Dark Souls 2 director Yui Tanimura has apologised in an Edge interview for saying that the game would be "more accessible" than the original.
He said FromSoftware's ambition was to streamline the game and offer a clear glimpse as to what the series is really about.
"First of all, we apologise for using the word ‘accessible’ and misleading the fans. By ‘accessible’, what we mainly meant was going through the process of streamlining and carving away the fat to more clearly communicate the true essence of Dark Souls.
"There are two main concepts we concentrate on when developing. One is the sense of satisfaction when overcoming the hurdles and challenges in the game. We aim for players to achieve a huge sense of satisfaction as they proceed through the game – for the highest sense of achievement possible, we make the game challenging. Second is the loose connections with other players in the same world. This is done through elements such as blood messaging, blood stains, summoning and invasions, [providing] a sense of the other players who suffer the same experiences in the Dark Souls universe.
"Our main intent for Dark Souls 2 was to enhance the experience to better express these underlining concepts more directly to the players, and to cut away a lot of the tediousness that was included in Dark Souls that did not have to do with the communication of these concepts."
Asked about players who might be daunted by the prospect of playing Dark Souls 2 given its difficulty Tanimura said:
"A main theme in all games developed by FromSoftware is to not fully explain all the elements of how to play and challenge players to figure it out for themselves. We would like to encourage players to conquer the elements they face by paying attention to the surroundings and also being creative in strategising [about] how to overcome the difficulties."
Namco Bandai, the game's publisher, and FromSoftware have both repeatedly insisted that Dark Souls 2 will, if anything, be more challenging than the original.
According to a fact sheet for the game it will maintain the series' "renowned" difficulty while Tanimura has previously said that:
"The reason why we used the word accesible was not to say that the games is going to be easier by any means. We're maintaining the difficulty and we think the challenges are required."
Dark Souls 2 is set for release on PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 in March.
