Nightreign’s Two-Player Mode Could Still Arrive Post-Launch

When Elden Ring: Nightreign was revealed as a multiplayer-focused co-op game, a lot of people assumed it would support different team sizes. Three players seemed like the default party, but what about just two friends wanting to dive into the Lands Between 2.0?

That mode doesn’t exist—and it wasn’t even planned.

In a new interview with IGN, director Junya Ishizaki admitted that a two player mode was straight-up forgotten during development. The game was built with trios in mind from day one, and balancing everything around that core structure left little room for flexibility.

“This is simply something that was overlooked during development as just a two-player option, so we're very sorry about that,” Ishizaki said.

That’s not something you hear often from FromSoftware. Usually, the studio’s quiet, cryptic, and confident. But Ishizaki, who’s directing his first major title after years of working under Hidetaka Miyazaki, seems to be taking a more transparent approach, acknowledging gaps and openly discussing fixes.

The design of Nightreign puts three players at the centre of everything. From mechanics to progression to combat flow, the game assumes a trio of Tarnished tackling challenges in loose formation. Think less “tight party tactics” and more “scattered scavengers regrouping at boss gates.”

You can play solo, and FromSoft has made sure that it works. Enemies scale dynamically based on player count, and they’re less likely to swarm you unfairly. But a duo? That wasn’t in the equation.

“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,” Ishizaki added.

The result is a game that supports one or three players, but nothing in between. And that’s a strange omission, especially in an era where so many co-op games are built for drop-in/drop-out flexibility. Ishizaki chalks it up to inexperience—he’s a first-time director, and the team was laser-focused on executing a specific concept.

There’s a reason fans are watching Nightreign closely: it’s the first major FromSoftware project led by someone other than Hidetaka Miyazaki. Ishizaki has worked with Miyazaki for years—he handled system design on Sekiro, enemy balance in Dark Souls III, and contributed to Elden Ring—but this is the first time he’s steering the ship.

Also, he talks about how Miyazaki’s approach influenced him: always prioritise clarity of intent in design, even when the game itself is ambiguous. In Nightreign, that philosophy shows up in the way enemy aggression shifts in solo play, or how players can revive each other in group sessions.

Still, some of those systems had trade-offs. Focusing on three-player balance meant less attention on the edges, like duos. That trade-off now looks like a misstep, and Ishizaki’s openness about that is a rare moment of FromSoft pulling back the curtain.

Here’s the twist: even when you are playing with friends, Nightreign often makes you feel alone.

“Even in a group as three, you'll be going off and challenging different areas of the map and collecting different things before you accumulate together at the boss fight,” Ishizaki explained.

The goal is a sense of fragmentation. It’s not quite MMO-style division of roles, but more like a party of lone wolves that occasionally sync up for massive battles. That reinforces why a two-player mode wasn’t top of mind: they didn’t expect players to be tethered together most of the time anyway.

And for solo players? The game adapts enemy aggression, and there are hints of a self-revive system tucked into the map—something yet to be fully revealed. It’s not exactly an easy solo experience, but FromSoft doesn’t do “easy” anyway.

During the network test in February, the first major boss—Gladius, the Nightlord—was bodying people. Ishizaki says the dev team “received a lot of helpful feedback” about the difficulty curve, and they’ve since tuned Gladius accordingly.

"Many were struggling to defeat the first Nightlord, Gladius."

Adjustments are already in place, and while Nightreign will still carry the FromSoft DNA of tough-as-nails encounters, early frustration won’t be the brick wall it was during the test phase.

Two Player Mode

So, where does that leave us? Ishizaki isn’t promising anything, but a two-player option is now “under consideration” for post-launch updates. If the community keeps asking—and they will—there’s a real chance we’ll see it added later.

FromSoft’s recent track record supports that hope. Elden Ring received massive updates post-launch, including balance tweaks, new content, and quality of life improvements. A mid-cycle patch to enable two player groups wouldn’t be out of character.

But it would likely require changes to encounter design, rewards, enemy behaviour, and scaling mechanics, so don’t expect it on Day One.

Nightreign looks like a bold shift for FromSoftware: a co-op-first Soulslike, led by a new director, focused on experimentation over tradition. But that ambition came with blind spots.

The lack of two player mode isn’t just a weird omission—it’s a signal that Nightreign was built for a very specific kind of player experience. One that may not match the way most people want to play.

Now that Ishizaki and his team have acknowledged the oversight, there’s hope they’ll correct it. Whether it arrives as a patch, DLC, or a full expansion down the line, two player mode deserves a spot in Nightreign. And judging by the early response, FromSoft knows it.

Until then, grab two friends or go it alone. Just don’t expect to bring your favourite co-op partner—unless they patch it in later.