It appears our hope for Bloodborne influencing Dark Souls 3 is being realized as an excerpt from the latest issue of Edge has revealed From Software has made some tweaks to its classic Dark Souls formula.

Edge noticed Dark Souls 3 has traces of Bloodborn in its combat. “While the new hero is no Hunter, he certainly seems more agile than before,” Edge writes. “The backstep in particular has been sped up, and a longsword is swung more quickly too, with no apparent damage penalty.”

The weapons have also been tweaked to allow for increased fluidity. “...we find a scimitar on a corpse later in the demo that is, in fact, a pair, and when dual-wielding them, the protagonist strikes with a level of grace and speed unmatched in previous Souls games.” With the scimitar, we learn of Dark Souls 3’s new core mechanic, called Ready Stance.

Ready Stance is a pose players can enter that will allow for new types of attacks to be performed. “With a longsword equipped, for instance, the resulting attack is a forward-moving swipe that hits with enough force to break through an opponent’s guard; later, we’ll use a greatsword for a charging upward slash that launches an enemy into the air, slams then back to the ground and deals enormous damage in the process.”

All of these changes could potentially open the door for Bloodborne fans to confidently dip a toe into the Dark Souls waters. All of From Software’s games have delivered brutal experiences, but with these slight tweaks to its core formula, thanks to the development of Bloodborne, players could feel like they could have a chance to only die a few million times instead of a few hundred million times.

Dark Souls 3 is scheduled to be released in spring 2016 on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC.

[Via GamesRadar]