Re: Elden Ring Nightreign

On 6/1/2025 8:51 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

On Sun, 1 Jun 2025 08:00:43 -0700, Justisaur <justisaur@gmail.com>
wrote:
 

On 6/1/2025 7:22 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

On Sat, 31 May 2025 19:13:36 -0700, Justisaur <justisaur@gmail.com>
wrote:

 

The latter sounds sort of neat... but the former? Why would you do
that to a game in a genre that is all about careful and slow
progression?

 

Exactly.  Total opposite of that.  Time pressure, snap decisions, and
pretty much constantly forced to battle or move.

  Well, on the plus side, now I know I can safely ignore this one
completely. The original "Elder Ring" wasn't high on my list of games
to acquire, but I figured I'd get it eventually just to see what it
was like. Souls-esque gameplay and the grimdark setting weren't my cup
of tea, but from everything I've read the game itself is well made and
I can appreciate quality even if it isn't of the sort I enjoy spending
that much time with.

Elden Ring isn't that Grimdark, it's not dark souls.  It's actually got some very beautiful areas, and it's got a whole lot to explore.  It's easier than the souls games if you take advantage of all the things you can find too.  It's actually an excellent game, It's just way too damn long and there's a lot of reuse of minor bosses (something like 15 tree spirits) and replay isn't great because of that and no other reason.
If you can NOT repeat everything replay would be a lot shorter, and reasonable, but I just can't bring myself to try to not do everything.

But this game? Yeah, it's a total pass for me.

Still, I guess we ought to expect more of this sort of things.
Extraction shooters are the new hotness now, and not necessarily
because their mechanics are beloved by all players. Rather, their
gameplay seems tuned to getting people to buy MTX, because the
gameplay is so repeitively grindy and its so easy to lose your gear in
a bad run that paying for it ahead of time has great appeal. I don't
know if "Nightring" itself specifically takes advantage of this but
I'm sure many other games coming out in the future will. Publishers
love that sort of thing.

No MTX so far, and Fromsoft doesn't go for MTX so far.  You don't lose your gear exactly, but you don't keep anything from a run, so each run you're depending on RNG and quick decisions to get anything good. except you do get relics you can equip after the run ends win or lose, but they seem small bumps.
Very rogue-like mechanics and it does advertise itself as a rogue-like, which I like a lot of, but so far this one not so much.

Steam reviews are very mixed. They basically boil down to "what the
hell is this extraction shooter doing in my Elden Ring* game?" versus
"yeah, it's an extraction-shooter but it's a GOOD extraction shooter
and the mechanics are still very Elden Ring". I guess if you like the
sort of gmaeplay "Nightreign" is offering, it's a good experience...
it just seems odd to use this IP for that sort of gameplay.

I wonder if this is something the publisher forced on the developers
(like "Redfall" was pushed onto Arkane Studios) or if this is
something the developers were really behind themselves. It just seems
such an odd direction for FromSoftware to go.

No, this is from their "Experimental Division" I appreciate they're trying things at least, even if I don't care for the direction it's going.  It also doesn't involve Miyazaki the Souls/Ring lead dev.
And *sigh* even though I hated it, I keep thinking about it.
They also released the first patch today.  Increases experience from defeating enemies, and improves solo experience somehow.  I'm probably going to give it a try again solo just so I can try to figure it out without embarrassing myself and the time pressure hopefully not feeling so much because I don't have others depending on me.
So far this is not a newbie friendly experience, including those who played ER,  It feels like you have to watch/read a lot about how to play successfully.  But really that feels like all the souls games in that respect.

* every time I write this out, I have to correct myself from typing
"Elden Scrolls". EVERY. TIME.

Elder Ring
Lol, Too much too Elden/r.
--
-Justisaur
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