"It's important that our game doesn't just feel like FromSoftware," says Ryan Hill, creative strategist at Lords of the Fallen 2 developer CI Games, in a new developer update on YouTube about the studio's upcoming Soulslike action RPG.
Hill and three other CI Games devs liberally reference FromSoftware's games and the recognized tenets of the Soulslike genre throughout their combat-focused discussion, but they also remain bullish on what separates their game from the genre it's entering. We obviously haven't played Lords of the Fallen 2 for ourselves yet, so who knows how it pans out in-game, but their intent is interesting.
Hill offers an example indirectly. "Your typical Soulslike game, you've got your light attack, your heavy attack," he says later in the video. "Your heavy attack, yeah, it's a bit slower, but the payoff is it does a bit more damage, and that's really the extent of it. Whereas I know what the team has done this time around is really put a use to those heavy attacks, whereby there's a real purpose for them in combat."
During this segment, alpha gameplay footage shows a Lords of the Fallen 2 character using heavy attacks to break a shield-bearing enemy's guard, suggesting these moves have a disruptive or staggering quality that goes beyond their damage.
Game director James Lowe says a driving goal with Lords of the Fallen 2 is giving players more reasons to "experiment" with, and in, combat. "Yeah, they can smash and rain hell on them" with heavy attacks, he says, but "they can even charge that attack and start to really imbue it with power, which will then do even more."
"It's giving these little micro loops and pushing players to make micro decisions in these tense situations," he says.
Hill stresses ways to balance the speed and agility that Lords of the Fallen 2 is pushing for without losing "that sense of weight and commitment that players love from a Soulslike," the way you "commit to the hit."
Here, Lowe comes back to purpose: "Every button I have is a consequence I have to plan." He describes his intent with combat as "enemy-first" – a way to also give options and agility to enemies and let them inform the tempo of combat. An enemy called the Hysteric "uses the space, I would say, even more than the player," Lowe says. "In those situations, you feel slow, and that's this kind of spike that we want players to feel."
The two devs agree that combat should feel like a dance. "Every Soulslike needs to have that feeling," Lowe says, adding, "I think this is where Lords of the Fallen 2 goes another step."
This brings the game back to different enemies. "You have that feeling in spades, but then what you also have is just being able to mow things down," Lowe continues. "It's that Dark Crusader fantasy, right? Just aggression, running in, ripping heads, and just having a good time. And then being faced with something that's like, oh shit, now I have to think. Let's take stock. Now let's re-engage."
It's not that the idea of varying the pace of combat is unprecedented, nor is letting players bully trash mobs but making them take their time with elites or bosses. What I find interesting here is the given motivation for doing so – the pursuit of a game that accounts for the general expectations of Soulslikes, but not at the expense of its own fantasy.
It's also somewhat rare to hear a bunch of developers specify Soulslike so frequently and loudly. This is partly a function of audience jargon versus developer intent (see also: JRPGs), and how broad or undefined that jargon can be. But I've spoken to a lot of developers behind action RPGs like this, such as The First Berserker: Khazan, and many distance themselves from Soulslike as a term or target. But CI Games is very clearly all about it.
In similar games that have taken obvious inspiration, the ideas and rules that work so well for FromSoftware can sometimes end up with the tail wagging the dog, with creators operating purely where Soulslikes have already been rather than pushing the space forward. This isn't inherently a deal-breaker or unique to Soulslikes, but in a relatively young genre styled after a single standout series, this baggage can feel especially pronounced or limiting.
Lords of the Fallen began as a slavish Souls clone but the 2023 reboot ended up being pretty good despite some underwhelming bits and annoying problems, and I'm hoping the sequel can really nail it by exploring what isn't in FromSoftware's wheelhouse.
