Dark Souls Offers a More Structured Experience than Demon's Souls

Demon's Souls was one of the surprise critical hits of 2009 and now the developers who created it, From Software, are working on a new game called Dark Souls with Namco Bandai, with the publisher saying that the game is more organized take on the same concepts.

Andrew Davis, who is an associate producer working at Namco Bandai on Dark Souls, told Gamasutra that, “Basically, it's a refinement of the sort of atmosphere and gameplay that was debuted in Demon's Souls.”

He added that one of the aims of the development team is to add more structure to the game experience, saying, “Dark Souls is a more fully-realized world of seamless transitions in between these areas. They're all connected to each other in different ways.”

The game environments represent one area that From Software is working on, with the main aim being to offer variety, including more landscapes to explore and some space that are in complete darkness and will be hard to explore but will potentially yield interested rewards.

Davis characterizes the game as ”the strict sensei from the martial arts movies that's super mean to the hero, and everyone hates him but he's fair. After weeks of training, you feel like you've made some progress, and he'll acknowledge it with a nod.”

It seems that the team working on the game has also thought of a narrative that can bind the game together and will allow players to make sense of why they die at certain points while also explaining the main character's ability to respawn after being killed.

Dark Souls will use bonfires to allow gamers to rest and recharge their health but using them will also lead to the reappearance of enemies and other challenges that were previously overcome.

The game is at the moment prepared for a 2012 launch.