After Elden Ring released, The Lords of the Fallen devs realized one of their bosses was 'nearly identical to Malenia'
2014 action RPG Lords of the Fallen was obviously inspired by the Dark Souls games, and so is its upcoming reboot, The Lords of the Fallen (a name that will torment Google searchers forever). According to creative director Cezar Virtosu, however, while it might look like they cribbed certain ideas directly from Elden Ring for the sequel, they were as surprised as anyone by them.
Development of The Lords of the Fallen began before Elden Ring was revealed, and Virtosu recently told our friends at Edge Magazine(opens in new tab) (via our other friends at GamesRadar(opens in new tab)) that the studio «braced for impact» when details about FromSoftware's open world RPG started to appear. Sure enough, there was overlap.
«Our breakthrough weapon, the flail, was showcased in the Elden Ring trailer, and that killed us inside,» said Virtosu. «And we saw that one of our bosses was nearly identical to Malenia.»
The director didn't say whether the studio made any changes to the boss as a result of the similarity, but it's not as if he's shy about the FromSoftware influence guiding The Lords of the Fallen—«Miyazaki is our daddy and granddaddy,» he said—so maybe it'll stick around as an accidental homage. (I've asked a PR rep and will update this article if I hear more.)
The Lords of the Fallen executive producer Saul Gascon also acknowledged that their studio, a new offshoot of publisher CI Games called HexWorks, exists in the shadow of FromSoftware, but he doesn't think that's an unambitious place to be.
«We want the studio to become a reference in the genre,» Gascon told Edge. We want to be the second reference [after From], because right now there is no clear second reference."
I appreciate the honesty of aspiring to be the second
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