I like the idea of a spiritual sequel far better than a true sequel. It means they don't necessarily have stay true to the original, and can introduce new ideas that fit well with the overall concept but might not fit well with the world of Demons Souls for whatever reason. It gives them more creative freedom.
And fix that god awful game camera and ridiculous number of pits to fall to your death in.
If you roll around on top of a cliff/pit, you're not supposed to be safe..
Edit: I'd like if they stayed true to the original, I liked the online-system, it fit perfectly with the universe.
Dunno if it would have been as atmospheric if we did have voice-chat.
Concidering SCEA and SCEE passed on the first Demon's Souls, and Project Dark is PS3-exclusive in Japan, it might be a chance that they get to license the brand from SCEJ.
Afterall, they did license it out the first game.
I thought the number of pits were ok. If I stay focused, I could spot all of them. Same for traps. I only fell into a Demon's Souls pit once in World 5. Wait... I remember the huge World 2 pit shortcut. Plunged to my death a few times there because I remembered the shortcut wrongly. I think it's not a big problem though. It's a risky shortcut. Players can go the long route if they want to. Otherwise, newbies can cheese the map _in addition to_ cheesing the bosses.
I did force a Black Phantom to fall into a hole in the prison level, but it didn't kill him. Eventually forced him to fall off the edge of a ledge again. That did the job. ^_^