A sequel to the Soulslike I played most while waiting for Elden Ring's DLC just got announced, and it has a release window

What you need to know

• Lords of the Fallen, a 2023 reboot from developer HEXWORKS of the 2014 Soulslike of the same name, is officially getting a sequel.
• The news was confirmed by HEXWORKS in a social media post, with the studio revealing that "the next major installment in the Lords of the Fallen franchise" will release in 2026. The game will launch on Xbox Series X|S, PC, and PS5.
• Along with NEOWIZ's Lies of P, Lords of the Fallen is widely regarded as one of the best Soulslikes from last year. It also happens to be the one I played the most while waiting for Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree DLC that drops later this week.
• It's worth noting that Lords of the Fallen, Lies of P, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, and Remnant II — all popular games from the Soulslike genre — are available to play through Xbox Game Pass.

I know every Soulslike fan on Earth is foaming at the mouth for Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree DLC right now — my review went live this morning, by the way — but hey, this is cool: Lords of the Fallen, HEXWORKS' popular reboot of the 2014 title of the same name, is officially getting a sequel. The developers announced the news Tuesday morning on X (Twitter), and even gave fans a release date window that's closer than you might expect it to be.

"We're delighted to announce that the next major installment in the Lords of the Fallen franchise is officially in development, and will launch in 2026 on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S," the post reads. "We look forward to delivering the very best gaming experience possible to you, our loyal fellowship of Lampbearers."

Lords of the Fallen, alongside NEOWIZ's Lies of P and a few other titles, is widely regarded as one of the best Soulslikes from last year, and it's the one I played the most while waiting for the Elden Ring DLC that's finally launching on June 21 this week. Notably, both of these games — as well as other big Soulslikes like Remnant 2 and Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty — are available on Microsoft's buffet-style Xbox Game Pass service, giving players on Xbox and PC the opportunity to dive into them without a full purchase.  

My full Lords of the Fallen review digs into the game in much greater depth, but the TL;DR is that it's very reminiscent of the original Dark Souls, complete with measured and methodical stamina-based combat and a huge nonlinear world with many branching, interconnected routes. Like Dark Souls, it has the DNA of a Metroidvania, with progress dependent on defeating certain bosses and acquiring key items.

The pace of Lords of the Fallen is a bit slower than the speed of FromSoftware's latest releases, though it does feature a system similar to Bloodborne's Regain mechanic that discourages shield turtling by "withering" your health when you block, but allowing you to get it back by attacking. In my experience, this made shield-focused builds more fun to play, and plenty of other builds are a blast too thanks to the game's wide variety of weapons, spells, and armors.

What ultimately sets Lords of the Fallen apart, however, is Umbral — a ghastly parallel reality you can access at any time with your Umbral Lamp (or when you die in Axiom, "the real world"), but can't escape unless you find a special effigy statue in the environment. Umbral often has unique treasures and pathways, and entering it is sometimes required to progress; however, Umbral enemies will continuously respawn while you're inside, and deadlier variants will eventually start hunting you down if you stay in Umbral for too long. Trying to maximize your time in Umbral while making sure you can get out of it in time adds amazing creeping tension to every trip between checkpoints, and I hope the mechanic returns in this upcoming sequel.

Overall, between Lords of the Fallen, Lies of P, Remnant 2, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, and yes, even Armored Core 6 (it counts, okay?), Soulslike fans have been absolutely feasting lately. And while FromSoftware is about to serve up the delicious main course we've all been waiting for with Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, it's good to know we'll have a Lords of the Fallen follow-up in 2026 to dine on if we're still hungry (I'm always hungry for more of this genre).

Lords of the Fallen is available for $59.99 on Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and PS5. Alternatively, Xbox and PC players (via the Microsoft Store) have the option to play it through Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass, respectively (or Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for both).