional. Greatest of all is the fact that the dark fantasy aesthetic is on full display at all times, and it makes for one of the most defining looks of the early PS5 life cycle.
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Being a remake, fans likely already know what to expect out ofDemon’s Soulsvisually, but the game shakes things up in some interesting ways. The detail is the closest fans have seen yet to the Unreal Engine 4 demo Epic Games revealed a few months back, which packed an insane amount of minutia into its environments. That isn’t all that Demon’s Souls accomplishes, though. In fact, far from it, asDemon’s Souls’use of filters in gameplay can drastically alter the tone of its environments.
The setting is relatively easy to miss, hidden away in theDemon’s Soulsmenu settingswith no real mention of it in-game. However, rather than incorporating simple photo mode filters, the game lets players alter the color palette of the entire experience. That may not seem like a huge deal, but the effect it has on the game’s visuals is profound.
Soulsgames have grown a reputation for their looks, typically evoking images of grotesque enemies and Gothic spires, all with the purpose of conveying environmental storytelling in an effective way. This gives each title a consistent tone, and it’s easy to see how recent entries have beeninspired byDemon’s Souls.Out of the box, Bluepoint’sDemon’s Soulsgame features a similar tone, but upon applying filters, all of that changes.
Take, for instance, the “Summer” filter. It transforms the drab grays into brighter mixes of orange hues, which makes the game feel strangely vibrant. For a game likeDemon’s Souls,it makes the entire experience feel radically different, even if the core gameplay is the same. Plus, there are quite a few options, and while they aren’t all a dramatic shift, it’s interesting to see the effect a shift in colors can have on a game.
It’s reminiscent ofGhost of Tsushima’sKurosawa mode, which gave the game a grainy, black and white aesthetic. It, too, changed the game’s tone, making it feel like an old school Samurai movie.Demon’s Soulseven has a Monochrome mode that makes the game black and white, though there’s no audio filter to bring it all the way in line withGhost of Tsuhima.Still, the filters can make the game feel more welcoming, which is a strange feeling for aSoulsgame.
