Namco Bandai Games and From Software have revealed some more information about the upcoming Dark Souls 2, indicating that the sequel will be boldly breaking away from its predecessor in several key aspects. Perhaps fittingly for a game in which you control an undead warrior, most of these changes are coming to the death mechanics. Now, instead of going back to a bonfire, characters who die will immediately revive right near where they died. Players will no longer need to chase down bloodstains with the risk of losing a lot of soul and humanity, and will instead be penalized with a loss of 5% if their soul and one point of humanity with each death. Enemies will not reappear when the player dies, so this should make progressing through the game much easier.

A spokesman for From Software provided a lot of the developer's thoughts on this dramatic change. "Finding the right balance between giving dedicated players a fun challenge and making it actually possible for normal people to beat one of our games has been very difficult for us in the past. As a result, we decided to look into a lot of new ways to provide a different kind of challenge with Dark Souls 2, and we've been looking at a lot of other games for inspiration. One game in particular, Kirby's Epic Yarn, has been lauded for its perfect level of challenge, so we've decided to incorporate many of its creative ideas into our game. We hope everyone enjoys this new direction for the Dark Souls franchise."

Along with the revelation about the changes to death, more was revealed concerning the multiplayer aspects of the game. Naturally, players will still be able to give each other hints and enter into each other's worlds as Phantoms, but there have been some changes from before. Hints will be moderated to prevent abuses such as tricking people into jumping off of cliffs, and now a player cannot invade another's world as a Black Phantom without express permission. Finally, to "make a Black Phantom invasion less stressful," Black Phantoms are now automatically equipped with pink balls of yarn as their only weapon.