FromSoftware didn’t invent the concept of New Game+, but has it ever been implemented more satisfyingly than in the Souls series? Upon starting a repeat gameplay cycle in these games there is an unparalleled deliciousness in paying a return visit to the creatures that bullied you for so many of your nervy early hours. The old you was twitchy and tentative, measuring progress in miserable yards, but you’re a hardened adventurer now. Entirely comfortable in your armour and with a rack full of very pointy weapons with which to get properly medieval, the tables can turn. So of course in 2020 you embark on the Demon’s Souls remake with your late-game confidence – only to be pulverised repeatedly once more, just like the old days.
All of your favourites are here. Turning a corner and being paralysed by a Mind Flayer which then sucks on your brain, killing you instantly. Treading on an unseen pressure pad and being punctured by arrow traps from two directions simultaneously. Falling into a poisonous sludge having being pushed off a thin, rickety bridge by a hidden assailant – then remembering that the name of this particular area is Swamp Of Sorrow, and wondering why you expected things to go differently.