Elden Ring Nightreignhas provided FromSoftware with a new environment to test some pretty unusual ideas in, and many comparisons are being drawn between it and the studio’s upcoming gameThe Duskbloods. Both games flip prior expectations ofFromSoftware’s catalog, putting multiplayer front and center, putting the developer’s stamp on some unusual genre picks.
WhileElden Ring Nightreignis quite experimental with a lot of its features, one of the biggest is pretty down-to-earth as far as multiplayer games go. However, when done wrong, it can make or break multiplayer titles. IfThe Duskbloodsis going to be a success,Nightreigncould be the testing ground for making sure the next game gets its character classes right.
The Duskbloods’ Roster of Playable Characters Looks to Be Expanding on Elden Ring Nightreign’s
Distinct character classes are a pretty novel thing for FromSoftware’s Soulslikes, which, with the exception ofSekiro, have given players complete freedom to build a character how they choose. Theeight Nightfarers inNightreignare unusual for being so locked down, each specializing in set roles with little room to pivot to others on the go. This has been met with some mixed reactions, as some people seem to love how each Nightfarer feels completely different to the last, whereas other players miss the blank slate characters that made them feel like they were truly a part of the world.
When details aboutNightreign’s classes emerged, it was a very novel thing indeed, but not long after, FromSoftware surprised a lot of people by revealingThe Duskbloods, a new game that featured even more characters. According to the studio,The Duskbloodswill have over a dozen playable characters, showing just how ready it is to double down on this feature. Many of these have been glimpsed in trailers, each one seeming to be drawn from different parts of the game’s timeline, following a similar theme toNightreign’s own classes.
How Nightreign’s Nightfarers Could Inform the Duskbloods’ Characters
There are already quite a fewlessons The Duskbloods can learn from Nightreign, some of which concern characters. Nightreign has shown that FromSoftware is absolutely capable of making memorable, individual characters, as the internet is already full of memes about what the various Nightfarers do when not in Limveld. One thing that it has also shown, however, is that FromSoftware struggles to balance them. While it is to be expected that not all characters will be equally viable, certain ones have playstyles that stand head and shoulders above the rest, such as Ironeye, whose specialism in Bows puts emphasis on the enemies to react to the player, and not the other way around.
Each character will feel different to different players, and what one person says is weak might suit another person’s playstyle incredibly well.
Nightreigncan get away with unbalanced classes somewhat due to the fact that it is purely PVE. However,The Duskbloodswill have to be extra careful about this aspect, as its design is centered around a PVP extraction format. If FromSoftware doesn’t reign in some of the morepowerful classes in Nightreign, it could be taken as a sign thatThe Duskbloodscould suffer worse balancing woes which would adversely affect the PVP environment. FromSoftware has always had a shaky history with balancing its invasion mechanic, but as it was only a side feature of past games, it was never going to be a top priority. All this changes inThe Duskbloods, and how the studio handles balancing the Nightfarers may spell good or bad news about the larger roster of characters in FromSoftware’s Switch 2 exclusive.
