I Finally Checked Nightreign’s Metacritic Score and Got a History Lesson in FromSoft Chaos

As a regular player who has spent more hours than I’d like to admit getting pancaked by bosses, I felt a genuine pang of confusion when Elden Ring Nightreign landed with a 78 on Metacritic. In the modern era, a FromSoftware game scoring below, say, 85 feels like seeing an Armored Core protagonist walk into a wall for twenty minutes. We’ve been spoiled. Hidetaka Miyazaki has conditioned us to expect nothing less than a masterpiece with a side of pain. So when I saw the number 78, my first thought was basically, “Oh no, did the Lands Between finally produce a dud?”

Turns out, I was dead wrong. A 78 is not the disaster my gamer brain assumed it was. In fact, it places Nightreign right around 11th place in the studio’s entire history. I had to sit down and actually look at a full ranking of every FromSoftware-developed game on Metacritic, and what I found made me appreciate just how wild this company’s journey has been. Also, I nearly choked on my estus flask when I saw some of the old scores.

Before the studio became synonymous with rolling, bonfires, and weird NPCs laughing ominously in the dark, FromSoft was doing... other things. A lot of other things. They released dozens of Armored Core entries, sure, but they also made games that sound like they were generated by a confused AI after binge-watching anime. Shadow Assault - Tenchu. Murakumo: Renegade Mech Pursuit. King's Field 4: The Ancient City. These aren't bad band names; they're real games. Many of them received scores that would make a modern FromSoft fan delete their Twitter account in embarrassment.

Let’s talk about the absolute basement of the list. Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor, released in 2012 for the Xbox 360's Kinect, sits at the very bottom with a score of 38. Thirty-eight. For context, that's lower than the average temperature of Limgrave in winter. It required players to use a Kinect, which is already a red flag the size of a mech hangar, and according to critics, the game was practically unplayable. One reviewer from Games Master UK gave it a 6 out of 100 and essentially said the developers must have known it was broken but pushed it out anyway. That’s the kind of energy I need in a support group, not a game.

Then there’s Shadow Assault - Tenchu, which scored a gorgeous 46 from just eight reviews. Eight reviewers bothered to evaluate it, and they still couldn’t save it. One critic said it felt like the developers just wanted to put out an Xbox Live Arcade title for a quick buck. Harsh, but honestly, kind of funny. And let’s not forget Murakumo: Renegade Mech Pursuit, which landed at 48. IGN called it “awful, awful, awful” and complained that it was ugly, frustrating, and extremely repetitive. That's the kind of triple awfulness usually reserved for trying to defeat Malenia with a broken controller.

So when Nightreign shows up with a 78, I realize I've been looking at this from the wrong angle. It’s not a stumble. It’s practically a victory lap compared to the early 2000s. The game is tied with The Adventures of Cookie & Cream and Armored Core 2 for 11th place overall. And yes, The Adventures of Cookie & Cream is a real FromSoft game. I Googled it. I still don’t fully understand what it is, but it exists, and it scored the same as a modern multiplayer Elden Ring spinoff. That alone proves that 78 is not the insult some fans think it is.

The rankings get even more fascinating when you climb toward the top. Otogi: Myth of Demons and Otogi 2: Immortal Warriors take the ninth and tenth spots with 80 and 79 respectively. Then, from eighth place onward, it’s basically the Miyazaki Cinematic Universe. Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon earned an 86, which is excellent, but the top seven spots are all directed or heavily influenced by the man himself. Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls, and Dark Souls 3 are tied at 89. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice sits at 90. Dark Souls 2 somehow holds third place with 91. Bloodborne is second at 92. And of course, Elden Ring reigns at number one with a ridiculous 96.

I think the biggest takeaway for me, as someone who has only really known modern FromSoft, is that quality over quantity wasn’t always their motto. In the late 2000s, something shifted. The studio went from pumping out forgettable mech games and experimental oddities to releasing fewer, far better games. The arrival of Miyazaki in 2004 and the release of Demon’s Souls in 2009 changed everything. Before that, FromSoft was the studio that made Kuon, a game so obscure it has likely never been mentioned in polite conversation.

The numbers tell a clear story. Here’s a quick snapshot of the modern dominance:

Looking at that table, I can almost hear the old mech games crying in a corner. And honestly? Good. Let them. Nightreign may not be the highest-rated FromSoft title ever, but it’s doing just fine in a list that includes literal unplayable Kinect disasters. If you’re one of those long-time Souls fans balking at a 78, I get it. I was there too. But then I remembered that FromSoft once released a game called Murakumo: Renegade Mech Pursuit. Now I just feel grateful.

So yes, Nightreign is a different kind of FromSoft experience. It’s faster, more chaotic, and built around three-player co-op rather than solo suffering. The review score reflects that shift. But when you zoom out and compare it to every game the studio has ever made, it’s still in the top third. That’s not bad for a spinoff that had a rough reveal and mixed early impressions. We are, for better or worse, living in the good timeline of FromSoftware. The one where games like Cookie & Cream are ancient history and the biggest controversy is whether a 78 is actually a disappointment. Honestly? I’ll take it. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go rearrange my inventory and pretend I’m not still terrified of the Nightlord.