Soulsborne games have become massively more popular over the years. It’s almost as if Soulsborne games have become a genre of its own. Ever since the release of the original Demon’s Souls in 2009, many games following the same formula has been released to the gaming community by FromSoft themselves, and many other video game developers.

Now, with the release of the Playstation 5, we are back to where it all began. Only this time, it’s a refurbished and improved version of the same game we all know and love. Demon’s Souls Remake is a very faithful title to its original, but it also has a couple of nods to other Souls games, instilling familiarity to those familiar with them.

10 The Cat

Many believe that the original Demon’s Souls was ahead of its time. It may not have been the first game to highlight gameplay difficulty at the forefront, but it sure did revolutionize it to merit its own genre. As amazing as the game was, however, it was not without its faults and quirks.

One of the most hilarious and memeable aspects of the original Demon’s Souls was the Cat Ring status image. If you equipped the cat ring in the original game, the status image that appeared on the bottom of the health bar was an actual image of a cat. This has been fixed in the remake, but that very same image of the cat can be found pinned to a tree during the credits.

9 Backstab Loop

In a game as difficult as Demon’s Souls, you will need to use everything you have in your arsenal and employ every tactic you can to gain an advantage. Thankfully, the game’s backstab critical attacks are capable of doing a whole lot of damage. On top of that, you can abuse this tactic to oblivion too.

This is a mechanic many found to be faulty in the original title. Backstabs can be abused, all you have to do is circle the enemy, do the backstab, circle them again while waiting for them to stand back up, backstab again, and rinse and repeat. Of course, this isn’t doable to all enemies, but many people wished it was something the remake could fix. Bluepoint wanted to make the remake as faithful to the original as possible, though, so this tactic can still be used in this game.

8 Trophy Challenges

Completing modern games have become even more fun and rampant due to the addition of trophies and achievements. The Demon’s Souls Remake has a ton of trophy challenges you can complete on the Playstation 5, and many of them even refer to the lore of the world to make things a little more interesting.

One trophy requires you to defeat the Dragon God while using the Hand of God weapon, which refers to the lore of an ancient hero who defeated and killed the dragons of the land using his hands only. Another requires you to defeat the Penetrator with the help of Biorr. Other challenges just force you to play the game differently and more interestingly, like the one where you defeat Maiden Astraea without killing Garl Vinland.

7 Wearing The Fat Official Set

The Fat Officials are one of the few changes Bluepoint Games did differently from the original. That’s not the only change in this game involving the Fat Officials, though. Now, you can collect and equip the full Fat Official set, when you could only wear the Fat Official hat in the original title.

With this change also comes an alteration of a questline that involves the Fat Official gear. There is an NPC named Yuria, the Witch in this game. In the original, you could rescue Yuria by simply wearing the Fat Official hat and tricking the enemy into lowering a staircase for you, which in truth didn’t really make sense storywise. In the remake, you now need to equip the full set before you could reach Yuria. This change is an interesting thing only the players of the original title will find considerable.

6 The New Shortcut

Bluepoint didn’t do many changes to the game’s level design. As many will agree, it was pretty much phenomenal already and it required no changes whatsoever. There is, however, one thing in the game’s final level those who played the original game wished FromSoftware added.

In 1 - 4, or The King’s Tower level, there is a shortcut that allows you to skip the bridge run where the dragon lingers. This shortcut was absent in the original game, and many players were actually disappointed that this was something they had to deal with every time they had to climb up the area. Thankfully, this change has been added to the game, to the delight of those who called for it in the original.

5 Patches

Patches, the Hyena. You either love him or you hate him. If you are a souls fan, though, regardless if you do love or hate him, you will without a doubt recognize him. Even if you haven’t played the original Demon’s Souls, you will have recognized Patches if you played any of the Dark Souls games or Bloodborne.

Patches went through various iterations throughout the Dark Souls trilogy. He hilariously took the form of a god-worshipping spider in Bloodborne. In the original and the remake, he is called Patches, the Hyena. The one thing all versions of Patches have in common is that they’re traitorous tricksters, who’ll turn into a merchant if you confront them again and forgive them.

4 Moonlight Greatsword

Aside from Patches, the Moonlight sword is something that constantly makes an appearance in FromSoft games. Both the Moonlight Sword and Patches actually pre-date the Souls games, with both of them making their first appearance in FromSoft’s Armored Core games. Those who haven’t played any of the Dark Souls games, Bloodborne, or the original Demon’s Souls might see this sword and think it’s just another cool-looking greatsword, but those familiar with the genre know different.

This great looking sword can be found in the Leechmonger Archstone surrounded by Giant Slugs.

3 Omnidirectional Rolling

Omnidirectional rolling is finally incorporated into a Demon’s Souls game. This mechanic was first added by FromSoft in Dark Souls II. Its absence was one of the things that contributed to the combat being even more challenging than it already was in the original Demon’s Souls game.

Those who played the original will find this mechanic incredibly satisfying. Rolling in, out, and around enemies are much smoother and more effective now. If you’re playing Demon’s Souls now and have not played the original, this feature is nothing more than a given thing for you, but those who played the original have waited years to just feel this mechanic in a Demon’s Souls game.

2 The Online Play

Online play has become a staple and an expected feature when it comes to FromSoft’s Soulsborne games. Aside from Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, every single Soulsborne games have included online play, which has garnered hours and days and months of gamers’ time.

The servers for the original Demon’s Souls online service were shut down in February of 2018. Thankfully, those who loved the online aspect of the original game will also enjoy the remake’s online play. In the remake, a maximum of six players will be allowed to play at once, with four as co-ops and two as invaders. In the original, though, you could only summon up to two players.

1 The Sixth Archstone

One of the most baffling things about the original Demon’s Souls game, aside from the already complex lore, was the presence of a sixth archstone despite being inaccessible. As it turns out, the sixth archstone was supposed to be dedicated to an incomplete world FromSoft failed to finish before the original game launched in 2009.

Since then, many players have called for a DLC which many assumes could be accessed through the sixth, missing archstone. That never happened, though, but when the remake of the game was announced, this very same call was raised once again. Perhaps there’ll be new content in the remake and the sixth archstone would finally be used. As we now know, though, this isn’t the case once again, but the sixth archstone is pretty much clearly still visible in the game. As history repeats itself, hopes and dreams for the sixth archstone are once again rampant.

NEXT: 10 Lingering Questions We Have After The End Of Demon’s Souls PS5