Dark Souls 2 is seeing a lot of big changes being made to the multiplayer, all of which are meant to “enhance” a player’s experience and even possibly make it even more difficult than it already it is.
That’s is fine by us since this game is all about the difficulty.
Speaking with the Official PlayStation Magazine, Software’s Co-Director Yui Tanimura talked about some of the changes made to the summoning system, covenants, and even penalties for invading players.
“Our main intent is not to foster a greater frequency of multiplayer, but more to give players the opportunity to interact even within the ‘loose’ parameters allowed.”
He goes on to say that, unlike in previous titles, when you die and become a Hallow, you can still be invaded by other players. This means that you are no longer safe, though time limits have been added to invading/summoning, and additionally, the covenant system (composed of 8 different groups) will allow players, depending on which covenant they are in, to summon other players automatically to help out during invasions of just normal game exploration.
As for those who plan on playing the game offline, though you won’t be able to see hints or summon, the dev team did make an effort to try and make it seem as if you were playing Online with certain AI elements.
“Even when playing offline, we’ve implemented AI elements and enemy elements that will function as if the player is playing in the online space,” says Tanimura. “You won’t be able to see blood messages and bloodstains, though,” adds Miyazoe. “You won’t be invaded, but you also won’t be able to summon – and there are difficult bosses out there. But the bosses and the venue structure will be the same offline, and the challenge and sense of achievement and satisfaction when you overcome something will be there. We’ve also implemented some elements that will make you feel as if you’re online, like you might be invaded by an AI enemy.”
PlayStation Access also uploaded a video today, featuring 12 minutes of new gameplay with commentary. Check it out in the featured section above.