Dark Souls: Remastered – A newbies excitement for a revitalised adventure

So, it’s finally happening. After the end of an era that has seen the beloved Dark Souls series finally come to an end with the completion of the trilogy, it seems the folks over at Bandai Namco have one last hurrah for players, bringing something to fruition that will allow all to enjoy the Dark Souls franchise.

On May 25th, 2018, players will finally have the chance to step into the treacherous land of Lordran once more in a fully remastered fashion, as Dark Souls: Remastered arrives on consoles and PC, complete with enhancements for the Xbox One X and PS4 Pro.

Whilst I’d love to sit here and revel in a fond memory of the original Dark Souls, I have to be honest – the only real tales I have to tell are those that every single Dark Souls player has already experienced. I don’t mean those of harrowing boss fights and near-death escapes, or even those of painful grind or that valuable find. I’m talking lighting the first bonfire, seeing the first big-ass boss and then getting smudged several times before actually realising you’re not supposed to perform miracles and paste that opening boss straight away… you can actually go round him… for a little while at least.

You see whilst I was always keen on jumping into each of the Dark Souls adventures, and I do indeed own every entry, I’ve never managed to find the time to play any of them properly. To this day, I’ve still only managed a few hours at most with the first title that graced the Xbox 360, and other than the couple of hours I’ve put into Dark Souls 3 – to once again mess about with what I thought was the first boss before later finding out it isn’t – my time with the series is nearly non-existent.

So why am I so excited for Dark Souls: Remastered? Well, because of the new opportunity to jump into one of gaming’s most beloved franchises from the start of course.

As someone who loves a good challenge from my games, the Dark Souls series has always been one that’s called out to me. As a late adopter to Xbox 360 though, I had a lot of catching up to do when it came to playing and enjoying the best games that were available, and with many top titles already out there that peaked my interest a little more, Dark Souls was something I ended up coming across once it arrived on a sale for a few quid. Unfortunately with time restraints proving prominent, it ended up being added to my growing backlog like many of those other sale buys we all indulge in.

Of course, since the Xbox 360 era, Xbox One has maintained complete playability of the entire series thanks to the power of Xbox Backwards Compatibility, and that’s where my excitement for this remaster really ties in with things.

For me, having the option to play through an entire series in one go is a big deal. After all, there is nothing like stumbling across a game series that you start to get into, only to realise there is a sequel, prequel or just another noteworthy entry out there that’s tied to another platform. The Xbox 360 version of Dark Souls being playable has really given me the feeling of wanting to properly experience it all after all this time. One thing that put me off though are the heavily dated visuals.

Dark Souls was never a bad looking game for its time, in fact, it was actually rather pleasant to look at with its unique art. But in a day and age in which 4K visuals are impressed upon and near photo-realistic games are starting to become reality, looking back at Dark Souls now and the visual appearance of it compared to many of today’s games, left me to wonder if I’d be able to appreciate every quality aspect for what it was initially praised for.

With the remaster now set to hit our consoles however, that’s no longer a reason to hold back. Dark Souls: Remastered comes complete with 4K resolutions and 60FPS for those of us playing on an Xbox One X, PS4 Pro or PC. The entire game has also been given a fresh lick of paint amongst the general remaster treatment that we can expect to find, so Dark Souls: Remastered will be an all round better way to play one of gaming’s most iconic titles.

If I had to focus my excitement down to one reason that best describes my eager anticipation for Darks Souls: Remastered though, it would have to be due to the fact that despite the many videos, guides, pictures, forums and general gaming knowledge there is of Dark Souls, everything I’ll find when I boot up the Dark Souls remaster will be for the first-time experience.

Due to my wish to eventually play through the games, I’ve deliberately avoided any such spoilers when it comes to Dark Souls. Yes, I’ve seen a few pictures – who hasn’t? – but that doesn’t mean I’ve even remotely understood what I was looking at.

For me though, Dark Souls Remastered will give me the chance to finally find out what all the hype has been about for all these years, whilst allowing me to experience the game in its best possible version. I can then follow on with Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin and Dark Souls 3 to get the entire experience of the ultimate hardcore-RPG adventure. 

So, there we have it, the reasons for my utter excitement at the upcoming Dark Souls remaster. Are you just as excited by the upcoming adventure? Let us know in the comments below or via our usual social channels.