Dark Souls

A summary of details from the Edge article was posted on Neogaf today:

-Huge leap in graphical quality. The game is compared to Watch Dogs and Star Wars 1313. Dynamic lighting and smoother animations all around.

-Hidetake Miyazaki, the director for Dark/Demon's souls, will not be directing the game and will only be lightly involved in the production. His involvement is mostly about getting the project started and occasionally checking in on it.

-The unknown nature of the games came from Miyazaki's interest in western fantasy/mythology and his relative inability to read the English text as a child, leaving him to fill in the blanks.

-Miyazaki was disappointed about having to patch Dark Souls, saying that they pushed the game out without being 100% complete. Dark Souls II will be complete when it launches.

-Server based PVP is back

-Information is unclear whether or not Miyazaki willingly stepped down from the director's chair. Namco calls is a "company decision" and has this disturbing anecdote to share:

"For the IP to evolve and provide a new experience within the Dark Souls world the new wind from directors Shibuya and Tanimura is key to providing players with a brand new Dark Souls experience. In order to maintain expectations and satisfaction and the rewards players experience this was the time to bring in new characteristics and tastes of the directors for the series to continue evolving."

-Miyazaki is working on a new game he can't talk about.

-Miyazaki is disappointed he doesn't have a greater role in Dark Souls II

-The Graphics are shockingly close to the trailer's quality

-According to Shibuya, one of the co-directors, the player's ability to parse meaning from subtle hints or clues will determine the difficulty of the game and the challenges that are there to experience.

-The map is roughly the same size, but has more content and more "areas of interest".

-The notion that Dark Souls needs to evolve was "common". Edge says not to expect a minor update.

-In designing map areas, the main concept was to create areas that had not been in either game.

-Talks of implementing a system that will let you reveal the clues you've learned over the course of the game (wut?)

-Shibuya talks about "limiting players options for the early portion of the game, making it simpler to understand new concepts. Then, after a certain amount of time has elapsed, they will suddenly experience the true dark souls experience".

-The game is a direct sequel to Dark Souls, but will not take place in Lordran. It takes place in the same world, but in a different location.

-Time travel may play a part in the plot, and the "theme" of the game is "time" and "eras"

-Shibuya does not intend to change the controls.

-There may be slight awkwardness coming in from Dark Souls, but people should be able to adapt easily.

-Covenants will return, but be easier to understand

-Dark Souls II will be more straightforward and understandable in regards to gameplay and plot. Sibuya says he enjoyed the way Dark souls handled things, but he feels that there were elements so subtle that almost no one experienced them.

-The game has been in development since September of last year, and work on the patch/DSII was done simultaneously.

-The team for DSII is substantially bigger. The team for world construction is doubled in size, and people have been added in every other area as well.

-The game is roughly 25% complete. Very unlikely to release in 2013.