According to Tanimura, ”Freedom of exploration is something we want to prioritise for Dark Souls 2, even more so than Dark Souls 1. In Dark Souls 1, you were able to travel to several areas, but hopefully for Dark Souls 2, there you have more freedom to explore throughout the game.”
“We realise in Dark Souls 1 there were some certain orders, like ringing the bells or going to Anor Londo, which is not necessarily a bad thing,” he continued. ”In Dark Souls 2, we’re hoping we can provide more freedom so things don’t have to necessarily be done in a certain order.”
Dark Souls II will even let players have new characters enter areas that are mid-level portions of the game.
”We’re hoping that if the player tries hard enough, or are willing enough, they could even start halfway through the game, depending on how willing or how brave they are,” Tanimura stated.
Dark Souls II is due to be released in March 2014 on PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
