FromSoftware’s streak of creating outstanding dark fantasy RPGs is absolutely remarkable, and the deep lore and narrative threads that run throughout them are a huge part of what makes them so great. With Elden Ring Nightreign, though, I’d be understanding if narrative took a back seat. While some games like Destiny 2 have proven that you can mix online multiplayer action with brilliant storytelling, it’s had years to work on its formula – for FromSoft, Nightreign is very much a first venture into this realm. However, I shouldn’t have doubted the developer, because new details about Elden Ring Nightreign Remembrances show that the co-op game will feature storylines for each of its eight classes, which will be told across text-based lore, playable single-player snippets, and side objectives that you’ll need to complete during multiplayer runs.
If you’ve played Elden Ring already, you’ll know already that Remembrances are items that drop from some of the soulslike’s biggest boss fights, giving you the chance to cash them in for Runes or trade them for unique weapons, incantations, and more. In Elden Ring Nightreign, however, they take on a very different form.
Remembrances will still drop for you after battering certain bosses, but they’ll now act as tools for telling the backstories of the game’s eight class characters, or Nightfarers as FromSoft is dubbing them. That’s right, not only do they facilitate different playstyles and make you and your squadmates think about strong team compositions, they’re also fleshed out characters in their own right with interesting stories to tell.
Between matches, you’ll be able to interact with the Remembrances you’ve acquired in the Roundtable Hold’s library – you’ll find a journal in there that documents them all. According to game director Junya Ishizaki, who was explaining the Remembrance system to IGN, these will then provide players with morsels of story and lore. Some will be in your traditional text form, but surprisingly, some will be short, playable memories. These can be experienced solo – no need to form a team for these – but they’ll let you play out core memories that belong to each Nightfarer. In these memories, you’ll also meet NPCs which will then give you the Nightreign equivalent of a side quest.
These are essentially extra objectives you must complete in your multiplayer runs that will advance your character’s story to the next memory. IGN explains that this could take the form of heading to a marked location to defeat a miniboss that will only spawn once that memory has been accessed, or finding an item hidden in a hard-to-reach area of the map.
I didn’t expect FromSoft to put much effort into the story of Nightreign – sure, set up the narrative stakes, explain what’s happening in this version of The Lands Between, but people are mainly here for the co-op action. However, it just couldn’t help itself from ensuring there was enough food on the table for the lore-heads to feast on – one that goes well beyond simply collecting and reading snippets of text.
A reminder that the Elden Ring Nightreign release date is arriving at the end of this month, so there’s not long to wait now at all. In the interim, dive back into Elden Ring to get yourself warmed up, or take a look at these co-op games and fantasy games instead.
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