Elden Ring: Nightreign

[00:00:09] Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to a long overdue episode of the Pre-Order Bonus Podcast. I'm one of your hosts Cameron Warren and I'm joined as always by the pixel professor Jacob Bartholomew Price. It's January, January. It feels... It's June. It doesn't even feel like January, to be honest. No, it doesn't really. It's very hot. It's very hot outside. It's June. It feels like summer. It's June 19th, 2025. We're back to talk about video.

[00:00:37] G-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g games. Uh... Man, a lot's happened since we've been gone. Switch 2 came out. Mario Kart. Jake and I both got Switches. Uh... We went away for long vacations. Jake went away for a long vacation. I went away for a shortish vacation. We both played... quite a bit of video games, but... I guess, what's the biggest thing we didn't talk about?

[00:01:06] Probably the Xbox show, right? That's probably the biggest one. And then the Switch release. Yeah, normally we have, like, reactions or recap episodes of Summer Games Fest. But Summer Games Fest happened while I was on the road. So I was watching it on my phone in, like, rural Idaho. Getting, you know, barely any info from what was happening there. Um... But honestly, I came away... Let's see.

[00:01:33] Summer Games Fest, the Jeff Keighley stuff, I think was kind of fine. I didn't think it was, like, amazing. Um... Yeah, it was just okay. It was okay, right. Day of the Devs, I thought, was really good. Latin American Showcase was good. Wholesome Showcase was good. And a bunch of these, just to be clear, I read a bunch. I just, like, read recap articles. Um... I caught most, if not all, of the Xbox showcase. And, guys, I think Xbox did it.

[00:02:02] I think they've hit their stride. I think 2024, 2025, and now 2026. They're releasing a first-party game every quarter. Game Pass is just filled to the brim with a bunch of cool titles coming to it. The Dominoes are, in fact, finally falling. The thing that has been talked about for, like, five straight years, they've done it. So they are in the position to have big, great games dropping once a quarter.

[00:02:31] It's happening. They've got Silksong as a, like, highlight. This is... We always talk about Silksong. I think Silksong's marketing is some of the worst executed marketing that I've ever seen for a video game, and it kind of pisses me off to no end. They literally show it as the headline game for the new Xbox ROG Ally. Yeah. Which is sort of a halfway Xbox handheld that they quickly got out in partnership with ROG.

[00:03:00] Basically, they took one of ROG's units, developed an Xbox OS for it, and they're calling it an Xbox ally. It's basically an Xbox handheld. It's probably the fastest way that they could get one to market without doing it themselves, right? They just partnered with ROG. It looks cool. I think it's going to cost $1,000. But what was funny about it was that Silksong was the premier game, and it had a clip, and then what's-her-name got up there and was like... Sarah Bond got up and was like,

[00:03:30] the Xbox ROG Ally is coming this fall alongside Silksong. So we literally got a release date for Silksong without even getting a release date for Silksong. Well, and it's funny because if I'm... Please somebody correct me if I'm misremembering this, but I think later it was clarified that it would come out before December 2025. Like in... Wait, no. No. Like, yeah, that Silksong, I think, was supposed to come out before the end of the year.

[00:04:01] Silksong... Sarah Bond said, Silksong will be playable at launch. No way. Did she say those exact... Now I'm like... Yes, Silksong will be playable at launch alongside the Xbox ROG Ally. The Xbox Ally. Or the Xbox whatever. I... Maybe she did say this in my years of doubting. She said it. I've just filtered my ears. You know, they filtered what I'm hearing. Hold on. Okay. Game Informer.

[00:04:31] We love Game Informer. They're back. Game Informer's back. On June 8th, they published this. Uh... We'll be coming to the console at launch this holiday. No way. You're right, Cameron. What'd I tell you? So they literally announced a release date without announcing a release date. I'm... That's how crappy this... I'm here with my jaw on the floor.

[00:05:01] Dude, I'm telling you, man. No trailer. No, like... There is another gameplay interstitial. Similar to the Switch 2. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Hold on. It's worth noting that the trailer didn't say the game would be launching with the Xbox handheld. Just that it will, quote, be available at launch, end quote. According to Xbox President Sarah Bond, this means the game could launch any time between then and now. But whenever the Xbox handheld

[00:05:30] has a release date, we'll know Silk Song is due out before then. And yeah, I mean... My initial thought here is pessimism. I don't know. If they have a window to release, it will be at the absolute end of that window. But I also wonder if this is penance for Team Cherry kind of throwing Xbox under the bus two years ago now, right? Saying that it would be out as part of Xbox's launch of games that would be out in the next 12 months. I think there's a 20% chance

[00:05:59] that this doesn't come out still, still in 2025. I can't dispute it. I can't dispute it. Like... No, you can't. You can't. You can't. Anyways, yeah. Silk Song was there. Outer Worlds 2 had a big showcase. That game looks really good. I pre-installed it. Yeah, dude. I mean, I don't blame you. And then Clockwork Revolution. I mean, I was blown away by that first trailer. The second trailer was insane. Okay.

[00:06:29] Listeners... Crazy gameplay. Listeners, settle the debate. Does this come out in 2026? Now, Cameron and I were talking about this. And folks, our special topic will be talking about this vacation that Cameron and I went on together. That was part of our vacation. But we had a top... We had... It wasn't... A friendly little back and forth, let's say. Because it didn't say 2026. But it showed a whole lot of game

[00:06:59] for one that wouldn't be coming out in 2026. Do you think this game releases next year? So, Phil Spencer at the end of the show offhandedly dropped that next year for Xbox's 25th anniversary, we'll be getting Fable, Forza, Gears of War E-Day, and

[00:07:28] something-something, one of our most beloved franchises. That's been with us since the beginning. Which we've intuited as a Halo 1 remake, or the internet has, essentially. So, if you've got... How many games was that? Four games, four quarters of 2026, Clockwork Revolution seemingly a pretty beefy, big,

[00:07:57] like, showcase game for Xbox. Where does it fit in the landscape? Because you're right, that was probably the most big, in-depth trailer, and then didn't even have a release date on it. Yeah, wild. Right? I mean, Double Fine's Game Keeper has a release date for October, and I don't think it got nearly as much. It was just like a regular-sized trailer. I don't know. I kind of think you could release Clockwork Revolution with Forza.

[00:08:24] I don't know if those demographics overlap all that much. And it has been noted in the past, and I say noted very vaguely here, because I don't remember what the sources are, so just take this with a grain of salt, that sometimes Xbox, one of their strategies is to put two pretty big Game Pass games somewhat near each other to incentivize subscriptions to Game Pass. So, like, if one comes out in September, one comes out in November as a way to get you to sub in September

[00:08:53] and keep that sub through November. So, I don't know. I could see Clockwork Revolution squeaking its way in there. Maybe with Forza, but those other three games, I feel like, dude, I don't know. Halo Remake dropped, and I think a lot of people are going to be dropping whatever else they're playing to just suddenly play that. Right? I don't know about Gears of War Eday, but... That would be insane. I had to swallow for a second. That would be insane if we got

[00:09:23] Gears of War Eday, Halo Remake, Forza, Fable, and Clockwork Revolution next year. It would be totally, totally bonkers. That'd be nuts. Nuts. But then again, remember, this is as speculating, and there's no actual release year even. No, there's not. So, we're over here just twiddling our thumbs, thinking out loud. So, if I had to make a quick prediction, I think, because of the sheer amount of stuff that they show

[00:09:52] for Clockwork Revolution, including gameplay, gameplay systems, mechanics, all that stuff, I think it is one of the showcase games in the winter 2026 developer thing that they do. like the January developer direct. Ooh, yeah. I could totally see them actually doing that, giving us a release window or release date, and then maybe...

[00:10:21] And then it comes out early 2026. Then we get... Then we get something else second quarter. I'm not sure what. Fable? Do you think Fable comes second quarter? No. No, I think at next year's Xbox show, Halo remake is the shadow drop. No.

[00:10:51] I just... I disagree. But continue. Then I'll rebut. Because it's the 25th anniversary, they gotta do something huge. They gotta do something huge. Because... And it makes sense to really... Or it's coming out like this summer, right? Because you got Fable and Gears of War E Day, you have to launch in the fall. And I didn't even bring up Forza, so when is that coming out? Who knows? Maybe that's the second quarter game. Maybe that one is... I think Halo 1 remake

[00:11:21] gets this big old Halo Studios its own thing. So, what I wouldn't be surprised is if they did like the developer direct and then immediately after they did like a Halo direct and they talked about... But I think the reason they held off on talking about those games at this year's Xbox show is so that they can blow out the 25th anniversary. But that means that they can't release those games until summer, fall. Yeah. We'll see. I think Halo 1 remake comes out. It's a guess. We'll see.

[00:11:51] It comes out in 2026. I just wouldn't be surprised if it was a fall game for Xbox. Man, having all three of those games in the fall seems wild. I think Fable comes earlier, but I don't know. Again, we're speculating here. We haven't seen this much on it. Maybe Fable's smaller than we think it is. Maybe. Could you imagine... Well, weren't the original Fables like 20-hour campaigns? Yeah. They weren't like Bethesda

[00:12:20] style. Right. Anyway, in sum, the Xbox showcase I think was probably our favorite one, but... It was good. I do highly recommend checking out the smaller ones. Day the Devs always has a really good showing, and I think that they had another really good showing this time around too. Yep. Honestly, I haven't been playing much games except for the game we're talking about on today's episode, including a lot with the homies at Man Week 2026,

[00:12:50] which we will talk about on our special topics episode, patreon.com slash pre-order cast. If you want to hear about our four-day adventure in the hill, forest hills of Washington State, playing video games, and acting like mid-30 year old delinquents, you can find that on Patreon. But for now, let's talk, Jake, about Elden Ring. How are we going to break it down? Elden Ring Night Rain. We will be talking about Elden Ring Night Rain in our signature three categories. The first

[00:13:20] will be the narrative, second will be mechanics, and then finally impact on the industry. We've got a lot to say here. We do have a bit of a tighter window for recording tonight, so this episode might run a little short, just be warned. But also, if you want to talk more Elden Ring Night Rain, come into our Discord. We're talking about it quite often. Cameron and I are playing it quite a lot too, and we're always looking for people to play with. But yeah, that's how we're going to be talking about Elden Ring Night Rain.

[00:13:49] I'm going to start us off here talking about the narrative here. Now, from software games, since Demon Souls, right? Demon's Souls through Elden Ring have come up with a very specific flavor of storytelling. Like, literally, different mechanisms of how the story is told, lots of memes about reading the item descriptions to figure out what's going on. I remember my first time playing Dark Souls 3, I was like, I don't know exactly what's going on, I'm just enjoying the vibes.

[00:14:19] And same with Bloodborne, my first time playing through that, I was like, vibes are doing a lot here. So, a lot of, just, I don't know, but Elden Ring breaks away from that. And there is still plenty of that cryptic storytelling, but I think the most interesting storytelling in the game is that each of the playable characters has like this diary with entries and it discusses their different remembrances and they're often written in a really poetic form

[00:14:49] and it kind of reads like the traditional From Software item descriptions but essentially you kind of read on how and why these people are gathered to the roundtable hold and why they are committed to or why they at least at one point made a commitment to fight off the night lords. And so, it is very The night lords. The night lords, yeah. So, it feels very much like the traditional kind of silent protagonist of From Software Games is absent and this is an anthology of different NPC

[00:15:18] characters. So, I think that's really cool. I think it feels quite different, right? There's, yeah, it just feels different. You don't come into this game feeling like you know, you're the ashen one or the tarnished that is the lowest of the low and good luck taking everything on. I think there's a lot more sort of built up about into each of these characters' backgrounds and who they are and what motivates them. So, I think it's a shift. I think it's a pretty big shift for this game.

[00:15:48] I don't think the shift is permanent, but I think that for me is maybe one of the most interesting things that's happening narratively about this game. Jake, have you done the remembrance quests? I have started a few, but to be totally honest, I am not playing Night Rain like I'm playing other FromSoftware games. I've been playing it like a live service looter,

[00:16:17] not looter, shooter, looter, whatever. Whatever this is, right? PvE looter. And so narrative has kind of taken a backseat for me. I just now started some remembrances, and I have over 20 hours in this game. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I've done some of them, but they're obviously locked behind bosses, and since I suck at the game, I've only beaten one boss. That will

[00:16:47] change, too. So the story is locked behind my lack of skill or like the remembrance quest. But yeah, I mean, to Jake's point, there's not a lot here, which is fine. The story is, if you want the story, go play Elden Ring. Yeah. That's not what this game is for, and they're very clear about that. I'm actually impressed with the amount of story they even bothered to put in here, to be frank. I was

[00:17:17] expecting pretty much zero, but they did give it a narrative structure, which kudos to them. Yeah, I agree with you. I think the narrative that's in there is bonus, it's additive, but it's certainly not the core. Like, driving factor, at least for me. I'm sure that there are lore nerds out there that are having a feast, or who are revolting, because this game doesn't really follow any preconceived, like, I guess, or established stories, right? Like, one of my favorite

[00:17:46] bosses in the game is actually Centipede Demon, which is an optional DS1 boss, and try explaining that lore in Elden Ring, or like Deardukes Freidja, which is this massive two-headed spider. I just feel like it's, oh my gosh, I'm so sorry I'm bringing this up. Have you been hearing this discourse about DK Bonanza, about how it's not being faithful to the DK lore? No, however, I did watch the DK Bonanza Direct,

[00:18:15] and I am slightly thrown that Paulina is in this game. Is this game a prequel to Mario Odyssey? Maybe, but that's, so this is what I'm getting at here, right? Like, okay, I think Elden Ring Night Ring is just trying to have its own stories, and for me it's NPC anthology focused, and I think that's cool and different. But I think it's okay we leave it at that. Like, same with DK Bonanza. I think it's okay that we kind of just leave it at

[00:18:46] whatever it is, right? Anyway, I think that's kind of where I'm at with the story. Some cool things. It's just a random... So what you're saying is Pauline being in DK Bonanza is the equivalent of Elden Ring Night Ring having a narrative. Is it? No, I'm sorry. Maybe? I mean, Pauline hatches from a rock. I'm reaching. I'm reaching. Yeah. Something else,

[00:19:16] just a really quick tidbit to throw out there. Dude, the lore of this game is wild. DK Bonanza? Where are we at? DK Bonanza. Dude, we can move on from DK Bonanza, but the lore of that game is wild. I don't... Dude, just let the lore rest. Let it go to bed. Tuck it in. Give it a kiss. I didn't play... Maybe... Do I need to play Mario 64 for the podcast? Or, excuse me, Donkey Kong 64? I was going to say, you've played Mario 64, right? Dude, do not... Be careful with the checks you're willing to cash, is all I'm going to say, dude.

[00:19:46] Because... Bro, I got two words for you. Banana gun. Okay? Stop! Moving on. Elderly Night Ring mechanics. I had a thought. It was a beautiful thought. Oh, sorry. I missed you. I can't remember. Anyway, the mechanics of this game. Tell us about the mechanics, Cameron. Yeah, so this is a open zone

[00:20:17] roguelite PVE Battle Royale extraction action RPG. What? What does that mean? Basically, what I'm saying is, it takes a lot of stuff from a lot of games. Takes Elden Ring as its base, right? Elden Ring is like the base. Yeah. It pours in a little bit of

[00:20:48] Fortnite. Yeah. Tosses in a teeny bit of you know, Hades. Throws in a teeny bit of I can't think of any other game. Sorry. No, I mean, this is a combination of a whole bunch of stuff. So basically what you've got is you drop in to what is a world of like what the lands between some version of that with a whole bunch of points of

[00:21:18] interest that are in on this map that's the lands between. You can look at the map. It shows you all the different points of interest and your goal is essentially what this game is doing is it's taking the gameplay loop of Elden Ring and mashing it into a 40 minute experience. Yeah. And the way that it does that is by using a roguelike structure with elements of like battle royale and, loot and like leveling up

[00:21:46] in like a battle royale style arena, right? Where the arena gets smaller as you be bosses, you find better loot or you can, uh, you get better loot or you can find better loot. You try and upgrade your guy and create a build as quickly as possible in order to defeat the final boss of your run. And you get to select that boss after you've beat the first boss, you get to select from what? Six bosses. Um, I think it's six

[00:22:15] and then you, the seventh or the eighth is the final, final boss. I can't remember. So anyways, yeah, there's a whole bunch of bosses you get to choose from and each of them are weak to different things. And so, yeah, so basically you're, it's a microcosm of the Elden Ring experience and it's meant to be played co-op. This game is not designed to be played solo. A lot of people tried to play it solo at the beginning and complained about it. I think the developers were like, oh, we didn't realize that people were really wanting to play this game solo.

[00:22:46] We designed it specifically to be played with multiple people and it is extremely hard and very much designed to be played as a group. Um, and yeah, that's, that's basically the experience and it is very interesting. It is a, it is a very, really interesting and I think unique combination of elements that I don't think we've, we've seen them in all the other games and all these other games. And obviously with Elden Ring being the

[00:23:15] base, it's just Elden Ring adjacent. I still think of it as being like an Elden Ring experience at its core, but just stealing, not stealing, stealing in a, you know, normal way from a whole bunch of other games to make something new. Yeah. Honestly, it being a spinoff is just simply the best way I think to describe it. It's Elden Ring Night Reign. It's just, it's simplified, like you said, a little more straightforward multiplayer experience of Elden Ring. It is what I love

[00:23:44] about this is one that it is kind of hard to describe. like in traditional genre terms, because to me, this is a great like experiment. I think that there was some trepidation, if you can believe it, there was trepidation before Elden Ring came out about how the From Software formula could be adapted to an open world genre. Guess what? Elden Ring did a pretty good job. I think it sold pretty well, right? Yes. And now it's kind of like, I don't know,

[00:24:13] From Software is flush with cash. I mean, didn't Elden Ring kind of almost compete? Flush with cash! Quick shout out for you Parks and Rec fans out there, right? Got run over by Alexis! Okay. John Ralphio is a listener of the podcast. Entertainment 720 is one of our many sponsors. characters. Yeah. Entertainment. Your dreams come,

[00:24:43] they come true. The jingles in that show were so good. Little Tom Hammerford jingles. Anyway, game good, play game fun, I think is kind of the basics here. I mean, it's... This is a really deep podcast. Guys, we... Thoughtful conversation on your favorite video games right here, right now. Thoughtful. I think maybe the craziest thing about Night Rain is that

[00:25:12] it feels like you're playing Elden Ring at times 10 speed because you have a specialized sprint, no fall damage, you are blitzing from one point of interest to another to try to level up your character and just kit out your person as quickly as possible. And it is a steep learning curve. Like most from software games. I think in part just because the play style is so dang fast and that you really do need to

[00:25:42] work as a team. In fact, I snuck in a run this afternoon and I was playing with some randos and somebody pinged one area and so I ran over to that area and the other two players went to different spots, including the person who pinged that area. And I thought, we're not getting anywhere because we can't follow instructions as a team. I know, kind of questionable, whatever. And they weren't even like going on the way. They like went in a different direction. I was like, did you miss? Right.

[00:26:12] Did you put the ping somewhere? And anyway, so all your favorite combat like mechanics are going to be there. I'll be even a tad bit more simplified. But you got to be able to read weapon descriptions really quickly. Probably one of my favorite things about this game is that every weapon has some sort of passive bonus. So even if it's not in your equipped hand, as long as it is in your inventory, it is providing some type of benefit. And so the game is just all about collecting as much

[00:26:42] stuff as possible. And it's immensely satisfying because you can have the polar opposite experience from the base game Elden Ring. Like in the very beginning of the game, you can melt some bosses with your squad and it feels really good to feel that powerful. And then by the time you get to the end of a run and you're fighting the final boss of that run, you're back back old to the old, you know, grindstone where you just are going to get whomped many times before you before you. I think this game is harder than Elden Ring

[00:27:11] the base game. I think. Oh, why do you think that? Because an Elden Ring, the normal Elden Ring, you can cheese pretty much every boss in one way or another, either by overleveling or finding their exact weakness because you can find the exact weapon in the open world in its exact location. In this game, they make it harder by doing two things. One, they design the bosses around three player experience, right? Yeah.

[00:27:41] So like you can't, you can't just absolutely destroy the final boss. You can't like just absolutely crap on it. I mean, maybe you can if you have a crazy build, probably the earlier bosses. And then RNG. RNG, like you're not going to always get the same weapon drops every time. And sometimes you're going to get lucky and you're going to get a better weapon. You're going to get a better smithing stone. You're going to get whatever. You're going to get some combination of things.

[00:28:10] And then your ability to kind of quick, like get up to level all the way to max level. Right. And I think that brings me to my second, my main criticism with this game is the nature of how this game is designed requires that you play it like you are running at full speed constantly at all times and you never stop. Yep. And you do not breathe and you do not take your time because if you do,

[00:28:39] you're screwing up and you're not going to be min maxed. And that doesn't for me personally, that doesn't feel great all the time that I can't just like kind of enjoy what I'm doing. It's just a race to get as strong as possible to fight the final boss. And that's kind of all it is, but it's a race that takes, it takes 45 minutes for a full run, but even that feels rushed. Yeah. And I think that's the,

[00:29:08] my biggest criticism of this game. And it's not a criticism of like, Oh, this is a developer. The developers should change XYZ to make that better. I think they're kind of boxed in because I don't know if you really can fix that because they're using Elden Ring as the bedrock for this game. And so you can't, if you, if you break that piece, you can no longer use Elden Ring as the base and you're kind of breaking the, the Elden Ring experience at its

[00:29:38] core. And so I don't know if there was a way to make run shorter, but then I feel like you would have to be going even faster, which then goes in the opposite direction of what I'm complaining about. But, um, at the same time runs feel too fast, but are also too long. It's wild because you're right. A run is going to be about 45 minutes long. And, um, just to kind of put some numbers to what Cameron's talking about here. If you aren't going at a

[00:30:07] breakneck speed the whole time, you'll probably get to level 10 in the max level is 15 before you get to day three. And so the way that this game is divided is that there's day one, which you're cruising around the open zone and you're defeating mini bosses. You fight the day one boss. And then day two is rinse and repeat. You run around the open zone again. You fight more mini bosses until you get to the day two boss. day three, you essentially go to your final prep room and then you fight the runs final boss.

[00:30:36] And I would say if you are not going at a breakneck speed, typically you'll get to the runs final boss at about level 10, which is too low. So the highest I've actually ever gotten is 13. The max level is 15. Um, and I would even say getting from like 11 to 13, it costs quite a lot of runes. The end game, the primary currency to level up. You'd have to be going at breakneck speed, killing a lot of mini bosses.

[00:31:05] You need great team coordination to, to get up, I would say level 13. And I would assume higher than that. And, um, you don't always get that. I mean, if you're playing match made games, I mean, it's a crap shoot. Sometimes you get people who are excellent. Sometimes you get people who aren't. Sometimes you're the person who's the, you know, the best on your team is sometimes you're the worst. Um, but to put on top all that, it's also just a freaking tough game. You know, I mean, it's still is Elden ring at the end of the day.

[00:31:35] I remember I was doing a run and, um, it was day one. I think we were all level four or five and somebody had pinged a great enemy, just an open world roaming boss to take on. And it was draconic tree sentinel, which in the base game, I figured out how to do, but multiplayer here's, here's kind of my, this is going to sound super from soft snob of me. And I just apologize for that. I mean, you are. So it's just, you know, it's in character, right?

[00:32:03] But like, um, fighting bosses solo, they are always targeted on you. And I think it's way easier for me to memorize attack patterns and how to dodge them and how to punish those attacks for certain bosses when it's multiplayer and they're charging you, but then pivot suddenly to somebody else. I actually find it to be way more unpredictable. What boss attacks are going to happen and then throw on top of that. Some bosses get added attacks that they didn't

[00:32:33] have in the base game of Elden Ring. And so I'm fighting this draconic tree sentinel. There's three of us were level four and I'm thinking in the base game, I would have been way more powerful and I know how to fight this boss solo. Three of us that are still relatively weak trying to fight a boss that's feeling quite unpredictable and retuned to kind of fit a multiplayer experience. Dude, forget about it. We died to this boss like three times over and over. Forget about it.

[00:33:02] Forget about it. And I was just like, I pinged a different location. I was like, dudes, this is a waste of our time because time is precious in this game, right? So, and I bring this example up just to show that if you mess up, if you try to take on a boss that your team is not equipped to take on and you burn a bunch of time, dude, that time is precious. So that run, believe it or not, we made it to the day. So day three, the run final boss, somebody had quit out already.

[00:33:31] It's two of us and we're both level nine. And I just was like, I know I get punished if I quit out early. Like you can't, uh, you can't match make again for a while. So I stuck through it, but dude, it's miserable. Two dudes at level nine trying to take on a final boss. I was like, this sucks. And so that's, yeah. And that's, that's one of those, like you want to just quit the run. Yeah. Because when you're not like min max, it's one of those situations where you're like, ah, it's a wash.

[00:34:01] Like let's just call it quits, dude. So just shut it down. Just call it. Like let's move on. I want to do the new run so I can get the better. Yeah. Yeah. So I would say that, um, night rain actually, in my opinion, forces you to get good more than probably any other from soft game. Definitely more than Elden ring, the base game. You got to be able to keep up. You got to be able to take out bosses. You got to be smart with your weapons. You got to have a good handle on your characters.

[00:34:30] Um, pretty quickly and with little tutorialization. So I don't know. I really like it because I'm pretty used to these games and I've been able to adjust to what this game offers and how you play it. But just to return to my earlier point, like dude, that the learning curve for this game is steep. I think it's nearly a cliff, like trying to figure out how to actually have any, you know, measurable success in a run if you're not new to the game or if you are new to the game.

[00:35:00] Yeah, I do not recommend playing this game solo. Do not play with randoms. I mean, I think you can get lucky with randoms if you're also like decently good. But if you end up in a group of people who don't know what they're doing, you're screwed. Um, I basically only play with buddies and I just rely on Jake to just guide me through the run. And I'm not even that fast of a guide to be honest. Yeah. And I don't even bother to like understand exactly

[00:35:30] what the perfect run looks like. I just like follow Jake. Um, so we're our friend Rob because he's also pretty into it. Yeah. That being said, like this is a very, very strong gameplay loop for the because it is the Elden Ring gameplay loop distilled down to 45 minutes. Yeah. Yep. versus like what, what's, what's the time between major bosses and Elden Ring?

[00:35:59] 12 hours, six hours. Easily could be. I think before I fought Margie, the first major boss in Elden Ring, first required major boss, I had at least 10 hours in the game. At least. Yeah. I mean, unless you're speed, like a speed runner or you're on a second playthrough and you know kind of exactly the route that you're doing, which that's kind of what this, this game kind of forces you to figure out the perfect route to. Yeah. Right. So there's not, there's zero exploration. There's zero, like, there's

[00:36:29] not really any discovery. It's, you're just, you're just trying to min max every second. There are secrets and you can find cool pockets of the world that will have a special boss that unlock some sort of cool power or whatever it is. But I feel like the ones that I've found, I stumbled across. Because you don't have the time to stop and smell the roses and see, oh, I wonder what's over here in this corner. Let's just saunter on over and figure it out. You don't got the time.

[00:36:59] You got to be leveling up. You don't got the time. Don't start. Let's talk about, let's talk about impact on the industry. What other games? The only, the only other game I could think of that did something similar to this, but it wasn't quite at this level because this is a full-blown new release standalone $50, $40 off the

[00:37:27] back of a majorly huge game, right? That's a, it's a, it's a totally new, very new thing. It's like a co-op multiplayer offshoot thingy. The only one I'm thinking of is like the God of War Valhalla roguelike mode. Yeah. Which was a free update to God of War 2. What other games need to use their IP in this manner? Because I do think this is, despite my criticisms of it,

[00:37:57] it's solid. And it's, it is a microcosm of that Elden Ring experience, which is so good. What other games should take advantage of their franchise and make something like this? Because this, this seems like a really, like Elden Ring, like, like FromSoft can do whatever they want. Oh yeah. But not only can they do whatever they want, I think they did something that was like really smart and a really good use of their developers time and probably scoped quite well. Yeah.

[00:38:26] Because it's essentially just taking all the assets they already have and just putting them into a new, into, you know, building like some new gameplay systems around it. I don't think it's a wild departure from what they've already built. I imagine they were able to develop this fairly quickly. This seems like a really smart project. Yeah. From a studio that can basically do whatever they want. They can say, we want to make a, you know, a first person adventure story driven game and nobody can say nay

[00:38:56] because they can, you know. Yeah. I think, I think Farm Software has a lot of things going for them that most studios simply do not. One is history. This is a studio that's been around forever. Before Souls, there was Armor Core, there was Kingsfield. Like this is, they are, they have successfully done genre hops before, right? Now, I don't know how much of the team that was on Kingsfield was on Elden Ring Night Reign, right? Like I don't know that. But what I do know is that

[00:39:25] the team has been able to build specific like skill sets and cohesion in their development, right? Now, from what I recall, and I think you can quote me on this, the pitch for Elden Ring Night Ring came from Elden Ring's combat director to Miyazaki. It was just like, hey, what if we did this cool thing? So that much you can quote me on. The rest I'm speculating from here on out. My assumption is that Miyazaki's like, oh yeah,

[00:39:55] Miyazaki's like, yeah, incubate that. Elden Ring gets buku bucks. He's like, green light it. Like, let's do it. You know? We can do it. Why not? At the very, like, worst case scenario, game doesn't do super well, but our core team developed a bunch of new skills that they didn't have previously when it comes to multiplayer and creating new game systems, right? So, I mean, they're just like able to do that. They are in a super unique position where they have tons of money and tons of talent

[00:40:24] and tons of goodwill that they can try something like this. Now, to kind of not answer your question, I guess, what's wild to me is FPC Firebreak just came out, right? This is Remedy Studios doing something else with their IP. And it is not reviewing well. I think... Well, I mean, it has to be good. Well, yeah.

[00:40:55] No, but I mean... It's worth a try if we see Firebreak or Remedy, but... Somebody said this and it's kind of been rattling around in my brain the past two days or so, which is gunplay was never Remedy's, like, strongest point. Yeah, that's what I was about to say. Like, they... So, Night Ring kept the core of what they do well. Yeah. Right? They didn't say, we're making an Elden Ring first-person shooter. Right. So, I think...

[00:41:25] Remedy... That'd be crazy. That would be... I mean, dude, Kingsfield is first-person. I mean, I'm just saying it's not totally out of the realm of possibility. FromSoft is, like, Halo remake, Shmelo Shmi, like, I'm gonna do this. You know what would be insane now that I'm thinking about it? Armored Core Night Rain thing. Dude, it would work freaking... I honestly think... Right? Dude, give me Armored Core Night Rain, like, yesterday. I just thought of that right now. I was like, dude, that's a pile of money waiting to be opened up. Dude, I know we're going a

[00:41:55] little bit on a tangent here, but I desperately want Armored Core 7, one, to exist and come out, right? But two, to be fully playable in multiplayer. Could you imagine doing those levels and those bosses in squads of three not too dissimilar to what we're seeing in Night Rain? Sounds like a good time to me, man. That sounds dope. I kind of wish I could play the game that way. I think I'd have a lot more fun. I think it's brutal solo, to be honest. I think...

[00:42:23] I really liked Armored Core 6. There's that one massive gatekeep boss. I did... I finally beat that one. New Game Plus, I will say, in Armored Core 6, I didn't finish my New Game Plus playthrough. I'm like halfway through or something. It is way easier. Going back to that campaign with all the stuff you've unlocked. Dude, I was smoking bosses that took me several hours previously. Anyway. Yeah, I don't know.

[00:42:52] I wish so many more studios were in the position that FromSoftware was in. The only one that I can kind of think of, honestly, is Obsidian. Obsidian does Grounded, which Cameron and I are the biggest grounded shills that you will meet in the gaming podcast sphere. We both love Dirk's... Best survival game. Dude, it is incredible. So, I think Obsidian, man. Obsidian's been able to pull off... I mean, Pentiment and Grounded. We've said it before. I will say it again now. They were able to do something outside of their wheelhouse and do it really

[00:43:22] well to the point that they can show Grounded 2 coming to Early Access next month at Xbox Showcase. And I literally... So rude of me. I didn't realize Cameron didn't want spoilers, but I just straight up was like, Grounded 2! In a text message to Cameron because he couldn't watch the Showcase live. No, I wasn't. I wasn't. Somebody... It would have been cool if I had that moment. Not as a text from Jake. Yep. Ruined. But it's okay. Ruined forever.

[00:43:52] Anyway, he's not going to play with me anymore. But, yeah, I don't know. Who else? Obsidian's my answer. I mean, what games have crazy good bones, right? Like, they... So, Insomniac canceled that Spider-Man multiplayer thing. Dude. Would have been dope. Which is kind of crazy, right? Like, I mean, obviously, they couldn't figure out how to make it fun, I guess. Yeah. So... So... And, I mean, the bones of Elden Ring are very good.

[00:44:20] And also, they have the advantage of, like, you can already play Elden Ring co-op, technically. So, they didn't have to, like, rebuild completely the systems from the ground up. They just had to make it multiplayer-centric. So, yeah. I mean, they had a lot of things going for them. I... I do see this as a model that is worth copying. I see this as a model worth copying

[00:44:49] of taking a franchise that is very popular, that has already done really well. And I know people have done versions of this before. I just think, like, this is just a smarter execution of that idea, the Night Rain thing. So, I think studios need to be a... Do a better job at using what they already got. Right. Basically. And I think Grounded 2 is a pretty good example of that, but it's a little different because it's a sequel. Basically, they're making Grounded 2 because they ran out of room

[00:45:18] to develop stuff in Grounded 1. What was this? It's like what the developer said. It's like they wanted to expand it. They wanted to make it bigger and they just, like, ran out of room. So, all right. We'll just make the next game. I mean, that works. And they put it a big asset shift, right? It's all like... They already have a whole bunch of stuff that they created and systems and crap. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, too many teams are starting from scratch too many times. Yes. I think that's, like, one of the biggest problems that we see in the games industry.

[00:45:48] You're starting from scratch too often. Take what you're good at and make something else that can use what you've already built. Yeah. You don't want... Why build a brand new thing unless you really want to do that. But if you're going to do that, you just got to accept the risks. And it seems like... Yeah. I mean, that's kind of my take on impact on the industry from Night Rain is I think this can be used as a good example of, like,

[00:46:17] hey, what's a way we can... Let's make an asset game that uses all of our assets. Yeah. And make it really good. And it's cheaper. And it focuses on one specific type of experience. And it's multiple, right? It's, like, stuff like that. And it's a $40 price tag, right? Like... $40, yeah. The example... Another maybe counter example that comes to mind is... You read that, I'm assuming, the recent report from Jason Schreier on Dragon Age Veilguard, right? Yeah. That when you were talking

[00:46:46] about games that just have to hit the reset button or not hit the reset button when they need to, like, that article came to my mind, right? That game went through development hell, single player versus multiplayer, whether or not it should be a live service, et cetera. And I actually own it and I just haven't gotten around to playing Dragon Age Veilguard yet. People who I respect in the games industry who have played it, they said they still really enjoyed it. So I have no doubt that it's still, like,

[00:47:16] a good game. But, dude, that game could have cost way less and come out way sooner, right, if that team was just given one task to execute on rather than having to restart what that game's primary goals are multiple times. Well, Jake, any other thoughts on Elden Ring Night Rain? I mean, we didn't get into the nitty-gritty

[00:47:45] of the roguelike mechanics, but I think you said it pretty well. It is this interesting mishmash. It takes little ideas from a bunch of different games that kind of fall under this umbrella of live service games. And it just kind of cracks me up that From Software puts out this game. It sold over 3.5 million copies, I want to say. I don't know what the dedicated fan base is going to be a few months out from here, but

[00:48:15] it just almost feels like we're currently in the state where people are stumbling to get live service games out the door. And then From Software just waltzes in, whistling, not a care in the world, drops this thing, and it's got the legs to be live service even though it's not really billed to be live service. You know what I mean? Like, and yeah, I just don't know, I mean, what exactly the secret sauce

[00:48:44] is there. I think first and foremost, Elden Ring Night Reign never intended to take market share from Fortnite. And that was probably one of its biggest strengths that it first and foremost intended to highlight the excellent combat in Elden Ring. Like you said, the first and foremost it was sticking to what it was good. Like what the studio was good at doing and what Elden Ring was very, very good at. And from there they were able to create something that I think

[00:49:14] is super successful. Um, so I guess maybe that's a lesson to be learned. Those are just kind of fresh thoughts that I've had, but it just feels ironic to me that you have from software Walton drop a game and have it be successful. If you want to hear more about this conversation, including our thoughts on what we think about the Duskbloods,

[00:49:43] sign up for patreon.com slash broadcast at the uh, deluxe edition or above you get access to extended editions of our regular episodes, one of which we'll be doing today. If you're already a Patreon listener, you, uh, you can just keep listening. You'll get that. But for now, that's enough chat about Elden Ring Night Rain. Jacob and I have been playing this with the homies, uh, trying to get some people in the discord together to play as well.

[00:50:13] I like this game, but it's not a something I feel compelled to play every night. I don't really feel compelled to like beat all the bosses, not in the same way that I did with like the base Elden Ring, but I think that's just part of it. Honestly, if I'm being frank is that I get tired at like 930 every night now and I just go to bed. So by the time I fight, so it's like just finding the time where I can sit down and actually put energy into it because as we talked about,

[00:50:43] this is a high energy game. This is high energy. This is like similar to like playing a battle royale multiplayer match. You got to be on your toes. You got to be moving and that sometimes doesn't work for the dad gamer, but, uh, no, this is cool. This is solid. This is a very cool offshoot from Elden Ring. I'm glad this exists and it's, it's very interesting in terms of its positioning in the marketplace. And with that, ladies and gentlemen, if you enjoy the show,

[00:51:13] please leave us a review on your podcast platform of choice. Uh, helps people find the show. You can also sign up as I've already mentioned, patreon.com slash period of cast, whatever, uh, tier makes sense for you. There's many options for how you want to support us and they all come with various tiers of extra content. Uh, you can also get Jake's indie impressions on patreon.com. He is playing like always probably eight indie games at a time at any given moment. Uh,

[00:51:43] he's looking at all the indie games you ever wanted to know about. He's probably got a review on it or a preview or an episode on it. So go check that out. Um, you can also find us on blue sky. That's where we primarily operate. Uh, that's at pre-order cast and finally join our discord channel. Come in, chat with us, talk about video games, talk about all sorts of cool stuff, including game recommendations, uh, reviews, thoughts, live reactions. We actually did a

[00:52:12] hangout for those who are around. We did a hangout for summer games fest. I popped in a room, turn on the live stream, and we just sat there and watched, uh, summer games fest. So it was, it was chill. Just chatting for with, with, with the dudes. Um, so come do that. Thanks so much for listening and have a great night.