Elden Ring Nightreignis finally here, and it’s garnered a mixed reception that is atypical of FromSoftware’s other modern releases. Perhaps this shouldn’t be so surprising, consideringNightreign’s fundamental changes to the souls formula, but the transmutation ofElden Ringinto a roguelike is admittedly quite effective—at least in some ways. By analyzingNightreign’s myriad strengths, the broader advantages of the soulslike and roguelike genres may be illuminated.
Like most roguelikes,Elden Ring Nightreignrevolves around the player-character’s relentless journey toward greater power. The gameplay template is a cyclical and finite one, characterized by repeated attempts at the same sets of challenges, with little in the way of cross-run progression, for better or worse. The restrictive and short-term nature ofNightreign’s gameplay loop, coupled with the further restrictions introduced by the game’s cast of playable character archetypes, could have very well contributed to a sense of mechanical claustrophobia relative to its source material.Elden Ringwas defined by its robust and impressive build variety, after all, soNightreign’s structural changes should theoretically lead to a less expressive, more on-rails combat experience. But thankfully, this is not the case.
How Elden Ring Nightreign Recontextualizes and Revamps Elden Ring’s Build-Crafting
Surprisingly, There’s More Room for Experimentation in Elden Ring Nightreign
InElden Ring, much like in theDark Soulsgames that preceded it, players are presented with a loosely structured build-crafting system. Rather than selecting a rigid class like, say, a mage, and being locked out of all manner of melee weapons in favor of spell-casting,Elden Ringplayers simply choose a starting pointand build their character from there. This makes it easy to test out unique playstyles and builds, but only early in the game. At a certain point, if a player wants to wield high-level gear, or maximize their DPS without having to rely on consumables and buffs, they’ll need to allocate XP to one or two offense-focused stats. Otherwise, they’ll be spread too thin.
Elden Ringallows players to respec, but onlyafter defeating Rennala. Even then, the process requires a rare Larval Tear item to initiate.
Things are a bitdifferent inElden Ring Nightreign. Because traditional stats have been reworked, and demanding stat requirements barring access to certain weapons have been more or less removed, any character can effectively use just about any weapon. Of course, there are still class guidelines—Ironeye will always be better with bows than swords, for example—but it can be surprisingly gratifying to toy around with different weapon combinations. Combined with character-specific abilities and passives, this gear freedom opens the door to some surprisingly gratifying experimentation.
For example, a player could play as Recluse with a relic that increases lightning attack damage. Then, they could find a sword with lightning affinity in the overworld for use in Recluse’s off-hand, leading to a new, powerful gameplay strategy. And becauseRecluse can consume affinity residuesto replenish FP and activate special abilities, this lightning sword presents yet another distinct advantage, augmenting resource management while improving short-range elemental dominance.
With no stat requirements beyond easily attainable character leveling, different weapon classes, not to mention Ashes of War, players can be extremely flexible with just about any starting archetype. While a character like Guardian may always be best suited to the broadly defined “tank” role, there’s still space to create nuanced heavyweight builds for him by off-handing weapons, investing in ranged options, or building around FP and Ashes of War. This is rather ironic, of course, since one would assume thatNightreignwould excel more with its baseline mechanics while streamlining typical RPG build-crafting, but if anything, the opposite is true. The game might not have the sky-is-the-limit potential ofbuild-crafting inElden Ring, but its lower requirements and low-commitment roguelike structure arguably allow players to experiment with a greater variety of builds than they would have otherwise.
Elden Ring Nightreign
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“ELDEN RING NIGHTREIGN is a standalone adventure within the ELDEN RING universe, crafted to offer players a new gaming experience by reimagining the game’s core design.Join forces with other players to take on the creeping night and the dangers within featuring 3-player co-op.Take command of uniquely skilled heroes, each possessing their own abilities and distinct flair.While individually formidable, their skills create powerful synergies when they unite as a team.Overcome a relentless environmental threat that sweeps through a land that changes between each game session and defeat the magnificent boss of that night!”
