A popular mod for Elden Ring has completely revamped its cooperative multiplayer systems, and its reception could affect the development of future games by FromSoftware. For over a decade, FromSoftware's action RPGs have used the same, rather obtuse multiplayer functions, with slight differences as the studio's signature formula evolved. Many Elden Ring players have found the vanilla co-op mechanics too restrictive, and have opted to download the Seamless Co-op mod in order to freely explore The Lands Between alongside a group of friends.
Like many aspects of Elden Ring, its multiplayer gameplay has its origins in 2009's Demon's Souls. A game filled with convoluted systems like manipulatable World Tendency, Demon's Souls was the first experiment for a multiplayer system that would become popular with dedicated fans as it was further refined through Dark Souls and Bloodborne. While connected to the game servers, bloodstains, messages, and fleeting apparitions encroach from the worlds of other players. Dark Souls vaguely provided an in-universe explanation for the multiplayer mechanics, claiming the White Soapstone allowed and Undead to become a phantom and manipulate Lordran's distorted flow of time to assist others in combat.
The limitations of these multiplayers systems worked in synergy with these earlier games' more linear designs. Typically, if one was summoned for co-op, the objective was to reach the end of the area and help the host player defeat the boss, with Souls (or Blood Echoes in Bloodborne) and restored Humanity being the reward for succeeding. Elden Ring's co-op still helps players level up, but the barriers erected around a multiplayer session run contrary to the game's usual promotion of freedom in movement. Past critiques lobbied at FromSoftware's brand of multiplayer are much more noticeable in Elden Ring. For those on PC, the Seamless Co-op mod from LukeYui on Nexus Mods can address the issues, and the experience is so vastly improved that it may influence FromSoftware to reevaluate how it implements co-op in future titles.
Although Elden Ring's multiplayer mechanics are practically identical to those of FromSoftware's previous action RPGs, the co-op experience is made much worse by the game's expansive design. Playing through the entire game with friends can become a chore. Every time one of Elden Ring's many bosses is defeated, the multiplayer session ends, and cooperators must be re-summoned. Additionally, said boss is only defeated for the host, so if three friends are playing through the game together, they'll have to beat each one three times. For games like Dark Souls and Bloodborne, separate progression for cooperators was a common critique as well, but the issue is severely exacerbated by Elden Ring's incredible number of bosses.
Thoroughly exploring The Lands Between is already a massive time commitment, and doing it thrice so that everyone in the party can have all the loot becomes tedious. There's an argument to be made that limiting the scope of co-op sessions is a stylistic choice, meant to represent serendipitous help offered by another Tarnished, but FromSoftware already offers the opportunity to use multiplayer passwords so that Summon Signs are only viewable by certain players. Elden Ring's co-op could be easily improved by simply embracing a more traditional version of cooperative gameplay, where progression is shared and sessions aren't cut short by the completion of an objective.
Elden Ring has proven to be incredibly popular, and while the active player base has dwindled recently alongside many completing the game (or giving up), FromSoftware's titles typically retain a smaller, dedicated multiplayer community. Many flock to PvP, and will engage in duels outside the gate to the Academy of Raya Lucaria, but other longterm players also climb through many new game plus tiers both solo and in co-op. LukeYui's Seamless Co-op mod will likely contribute to the continuing health of the game, making it less frustrating for players to team up and see all of Elden Ring's best and worst endings.
At the time of writing, the Seamless Co-op mod has over 170,000 unique downloads after first releasing in late May. The last 30 days on Elden Ring's Steam Charts page shows a peak player count of 107,000. These numbers aren't necessarily directly comparable, and Steam doesn't constitute the entirety of the player base, but it's interesting to see just how much of the active PC community has opted into improved co-op mechanics. Elden Ring is FromSoftware's most approachable game in decades, which only serves to highlight the convoluted multiplayer mechanics. They are clearly not a major detriment to many's enjoyment of the game, but there is a large chunk of players actively utilizing an alternative system.
FromSoftware's design plans for upcoming, unannounced games are unknowable, but it's hard to believe the Seamless Co-op mod has gone unnoticed by the developer. Elden Ring updates are making hidden changes, but the vanilla multiplayer mechanics are likely set in stone, and won't change even if a DLC expansion is released. Rumors claim FromSoftware's next game may be a new Armored Core, which might take on some Soulslike mechanics, but feels like a stronger candidate to receive more traditional multiplayer systems. However, as president of FromSoftware, Hidetaka Miyazaki has an incredible amount of influence on all of the studio's projects, and has become something of an auteur with the increasing success of the Soulslike games.
FromSoftware's unique brand of multiplayer is a creation oddly personal to Miyazaki. According to an old Eurogamer interview, the idea for Demon's Souls' co-op was born out of Miyazaki getting his car stuck in the snow. Strangers spontaneously pushed his car to get it moving again before suddenly disappearing, the same way Elden Ring's colorful phantoms fade after winning a boss fight. Without an opportunity to thank them, Miyazaki referred to the encounter as "a connection of mutual assistance between transient people." It's an interesting anecdote, but it also provides some insight on Miyazaki's - and by extension, FromSoftware's - design philosophy. Elden Ring's multiplayer mechanics may be obtuse, but they're an important part of the game's vision.
Many players would almost certainly welcome seamless cooperative sessions by default in future FromSoftware games, but the help of transient strangers has become a cornerstone of the Soulslike experience. Since FromSoftware was uncompromising in its vision for more than a decade before Elden Ring's massive success, there's really nothing to suggest the studio will pivot to new multiplayer systems in the near future. It isn't out of the realm of possibility; FromSoftware could, after all, make a game specifically designed to be played in co-op. For now, though, downloading Elden Ring's Seamless Co-op mod will have to satiate players looking for a more straightforward experience.
Sources: LukeYui/Nexus Mods, Steam Charts, Eurogamer
Elden Ring players on PC are using a mod to make co-op more convenient, but could it inspire change in FromSoftware's multiplayer design?Kyle Gratton