Dark Souls 2 will be 'more straightforward and understandable'

From Software recently announced Dark Souls 2, and fans of the franchise are hoping the game will be just as brutal as the previous games in the series. However, it seems that may not happen, as according to Eurogamer, Director Tomohiro Shibuya has said that he wants the sequel to be “more straightforward and more understandable” than the previous games.

Shibuya revealed his aim in an interview with Edge, where he stated that the sequel will be shaped by specific characters. “I personally am the sort of person who likes to be more direct than subtle,” said Shibuya.

Will be more straightforward and less subtle

Earlier this year, the Director of Dark Souls, Hidetaka Miyazaki had contemplated adding a new difficulty to the game that “anyone can complete.” Needless to say, this caused an uproar among fans of the game. One of the main reasons the Souls games are well-loved is because the game does not hold your hand in any way and you have to figure out what to do and how to do it yourself.

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Publisher Namco Bandai later issued a statement that the comment should have been phrased as: “This fact is really sad to me and I am thinking about how to make everyone complete the game while maintaining the current difficulty and carefully send all gamers the messages behind it.” The publisher added, “This revision has been made in order to inform Miyazaki-san’s true intention and what has been originally posted had a mistake because of mistranslation.” Whether the statement was actually a mistranslation or just backpedalling after the outcry all over the Internet is up for debate.

Recently, From Software unveiled Dark Souls 2 along with a trailer. While the trailer doesn’t reveal any changes that the company might make to the gameplay, it does cast some light on the story and some environments. If the trailer is anything to go by, there are going to be more giant monsters and deep and scary caves to explore. It also looks like there will be a greater emphasis on the story, and a dungeon that seems like a dead dragon.

The trailer originally made its debut during the Spike VGAs, where From Software also announced the game itself. Not much is known about the game other than the platforms it will be released for. Namco Bandai announced that Dark Souls 2 is coming to the PlayStation 3, the Xbox 360 and the PC. The development is being handled by From Software once again, with series creator Hidetaka Miyazaki at the helm along with Shibuya, who is known for working on the Monster Hunter series. “Dark Souls 2 will offer loyal fans exactly the kind of demanding challenges and never-ending struggle that became the hallmark of this whole series,” said the publisher.

Earlier this year, From Software ported Dark Souls to the PC in the form of the Dark Souls: Prepare to Die edition. The game was originally meant to be a console exclusive, but was ported over to the PC because of a massive online petition that requested Namco Bandai for a PC version of the game. But due to the fact that From Software isn’t very experienced with developing games for the PC, the PC version of the game is plagued with problems of shoddy porting, such as the use of the much-hated Games for Windows LIVE online service, and textures that are extremely low in resolution. The PC version is worth buying purely because the Prepare to Die edition gives PC players new bosses to fight, and fares better in terms of frame rate, while the console versions had trouble keeping up.