Elden Ring Nightreign is getting a DLC, and pretty soon, according to a recent financial report by FromSoftware’s parent company, Kadokawa. We can expect the game’s new expansion to come by the end of this fiscal year, but I would’ve been a lot happier if it were a free update.
A few months ago, I spoke about Nightreign‘s overall flaws and design philosophy that made the game become dull and boring rather quickly, with a few things allowing for greater replayability after you’ve beaten some of its bosses. This is in stark contrast to most roguelikes out there, which usually can retain their players for much longer and take a lot more time to be experienced in full.
The best way to solve this would’ve been to introduce new bosses, maps or map variations, and new characters, not as paid content but free updates akin to what other high-caliber games have done.
But it appears we’re getting a DLC instead.
Kadokawa, FromSoftware’s majority owner, has disclosed that a DLC is coming for Elden Ring Nightreign, which performed above and beyond what the company initially expected (thanks Eurogamer). The IP is so strong that people seem to have flocked to it even if it didn’t have much to do with Elden Ring at all, inspiring Kadokawa and FromSoftware to pursue it further with a DLC.
That would be fine and dandy in any other case. After all, Elden Ring had a DLC, and so did most of FromSoftware’s games. Some even had multiple. But Nightreign would have benefited from continuous, incremental content expansions that saw the game grow as time went by. More and more folks would jump in with each subsequent “major” update, and those coming later would be met with a title far bigger than what it was on launch.
Dropping a paid DLC (assuming it will be paid) is not the way to go for a game like this, especially when so many smaller studios have been putting out free, constant updates for their titles, enriching the experience through time and allowing it to grow in a live environment. The usual FromSoftware structure cannot, and should not, apply to Nightreign, which is far removed from its traditional game.
I hope the DLC does end up being a significant improvement and expansion to Elden Ring Nightreign, because, as I said a few months prior, the game really needs it.
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