Elden Ring Nightreign Includes A Few Dark Souls Bosses

What if Elden Ring had traditional co-op, you fought iconic Dark Souls bosses, and it was a roguelite with a shrinking battle royale zone a la Fortnite? I haven’t slept, I’m crashing from the misplaced Half-Life 3 hype and four cans of Monster (yes, it’s me — Sam Porter), and part of me thinks this is a fever dream. But no, it’s real.

Last night, Bandai Namco and FromSoftware announced Nightreign, a new spin-off of Elden Ring launching next year. It recycles so much that the fast turnaround is hardly surprising, and I’m a little wary of how well it’ll capture the meticulous handcrafted genius of past FromSoftware games because of it. But hey-ho, getting to gank bosses with your pals is a good time.

As it’s an Elden Ring game, I’d assume the things being recycled would be Elden Ring bosses. But as I said — there are some iconic Dark Souls enemies thrown in for good measure. You probably noticed the Nameless King hurling lightning spears from the back of his dragon, but there are a couple of easier to miss cameos in the reveal trailer, and what might be a subtle hint at an underrated boss from an underrated game.

Centipede Demon Is Back, And… Oh God, Is That The Duke’s Dear Freja?

Firstly, we see a spider scurrying through a blood red river, and I’d recognise that fiend anywhere. In my first-ever Dark Souls 2 playthrough, I was guided by a very patient friend who — foolishly — made me use a Bonfire Ascetic to enter New Game Plus in the Brightstone Cove just so I could get a unique item that I ultimately never used.

For the uninitiated, that area is full of spiders, and ends with a big ugly spider boss. Absolute nightmare fuel to arachnophobes, and I spent over a week in that cove over the Summer holidays, so I know the spiders pretty well. And that spider in the Elden Ring trailer? That’s a Parasite Spider.

It has the same jagged, spiked front legs, and while it’s hard to make out in the red tinted lighting, it also appears to have the same beige-yellow body. What’s terrifying about these spiders is that they flood the arena when you’re fighting The Duke’s Dear Freja — a giant, two-headed armoured spider that shoots laser beams and can only be damaged by hitting one of its noggins.

While it could simply be a reused basic enemy to pad out the randomiser, these spider minions might point to The Duke’s Dear Freja itself returning, especially since other Dark Souls bosses are making the leap to Elden Ring.

Speaking of, the second cameo in the trailer is the Centipede Demon from the very first Dark Souls. It looks to be a much less tedious fight here, as it’s battling players in a lake of water. In the original, you fight this Chaos abomination in a giant thick pool of magma that A) slows you down, and B) deals a metric ton of damage over time. I’ll take the water, thanks.

In Dark Souls, you lure this awkward gangle of limbs over to a stone platform and hack away, hoping it doesn’t retreat into the lava where you can’t really follow it. And yes, it’s a mandatory battle. You have to fight the Centipede Demon to enter Lost Izalith proper, which is also bathed in magma, but, thankfully, the demon drops the Orange Charred Ring to help you walk across it.

The Nameless King Is About To Traumatise Another Generation Of FromSoft Fans

As I said, it’s pretty hard to miss this appearance in the trailer since they have such a recognisable silhouette. But for those who haven’t played Dark Souls 3, strap in.

The Nameless King was the answer to a long-running mystery teased in the first Dark Souls: who is Gwyn’s banished son, and why was he stripped from the annals of history? The Nameless King is he, banished for taking the side of dragons, and he is a mean SOB.

The first part of the fight is essentially a dragon battle (which are already tough in Soulslikes), except with a god throwing lightning at you tossed in for good measure. The second part sees that god very, very angry that you killed his dragon, now attacking you on foot. It’s one of the most infamous fights in the entirety of the Dark Souls trilogy, and even in a more traditional co-op game with Elden Ring’s fluid movement, I can’t see him being an easy target.

Is That The Fire Keeper?

The most bizarre appearance in Nightreign’s trailer is what appears to be the Fire Keeper, albeit in a white robe rather than her usual black.

For context, the Fire Keeper is Dark Souls 3’s version of Melina, building ever further on the Maiden in Black archetype from way back in Demon’s Souls (the Doll in Bloodborne is another example). Through her, at the aptly named Firelink Shrine hub, you can level up and even steer the game towards different endings.

A mysterious new NPC introduced in Nightreign’s reveal has a very similar ornate mask and hairstyle, obscured by their hood. I doubt this is the same Fire Keeper, since it takes some suspension of disbelief and big, unfathomable stretches of the lore to connect Dark Souls to Elden Ring, but it’s fun to dig into the trailer and find these familiar figures all the same.

It’s clear that Nightreign was made quickly and cheaply, especially since it was developed in conjunction with the game-sized expansion Shadow of the Erdtree, and so reusing assets like this makes complete sense.

We saw traces of this already in the base Elden Ring, with several reused animations, the old chest model, and even enemies like the giant rats and basilisk putting in an appearance. Hell, the Asylum Demon from Dark Souls is just the Vanguard from Demon’s Souls, which later became Elden Ring’s own Erdtree Avatar. This is just keeping with tradition.

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!