You can easily see it!
"World Tendency" is one of the most esoteric aspects of Demon's Souls: perhaps one of the earliest examples of the "it takes a village" mentality when it comes to community education in the Souls series.
While World Tendency is back in the PS5 remake, there's one big change: you can clearly see it in a menu!
As the remake's creative director has stated in the past, the new system is meant to be more transparent to players while retaining the spirit of the original. Each world has its own rating (white for easier encounters and fewer rewards, the opposite being true for black), on a sliding scale. At least that's the easiest way to explain it, because there are tons of shades of world trend when it comes to NPCs and many other facets of Demon's Souls.
Doing anything from beating bosses to various named enemies can alter it, which in turn impacts NPC spawns as well as the appearance of "Black Phantom" NPC invaders. It's weird, but once you get used to it, it makes the world of Demon's Souls a little more unique. It's also a lot of fun to live blind, if you choose not to play and treat it like a mathematical equation.
So what's new in the remake? Well, simply put, you can view the global trend of your game by simply pausing the game! All you need to do is head to the in-game menu, then hit the d-pad to access the screen above. That's it! Be sure to check out all the World Tendency details in the link above, but now it should be much easier to discern what state you're in at a glance. No more checking wikis, then checking specific areas of the game, then rechecking.
Click to open the photo gallery:
