There's always an inherent pressure following up on an acclaimed piece of art, whether that's the Friends spinoff Joey, Homer's The Odyssey follow-up The Telegony, or the highly anticipated sequel to the 2023 action RPG Soulslike, Lies of P. Developer Nough Studio took home a handful of coveted awards in 2023 for the release and confirmed a sequel to be in development around the same time, and now three years later, the developer is feeling the heat to come up with something even better.
"Back then, attending an awards ceremony or standing on that stage felt like something that happened to other people," says narrative director Kwon Byungsoo in a new video from Nough Studio. "I used to think, 'I wish I could stand there someday.' Now I find myself thinking, 'we have to do even better next time. How much better do we need to be?'
"When we first started, we were building from a completely blank slate," says Byungsoo. "We kept asking ourselves just how far we could go. Now Lies of P is our starting point. The question now is how much more we can build from here."
I've played my fair share of Soulslikes over the years, but never enough to actually beat one. That's why I asked my FromSoft sickos at work to rank Lies of P on a scale of worst to best Soulslikes. It's the best that wasn't made by FromSoftware, I'm unanimously told. That's a high bar to clear with other acclaimed releases like Black Myth Wukong, Nioh 3, and Lords of the Fallen, but Nough is up to the task.
"There's definitely pressure, but for now we're trying to set that aside and return to the mindset we had while making Lies of P," says art lead Cha Byungjun. "We're trying to hold onto it."
It's hard to argue with the idea of following the same guiding light that led to such great success to begin with, but it does make me wonder whether the sequel will have the same level of innovation that refined the Soulslike genre in Lies of P. It's too early to say, but it seems the team is unified in continuing to push boundaries.
"When we were making Lies of P, there was a real sense of excitement and anticipation," adds director Choi Juwon. "But when I look at the team now working on our next project, everyone is seriously thinking about how we can do even better. They seem to be grappling with the same questions I am. So now, our drive to push ourselves further has only grown stronger."
Where's your favorite on our ranking of the best Soulslikes to play in 2026?
