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ELDEN RING: NIGHTREIGN
19 Plays1 month ago
Join Dave and Jake as they (finally) embark on an expedition to push back the Night in this week's episode!
Intro:
- ELDEN RING: NIGHTREIGN - Nightreign
Outro:
- ELDEN RING: NIGHTREIGN - Caligo, Miasma of Night
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Challenges
00:00:02
Speaker
The End
00:00:35
Speaker
How's it going everyone welcome to another episode of soapstone my name is Jake I'm joined by my co-host is always Dave Welcome to the podcast Dave Thank You Jake for having me on um I know it's been a little bit with scheduling my agent talking to your agent and whatnot, but right I was gonna make this work. It was the union negotiations Those are the things that really were difficult um But we managed to do it and maintain our standard release cadence of once every two weeks.
Creative Aspects of Elden Ring Night Reign
00:01:06
Speaker
I'm going jump right into it because I have so many thoughts on this game and the real struggle is going to be able to shut up and allow Dave to also talk about it. Elden Ring Night Reign.
00:01:18
Speaker
ah So you made this game. what What what would you say about it? You know as a creator? Um, I would say one. Thank you for buying my game. It does mean a lot to me. I did put a lot of creative effort into this. Yeah, ah find a way to kind of reutilize some stuff and assets that we already have. Yeah. but give players a chance to have it be a little more relatable and accessible to the common gamer, um but also still have that fun elder in combat, just a little bit faster paced.
00:01:49
Speaker
Sure. And friends is a makes for a very chaotic and fun time. Yeah, I do appreciate that you put some Dark Souls to content in it as well for me. that I appreciate the olive branch. um But jokes aside, I recently picked up Night Rain.
00:02:06
Speaker
Dave was be you I don't know how much you played it, but you bought it pretty close to release, didn't you? Yeah. um I think there's a number of people. I'm also just as you know, and I'm labeled a from soft simp. Sure. And it looks good enough. And it's like, oh, let check it out. Some other friends picked it up, too.
00:02:25
Speaker
And it's definitely played. ah The first two to three weeks, maybe even a month. Right.
Gaming Community and Buying Behavior
00:02:32
Speaker
I would get some games going together with people. And it was it was a good time then.
00:02:36
Speaker
Yeah. And then I think other people kept up with it. And I kind of fell off for a little bit just playing some other things or just wasn't into it at the time. Yeah.
00:02:47
Speaker
But playing it again now um still feels very good, if not better. um I've liked what they've added. in that being a DLC. um Can't go into specific, oh, they made these changes, but.
00:03:05
Speaker
Right. It's a different map, at least. And some of that can be contextualized probably more as we talk about it, but. um I wasn't the only person who, you know, passed up a little bit. If this was Dark Souls 4, I obviously would have grabbed it immediately. If it was Elden Ring 2, I obviously would have grabbed it immediately.
00:03:23
Speaker
um Like Shadow of the Urge Tree, I played very close to release. But, you know, I was with those people who didn't pick this up back when it was released in May of 2025. Yeah. um know, I made it through almost the entire year without actually buying and playing it. was like waiting for a sale. There's a bunch of other games that we've already talked about, you know, that year.
00:03:44
Speaker
um But like many people, I think I was also a little iffy on this sort of like forced forced three player experience that they were they were pushing.
00:03:56
Speaker
um And I know i think you correct correct me if you know that I'm wrong, but I think it launched with three player support and i believe one player maybe. I think it was three player and one player, but there was like no specific scaling for one player. It was very little accommodation for it. And then later they added um two player and then I think more enhancements for single player.
Game Development and Nostalgia
00:04:24
Speaker
yeah that that sounds right um because i know early on the idea of not having doubles and for co-op it's like oh i'm adding another player at least one plus and they're like better be plus another one because it's three yeah yeah which felt odd um it's lot more difficult to plan for yeah yeah ah thankfully like they do have matchmaking so if you don't want have two people who are online you want to play with you can still get into games yeah but it is weird because a lot of games when i'm playing them co-op it's going to be with somebody i know typically one other person at a time um and it just feels really weird not to have that as an option yes out the gate
00:05:13
Speaker
Yeah, and i I at least remember hearing that concern a lot near the launch. um This is also kind of weird because i forgive me, I don't know the name of the actual game director, but Night Rain was basically a side project.
00:05:29
Speaker
They're like, OK, here's somebody who has has done you know good work within the company and they want to give this individual the opportunity to um kind of Experience game development from the director standpoint with like a fully fledged title, but this is not you know full mr. Dark Souls ah Himself um Leading it up as has been the case, you know in the past um And at the same time this was also like the content reuse game
00:06:00
Speaker
ah For FromSoft, which to you know a lot of hardcore fans is just like a love letter. right like It's great seeing all these old bosses from all the all the games and things like that.
00:06:11
Speaker
it Yeah, now. yes But even myself at the time, I had that feeling kind of itching at the back of my throat as far as like... Is this just like an asset flip? Like it felt cash in, you know, it felt a little short change compared to some of the other stuff that they had put out. Yeah.
00:06:29
Speaker
Um, but yeah, now it does just definitely feel like, Hey, this is all the stuff you like together. Yeah. Here you go. Have fun. Um,
00:06:41
Speaker
Because it was a while for them to add other things into the Dark Souls games as far as multiplayer options. Right. Like when they added the arena for like Dark Souls 3, that was like a huge thing. Like you could...
00:06:54
Speaker
play into people versus fucking around with summon signs. Yeah. And that was a huge deal. um it's It's true. And I don't know. I think the vibes were just very different, right? Like if you were, it could entirely be that you're used to playing Souls games in co-op with one other person or just by yourself. A lot of people just play by themselves. Co-op's incidental, you know.
00:07:18
Speaker
They do it a little bit. But the idea of tailoring an entire experience around this and needing to really have faith in the other people that you're fighting alongside in order to see success at the end of the day, it's a lot more of a commitment for that in Night Reign compared to previous games. And I think some of that and then some of the other things we mentioned that came out in the score. So I looked these up.
00:07:39
Speaker
Elden Ring base game. Absolutely excellent, you know, and you can't really compare Elden Ring and Night Rain directly. Not the same type of game, not the same scale of game. 95 on OpenCritic, which is like so, so, so good for a game that reviewed as widely as it did.
00:07:57
Speaker
Night Rain, 80%. eighty percent It was an 80, right? So this is 15-point drop. Also, 98% of critics recommended Elden Ring. 76% recommended Night Reign.
Gameplay Mechanics and Character Dynamics
00:08:13
Speaker
So these are massive differences in numbers. But I'm here to tell you, game's good. Yeah, this was one of those things where...
00:08:26
Speaker
I'm sure it's similar to how people had recommended ah things me in the past. Like, you should check this out. And you're like, all right, dude, yeah, we'll get to I'll get to this Expedition 33 or whatever it's called. um And then you actually check it out and you're like, okay, yeah, it actually is.
00:08:42
Speaker
i I was obviously very skeptical for a time. Yeah. um But it is nice to have you on board because I knew I'm like... Jake's going to go. He's going to pop off with this.
00:08:53
Speaker
Oh, yeah. He's going to and get locked into the strats and figuring out things way better than I had put effort into figuring them out. I'm like, oh, I just sometimes that thing showed up. I don't know. ah I mean, the the joy of wonder and discovery, that's that's fair, too. But if I can so scale it all out on a spreadsheet and understand all of the combinations, that also works. That's ah that's a separate type of enjoyment that I aim for sometimes.
00:09:21
Speaker
um But with all that preamble, we've talked about review scores and stuff like that. What type of a game is Night Rain? Say like I've i've only played Elden Ring. You know, i I load in, I fight a couple of guys, I sit down, I level up, I die to a boss 50 times.
00:09:39
Speaker
What's really different between that and this? um You won't be dying as fast? question mark That's good. um But it's very much like you kind of get in and go.
00:09:52
Speaker
You're selecting a character that is pre-made. Like they have a specific stat scaling, things they excel in, things that they're weaker in, and they have their own play style.
00:10:04
Speaker
ah So you kind of just get up and going with that. And then as you're killing things, you're leveling up, ah finding weapons or gear that's going to be good for you or maybe a teammate.
00:10:16
Speaker
And just trying to keep doing that as your area of opportunity slowly shrinks over time. Right. As the rain comes in. Yeah. Hornet circle, which will kill you. Yeah. um You can fuck around with it a little bit. like We've definitely left ah the the safety to go be like, oh, we can grab this one thing real quick. hu um it's Which is fun, but it's definitely a risk-reward thing. Yeah, because the effect is it's a heavy damage over time. like You can't just live out there doing whatever you want and outside the circle.
00:10:49
Speaker
And eventually the thing that graces will go away that refresh your health and your Estus Flask usages. So, yeah. If I could add one other thing.
00:11:02
Speaker
ah feel like Elden Ring Night Reign is a little bit born of like Elden Ring speed running. Sure. Yeah, because very much you're like, oh, I'm going here for.
00:11:12
Speaker
oh I need experience to hit level two. i'm going to do that here. ah Oh, I need this specific gear. Oh, I think I can possibly drop here and then I got to kill this boss here and then I can go here.
00:11:23
Speaker
So it does kind of feel like you are kind of actively doing that on the fly. Yes. Of what do I have time to go get based on how much damage I think we can deal if it's going to be like a really tanky boss.
00:11:37
Speaker
Maybe this is something we can do quick and then go around to another objective.
Game Strategy and Specialization
00:11:42
Speaker
but Yeah, it's fun to kind of prioritize on the fly. um i think that we have found typically the more drops, the better. And you can kind of get experience as you go.
00:11:52
Speaker
um if you ever find like four guys just walking very slowly along the road, one of them was walking with a fly. Yeah, the nobles. Undead nobles, yeah. ah You can use the character ability of Iron Eye and just kill them all at once. It feels very good.
00:12:08
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, it's um I 100% agree. Right. So this is this happens in a three day cycle. You get day one ah time to run around, clear what you can on the map, get your character progression. Circle starts to shrink in and eventually you're like forced into a boss fight.
00:12:26
Speaker
um day two do the same thing starting from where you are now um and then at the end of day two have another boss fight uh and then go into the night lord fight which um at the start of the game the standard mode is you're picking which one you want to fight they're all just listed there and it's just like this is the one we're hunting basically right similar to like monster hunter actually and that way you're picking your target when you set out on an expedition Yeah, so you can decide, oh, this is their weakness. I will try and get a weapon of that type. Right.
00:13:00
Speaker
And it could be like we we haven't talked a lot about the characters yet. um They are there's more depth to them, I would say, than I expected there to be because they're different than like starting classes in Elden Ring or Dark Souls or anything like that, where it's really just affecting your starting equipment as well as your um starting stat distribution.
00:13:23
Speaker
In Night Rain, you don't have like agency when you level up. Well, you have agency when you level up. You don't have agency when you level up. refuse to do it. So um all you have to do is just run up to a grace because, again, you're on the clock, um which I think is the thing that probably kept the most people from engaging with this game is this sort of like timed stress.
00:13:45
Speaker
It happened for Majora's Mask. I think it happened for this one, too. yep But... um You can just run up and as long as you have enough runes, you can just, you know, match the confirm button to ah to level up as much as you want, as long as you have runes.
00:14:00
Speaker
So the intent is you're not sitting there, you know, increasing numbers, making decisions while you're in the middle of the run. All of that's preplanned based off the character that you picked. Right. So the um a poster boy box art character, Wilder, the Wilder.
00:14:16
Speaker
Um, has like really good scaling and physical attributes, you know, strength and dexterity and good health, uh, scaling stuff like that. Very balanced. He's dumb as shit. He is dumb.
00:14:28
Speaker
Uh, doesn't have much for, intelligence or faith. Um, but is, you know, quite good within that niche. Um, And so the fact that you know that your level ups are going to be making you better in this area means it really doesn't make sense for the Wilder to be being like, OK, I'm going to pivot into spells. Right. You're like, great. Well, why? You're never going to be good at it. ah You're never going to be as good as the characters that can specialize there.
00:14:54
Speaker
um And if you wanted to go into spells, you would play a different character. um And that kind of. ah that kind of decision-making upfront offloads the cognitive load when you're in the game.
00:15:10
Speaker
Because you already know, you're like, it's a great sword. Wow, there's going to be pretty good with it, right? um Yeah, you're kind of picking roles similar to other co-op games um where your class is going to specifically excel in one area.
00:15:28
Speaker
Iron Eye obviously being range. So the archer is... maneuverability on his active and a lot of range for his ultimate. But while he is very good with bows, you don't have to use bows with them. True. Yeah, because he just has a really good dexterity scaling, so you could still go with something in that vein.
00:15:51
Speaker
yeah Or you could honestly just hold on to some items for um a passive they might have as far as this will deal poison or rot damage or bleed or passive effects such as, hey, your projectile damage will have less fall off.
00:16:08
Speaker
Right. And any of those passives will essentially act on your character at all times. Yeah, that's another that's another big difference to Elden Ring, right, is the um in Elden Ring, comparatively few items just had passive effects. It's just like all this is equipped. Yeah. yeah yeah Like you'd get weapon skills, which still exist here, and and those are kind of randomized except for for legendaries.
00:16:36
Speaker
um But in this one, most weapons have some number that they're increasing as the passive. So it's not just like, oh, I found Roger's rapier and I love using this precision, you know, stabbing attack or whatever. It's my favorite.
00:16:51
Speaker
um You could find a variant of that that has like an absolutely useless passive to you. And if you're planning on using a different weapon, you're like, OK, well, maybe I'd skip it this time. um But that's good because it lends towards more decision making in the run.
Team vs Solo Dynamics
00:17:05
Speaker
i realize this is the opposite of what I said, but you need a balance, right? You need things that are offloaded.
00:17:11
Speaker
um that are repetitive or you'd always pick like the same options for. And instead, you should focus to the decision making into interesting things that happen in the run that can also be decided you know pretty quickly, hopefully.
00:17:24
Speaker
Yeah, because things might change as you go or more than likely you'll be offered a choice that while you don't know the value of or if it even has value, you're like, this looks shiny as fuck. I want to give that a try. and it is completely natural there's nothing wrong with it it happens to all um growing individuals not yeah and it might change how you approach it a little bit obviously you're still on the same character you're going to have those same strengths and weaknesses that's not going to change greatly but i still feel like you can get away with doing lots of other stuff and just kind of experimenting with it because
00:18:09
Speaker
you have space to having teammates. Right. Like in the Elden Ring, if you're playing solo, it's just the boss is always doing something at you. Like it is a one on one fight.
00:18:24
Speaker
ah With this, i can like haul ass and go very far away. And they're like, I'm not dealing with it. He's too far. from This guy who's next to me, I want to hit him instead. Yeah.
00:18:34
Speaker
not I'm out there sipping my juice, um greasing my arrows and whatnot. Uh-huh. There's this active combat happening over here. You are establishing your sniper camp over yonder.
00:18:46
Speaker
um You see me very quickly roasting a chicken over. Yes, the full monster hunting experience. um Yeah, but the while we're while we're talking about the classes, the thing that stood out for me, and this was you know going back to the difference between this and the Elden Ring classes, is like they have unique um effects. right You were describing what Iron Eye had, you know a skill to like dodge through enemies, but you can also control it. So I've seen people do like ah half circle input where they dodge forward
00:19:23
Speaker
Mark an enemy in front of them, but then end up back where they started. Basically, it looks very anime and hilarious. It is fun. um And it's one of the best in the game, if not the best.
00:19:35
Speaker
um You don't have to share all the numbers for how it all works, but it makes enemies take more damage and opens them up to further attacks and also provides iframes for the entire move, which is really good. Yeah.
00:19:52
Speaker
But ah some of the other characters, they have like complex um skills in some ways, right? like the executor has a um a cursed sword that is basically like enter sakuro mode and gain the ability to deflect like it's sakuro um and like there's a whole and there's trade-offs there where it's like okay well now you your dodge sucks if you have the sword out your dodge is terrible you've opted into deflecting you can't go back on that like your your dodge is bad um
00:20:28
Speaker
And the the Recluse, which is like the magic user, has this sort of like metagame going on where um enemies or allies that suffer elemental attacks will have residue from those attacks.
00:20:42
Speaker
And you can like grab them off of those targets. and then use them to make a magic cocktail that ah will have a ah unique ah property. So usually the way it works is grab like three of the same essence and it's not terribly powerful.
00:21:02
Speaker
um On its own, it's just going to be like a basic sort of attack or something. um But you grab two different types of essences and it's a more powerful one. Some of them aren are quite powerful.
00:21:13
Speaker
But if you manage to grab three different types of essences, this is kind of the inner circle of the combinations. Those have the most powerful effects, but it's difficult to get three um reliably like off of a boss with everybody fighting it with their own weapons.
00:21:29
Speaker
Unless you're specifically building into it or maybe coordinating with your team. um I'm making some time for Dave you to step away for a second. So you've just got me now. I'm just talking about character effects.
00:21:42
Speaker
um the ah Some of the other ones are the Duchess who um is basically like the Bloodborne esque character and she um Has rapid dagger attacks and also the ability to restage damage Which is awesome?
00:22:04
Speaker
um So when you restage damage, the opponent takes a percentage of the damage that they recently suffered and ailments are also reapplied. So you can go from like a little bit of bleed to a lot of bleed or like, you know, cause them to actually trigger poison or something like that.
00:22:22
Speaker
Um, and she also dodges like an absolutely insane, super agile person. It's very funny to see the Duchess. Um, And each of these characters is unique enough that you actually get a different experience compared to just changing your weapon out.
Character Abilities and Playstyles
00:22:44
Speaker
um And the last thing, I'll hand it back to Dave, is they also have unique movesets, oftentimes, for their signature weapons. So like the Duchess has a special animation basically for using daggers, which is faster and ah honestly, devastatingly good and probably the only reason you'd ever want to use a dagger in this game.
00:23:02
Speaker
um um And ah the same is true of a lot of other characters. So. It's really cool. It's really cool.
00:23:13
Speaker
ah Did you s simp over the Guardian yet? I haven't talked about the Guardian at all.
00:23:20
Speaker
The Guardian, ah still trying to find a place for within the group. um it It feels less damage focused, I would say, in that ah its character ability will knock up nearby enemies, which is like a good form of CC or just to help interrupt yeah a channeling ability. Well, it works on light enemies, though, for the most part. Like the larger enemies, Yeah, if it's a crucible night, it's going to like, did you fart on me? What was that? I'm going to kill you, though. Yeah, they have. ah They tend to just punish you for doing your animation.
00:23:57
Speaker
um I don't know what his overall passive ability is because each character has their passive skill ability and then their ultimate art.
00:24:07
Speaker
Yeah, that's the steadfast one. The one where you can like hunker down with the shield and your guard boost is time ah five times what it usually would be. Or guard boost in this game and also Elden Ring is like the ratio that incoming damage ah affects your stamina.
00:24:25
Speaker
um So if you have like a really, really high ah like guard boost value, then you'll just shrug off the attack. You're like, what are you even doing? um and That's for physical damage.
00:24:38
Speaker
Elemental tends to get by it unless you specifically build against it. And they simplified a lot of those numbers for eldon ring or sorry for Night Ring compared to Elden Ring. um Where shields only have their guard value none of them as far as I know provide any elemental resist at all You have to get that through your character roguelike level ups and stuff like that your perk choices But he's really good with shield in short So if you're somebody who likes to hold l1 that thinks that's cool. Uh-huh. That is a character for you um
00:25:13
Speaker
That's also where his damage comes from, though, is his his as far as I know, his one viable path to damage, at least in the base game pre DLC, is you stack relics that make it so your guard counter attacks that they have increased damage or they have increased damage based off of your mac your current health.
00:25:33
Speaker
Both of those are really good on him and help get him some actual damage. And I will say you will get offered a lot of guard counterattack things throughout your playthroughs. You'll be like, this has never been useful to me. It's because you need to try out Guardian.
00:25:48
Speaker
Yes. Yeah. A lot of guard counterattacks are like, oh, I blocked you with my shield. He was like a dramatic but really short range vertical slice. And the enemy is just like, I'm not even and't going to get hit by this.
00:26:00
Speaker
The Guardian at least uses a halberd. He's also a bird man, right? So if if if you bird halberd if you want to be a bird man. The real question is, why is he flying around with these fucking eagles?
00:26:14
Speaker
Uh-huh. Right. Well... He's disabled. It's in the lore. um But I accidentally had a Guardian match with randoms last night because I meant to like load in and just test him out for solo. But I forgot to toggle the player count back down.
00:26:32
Speaker
And I immediately matched with two people. One of them was named grandson and the other one was named grandpa or granddad. One or the other. And i it kind of sold me on Guardian a little bit because I was like, all right, I'm going to play into the meme. Like I know Guardian. Does that mean your dad?
00:26:52
Speaker
ah Well, I guess maybe. You're in between. um But it was a raider who haven't talked about and Iron Eye. And there were several times, including like the final fight, where it was just like, I'm just clutching out, saving people.
00:27:09
Speaker
um Otherwise, being really defensive, you know buying them time, it took forever to fight this basic Arse boss. um But we did not have the damage. um but we But we beat him.
00:27:21
Speaker
And at the end, it was really nice. like Everyone's emoting and bowing and stuff like that. And it's just like... It's a very defensive team oriented play style on the Guardian. um His ultimate, which we haven't talked about ultimates at all, I think really.
00:27:36
Speaker
um But his ultimate is he flies up in the air and then will dive bomb down on whatever you have targeted. And it has a fairly large AOE. um But uniquely, it is, as far as I know, the only ultimate in the game that immediately picks up people that are at three bars of near death.
00:27:56
Speaker
Um, wait, I didn't actually know that is really strong. That is pretty good. Yeah. um I know from sciencing and playing a lot of Iron Eye, ah his old can immediately pick up at two bars. Yeah.
00:28:10
Speaker
So it feels weird to do it if somebody's just down because you're like maybe i can just ping with arrows a couple times. Pick them up. But ah the more bars you have, the harder it is for your team to get you up because they need to hit you with more damage. And the boss is usually not that distracted. So it's probably going to interrupt that.
00:28:29
Speaker
ah So certain alts will be very strong for that. And you want to like save it for it. um I mean, the Guardian specifically, I feel like you should never use it offensively. Yeah. Or I'm wrong. The ah the Revenant also obviously picks people up.
00:28:45
Speaker
um That's the nature of her alt is it just picks people up. But um But yeah, otherwise, it's really nice to have that in your back pocket. um we We could either talk about the near death mechanic or the ultimate switch one you want to cover.
00:29:02
Speaker
So near death, hit your teammates to get them up. That's it yeah It's not that exciting. the The only thing I would mention is like, it starts off with one quadrant, like one section of the circle.
00:29:13
Speaker
And it's usually like three hits. But then if you go down again and you haven't touched any grace in the meantime, it's two. And then if you go down again, it's three. And there's a massive difference between one section and three sections.
00:29:27
Speaker
Um, You mentioned this, but like usually the boss is little bit more interested in whoever is trying to revive. um And that's just math because the boss doesn't care about the people that are down on the ground. It doesn't go for like a coup de grace and boss fights.
00:29:44
Speaker
A coupe de grace. ah It just... ah has one fewer person to target and so it's more likely to target the person that can now get them up and that's obvious once there's only one person left right it's time to clutch um can you not die to the boss maybe get your allies up it's a tough spot to be in but it's exciting
00:30:10
Speaker
ultimates though they're cool Yeah, um I feel like Raider, who didn't get into too much yet, has a fun one. Totem Stella.
00:30:22
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. You do a big shout and they take this giant obelisk out of the ground. Mm hmm. I know it deals damage. I know it gives like um an AOE team damage boost. Yeah, it's like 10 or 20 percent, something like that. I think it's it's between it's 10 or 15. Yeah.
00:30:39
Speaker
um But the most common thing with it is because you're like summoning in this thing, a
Relics and Meta Progression
00:30:45
Speaker
lot of times people will just trap the boss in there yeah and just due to how it how the game operates, like they're just kind of stuck. Yeah. So hopefully you can like ah get some chip damage through the wall.
00:30:59
Speaker
um they did ah They did increase the AoE in the last patch. So now you don't really have to hit the boss with it directly. You just put it next to the boss and the boss will still take like the full damage.
00:31:11
Speaker
That being said, there are still some strategies where it makes sense to like be like, you're not trapped in here. I'm not trapped in here with you. You're trapped in here with me. And you just have created the Thunderdome by placing it to like in a dead-end room or something like that. Yeah.
00:31:26
Speaker
But... yeah certain characters appreciate it less like ah iron eye i assume and recluse where they're just like i can't even hit the boss now yeah it just destroys line of sight entirely it's the may ice wall effect basically yeah yeah it's always funny when games will put in a a possibly a griefable ability into games because it's always going to happen yeah even if it's not intentional yeah It is cool, though, and um we haven't talked about relics, but there's a lot of ways you can build the raider to be get more benefits around having the totem up.
00:32:05
Speaker
um Or technically other characters. like they're not They're not character-specific for some reason, so you can have other characters get benefits when the totem's up, which is very funny. um Probably not optimal, but again, very funny. Yeah.
00:32:22
Speaker
ah Real quick, I would just say the relics are kind of passives you can slot yes on your character. Essentially, it's just a loadout of I want these bonuses, whether they will be based off of things they get with at the start of the run or certain effects when I hit enemies or kill enemies or just better stats.
00:32:42
Speaker
Yeah. And also, they will have team-based ones as well. So maybe chatting ahead with your group to help synergize can be pretty valuable. Yeah, there's some ways to go absolutely crazy with synergy.
00:32:55
Speaker
It's also worth calling out. They are the this game's form of meta progression like outside of this. It's just picking level of difficulty picking, you know, ah which boss you want to target. But as far as like the thing that actually makes you better that you can determine outside of an expedition, it is the relics.
00:33:15
Speaker
um And some of them are quite powerful, like ah multiple skill uses, so you can like have multiple charges, or things that functionally just make your skills have multiple effects, um or like other passive bonuses. There's a lot that can be build-defining, actually.
00:33:31
Speaker
um So it's not like little numbers that don't matter. Like those are our options as well, but I kind of looked at the numbers and I don't know why I would ever just take intelligence, for instance, on a relic.
00:33:45
Speaker
It's like one point of damage per point of intelligence and it only goes up to like plus three. No, no, I don't think so. So when the slots are limited, you want as much text on a given a relic as you can. yeah um And those are going to be the strongest. Yes. Generally true, actually.
00:34:02
Speaker
um But yeah, ah back to the ultimates, though, um they tend to be so they're they're slow charging, but there are ways that you can like charge them faster with your relics, maybe like on enemy kill or on, you know, a guard or some other sort of triggering criteria.
00:34:22
Speaker
You can kind of cheese them out a little bit quicker. um And they tend to be pretty good at reviving people. They tend to be pretty good at boss damage. A lot of them also have the property of interrupting a boss in whatever he's trying to do.
00:34:36
Speaker
um Which can actually be good for like late game optimization as well because you could say like I don't really need the element that this boss is weak against that would interrupt it while it's charging its big super mega move if I punch it in the face really hard when he's trying to do that, right? It's the wilder approach to the problem or the undertaker, I guess.
00:34:58
Speaker
I could just go in there and like beat the shit out of him. Yeah. Which is very funny, actually, because some of those um those ultimate moves are like, I'm going to do this massive AoE like lightning orb around me. And so everyone else is running away from the boss. And then you see one wilder who's just like hookshot, jumping right up there to give them the fire uppercut.
00:35:21
Speaker
um It's anime AF and very funny. Yeah, it's wild is a very stylish a play style character, but ah using any of the ultimate abilities or character abilities for iframes, I feel like is one of the strongest things about them.
00:35:39
Speaker
hmm. So having them off cooldown can be super useful. Yes, again, in the case of Iron Eye, I can like dodge a hit and reposition. Yeah. Which will hopefully prevent further hits as well without needing to dodge.
00:35:55
Speaker
But Yeah, it's there's also no startup, right? Like if you're if you played other fighting games and things like that, if you have some super move, sometimes there's some frames where you can react to it or what have you.
00:36:08
Speaker
And in Night Rain, as soon as as long as you're in an actionable state, like you're not laying out on the ground or whatever, as long as you're standing up and you're not. I just popped up midair from some gravity magic. Yeah.
00:36:20
Speaker
Or you committed to like a heavy attack or something. As soon as you can activate your ultimate, it's just instant iframes, um which can be amazing.
00:36:31
Speaker
um And throughout the duration of it, too, it's not like on startup. Yes. And I believe I think most of the ults, if not all, can be charged.
00:36:42
Speaker
So like with um Iron Eyes, big ass arrow, you can draw it back further. So he holds it for longer. So it's more iframes. Yeah. So if the enemy boss is still doing its third AOE hit, you're like, I'm going to chill here just a little bit. yeah Catch my breath.
00:36:59
Speaker
Yeah, for FromSoft fans, you might you might note that that's like remarkably merciful. like That's not the way it would work in any other game. They would not have you just sitting there animating, pulling back a massive bow, or charging ah like a flame explosion, or dancing in the middle of the enemies, and then like just make you invincible during that.
00:37:23
Speaker
But they explicitly made that decision for Night Reign And it was brilliant because it makes those moves feel like even more impactful. And it reduces sort of, there's so many ways you could analyze this, but it reduces toxicity because you're not going to find someone who tried to do their ultimate, but then they got like hit by the boss and they died. And so everyone else is just judging them for being bad at their character or something. Instead, the moment that you pull the trigger on it, right, like the moment you you use that ultimate, like you know that it it will at least go off. You could still whiff yeah in some ways, right, if you didn't target the boss or something, but...
00:38:01
Speaker
Like never me. I've done it. I'll admit it. um But instead, they just focused on making that particular move feel really, really good.
00:38:15
Speaker
um And there's nothing wrong with that. I think the game's better for it. Oh, entirely. Like there are so many times I'll play when we're playing Rivals of Aether, Loxodon has this charge ability where he can get stacks of something up to three and he can do kind of like a Wario fart.
00:38:33
Speaker
ah There are a lot of times where I've tried to use it, but then I get interrupted by a jab or a light breeze. Yeah. And it's now gone. So it feels bad to have that taken from you after you've built up the resources. you're like I'm going to use my cool thing. Yeah. Just to add what Jake's saying, it's nice to have that.
00:38:54
Speaker
I'm a fire my button now. Exactly. Yeah. And there is still skill ceiling for it because like, like we were saying, you might be doing it um for the executor, you know, talking about some of these ultimates. The executor is he transforms into a giant crucible beast, which is basically just like a dog sort of thing. well let's you remember Okami. Yeah.
00:39:16
Speaker
Yeah. Very much like that. um And your moveset is all just like scratches and you can kind of like jump and like do smash attacks and stuff like that.
00:39:27
Speaker
um And then a ah option to do like this big hook, like magical claw attack, holy claw attack. i don't know if it's actually holy damage or not. Probably physical.
00:39:38
Speaker
um that will end your transformation immediately if you use that. But it's his most powerful attack. And as of the last patch, um does damage comparable with like other people's ultimates on its own, which is crazy.
00:39:52
Speaker
um But most importantly, it fills your health bar to like the midpoint on your monitor. Like he has so much max health. um And when you revert back to normal human form, ah your current health stays where it is. It'll reduce to your previous max if you had more than your max health in human form.
00:40:14
Speaker
And if you're like almost dead, you'll still be almost dead. But instead, you can just use it as a heal, right? Like, oh, I don't have many. I don't have Estus left or whatever. or maybe I don't want to use it yet.
00:40:25
Speaker
I'm going to transform, fight a bit a little bit as a dog and then just have my health be full. And there's like utility and stuff like that, which is awesome. um Also, you're a giant dog with sweeping attack. So it's really easy to just clear out tons of enemies or pick up allies. And it feels good.
00:40:43
Speaker
Yeah, there are lots of ways to skin the cat, so to speak.
Character Ultimates and Team Dynamics
00:40:48
Speaker
I don't have cats, so that's why. know um But it feels like there are a lot of approaches for going against a certain boss or using a certain build or strategy. And that even if you don't have all your bases covered,
00:41:02
Speaker
one of your teammates is going to normally. Yeah. Well, yeah, it's normally when you get to the final boss fight, no one has lightning because there were no lightning camps. ha But typically, like they will give you something like an option at a vendor. Yeah, um that could be useful.
00:41:21
Speaker
You could also just get, like, two lightning pots, right? Like, there are so many options for ways to to to solve that, right? Because usually if it's like boss is weak to this element, it's not you need to be doing that element throughout the entire fight. It's rather...
00:41:36
Speaker
um This will give you some advantage or the boss will have its big supernova move. And ah the only way to interrupt it is by staggering it, which could be hard.
00:41:49
Speaker
You have to use an ultimate or something or you deal that element. So you don't have to always go fully invested in like I'm just using that elemental weapon. I usually do because I'm lazy.
00:42:00
Speaker
um But there are other ways to solve it. Yeah. um Other cool character concepts and ultimate. So I talked about talk about executor and the Duchess and Iron Eye and Wilder.
00:42:21
Speaker
um And we did talk a little bit about the Raider. The other thing the Raider has is the I'm better than you. I now fight as Horlou Warrior punch attack. Yeah, he just puts away his weapon. He's like, ah, like revs back and then punches and he can't be killed during it. He gets a lot of damage. He can't be interrupted at all.
00:42:47
Speaker
Yeah. um It's just ignore death. You could be left at one hit point, but you you can't die in it. um And he has a bunch of skills where it's like, oh, the damage you took while you're like revving back to just like punch somebody, it's going to make you stronger.
00:43:05
Speaker
um It's a very good, like, I would rather not die to the things that's coming at me ability, which he and Iron Eye both share. Iron Eye is better, though, because he's just like, I'm just not going to be here.
00:43:19
Speaker
business And ah the Raider's like, I'll just take it like a man. I'll just get punched in the face. Yeah. It suits them, too, because Raider is very much ah an in their character. Yeah.
00:43:33
Speaker
Typically having a giant fucking weapon or two giant fucking weapons. Yes. Yeah, absolutely. will say I've grown a ah soft spot for Undertaker. Yeah.
00:43:44
Speaker
Who's ah one of the DLC characters. ah Do not know her passive I think relates to her old yeah, which I'll get to in a sec um Her character ability is trance Which I believe allows you to deal extra damage while you're in it. It also gives you the rally mechanic Yeah, so if you're missing some health that you've lost recently you can get it back by beating on some enemies I think it's a full stamina refresh too. So if you like run all your stamina out and then pop it it's just full bar and
00:44:17
Speaker
This gets me through another thing with Elden Ring. um And Jake and I were talking about beforehand. Some of the descriptions could be better. Almost all of them could be better, actually. yeah It's just the, I think...
00:44:30
Speaker
when you're told a thing you want to kind of know the specific number and that's not something that they're good at sharing most of the time like they'll share it with you a flat damage number for a weapon but other stuff i feel has to be science out a little bit too much versus just being provided um but her ultimate she basically takes a spine out of her back and turns it into like this witchy lance root spear thing yeah and she does like this floaty flying animation and travels really far and then it hits really hard it looks super cool it's from bloodborne i don't know what it is from bloodborne but it's definitely from from bloodborne
00:45:13
Speaker
um You think it's actually like a weapon art from Bloodborne? I think it is. I think it's a reference to something in Bloodborne, but I'm like 50-50 confidence because I just don't know what it is, but it's very similar to to some of the things you would see there.
00:45:28
Speaker
But it's decent damage and always interrupts. And her passive allows her to use her ultimate at any amount of charge if your ally has recently ultimate. Yeah. Use their ultimate.
00:45:43
Speaker
So I think you have like a six, seven second window to ah use it again. you can just use like three alts in a row, basically.
00:45:55
Speaker
And I've noticed that like when I old somebody else in team is like, I should all give Dave another old. the other person is like, I should also do that. So I'm just mashing my old as we now have cumulatively five alts on them the poor soul. Yes.
00:46:13
Speaker
Yeah, there is a... I saw a clip, I think it's closer to when the DLC came out, of three Undertakers in one fight. And the boss was just standing there. Because one person would use a normal ult. The two other people would use their copy ults.
00:46:29
Speaker
One of them would use their normal ult. The two other people would use their copy ults. That's nine ults. That's pretty crazy. um And, yeah, it's...
00:46:40
Speaker
it's It's very cool. It also like it technically has a hitbox. So there's like one of her her her relics. I think I saw it was like um you can like heal allies while you if you fly through them while using your old. But it's almost impossible.
00:46:56
Speaker
Almost impossible to actually line that up in this game. This is not a precision targeting game. Yeah, it's a all i'm locked on this target. OK, cool. going to hit them. Yes. If you're trying to use it free freestyle and good luck. You do like This is more out there than like a a Sonic Spin Dash or something like that. Like you you take an an arc to get to the boss sometimes with his ultimate.
00:47:20
Speaker
Yeah. um You can use it for mobility if you just like aim it up and out a little bit. It's going to be faster than running if you need to burn it to maybe get out of fire and not die. um Because it's very expensive to use.
00:47:35
Speaker
But you do travel a surprising distance. Yeah, it feels really good. So again, going back to them not really telling how things work, there is also another use for the Undertaker's old. This has to be like her actual old.
00:47:53
Speaker
um It can't be the the borrowed copy, but you can. um I don't even know the combination of buttons. It's probably something close to what would instantly restart a match in Super Smash Bros. You just like hit everything on your controller, um but you can activate your trance.
00:48:09
Speaker
in a way that consumes your ultimate to get a super trance.
Game Strategies and Co-op Experiences
00:48:13
Speaker
And that one, this is this is the effect. It goes from eight seconds to 15 seconds. You gain auto dodge that dodges all attacks while this is up.
00:48:23
Speaker
um yourll Your character will interrupt like her own animations to dodge boss attacks, which is crazy. Like you never get that in these games. Anime AF.
00:48:34
Speaker
Yes. um And it will dodge grab attacks also. Not just just attacks. It's just you will not be hit by things, basically. So good.
00:48:46
Speaker
Ciao, Belle. And then also, I don't even know if they explained this for The Undertaker. If you dodge a grab attack closely, like you're close to when the grab would have hit you, you also get your copy ult and can do it. So even in solo, you can actually get the copy against enemies that can grab you.
00:49:04
Speaker
Oh, damn. Yeah. I definitely have not been using super trance. Yeah. I mean, it's fair because you you're burning your ultimate charge, right? And it's very defensive in a game where you're like, but I could do more damage.
00:49:20
Speaker
Why would I be defensive? This is why haven't put lot of time in the Guardian. Again, the best CC, death. Always death. If you can kill the enemy, you don't have to worry about being hit by him anymore. It's true, yeah.
00:49:31
Speaker
I usually believe in this philosophy up until the run has failed. and The defeat message pops up on the screen. And then i then I start to have some doubts. Usually those wear off by the time I start another run. So...
00:49:44
Speaker
Yeah, it does feel good to kind of GG go next. Even like when a run goes to like 30, 40 minutes, would you say? Yeah, yeah. I think like a really successful run could be done in like 30 minutes ah plus or minus some change.
00:50:00
Speaker
um Runs that like you don't have as much damage could go longer because your end of day bosses and then the Nightlord fight, those have no impact on the timer.
00:50:11
Speaker
At all. Yeah, exactly. So if it takes you an hour to beat a boss, they'll tack on an hour to how long the run takes. But just know that is a very uncommon outcome with how aggressive some of these bosses are.
00:50:25
Speaker
And um you would have to be trying to make it make it take that long. It's usually ah you're going to be good or you won't. Yeah, it's really obvious when it's not going to be good.
00:50:40
Speaker
I think one of our our fastest run ah run endings was we we were playing with a third um ah from from your group there.
00:50:53
Speaker
And... As soon as we basically went up to face the boss, we each took a deal. The boss started, did an AoE, and then we all got caught in the very first AoE. Oh, yeah, yeah. And it was done. it was just like, oh. Oh, no I thought at the very least one of you guys would have survived this.
00:51:15
Speaker
I always get flashbacks to the Minecraft Ender Dragon story. We all went into the void for the first time at the same time, then the dragon just like... Fuck you guys. It flew at us knocked everybody off. Uh-huh.
00:51:28
Speaker
No chance to react. is just This is my house. Yeah. Yeah. But I would say that's that's pretty uncommon. um For the times that I've accidentally queued up with randoms, they've been pretty good experiences. I still do think all of that being said, like I would encourage people to not have apprehension about playing with randoms, but I do as well just because of kind of like who I am. But I also get a lot more enjoyment by playing with people in voice chat, which this game doesn't have. Thank goodness.
00:52:00
Speaker
ah So you you you got to coordinate in Discord or something like that. um I feel like even though this is broadening the Soulslike community ah to a wider audience, I don't think it's going to dilute the people because...
00:52:20
Speaker
Anytime I've done co-op with somebody like where i get summoned in, people are just so laid back and nice, and they'll be like, oh, let's go over here. And ah with Night Reign, you can specifically ping.
00:52:32
Speaker
It's like oh, hey, I think we should go here. And then usually people will mass ping somewhere else, or they'll ping same spot and like, hey, I agree with you. Let's go there. So you don't need the possible thing of like, you dumb piece of shit, we need to get another sip from the church. Yeah. Yeah.
00:52:49
Speaker
And there there's also like, I would say the bar you have to clear in order to be viable to actually complete the run, to defeat the boss at the end, um is not super high. Like, you can fail runs. Don't get me wrong. We have, I have, I've failed plenty solo. I've failed plenty in duos. haven't failed as many in threes, which I think is the easiest mode and also like what the game's usually balanced for, for the most part. um But like,
00:53:17
Speaker
like you There are ways to get hyper-optimized and you're like, we're hitting level 15 day one, like let's freaking go. but You can also just kind of faff about a bit like you could probably take a two minute AFK in and the middle of a run and not impact your chance of success all that much, um which is kind of crazy. But I know this is true because I've died to an enemy multiple times. Oh, yeah, that's the worst.
00:53:46
Speaker
And I know that it's taken at least two minutes. And then I went on and had a successful run. um it's not helping your chances we'll say that but like uh if the fear is crap i have to know the way to do this perfectly before i play the game um that is not where the bar is at all um i think as long as you're comfortable doing the combat and moving around um like jake said you can really faff about your pick oh i want to check out what this camp is kill some enemies
00:54:20
Speaker
You could probably still finish day night with like level seven and kill that boss and move on, I think. Yeah. um Absolutely. Now, the boss might kick your ass as it has with me on several occasions. um I might not be sad enough or I'm just unfamiliar with what they do.
00:54:38
Speaker
Yeah. but It doesn't feel bad to lose. You're just like, OK, so far we got and got some currencies, some relics. ah Let's go back and run it again.
00:54:50
Speaker
Yeah. And the relics are I know that there's they're kind of controversial in the community because like. They had to make a decision, right? Do the relics help?
00:55:04
Speaker
Like to a significant degree or not. And the reality is they do help. They can be like, they can be build defining. They can absolutely, you can have your relic set up in such a way. I'll just give an example. For like my most developed build right now is just the anti-RNG executor build.
00:55:24
Speaker
And the strategy is just take relics that make it so my weapon um has ah chilling mist.
00:55:35
Speaker
So I can make it like a frost weapon. It's a Katana, so it already has bleed damage. And then I just attach poison damage to it. Great. My starting weapon now does three status elements on the character that has the fastest element build up like in the game because they attached every all of the statuses to arcane forum for for for night rain. For some reason, I don't actually understand it, but whatever.
00:55:59
Speaker
um And now my starting weapon, I'm very incentivized. It's already pretty good. i don't want to get rid of it. Like maybe i could switch it out to another weapon if it was super super great, but I don't have to i can just upgrade it like over the course of the run um which you can just do by visiting a trader one time and then either visiting a Special Trader or go to a cave and get an upgrade material which is reliable it always drops there from the special enemy in the cave and
00:56:32
Speaker
There you go. If you don't like the idea of like having to vary up your build and make other decisions and stuff like that, you have minimized them to an almost absurd degree by running a build like that.
00:56:43
Speaker
And it's quite powerful. um While there are a lot of things that are RNG, certain things will always be guaranteed like that, where caves will drop smithing stones. That's what they're called.
00:56:56
Speaker
Yeah. Little camps will drop bows, et cetera. um So there's never going to be a oh, I can't find this at all.
00:57:07
Speaker
Yes. It's just different characters might get they might anticipate different rewards from different points of interest, like on the map, right? Like so some of them are good for pretty much everybody. And it's always good to get, you know, a um random choice of something that you can pick up.
00:57:26
Speaker
But like the Sorcerer Rises, for instance, Those are much more beneficial to Recluse and Duchess, who both have like in scaling and are more likely to to get something out of that.
00:57:39
Speaker
I'm pretty sure. Yes, du Duchess has it. I mean, I still get value for following them up there. Yeah. Running and just checking for, oh, here's 10K runes or a small passive buff. Right. That's.
00:57:56
Speaker
It's just like maybe another 10% stamina. Exactly. Yeah, it's not going to be something super crazy good for if you're a raider or wilder. Exactly.
00:58:07
Speaker
And that's the reason, like, I haven't seen it much, but, you know, it's also viable at times to actually split up and just say, like, I don't need that, but I am going to grab run over here and start, like, this ever jail or this camp or something like that.
00:58:20
Speaker
And we'll group up when we need to or when, you know, we're headed in the same direction. um I don't really encourage people playing like that because I think you're more likely to succeed when you're working together.
00:58:32
Speaker
There's so much personal responsibility if you go off solo, because if you go down, there's nobody to res you. Yes. They cannot get there in time. Um, so you're kind of kneecapping yourself, setting yourself back a level, which you have to then get from your runes that dropped.
00:58:50
Speaker
Um, Yeah, or possibly it's in an enemy that killed you. Yeah, I don't. It just it feels bad to burn the time on a death, even if you are with friends. Like if you're trying and you're like, oh, this spell bearing hunter is harder than I fucking thought. um It feels bad to lose that time.
00:59:12
Speaker
Yes. Yeah, and it also, like, there's a bleed-out timer, it's worth mentioning, where it's just like, hey, anybody could revive you, and for the next 15 seconds, or 20 seconds, or whatever it is, and if you're off solo, you're like, just let me end it now. Like, I just want to respawn. No one is going to make it here. You wish there was suicide button. Yeah, give up. The give up button, yeah. um But all of that is to say, like
00:59:44
Speaker
the The bar you have to clear is not so far up that you have to be hyper optimized. You can play with randoms and have a completely successful run. um You don't need to plan this all out in advance and just be like, okay, every one of us take an Everjail Relic. So we get maximum. We're each going be getting, you know, 4% attack boost. Everyone we clear or whatever.
01:00:07
Speaker
Absolutely not necessary. um And if you want to optimize that much, then great. If you have fun with it, kind of do sometimes. I think that's where the deep of night stuff comes in.
01:00:20
Speaker
Yeah. So I think anybody can honestly come in if they have some degree of comfort or like patience to learn some of the mechanics can do base. Elden Ring Night Rain.
01:00:31
Speaker
And then you get a little more comfortable. There's the ever dark versions of bosses where It'll be a more challenging version of the boss usually introduce something new. Yeah. um Special currencies as reward and stuff like that.
01:00:46
Speaker
But then with things like Deep of Night, you get to unlock more relic slots and that's more like, oh, here's a specific build. I'm going for a specific run. Let's see how far we can get. How much challenge can we take on?
01:01:00
Speaker
specifically for those people. um But that is an optional thing.
Replayability and Recommendations
01:01:06
Speaker
It's not even unlocked until you beat the game. Yeah, you have to you have to at the very least beat the actual canonical like final boss to get there but um i think each boss is challenging well maybe outside of one or two uh are all challenging enough it's character dependent and interesting as far as like when you get their relics after defeating them um they're always going to be very strong always going to have three effects i believe yeah um You're like, oh, cool. How can I leverage this now?
01:01:43
Speaker
And if you're somebody like me who enjoys that path of exile degree of possible build customization, and you're like, oh, the possibilities. What ah what if I tried this? um Really do have the opportunity to. Yeah.
01:02:00
Speaker
And I agree. i'm just going to piggyback on that. That is the the point I would end on for for Night Rain. If you like learning, and the way that you would like learning about weapons and skills and interactions in Elden Ring.
01:02:16
Speaker
Night Rain captures that 100%. um They are still not the best at always describing how things work, as we've said. So sometimes you do have to check, you know, a wiki or something like that to get the the full picture. You're going to have to do a Google or two.
01:02:33
Speaker
um But also the people in the community, like a lot of people will be familiar enough with the game to lead somebody who is newer. Yeah.
01:02:45
Speaker
um And I've learned a lot that way from just playing with people who are more experienced as well. Yeah. And it it shouldn't be intimidating because, I mean, a lot of people have, you know, grace for new players.
01:02:57
Speaker
um And yeah, it's it's very much the type of situation where I feel like a lot of people have this perception of the Soulsborne games where they're like,
01:03:10
Speaker
You have to be this arcade player. You have to have like these fast reflexes and everything like that. It's like, oh, the bosses are so hard. The game's just so difficult. No, not really. um For the most part, there is a little bit of that at times.
01:03:23
Speaker
Shout out to the Orphan of Koss. But ah other times, and including the Orphan of Koss, it's actually just knowledge. Right. It's like it's learning what a boss can do. Learning how you should respond to that.
01:03:36
Speaker
The most dangerous thing that gets people killed in these games is actually just impatience. It's literally just I was attacking and the boss was also attacking and that was bad for me. So, um...
01:03:52
Speaker
Like so much of that knowledge building just being core to the experience is 100% here in Night Rain. And that knowledge is what leads to success more than anything else.
01:04:04
Speaker
Yeah, it's kind of like super punch out if you think back to it where like the boss has like their tells and their moves and you're like, oh, he's going to do three side swings. um So, you know what or you learn what to do in that situation of, oh, i'm going to dodge the opposite way three times.
01:04:25
Speaker
Yep. In the same way, bosses will have patterns. They are learnable. um Something we have encountered is sometimes the boss will switch targeting mid-move. yeah So you might get a surprise hit um on you once or twice.
01:04:45
Speaker
But TLDR, the process is very fun. And it's fun to do with friends. And if you're not sure how good it is, Just listen to the BPM of Jake's voice.
01:05:01
Speaker
it is It is very enjoyable. Yeah, it is like crack. It is a good game. It is better than the critical reception would indicate in my mind. um But understand if it's not for everybody. I still recommend it, especially if you're a growing fan of the Souls series.
01:05:18
Speaker
That should be part of it. Find one other Souls fan. It could be us. Find us. And play this freaking game. It's good. It's good. Um...
01:05:29
Speaker
And that is Night Rain, the game that I probably should have covered last year. I should have been available to cover, I should say. Dave, to his eternal credit, was probably ready to cover this in May, maybe April. But but I got there. um And unlike some of the other games where i'm like, okay, episode's done. I'm never going to play this again.
01:05:51
Speaker
Occasionally happens. um Yeah, I can think of a few. Yeah. Though to be fair, it's not just me. so how How much have you gone back to Revengeance? Really? I do i knew that was the one who played me. Yeah, I do plan on playing more Night Rain. I don't have the DLC yet, but once I once i get there, I'll do that.
01:06:11
Speaker
um And yeah, play the game. It's good.
01:06:17
Speaker
Thank you guys for listening. ah All of our contact information is in the socials if you want to suggest a particular episode or just like this one. Or maybe you can respect our decision to play Night Reign but you um politely decline the invitation to play future games. Let us know there.
01:06:35
Speaker
um Those are linked in the description as I said.
Conclusion and Listener Engagement
01:06:36
Speaker
And as always, we'll see you in the next one. Good luck, Nightfarer.
01:06:54
Speaker
I'm sorry.