Back in 2023, CI Games released Lords of the Fallen, a creatively ambitious soulslike game, emerging into an undoubtedly crowded market. There were plenty of unique features that set it apart, most notably the game’s Umbral mechanic, a second version of its world with different options for traversal, unique enemies, and fewer options to avoid potential incoming death. This secondary world could be peered into from the outside or stepped into entirely, forcing the player to commit to a twisted version of their adventure until they managed to find a way back into the light.

Announced this evening during Gamescom Opening Night Live, Lords of the Fallen 2 has big shoes to fill. The original 2023 title had a lot of fantastic ideas, but also featured a difficulty curve more forgiving than many entries in the genre, and faced criticism at launch for the complexity of its level design and the aggression of its enemy mob placements.

I sat down ahead of Gamescom with David Valjalo, Creative Portfolio Strategist at CI Games, to learn more about Lords of the Fallen 2 and what players who enjoyed the 2023 release can expect from the upcoming sequel.

While the trailer for Lords of the Fallen 2 was a cinematic reveal rather than one representative of gameplay, the trailer seemed to feature NPCs talking directly with the Lampbearer, something fairly uncommon in the previous release. I asked Valjalo whether this was in any way representative of a change to the way that LOTF 2 would be approaching its narrative.

“It's a really good question. I wouldn't say there's necessarily more of a cutscene focus, but there's definitely been an emphasis on what I'd call getting the narrative right with this one”.

“So I think with Lords of the Fallen 2023, if we call it that for the last game, one of the things that we know the community kind of fed back on, we know a lot of critics commented on, was that the narrative was quite dense, it was complex and it tied into the environmental storytelling, which was also very dense and complex, and we think it kind of compounded into this experience that was very immersive very compelling, but also arguably at times confusing”.

“So with this one, clarity has been king. So that focus on narrative is all about making sure that we tell a good story in a very simple, direct way”. 

As previously mentioned, Lords of the Fallen 2023, at launch, was a fair amount easier than other contemporary soulslike games. I asked Valjalo what feedback was like from players on that, and if that was something we might see addressed in any way in the sequel.

“Yeah, difficulty. We could do a whole interview just on difficulty, probably”.

“So it's a hot topic and an evergreen topic for soulslikes. The thing with soulslikes is you get a lot of, a lot of different feedback and mixed feedback”.

“So some people found kind of the mob density, if we call it that, too much at launch. So we worked to kind of change that”. 

“The interesting thing with Lords of the Fallen 2023 is we've spent, you know, probably close to 18 months iterating on it, tuning it, rebalancing it. That kind of culminated in the V 2.0 update a couple of months ago”.

“So, as a result, in terms of difficulty, we've actually kind of been balancing and tuning that game almost like a live service game for about 18 months. With that being said, we feel like we've got Lord of the Fallen 2023 to a really good place. The community, largely, are happy with it”. 

“Obviously, there's always ways to improve. We're still kind of chipping away at that block. But the implications for the next game is we’re determined to get difficulty right at launch”.

And now that's a big challenge, right? There's no easy or simple answer to, like, what is the right difficulty for a soulslike, really. Some people want it to be, you know, punishingly difficult.
Some people want it to have like an easy option.”

“We're committed to making sure that the game feels like a sequel in terms of it carries on from where Lords of the Fallen 2023 is right now”. 

“So in terms of difficulty, I'd say if you've completed Lords of the Fallen 2023, you're gonna feel right at home with the next game”.

“That's not to say it's gonna be easier, harder, it's just that we're trying to make sure we learn that curve”. 

“And honestly, one of the things we're doing right now with the game is just testing the hell out of it. Right? Like we've gotta test it internally. We've gotta work with external partners.
You know, we use one of the agencies that's worked on some of FromSoftware's games. Like, we really need to get that difficulty curve right for as many players as possible at launch”. 

One of the things that made Lords of the Fallen 2023 unique in terms of difficulty was the way that the game’s Umbral system acted as a built-in safety net mechanic. If the player was in the light version of the game's world and ran out of health, rather than instantly dying, they would be pulled into Umbral with a new health bar, effectively giving the player a second shot at surviving an encounter. 

I asked Valjalo whether this Umbral safety net would return in Lords of the Fallen 2, and whether any new mechanics would be coming to the sequel to serve a similar purpose.

“It's a really good way of framing it. It actually is a safety net; it's kind of a second chance, isn't it? Even though it's like sending you to hell at the same time. So there's that interesting paradox with Umbral”. 

“What I can say is that we're bringing Umbral back bigger, better than ever. So I mean, that speaks for itself. Yes, you're gonna go to Umbral, and it will give you that, if you wanna call it a safety net”.

In Lords of the Fallen 2023, the Umbral realm was a very new idea, with the player character exploring this relatively unknown world as an outside observer. According to Valjalo, this relationship to Umbral is set to shift going into Lords of the Fallen 2.

“One of the ways that I like to think about this game is that this is kind of our Empire Strikes Back”.

“This is like the darker, deeper sequel where things, you know, the stakes are higher. The violence is bloodier. The consequences are clearer, and the atmosphere is heavier. So with all that being said, in terms of Umbral, if Lords of the Fallen 2023 was about stepping into Umbral, this game is about Umbral stepping into you, and the kind of implications of that kind of speak for themselves”.

One of the critiques that appeared in some reviews for Lords of the Fallen 2023 was that the game’s level design was at times a little complex to navigate, with large numbers of one-sided doorways and interconnected paths. According to Valjalo, it seems like the dev team has taken that feedback on board when it comes to the sequel.

“One of the things we certainly wrestled with on Lords of the Fallen 2023 was that perfect matrix which FromSoftware achieves with the combination of like curiosity, enigmatic storytelling, layered on top of a basically the world telling a story, and it all being interconnected”. 

“We learned very quickly, but very much the hard way, how difficult that is with Lords of the Fallen 2023. We don't wanna repeat the same mistakes. So we are not gonna repeat the same mistakes. And I can't say much more than that”.

“But, but yeah. If you found yourself getting lost in Lords of the Fallen 2023, and you found an interconnected map as much of a chore as it was something you enjoyed, I think you'll be very happy with what we've done with the next game, 'cause we are directly addressing that”. 

One further aspect of Lords of the Fallen 2023 that helped it stand out from other Soulslike games in its genre was the way it approached multiplayer, allowing for full campaign multiplayer rather than boss arena summoning, and down the line offering a friend pass to make it easier to invite friends to play along through their adventure.

I asked Valjalo if the same focus on multiplayer would be returning in the sequel, as well as whether the friend pass would be available this time around at the game’s launch.

“The kind of journey we went on with Lords of the Fallen 2023 was we launched, we realized how much people love and co-op, and then a few months ago we introduced the V 2.0 update, which had the friends pass, you know, kind of inspired by the likes of Split Fiction and, and games like that”. 

“Players seem to love it, and the metrics and data really point to players loving the campaign co-op. So we are absolutely committed to having that from day one with the next game”.

And does that include an aim to have things like the friends pass available from day one?

“Not that I'm aware,” said Valjalo.

Valjalo mentioned FromSoftware multiple times during our discussion, so I wanted to know how the team approached the fact that their game is inherently going to be compared to a company that acts as a standard bearer in its genre.

“It's a good point and it's a good discussion point. I think what's apparent to me is… God, when was Demon Souls, the original? Is it like 2008 or 2009? Something like that”. 

“I think it's clear that FromSoft Games aren't just games. They actually defined the RPG for the next 20, 30, probably 50 years ahead of us as well. So it's really kind of like accepting and making peace with the fact that, you know”.

“If Demon Souls or Dark Souls was like Citizen Kane, right? We're not trying to make Citizen Kane again. We're, we're trying to make a film in a similar genre - and we were the first game to be called a soulslike, which I guess is kind of like a backhanded compliment, right? We're very much like a Souls game.

“It's just making peace with the fact that we're operating in a space that has got a gold standard, has set certain expectations.

“But those expectations are kind of to be played with as well. We're trying to play with the form a bit. It's why with Umbral, you know, moving between worlds, like that whole mechanic technically and narratively, that was kind of our fresh spin on it.

“So yeah, it's, it's a gift and a curse really, because FromSoftware obviously has given us some of the parameters for what fans expect from these games. But also we need to kind of carve out our own niche, put our own stamp on it, you know, give it our own identity, which I think with this game in particular, with the second, it's when we're really gonna try and do that.

“I think again, that kind of going a bit more mature, being a bit bolder, braver, the storytelling, we're doing things quite differently, actually to what FromSoft or the competitors do.”

You can find Lords of the Fallen 2 on the Epic Games Store here.