As is customary for many popular games these days, Dark Souls II is getting a sort of “Game of the Year” edition next month, and new screenshots showing some of its enhancements have been revealed.
Subtitled Scholar of the First Sin, whatever the hell that means, this all-encompassing version of Dark Souls II will come packaged with all three DLC episodes, namely Crown of the Sunken King, Crown of the Old Iron King, and Crown of the Ivory King, making for a very enticing buy for anyone who doesn’t yet own the game.
Additionally, it will come with a number of improvements to the existing game, such as additional NPCs to flesh out the story, balancing adjustments, improved online matchmaking, and more detailed item descriptions. The last of those should be particularly helpful, as Dark Souls II was notorious for not giving adequate explanation to players on various crucial items.
Users of current-gen systems, namely the Xbox One, PS4 and PC (with DirectX 11 capable hardware) will be getting enhancements to graphics, sound and performance, as well as an increase of the maximum number of online players in one session to six players.
Enemy placement will also be changed up, such as the introduction of a dragon to Heide’s Tower of Flame and the Pursuer at a much earlier point in the game, and the AI will be given a tune up to make foes more aggressive. A new boss, a scythe wielding maniac called the Forlorn, will also be making an appearance.
All of these upgrades will be made available to existing owners of Dark Souls II via a patch.
Hopefully, Scholar of the First Sin will tide over Dark Souls fans who don’t own a PlayStation 4, as the series’s spiritual successor, Bloodborne, will be out exclusively for that platform on the 24th this month.
Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin will be out for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC on April 2 in Europe and April 7 in the US.