Lords of the Fallen 2 lets you dismember enemies because "Soulslikes thrive on challenge" and the RPG devs want to sweeten every victory with extra gore

Lords of the Fallen 2's second bloody trailer was gruesome, to put it politely, when it debuted last night at The Game Awards 2025. Many a head was beheaded and many an arm was chopped clean off during a sub-two-minute look at the Soulslike sequel, but that's only because series fans told the developers to "go all in" on the violence.

"When we asked our community just how far we should push the gore in the next Lords of the Fallen, the answer was loud and unanimous: 'go all in'," CI Games creative strategist Ryan Hill said in an interview with IGN published after the show. "This is a game made by adults for adults, and we didn't want to dilute the brutality or intensity of that experience."

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CI Games didn't just animate tons of excessively, almost joyously violent ways to dismember enemies because you all asked politely, though. (And, by the way, yes, "every limb can be removed.") But the other piece of the puzzle is that CI Games thinks the violence adds to what a Soulslike is all about.

"Soulslikes thrive on challenge, and that rush you get when defeating an enemy is unlike anything else," Hill added. "Enhancing that moment with a dynamic dismemberment system takes the satisfaction to another level - instead of enemies simply ragdolling to the floor, players can literally tear them apart."

The anti-climax of a ragdoll is good meme fodder, sure, but sometimes going full Doom Slayer on a boss that thoroughly humbled your butt 12 times in a row is the only road to catharsis.

I don't know folks, I think game dev might be kind of broken: slick Soulslike RPG Lords of the Fallen has passed 5.5 million players but still isn't profitable.