Eldenling is a game that is deeply ingrained in legend. Story details can be found everywhere, including traditional cutscenes, environment details, conversations with NPCs. However, Elden Ring Nightreign is a very different type of game. This is an online-driven cooperative PVE game with Roguelite Elements. It makes it a bit difficult to provide the usual kind of soft story. So, how is Nightreign’s story told? Now, let’s talk a little about memory. Read the video below.
So let’s break down what the Nightreign story is. And who would be better off breaking it down than game director Ishizaki Junya:
“Nightrign essentially shares the world of Eldenling with the base setting, but it unfolds in a different stage, so to speak. So there’s this concept called an abstract phenomenon or calamity, like the land or calamity that fell on the land between this alternative timeline. During that time, and it needed some opposition. It needs something to oppose it, and the opposition comes in the form of a nightfarrer.
And it’s a set-up that brings together eight different character classes that come together from the entire Eldenling world. The Nightreign story is about filling out who these eight characters are, what their motivations are, and what their past was before this responsibility thrusts them into defeating Night Road. And to learn it, we have memories.
In between Nightreign matches, one stop a player can create in Round Table Hold is a library journal that allows you to view memories of your current character. Some of these are journal entries that reveal a bit of information about the character’s backstory. But some of them are playable snippets of moments from the character’s past. Once you start playingable memory, there are hazy, dreamy boundaries around the screen that are carried to a memory location.
After talking to the NPC in memory, you will gain a personal purpose. These differ from character to character, and there are memories to memory. For example, like iRoneye, your personal objective is to start a match, move to a specific marked location, and defeat a mini boss that appears there only when the memory objective is active. Once you do it, you will be able to return to the flashback and get an item that will allow you to return to the NPC before proceeding to the next chapter of the character’s story.
The purpose itself differs between class and memory. For example, Wylder may need to find a specific item in the cave instead of fighting a boss. This is a place you generally don’t go because there’s a risk of getting stuck there when the ring starts to close.
Then there are raiders who have completely different styles of memories. He must be carried away from the Round Table and take part in gladiator-like one-on-one battles against various bosses.
It’s an interesting and very unique departure when it comes to storytelling for Asoft games. Personally, I’ve only got a bit of a taste of the storyline of these individual characters, but I’d love to see more of what I’ve seen and played so far once I get the full game.
