“We believe that players will be able to practice and master all the basics before we let them out in our very unforgiving world,” says creative director Cezar Virtosu.

CI Games and Hexworks are gearing up to unleash their long-awaited reboot of Lords of the Fallen later this year, and clearly, it’s a game that’s going to have massive ambitions. Developer Hexworks has set out to make a mammoth of a Soulslike action RPG– but by its very nature as a Soulslike game, is it going to maybe turn away players who might not have enough familiarity with the famously challenging genre, or the patience to learn its ins and outs?

It seems like the game is certainly going to make the effort to ensure that that doesn’t happen. Speaking recently with GamesRadar, creative director Cezar Virtosu acknowledged the “frustrations” that tend to go hand in hand with Soulslike games, especially for newcomer, and said that Lords of the Fallen will have “a lengthy onboarding experience” to ensure that players can be eased in before they are let out into the game’s “very unforgiving world.”

“We have created a lengthy onboarding experience, because the difference between motivation and frustration is understanding why you failed or what the game wants you to do,” Virtuso said. “With long onboarding, we believe that players will be able to practice and master all the basics before we let them out in our very unforgiving world.”

How long exactly it will be before we get to experience Lords of the Fallen in all of its presumed glory remains to be seen, what with a specific release date not having yet been announced, but publisher CI Games has confirmed that it will be out sometime this year. Whenever it launches, it will be available for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.