Dark Souls 2, which releases in March next year, is being hailed as the most in-depth Souls game yet. The first game in the series, Demons Souls, was a cult hit. However, it wasn't until the game's spiritual successor, Dark Souls 2, that the franchise saw monumental success. This progressive growth only serves to multiply our excitement for the series' third entry, and March cannot get here fast enough.
Namco Bandai Director Yui Tanimura recently spoke to Digital Spy about the game, discussing a number of topics relevant to its development. The main portion of this discussion came in the form of progressive gameplay. This type of gameplay is meant to keep players engrossed in the story throughout their experience. In Dark Souls, players would be forced to approach goals from a linear standpoint. This could sometimes turn into a huge time-waster, given the game's open-world nature.
"Freedom of exploration is something we want to prioritize for Dark Souls 2, even more so than Dark Souls one."
"We realize in Dark Souls one there were some certain orders, like ringing the bells or going to Anor Londo, which is not necessarily a bad thing.
"In Dark Souls 2, we're hoping we can provide more freedom so things don't have to necessarily be done in a certain order."
While the next few lines of dialogue might give some gamers flashbacks to Havel the Rock from Dark Souls, Tanimura said that players will be able to start off halfway through the game if they wish. That said, the difficulty will match the advancement:
"We're hoping that if the player tries hard enough, or are willing enough, they could even start halfway through the game, depending on how willing or how brave they are."
"You won't have to follow a certain line, it will be unique for all players, I think."
This new approach to development by From Software should prove to change the game world in quite a hefty way. If you looka back to the changes made between Demons Souls and Dark Souls, it's easy to say that Namco Bandai and From Software aren't afraid to switch things up.
