Elden Ring | Nightreign: The Forsaken Hollows Update

[Dragon Lord]

Fromsoft has always been pretty dog shit at optimizing their games.

Demon's Souls had Valley of Defilement which caused the game to run like shit (plus other areas where it got really choppy).

Dark Souls on PS3/Xbox 360 was infamous for how god awful the game struggled in Blighttown and Lost Izalith.

Dark Souls 2 on PS3/360 has some really terrible parts. I don't remember if Scholar on PS4 had the same issues, been a long while since I played it on PS4.

Been way too long since I played Dark Souls 3 on PS4, but I'm willing to bet there were some areas that struggled despite having no good reason for it.

Can't comment on Sekiro since I haven't played it yet.

The only Fromsoft game that I can think of that hasn't struggled on at least one platform is the Demon's Souls remake, which Fromsoft had nothing to do with in the first place. At least I don't remember any areas having issues in the remake. Even the Valley of Defilement was smooth.

It's not surprising knowing Elden Ring struggles every where. The game was much too massive for Fromsoft's level of talent when it comes to optimizing games. They really should have just stuck to what they do best (really good interconnected worlds) instead of chasing mainstream mediocrity with a huge open world game.

Anyways, I've decided hold off on the DLC for a while. Between them nerfing a lot of fun weapons pretty badly the day before DLC release and the DLC being as big as it is with absolutely zero new trophies/achievements, it's not really worth $40 any more. I'll wait for a sale on all platforms before picking it up.

[Moonface]

I can't say I've ever noticed any frame rate drops in Sekiro, but the game also has no large areas comparable to any of the regular Souls games so perhaps that helps?

I know Bloodborne runs at 30fps but I can't remember if that game has any performance problems or not.

Another big issue I have with the DLC is the lighting. A lot of the time there's a fog over the world like what you'd expect to see in old school games trying to use fog to hide draw distance limits, but the problem in this DLC is that the fog is everywhere like it's Silent Hill so trying to make anything out feels really hard for me. If the in-game time is set to night I can't see a damn thing even with a lantern and the brightness setting cranked all the way up, and then with the fog on top it just strains my eyes. I haven't been able to play for an extended session once yet because after a couple of hours I can feel a headache starting to come on from straining to see so often.

[Dragon Lord]

Ah yes, I forgot to mention Bloodborne. Despite it being my favorite of the Souls games, it is atrocious when it comes to performance. The game runs at a maximum of 30 FPS, but rarely ever sit there. Most of the time it feels like it's running 20-25. Some areas in the game make you worry that your PS4 is going to explode because of how hard it has to work to run the game.

Then you add in multiplayer. Hoo boy, do you want on of the laggiest, must un-fun co-op experiences of your life? Try some Bloodborne multiplayer. Game lags so bad that you'll take hits from bosses that weren't even near you, and you can suddenly just die out of no where because while it looked liked nothing was happening, in reality (on the host's screen), you just ate 5 straight attacks from the boss and got killed.

Love Bloodborne for its combat and lore/setting, but the performance was a nightmare and that's why people want an updated and improved PS5 and PC port.

I haven't watched any of the DLC yet, and obviously as I mentioned, no longer have any interest in getting it any time soon, so I can't comment on the fog thing. I do find it pretty hilarious though that the DLC runs as bad as the base game did when it first released.

Alsoall the nerfs they did to a lot of fun weapons to try and make players not as strong, and yet they left fucking bleed alone, lmao. I can still stomp any boss in the game in seconds with either dual bleed Twinblades or dual bleed Curved Swords. Fromsoft absolute, literal clowns for that patch.

[Moonface]

Man, FromSoft seem very insistent with every patch for the DLC that frame rate issues primarily lie with the users and not their game. Today's patch just tells PS5 owners to boot up in safe mode and rebuild their database if they have frame rate issues which is ridiculous.

That aside, this DLC has one of my favorite bosses ever in Bayle. Just the build up to his fight alone is superb and easily the best build up out of any FromSoft boss I've encountered.

[ShiraNoMai]

Bro someone fucking one-shot Radahn DLC Boss version. Over 90,000 damage dealt with ONE SHOT!



Link in case embed doesn't work

[Moonface]

I'm assuming the madman is aiming to one-shot every phase of every boss, only because the clip title doesn't make sense otherwise because it's of the streamer one-shotting the first phase. Still incredibly insane though and I wanna find out what they did to achieve it; hopefully it isn't just grinding levels to be so OP they can one-shot everything and involves some more intricate setups.

[Moonface]

Just realized I messed up with my last post; they're one shotting the whole boss fight but I forgot a cutscene plays when the health bar goes low enough and then the boss will die when the cutscene finishes. 

That video has already been massively surpassed though, with someone managing to get 143,411 damage on NG+7 as the current record. A few others did it before this one with more than 100k damage and they're all now being dubbed as a lower deck build because they're using so many buffs the buff icon bar is going into a second row.

[Moonface]

Elden Ring: Nightreign | Reveal Trailer
A brand new standalone co-op action-adventure game set in the Elden Ring universe is coming to PlayStation, Xbox and PC in 2025.

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Not sure how I feel about this. I'm hoping co-op isn't forced because if so then I'm definitely not interested.

[Dragon Lord]

I bought the game on release, played for 40 minutes, instantly refunded. First time I've ever refunded a game on Steam. Thought it was absolute crap. Got to the first night and ended up with a Bell Bearing Hunter that I couldn't damage and got one-shot by.

I know they've fixed the balancing for solos since then (kind of) and have added duos. A friend and I may give the game another try with the addition of duos. Definitely a game that is an acquired taste.

[Moonface]

I've watched a stream of Nightreign a few times, and the one thing I can't shake about the game is it gives me the impression that unless you play it sparingly that runs will inevitably start to feel rather same-y, kinda like how Phasmophobia can end up that way to use an example I know a few people here can directly relate to. I know Nightreign sold very well at launch but I wonder how different it would have been if it were a free mode included with Elden Ring in the way that Ghost of Tsushima: Legends is.

[Moonface]

Elden Ring Nightreign: The Forsaken Hollows | Reveal Trailer
A new expansion for Elden Ring Nightreign was revealed during today's State of Play presentation, offering additional Nightfarers, Bosses and more.



Elden Ring Nightreign: The Forsaken Hollows will be available on December 4, 2025.

[Mr EliteL]

Looks good. I'm annoyed I couldn't properly get into Elden Ring. Maybe I should give it another shot but I doubt it. I'd probably just follow a guide but I don't particularly want to do that.

Also anyone going to guess what the next sub-title will be next under The Forsaken Hollows? Featuring Dante from the Devil May Cry Series & Knuckles perhaps.

[Dragon Lord]

Seeing them add fan-favorite bosses in Artorias and Gael is nice, though the problem is if they don't update them like the other previous bosses, then it's just going to be disappointing. Elden Ring is so much faster paced than Dark Souls was, so if Artorias is still going to be as slow as he was in Dark Souls, he's just going to be a super push-over boss.

I don't have much hope because they didn't update Gaping Dragon, Centipede Demon, The Duke's Dear Frejya, Smelter Demon, Dancer of the Boreal Valley or The Nameless King. They are all just like they were in their original games and that makes them kind of piss-easy to fight at Elden Ring's speed and the options of combat they had. Fighting a Dark Souls 1 boss when all you had back then was normal weapon attacks, spells and dodge rolling, but then in Elden Ring you have normal attacks, ashes of war, much more advance spells, jumping, faster movement, faster rolling, tons more buff options, etc..

So I really hope they put actual effort into Artorias and Gael, and give them updated move sets and increase their speed overall. Gael won't suffer as much, because Dark Souls 3 isn't too far behind Elden Ring's faster pace, but Artorias will suffer if they just copy/paste him into the game like they did the other Dark Souls 1 bosses.

Also if they don't add Pursuer in as a boss that can randomly spawn to hunt you down, like Margott does in Nightreign, then they still messed up. The fact that they literally have a boss in Dark Souls 2 named "THE PURSUER", whose whole lore is that it was supposed to hunt you down in Dark Souls 2 (this is why they added a bunch of extra ambush spots in Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin where The Pursuer would spawn) and yet did not add it to Nightreign, where it would have been PERFECT, is a crime against all Dark Souls fans.

[Moonface]

Looks good. I'm annoyed I couldn't properly get into Elden Ring. Maybe I should give it another shot but I doubt it. I'd probably just follow a guide but I don't particularly want to do that.

What was the reason you couldn't get into it again? I can't remember.

@Dragon Lord: Given this update is DLC and not just a free update like the previous one was, I would hope more effort is put into the ported bosses to make them fit better into Elden Ring, but I guess the question is does that work require more effort than the asking price of $15 that this DLC wants?

[Dragon Lord]

It really shouldn't. Dark Souls DLC was $20 back in the day, and it was amazing. Added some of the best bosses in the series. Bloodborne's DLC is still considered one of the best DLCs for a game ever, and it was also only $20. If they don't put any effort into the DLC because it's only $15, I think it'd go to show that the team doing Nightreign isn't worth letting make another game.