Lords of the Fallen News

Welcome to this newly unearthed tome of knowledge, Lampbearers! Below you will find insight and wisdom about Lords of the Fallen, including answers to questions on difficulty, graphics and performance, New Game Plus, character customisation, and more…


[h3]How long is Lords of the Fallen?[/h3]
Like any game, the completion time for Lords of the Fallen is largely dependent on an individual player's skill level. However, based on our playtests with experienced soulslike players, we estimate it will take between 35 to 40 hours to finish a single playthrough of the game from beginning to end. For 100% completionists and those less experienced with the genre, it will take longer.

[h3]On a scale of 1-10, how difficult is this game for an average Souls enthusiast?[/h3]
Lords of the Fallen is designed to be a challenging experience. We’ve aimed to make it so that it creates a sense of pride when players can reveal to a friend, "I've completed Lords of the Fallen!"

However, we've also invested a lot of effort into creating a smooth onboarding process, especially for players who might be less familiar with the genre. Remember, this is a RPG at its core, so if players hit a difficulty wall they always have the option to grind a few levels. Alternatively, there’s the option to team up in co-op mode to tackle that particularly daunting boss that’s blocking progress.

[h3]What are the graphical and performance features for Lords of the Fallen?[/h3]
On console, Lords of the Fallen will feature two game modes: Quality and Performance. We’re pleased to confirm that both will perform in native 4K through the use of multiresolution techniques, with a targeted frame rate of 30fps and 60fps respectively.

Players on PC will have access to a wider range of visual options, which are automatically configured based on their specific hardware and capabilities. Whether they choose options such as DLSS/FSR is completely up to the individual…and of course, their hardware.

[h3]Will players be able to customise controls?[/h3]
For players using keyboard and mouse to play Lords of the Fallen, they’ll absolutely be able to rebind controls. While players using controllers won’t be able to customise their buttons, they will have a number of gameplay options to tinker with for better ergonomy.

[h3]Will Lords of the Fallen feature crossplay multiplayer functionality?[/h3]
Yes, we do have crossplay in the game, but only between PC to console, and not between the two console platforms.

[h3]When playing Lords of the Fallen in coop mode, can players choose to stop people from invading?[/h3]
Players can be invaded, even when playing solo. As long as the player is online, an invasion can occur. There are two major ways to avoid invasions: Firstly, there’s a consumable item that can be purchased from a vendor, which temporarily wards off any invasions. Secondly, there’s always the option of disabling multiplayer from the in-game menu!

[h3]Will there be a Lords of the Fallen demo?[/h3]
We've seen a lot of comments on social media requesting a demo, and we really appreciate your anticipation to play our game. However, developing a demo would require diverting resources from the main game for a long period. Our entire team is committed to ensuring a smooth and polished launch across all platforms: Steam, Epic, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Steam Deck.

[h3]How in-depth is Lords of the Fallen’s character customisation? Can armour be customised and, if yes, how so?[/h3]
Players will have access to in-depth customisation options in Lords of the Fallen, including haircuts, tattoos, scars, and more. There’s even the ability to shape the character’s body silhouette! In addition to the choice of different armour pieces, we have a system of tincts that allows players to colour the metal, cloth and leather parts of armour pieces!

[h3]Can players access starting class items and armour during the course of the campaign if they don’t start as that class?[/h3]
Yes, 100%. All starting classes gear and spells can be found throughout the game - although some earlier than others.

[h3]Is there a New Game Plus in Lords of the Fallen and, if so, what does that entail?[/h3]
There is a New Game Plus (NG+) available from the moment players defeat the final boss. They’ll have the choice of postponing the NG+ and continuing to explore the world and engage in online activities, or starting a new game with their current character and gear.

Several key changes take place when playing NG+, including:

• All ‘Ancient Vestiges’ (in-game checkpoints) are disabled, except for the one in the hub area. This means players will have to rely on the seedling vestiges (which they craft themselves) to make progress through the world. This further ramps up the difficulty as they can have only one seedling vestige at a time.
  
• Enemies scale up significantly, making encounters even deadlier than during the first campaign playthrough
  
• Enemy resistance to elements evolves drastically
  
  

[h3]Does Lords of the Fallen have difficulty settings?[/h3]
True to the genre, there are no difficulty settings. This is of course except for New Game Plus, which can be accessed after finishing the game once, regardless of the ending achieved.

[h3]Will you release the official soundtrack to music streaming platforms?[/h3]
We absolutely plan on releasing the OST onto platforms in the near future. We’ll have more information to follow soon.

For me, it starts with an initial spark. When I started working on Lords of the Fallen we had the lore legacy of the original 2014 game, but we knew from the get go that we wanted a more grounded, dark, and mediaeval art style. We felt it worked better with the story we wanted to tell, as well as encapsulate the emotions we wanted to convey to our audience.

Originally, our game had a very realistic aesthetic, with knights and chivalry, castles and monasteries, but then we injected this spark of tormented fantasy from one of my very first concept arts for the game: a landscape with a stylized knight standing in front of a dark fantasy tree. This poor chevalier was contemplating the rest of the journey that awaited him, and from that image we realised we could open our world to a more allegorical style, with its moments of extravagances and magics.

On top of that, we explored the ideas for Umbral, the realm of the dead, which opened the gates to themes of cosmic horror and Lovecraftian creatures, and further solidified the tormented dark fantasy style we were looking for.


One exercise I like to do is ask myself what the game could/should become, and imagine a future screenshot. At first this image is very blurry in my mind, a bit undefined, full of personal references… but the more I develop it, the more the image becomes clearer and clearer, until the moment where I can say to my colleagues, “Wait, guys! I think I’ve got it!”

For Lords of the Fallen, my imagined screenshot was of a knight wearing heavily rusted armour and a skull-spiked helmet, carrying a sword wrapped in thorns, and walking down a candlelit corridor with walls covered in blood. Underneath his footsteps, white lilies and grey moths were growing out of the ground… Quite explicit, don’t you think?

This vision actually followed me during most of the preproduction! It even became an internal joke, that I was the guy adding skulls, blood and candles all over the place! But I guess when you have a vision, you have to stick to it, right?


I think the most important part for me when the design process started was to set a clear direction, something I would be comfortable to rely on and communicate to the artists and the rest of the development team.

For this purpose, my art direction rested on a number of high-level pillars, before refining those themes into systems and personal references. I am a strong believer of introspection and gathering strong thematics and aesthetics from what we’ve lived, experienced, or dreamt. I often circle back to my favourite books and mangas, and it’s normal to get some hints of Berserk, Blame, Dragonball or Saint Seiya in my work, with a sprinkling of Stephen King and Clive Barker to spice things up!


I also articulated the idea of a “thematic triangle” where each of the corners represented a strong pillar of the game’s art direction: torment, darkness and fantasy. The three main drivers (and gods) of the game are placed on each edge of this triangle, combining at least two pillars.

In Lords of the Fallen, the Radiants represent torment/fantasy, the Rhogars are darkness/fantasy and the Umbral stands for darkness/torment. This triangle became a tool for me to evaluate each artistic creation for the game: if it fell within the triangle, then I knew the asset was on the right track. Refining those pillars with more precise systems constituted the biggest task of the preproduction phase; it was about discovering the visual language needed to enable those pillars to shine, and the references to rely on.

For example, the Umbral realm was strongly influenced by the twisted artists Giger and Beksinski, but it became fully realised after injecting some imagery from the performer Olivier de Sagazan. Such references are a strong point to start with, but the more you create art for the game the more those developed concepts become central for your universe - right up to the point where you don’t have to search for references anymore.

Here is an example of one of the sub-themes and how it was realised in the game’s art direction: we wanted a strong ambiguity between religion and fanaticism, especially along the Holy Sentinels of Orius. To represent this madness visually, we focused on blood and thorns, but also accumulation. So instead of having a pair of candles on an altar, we covered it with wax and had the candles grow like roots on each corner of the church. We even covered the shoulders of our characters in wax!

This idea came to me when I remembered visiting a small chapel in France as a kid. There was an alcove where prayers could be made by lighting a candle under an old mural. It seemed nobody was actually taking off the consumed candles there; people were just piling up candle after candle on a mountain of melted wax. This intimate image flew from my memory directly into some of the locations in Lords of the Fallen.


If the art director is a fair participant in the overall direction of the project, then it goes without saying that they’re NOTHING without a great team around them. The key word of this collaboration is “trust”, and I believe that goes both ways. The art director is just a compass, setting a long term direction for the ship to sail, and more or less checking the map from time to time. The crew - each of the individual artists and team members - are the true heroes guiding the ship forward.

It was clear early on that there would be a lot of things that I’d have to delegate. In a project of this size the collaboration and validation between directors, leads and colleagues is primordial, especially in a fully remote company like HEXWORKS. Pragmatically, this trust goes both ways: Each design or new concept goes past my eyes, but likewise, any good idea or proposal from a collaborator can be taken and developed further if it fits with the art direction. I strongly think I’ve my own artistic affinities and flaws: for example, I’m a better character designer than architectural artist, and therefore I have to rely on our environment and lighting artists to achieve our goals. I can’t stress enough how much the collaboration with our director of photography, Erwan Fagard, was both supportive and enriching to me.

All this is to say that my day-to-day work during preproduction and production was mainly doing paint-overs and sketches, annotations, and briefs. Those briefs are actually one of the most important parts of the job, because you’re setting the vision for the artists in a few chosen words, references and sketches. They’re moments where I would take the decisions of Saul Gascon (executive producer and head of studio) and Cezar Virtosu (creative director) and translate them into a visual language for the rest of the art team. I usually write those briefs alone, they’re like a secret pact between me and the artist. That way, I can combine the mandatory elements of storytelling and gameplay, and at the same time make sure the overall direction is focused towards the emotion or resonance I want to achieve.

This is how we respect a delicate balance between gameplay, story, and art… yes, yet again a new magic triangle!

Concept Art : Fred Rambaud

It is also important to mention that I was strongly supported by Javier Lajara, our art manager. His role of directly managing the artists and art production meant I could fully focus on creativity and reviewing. I was very lucky to have such a liberty of action and to be able to put my brain to its best use: finding creative solutions that would push the project forward.

In terms of painting and design, I have a personal mantra: “Mood goes over structure”. This means I always favour a concept that brings me emotion rather than perfect detail accuracy. Composition, storytelling, silhouettes and mood are my best tools to articulate art direction. Of course, it can be pushed into the smallest tiny details (“Please add a skull here… add a bit of rust on this gauntlet”) but I was always confident in our art team, that they were the experts to get into the deepest details of our assets.

Again, they are the true heroes of this journey!

In Light, We Walk.


https://store.steampowered.com/app/1501750/Lords_of_the_Fallen/

[h2]Greetings Lampbearers,[/h2]
David here, Lead Network Multiplayer Programmer on Lords of the Fallen. This week's HEXWORKS Dev Journal will deep dive into all things co-op and multiplayer. I've gathered all your questions and answered as many as possible on the topic, such as PvP, matchmaking, and how online gameplay in Lords of the Fallen differs from offline, so that you have all the information you need to enjoy co-op and multiplayer with your friends when the game launches next month.


[h3]Seamless multiplayer[/h3]
In Lords of the Fallen, you have the opportunity to engage in online play with both cooperative and PvP modes. While we do support friend invites, the game also features a matchmaking system that allows players to seek assistance from the broader community. All in-game vestiges, whether ancient or player-created, provide you with the option to either host a game for another player - “Beckon Lampbearer” - or join someone else's game - “Accompany Lampbearer”. If you're open to both, you can select either option and enter the queue as a potential host and a potential ally.

When playing online, the host's game world will reflect their progress in the storyline. As an accompanying player, you won't advance your own story, but you'll keep any items, levels, achievements, and currencies you earn during the online session. These will carry over when you return to your own game world.

[h3]Invasions while cooping[/h3]
The final option available within the Vestiges is "Slaughter Lampbearer." This feature launches a hunt for players who are actively playing within specific zones designated in the game. Once such a player is located, you are tasked with defeating them for glory, achievements, and a special in-game currency that enables you to create a uniquely styled Lampbearer. Teaming up with allies can be an effective strategy against such invasions, as only one invader can enter your world at a time, and your ally can assist in repelling the threat. However, be cautious: while the invader may be alone, the game's AI-controlled enemies will recognize them as an ally and cooperate with them in their attempts to defeat you.

[h3]Spectator mode[/h3]
When playing as an ally, you lose the ability to switch realms at will. If the host enters the Umbral realm, the ally will automatically follow, and the same applies when returning to Axiom. Since the ally can't realm-shift independently, death becomes a much greater concern. As a joining player, you have only one life. If you lose it, your body will fall to the ground and you'll switch to spectator mode. The host has two options for resurrecting you: they can either interact with your fallen body on the spot, risking exposure to enemies as it's not a quick ritual, or they can do so via a nearby Vestige.

[h3]Revenge[/h3]
Whenever a lampbearer dies in the world at the hands of its inhabitants, we store the coordinates of the incident and the identity of the perpetrator on our servers. Other players can then see the lamps of these fallen players scattered throughout the game world. Players can choose to avenge the fallen by soulflaying these lamps, which will reveal a trail of moths leading to the killer. Defeating that foe rewards you with Plucked Eyeballs, which can later be offered at the umbral shrines for unique rewards. Note that these enemies are much tougher than normal.

[h3]Faction Shrines[/h3]
Engaging with any of our multiplayer features — be it co-op, PVP, or Revenge — grants players with unique items: Pilfered Coins, Severed Hands, or Plucked Eyeballs, respectively. These items can then be offered at various shrines, each dedicated to a specific faction: Radiant, Rhogar, or Umbral. Such offerings allow players to unlock unique content, like armour sets or tincts. However, there's a catch: not all content is available from the start. The gods require collective contributions from players worldwide to reach specific thresholds of offerings in order to unlock new content for everyone. So, all players must contribute their offerings to each god to advance through the different tiers and access unique content at these shrines.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
[h3]Q&A[/h3]
How can I play directly with friends? You can invite your friend in two ways: either by sending a direct invite or by using a password.

Can I play offline? Yes, you can play offline, but doing so will disable several features: co-op, invasions, the revenge system, and access to faction shrines will all be unavailable.

Is cross-play available? Yes, cross-play is supported for players on PC who wish to connect with those on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series XS. Utilising a session password ensures that you can join the same game with each other. Cross-play between the two console platforms is not available.

Does progression carry over from one platform to another? In order to support cross-progression, we would need to require players to create HEXWORKS accounts and log in with them each time they wish to play. We wanted to avoid this extra step, so we do not support cross-progression at this time.

Will my co-op partner be able to pick up items in my world from chests I open? If I pick up an item on the ground in the world, will it be automatically picked up for them as well or will they have to go and pick it up in the same spot manually as well? Co-op partners can collect all items dropped by enemies, such as weapons, consumables, armour, and shields, but they cannot access world loot, including objects hidden around the environment and items found inside chests.
When using a password to connect with friends, can I be invaded by others? After setting a password to allow another player to connect to you, invasions are temporarily blocked for a brief period. Once that time has passed, if you are in an invasion zone, you become susceptible to being invaded again.

Does my story progress if I join another player’s game? No, joining a host will only advance their story and game progression. Your own story progression is tied to your save and world in order to preserve your individual choices and progress. However, any XP and loot you acquire while playing as a guest will be retained in your own game.

How many players can you co-op with? You can invite one other player to join your game for co-op play. However, a third person has the ability to invade your co-op session as an enemy.

Will matchmaking balance from both host and joiner? Matchmaking attempts to connect players by their level in a search that expands its acceptance criteria over time. If the disparity between levels is high, though, we apply damage scaling to compensate for the level difference between both players. This also applies to invasions.

Can you turn off invasions when playing co-op? When playing in co-op mode, you can't completely disable invasions. However, you can obtain an item called the "Mirror of Protection" from the Radiant Shrine to temporarily prevent invasions.

Are you able to block certain players from joining your game? There is an in-game reporting system that allows you to mark players as "persona non grata" and that sends us a message.

Will there be a 1v1 arena to battle other players? Although the game doesn't feature a dedicated 1v1 arena, PvP combat is integrated throughout the world. If both players enter the same password and one of them steps into any of the numerous invasion zones scattered across the world, the other player is guaranteed to become the invader. Note friend PVP does not provide the same rewards, though.

Will matchmaking prioritise location when matchmaking / is there a ping feature? Before connecting players for a match, the matchmaking system evaluates the ping between them. The allowable maximum ping gradually increases over time, up to a predetermined limit.

Will there be emotes? We offer an array of gestures that can be used in both offline and online modes. Players can unlock these gestures by exploring the game world and engaging with NPCs. Additionally, each Faction shrine provides its own unique gesture for unlocking.


And with that, our co-op HEXWORKS Dev Journal is over. Although we have covered a lot here, if there are any questions left, reach out to us on X (Twitter) and we’ll get back to you there! Make sure to follow us on Steam for future HEXWORKS Dev Journals, with next week’s Journal making its way into a live format…

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1501750/Lords_of_the_Fallen/