Elden Ring Nightreign Finally Revolutionizes One Of FromSoftware’s Most Interesting Ideas

screenrant.com:

inherits practically everything from its predecessor, and by extension, older FromSoftware games, despite its wildly different gameplay loop. The developer's action RPGs have long featured compelling co-op and PvP, but they also make consistent use of asymmetrical multiplayer elements. The messages that players can leave for others to read and rate are the most famous, but the translucent phantoms (sometimes referred to as ghosts) that appear can be just as helpful, and these are undergoing a major change in .

Like many FromSoftware multiplayer features, phantoms originated in 2009's. They're nearly real-time recordings of other players in the same area, letting you see where people go and potentially hint at obstacles they run into. They go hand-in-hand with bloodstains, though bloodstains have to be interacted with to see how that person met their demise. Phantoms have been a passive feature for their entire existence, but reinvents them to be actively useful.

Considering 's incredibly fast pace, seeing a phantom sprint by for a few seconds may not be particularly insightful. So much variance between runs also mostly defeats their purpose from earlier FromSoftware games, where dungeon crawling can be a slower, more methodical venture. It seems that with this in mind, the developer has added a new wrinkle to phantoms. According to the Starter Guide on publisher Bandai Namco's website, released prior to 's Closed Network Test, ""

An Ultimate Art is a powerful ability unique to each Nightfarer, i.e. the eight playable characters that will be available when releases on May 30. From the four confirmed Nightfarers – those that were playable in the CNT – Ultimate Arts are generally either attacks that deal significant damage, or buffs that provide the caster or the whole team with an advantage. They're incredibly useful when fighting bosses, and combos that string Ultimate Arts together can often make quick work of certain encounters.

Nightfarer

Ultimate Art

Description