FromSoftware’s Elden Ring Nightreign is set to receive its first DLC in the form of The Forsaken Hollows. Adding two additional Nightfarers, 2 Day Three bosses, an additional Shifting Earth, and more, the extensive DLC will give hardcore fans a host of new content to fight through.
As with any Soulsborne game, the true question surrounding the upcoming DLC will always be regarding its difficulty. In a recent interview, game director Junya Ishizaki admitted that the new content will be “a little bit harder” than the core experience, but promises fans that it won’t be ridiculously unfair.
Speaking to Gamespot, Ishizaki explained that the launch day of Nightreign was problematic as “there was a lot of trouble trying to get the balancing right”. The Elden Ring Nightreign lead explained that the balance of the game is “just so subjective” with the team already focused on the game’s in-development DLC.
“A lot of our thoughts post-release working up to the DLC were how can we get the balancing in mind with what we were initially envisioning, and also with that balancing set, how can we take a different approach and devise new enemies, new characters, and stuff like that to play into that and utilise the new balancing that we are working with,” the director said.
During development, the Elden Ring Nightreign team didn’t want the game to be “so hard that new players can’t get into it”. Unfortunately, on launch, the game’s difficulty did push some away, although hardcore fans fell in love with it.
Nevertheless, the new DLC is largely designed for the fans who are still playing the original, and have finally figured out its intricacies. “Whenever people who have played the main game extensively go into the DLC content, they’ll be able to have a bit of that feeling like they had when they first played Nightreign, where there’s still a bit that they’re trying to figure out,” the director said.
As for the difficulty of the DLC, Ishizaki confirmed that it is “definitely a little bit harder, but it’s not ridiculous or anything like that.” Just as with Shadow of the Erdtree, the director believes that even the hardest content in the new DLC will “be a fair challenge” for players.
In fact, the existence of Shadow of the Erdtree has likely been a point of inspiration for the team on The Forsaken Hollows. “A lot of our staff have also been playing Shadow of the Erdtree as the development for Nightreign has been going on,” the director said. “So, there’s probably a little bit of influence there… it might even be almost like subconscious, but there’s definitely, I think, a bit of that for sure.”
Elden Ring Nightreign: The Forsaken Hollows launches on December 4, 2024 on Steam, PlayStation and Xbox.
