Gameplay:

Dark Souls II retains similar mechanics from its predecessors in the Souls series. Being known for its difficulty, both bosses and standard enemies have the potential to defeat the player in only a few hits. Bad play is punished severely by most enemies, opportunities for recovering health are limited, and as in Demon's Souls, with each death the player's maximum health is reduced. This is called hollowing and only drops to a set lower limit until the player expends a rare item to reverse it. An early game item, "ring of binding" may also be used to limit the character's hollowing. The game uses a form of joint currency called "souls", which are used as both experience points for levelling up and also as currency for purchasing items from shops. Upon death, the player's entire collection of souls are dropped; the player can recover their dropped souls by returning to the spot where they died, but if they die before picking them up, the souls are permanently lost.