4.5/5 ★ – Bebus's review of DARK SOULS™: REMASTERED.

Replaying this after Demon's Souls was a little bit of a shock to my system. I'd always known Dark Souls was very iterative but it really did feel like every unique and interesting idea in Dark Souls was just lifted from Demon's Souls. Not to mention the attention and care given to boss fights in Demon's Souls isn't present here. Many of the bosses like capra demon, taurus demon, giant centipede, ceaseless discharge, gaping dragon, and pinwheel or pretty disappointing and bland. Demon's souls insured every single boss fight was incredibly unique either through weird arena quirks or exploiting weaknesses of a larger foe. There was really only one or two bosses that were purely about learning an enemies moveset and punishing them during their openings, but this feels like most of Dark Souls fights. The few gimmick fights that are there, like bed of chaos, feel horribly unfinished and even more frustrating and boring than Dragon God. The real star of the show is the interconnectivity of the world. It really is amazing. Rolling back from undead parish straight into firelink shrine is definitely one of the most brilliant experiences I've had in a video game. I honestly would have to say that this has diminishing returns though. It's very clear Fromsoft struggled to get this interconnectivity working. Shortcuts, which were always thematically appropriate and internally consistent in demon's souls, are totally nonsensical here. There are elevators that, for whatever reason, only work when triggered from the opposite side (but then work normally afterwards), iron bar doors that are locked from one side but not the other (and don't require a key to open), and occasionally bizarre level geometry (the awkward stair placement in lower undead burg and a random doorway that leads to the middle of a staircase in Sean's Fortress come to mind). Some levels feel outright unfinished here too. The best aspect of Demon's Souls level design was that each level felt like a real, tangible place. Not only do quite a few Dark Souls levels not feel like this, many feel like I walked in on a designer with the level editor open. Lost Izalith genuinely feels like something cobbled together as fast as possible. It has some of the worst enemy placement I've seen in a game in a very long time. Lower undead burg is just a narrow hallway with a bunch of completely empty box rooms. A lot of these places just don't feel real. It feels like the interconnectivity led to some very serious issues with the rest of the level design. On top of what I mentioned a lot of places just feel really unpolished (like anor londo) and plenty of areas have awkward dead ends or structures that feel like they don't serve any real purpose. If the fact that they never tried this sort of interconnectivity again isn't evidence enough it was hard to work around, I'd say the fact that they abandoned it mid way through and have so many unfinished levels is more than enough. I think a more demon's souls approach with a level select would have been much better. Dark Souls leans on the action elements much more than Demon's Souls. Demon's Souls felt more like an adventure game than anything else. Most of the experience was rooted in tactics and engraining a feeling that you outsmarted bosses or the environment to succeed. You didn't just slash away at Tower Knight to kill him, you killed the archers who supported him to make him less threatening, than hit his ankles to hit a more vulnerable body part. You don't just kill the adjuticstors body guard (or whatever he is), you hit an open wound of the much more powerful foe so you can hit the real target up above, you don't just fight old hero man to man, you exploit his lack of vision to gain the upper hand. In Dark Souls, you dodge and hit. That's most of the bosses and enemy design in the game. All that being said, Dark Souls is still an excellent action rpg. There are plenty examples of genius level design here, like the painted world. While I dislike the more action heavy approach, there are some genuinely amazing boss fights throughout the game that follow this formula, like Bell Gargoyles, Sif, Artorias, and Gwyn. I do think a proper successor to Demon's Souls would be just as bold and experimental as it was though, so Dark Souls is a bit disappointing in this regard.