Yui Tanimura, Director of Dark Souls 2 , explained during an interview to Digital Spy why the open world element of the game will be even more accentuated than in the previous chapter.

In Dark Souls 2 players will indeed face the game's missions and areas that require a higher level than that of his character.

For example: remember that in Dark Souls had to play two bells to enter the fortress of Sens? In the second chapter Tanimura hopes to eliminate those requirements, leaving players the freedom to enter the most difficult areas without having to cross before those easy. Doing so probably will be killed in an instant, but it's still nice to have a choice to be taken during the game, regardless of their level.

In particular, the Director of Dark Souls II he went on to say:

"We realized that in Dark Souls there was a certain order for some things, like ringing bells or visit Anor Londo. In Dark Souls 2 , we want to achieve more freedom in such a way that certain things should not be done in a certain order. If the player gets enough testing, testing their own ability, might even start mid game ... depends on how brave you are ".

Finally, he concluded by saying that his ultimate goal is to totally eliminate all linear aspects of the game, leaving the player a unique impact.

Please note that Dark Souls 2 is expected to output for March 2014 on Xbox 360 and PS3.