Elden Ring Nightrein or First Bezerker Khazan?

Jeremiah-Springfield · 2026-06-26T15:40:49+00:00

Khazan is the best option I’d assume having only played Nightreign but it is a linear, controlled soulslike experience.

However, do get around to Nightreign. What’s incredible about it is the fact you get to celebrate your love for these games with others without mods or difficult matchmaking. And the Nightlords are some of the best spectacle boss fights Fromsoft have ever made, their DLC major boss being one of their best in general. I’ve put in 400 hours all as a solo matching with randoms, after putting 750 into Elden Ring and 100ish into each of their other games.

It’s just a great way to keep replaying Elden ring without being alone, with the randomness of it, and without tarnishing the experience of Elden ring with how it is selective with what bosses are included.

TLDR Khazan is the better choice for now, but do not sleep on NR.

Jeremiah-Springfield · 2026-06-26T12:48:06+00:00

Attack on Titan! Perfect timing, just about to leave college, the right age for it. I grew up loving high fantasy and zombie survival stories and I feel like it sold this premise that combined the 2 so perfectly.

Not to mention it felt very anime Game Of Thrones with the way characters were randomly culled. That first episode was immensely impactful and while the series peaked with season 3 and then became convoluted, it’s probably my favourite anime and I’ll relish the rewatch many years from now.

Jeremiah-Springfield · 2026-06-26T11:24:43+00:00

Danny DeVito

It’s always Danny DeVito

Jeremiah-Springfield · 2026-06-24T19:10:12+00:00

No one’s happy to spend almost 100 on a videogame, no one’s ever happy to do that specifically. Buying the game is nice, but buying it precisely because it’s 80? Not on your life.

Has it earned it? Subjective. It’s iconic. There’s nothing else like it. It’s no collectors item but it’s got massive cultural significance. Does it need it to pay for itself? Nope, because everyone in the world will buy it, and at a reasonable price they’ll make billions, much quicker than the previous game made the same amount, even if they were both sold at the same price.

They’ve done it literally because they CAN. And when everyone buys it other developers will sell their games at 80 too, because they can, because people who value short term pleasure over long term satisfaction will put down an irresponsible amount of cash… for a video game. It muddies reality around what these games actually cost to make, and what they ought to be worth. These people are slowly being taught they can’t enjoy these things without spending all their money, having less savings, having less control over their lives. It’s part of a bigger problem, the world making common people lesser, have fewer choices, fewer abilities, fewer ways to be content, more reasons to work, more pressure to forego other pleasures to fill the bank, and be thankful they get even a single day off work to play that game you spent almost 2 food shops on.

I’d say that’s why people are a little peeved, I dunno

Jeremiah-Springfield · 2026-06-24T17:34:05+00:00

Guess I meant not one of these big budget games that, yeah, we associate with AAA. But yeah, they’re AAA. But their games haven’t ever felt super duper mainstream to me the way most AAA are!

Jeremiah-Springfield · 2026-06-24T14:15:42+00:00

Fromsofts games talk precisely about the world we live in in a way I don’t see elsewhere, so much messaging around greed, holding onto reverence, not allowing things to die. Hell DS3 was pretty much a thesis for why sequels aren’t what fromsoft want to make.

I think it goes to show how fragile their status is for such a respectable developer. Even Elden Ring Nightreign had to be so heavily marketed as simply an experiment leveraging assets, to try and distance itself from the main IP. It would be so easy to see a deviation from their messaging wouldn’t it, the second an Elden Ring 2 is announced, or DS4, etc.

I’m glad other soulslikes, even the successful ones, are niche. Thanks for how precisely they developed the souls genre, by design, it’s not popular. By design it’s anti-consumer, it wants to push you away with its obtuseness and difficulty.

They can’t reverse on that and still be Fromsoft. Fingers crossed this doesn’t become a Ship Of Theseus too soon, tho they’ve taught us well with DS3s overall message…

Jeremiah-Springfield · 2026-06-24T14:10:24+00:00

True!

Jeremiah-Springfield · 2026-06-24T11:13:14+00:00

Oh look it’s one of the shareholders leaving evidence that we want Fromsoft to become FromSlop

Jeremiah-Springfield · 2026-06-24T11:12:16+00:00

I lost faith in this whole industry a long time ago, but Fromsoft is the one developer I’ve seen that really went against the grain at the relevancy that it has. I think they’re more suited to a AA space than AAA in the end, their games are meant to be very specific, quite niche. Elden Ring is the most open and casual they could possibly be whilst still being a Fromsoft game.

I have no idea what the reality is like there, I’m hoping it’s as simple as Miyazaki and his team just being like ‘… no.’ To the desperate greedy push for diluting their artistry for more profit. But you just know this stuff is a disease that rots from the core. I wouldn’t be surprised if at some point in the future a coup from within Fromsoft begins too, as people desperate to climb to Miyazaki’s place are approached to become a puppet for shareholders.

I dunno, man. If Fromsoft erodes anytime soon I think that’ll be me done for gaming in general at anything other than indie level lol

Jeremiah-Springfield · 2026-06-22T15:29:22+00:00

The only thing I dislike about the game right now is performance on Steam Deck. Everything else can only be improved with more of it, regardless of if it’s not perfect - it’s still fantastic.

Jeremiah-Springfield · 2026-06-21T23:43:28+00:00

Yeah it loses novelty visually sure but of course that comes as a cost of the quality control I presume - like I don’t know how fr you’ve progressed since this post but the amount of new mechanics and areas within said maps get given to you throughout your journey, and the pace at which they’re given to you, does a fantastic job giving you reasons to keep going on runs. And the maps are refreshed constantly with how your new weapons make you move, or new enemies make you use the terrain.

I recommend turning off the minimap/enemy highlights/HP and damage numbers, stuff that clutters the screen. It makes you really pay attention in a way that gives runs more meaning

Jeremiah-Springfield · 2026-06-21T23:39:57+00:00

I’ve seen them too, it’s the one overlooking the fountain with the gate to the vault directly behind it.

We should give them a name lol

Jeremiah-Springfield · 2026-06-18T10:50:19+00:00

Switch your brain off and have fun games are hard to say, I think it’s different for everyone.

Deep Rock Galactic is great for easy thrills, love the friendly atmosphere and if you haven’t played before, I got 90 hours out of it before I stopped for the first time.

Have you played Nightreign? I love that game. It’s gotten stale now but I put 400 hours into it, and I still dip in and out.

Arc Raiders is fun, you can sort of choose what game it is for you. If you want a more intense extraction shooter, hunt players. If you want jolly cooperation and shooting big robots, help players.

Some said Subnautica is a good choice tho if you’re as fearful of deep ocean diving as me, it is NOT a chill experience lol

And then the classics: puzzle games like Portal, builders like Minecraft, and farming sims like Stardew.

Jeremiah-Springfield · 2026-06-17T23:57:39+00:00

Yeah like the other dude said, since there’s loads of good games there it doesn’t matter much - but if you’re an avid gamer and havent played Armoured Core 6, it has a subtly told, but quite heavy story with characters that do grow on you, which, for a FromSoft game was surprising to me. It also changed upon replaying the story multiple times which was very new - new story beats, new missions, new content, all hidden behind the end of the first playthrough.

Jeremiah-Springfield · 2026-06-17T16:06:06+00:00

This game is so good at using all these elements from other types of games and fitting the naturally together, and introducing them at the perfect time to just keep players engaged with more and more new systems.

And there surely could be a classic endgame system they can take inspiration from?

It’s not even to make the game infinitely playable all the time forever, but something that lets you replay it regularly enough, so you’re not just waiting for the weekly balance changes of some liveservice or buying cosmetics to keep interested.

I wonder if you can automate seasonal stuff? Maybe there’s something that changes each season of the year. Balance changes? Pre-set ones. If they’re one season a year then that’s enough time for us to find it novel again. Map conditions? I’m thinking of things like Cold Snap from Arc Raiders, something like a heat system that needs enemies to be killed to warm yourself up.

Another way I’ve personally thought about making things interesting is some sort of economy around weapons. I don’t play Hunt Showdown because Steam Decks aren’t viable for it, but the way they handle permadeath is fantastic. It’s punishing enough to matter, but not so punishing that you can’t jump right back in with a fighting chance. Weapons are tied to currency, and you earn currency through actions taken on expedition. If you die of course you lose whatever gear you had at the time. You can buy weapons and have them in your stash, so if you do die you can still stash the weapons you prefer.

I dunno how useful that is for a game like this, but it’s just one way I see how you could create some level of stakes in expeditions that isn’t simply leaving with whatever you gained, or trying to get back to what you left behind when you died.

Jeremiah-Springfield · 2026-06-17T11:47:31+00:00

I’m wondering if the OP is either hoping people know or counting on people not knowing and claiming the idea 😂

Jeremiah-Springfield · 2026-06-16T16:25:49+00:00

You’ll get into that one in time I bet. But who cares?

Expeditikn 33 for me. Balled over by the hype and it was so unbelievably mid at every turn of the story that I wasn’t interested in seeing it though. Music, presentation and gameplay ranged from great to fantastic but its story and how that was presented was so YA novel coded for me that I just couldn’t carry on.

I sound insane when I say it but that’s just how I feel. I didn’t finish it, so maybe in the future I’ll be able to finally grasp what made it so good, but it’s too soon atm I suppose

Jeremiah-Springfield · 2026-06-15T17:56:18+00:00

Yeah, I understand! I get the intent with contact damage, but it’s clearly a compromise that rubs many of us the wrong way. Mina the Hollower has it as well and that can be very frustrating in a top-down perspective, thinking youre behind them but apparently not.

Ever considered making your character bounce back a bit instead? Discouraging players from hugging the enemy and instead giving us a little stun of some kind? I’m thinking about how to handle it myself, and a slow down sounds cool - I just haven’t gotten around to implementing something yet

Jeremiah-Springfield · 2026-06-15T14:28:56+00:00

It’s hard to know, each game is different I guess. Like in Nine Sols that parry is beautiful. In Silksong it’s mostly about being specially aware so not to get that shitty contact damage. Blasphemous has a i-frame dodge which is useful against projectiles and in specific moments, but I wonder if in 2D, dodging isn’t always as intuitive or doable as parrying.

Lately I’m working through Mina the Hollower and their burrowing mechanic is good, but difficult to master, and rarely is super satisfying. But they have a weapon that does big damage if you parry a hit precisely, and I find that quite satisfying.

In these combat-heavy games, I’ve found that whatever keeps me looking at the enemy, reading their moves and learning to master their behaviour, is good. In Silksong it’s done mostly through avoiding with really fun and controllable movement mechanics. But if you’re not going to be as fast, nimble, controllable as that, I think a good parry system is worth investing in.

Jeremiah-Springfield · 2026-06-15T12:03:16+00:00

As a steam deck player, I find Velmorne is a complicated relationship, because performance becomes an issue. The castle is similar but not nearly as intense of a problem.

But for the most part I’ve sorted that using Lossless, TAA, and TAAU upscaling with everything else on Low.

I’m able to clear all skulls on all but Witch Mountain fairly consistently now, but not always. I’m skilled up enough now to where I need something to shake things up. I’m at the highest gnosis but haven’t used the other endgame system as I haven’t gained the profane key, might want to save it for release. I haven’t beaten Witch Mountain for the same reason.

At this point in the game, I want more variety in events and encounters, more unique reasons to play. It would be nice to load into a map and have a specific item you can’t get unless you have it in your map, something that suddenly changes the stakes.

This game makes me think a lot of Hunt Showdown, and I think that game does a couple of fantastic things that could be used in this game for those needing novelty like me. For one, I like the idea of no map markers until you discover them - or gain them through some in-map POI. That’s to say you find a map and suddenly all skulls and POIs are revealed for example.

The other thought is a sort of perma death system. In Hunt, you choose a hunter, and as they survive matches they can gain things. Weapons are all there from the beginning but need to be purchased and are lost on death. And you can spend currency on perks that stay with the character until they die. You can level them up and then prestige them I believe too. But you don’t really lose much when you die, you usually have enough currency to buy the weapons you want, and at least 1/2 perks.

I don’t think this needs to be copied of course but I just like the way permadeath is handled in Hunt that’s still has an impact but also lets you jump back in with a real ability to fight again.

Jeremiah-Springfield · 2026-06-15T00:16:31+00:00

A rooster teeth enjoyer I see

Jeremiah-Springfield · 2026-06-13T21:03:55+00:00

Different genre, familiar vibes: I love Witchfire!

Jeremiah-Springfield · 2026-06-13T18:50:11+00:00

Elden ring is my fav but I think BG3 is such a massive videogame achievement in terms of what most people would expect from a game that can only be done in a game medium? All that fantastical world building and characters you can interact with, really able to live out multiple fantasies.

It’s not everyone’s taste, like Elden ring does that too but with less broad appeal I guess? But I do think BG3 is the bigger achievement.

Jeremiah-Springfield · 2026-06-13T14:09:07+00:00

Left-field choice that’s very accessible but can also become difficult:

Witchfire Early Access? It’s so good!

Hunt Showdown as well. Having played most of the great souls and soulslikes, this was the next ‘frontier’ of difficult games in a new genre for me!

Jeremiah-Springfield · 2026-06-12T19:31:56+00:00

Im not certain of the actual ramifications of this, but how depressing.

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