​

Bandai Namco has released some footage for the upcoming Dark Souls: Remastered, along with some technical details. PlayStation's official YouTube channel offers a video showing off the first 25 minutes of the game, which can be compared to the original to see the graphical updates. The PlayStation 4 Pro, Xbox One X, and PC version will all run at 4K and 60fps, while the original PlayStation 4 and Xbox One will run 1080p/60, while the Nintendo Switch version will run at 1080p/30 on docked, and 720p/30 in handheld mode. Some of the minor changes to gameplay include changing online play from P2P to dedicated servers, improving online matchmaking, and letting players select multiple consumable items at once. You can see a full list of changes below. Dark Souls: Remastered will be launching on May 28 for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC, and Nintendo Switch.

• The maximum number of players online has increased from 4 to 6.
• The Dried Finger item will be needed to play with 6 players.
• The Dried Finger has been moved from the Painted World of Ariamis level to the Undead Burg merchant to be obtainable earlier in the game. The Dried Finger location in the Painted World has been replaced with a Twin Humanities item.
• Password Matchmaking is now available, similar to Dark Souls 3. When a player is summoned in Password Matchmaking the player level will be synced.
• It's now easier for friends to be matched with each other. When the guest player’s character level and weapon is higher than that of the host player, the level will be adjusted accordingly.
• Healing items will not be available during PvP with the exception of Estus Flasks. To prevent long and drawn out battles, the number of Estus Flasks is halved for phantoms.
• When a player defeats an invading phantom, their Estus Flask is restored.
• Players can turn on/off global matchmaking
• Players can now prevent matched Red Phantoms from seeing their “White Sign Soapstone” sign
• Players can no longer summon ally phantoms consecutively when in combat with enemy phantoms.
• In online play, players who are outside of the host’s parameter range will not be matched with each other (the players can still be matched via Password Matching).

• 3v3 and 6-player deathmatch have been added.
• Arena battles can also use Password Matching.
• Respawn points will be random.
  • Players can select the number of usable items, such as consumable souls or covenant items, to use instead of one at a time as in the original game.
  • The number of languages has been increased to the number found in Dark Souls 3.
  • A Bonfire has been added next to Vamos the Blacksmith.
  • Covenants can be switched at Bonfires.
  • Button configuration is available.
  • Items will not automatically be registered into an item slot when picked up.
  • When the up or down directional pad button is held down, the first item equipped will be selected.
  • The online network has been changed from P2P to dedicated servers.

 

[Axido]

Dedicated servers? If that means I can't trick the game into letting me play with people I specify myself anymore, I'd rather stick to the bad port that is the original PC release.

 

[CrimsonMaple]

I would have prefered 720p 60fps over 1080p 30fps on a docked switch but I will take what I can get.

 

[Bernhard]

Dark souls on the go sounds so enticing!

but 30 fps dont

 

[Hells Malice]

Dedicated servers? If that means I can't trick the game into letting me play with people I specify myself anymore, I'd rather stick to the bad port that is the original PC release.

If you actually read a little further, it mentions adding password matching. Aka easily summoning your friends.

 

[Kioku]

but 30 fps dont

Means nothing for casual playing.

 

[Viri]

Do owners of the non remastered version PC version get a discount like Skyrim SE?

Or am I fooling my self?

 

[Hells Malice]

Means nothing for casual playing.

Play DS1 on PC with DSfix and try toggling between 60 and 30.
I don't care how casual someone thinks they are, you notice the hell out of the difference. It's night and day immediately how clunky 30 feels.

It'll be fantastic playing 60 fps natively and not having to worry about wonky gravity and falling through damn ladders

 

[Kioku]

Play DS1 on PC with DSfix and try toggling between 60 and 30.
I don't care how casual someone thinks they are, you notice the hell out of the difference. It's night and day immediately how clunky 30 feels.

It'll be fantastic playing 60 fps natively and not having to worry about wonky gravity and falling through damn ladders

I agree the difference is night and day. I'm going in with the mindset that the Switch is the truly inferior version. Of course, Dark Souls in native 60FPS would be amazing.

 

[bi388]

So is this multiplayer when you fight against each other or play co-op like MMO?

Its both. You can be invaded and fight against other players, or summon other players to help you

Dark Souls 2 ran decent enough on Xbox One, though... So....

That's because it was a 360 game being ported to Xbox one with slightly updated lighting. It was a last gen game on a new console.

 

[Kioku]

Its both. You can be invaded and fight against other players, or summon other players to help you

That's because it was a 360 game being ported to Xbox one with slightly updated lighting. It was a last gen game on a new console.

The thing I may have missed.. Is the remaster running on the more updated engine (akin to DS3)?... Or just prettier graphics?

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

Its both. You can be invaded and fight against other players, or summon other players to help you

So does this co-op work for the story? Or is this some special thing like some games, where is nothing to benefit from?

Just asking cause I want to know, maybe I should find some people who will buy it on switch and add some friends so I can get through it with them.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

The thing I may have missed.. Is the remaster running on the more updated engine (akin to DS3)?... Or just prettier graphics?

It's just prettier graphics. If it were running on a new engine it'd be a whole remake, not a remaster.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

So does this co-op work for the story? Or is this some special thing like some games, where is nothing to benefit from?

Just asking cause I want to know, maybe I should find some people who will buy it on switch and add some friends so I can get through it with them.

Co-op and PvP are not separate from the main game, it's all featured in the same gameplay.

You also shouldn't expect any kind of "normal" story line/plot, that's not how Souls games work. It's much more "open world" with little direction than an actual "story".

 

[Kioku]

It's just prettier graphics. If it were running on a new engine it'd be a whole remake, not a remaster.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------


Co-op and PvP are not separate from the main game, it's all featured in the same gameplay.

You also shouldn't expect any kind of "normal" story line/plot, that's not how Souls games work. It's much more "open world" with little direction than an actual "story".

That's what I thought... So, if the Switch can't maintain a consistent 30FPS then we've got problems.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

That's what I thought... So, if the Switch can't maintain a consistent 30FPS then we've got problems.

TBH, I'm fully expecting the Switch version to struggle with a lot of enemies on screen, like all the hollows in Undead Burg, or all the Capra Demons in Demon Ruins, or all the Bounding Demons in Lost Izalith, or all the skelefriends in the Catacombs, or pretty much everywhere else in the game. It'll probably be super bad in Blighttown, too, unless they changed the way that entire area renders, which I kinda doubt but hey maybe I'll be surprised.

You'll just be getting the full console experience on the go...but, y'know, from 2011.

I pre-ordered the Switch version myself, normally I'd stick with PC but Dark Souls 1 PvP doesn't interest me anymore so all these "improvements" are useless for me beyond portability on the Switch. I already have 4k 60fps on PC thanks to DSFix, so no point buying it again.

 

[bi388]

I mean the switch is... what, somewhere in between the ps3 and ps4 in terms of power? Which for a handheld is about what is expect. The ps3 ran dark souls and demons souls at a framerate that was constantly at ~20, and I can say from experience demons souls would sometimes drop to like 4 fps for a bit. The console literally freezes every time you fight design god. So I think maintaining a stable 30 on an upgraded version of the game that rins at higher res with better textures would be an achiement for a handheld.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

So does this co-op work for the story? Or is this some special thing like some games, where is nothing to benefit from?

Just asking cause I want to know, maybe I should find some people who will buy it on switch and add some friends so I can get through it with them.

While you are in human form, other players of similar level can invade your world to try to kill you and take your humanity. Basically if you play online and are playing as human, you are always at risk of another person coming into your game to halt your progress. However, if you're human, you can also summon helpful people to coop areas with you, or to help you defeat someone invading your world.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

I mean the switch is... what, somewhere in between the ps3 and ps4 in terms of power? Which for a handheld is about what is expect. The ps3 ran dark souls and demons souls at a framerate that was constantly at ~20, and I can say from experience demons souls would sometimes drop to like 4 fps for a bit. The console literally freezes every time you fight design god. So I think maintaining a stable 30 on an upgraded version of the game that rins at higher res with better textures would be an achiement for a handheld.

In portable mode it's still weaker than 7th gen consoles, but docked it does just skirt ahead.

But the bigger issue though is less with the Switch's hardware and more with the game itself. You can say a lot of positive things about FromSoft, but they were quite lacking when it came to technical expertise while developing the early Souls games. Unfortunately, Dark Souls (and Demon's Souls) engines were not well optimized at all which is really to blame for the poor framerate in certain areas. Even PCs with high end GPUs that are 5x as powerful as the PS360 era can struggle and hit lag spikes.

The issue with Blighttown, for example, is because the engine renders that entire area, including AI and physics and path finding and such for every single enemy for both the top and bottom of the map at the same time... which is silly, since you're only going to see one or the other, never both at the same time. And then there's the ragdoll physics, which can drastically eat up performance when you start really piling the bodies up in certain areas.

Could these things be fixed in the Remaster? Probably, but I don't think they will be myself, mainly because they'd likely require part of the engine core to be completely rewritten, which I doubt is being done here. Unfortunate, but eh.

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

I mean the switch is... what, somewhere in between the ps3 and ps4 in terms of power?

According to Nvidia, the tegra X1 is better than the ps3 and xbox 360.

 

[Burlsol]

Kinda huge with this part.

The online network has been changed from P2P to dedicated servers.

The Big take-away here is this should make it harder to cheat or grief since it means that each character will need to be uploaded to a server in order to connect to other players. This should also help to normalize connections between players and make PvP less of a ping game. Finally it shows a sign that From is interested enough in keeping the series alive that they're wanting to invest in server architecture.

The bad news is that this likely means that they will be trying to rehash Darksouls for awhile instead of working towards the next new thing.

 

[jt_1258]

But no details on the network test coming up?

 

[lolboy]

This will make my HD collection of my fav game/series complete.