Not even sure if I even want to finish the PS5 Demon's Souls now that I know that the art is a grotesque caricature of the PS3 originals art and butchers the atmosphere and lore. It just feels like corposlop now, and I got limited time with the console because it's from a fren (wanna play Kat's game and Astro Bot too, etc.) Even without diving into the w*sternization rabbithole it always felt kinda off, like visually "too Disney" for something that is supposed to be very liminal, stoic and gloomy.
I would love to emulate the PS3 original but I don't have adequate hardware for that atm. Maybe I'll put it on my backlog and fully enjoy it when I get a stronger PC or a PC-Handheld.

thoughts @yomiel

What i really disliked about the remake were the appearance of characters. Everyone looks really weird, like some sort of uncanny valley trash.

Specially when you fight king Allant. He looks really had

@dagda
I agree. I think the remake takes a lot of the soul out Demon's Souls. Have you listened to some of the tracks from the original OST? They really are so different to the remake. Such a shame. I think they veered from the original's rather clean environments as to show off their prowess.

Clutter and debris is often used to flex this ability in games. I think FromSoft are pretty good with this, actually, take Anor Londo. A bad developer would've just put clutter everywhere to make it look impressive, but FromSoft resisted that urge, and it looks better for it. Bluepoint didn't get this at all.

Have you tried emulating it on your PC? You might be surprised how easy it is to run, it's by far the most optimised RPCS3 game. I ran it on a GTX 1060 and a four core CPU.

@dagda
>Kat's game
You mean Gravity Rush?

@yomiel
> I think the remake takes a lot of the soul out Demon's Souls

DEMON'S SOVLS VS DEMON'S SOVLLESS

>Clutter and debris

In the remake a lot of enviroments look way too clean while others look uneccessarily cluttered. The nexus and Boletaria are the prime examples with the nexus being pristine and shining despite being abandoned for thousands of years while Boletaria is overgrown and ruined despite the scourge having started a couple of months ago.

And yeah, the music is terrible. The original (specially old monk and fool's idol) are cosiderably better

@yomiel

Have you listened to some of the tracks from the original OST?

They are way better in every way holy shit. Music, for me personally, has a huge impact on how much I enjoy a game, the Bluepoint score is now literally intolerable

I think they veered from the original’s rather clean environments as to show off their prowess. Clutter and debris is often used to flex this ability in games. I think FromSoft are pretty good with this, actually, take Anor Londo. A bad developer would’ve just put clutter everywhere to make it look impressive, but FromSoft resisted that urge, and it looks better for it. Bluepoint didn’t get this at all.

YEAH EXACTLY there is no reason why modern games have to make everything so visually cluttered all the time. More hardware power? Good. Now take Gen 7 environmental design and make FPS, (native) resolution higher, done. No need for shit lying around everywhere. Hell if you wanna put the power to use give me games with intimidating superstructures, I don’t care for detailed and quadro-AI antialiased grass and rubble everywhere

Have you tried emulating it on your PC? You might be surprised how easy it is to run, it’s by far the most optimised RPCS3 game. I ran it on a GTX 1060 and a four core CPU.

I have a desktop with a 15 year old graphics card and other than that only laptops with integrated graphics. NGMI sadly

@yomiel
Yes, wanna play both of them

@dagda
I've only played the first one IIRC. I vaguely remember buying the second one for the PS4, but never playing it.

I've since played it on my PS Vita since I hacked it. It's definitely /comfy/ as hell, though the gameplay is far from exceptional, in my opinion. I've yet to finish it, so I can't really comment too much.

I adore the music, though.

@yomiel
Gem and Vitapilled

really sad how portable game design is dead nowadays, dedicated handhelds need to retvrn (I don't consider mobile games as they are cancer). I take forever to complete games as I don't really play long sessions. Maybe Steam on ARM will change that and ARM-compiled indies will fill the gap that 3ds and Vita left

@dagda
I highly doubt portable PC devices will fill that gap, I don't imagine people would make a game JUST for Steam Deck specific play, unlike VR for example. Maybe I'm wrong. Also, the Steam Deck is too damn big, even the Switch is too big.

I like the size of the 3DS and Vita to be honest, I need to be able to fit in my pocket, or it's not truly portable.

But yeah, I hope they return too. I loved the Vita and 3DS. The PSP less so, thanks to the horrible noise it made whilst playing a disc game, meaning I never played it outside, or at night.

@yomiel
was thinking about chinkhelds, they have decent form factors and some of them are even designed well. Qualcomm just needs to get their act together as far as Linux support goes

@dagda @yomiel >qualcomm
tjey havent done it in almost 20 years, intel with low power chips would be more appropiaye

@dagda
They still have the same problem of no bespoke games being made for the device. I think what was so good about the DS was that games were made with the DS in mind.

That's actually what made many PSP games so bad, because they didn't bother really. People saw it as a mini-PS2 which meant many camera-heavy games got put on a system with no camera-control button, resulting in a lot of mediocre ports better played on a home console.

@yomiel
input innovation is a lacking field with the chinkhelds yes. On the other hand pic related is how the average steam deck portable gaming enjoyer looks to me
PS4, TV, power clables taking u…

@dagda
I think they're cool if you manage your expectations, sure.