The Lords Of The Fallen devs say their game is 'Dark Souls 4.5'

The Lords of the Fallen developers say that their game is Dark Souls 4.5. Well, at least they’re honest about its influence.

Developed by CI Games and Deck13, the first Lords of the Fallen was released in 2014 and it proudly wore its inspiration on its sleeve. To be fair, Lords of the Fallen was one of the first Soulslike games of this now overly saturated sub-genre.

What’s more, just over half a year after its launch, it was reported that Lords of the Fallen had sold around 900,000 copies. Which wasn't too bad for an indie game trying to make it big in the world of the AAA big hitters.

Furthermore, a sequel to Lords of the Fallen was announced in 2014. Unfortunately, news of that sequel would remain radio silent for eight long years. That was until the sequel was finally revealed during Gamescom Opening Night Live in 2022.

However, in somewhat of a confusing announcement, rather than being a numbered sequel, the follow-up to the 2014 Soulslike game would be called The Lords of the Fallen. Yes, instead of having the number 2, it incorporated the word “The”.

Set around 1,000 years prior to the events of the original game, The Lords of the Fallen promises to be bigger, better, more gruesome and ultimately, more challenging than its predecessor.

Now developed by Hexworks, a CI Games subsidiary, the developers not only wear the Darks Souls inspiration on its sleeve, but it also wants The Lords of the Fallen to become its own reference in the Soulslike genre.

In an interview with Edge Magazine (thanks GamesRadar), Hexworks executive producer, Saul Gascon said: “We want the studio to become a reference in the genre,” adding “We want to be the second reference [after FromSoftware] because right now there is no clear second reference.”

“The mindset of needing to be better than something else doesn't work in the long term,” ads creative director Cezar Virtuso. “What works is finding the pillars of your game, the strongest possible, and over-delivering there.”

Virtuoso continued: “Our strategy was that, yes, we will be Dark Souls 4.5. We will be that semi-open world that people crave, that more vertical-level design - because that's what we want, too. Every level branches out into other levels, like a T-shaped intersection. And every three levels loop back into each other. It's like a chain of pretzels."

The folks at Hexworks clearly have high expectations on its own take on the Soulslike formula, and if its long-awaited sequel sells even half the amount of FromSoftware’s most recent hit, Elden Ring, that would be a major success in its own right.

The Lords of the Fallen is expected to release sometime this year for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.