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It's hard to properly express hatred. In comparison to the choking fire in your chest that real hatred sparks, the word "hate" feels diluted and tame. I'm explaining this because, when I say that I hate the Nameless King, I want you to know that there is truly nothing in the English language that can plumb the depths of my loathing. The dragon-riding Dark Souls 3 boss is by far one of FromSoftware's crowning achievements in bastardry, so when he turned up in the reveal trailer for Elden Ring Nightreign, my heart plummeted – but I can't say I was entirely surprised.
After all, FromSoftware has mastered the art of smartly recycling its bosses. And, loath as I am to admit it, there are few bosses as worthy of a comeback as the Nameless King. His battle – where you must dodge lightning, spears and a dragon atop a mountain's summit – is one of the studio's coolest boss fights to day, and although I'd rather watch the headlights of an 18-wheeler bearing down on me from the tarmac than see the Nameless King divebomb me once more, the spectacle is undeniable. His return also suggests that in Elden Ring Nightreign, FromSoftware will spend 2025 doubling down on one of its guiding philosophies: if something is cool, do it again.
Everyone is here!
Developer: FromSoftware
Publisher: FromSoftware, Bandai Namco
Platform(s): PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S
Release date: TBC 2025
As anyone who's killed their fair share of Tree Sentinels and Erdtree Burial Watchdogs will attest to, Elden Ring is no stranger to recycled bosses. These reused battles tend to take place in optional areas of the game, and if you're lucky, make slight tweaks to the original fight (the classic being: oh great, now there's two of them).
Done poorly, this would dilute the identity of each fight and take opportunities for discovery from players exploring The Lands Between. Instead, we get an upping of the world's stakes: we soon pick up on these minibosses being able to appear anywhere, which lets FromSoftware sprinkle boss fights into areas that may otherwise have gone without. For the most part these bosses also tend to be optional, which means that the core journey from stepping into Limgrave to rolling credits largely flows from one unique boss fight to the next. The only real exception to this is in Shadow of the Erdtree, where Radahn returns as Promised Consort Radahn. Even then, the fight is so drastically different – and crucial from a narrative perspective – that it shouldn't really be considered a rerun in any traditional sense.
Though Elden Ring is FromSoftware's boldest shot at repetition by design, it's something the studio has played with since the days of Dark Souls' Black Knights. Just look at Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, which uses bosses like Genichiro Ashina and the Guardian Ape to establish familiarity before pulling the rug. I understand why some players don't enjoy returning bosses as much, but disagree with those who label it lazy – particularly for Elden Ring's dungeons and open-world areas. I can only imagine how challenging it is to keep the scope of a huge game like Elden Ring feasible, and in many cases, the alternative to a repeating miniboss is that there would be no boss there at all (that is, if we ever wanted Elden Ring to release in our lifetime).
If the cyclical nature of Elden Ring Nightreign gives FromSoftware room to dabble in wilder comebacks, I'm all for it. Is that the first Dark Souls' Centipede Demon I spy in the trailer? Will we see Father Gascoigne elbow-drop Mohg from the top rope? Hell, let's scare everyone with a shield build by bringing Gencichiro back for round four. If we're going big on the battle royale mechanics – yes, you fly into the map and have to avoid a shrinking circle – then why not go full Fortnite and make it the who's who of Soulslikes? I don't want Nightreign to awkwardly force its way into the same circles that FromSoftware's other games already dominate – I'd much prefer it uses its black sheep status to celebrate the studio's rogues' gallery of bastards.
Before Nightreign's reveal trailer, I didn't think I'd ever be happy to see the Nameless King again. But – and I say this through gritted teeth – it is incredibly cool to see him free of Archdragon Peak. By once again taking the familiar and twisting it anew, Nightreign has potential to be the most groundbreaking reinvention we've seen for Soulslike in years. That alone makes Nightreign worth counting down the days for, but it also solves a question that's been hanging over FromSoftware since Elden Ring's vast mainstream success. How do you follow up from one of the best single-player games of all time? It's simple: you don't.
