Elden Ring Nightreign may be all about bringing multiplayer action to the Lands Between, but director Junya Ishizaki says you can still play the roguelike spin on the open-world RPG as a lone wolf if you so desire.
Speaking to GameSpot, Ishizaki tackles a question about whether FromSoftware was worried that Nightreign’s pitch might take away from the sense of isolation many enjoy from the studio’s work. While Nightreign is supposed to be an “opportunity” for others “intimidated” by Elden Ring’s structure and world to tackle the Lands Between in the security of pals, Ishizaki issues that lone wolves won’t feel entirely left out.
“While it’s designed as a multiplayer game and you are likely to find playing among other people, we do feel like this is a game that you can queue up for solo,” he says. And in matchmaking, if you have matchmaking set, you can all go your different ways on the map and you can spread out and do your own thing.
“You don’t have to babysit one another, but eventually it will culminate in this shared experience of a cooperative boss battle. While it is a multiplayer game, we want this to feel like a loose and flexible experience that retains some of that feeling of isolation and feeling of going off into the unknown on your own, too.”
Should you play Nightreign solo, though? Those seeking to play the game under the harshest circumstances possible likely will as challenge runs begin, so take that as a warning – or invitation, you do you. As our Elden Ring Nightreign preview taught us, there doesn’t appear to be single-player scaling, enemies are many, and you can’t be revived without the help of a friend – you can respawn, but that comes at the expense of a level.
However you choose to play, you won’t be waiting long. Elden Ring Nightreign is set to release on May 30.
Unless you’ve got access to the beta, in that case, the Elden Ring Nightreign network test times are fast approaching.