FromSoftware has been on a roll for nearly two decades now, and it’s showing no signs of slowing down. Starting with Demon’s Souls on the PS3, the studio has gone on to make hit after hit, including the Dark Souls trilogy, Bloodborne, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and Elden Ring. Having recently revived its Armored Core franchise with Fires of Rubicon, FromSoftware’s next stop is the experimental Elden Ring Nightreign, a cooperative roguelike built out of Elden Ring’s framework. It won’t be long before Elden Ring Nightreign arrives, and hopefully its efforts bear fruit.
Nightreign is branching out so far from what brought FromSoftware its modern successes that there’s no telling how it will turn out. Even the network test for Nightreign couldn’t provide answers, as the full game is supposed to have much more variety in mixed Dark Souls and Elden Ring bosses, twice as many preset player characters, and more randomized aspects on the map of Limveld itself. At the very least, Nightreign is a great break from the norm, and if FromSoftware wants to workshop its ideas further, it has the perfect IP to apply its formula to next.
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Elden Ring Nightreign Could Find A Worthy Successor Through Sekiro
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice was the farthest FromSoftware’s modern AAA games had strayed from their Souls core until Armored Core 6. In being so distinct, Sekiro finds a lot of common ground with Elden Ring Nightreign that the two could develop in a future game. The “default” Nightfarer in Nightreign, the Wylder, seems like a very direct adaptation of the shinobi Wolf’s major tools, especially their shared grappling hook. Sekiro-like movement speed is even more present in Nightreign than in Elden Ring itself, and both titles put more emphasis on special moves tied more to the player character than those attached to their weapons.
Applying Nightreign To Sekiro Could Create The Best Of Both Worlds
Though speaking of weapons, that’s one thing that Sekiro lacks, and a Nightreign take on it could add in abundance. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice has the least build options of any of the FromSoftware Soulslike catalog, and its gameplay deemphasizes what little options there are. Parrying and managing the player and enemies’ stagger gauges is what matters most, and what Shinobi Prosthetic tools and special techniques players use, or find in the first place, are left up to them. Another Sekiro game in Nightreign‘s vein wouldn’t completely throw out these elements, but it would have to shake things up to make everything fit.
How Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice Can Present Its Own Take On Nightreign
Sekiro’s Hypothetical Nightreign Spin-Off Must Choose Its Battles Carefully
As previously mentioned, Sekiro has many elements that lend themselves easily to a Nightreign adaptation, and its world is one of them. The nation of Ashina, and the surrounding areas, like those controlled by the Interior Ministry, are war-torn in and around Sekiro’s story, and a group of Shinobi on missions during this era would cleanly replace Elden Ring’s assorted Nightfarers. Plenty of tools and martial techniques in Sekiro can easily slot into these characters’ default movesets, and they can find brand-new ones as they grapple and leap across battlefields and huge estates while avoiding closing rings of lightning or red fire.
Inserting roguelike and survival elements into a Sekiro: Nightreign isn’t a big issue. What might be is making co-op fit alongside Sekiro’s signature parrying and stagger mechanics. Ironically, going where Nightreign didn’t and emphasizing duos instead of just trios and solo runs could work best for this Sekiro spin-off. How these elements come together is up to FromSoftware’s designers, but even this early, it seems like there’s a way to make it all click. Ultimately, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and Elden Ring Nightreign deserve sequels of some kind, so combining the two would kill two birds with one stone.
Action RPG
Soulslike
Roguelite