FromSoftware’s latest release in the Elden Ring franchise, Elden Ring Nightreign, launched to some level of controversy when it released in May. Now that some time has passed, how does it fare amongst other FromSoft titles, now that the dust has settled? We’ll go over it in this review, but first I’d like to preface that I have completed 100% of the available Steam achievements for Nightreign, as well as the original Elden Ring; it’s safe to say that I have come to understand a lot of the game’s intricacies. If you’re looking for thoughts from an experienced player, you’ve come to the right place. While I was cautious about FromSoft handling a release like this, I’m happy to be blown away by what was accomplished here, even despite a few flaws here and there.
A Rogue Twist
Nightreign may come off as “strange” to Souls veterans who have never played games in the rogue genre before. Usually, rogue games are made by smaller studios, so it was a surprise to see one come from a larger studio such as FromSoft. Luckily, the rogue genre has become one of my favorites these past few years, especially when the games pack in multiplayer. I actually found myself surprised by how well FromSoft translated the pace of roguelikes into their own style. I didn’t think a Souls game could match the quick decisions and builds that make rogue runs addicting, but this one did.
Games such as Risk of Rain 2 come to mind and have really held up the gold standard for me, having multiple playable characters, unlockables, chaotic builds, and of course, high replayability. Nightreign seems to follow suit, but with the Souls’ touch. From the get-go, you are thrown into a tutorial showing you how much faster and mobile you are compared to the original Elden Ring, and trust me, you will be needing that mobility. I personally loved this shift. The increased mobility made dodging and aggression feel more reactive, and it made co-op skirmishes with three players feel intense without ever being overwhelming.
Shortly after the tutorial, you arrive at a repurposed version of the Roundtable Hold from the original Elden Ring. This is a hub zone where you have shops, a combat training area, the ability to make customizations from the classes you want to play, to the outfits they wear, and most importantly, their chalice loadout, which we will come back to. Currently, Nightreign has 8 playable classes or Nightfarers, all with unique stat scalings, playstyles, skills, and backstories. When you approach the Roundtable, you can choose to enter a run by yourself, which will scale properly for a solo player, or with two other players, which scales for three players accordingly.
When you initiate your first run, you will fly off into Limveld, a map that is randomly generated with multiple points of interest. Many structures may seem familiar, but they are remixed and moved around at random, and it’s up to you to decide your path. Limveld can even have completely new sections such as a deep spiraling lava crater, or a snowy mountain peak, caused by an event called Shifting Earth. As you play more rounds of Nightreign, your understanding of each point of interest’s purpose becomes clearer.
This includes low-level camps to get your character’s first level, to churches that increase your maximum flask limit, and even raiding castles filled with bosses. Learning routes in Nightreign is essential to victory. As the clock is always ticking and the storm closes in, you’ve got to keep it moving if you want to maximize your efficiency. I’ll admit, my first few runs were filled with figuring out the game and backtracking. Once I understood how to read the map and prioritize key upgrades, though, the game clicked for me.
The loot is also different. As you find weapons, they all have unique passives that alter your gameplay. Even if you do not want to use the weapon for combat, you can stow it away and gain its passive effect at the cost of one of your six weapon slots. You might find a blue weapon with a great ability and passive status effect like Rot that could set you up for the whole run, but it isn’t upgraded, so you will have to run to a mine and get a level 2 Smithing Stone. This can turn your early game weapons into a late game purple weapon.
Classic Bosses Await, But New Challenges Rise
Throughout the first two days, you will be facing familiar bosses from both Elden Ring and the Dark Souls trilogy. Some of the bosses have been updated with newer movesets that can handle multiple players. If you’ve experienced any of these games in the past, Nightreign can feel like a thrilling nostalgic throwback in a way.
Ultimately, the whole run culminates on the third final day where you have time to rest, restock, and upgrade anything you have left before you face one of the eight Night Lords. The Night Lords are completely new bosses that FromSoft cooked up, and they did not lack in this department. A lot of these bosses can only be described as “absolute cinema”.
The first one being Tricephalos, a Cerberus-like entity that splits itself into three to show early on how this game is built for 3-man co-op play. Tricephalos marked a negative turning point for a lot of players who played Nightreign on release. Many players failed at first, and it is likely that if it’s your first time, you will too. It’s brutal, but fair once you learn how to work as a team. However, losing is just the first step to becoming stronger, and this is where the rogue elements enter the playing field.
When a run ends in Nightreign, you are given relics, as well as a currency called Murk. Murk can be used to buy outfits and emotes, but more importantly, Chalices and Relics for your Nightfarer. Equipping a Chalice onto your Nightfarer opens up three colored slots that allow you to put Relics in. These Relics can be immensely game-changing, from permanent stat bonuses to ability-altering passives. This system really grew on me, as I started to understand how deep it could go with more runs.
For example, Guardian’s base ability is this small crowd control twister. Eventually, you can modify it to be much larger and last longer, and the difference is very apparent. Each Relic can have a maximum of three perks, so in total you can have 9 passives running at a time. Even if you do not get good Relics for your character early on due to RNG, you can do your Nightfarer’s corresponding Remembrance Journal questline. These Remembrances give insight to every character’s back story, but also grant you access to character-exclusive missions that reward you with Chalices and Relics tailored to that Nightfarer in return.
I mentioned earlier that when you don’t understand the flow of things or how to efficiently path, it can and will make the game difficult. These are things that you didn’t have to think about with the original game, so it’s understandably a hurdle you will need to clear. It is my belief that this misunderstanding of the game early on had led to harsh player reviews at its release, and the first Night Lord Tricephalos proved to be a frustrating wall to many.
Players voiced their concerns and criticisms about the game’s lack of communication when it came to the co-op aspects of the game. No voice chat, text chat, or even pre-set dialogues akin to Monster Hunter, only allowing players to perform basic pings. Go here or tag an item so other players can see it, and quite frankly, after over one hundred hours of playing between friends and matchmade randoms, I’d personally say the basic pings are all that is necessary. I’m certain FromSoft did not want to open the floodgates for toxicity because they would not be there to police it, and I don’t blame them. Playing a Souls game innately comes with difficulty. Adding co-op with randoms hoping they pull through is a different type of difficulty, no doubt.
A Bright Future Ahead
As you play, you learn the game and get stronger. Coming out on top in this unique experience is very rewarding, and I commend FromSoft for being experimental at a non-full-priced release. There has been a lot of buzz on social media over the past few weeks. Footage of players in the community discovering new and different ways to play each Nightfarer.
Learning new tricks from mobility for shortcuts, to players soloing Night Lords at Level 1. It’s always great to see what other secrets and techniques people discover, on top of the fact that FromSoft has been adding in free updates like harder Night Lords and DLC to come later this year. Nightreign is a game that understands its own identity and hones in on that. It has a great foundation and a future ahead of itself that I will be there for.
Disclaimer: Elden Ring Nightreign was reviewed on PC and purchased by the reviewer.
