Merely mentioning the word ‘Blighttown’ to a seasoned Dark Souls player is bound to make them shudder with trepidation. Not only is Blighttown known as being one of the most difficult areas of the original Dark Souls from a gameplay perspective, it was also made all the more challenging due to its tendency to drag the game’s framerate down to near unplayable levels. Thankfully, it would appear as if the framerate issue has been resolved for the upcoming Dark Souls Remastered, though that does also mean you’ll no longer be able to use poor framerates as an excuse for not being able to survive Blighttown’s horrors.
In a new comparison video in which they got to test the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 4 Pro versions of Dark Souls Remastered, Digital Foundry was able to show footage of how the remastered port handles Blighttown and its infamous framerate issues. Dark Souls Remastered manages to hold a steady 60 frames per second (upholding the promise that From Software made when the remaster was first announced) throughout the entirety of Blighttown when played on both the standard PS4 and the PS4 Pro. When compared to the average of 15-20 frames per second on earlier platforms, the remastered version of Blighttown is a noticeable improvement.
Digital Foundry does note a few concerns in the video. The version of Dark Souls Remastered they played for the video was a pre-release network test version, and the day-one patch From Software plans to release once the remaster arrives on May 25 could impact the final framerate count. There are also concerns that the standard Xbox One might not be able to consistently maintain 60 frames per second due to its lower resolution thresholds, but even if it does have a few minor framerate dips, it will still be a marked improvement over the abysmally low framerates that more dedicated Dark Souls players had to put up with.
We’ll know for sure just how well Blighttown’s framerates are able to hold up when Dark Souls Remastered launches for Xbox One, Xbox One X, PS4, PS4 Pro, and PC on May 25. The remaster will also be coming to Nintendo Switch at some point, though a final release date hasn’t been nailed down yet.