I’ve written often about treating FromSoft games as though they were intended to be played front to back with a group. In the case of Bloodborne, the only time I didn’t have a friend online and in the chat with me were in sections where co-op was completely restricted. For each of their releases since, my group has spent the first few hours stockpiling the items needed to initiate co-op so that we can spend them freely on our game nights.
And I think the mentality of FromSoft games only being for “pure” single player bliss (with co-op being a cop-out to be punished) has truly shifted. The seamless co-op mod for PC is so popular, Hidetaka Miyazaki himself has tacitly approved of it.
And yet, Elden Ring still frustrates the co-op experience (hence the need for the PC mod). But rather than convince me that FromSoft leaves that friction in as a constant reminder that I’m playing their games incorrectly, I’ve become certain that they have the potential to make a true co-op game to rival anything in the multiplayer canon, including any and all raid-based MMORPGs.
If a FromSoft game with cooperation baked into its core materialized, I can see every multiplayer concept they’ve already used being honed to a +25 keen edge. And if I’m here to just put wishes out into the world, I think I’d lose my mind if the aesthetic split the difference between the Souls/Elden Ring games and the Armored Core series.
Can you picture a ground-up FromSoft co-op game? How would you imagine its game mechanics? Let’s collaborate on a concept down in the comments or over at the Boss Rush Discord.
Featured Image: Sony Interactive
The Boss Rush Podcast – The Boss Rush Podcast is the flagship podcast of Boss Rush Media and the Boss Rush Network. Each week, Corey, Stephanie, LeRon, and their friends from around the internet come together with other creators, developers, and industry veterans to talk about games they’ve been playing, discuss video game and entertainment based topics, and answer questions solicited on social media and the community Discord.
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