The most important aspect for them honestly is marketing. Namco even said that with Demons Souls and Dark souls they did not market it as a massive AAA title. They said recently in an interview that is changing for Dark Souls 2. They said they are going to market this one as a massive AAA title much like Skyrim was. Honestly heavy hitting marketing in todays age can bring in the sales.
The problem I think with the first Souls games is that honestly not many people in the gaming community even knew what it was or barely even remember hearing about it. To be honest a couple guys at work who are really into it had been telling me about it for over a year before I even picked it up. They said how much they loved it and I just thought, eh sounds cool, but I have other games I'm enjoying. It wasn't until I played it and realized how much of a challenge I was missing in games that I got hooked.
Gamers deep down game to have some sort of mental challenge. Its easy to get in a rut and just want a simple game that doesn't take much work, but when you throw someone in a gaming environment as challenging as Dark Souls its almost like it opens something up in the brain that says, "I am SO MAD!!!....yet I can't strop trying to overcome it!" It feeds the challenge that many gamers deep down really want in a game.
So I think honestly the marketing aspect will be the biggest deal for Dark Souls 2.
Japanese gamers are said to enjoy environments more in games whereas Western gamers focus more on the character you play as. Thats why they changed the box art cover on Dark Souls for the Western release. It focused on a bad ass looking character in the image. I think if Namco can advertise like they did with the recent Dark Souls 2 trailer and put it out there on all marketing outlets it will get on the hype train much like Skyrim did.
