Dark Souls 2 Release Set for March 2014

If you were hoping to get your hands on some tough role-playing action with Dark Souls 2 sometime this year, we’ve got some bad news. The follow-up to 2011’s Dark Souls will be released in March next year.

At first a rumor, the release date was officially confirmed by publishers Namco Bandai Europe for Eurogamer. But no other details were provided.

Namco Bandai’s comments came after a photo of a Dark Souls 2 banner advert emerged on the Internet. The banner citing a March 2014 release date for the game was seen in Los Angeles, where the widely anticipated E3 event will be organized next week.

The publisher did not however explicitly state when in March the game will be released and whether it will be available for next-generation platforms as well. Dark Souls 2 was announced only for PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

It was generally believed that the game would be released by the end of the year, but the delay suggests that developers From Software and Namco Bandai may be working on a next-generation console version as well.

Dark Souls 2 is the latest installment of the very popular Demon’s Souls’/Dark Souls series, which is believed to be one of hardest videogames ever created.  It is probably the only game out there where the character can get killed every minute or so. And the challenging gameplay makes beating the ‘levels and ultimately the game so much more rewarding.

Which is probably why the game has developed such a solid fan base. A fan base that flares up at the smallest suggestion of making the game more accessible. This is what happened soon after the game was announced at Christmas last year. The new director hinted that Dark Souls 2 would be more approachable and straightforward in order to appeal to a larger audience. His comments were met with stern criticism.

But all worries were appeased when developers released a 12-minute gameplay video a couple of months ago. The video showcased some difficult battle scenes in which the lead character was seen killed several times. The game’s improved graphics and more realistic fighting sequences in which AI-driven foes can adjust their techniques based on the player’s actions were also on display in the video.

So even if we have to wait longer for Dark Souls 2, we believe the worth might be waiting is the extra time in development means that we will get a better polished game and possibly more content.

What do you think? On a scale of 1 to 10, how excited are you about Dark Souls 2?

[Image via thatvideogameblog]