best games of all time, its quest design is lacking in key, easily fixed areas.

For many die-hard FromSoftware fans, the obtuseness of the studio's games is part of the appeal. Even the main narrative is largely conveyed through a few vague lines of dialog and a hefty dose of environmental storytelling. This seeps into each game's individual side quests as well, a tendency even the studio's most dedicated fans are growing tired of. It's often very difficult to advance a questline because there aren't any indications of where to go, something Nightreign actually rectifies despite its keen focus on cooperative multplayer gameplay.

FromSoftware Should Make Nightreign’s Quest Markers A Permanent Feature

Remembrance Quests Are A Big Step Forward

After years of players hoping FromSoftware would shore up its quest systems, advancement finally came in Elden Ring Nightreign. Proper quest markers are placed on your map as part of Nightreign's eight Nightfarers, and are largely how the game tells its story. As you play through expeditions with each character, new Remembrances become available, which manifest as playable flashbacks.

Within the flashback you'll typically have to walk around the Roundtable Hold and talk with the other Nightfarers or the Iron Menial, the Roundtable's caretaker. While it's usually clear who you're supposed to talk to, everyone's location in the Roundtable Hold is constantly changing, and to save you some time wandering aimlessly, Nightreign actually puts a bright yellow exclamation point next to the required NPC's icon on your map.

Most Remembrances result in that character getting a Personal Objective, which is a special event that must be completed in Limveld during an expedition. Unless the objective is rather clear-cut, like defeating a certain Nightlord, Nightreign goes even further with the convenience by putting a red marker on your map as soon as you begin a match with a Personal Objective active, indicating where exactly you need to go to complete it.

This is, ittedly, not necessarily possible in many FromSoftware games that could benefit from quest markers, since its RPGs (and Sekiro) since Demon's Souls haven't featured maps like Elden Ring and Nightreign. It does, however, feel long overdue that a FromSoftware game has finally come around and makes questing more straightforward. Getting lost in FromSoftware's intricate game world design is intentional, and quests were able in the more linear games like Dark Souls, but became a clear issue for players in Elden Ring's wide-open world.

Nightreign Solved A Problem Elden Ring Still Struggles With

NPC Icons Help A Little

Considering Nightreign is a spin-off – and a pretty odd one at that – it's a bit surprising to see it make FromSoftware's long-needed jump to adopting quest markers. While I can understand arguments that they simply wouldn't work in Dark Souls or Bloodborne, on the of the player not having access to a map, Elden Ring should have been the game to introduce quest markers. The Lands Between aren't astoundingly large, but they're very dense, and it's tough to know how and when a questline can advance.

Elden Ring quests frequently progress by speaking with NPCs, who move to a new location after each conversation. When the game first launched, there was virtually no way to know where they could be found; you had to stumble across them, which is incredibly difficult in a playthrough where you go in blind, as many FromSoftware fans like to do. Without a quest log, it's also hard to keep track of so many characters after tens of hours .

FromSoftware took a half-step in addressing the Elden Ring quest design criticisms, adding an icon to the map for each NPC in a post-launch update. Now you can find each character rather easily, but it can still be difficult to know what is required of you to advance a questline, especially for those that have steps other than simply finding their associated NPC. FromSoftware's idiosyncratic quest design is, at this point, a staple of the studio's modern RPGs, but following Nightreign, it's perhaps one that would best be put to bed.

Nightreign’s Story Is Surprisingly Good & Easy To Experience

Unexpected From The Roguelite

Nightreign's roguelite structure seems like it would be at odds with FromSoftware's usual storytelling, but it's surprisingly engaging, and actually uses the game's mechanics to great effect. FromSoftware is notorious for sequestering important tidbits of lore in item descriptions, but the pace at which Nightreign is played doesn't give you the luxury of stopping to read – not to mention the pool of items is scaled back from Elden Ring's. Instead, the game encourages you to try out all eight characters so you can see every angle of their intertwined story.

Nightreign actually reminds me a bit of Sekiro in its storytelling. Each Remembrance is a flashback, not dissimilar but more disted than the Hirata Estate storyline. It plays with the game's premise in an interesting way, marrying the roguelite structure to each of the Nightfarer's stories. The never-ending battle against the Nightlords has affected the characters' memories, so you simultaneously uncover their past to learn the history of this Roundtable Hold while moving the current narrative forward in regular expeditions.

It makes you more directly involved with Nightreign's ensemble cast than you typically get in a FromSoftware game. The developer's iconic characters make lasting impressions, but they're usually a fleeting presence in a story that takes a backseat to gameplay. Nightreign's gameplay is still at the forefront, but all eight Nightfarers are united in a common goal, and their constant presence in the Roundtable makes you feel very involved in their story.

Each character is interesting in their own right, and they collectively paint a very broad but still mysterious picture of this version of the Lands Between. There are some very emotional moments, and the weight of their stuggle can be felt as you repeatedly enter Limveld and get rebuffed by the Nightlords. Elden Ring Nightreign seems rather straightforward at first, but some compelling character development (helped along by the introduction of quest markers) helps the roguelite tell an unexpectedly deep narrative.