Many years ago Demons Souls by FROM Software was published by many companies around the world – Sony Computer Entertainment in the Japanese and Asian Markets (I was personally introduced to the series through the Asian-English version), ATLUS USA in North America and Namco Bandai in European and ANZ markets. All three markets met huge success with the game and all seemingly having higher than expected sales for the game. This led to the development and further release of Dark Souls, which following the challenging and unforgiving gameplay made several improvements although in my opinion not having that charm of Demons Souls. Either way, both scored well with Demons Souls receiving a 96/100 using my old scoring plan and Dark Souls earning a well-deserved A-. However, this article pertains only to Dark Souls…. namely, a re-release of the game.
Namco Bandai Games Europe today announced that by popular demand, they would be releasing a new edition of the game – “Dark Souls: Prepared to Die Edition” for the PC within Europe and Australasia on the 24th August 2012. This special content-enhanced edition will be finely tuned to cater to the PC Gaming Audience (I hope so, I can’t really envision the control scheme working as well as the PS3/XBox360 controllers at the moment) while retaining the challenge, atmosphere and compelling gameplay of the original. The Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition will also include an enhanced PvP mode allowing players to more closely assemble battles against one another online in an all-out fight to the death that fans have demanded.
In addition, the production team at Namco Bandai Games Inc. has revealed an untold chapter in the world of Lordran created specifically to help further expand upon the lore of the game. ‘Artorias of the Abyss’ will include all-new areas to explore, enemies to encounter, and bosses to take down one by one.
Daisuke Uchiyama, producer for Dark Souls at Namco Bandai Games had this to say on the announcement:
Our fans demanded to see this game brought to the PC, and the noise they have made was simply too loud and too passionate to ignore. This also allowed us to dive back into the world of Dark Souls, offering a special edition of the game that offers more ways to die over and over again than ever before. Adding a whole new chapter to tell the tale of the Dark Knight Artorias was an opportunity we’re also proud to have taken, as we’ve managed to expand the experience for our biggest fans without compromising the balance of the core game that we worked so hard to create. This edition of the game is our gift to the fans.
Keep an eye out on The Otaku’s Study for more information on this game as it is made available.
