Every Fromsoftware game requires practice. Yes, they're challenging, but with a deep understanding of the mechanics and bosses, you can exploit the systems to become victorious. This is true of Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Sekiro, and Armored Core – that's why you can beat the Asylum Demon and Tree Sentinel the first time you meet them. I'm certain this design philosophy will be part of Elden Ring Nightreign as well, but that doesn't mean changes aren't coming. After the game's recent network test, Fromsoftware has heard your concerns with the overall difficulty, and is making some key adjustments to balance the experience.
With the Elden Ring Nightreign ahead of launch.
According to game director Junya Ishizaki, during the network test, Fromsoftware "received a lot of helpful regarding the difficulty." Ishizaki says the team "made some adjustments to strike a balance that makes the game challenging as you progress, but still manageable. Gladius, one of the Nightlords, will also receive some updates, so players have that to look forward to in the final game."
It's unclear exactly what these difficulty changes could mean for the launch version, but it sounds like Fromsoftware is adjusting some aspects of Nightreign's challenge to make the experience more approachable. These changes also extend to how information will be presented to you during a Nightreign run, as Ishizaki understands that some map elements were hard to understand.
"During the network test, some players found it difficult to understand what elements were visible on the map, and said it was hard to identify next steps or how to use some of the character movesets. To address these issues, we made some changes so that information was conveyed more clearly to players during gameplay."
During his interview with Playstation.blog, Ishizaki also acknowledges how the strategy of Nightreign already felt repetitive during the network test, and explains how Fromsoftware plans to change that.
"The same strategy won't always work when fighting the bosses. Your initial strategy may be effective for a while, but the bosses will gradually evolve and your tactics will no longer be viable, forcing you to rethink your approach.
"Also, in the final version of the game, you'll be able to determine the weakness of each boss before heading out. So, if poison is effective against an boss, you may proactively search for and loot items that inflict poison more often in that run. Taking advantage of their susceptibility will give you an edge in the fights. We intentionally designed the game so that you'll need to adapt and evolve your strategies along with the changes that happen in the game."
With Nightreign finally right around the corner, we'll just have to wait for launch to determine how all of these changes will affect balance. That said, these alterations are one of the key reasons Fromsoftware did the network test in the first place, so it could listen to players and adjust systems accordingly.
We also have all the Elden Ring Nightreign classes.
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