Dark Souls bosses in Elden Ring: Nightreign could be the best, or worst, decision FromSoftware ever made

Dark Souls is possibly my favourite trilogy over all time, but it’s got tough competition from the likes of Halo so it really depends what mood I’m in that day to choose one over the other.

That said, I'm of the firm opinion that Dark Souls is well-and-truly finished. It’s a story about the folly of clinging to a time long since passed, and the problems that can cause for the future. After Dark Souls III I’m happy to see the series retired aside from potential remasters or remakes, though much to my surprise the Dark Souls series is partially returning in Elden Ring: Nightreign.

See Elden Ring Nightreign’s surprise reveal trailer below

While sharing the same name FromSoftware has assured fans that Nightreign is a spin-off in every sense, still set in the Lands Between but essentially in a different timeline. There’s some shared history but the end-result is going in a completely different direction to our tarnished warriors becoming the next Elden Lord.

In the trailer we saw rogue-like gameplay, the different classes we’ll be picking at the start of the game and some of the mighty foes we’ll be fighting on our new adventure, but one stood out amongst the rest. The Nameless King, the god-forsaken secret boss from Dark Souls III crashed into the trailer atop his dragon mount and knocked fans like myself off our feet in surprise. I felt like I was having a genuine PTSD episode the second I laid eyes on him, and it even crossed my mind that someone from FromSoftware had made a mistake and thrown him into the game by accident.

That’s not the case though, as bosses from previous Dark Souls games will make their triumphant return though how exactly is unknown.

So as someone who adores Dark Souls games but was content to leave them in the past what do I make of all of this? Well to be frank I’m in love with the idea. Elden Ring placed our custom characters on a scale not seen before in other FromSoftware games, having us challenge gods and monsters that in my opinion would eviscerate what we fought in the Dark Souls trilogy.

It’s not just in-game either, we as players have grown stronger and more resilient with every new soulsborne game that’s come out, so the idea we can rechallenge those bosses that gave us a hard time years ago with our shiny new Elden Ring skills, is an opportunity we simply can’t pass up. I played Dark Souls a few weeks after finishing Elden Ring: Shadow Of The Erdtree and it felt like I was playing the game in slow motion, so I’m looking forward to tearing Nameless King apart after all the grief he gave me during our first encounter.

Bandai Namco

Of course all this could be perceived as nostalgia-bait but I don’t think that’s the case. Elden Ring and its DLC was a colossal success by itself so its name alone is enough to get people interested in this new game. If anything I think bringing these bosses back is a way to tempt hesitant players to try this new rogue-like formula. It’s understandable to be sceptical as we’ve not seen a FromSoftware rogue-like before, but as a company renowned for basically defining its own genre it has more than enough potential to do it again.

Elden Ring: Nightreign feels unique, as it’s clearly not a trip down memory lane. We’re not travelling to where these bosses are from, they're being brought to us and I find that incredibly intriguing. How exactly are these mighty warriors and monsters crossing into Elden Ring’s reality? Is someone behind-the-scenes knowingly drafting them in or did The Shattering do more damage than we saw in Elden Ring? There are so many questions and so few answers, and I for one will be more than happy to devote hours of my time solving the mystery.

I couldn’t be more excited, and I can’t wait to see who else we’ll stumble across on this new journey. At the moment my most-wanted list includes Ornstein, Aldrich and Gael. Hell bring Solaire back and make him the Lord Of Frenzied Flame, that’d be a finale fight for the ages.