The story of Dark Souls II begins with a human who has become Undead, cursed to never die and doomed to eventually become a Hollow, a zombie-like being with no memories or purpose. The protagonist is also known as the Bearer of the Curse. To break the curse, the undead travels to the fallen kingdom of Drangleic and is tasked by the Emerald Herald with obtaining four Great Souls from powerful Old Ones whose names are long forgotten and forbidden. Once obtained, the Emerald Herald directs the undead to "Seek the King" in the capital. After fighting through the remains of the royal guards, the player encounters the Queen Nashandra, who reveals that the king failed in his duty and fled his kingdom long ago. She asks the protagonist to slay the king.
Dark Souls II is an entry in the Dark Souls series, known for its difficulty, as 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, 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. The game uses a form of joint currency called "souls", which are used as both experience points for leveling 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.
Source: Wikipedia, "Dark Souls II", available under the CC-BY-SA License.
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