Some of you may not know it, but there was a game in the Souls canon before Dark Souls came along. This title was called Demon's Souls, and it is the source of the series' punishing reputation. Yes, both Dark Souls and Dark Souls 2 were difficult, but Demon's Souls was on another level entirely. There weren't any bonfires in Demon's Souls, just to give you a sense of what players dealt with.
At any rate, From Software wants to return players to this realm of challenge in their upcoming title, Bloodborne. This is what From Software producer Masaaki Yamagiwa had to say:
"Demon’s Souls fans can expect the same level of challenge and sense of achievment with Bloodborne. In fact, I think the sense of achievement will be even higher."
Provided the 'sense of achievement' that Yamagiwa brought up is another way of saying 'difficulty,' we've got quite the game ahead of us.
Bloodborne releases on March 24, 2015 exclusively for Sony's Playstation 4.