gaming Dark Souls 2 May Not Be Out Before 2014

[Muhammad Farrukh]

Dark Souls 2 May Not Be Out Before 2014

First details of FROM Software's recently-announced sequel are in the wild.

Dark Souls 2 may not be out before the end of 2013, Edge Magazine reports.

The new issue of the British magazine contains the first details on Dark Souls 2. The game will be around the same size as Dark Souls (but "denser"), it doesn't take place in Lordran, and the graphics are of the generation-bridging quality noted in Ubisoft's Watch Dogs and in Star Wars 1313. It is currently 25% complete and we might not see it before 2014. The size of the team working on the game has reportedly increased significantly.

Announced a few weeks ago, Dark Souls 2 has two new directors, Tomohiro Shibuya and Yui Tanimura, with the Souls series' creator Hidetaka Miyazaki moving onto a supervisory role; he is evidently keen for the team to return to server-based multiplayer, a la Demon's Souls, but is not involved at all in development decisions. Other tidbits of information suggest a new morality system, changes to the Covenants to make them more accessible, and "enhanced" action (Shibuya has worked on many action games in the past).

One slightly worrying detail is that Shibuya is evidently keen to make the story and messaging less subtle. Shibuya also mentions "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".

"I intend to make it more accessible to players. And that's not just with the Covenant system, but with a lot of other aspects that I feel were difficult to adapt to," reads one quote. "I will follow the same concept as Dark Souls, but there were a lot of hidden story elements that some players may not have caught before, and I'm hoping to make some of that a little bit more clear or directly expressed."

We hope to have first-hand experience of Dark Souls 2 earlier in the New Year, and will bring you our own impressions as soon as humanly possible.