Elden Ring Nightreign is basically an experiment for FromSoftware, which has tried its hand at a "condensed RPG" with a "sporty" feel, per director Junya Ishizaki.
One of its more surprising elements is the to-hell-with-canon inclusion of bosses and, via cosmetics, characters from previous FromSoftware games, especially the Dark Souls trilogy. Ishizaki previously said this just sounded like a fun idea, and in an interview with GamesRadar+, he reckons it also legitimately worked with the themes of Elden Ring itself.
"Honestly, they seemed like they'd be a good fit for this project," he says. "It seemed like as good a time as any. The world of Elden Ring, as a base, is somewhat embedded in chaos and having people being drawn to The Lands Between, and as Nightreign was an offshoot of that world, we wanted to really embrace this aspect, this feeling of characters being summoned from all corners of of this more expansive world, and being brought in from these different areas and these different times and places.
"So this is something where we felt, well, why don't we extend that a little bit to the Dark Souls series as well? We thought that that would be a fun fit."
I mentioned that Nightreign has a bit of a Super Smash Bros. feel to it, with many fans jokingly but fairly pointing out the 'everyone is here' vibe of some trailers.
Ishizaki didn't jump on the Smash comparison directly, but in a weird way, it sounds like he and FromSoftware were thinking along similar lines at some point in production, just with fewer memes. It doesn't make a lick of sense canonically, but it does kind of make sense thematically. The gloves are off; everyone, get in here.
Our Elden Ring Nightreign review calls it "a surprisingly well-executed roguelike that melds well with the core of Elden Ring and even builds on it," but be warned: playing the game solo can be downright miserable.
Elden Ring Nightreign Metacritic score sets it as the lowest-scored FromSoftware game in 7 years and ties a 25-year-old PS2 platformer nobody remembers, but that's before the multiplayer buff sets in.
