Lords of the Fallen PS5 Sequel Prioritising 'Elevated Production Values', More 'Commercial' Art Style

What is a "more commercial art style" and why does he say that like it's a good thing?

I remember playing the OG Lords of the Fallen (2014), it nearly singlehandedly put me off the whole Soulsborne genre lol.

Heard the new one was OK with some nifty ideas, but Remnants II took its slot for offbrand soulslike in my library.

If they can bring something new, apart from graphics then it might peak my interest.

Absolutely my favorite Soulslike, I can't wait for the sequel.

I have no idea what a commercial art style looks like. Will everything look like Fortnite, the future of gaming?

I really liked Lords of the Fallen.

Also, there was absolutely nothing wrong with the art style - so I am not exactly sure why it needs to be changed.

Now, maybe it's because I played the game after it's been completely patched up, but I thought the production was incredibly high: PS5 performance was really good. The environments had great detail and atmosphere. Enemies were relatively varied throughout. Music was good. The dual realities mechanic was well thought out.

I feel like the things being said here are going backwards, though.

Time will tell.

The art style is great, but ofc they will take the wrong message here. Make it more bland!!!
I just felt like the game was slipshod. You'd go through an entire level full of enemies of a certain kind, and then fight a boss that was completely unrelated. It was really strange. Most soulslikes use the fodder enemies to train you.

Performance wasn't 100% but the production values were great. How many times are they going to try and reboot this title?

I thought the art style was great. Why dumb it down for the zombies?

More commercial art style? So anime girls with big ... personalities, right?

less thorns on armor and weapons would be great, actually..

Not great news. The recent one is fine i liked it but its carried hard by its visuals and art design, granted its very Dark Souls visually but it looks fantastic. This sequel i feel is just fixing something that doesn't need fixing.

Honestly this is what i hate about a lot of Soulslikes. They lack their own identity and just copy DS with maybe a gimmick thrown in. A big reason Remnant 2 and Lies of P are so good is because they actually bring new ideas and in the case of LoP improve on the standard formula something most Soulslike don't do. LoF2 sounds like a case of copying the popular game again while offering nothing new and ditching the biggest strength of the previous entry.

@KundaliniRising333 Best thing about it as well.

I hope they stick to tradition and name the sequel "Lords of the Fallen"!

The visuals were great in the game and it was the thing that caught my attention first. It just screamed dark,gothic and mature. So is the sequel going to go all over the top bright and colourful? Is it going to be more cartoony in graphical style? Keep the same aesthetics and concentrate on performance out of the gate and whilst I still and forever will maintain that whilst performance wasn't perfect it was in no way broken to the point of being unplayable as some screamed. Hexwork supported the arse end out the first and listened to the community and acted almost immediately to try and fix issues whilst placating the players at the same time. Neowiz did the same with lies of p. Tell me what other developer has that much faith in their product to support it to those levels? Bring on the sequel but keep it dark...keep it dark.

What's commercial art style,?? I really want to know. Do they mean leas dark, and horror like or what

A more commercial story? Oh dear.

more commercial art style and narrative

Looks like Epic Games had more conditions for their huge investment in the sequel, on top of the PC exclusivity on their Store.
Because this line emanates a "corporate BS" aroma to cover a square mile.

Selling an IP's soul and originality for money... that's gonna go down so well.

@DennisReynolds @Northern_munkey
Agreed 100%

Best soulsborne knockoff for me. Loved the art style of the environments, I’d say the NPCs could have done with a bit of work (and some of the voice acting). It made me want everything in Unreal 5

I have a bad feeling about this... Lords of Fallen is my favourite BECAUSE of it's beautiful colourful graphics. World has slipped into bland unappealing 3-4 colour level design as same as monster design, so that is where LoF was standing out...

I always thought they already had a very commercial art style.
Why don't they go for.... maybe improving their damn combat mechanics? I wish they would make something that felt as deep as FF7's combat or maybe even deeper. It feels like they are spinning their wheels trying to match fromsoft. Its been this way since the early PS4 days.

@KeanuReaves Final Fantasy 7 turn-based combat? Sorry I cannot imagine that...

Doesn't this sound like they're concentrating on the wrong thing? Shouldn't it be about improving the combat, and overallvfeel of the game, and nkt just increased production/ presentation?
Do they mean commercial like Dragon Age's weird, knockoff, Fortnite style? This doesn't spund good...

@djlard I'm talking about the depth. You can use the remake or rebirth as an example as well.
The depth in that game's combat comes from the various combinations of 3 playable characters each with a dozen unique abilities, and then there is also how you build each of their equipment and materia sockets.

I think the problem in Lords of The Fallen (personally anyway) is that the combat doesn't feel that satisfying and there aren't that many options to explore depth in the gameplay mechanics.

I could be wrong and my perspective could be disproven. But my point is that the art style was never an issue for me. If anything I would say they had some of the stronger art styles in the industry.

@KeanuReaves I praised LoF for it's simplicity. I think more complex combat would only ruin whole experience. It is not MMO or group of heroes. Just one person against monsters. It is not trying to be best in some way and that makes it unique and pretty good playable.

“In a mildly interesting revelation, Lords of the Fallen apparently contributed 72% of CI Games' total revenue in the first half of 2024 despite releasing in October of 2023.“

Interesting 🤔

No garishly drenched eye candy. I hate strictly ballroom

@djlard I don't mind simplicity on a surface level. But I think games should strive to include vast depth that can be explored. Diablo 2 is a great example. You can just play it straight forwardly and have a good time. But if you dive deep into the different mechanics you can get a lot out of it. Honestly thats where you get the most out of it.

@AaronBayne Totally agree. The art style was one of the best parts of Lords of the Fallen. I absolutely love a grimdark fantasy setting with religious overtones. It's also partly what makes Blasphemous so great.

In my opinion, what was holding the game back from true greatness was the floaty combat. If they tighten that up, than they'll have a real banger on their hands.

I honestly think the game looked and played like garbage and had awful performance.

The multiplayer was also broken for MONTHS after launch. I'm sure they can make a good Lords of the Fallen game, but they havent yet.

So a 2026 sequel as in the 3rd game right? Are we just completely ignoring the actual first entry in the series that came out on the PS4?

I am definitely buying this day one. I got Lord of the Fallen later on sale and it was the best soulslike I played this gen (I thought it was better than Elden Ring).

@KeanuReaves This here. This is what makes the greats... great.

I have gotten back into Remnant 2 and that is a game with rich mechanics, solid gameplay, and so many moving pieces behind the scenes. You can effectively play the game "casually" and have a great time, no question. Play with whatever you come across. OR you can go REALLY deep into its systems to extract specific, targeted items and mechanics and surprises. It's an absolute all-timer for me. The joy per hour (or maybe joy/satisfaction for effort) quotient is so friggin' high.

The base game was already my GotY 2023. But even just its first DLC (only just finished it) is raising the overall package to top tier of the generation for me because of its depth, surprises, and rock solid gameplay.

More developers need to take heed of what Gunfire Games is doing. They are sleeping giants of creativity and design.

@KeanuReaves Yes, Diablo 2 (my lifetime love) has lots of secrets I still didn't discovered after 20 years of active playing...

I must revisit Lords of Fallen soon, but as I remember its way of gameplay fits me almost as same as my proven builds in Diablo 2.

It's insanely frustrating that this turd is getting a sequel, considering the game itself is a reboot of the original turd they crapped out in 2014...we don't need a third one.

I played it through once, no interest to return to it. There are some neat areas, but ultimately it's a boring slog.

@GigaGaia You really think so? The opening area is cool (Defiled sepulcher), but it just goes down from there. They reused too many assets and I found myself almost giving up after the swamp area. I did finish it, but no interest at all to revisit it. Lies of P is probably the best Souls-like I've played.

This is a very weird message. The art style and the atmosphere were just fine and I hope this won’t be spoiled in the sequel.

A more "commercial" art style? Sounds enthralling. Sign me up.

@Rambo-kind My problem with Lies of P is that the dodge suck so much that you're basically forced to parry. I hate parrying and even if I didn't, I want to play the game however I want to and not the way developer want to force on me. Which is why I thought Sekiro was hot garbage. The only FromSoftware game I actually hate.