Dark Souls 2 leaves a leaner, smarter world in your direct control (preview)

If From Software has its way, you won’t just finish Dark Souls 2, you will live it. The world of Drangleic is much bigger than the kingdoms of Lordran that comprised the first Dark Souls, but it’s how the player will be developing their role in this world that concerned the developer the most.

We spoke at length with Takeshi Mizayoe, the global producer at Namco Bandai and on Dark Souls 2, while getting some playtime with the PlayStation 3 version. As we soon found out, just because From Software wanted to trim the fat does not mean that it sacrificed the difficulty.