A few days ago, Namco Bandai launched a contest to invite players to design a shield that, if chosen, would make it into Dark Souls 2. The contest is a lot like HBO's shield design competition for Game of Thrones.
The winning designs (there's going to be more than one) will receive copies of the game, and have their creations featured within the title as shields that players will be able to equip. Additionally, shield creators will also be fully credited for their creations.
With that in mind, fans of Dark Souls 2 have compiled their favorite creations on Reddit, with shield designs from North America, Europe, and Japan. Here's some of our own favorites:
NA Region Album
EU Region Album
JP/Asia Region Album
The contest remains on-going on Facebook, so you can still partake in it and submit your own design. Just for the record, the developers have confirmed that they will be choosing two shield designs from each region to be in the game out of the top 30 selected designs.
Dark Souls 2 is set to be as open world as the first game, but there probably will be areas seperated from the rest like the DLC or painted areas. You can read more about what's new and changed based on the gameplay footage showcased last week in our in-depth analysis here.