“We didn’t really see this as chasing a trend” – FromSoftware on turning Elden Ring into a multiplayer roguelike for Nightreign

You might wonder if Elden Ring Nightreign took the co-op roguelike route to chase a trend, but for FromSoftware, it was more about making a “concentrated” version of the game.

FromSoftware surprised everyone at The Game Awards last year by announcing a new Elden Ring game. It wasn’t Elden Ring 2 (FromSoft isn’t considering that right now), but Nightreign, and more surprisingly of all, rather than the typical format the developer uses for its Soulslikes, it was a full on multiplayer, co-operative… roguelike. Those combination of words certainly feel like they could have been combined specifically appeal to a mass market, both multiplayer games and roguelikes are generally incredibly popular thanks to their replayability factor these days, but as Nightreign director Junya Ishizaki shared in a recent interview with PC Gamer in a recent magazine (thanks, GamesRadar), “the focus was condensing this experience down – the RPG elements, the exploration, the character building, and leveling.”

Ishizaki explained that FromSoftware wanted it to “feel like it was all coming together and culminating in a boss fight but in a more concentrated form. For this new sense of accomplishment that you wouldn’t quite find with Elden Ring or our previous titles, we felt like we needed some new mechanics and some new elements to add into that mix.” The game director also noted that FromSoftware has “never really held the stance ‘let’s absolutely not do anything that other companies are doing or not follow any trends.’ So we didn’t really see this as chasing a trend, but we saw these as interesting elements that could work well within our multiplayer-focused session-based gameplay.”

It certainly is an interesting concept, and soon a select few will be able to find out whether it works or not, as from February 14-17 FromSoft is holding a network test for Nightreign. There’s still no actual release date for Nightreign yet, so make sure you enjoy yourself if you’ve got access to the test (and maybe make sure to give your partner a little bit of attention on the 14th).