Learning about a new Elden Ring spin-off was my highlight of The Game Awards. Over the last few years, my partner and I have spent a great deal of time playing Elden Ring and its Shadow of the Erdtree DLC alongside each other, occasionally teaming up to explore the lands between or fight a particularly tricky boss. Still, summoning other players is still quite fiddly Elden Ring: Nightreign seemed like the perfect solution.
Elden Ring: Nightreign is a multiplayer spin-off in which teams of players can work together to fight new and old FromSoft bosses while exploring a different version of Limgrave (Elden Ring's starting area) in short sessions of about 30 minutes each. There'll be randomised encounters and placements to discover, but before each run, you'll always have to choose one of eight final bosses to fight. It seemed ideal for my partner and I to dive into it until we found out you can only play solo or in a team of three, no couples allowed.
During an interview with IGN, game director Junya Ishizaki explained why FromSoftware decided to opt for such an awkward number. "The game is designed to be played as a three-person team, but you can play it as a solo player," Ishizaki says. "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."
As frustrating as it is to have to find a third wheel for our upcoming adventure through Elden Ring: Nightreign, I can't help but find this decision not only typical of FromSoftware's quirky approach to its games, but also really funny. Of course the devs wouldn't just settle for a classic co-op adventure, or round the number up to four players so everyone in your multiplayer group can join in. No, they have to be difficult and make you find a third wheel, kick someone out of the usual four-player group, or just go solo. Git gud.
But I'm not the only one who's picked up on this hilarious scenario. It seems like plenty of people who are gearing up for Elden Ring: Nightreign also now have this conundrum to figure out. "You want to play Nightreign with your partner? Too bad, it's either solo or you force some poor fuck to third wheel. This is the FromSoft way," one player jokes.
However, Ishizaki goes on to explain the thought process behind having three players: "This was largely a game balancing decision, rather than a game design decision … [there] 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 potentially go off on their own and cover a bit of the map."
But I won't complain too much about the three-player ultimatum, because the devs know what they're doing, and it's very likely that no matter how I end up playing Nightreign, I'll probably love it. Plus, Ishizaki has been at FromSoftware since the original Dark Souls and was a level designer on Bloodborne, as well as working on Dark Souls 3 and Elden Ring, so I trust his vision even if it does mean coaxing one of our friends into third wheeling while me and my partner hold hands under The Forgotten King.
