Is Dark Souls: Remastered for the Switch easier than the original?
Dark Souls: Remastered is reaching the Nintendo Switch, allowing newcomers and veterans of the shadowy masterpiece to enjoy a fully revamped journey into hell.
When Dark Souls first came out in 2011, few could have predicted the sleeper hit that the game would become. Its originality, challenging gameplay and mysterious storyline led to word of mouth success.
For game critics, it became a by-word for affecting, immersive gaming – a title often held up as a gold standard of rich, rewarding gameplay, but also notorious for being extremely difficult to progress through.
Many are left wondering whether it will remain as difficult now that it’s been remastered for a new generation of consoles, the Switch included.
Is Dark Souls: Remastered easier than the original?
CREDIT: FROMSOFTWARE
The remastering for the Switch version was carried out by the Singaporean developer Virtuos. (Unlike the remaster for PC, Xbox One and PlayStation, which was carried out by Polish studio, QLOC.)
The main focus of the remaster has been to improve the look and feel of the game by making lots of small technical changes and improvements. This leaves the actual gameplay of the original almost entirely in tact, with the exact same map, puzzles, bosses and challenges.
This means that the game itself is theoretically just as difficult as the original, since it hasn’t changed. However, part of the reason why revamping the game makes sense in 2018 is that it provides an opportunity to refresh its online play function as well.
Dark Souls allows you to “summon” other players for assistance in taking on the notoriously tough bosses and whilst the servers for the original game have now quietened down significantly, the remaster provides a fresh stream of online players who can assist one another in making their way through Lordran.
For a first-time player, that extra assistance will make a big difference, so whilst the game is unchanged in its original difficulty, playing the remastered version could still prove an easier prospect.
