The father of the Souls juggernaut that's consumed portions of the gameosphere, it still holds up in its own way.
Parts are mechanically more primitive - the combat and the four-way roll - while others are stranger in ways that have never been repeated (world and character tendencies). The bosses are largely gimmick or spectacle pieces with only two that are actually difficult battles, and there's no checkpoints only shortcuts.
The game itself is largely unchanged from its original form with only a few things different. They added the ability to change appearance or reset NPC aggro, added some consumables, the mirror mode, and the optional coin hunt. Some bugs are fixed. Some aren't. Some that were fixed were harmless, pro-player exploits (Maneater). Some that weren't fixed fuck you (Ostrava never showed up in 1-4 despite rescuing him in 1-3, really cool we chose not to fucking fix that).
The visual changes are a mixed bag. Some look nice. The particle effects are cool but very distracting sometimes. Some of the armor changes are fucking awful - the Fluted Armor looks terrible compared to the iconic original, and Yuria's set, an armor set called the RAGGED SET is not ragged and looks NOTHING like it does in the original.
The audio is also worse overall. The sfx sounds bad and is too slavish to the modern audio tropes of "bass heavy fart noises" which is most noticeable in the magic and fire effects (esp. Flamelurker's slam attack. awful.) Other minor sounds like the "woo? ooo~" hoot of the 4-2 ghosts have been flattened into a generic spooky warble, the Fat Official laugh is barely a chuckle...
The music is better on a purely technical level but it all sounds indistinguishable from modern orchestra slop and it never fits the pacing or atmosphere of a fight.
Most damning is how they butchered the Maiden in Black and character creation themes. The former isn't even recognizable, and the latter removes the ethereal synth for the world's most generic piano plinks. And you can't offer the original soundtrack in the options? Its the bare minimum I expect for remastermakes like this.
The game itself is still as good and genre-defining as it always was. But Bluepoint has failed to render what made it truly special. The texture that defined it has been sanded off for something far more generic in look and sound. I like that it exists but not the form its taken.
Parts are mechanically more primitive - the combat and the four-way roll - while others are stranger in ways that have never been repeated (world and character tendencies). The bosses are largely gimmick or spectacle pieces with only two that are actually difficult battles, and there's no checkpoints only shortcuts.
The game itself is largely unchanged from its original form with only a few things different. They added the ability to change appearance or reset NPC aggro, added some consumables, the mirror mode, and the optional coin hunt. Some bugs are fixed. Some aren't. Some that were fixed were harmless, pro-player exploits (Maneater). Some that weren't fixed fuck you (Ostrava never showed up in 1-4 despite rescuing him in 1-3, really cool we chose not to fucking fix that).
The visual changes are a mixed bag. Some look nice. The particle effects are cool but very distracting sometimes. Some of the armor changes are fucking awful - the Fluted Armor looks terrible compared to the iconic original, and Yuria's set, an armor set called the RAGGED SET is not ragged and looks NOTHING like it does in the original.
The audio is also worse overall. The sfx sounds bad and is too slavish to the modern audio tropes of "bass heavy fart noises" which is most noticeable in the magic and fire effects (esp. Flamelurker's slam attack. awful.) Other minor sounds like the "woo? ooo~" hoot of the 4-2 ghosts have been flattened into a generic spooky warble, the Fat Official laugh is barely a chuckle...
The music is better on a purely technical level but it all sounds indistinguishable from modern orchestra slop and it never fits the pacing or atmosphere of a fight.
Most damning is how they butchered the Maiden in Black and character creation themes. The former isn't even recognizable, and the latter removes the ethereal synth for the world's most generic piano plinks. And you can't offer the original soundtrack in the options? Its the bare minimum I expect for remastermakes like this.
The game itself is still as good and genre-defining as it always was. But Bluepoint has failed to render what made it truly special. The texture that defined it has been sanded off for something far more generic in look and sound. I like that it exists but not the form its taken.