Elden Ring Nightreign’s Recycled Dark Souls Content Has One Obvious Upside

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home February 22, 2025 88 Views 6 Min Read
Elden Ring Nightreign's Recycled Dark Souls Content Has One Obvious Upside



One of the most intriguing—but also maligned—elements of the upcoming Elden Ring Nightreign is its ostensible inclusion of creatures and concepts from the Dark Souls franchise. This is promising because, naturally, Dark Souls is incredibly popular and increasingly nostalgic for countless gamers, but troubling because of what it means for the narrative integrity of both it and Elden Ring.

Deep and nuanced lore sits at the heart of FromSoftware’s modern games, even if many players aren’t actively aware of it. The granular and complex history of games like Elden Ring helps them land their grandiose, theatrical, and emotional high points, as just about everything feeds into a broader in-game plot. The subtle manner in which this lore is communicated has made for years of fan theories, speculation, and deep, nuanced analysis, so the notion that this lore could be trivialized by seemingly inexplicable crossovers in Elden Ring Nightreign may undermine both Dark Souls and Elden Ring in the eyes of many fans. This is certainly a valid concern, and not one that is likely to be alleviated ahead of Nightreign‘s launch, but there could be a silver lining to this cross-pollination, regardless of how it actually shakes out story-wise.

Elden Ring Nightreign’s DLC Will Have as High of a Bar to Clear as the Base Game

Related


Elden Ring Nightreign’s DLC Will Have as High of a Bar to Clear as the Base Game

While DLC for Elden Ring Nightreign sounds like an obvious move, it invites comparisons to Shadow of the Erdtree as well as Elden Ring.

Elden Ring Nightreign Could Show Old Dark Souls Bosses In a New Light

Nightreign’s Dark Souls Bosses Won’t Serve Any Major Lore Purpose

In a recent interview with GameSpot, Elden Ring Nightreign director Junya Ishizaki confirmed that the inclusion of Dark Souls bosses was motivated purely by a desire to provide more interesting gameplay opportunities. Speaking with a flippant joyfulness that surely irritated some of the most intense FromSoftware lore scholars, Ishizaki explained the crossover content rather concisely, stating that he simply “thought it’d be kind of fun.”

This would be far from the first time that FromSoftware has undersold its projects ahead of release; perhaps Ishizaki is taking a page out of Miyazaki’s playbook with these comments, intentionally misdirecting audiences from some grander narrative plan in Nightreign. But for now, it’s best to take his words at face value.

So, there is apparently no greater narrative purpose for the likes of The Nameless King and Centipede Demon cropping up in Nightreign, meaning that their arrival is solely for the benefit of gameplay. This may be disappointing for obvious reasons, but it’s exciting for an even more obvious one: older FromSoftware bosses, perhaps those from the black sheep of the series, can get their due time in the spotlight now.

Dark Souls 2 Bosses Can Shine With Elden Ring Combat

It’s no great secret that Dark Souls 2 is the red-headed stepchild of the FromSoftware family. It’s been criticized for a number of reasons, but one of the most prevalent points of contention is its combat: it’s slow, sluggish, and bogged down by inexplicable design choices like the Agility stat being tied to invincibility frames. All in all, it’s not a terrible game, but its gameplay simply feels “off,” especially when compared to the intuitive and well-wrought combat of its younger and older siblings.

Many of its bosses have come under fire as well, but perhaps they would be more popular with fans if not for the aforementioned combat issues. This is where Elden Ring Nightreign comes in, as it can reprise these bosses, and perhaps even smaller-scale enemies, but within the gameplay framework of Elden Ring—a much better game by most accounts. Getting the chance to fight the likes of Duke’s Dear Freja, but with the mechanics (not to mention improved performance) of Elden Ring could be a real treat for players who turn their nose up at DS2. And who knows, perhaps the older game will be viewed in a new, more favorable light, if its bosses are given the chance to shine.

Source link