FromSoftware has largely stuck to single-player games ever since their debut with King’s Field. They followed it up with Armored Core, and then ventured into some real oddities like Echo Night, Shadow Tower, Lost Kingdoms, Otogi, and more. But it wasn’t until Demon’s Souls dropped in 2010 that the studio really began to stand out—and from that point on, their popularity only grew with each release.
Sure, the Souls games have always included co-op, but let’s be honest, it’s been clunky at best in it’s default state. Even Elden Ring, a sprawling open-world adventure that seems tailor-made for multiplayer, stuck to that same awkward co-op model. Defeat a boss? Your helper gets sent back to their world. It’s functional, but exhausting if you’re really trying to play the game alongside a friend. I get that loneliness and isolation are part of the intended experience, but that doesn’t stop me from wanting to run around with friends, enjoying just how incredible these games feel.
In fact, the first real change to that formula didn’t come from FromSoftware at all, but from Yui’s Seamless Co-op Mod for Elden Ring. With it, you’re no longer tethered to a single boss or area. Instead, the whole game opens up. You and up to three friends can roam freely, sharing every victory and defeat together, and it’s every bit as magical as you’d hope. Honestly, it made the game feel the way I always imagined it should.

So now, seeing FromSoftware take a full swing at multiplayer with Elden Ring: Nightreign feels kind of surreal. For those who haven’t heard, Nightreign is more in the vein of a roguelike. You and a couple of other players get dropped into a portion of Elden Ring’s world, and the goal is to grow stronger before facing a final boss. It’s an idea we’ve seen before in other roguelikes, with the amazing Ravenbound coming to mind as a standout example.
But this isn’t a single-player game with some multiplayer features bolted on. This is a full-on multiplayer game, and that’s a strange direction for FromSoftware, a studio known for forging new paths, not following trends. Not that there’s anything wrong with trying something new, but as someone who’s been following them for over 20 years, it does feel a little off.
Don’t get me wrong, it looks great and I’ll definitely be playing it. FromSoftware makes games that feel amazing, and even with the rise of the “Soulslike” genre, nobody else really captures the same vibe. Games like Nioh, The Surge, Lies of P, etc., are all great in their own ways, but for many fans, they either fall just short of FromSoft greatness or feel too different to really compare. But I’m not getting into genre debates here; that’s another article entirely.
Let’s not be mistaken – more Elden Ring is never a bad thing, especially if it means you can coax a friend into trying it, get them hooked, and then drag them into the full experience with the Seamless Co-op Mod. I can’t be the only one planning that, right? Good.

Still, while the multiplayer focus is a big shift, it’s not the most striking thing about Nightreign. What really stands out, at least from a broader gaming perspective, is that Nightreign brings back some old Dark Souls bosses, despite having no direct ties to the Dark Souls universe. That’s a pretty major break from the carefully maintained continuity and lore that FromSoftware is known for, and honestly, it’s left me feeling a bit conflicted.
Part of what makes games like Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Sekiro, and Elden Ring so addictive is how cohesive they feel. The lore might be cryptic, but it fits together. It’s internally consistent. Shadows of the Erdtree, Elden Ring’s DLC, expanded the world and added new lore. Not everyone agreed with all the choices (yes, I’m talking about the final boss), but it still felt like part of the same world. The same continuity.
Now, with bosses pulled straight from other games being dropped into Elden Ring, what does that mean for the lore? Well, the obvious answer is: it doesn’t mean anything. This isn’t meant to be a seamless extension of Elden Ring’s world. It’s just a video game, meant to be fun, first and foremost. And that’s perfectly fine. Really, it is. I’m still excited to play it, and I’m sure most fans are too. But it’s not the kind of game FromSoftware usually makes. It’s not a living, breathing world slowly crumbling into ruin; it’s a funhouse version of that. And I can’t help but feel a little perplexed by it.
Call me a hypocrite when I inevitably rack up hundreds of hours in Nightreign, but part of me still wishes it were either another proper addition to Elden Ring’s world, or better yet, its own thing entirely.
If you’re curious, excited, or just want to gather your friends for a new kind of journey through the Lands Between, you can grab Elden Ring: Nightreign now at Green Man Gaming, with the added bonus of supporting a trusted digital storefront. See you out there.
