Most Souls Fans May Not Like the Elden Ring Nightreign’s “Game balancing decision” To Ditch 1 Feature

Everybody is excited about FromSoftware’s upcoming unorthodoxical take on the massively popular Elden Ring. The title, called Elden Ring Nightreign, will be a co-op game that the player can venture into solo or with a group of two more friends, and nothing in between.

It’s clear at first glance that the studio has taken a lot of creative liberty while coming up with this project. However, if that would sit right with the fans of the Souls genre is a mystery that will only be solved once the game is finally out.

Not only is Nightreign shifting away from the traditional two-player co-op formula set in the industry, opting instead for a three-player multiplayer system, but it also plays with the feeling of many Souls fans who might have a habit of playing with a single summon or a friend. In the end, you can either face the horrors of the Lands Between alone or as part of a three-person team, with no in-between.

Talking about why this was a big decision for the studio to make, the director of the game, Junya Ishizaki, revealed the following in an interview via IGN.

This was largely a game balancing decision, rather than a game design decision.- You know, we found that while we wanted each player to have that sense of accomplishment, that sense of rewarding co-op gameplay, this was like a sweet spot with three players in order for it not to feel too overwhelming or too busy. It allowed each player to go off on their own potentially and cover a bit of the map but also to you know that final experience coming together, that was three players felt like the sweet spot eventually.

Ishizaki goes deeper into explaining how having three players together exploring a different version of The Lands Between was essentially ‘a sweet spot’ for everyone involved.

The Souls games have forever focused on giving the player a sense of achievement after overcoming a tough part of the game. Unfortunately, this might become too messy or too ‘overwhelming’ according to the director if there were too many players, hence the allowed player count of three in the game.

Apart from the controversial co-op design, the upcoming title has a lot to offer the players. Built on the same foundation as Elden Ring, the game prompts the player to survive in a unique version of The Lands Between for a total of three days.

Furthermore, there are going to be eight different pre-defined characters that the players will get to choose from. We already know that one of these will be focusing on using the Spirit Ashes as its main arsenal to combat the different enemies throughout the map. 

While there is no fixed release date, the game has already gone on network testing and will be released later this year. It remains a question if it will be here on time to release the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2, but if not, many believe it will dominate on another popular handheld console instead.