Dark Souls II, the sequel to the notoriously difficult action RPG, Dark Souls (which was a sequel to the phonetically tongue twisting Demon's Souls) has been announced for the PS3, the Xbox 360, and the PC. One of the more shocking announcements to fans of the previous games was that director Hidetaka Miyazaki would be stepping down and handing the director's chair to Tomohiro Shibuya. While Miyazaki will remain on board as supervisor, this has led many fans to worry if the sequel will remain at its core, true to its predecessors.


Both Miyazaki and Shibuya sat down for an interview with Japan's Weekly Famitsu to talk about Dark Souls 2. Miyazaki explained that his removal as director was a company decision, and while he did feel some sadness at the decision, he had no problems with it. As supervisor on the project, he would serve 2 functions, "First, and this is pretty much done, I'll be deciding the overall direction for Dark Souls 2." explained Miyazaki. "I'll also be informing the new team of what core mechanics should remain as a sequel to Dark Souls, as well as any problem points [in Dark Souls] that should be addressed."

As the new director for an already established popular series, Shibuya remarked that he is definitely feeling a lot of pressure. However, he has been given a lot of free space with which to develop the new game. "Dark Souls is a game with a lot of thought in the vision of its overall world, so it can be difficult at times to understand what Miyazaki is thinking—but since he's available for me to ask questions, we can put our interpretations together to help move forward." remarked Shibuya. "Miyazaki has a great deal of knowledge about fantasy, so it's quite a learning experience."

Demon's Souls and Dark Souls are notoriously unforgiving games with a rich dark atmosphere and overbearing sense of loneliness and foreboding. Addressing the concerns of fans that Dark Souls 2 might lose some of the things that made the previous games so appealing, Miyazaki assured that Dark Souls 2 would remain true to the series. "It's been announced as a sequel to Dark Souls, so there is definitely a core element that must be preserved." Miyazaki said. "The difficulty and sense of achievement, the action base, level design concept and so forth. But I feel that also means that aside from such core elements, the rest can be left to the director's discretion."

Looks like I'm still going to be getting my ass handed to me...

Dark Souls 2 currently has no release date.

衝撃発表！『DARK SOULS II（ダークソウルII）』緊急インタビューを敢行 [ファミ通.com]

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