Elden Ring Nightreign’s director says that while FromSoft prioritised getting the three-player and solo experiences the game offers just right for launch, folks who prefer to take on the challenges of the night as a pair might be getting some duos-focused “post-launch support”.
You can play Nightreign as a duo right out of the gate, provided you don’t mind being matched up with a random third wheel to make up your team, much in the same way anyone playing solo will end up with two strangers that gaming law dictates will either be unbelievably skilled or utterly hopeless.
Speaking to IGN, Nightreign director Junya Ishizaki was asked why the game doesn’t have an option for a duo to drop right into a game as a twosome if they wish.
“The simple answer is that this is simply something that was overlooked during development as just a two-player option, so we’re very sorry about that,” Ishizaki re-iterating that trios play the game’s three person teams naturally facilitate and solo play were the two options that it made most sense for the studio to focus on from the get go, especially when it came to balancing.
“We did put a lot of effort into creating this experience that was playable for solo players in as much as the rules and new systems allowed,” he explained, “So in putting all our efforts into that aspect, we kind of overlooked and neglected the duos aspect, but this is something that we are looking at and considering for post-launch support as well.”
It makes sense. Trios action is “at the core of Nightreign”, so that’s gotta be the main focus, and FromSoft games are famous for letting you solo bosses, so to cater to the usual single-player crowd playing by yourself has to be a priority in terms of striking a difficulty balance that’s in the Godskin Goldilocks zone. You’ve only got finite time and resources, so the couples take a backseat.
Ishizaki outlined the sort of work that’s gone into making sure the game for individual players a bit further on in the interview, explaining: “Solo play is generally encouraged and is a natural part of the game loop, but also in general for those solo players — and this might be something that’s difficult to notice in multiplayer — but the activeness and aggressiveness of enemies towards any one single player has been adjusted so that you don’t find yourself in any unreasonable multi-foe fights. And just generally, when you’re playing single player, the parameters adjust dynamically depending on the number of players in that session.”
If you want a picture of what the Nightreign playing experience is like, make sure to read our hands-on preview from earlier this year. Also, it’s now been confirmed that an Elden Ring movie is in the works.