Demon's Souls classic filter will get you closer to the original dark and dreary look

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"We have a bunch of filters that you can choose from"

Demon's Souls
(Image credit: Sony)

Demon's Souls is getting filters that will replicate the original's gloomy look. 

If you watched the new Demon's Souls gameplay trailer and thought "all these vibrant colors don't make me despair nearly enough," Sony has good news for you. 

The original Demon's Souls visuals were peak dark and dreary, which went along nicely with all the doom and gloom of its nigh-apocalyptic story. The Demon's Souls PS5 remake is much more colorful; it's not at all cartoony, as the new vibrance is done in more of a "feel the heat of the Flamelurker as he burns your face off" sort of way, but in-game options will let you get closer to the original experience if you prefer it.

Gavin Moore, the creative director of SIE Worldwide Studios External Development who is overseeing Bluepoint's work on the remake, told Polygon that it was important to make that an option. Though he'd "be very grateful" if you played through the new way first.

"If you like the starkness and the despair of the original PlayStation 3 version, then we have a bunch of filters that you can choose from and play the game [that way]," Moore said. "So if you want to play the game in what we call the classic filter, which harkens back to the days of the PlayStation 3 and the look at that title, then put that filter on. If you want to play in black and white, play in the noir filter. It's all there in the options."

Bluepoint also updated the way Demon's Souls camera behaves, but if you prefer to play with the original 2009 version you can do that as well. Speaking of cameras, Dark Souls is getting its very first camera mode. It will also be the first way to really pause the game (though it will drop you back into the action if you get invaded).

"I think that's really important nowadays that people want to share their experiences - the tragedies of, 'Oh my god, I died again,' or your trials as you succeed with your friends," Moore said. "There are some other modes in there as well, that I won't talk about, I will let the fans find out for themselves. But we definitely want to see what people create using the photo mode."

Demon's Souls is easily one of our most-anticipated PS5 launch games - imagine going back to 2009 and saying that...

Connor Sheridan
Connor Sheridan

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and was formerly a staff writer at GamesRadar.