Dark Souls III – prepare for a follow-up

A spiritual sequel to Dark Souls and a reboot for Armored Core seem to be on their way, as well as a brand new franchise that’s ‘a bit weird’.

A new interview with Dark Souls creator Hidetaka Miyazaki has revealed that From Software has three new games currently underway, with strong hints on what at least two of them are.

The interview with 4Gamer.net is all in Japanese, but translations compiled by forum NeoGAF give a fairly clear picture of what the three games are:

Project 1: An action role-playing game with a dark fantasy setting similar to Dark Souls, but approached from a ‘different angle’.




Project 2: A reboot of an existing franchise, with ideas inspired by Dark Souls and other previous franchises.

Project 3: A brand new IP that’s ‘something different from what the company has been doing previously’ and ‘a bit weird’.

Although it doesn’t seem to have been stated explicitly, it’s strongly implied that Project 1 is the follow-up to Dark Souls III and Project 2 is a reboot of Armored Core. From has previously been rumoured to be working on a VR title, but there’s nothing in the interview to imply that’s what Project 3 is.

Despite having never been especially popular, particularly in the West, there have been a grand total of 15 Armored Core games over the years, and since it’s where Miyzaki got his big break he has an understandable fondness for the series.

In the interview it’s mentioned that he wants to make a mixture of fantasy and mech themes, similar to anime The Vision of Escaflowne. Although it’s not 100% clear that he’s referring to the Armored Core reboot when he says that.

Dark Souls III was always intended to be the last in the series, to be followed by new games which are influenced by it but are not direct sequels – presumably in the same manner as Bloodborne.

Rumours had seemed to suggest the spiritual follow-up would have a sci-fi theme, but the phrase ‘dark fantasy’ doesn’t really imply that. Although it doesn’t necessarily rule it out either.

Email gamecentral@ukmetro.co.uk, leave a comment below, and follow us on Twitter