Ars Goetia’s dark fantasy dungeon crawler returns with first-person combat, class builds, randomized loot, and a new time-based battle system.
HellSlave II: Judgment of the Archon will launch in Q3 2026. Developer Baptiste (from Ars Goetia) showed the new release date for his sequel to Hell Slave in a new gameplay trailer at Games Made in France 2026.
The game’s developer announced it as part of a French indie showcase hosted by Mister MV. This was the first public update since HellSlave was released on Steam in May 2022.
HellSlave II is a dark fantasy dungeon crawler RPG, based on a world ravaged by 1,000s of years of wars fought between demons. The world has reached such an extreme state of collapse, that heaven has unleashed its force of judgment; the Archon.
The purpose of the archon is to wipe the slate clean and end the demonic war. The player gets one final chance to prevent that from happening by killing the demons prior to creation being destroyed.
The sequel expands upon the base elements of the first game, including turn-based dungeon crawling, a hand-drawn comic book style visual aesthetic, grim lore, and deep character customization options.
Players begin as either Warriors or Sorcerers and transition into six different classes, such as spiritual assassins or plague-based mages.
The progression systems use a variety of customizable features including talent trees, passives, actives, and build synergy. In addition to the various combinations of these types of abilities, there is no ability that cannot be used regardless of the class chosen.
The combat system includes a time-management element to combat. Skills take a fixed amount of time to complete, which means that while combat is still tactical in nature, players need to consider timing when using their abilities.
Players travel across the world map (over-world), navigating through cursed dungeons, abandoned towns, safe houses containing lore and other information related to the end-of-the-world scenario players are experiencing.
Ars Goetia is currently developing HellSlave II: Judgment of the Archon and will publish through Dear Villigers. No specific details were given regarding pre-orders or early access releases. However, the game can now be wishlist via Steam.
