It'll be awhile for From Software to release Dark Souls 2, which was only just announced a few months ago. Until then, we'll have to rely on previews in publications to inform us about the features the game plans to offer.
The game made an appearance in a feature in the most recent issue of the Official Xbox Magazine, which revealed that the game is only 25% complete. The original director of Dark Souls, Hidetaka Miyazaki, has since moved onto the position of supervisor, with Tomohiro Shibuya and Yui Tanimura, newcomers to the series, taking on his previously held mantle.
The game's developers state that they intend to avoid putting cutscenes in the game, but not at the cost of storytelling, which should be a lot clearer this time around. Players will also be able to impact the story by killing "innocent" non-player characters.
Like its predecessor, Dark Souls 2 will have bonfires for players to save their progress, and the game's overall size will be around the same size as the original game without its expansion pack, the Artorias of the Abyss. Much of the action in the game will take place on a cove by the ocean.
There will be many new enemies in Dark Souls 2, and concept in the preview revealed that skeletal chariot riders with spiked wheels, whose task in the game will be to hunt down players who do evil things, perhaps serving as a replacement to the Dark Moon in Dark Souls.
Finally, the game will—for the first time in the series—offer a tutorial for newcomers to teach the game's mechanics.
via Examiner.
