Darkest Dungeon II

"You were right to fear the world. It has gone mad. The gutters brim with poets, and decency lies burning in the street. But this is not a time for heroes. Look instead to those battered souls who have known fear and failure in ample portion, but rise again to reclaim a glimmer of hope from the spreading stain of the Darkest Dungeon."

- The Narrator, "A Glimmer of Hope"

Darkest Dungeon II is the upcoming sequel to Darkest Dungeon. It will debut on the Epic Games Store in early access in 2021. The game was revealed on February 19, 2019 with a teaser titled "The Howling End". Although no in-depth details about the setting and story have been announced aside from Wayne June resuming his role as the Narrator, it is known that the RPG combat gameplay of Darkest Dungeon will return in a "tuned-up" form, and the metagame will feature a "completely different" structure involving a "grueling journey" instead of dungeon-delving in a single locale.

Development
"In the howling darkness of the end, men will become monsters. But hope will ride with those courageous enough to carry the flame."

- The Narrator, "The Howling End"

Darkest Dungeon II was first announced as a direct sequel to Darkest Dungeon with a teaser trailer narrated by Wayne June in his role as the Narrator on February 19, 2019. Six hero classes from the original game were confirmed to be returning: Grave Robber, Hellion, Highwayman, Leper, Man-at-Arms, and Plague Doctor. Red Hook Studios also revealed that whereas Darkest Dungeon had taken place at one main location, the Narrator's Estate, the sequel would involve a "grueling journey" in which players would get to see the "supernatural apocalypse twisting and distorting the world beyond the estate".

For its work on Darkest Dungeon II, Red Hook Studios expanded considerably from the 5 full-time developers who created Darkest Dungeon. At the time of the sequel's announcement in February 2019, Red Hook had increased to 14 employees, and had plans to hire another 6 over the next 18 months. The studio also confirmed that it would likely launch the game through Steam Early Access. The reception of the game early on would determine how much additional resources and features Red Hook would put into the project.

Red Hook Studios remained silent about the game until March 5, 2020, when they confirmed via Twitter that they had been making substantial progress with Darkest Dungeon II, and more news would be shared "when the stars are right".

On October 21, 2020, Red Hook Studios announced that Darkest Dungeon II would be releasing in early access in 2021 on the Epic Game Store. The announcement was accompanied by the reveal of the game's logo, a second teaser titled "A Glimmer of Hope", and confirmation that characters in the game would be rendered in 3D models using the Unity engine.

Trivia

 * The teaser trailer implies that the sequel will be in a similar setting to H.P. Lovecraft 's At the Mountains of Madness, as an Icy mountain range is shown with a monster trapped inside similar to the aforementioned story.