Dark Souls announced

The follow-up to last year’s cult hit Demon’s Souls has been announced in the form of Dark Souls.

The game was previously known as Project Dark but its true title wasleaked by the latest issue of Famitsu, according to NeoGAF.

The game is due for its official reveal this week in San Francisco and is being released by Namco Bandai in the West. From Software is the title’s developer.

Dark Souls will be similar to its predecessor, although its developers are keep to stress it is not a direct sequel, but a spiritual successor. It will feature even more challenging trial-and-error gameplay, but will be more rewarding for players.

Project Dark was announced at Tokyo Game Show in September and is due for release on Xbox 360 and PS3 in Japan this year.

Namco Bandai Partners published the original Demon’s Souls for PS3 last year in Europe and US, taking it from Sony who released the game in Japan.

The game became a cult hit for its tough gameplay and notorious online multiplayer mode in which players can trick other gamers into walking into deadly traps.

The original obtained a Metacritic score of 89, and went on to do surprisingly good numbers in Europe despite being available in the US for 9 months.

Sony later admitted it ‘made a mistake’ by choosing not to release Demon’s Souls in North America and Europe.