The Dark Souls games are amongst the biggest games that many wish they could really, truly play with their friends. And that wish is about to come true, because Elden Ring: Nightreign is a multiplayer Soulslike game. Hooray! Only, we hope you only have two friends, because otherwise you may have to make some awkward choices. FromSoftware have revealed Nightreign will support single players, and teams of three — but nothing in between.
News in brief
- Elden Ring: Nightreign's multiplayer is only for groups of three players
- You can either play solo, or as a triplet
- The devs reasons are, er, "we wanted to"
Yes, couples are going to have to find a third. It's a massive rejection of the traditional nuclear family, and a betrayal to those hard working parents who want to settle down and relax after the kids are asleep by screeching incoherently at bonkers-hard bosses.
Funny aside, it's an odd decision. Co-op play is as old as the hills, while the four man team has become a similarly iconic arrangement of friends and foes alike. So what gives, why is FromSoft forcing us into a strange new configuration? Well, it turns out, precisely for that reason.
Game director Junya Ishizaki explained their logic in an interview with IGN. "The reason that we went with a three-player focus was that we wanted to retain that sense of accomplishment you get from battling a boss together or from conquering a map together and that sense of enjoyment, but we wanted to recreate that in a fresh way. And we felt like focusing on a three-player co-op experience would provide a brand new sense of accomplishment with it."
It makes sense when you think of it: Dark Souls and its related games have always been about challenging you with something new and unsettling, so why should Nightreign's multiplayer be any different? The idea of an Elden Ring spinoff with roguelike gameplay and short 30 minute sessions is already pretty different, so why not throw in even more?
Elden Ring: Nightreign will release some time in 2025.
