Dark Souls II's producer, Takeshi Miyazoe, has been talking about the multiplayer element of the brutal RPG, explaining how the studio are carrying over many of the features that resonated so strongly in the first game.
"We still have yet to reveal a lot of the enhancements, but the core elements of the network play in Dark Souls, such as summoning other players, Covenants that help or interrupt other players, will carry over to Dark Souls 2," Miyazoe told ShackNews. "Our dev team's goal is to enhance some of these elements even further, so that you still have that loose connection--how you interact with other players will be an enhanced experience, a new experience."
One of the things that will definitely carry over is the emphasis on isolation, whereby players will be aware of other gamers, but not in direct contact with them: "We feel there's a core element of the network online play that is unique to Dark Souls, and that the fans enjoy. The dev team really strives to avoid direct involvement with other players--I think there's a loose connection you have with other people," Miyazoe explained.
"It's the sharing of emotions, the sharing of the loneliness with other people, so that you get that faint sense of comfort when you feel that another player's facing the same difficulties in the game, but without being able to have direct contact," he concluded.
Dark Souls II is set to launch in March, 2014. It will be appearing on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3, and you can read our preview of the game here.