Dark Souls 3's director Hidetaka Miyazaki has explained how the world will be different to the last game in the series, featuring fewer areas but ones that are bigger in size and complexity.

He explained that developing the game from the ground up on current generation consoles PS4 and Xbox One - as well as PC - has allowed developer From Software to create more "complicated 3D maps".

"The number of the areas will be lesser compared to Dark Souls 2. However, the size of each map will be bigger," Miyazaki told Digital Spy at E3 2015.

"Honestly speaking, doing exploration of each map within Dark Souls 3 is really, really fun, so please wait for further updates."

Developing specifically for the latest hardware also allows for new visual effects, including dynamic lighting, clothing and ash effects in the world.

Other changes to the game were also discussed. Humanity and systems around bonfires will see "adjustments" compared to previous games, while bonfire warping will return and be similar to what was seen in Dark Souls 2, which allowed players to jump between any previously accessed bonfire from the start of the game.

Meanwhile, the enemy respawn system will move away from the Dark Souls 2 approach of stopping enemies from appearing in the world after a certain amount of attempts.

"The respawn system that you have seen in Dark Souls 2 will not be reproduced in Dark Souls 3," Miyazaki said. "That's because the philosophy to production towards each title is different. As you can see, our focus in Dark Souls 3 is for players to overcome difficult situations or tough enemies through observations."

Miyazaki also said Dark Souls 3 won't be the last game in the series.

Announced at E3 2015, Dark Souls 3 will challenge players to survive a coming apocalypse in a vast, twisted world full of fearsome beasts, devious traps and hidden secrets.

It will be available in early 2016 on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC.