From Solo to Squad: FromSoftware’s Surprising Shift with
Elden Ring Nightreign
FromSoftware has largely stuck to single-player games ever
since their debut with King’s Field. They followed it up with Armored Core, and
then ventured into some real oddities like Echo Night, Shadow Tower, Lost
Kingdoms, Otogi, and more. But it wasn’t until Demon’s Souls dropped in 2010
that the studio really began to stand out, and from that point on, their
popularity only grew with each release.
Sure, the Souls games have always included co-op, but let’s
be honest, it’s been clunky at best in it’s default state. Even Elden Ring, a
sprawling open-world adventure that seems tailor-made for multiplayer, stuck to
that same awkward co-op model. Defeat a boss? Your helper gets sent back to
their world. It’s functional, but exhausting if you’re really trying to play
the game alongside a friend. I get that loneliness and isolation are part of
the intended experience, but that doesn’t stop me from wanting to run around
with friends, enjoying just how incredible these games feel.
In fact, the first real change to that formula didn’t come
from FromSoftware at all, but from Yui’s Seamless Co-op Mod for Elden Ring.
With it, you’re no longer tethered to a single boss or area. Instead, the whole
game opens up. You and up to three friends can roam freely, sharing every
victory and defeat together, and it’s every bit as magical as you’d hope.
Honestly, it made the game feel the way I always imagined it should.
So now, seeing FromSoftware take a full swing at multiplayer
with Elden Ring: Nightreign feels kind of surreal. For those who haven’t heard,
Nightreign is more in the vein of a roguelike. You and a couple of other
players get dropped into a portion of Elden Ring’s world, and the goal is to
grow stronger before facing a final boss. It’s an idea we’ve seen before in
other roguelikes, with the amazing Ravenbound coming to mind as a standout
example.
But this isn’t a single-player game with some multiplayer
features bolted on. This is a full-on multiplayer game, and that’s a strange
direction for FromSoftware, a studio known for forging new paths, not following
trends. Not that there’s anything wrong with trying something new, but as
someone who’s been following them for over 20 years, it does feel a little off.
Don’t get me wrong, it looks great and I’ll definitely be
playing it. FromSoftware makes games that feel amazing, and even with the rise
of the “Soulslike” genre, nobody else really captures the same vibe. Games like
Nioh, The Surge, Lies of P, etc., are all great in their own ways, but for many
fans, they either fall just short of FromSoft greatness or feel too different
to really compare. But I’m not getting into genre debates here; that’s another
article entirely.
Let’s not be mistaken – more Elden Ring is never a bad
thing, especially if it means you can coax a friend into trying it, get them
hooked, and then drag them into the full experience with the Seamless
Co-op Mod. I can’t be the only one planning that, right? Good.
Still, while the multiplayer focus is a big shift, it’s not
the most striking thing about Nightreign. What really stands out, at least from
a broader gaming perspective, is that Nightreign brings back some old Dark
Souls bosses, despite having no direct ties to the Dark Souls universe. That’s
a pretty major break from the carefully maintained continuity and lore that
FromSoftware is known for, and honestly, it’s left me feeling a bit conflicted.
Part of what makes games like Dark Souls,
Bloodborne, Sekiro, and Elden Ring so addictive is how cohesive they feel. The
lore might be cryptic, but it fits together. It’s internally consistent.
Shadows of the Erdtree, Elden Ring’s DLC, expanded the world and added new
lore. Not everyone agreed with all the choices (yes, I’m talking about the
final boss), but it still felt like part of the same world. The same
continuity.
Now, with bosses pulled straight from other games being
dropped into Elden Ring, what does that mean for the lore? Well, the obvious
answer is: it doesn’t mean anything. This isn’t meant to be a seamless
extension of Elden Ring’s world. It’s just a video game, meant to be fun, first
and foremost. And that’s perfectly fine. Really, it is. I’m still excited to
play it, and I’m sure most fans are too. But it’s not the kind of game
FromSoftware usually makes. It’s not a living, breathing world slowly crumbling
into ruin; it’s a funhouse version of that. And I can’t help but feel a little
perplexed by it.
Call me a hypocrite when I inevitably rack up hundreds of
hours in Nightreign, but part of me still wishes it were
either another proper addition to Elden Ring’s world, or better yet, its own
thing entirely.
If you’re curious, excited, or just want to gather your
friends for a new kind of journey through the Lands Between, you can grab Elden Ring Nightreign now at Green Man Gaming, with the added bonus
of supporting a trusted digital storefront. See you out there.
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