While I'm giving it the same score, I do believe Echoes to be on the higher end of 4.5/5 than its predecessor (EDIT: It's a 5/5, on reflection). So many problems are addressed: bosses are generally less formulaic and can be defeated quickly with good player skill, area segmentation gives way to better internal coherence and improved backtracking, the dark world mechanic deepens puzzle design, and aesthetic similarity between areas gives the impression of a coherent physical space more-so than the original's world design.

The segmentation also reworks the Prime structure for the better. What we get here is essentially three increasingly excellent Zelda-like dungeons, with an overworld connecting them. Poking and prodding at each map's various moving parts made me feel so much more connected to the environment

What are we losing with Echoes' changes? For one, we lose environmental variety, though I feel this was worth it. More importantly, the commitment to the structure Echoes sets out with demystifies the game somewhat, as the player knows what to expect (on a basic structural level) when entering a new zone. The music is also generally less compelling, which is perhaps downstream of a commitment to atmosphere.

This is an exciting moment for me, as the gap between Echoes and Dread is one for which I was out of the loop. On top of that, I finally beat this one 100%, which I'd done for all others I'd played prior. My initial plan for this series playthrough was to do main series games, but it's pretty ambiguous as to what counts. There seems to be a hierarchy of what is most "main", but where the cut-off point lands lacks definition. So fuck it, I'm doing them all! Next Metroid game on the agenda is (checks notes)... Metroid Prime Pinball.

Um, ok I guess!

UPDATE: Yeah, so my laptop is not coping well with DS emulation, and Metroid Prime Pinball is frankly too expensive for a game called Metroid Prime Pinball. It looks like this series playthrough will be limited to the non-pinball titles, which means Hunters is up next! Also if anyone is wondering why I'm reviewing video-games on Christmas Day it's because I got COVID. Samus Aran and I are quite alike in our isolation, but quite opposite in how said isolation manifests (stoic heroine vs anxious sadsack eating chocolate).

Demon's Souls, and to a lesser extent Dark Souls, had the privilege of low expectations. Demon's Souls didn't necessarily earn its reputation as a challenging game through pure mechanical difficulty alone, but through its experimentation and obtuseness, both of which contributed to an oppressive atmosphere in synch with the audio-visual design. This has sadly, but perhaps inevitably, been lost in newer titles, particularly Bloodborne and Dark Souls III. I still love where the series is at, but the immersive, experiential side of Souls has diminished over the years. I love bosses like Slave Knight Gael or the Orphan of Kos, but I'm still waiting for another Maiden Astraea, still waiting for another moment that subverts expectations and leaves the player with an unusual emotional reaction.

Everything that makes Demon's Souls normatively 'worse' ultimately works in its favour, with jankiness and a general lack of polish contributing to the experience in unexpected ways. I think it poses interesting questions about the how aspects we think of as uncomplicated, such as performance stability, can impact the experience in complicated ways. Do the performance hiccups in the PS2 Shadow of the Colossus contribute to the feeling of scale? Is Blighttown less oppressive without the frame-rate drop? I don't think there are easy answers here. All I know is that, when I play Demon's Souls, all the thematic, aesthetic, audio, and mechanical elements are synchronous to a degree that they just aren't in Dark Souls III.

I'm finding it difficult to express my thoughts coherently, if you couldn't tell. All I'll say is that, playing Demon's Souls 12 years after release, after 5 similar games and another on the horizon, Demon's Souls is still some kind of masterpiece. For all its flaws, this game hits heights that haven't been reached since. I've yet to play the remake, but if the SotC remake is anything to go by I'm sure it will a) be outstanding on its own terms, and b) kind of miss the point.

"This looks like a job for Cleft, the Boy Chin Wonder!"

How many times...
How many times...
How many times did I have to hear that?

Even with a full party of 4 people this game is just not worth it at all.