In a lengthy new developer update for the upcoming Lords of the Fallen 2, CI Games and Hexworks have spoken about the sheer variety in builds that players can experiment with. Game director James Lowe expressed this idea by bringing up comparisons to FromSoftware’s titles like Elden Ring, which many consider to be one of the pinnacles of the Soulslike genre.
“With a FromSoft game, and I’m not slamming FromSoftware, once I find my build, I’m in,” said Lowe in the video, which you can check out below. “That’s probably the build I’m going to use for the entire experience, and I’m not going to really mess around with it.”
“Whereas in Lords of the Fallen, I have a few more drives to experiment a bit more and go, ‘Do you know what? I want to try dual-wielding. How does that feel?’ And it’s not that I don’t feel attached to my build, but I feel confident enough as a player to go, ‘I’m going to mess around with this for a few hours.’ Or, ‘You know what, I’ve really struggled against this encounter, let me try and play with something else and see how it goes.’”
It is worth noting that, while FromSoftware’s titles typically do allow players to respec their builds, especially in more recent games like Dark Souls 3 and Elden Ring, doing so is typically a more arduous process than simply picking a menu option. Elden Ring, for instance, needs you to find a special item that can then be consumed to completely reset your build.
The decision to allow players greater or lesser freedom in changing their builds is a fundamental one when it comes to game design. Depending on the developer’s priorities, experimentation can either be encouraged or discouraged. With FromSoftware’s titles, it comes down to the studio’s emphasis on giving players consequences for the choices they make, while still allowing a little bit of leeway by including a way to reset builds.
Back in June, The Outer Worlds 2 game director Brandon Adler had spoken about his own studio’s decision to now allow respecs. He noted that the core vision behind the RPG was to encourage roleplaying.
“Look, if we’re going to do The Outer Worlds 2, I want to make sure that the role-playing is really strong,” he explained. “I want to make sure that you’re building your character and really doubling down – making sure that role-playing comes through the whole experience.”
Despite this decision, Adler was also clear in noting that he doesn’t think allowing players a way to respec their builds is a bad idea.
“There’s a lot of times where you’ll see games where they allow infinite respec, and at that point, I’m not really role-playing a character, because I’m jumping between – well, my guy is a really great assassin that snipes from long range, and then oh, y’know, now I’m going to be a speech person, then respec again, and it’s like… for me, it’s not wrong that people like to play like that,” said Adler.
Lords of the Fallen 2 is being developed for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, and is slated for release later this year. Check out the gameplay trailer from December, as well as the PC hardware requirements.
