FromSoftware has let the cat out of the bag to all the Tarnished, and this has made the Elden Ring community buzzing with extreme excitement. The Twitter account of Elden Ring has stated that the new expansion DLC, which is called ‘NIGHTREIGN The Forsaken Hollows,’ is coming, and it will be available on December 4, 2025, and this has been confirmed in an official announcement. The tweet that was sent with it carried a rather cryptic message: “Let insight be your sharpest edge. Use every tool, and exploit every flaw. And remember, even gods have weaknesses.” It is basically FromSoftware style: a little bit dark, a little bit vague, and undeniably thrilling.
So, what is Nightreign? Apparently, based on the ongoing community discussions, it is either going to be a completely different game or just an experience within the Elden Ring universe but the new teaser calls it ‘The Forsaken Hollows’ and also mentions a launch. The use of words is somewhat confusing, which has resulted in some misunderstanding but mostly happiness. The essential thing is that the end of 2025 will see more Elden Ring content and the gamers are already analyzing the announcement letter by letter.
Justifiably, the players’ reactions can be described as a perfect mix of pure joy and typical hacker doubt. One user, @oshgeela, in no time at all gave the best expression of the general sentiment, “This can’t come soon enough.” The excitement is real, dear readers. A different player, @DerekDidear, while commenting on the revealed character or enemy said, “wait he looks cool” and this is how the highest level of appreciation that a Souls-like community can show is succinctly stated.
There was a little drama involved as a part of the entire gaming revelation. LingelKun appears to be that just one person who is against Nightreign, as the user has posted negative comments on various threads. One of the times this user said during one of the discussions, “I want something new in Elden Ring, not neightrein ðŸ˜,” which indicates that the user is hoping for a traditional single-player expansion instead of what Nightreign might eventually be. Thus, the correspondent dispute arose, with @RobsonHentz adding, “Wtf you’re talking about?! Nightreign is peak! It could use more content more quickly but it’s 10/10.” It’s really an extremely passionate argument, and both sides are expressing that they care a lot about the franchise’s future direction.
Some of the most interesting comments were the ones that hinted at the different gameplay mechanics. @Cell_Soulls drew a resemblance between the two, saying, “His ult is just adam warlocks soul bond and i’m all for it,” which indicates that a new character may possess an ultimate skill of linking or bonding with characters. In the same way, another user, @Matthew_Harbour made a hypothetical statement in one thread, “Based on description, it seems like in solo boss fights the ultimate is maintaining half a recluse ultimate (with healing via doing damage).” It seems that the gamers are already in the midst of theorizating about the builds and tactics based on the minutest fragments of information, which is, of course, a very enjoyable part of the pre-release stage.
But then, the scenario of the typical RPG experience of losing an item that seems useless only to discover in the new DLC that it is, in fact, the best, has been well depicted by @DizzyHungry concerning his dilemma on having sold all his ‘Improve throwing pots’ relics. It is that common RPG experience of parting with an item that seems useless only to find out in the new DLC that it is, in fact, the best. When he said, “And here I sold all my ‘Improve throwing pots’ relics… damn,” @DizzyHungry made it very funny and relatable moment. We have all had such instances, haven’t we?
The announcement indeed also cleared out the developers’ situation a bit. User @Ifarthertz in one of the reply threads stated, “Nintendo is the reason the game is being made, not from soft. Stop blaming the wrong person,” which was a response to the criticisms of LingelKun. This means that Nightreign might be a collaborative effort or a lone project, placed away from the main FromSoftware team, led by Hidetaka Miyazaki. Another user, @Gunnys15 backed this up by saying, “why? it’s just a cool little game that’s not even done by miyazaki.” Thus, for the people who are worried about the main team’s focus, it seems like this is indeed a side project that probably means the core developers are still working hard on… whatever comes after Elden Ring.
