Earlier this year Yui Tanimura said that FromSoftware are aiming to make Dark Souls 2 "more accesible" but speaking to Siliconera last week he insisted this doesn't mean the game will be any easier.
"Coming from Japan, it's hard to fully comprehend why and how much the North American and European audience keeps thinking it's going to be easier. With that being said, if you take a look at the demo, and also played the demo, it's going to be pretty clear that the difficulty will be just as high as necessary as before.
"We have been constantly repeating this, because we did start off with a misleading comment earlier on. But at the same time, I'm not too worried about expressing the difficulty of the game. I'm sure players will see the footage, see the b-roll, and start to understand that it's going to be just as challenging or even more so."
Dark Souls 2 is set to be released in March 2014 for PS3, PC and Xbox 360. Tanimura has previously ruled out bringing the game to PS4 and Xbox One.
Namco Bandai has said they're treating Dark Souls 2 as a "massive, massive AAA title." You can watch the game's trailer here.