Do You Need to Play Lords of the Fallen 2014 Before LotF 2023

Following the announcement that the second Lords of the Fallen game will have an almost identical title to the first game, released back in 2014, the question of whether the two experiences are connected has been bandied about the internet. Fans of the original hoping to continue the (very threadbare) narrative are looking to Lords of the Fallen 2023 as a sequel, while those who didn’t care for its clunky combat and janky movement want an experience that’s completely devoid of that which came before. So, the question remains: Do you need to play Lords of the Fallen 2014 before jumping into The Lords of the Fallen 2023? Titles are dumb.

Is The Lords of the Fallen a Reboot or a Sequel?

So… it’s kinda both? You know how Scream V popularized the term “requel” to describe a piece of media that serves as a continuation of an established plot and characters while also rebooting a franchise that had previously been dormant? That’s what’s happening with Lords of the Fallen. CI Games and Hexworks, the developers behind the gothic soulslike, have clarified that while their game doesn’t continue the saga of gruff big boy Harkyn (which I’m sure we’re all very sad about) it does technically take place in the same world.

Related: Is There Co-Op in Lords of the Fallen?

Further borrowing from Dark Souls‘ playbook, Lords of the Fallen 2023 is set 1000 years after the first game, meaning all the characters you definitely remember have long since died and the world of Axiom is significantly different from what you remember.

Does The Lords of the Fallen Have a New Story?

There are some narrative elements that survive in the requel. Much like Harkyn in Lords of the Fallen, players will once again be training up to battle the banished god Adyr, who is scheming to break out of Umbral, an alternate plane of reality, and consume Axiom with his army known as the Rhogar. Aside from those connections, the story itself is entirely self-contained. A few NPCs may comment on events that happened centuries ago, but it should be easy to treat them as flavor rather than the essential building blocks of the narrative.

The lack of continuation also applies mechanically since Lords of the Fallen 2023 plays like it’s from an entirely different series. While the original is intentionally very slow (and tedious depending on who you ask), the requel got a shot in the army. Combat is faster and more brutal than before while the surrounding world design will be very familiar to anyone who’s played a soulslike. Lords of the Fallen 2023 is much more open in terms of its level design when compared to the linearity of the first game. It’s not exactly Elden Ring, but if you’re hoping for a straight shot from the Vestige (aka Bonfire) to the boss, you might be disappointed.

Related: How Does Resurrection Work in Lords of the Fallen Explained

To loop it back to the main question: No, you really don’t need to play Lords of the Fallen 2014 before you play Lords of the Fallen 2023. If you’re the kind of person who REALLY cares about the lore of a fantasy setting then you might get a kick out of seeing Adyr return but generally speaking, there’s next to no connective tissue between the games. There are some mechanical holdovers but they’re more like improvements on set systems rather than completely new additions.

So if that conundrum was holding you back, feel free to leap into Lords of the Fallen!