The Lords of the Fallen 2023

[wndrbr]

Back when Souls games were still fresh, Polish videogame publisher City Interactive (previously known for developing awful bargain bin polish shooters, such as Terrorist Takedown and Battlestrike) teamed up with German dev studio Deck 3 (Venetica), and released a fairly OK action-rpg Lords of the Fallen. The game sold decent enough to warrant a sequel, but then Deck13 and City Interactive had a falling out, and devs walked away to make other games.

So the publisher finds some other studio to do the job, that studio fails and their project gets scrapped, publisher finds another studio to do the job, and that another studio fails as well and their version of LotF gets scrapped too, etc. In 2022 they re-announced the sequel/reboot. This is likely the fourth iteration of the cursed cycle of scrapping and restarting - the publisher have probably spent more money on failed projects than they profited from the original game in the first place. At this point they are probably doing this out of sunk cost fallacy.




The first game looked very generic (huge shoulderpads, etc), but this one looks like a shameless ripoff - complete with very similar environmental art style and creature design. Still, just this trailer alone shows a very healthy variety of weapons and magic skills. Will probably end up being a decent filler game to spend time while waiting for the Elden Ring expansion.

[DJOGamer]

but this one looks like a shameless ripoff

Disagree
This game seems to be going for a sort of "Macabre Catholic Heavy Metal" look and tone
Which is unlike even Bloodborne

[wndrbr]

but this one looks like a shameless ripoff

Disagree
This game seems to be going for a sort of "Macabre Catholic Heavy Metal" look and tone
Which is unlike even Bloodborne

Blasphemous in 3D.

[DJOGamer]

Yes
Although Blasphemous leans particularly towards Spanish art

[Lich]

I'm tired of Souls-likes with grimdark art styles, but I could overlook that if the combat were responsive and tactical (as far as these types of games can be), and items and magic were varied enough to add interesting complexity to combat.

[SDG]

I can't wait to never play it.

[MadPreacher]

I can't wait to never play it.

I say the same thing when I see you post one of your pity party videos.

[SDG]

I can't wait to never play it.

I say the same thing when I see you post one of your pity party videos.

***

[MadPreacher]

I can't wait to never play it.

I say the same thing when I see you post one of your pity party videos.

***

You first you loser alkie.

[SDG]

I don't even know who you are ***. Obviously somebody not worth remembering. Don't hate just because I'm Codex's e-celeb. Nobody has a bigger channel than me. You? You're nothin.

[MadPreacher]

I don't even know who you are ***. Obviously somebody not worth remembering. Don't hate just because I'm Codex's e-celeb. Nobody has a bigger channel than me. You? You're nothin.

Who are you again?

[DJOGamer]

Details from /v/:

>The cosmic horror elements are related to the Umbral, the limbo between death and the afterlife that can be seen in the trailers. From an art perspective its inspirations are, among others, HR Giger, Zdzisław Beksiński and surrealist sculptor and performance artist Olivier de Sagazan

>The lantern the player character is equipped with allows to stare into the Umbral from the living world, as well as to escape from it should you enter it.

>You can accept death and reset the world like in a traditional Souls game, leaving the currency you lost at the point you fell and returning to the rest site visited most recently, or decide to descend into the Umbral as a sort of second chance, searching for unique treasure and then seeking out a 'totem' that slides you back to reality. In this world, however, healing items are less effective and an insanity meter fills if you stay in too long. The Umbral can also be accessed through a 'deathwish' ritual that induces a kind of penalty-free demise, since there are items and loot that can only be found there

>The architecture of the real world and the Umbral interact with each other; for example, a chasm in the real world may be bridged in the Umbral, and even when living you could raise the lantern, which shows the Umbral overlaid on the real world as a kind of portal, and as long as the lantern shows the way, you could cross that bridge. LotF is a game about "observation and detective work", in which gaps and dead ends should encourage further investigation. As in games such as Soul Reaver, changes in a world may open new paths in the other. While smaller Umbral denizens cower from the lamp, larger ones may actually reach through the light and drag you to the other side

>Co-op play will be untethered and seamless, so partners will stay connected as long as they want: if you die, you switch to a spectator mode until a companion resurrects you. There are three multiplayer competing factions.

>The game's equivalent of the bonfires, called 'anchors', appear only sparsely at fixed locations, but their number can be increased by crafting them and placing them as you see fit. Their crafting materials can only be looted from Umbral enemies, however, and they wear out with use and can also be destroyed if found by enemies. During the first playthrough, there will be fast travel between anchors and the hub area, but in New Game+ there will be no permanent anchors, and the warping functionality will be restricted

>There are 9 starting classes to choose from at the moment (the number may change in the final release), and this choice may have an effect on how deeply you need to become acquainted with the Umbral - a necromancer can hardly avoid it

>The game is much larger than its predecessor, and completely interconnected. Every level branches out into other levels

>There won't be poison swamps

[rusty_shackleford]

but this one looks like a shameless ripoff

Disagree
This game seems to be going for a sort of "Macabre Catholic Heavy Metal" look and tone
Which is unlike even Bloodborne

As someone who isn't a fan of dork souls, it looks like dork souls with the edge turned up to 11 to me. Also, they turned the animango filter off for enemies.

[Lhynn]

I like the aesthetics and animations dont look bad. Maybe it will be good?

[SDG]

As someone who isn't a fan of dork souls

And why is that anyway? They are the closest thing to perfection the gaming medium has.

[rusty_shackleford]

As someone who isn't a fan of dork souls

And why is that anyway? They are the closest thing to perfection the gaming medium has.

They get repetitive very quick for me.
With regards to the actual dork souls games rather than the knockoffs, I can't get used to the input latency. I've been told this is due to them merely porting the console versions to PC with little changes and console players are used to it, but I just hated it the entire time.

Despite not liking them, I am happy they have popularized the idea that saving should not be a gameplay mechanic and instead progress should be continuously recorded.

[maidenhaver]

The latency wasn't on purpose?

[wndrbr]

[wndrbr]

I dunno, there's just too many things ripped from Dark Souls 3 / Bloodborne / Elden Ring, down to the animations and special attacks. The first LotF was generic as ****, but at least it wasn't as derivative.

The monsters, armor, environmental props all look like someone took Fromsoft's assets and fed them into some asset-generating neural network.

[KnightoftheWind]

The Souls genre as a whole is just a copy-and-paste job, even From Software themselves are very guilty of this. Just set a game in some abstract fantasy world, fill it with abstract monsters that vaguely resemble a living creature, have a dodge roll that makes your character look like a complete prick, and design asinine and complex attack patterns for enemies, that gamers have to autistically memorise in order to progress.

[maidenhaver]

Axiom is ruined and the Umbral world is ruineder.

[wndrbr]

[wndrbr]

[wndrbr]

It's so derivative it's not even funny.

The video starts just like Bloodborne / Sekiro, with main character lying in some dank place while an important npc asks the player to find him later. The movement/combat are the same as in Dark Souls / Elden Ring. Animations are the same. The visual design of environments, enemies and armor is again a gothic fantasy mishmash in the vein of Dark Souls/Bloodborne/Elden Ring. The UI is the same, down to the similarly worded item descriptions.

None of the other clones were as shameful as this one.

[Element]

Bloodborne was already more compelling by creating mystery surrounding the blood transfusion, the blood apparitions and then death/resurrection in the dream world. None of this 'i go now you find me' crap. First boss already looks more annoying than challenging. A poor job of replicating Sinh.

[wndrbr]

Lords of the Fallen’s total budget exceeded $66 million, making it most expensive title in CI Games history

CI Games CFO David Broderick shared the figures during a conference call on October 24, according to Bankier.pl. Total costs for Lords of the Fallen amounted to PLN 281 million ($66.6 million), of which:

- Development costs (excluding engine license fees) — PLN 178 million ($42.2 million);
- Marketing costs — PLN 81.5 million ($19.3 million);
- Production of physical copies — PLN 21.5 million ($5.1 million).

no wonder the budget ballooned, considering the game was scrapped and restarted multiple times.

[rusty_shackleford]

Production of physical copies

????????????????

[Acrux]

Production of physical copies Polish govt money laundering

????????????????

[wndrbr]

Imagine spending all that money, only to end up releasing a shameless ripoff.

[agentorange]

Im confused didnt they make a game with this title already? Which was also a blatant copy of Dark Souls?