Independent developer CI Games, creators of the upcoming soulslike action-RPG Lords of the Fallen II, have debuted a brand-new episode of their ongoing development series ‘Lifting the Veil,’ detailing a major overhaul to the game’s combat system.
Incorporating player feedback from Lords of the Fallen (2023) and the studio’s community-oriented development process, the team discuss a wealth of upgrades and new abilities, including almost 30 fully distinct weapon movesets (up from 15 in the original game). Each weapon class includes unique maneuvers – including repositioning strikes, infinite combo chains, and area-of-affect assaults – to provide players with significantly greater tactical expression.
CI Games has aimed to expand the depth and diversity of all combat systems, melee, magic and ranged – for the upcoming sequel, with a far greater focus on hybrid builds, all in service of encouraging players to not only experiment in their approach to combat, but delight in doing so.
“We want players to feel like a Swiss Army sword, ready to draw from an arsenal of combat options at any moment,” said Ryan Hill, chief creative officer, in a press release. “From Quickfire projectiles to mid-combo weapon swapping, players will be spoilt for choice when it comes to ripping their foes limb from limb. And there’s plenty more yet to reveal.”
Accompanying Ryan in the episode is Lead Combat Designer, Mike Vermeulen, alongside two members of the Launch Creative Team (LCT) team: Popular soulslike and RPGcontent creator, Travis “Pastorgainz” Hughlett, and Chandler Huddleston. Recruited directly from the Souls community – with the caveat of having at least 1000 hours experience in soulslikes, LCT members are fully integrated into the game’s development, working closely with devs on a daily basis to review and refine everything from combat and exploration to narrative and character progression.
Titled ‘Steel & Sorcery’, episode 11 of ‘Lifting the Veil’ is a showcase of the many improvements being made to the game thanks in part to additional development time as it continues towards its Q1 2027 global release. It delivers the most extensive reveal of new gameplay details to date, with all-new footage demonstrating the expanded arsenal of weapons, more expressive and aggressive combat, and sweeping improvements to both magic and ranged playstyles. CI Games has also published a separate montage video of new combat gameplay on YouTube.
Highlights from the new episode of ‘Lifting the Veil’ include:
- Mid-Combo Weapon Switching: Start off with dual dagger strikes and close with a scythe swing. Players can not only transition from one-hand to two-hand stance on the fly, but can now also swap effortlessly between two different melee loadouts, mid-combo with no interruption to combat flow.
- New Combat Abilities: Melee players have more strategic options than ever, with significantly more distinct weapon classes, increased identity between one-hand and two-hand movesets, new counterstrike attacks, and a wealth of boss weapons with unique signature attacks.
- Quickfire Ability: Players can now equip two quickfire abilities per melee loadout, allowing combatants to instantly draw upon magic, ranged projectiles and buffs in the heat of battle without needing to switch stances. Launch a javelin mid combo, or re-buff your weapon in the blink of an eye.
- Dedicated Magic and Ranged Stances: Each discipline now has its own dedicated stance providing the same level of mobility as the default melee stance.
- Instant Spellcasting: Thanks to intuitive button remapping while in ranged stances, spellcasters can equip up to four spells at once with one catalyst, ready to seamlessly swap to another four spells with a second catalyst, all instantly castable and with chargeable variants. Players can also replenish mana using the Sanguinarix without resorting to consumables this time around, and can also draw from seven diverse schools of magic.
- Fully Viable Ranged Builds: Ranged weapons now include an infinite base ammo, while more powerful variants can be refilled at certain points throughout the game world, making ranged builds more viable than ever for complete playthroughs.
- Quality-of-life Improvements: An immense suite of smaller improvements paint a brighter (and bloodier) picture for combat, including the ability to recover weapon upgrades at a small cost to encourage weapon experimentation at the later levels.
Lords of the Fallen II is available to Wishlist on PC via Steam and Epic Games Store, PlayStation®5, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch 2.