Defiant Studios is having a ‘fresh start’ with Lords of the Fallen 2

Defiant Studios won’t be using any existing design work for the upcoming Lords of the Fallen, choosing to start over completely from scratch, Eurogamer reported. The sequel to the 2014 title will still stick true to the original’s action RPG roots, but will be developed entirely by Defiant.

"It’s really a reset, it’s a fresh start,” said David Grijns, Defiant Studios managing director, speaking to Eurogamer. "It’s a new engine – Unreal 4 – and a new team. A team which does not have a long and illustrious background in action RPG development, but we actually see it as a strength."

The studio was founded in 2016 by Grijns and Roland Lesterlin, known for their work on the open world title Just Cause 3 – a far cry from the Dark Souls-inspired Lords of the Fallen.

Despite this, the team seems to relish the challenge on taking on something entirely different. “It’s an area of the games industry which is now considered untouchable in some degree, it’s like, ‘From Software rules the roost in this particular area of the badlands so abandon all hope ye who enter here.’” said Grijns. “And those are exactly the sorts of projects we love.”

He continued: “We have a very senior team and what senior people want is to be challenged. The higher the challenge technically and creatively, the more interested we get.”

Publisher CI games announced in June that Defiant would be developing the sequel, taking over from developers Deck13, who made the original game.