The developers themselves have said that the three player co-op design of this game is to represent the unreliability of humanity. 

Nightreign is an allegory for the human experience. We come into this world with almost nothing. We go through the day to day monotony of killing trash mobs and easy bosses to acquire more resources, until we finally face the real obstacle: The Nightlord. 

Sound familiar? Work your 9-5 and acquire wealth as you prepare to face the final boss… Yourself.

But I’m getting off track here. What does this have to do with the relic system?

As we stumble through life trying to find our way, we as individuals each acquire a random set of buffs and debuffs. Maybe some of us had parents that were emotionally available (Max HP Up for Each Enemy Defeated at a Great Church), maybe some of us were born with an auto-immune disease (Taking damage causes death build up).

The relic system is there to represent the unreliable nature of life. 

Each one of us ends up with our own unique set of relic choices to choose from, and each one of us is tasked with creating the best possible build out of the hand we were dealt. 

Embrace it. This is life. The sooner you open your arms to the unpredictability and see the beauty in it, the sooner you will find peace. 



Everyone’s complaining about the relic system, but I think it’s the most human thing FromSoftware has ever made.