The game uses a form of joint currency called 'souls', which are used as both experience points for levelling up and also as currency for purchasing items from shops. An early game item, 'ring of binding' may also be used to limit the character's hollowing. This is called hollowing and only drops to a set lower limit until the player expends a rare item to reverse it. Bad play is punished severely by most enemies, opportunities for recovering health are limited, and as in Demon's Souls, with each death the player's maximum health is reduced. Being known for its difficulty, both bosses and standard enemies have the potential to defeat the player in only a few hits. A sequel, Dark Souls III, was released in 2016.ĭark Souls II retains similar mechanics from its predecessors in the Souls series. The title is a compilation of the original game and all of its downloadable content with upgraded graphics, expanded online multiplayer capacity, and various other changes. An updated version of the game, subtitled Scholar of the First Sin, was released for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One and Windows in April 2015. The game received both critical acclaim, and high sales. As in the earlier games in the series, it again features challenging gameplay, but with a more powerful graphics engine and more advanced artificial intelligence system.Īfter some initial delays, the game was released worldwide in March 2014, with the Windows version being released on April 24, 2014. Taking place in the kingdom of Drangleic, the game features both player versus environment (PvE) and player versus player (PvP) gameplay, in addition to having some co-op components. The game uses dedicated multiplayer servers. The third game in the Souls series, it was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.Īlthough both are set in the same universe, there is no overt story connection between the first Dark Souls and the sequel.

Dark Souls II is an action role-playing game developed by FromSoftware and published by Bandai Namco Games.

Dark souls iii