The Demon’s Souls remake was one of the most ambitious undertakings of its kind. A new, crowdfunded Demon’s Souls documentary provides an in-depth look at the creative process behind remaking the cult classic.
Bluepoint Games have developed a stellar reputation for remaking classic video games, and their critically acclaimed remake of Demon’s Souls is a testament to their talent, vision, and technical wizardry. A brand-new Demon’s Souls documentary, produced by NoClip, explores the unique challenges the studio faced when attempting to breathe new life into the fan favourite.
Basically, the more beloved a classic, the more risky it is to remake. This paradigm is no less true in regards to video games than it is in the world of Hollywood; which to be frank is littered with the corpses of dead-on-arrival remakes.
Demon’s Souls holds a special place in many gamer’s hearts because of its important role in the history of FromSoftware. The highly successful Japanese development studio, since responsible for Bloodborne and the Dark Souls series, would never have become what it is today had it not been for Demon’s Souls. The game laid the foundations for the future of the studio, and allowed creator Hidetaka Miyazaki to properly demonstrate his genius.
Because of this, a remake was bound to be complicated. The original Demon’s Souls, quite simply, had flaws that were subsequently ironed out in FromSoftware’s later games. However, for some gamers, to correct these faults would have be akin to giving the Mona Lisa a different smile.
This new Demon’s Souls documentary explores this difficult, yet ultimately rewarding, situation in fascinating depth. The film, available for free on YouTube, delves into the difficulty Bluepoint had translating the original game’s Japanese code, finding the right balance between the original’s janky animation and something more modern, and resisting the urge to add too much of themselves into the game.
The documentary is titled Demon’s Souls: Remaking a PlayStation Classic and can we watched here.
