Lords of the Fallen dev reflects on Dark Souls comparison, is not a franchise

Lords of the Fallen executive producer Tomasz Gop has discussed with VG247 the comparisons between Deck 13's next-gen RPG and the Dark Souls series. It's also not a franchise, which he feels makes that first impression all the more crucial.

As part of a VG247 interview you can read here next week, former CD Projekt RED developer Tomasz Gop reflected on comparisons between Lords of the Fallen and the Dark Souls series.

The action-RPG is coming to PC, PS4 and Xbox One this autumn and takes places in a fantasy world where god himself has been imprisoned deep below the Earth; with only his arm sticking out of a vast mountain range, stuck there after one final attempt at escape. Without warning, his minions have sprung forth and are wreaking havoc on the land.

In this world, wrongdoers have marks of their misdeeds tattooed on their body as a reminder of their shame, and only Harken; the most tattooed wrongdoer in the land has the power to stop this threat. He's not a nice person, to say the least. Gop conceded that Lords of the Fallen is a difficult game, and stressed, "It's not a franchise," so the game's world and lore needs to be memorable, just as its combat must be fluid. First impressions - as they say - are everything.

On the Dark Souls comparisons, battles will prove tricky, with nine weapon pools to choose from spread across three classes. Melee is the heart of combat, and boasts a range of combos that must be mastered to fell demonic enemies with ease. Some attacks offer brief windows of invulnerability that must be used to increase your survival, as well as blocking and dodge rolls. Just like From Software's series, attack patterns must be memorised and brutal foes must be slain against all seemingly impossible odds.

He explained, "Lords of the fallen is a game that is not a game about - and I don't want to get this wrong because we do have storyline, we do have characters, NPCs and quest - but this is not a game where you would like to take out 100 hours of storyline and a thousand side-quests. This is a game about you crossing the gap, and the difference and distance between being a random noob at the beginning, and skilled pro player at the end. This crafting of your skill is what this is about, and I thought Dark Souls was exactly about the same thing."

So Lords of the Fallen definitely places emphasis on personal progression and overcoming challenges. He added, "For me personally - and it was one of the biggest take-aways from Dark Souls - I could honestly say, that I was on the other side of the experience that people beginning the game have. Like, at the end of the day I could honestly say, 'I owned the game.' This is exactly what you're trying to get with the right mind-set with games like Dark Souls, and I believe Lords is going to do the same thing."

I asked Gop if people were dying often during internal tests, and he replied, "Of course, and this is going to depend on your approach, because there will be guys who will be trying to do everything at the high slope of the learning curve. For them, it will be an experience probably comparable to Dark Souls." He stressed that those used to Dark Souls, and who have a mastery of melee and magic forms of combat will find the game relatively easier, but cautioned that there's a difference between something being difficult and simply demanding a lot of your time.

It will not be a "treadmill experience," as Gop called it, which demands hours and hours of grinding for a single stat point. It's more about quick gratification after defeating tough enemies and learning how to fight better through death. You'll still evolve your hero over time and complete quests, but here, the aim is to make every victory and event memorable.

We'll have much more on what Lords of the Fallen is all about next week. Stay tuned if you're a 'Souls' fan, trust us on this one.