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- Where's the boss here: Elden Ring Nightreign was released in Russia at the same time as the world
Where's the boss here: Elden Ring Nightreign was released in Russia at the same time as the world
The hardcore superhit of the Elden Ring series became available in Russia simultaneously with the rest of the world, including online, and was released on May 30. The game is fully and very qualitatively translated into Russian. Over 2 million copies were sold worldwide on the first day. Moreover, the Russian Federation entered the top three countries where Elden Ring Nightreign turned out to be the most popular. Izvestia was among the first to get acquainted with the release.
What is the Elden Ring?
Elden Ring Nightreign is a notable representative of a specific, niche subgenre of action role—playing games - the so-called Souls-like. In Russia, it was ironically transformed into a "sucker", combining "Souls" and "Roguelike" (Roguelike). Gamers need to choose a hero class, upgrade it in a strictly limited amount of time and defeat three bosses in a game session — two smaller and one large. The game cycle is divided into two days and three nights. During the day, the player collects valuable items and upgrades the character, at night he fights bosses and extracts valuable resources after their death, which allow him to better prepare for the next challenges.
Screenshot from the Elden Ring Nightreign game
Despite its stated niche, Elden Ring is a series of games with multimillion—dollar sales. The first part has sold over 30 million copies since 2022, and the official addition of Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree has sold 5 million copies in three days. Elden Ring Nightreign continued the trend of success among buyers — in less than a day, the number of sales amounted to 2 million copies.
Screenshot from the Elden Ring Nightreign game
According to SteamDB, Russia is among the three most actively playing countries along with the United States and China. The publisher Bandai Namco did not restrict Russians' access to the game on the Steam platform, thanks to this, the Russian Federation was able to officially enter the statistics around the world, despite the low cost of the novelty — almost 3 thousand rubles.
For the first time in the history of the series, a new author was responsible for Elden Ring — instead of the famous game designer Hidetaka Miyazaki, Junya Ishizaki worked on the game. In an interview, he stated that Miyazaki gave him complete creative freedom and told him to create a game based on the Elden Ring as he sees fit. As one of the most popular user reviews says: "Remember the name Junya Ishizaki, this is the person you will curse in the next few dozen hours." Why to curse — more on that below.
Screenshot from the Elden Ring Nightreign game
By the way, there is another important nuance — Nightreign was created as a cooperative game. Gamers perform in groups of three, so the collective boss hunt is somewhat reminiscent of the popular Monster Hunter series, which recently also had a new hit.
Why is Elden Ring Nightreign being scolded and praised?
Most of the players of the original Elden Ring and the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion are lone wolves, proud of the "army of one" principle. The imposed cooperative format has become one of the main subjects of criticism. You can, of course, play solo, but the monsters don't get any weaker, and there's literally no one to distract enemy fire while you're picking at another dragon's tail and mane.
Do you remember when we talked about cursing developers? It's because of the complexity. This novelty is aimed at those for whom regular games are too easy, and they want real challenges. You need to be prepared for the fact that you will have to lose often, sometimes even, how should I put it, shamefully (and it's good if no one sees how the video game bison is trying to kill the boss for the tenth time). The Internet is already full of tips on how to prepare for battle, but even these tips won't be easy to handle.
Screenshot from the Elden Ring Nightreign game
Here is an example. The first difficult boss turned out to be King Adele of the Night — the veterans of the series instantly recognized in him a reinterpreted Gaping Dragon with a jaw of monstrous proportions. The monster has a weakness for poisons, and the game kindly informs those who read the briefing screens. But if you, as the author of this text, ignored the warnings before the next monster run, you will have a hard time. It was hard to beat Adel. At the same time, unlike previous games, educational elements have appeared in Nighreign, and it seems that the project is more often coddling gamers. But this does not apply to solo mode.
The developers have already taken several steps towards a more comfortable balance when playing alone, but so far it is still far from ideal. FromSoftware also promised to introduce the format of "duets" — two-person game parties. One of the common problems is that two friends are forced to play with a random person who spoils the pleasure of the session. Thus, the tandem format turned out to be a higher priority, judging by the numerous requests from those who had already played Nightreign.
Screenshot from the Elden Ring Nightreign game
Elden Ring Nightreign cannot be called the second part, rather it is an offshoot with new game mechanics. The pace has increased significantly compared to the first part, and in order to encourage leisurely gamers, Ishizaki came up with a tapering ring that burns unhurried heroes and forces them to plan all their movements in advance — as in PUBG or Fortnite. At the same time, it is still impossible to call the game a "royal battle".
At the time of writing, Elden Ring Nightreign's rating is 71% positive from user reviews on the Steam platform. People are most often dissatisfied with optimization and balance, while the rating still gradually creeps up following operational patches and balance edits.
Screenshot from the Elden Ring Nightreign game
The problem that hardcore audiences feel particularly acutely is the lack of content. The game offers a total of six types of expeditions, that is, six unique bosses. The seventh expedition and a particularly difficult boss open under certain conditions, while the variability of rivals and bosses still leaves much to be desired.
Interestingly, as part of Ishizaki's creative freedom, he allowed himself to add Limveld to the magical new region, which was not in the original Elden Ring, and bosses from the Dark Souls trilogy. Due to meetings with old acquaintances from previous FromSoftware games — such as Freya, the beloved of the Duke — the world of Elden Ring Nightreign periodically feels like a kind of hodgepodge of the best boss battles in the 16 years of the existence of Souls games.
Screenshot from the Elden Ring Nightreign game
Izvestia tested the PlayStation 5 version. Technical errors and optimization problems were not noticed even on the standard console, despite the fact that the developers recommended using the PS5 Pro for full immersion. It's a bit premature to buy a new product right now — the authors promise to add new paid and free content as part of a long-term development plan. Judging by the success on the very first day, Nightreign became a successful experiment, rethinking the traditional formula for FromSoftware games. And judging by the combined sales of Elden Ring, gamers still haven't gotten bored, despite the numerous jokes and memes about the very "swamps" that have rattled the nerves of the regular audience of FromSoftware games with their almost impassable complexity.
In other words, Nightreign is an event that definitely should not be ignored by those who love projects for a thoughtful and demanding audience. But it definitely won't be superfluous to wait a month or two for additional fixes, so as not to spoil the pleasure of your first visit to Limveld. Maybe it will become easier to play, especially in single-player mode: it helps a lot to self-esteem when you don't die in every first game because you decided to play without help.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
