Nightreigns missing puzzle pieces
Elden Ring Nightriegn is a new experimental title by Fromsoft putting a rouglelike spin on the tight combat of Elden Ring with some intresting quirks like no fall damage wall jumping among other changes.
After putting in about 80 hours, I see some glaring issues with how the game is structured and how some small changes could play into the strenghts of the rouglelike genre.
WhAT IS MISSING?
Roguelikes are meant to thrive on diversity yet Nightreign seems scared to offer any unique ways for players to use their characters, while you can use any weapon with any character each character is given a buff and a special moveset for their corresponding weapon class disincentivizing variety, characters also have set loot pools which feature a lot of the same weapon classes
What are the two biggest issues?
Nightreign's characters are builds that you cannot affect in any meaningful way; you can only make stronger versions of them, but never create anything unique, unlike in other roguelikes. This coupled with your path to the end also being monotonous, makes playing this game, a very repetitive experience.In my opinion the main problems with the game are -
The way you move through the map stays the same
Your builds result in you playing the same way
How to increase the interactivity of the map?
It is never worth completing the smaller camps, which is why players focus evergoals and the central castle/shifting earth, this makes every run repetitive.
Nightreign's shifting earths system aims to remedy this issue, but its current tuning makes it an infrequent and prolonged event. Shifting earths currently appear in roughly 1 out of 10 runs and remain the same for several rounds or until a successful run. A more balanced approach would be to increase it's frequency to approximately every 3 runs and have them last for only one run. This would maintain their special appeal without making them an unecessarily rare occurrence.
Smaller points of interest, such as ruins or camps, are typically ignored unless they contain an element the team requires. More importance could be allotted to these lesser areas by introducing a new system of bosses. For example, if players complete five ruin-type areas, a DS3 boss could spawn on the map with their location revealed and a unique buff tied to them. This encourages players to challenge lesser areas while also considering the potential buff and boss encounter, thereby adding further intentionality and buildcrafting opportunities.
