Dark Souls II, the sequel to From Software’s seminal Dark Souls, released back in 2011, is due in March next year, but there seems to be an undercurrent of general unease about fan expectations with the game. This is mostly because of the comments that the game’s new director, Tomohiro Shibuya, made about wanting to make the new game easier and more accessible, which seemed to fly in the face of the unforgiving and uncompromising nature of the original Dark Souls.
However, in a new interview with Polygon, co-director Tanimua attempted to allay fears: “What we meant by that was, based on feedback we got on Dark Souls, we got a lot of feedback that said that it was challenging and that the satisfaction was there, but there were a couple of areas that were a little bit tedious or a little bit time-consuming,” Tanimura said through a translator. “Those are things we want to sort of streamline — to sort of cut away a lot of the fat, to make some revisions and enhancements so that we can really deliver the pure essence of the challenge in the Dark Souls experience.”
So basically, they’re trying to get rid of the unnecessarily obtuse parts, while still retaining the famed difficulty of the game. If this makes it a better title, I am all for it.
Dark Souls II hits PS3, Xbox 360, and PC in March next year.