Done With #22: Elden Ring Nightreign

This is probably the longest review I’ve written. It's going to be a rough one, I suppose.

For real, I’m struggling to find where to start with Nightreign. It’s an AA game from the legendary FromSoftware, the creator of amazing franchises such as Armored Core and literally invented a whole new subgenre with the Soulsborne series in the 2010s. With multiple memorable games from the last decade alone, such as Dark Souls and Bloodborne, the peeps really hit hard back in 2022 with Elden Ring, an open world evolution of the format that won Game of the Year from multiple publications that year.

It’s also no secret that I’m a huge fan of these games and that I’ve actually gotten into quite a tight-knit community that discusses these games at length. With my time around content creators that got some huge insight into the lore, like Rageikara and the Elden Kings podcast, I’ve become rather well-versed with FromSoftware games' universes. I had zero hesitation when it came to pre-ordering Nightreign, knowing full well that I’d love it in some capacity.

As a long-time fan of the company, like many others, I was struggling to identify what Nightreign was after getting the chance to participate in the closed beta a few months ago. I suppose that on paper, it’s an online co-op roguelike open world action RPG game with elements from Fortnite, like random loot and zone system in a fully PVE world. However, after multiple hours of playing Nightreign, I finally feel qualified to describe what Nightreign actually is: a short co-op playthrough of a Soulsborne game that takes everything about the formula and condenses it into a 40-minute match. A run of Nightreign’s got it all, from getting smashed around at level one, finding a cheese that works just right, to finding lore and secrets that are surprisingly substantial for a side project.

Tales from Limveld

Before I get into the general gameplay loop, I just want to take a moment and talk about the thing that surprised me the most with Nightreign. This game is actually quite dense with its lore, even though it isn’t the game’s main focus. In fact, I’d say it’s probably the easiest to digest story out of the multiple Soulsborne titles, as it takes quite a character-focused approach to telling the story. The event of Nightreign itself, with the Nightlords coming over and the Night Rain phenomenal, opened up so many discussions and theories regarding both Nightreign itself and Elden Ring. It could be interpreted as a prequel in a sense, setting up the Tarnished One and their duty in Elden Ring, but it could also sort of read as a sequel to one of the endings, which is what this fandom is all about. What really intrigues me with FromSoftware’s writing team with this title is the ability to write just enough to let us form our opinions, but at the same time, they manage to tie up the loose ends and leave no room for contradiction rather well. Theories and hidden lore are what make following these stories fun, and Nightreign’s got it.

Since most of the lore really focuses on the eight playable Nightfarers themselves, I feel like this is easily their tightest writing so far, as writing about clear-cut main characters really allows them to explore the individuals rather deeply. The amnesiac plot, while a bit cliché, serves as a pretty good baseline for them to essentially find their “original sins” so to speak. As they find out more about themselves, we as players also get to learn more about the mysterious pocket universe of Limveld, the nightfarers’ motivations, and the Nightlords themselves.

Each cast member’s stories are told through Remembrance Quest (fitting name for amnesiac warriors). Let’s talk about each of them briefly:

• Wyldey: “The “new recruit” of the team. Quiet and mostly keeps to himself. Gameplay-wise, the guy is an all-rounder that can utilise a greatsword moveset rather well.
• Guardian: The big bird-bro warrior who’s one-winged. With his trusty halbert and a shield, he shines bright as a “tank” and the team’s support.
• Duchess: A virtuous thief, as they say in her lore, who is both great with a dagger and sorceries. Great for players who enjoy fast-paced gameplay.
• Recluse: Momm- AHEM I mean uh, she’s a Witch of the Deep Forest who knows ancient sorceries. Quite a straightforward high INT caster character.
• Ironeye: The MCU crossover character (?!). Great archer who excels as both the team’s range support and a damage dealer.
• Raider: Pirate with a big heart. Incredibly huggable. Colossal weapons are his best friends.
• Executor: Sekiro at Home. An ex-Crucible soldier in exile. Yes, he got all the katanas in the world.
• Revenant: Summoner (also my main girlie). Her guardian ghosts provide a lot of utilities for the team. Another flex character with multiple playstyles.

These Remembrance Quests for the party are probably the most straightforward storytelling that FromSoftware has done, and that makes it such a nice change of pace in my opinion. We get to learn about them and see them being humanised. Unlike other titles where the storyline can be rather scattered throughout the game, these Remembrance Quest allows us to invest ourselves and see their development as it happens.

What is even cooler in this game, compared to other titles though is that we actually also get to see these characters interacting with each other. We can see them hang out at the Shrouded Roundtable Hold occasionally. This is also one of the titles with the least amount of betrayals between the characters and serves as such a big foil to the Elden Ring cast. While the Nightfarers don’t necessarily get along all the time, they definitely have a good amount of respect for each other.

Despite the focus of this game being a multiplayer co-op PVE experience, I’m grateful that the game has so much going on about the story and the overarching lore of the Elden Ring universe. Rather pleasantly surprised and glad that the studio doesn’t skim off these aspects of the game.

The Roguelike, Soulslike Bits

People joke that Nightreign is the Elden Ring but the Fortnite, which yeah, it totally is not, but it gives a lot of people a general idea of the gameplay loop and how it looks like. However, it feels like a lot of people still have the wrong impression of the game, thinking that it could be an “extraction” game or an actual battle royale. Just because we are dropping into the map from a bird doesn’t mean that’s the equivalent of the Bus from Fortnite, my guy.

I think the best way to describe Nightreign for me is that it is a co-op boss rush game that happens to have Soulsborne combat. The entire BR zone closing in gimmick is just here to pressure us into rushing through the maps as fast as possible to power up for the fight against the Night Bosses.

This game is going to throw you for a loop. With its open map nature, dropping down to Limveld for the first night can be incredibly confusing and overwhelming. As a new player, you would, of course, open the map to see multiple camps you can check out. However, getting there first thing will probably result in you and your teammates' quick death. Now, as a new player, you might stick around trying to clear it, and the next thing you know, the zone is already closing in. As you and your teammates are making a run for it, without a lot of equipment, you might run into a classic Erdtree Avatar that snipes you as you are struggling into the zone. Now you’re dead. Your hard-earned experience is dropped inside the rain. The run is doomed, and you’re frustrated. I’ll be honest, if you go in blind, this is most likely going to happen for the next couple of games too.

However, this is what makes Nightreign a true Soulsborne game in my opinion. Personally, I don’t think Soulsborne is necessary about dodging or parrying bosses that one-shot at you, the campfires, or losing XP when you die. I really think that Souls games, ultimately, are all about knowledge checks. The more you know about the game’s mechanics, the better you get. Precise timing, while helpful, is not the ultimate way to end. Do you know what starting with a Young White Branch does in DS3? The use of DS1’s Master Key? Holy weapons properties against undead? Or even in Bloodborne and positioning against boss types (behind giant bosses, parry humanoid ones). This knowledge is what makes these games fun and gives players a sense of discovery. How long does it take for one to realise that hitting teammates is how you revive them, after all.

That’s exactly what you’ll be doing in Nightreign. It’s less about being good at the game, but understanding how the game actually works. How can I increase my Flask of Crimson Tears count? Do I know that all the church locations actually drop a guaranteed seal if I climb up to the top? Is my team strong enough to burst down the Field Boss within seconds for more loot? A lot of these aspects are incredibly important and come together to make each match feel unique, as you need to adapt your plans to the situations with your teammates.

But wait, that’s not even scratching the surface. Don’t forget that the aforementioned eight nightfarers provide eight completely different playstyles. Each of them has a “weapon type of preference” that unlocks a whole new, unique moveset for them. For instance, Duchess daggers' animations for both one-handed, two-handed, and dual-wielding are unique to her and open up a whole new way to perform combos (also slightly extends daggers' range). Don’t get me wrong, though, the characters are by no means tied to the weapon type that they’re proficient with at all,as Nightreign damage scaling is still at its core like other Soulsborne. This means you can end up killing it as Ironeye, who naturally has a high amount of dexterity, with six swords in your loadout, or give a giant hammer with Faith scaling to Revenant and watch her smash bosses around like plushies.

Forget the weapons Tier List that you once knew in Elden Ring. This game will force you to use all of them and find out their strengths that you might not have thought of back in the base game. While the game does sort of rig the drop table to ensure that you do get weapons that are optimal for the character you’re currently playing, a lot of the time you will be given things that you have not even thought about using in Elden Ring. Whips, the finger hammer, daggers, or even Varre’s Bouquet will be dropped, and you will find use for them. This is also due to the passive system, where each weapon will be given a huge passive that is very beneficial, as long as it is in your inventory. You could roll a Raider and carry five seals because they happen to buff your playstyle, and who knows, sometimes you might want to cast some of these spells too! Maybe at times you will be a Recluse with a huge STR greatsword that helps recover your FP every time you attack. Each weapon also spawns with random elemental effects, which also change the skill arts that come with them. Sometimes a “god tier” weapon will end up being useless for your playstyle because it is a skill you might not find useful. The RNG elements will coerce you in trying out different things, and it will definitely surprise and inspire you to do a new Elden Ring run with some of these newfound favourites.

Of course, that’s not all there is to the gameplay loop. A huge part of the game is its meta progression in the form of a gachapon called Relics. Relics are obtained after each run, or can be traded for with the in-game currency every time you finish a run. They come with randomised stats that will alter how your character interacts with the combat, from a small buff to huge changes such as modifying class skills. For example, there’s a unique way to play Wylder where you slap on relics that allow him to get more charges for his Hookshot, turning him into Spider-Man essentially. These relics also allow you to personalise the way you play a certain character. To expand on Wylder, there are also other popular ways to play him, such as Greatsword build,d where you stack relics that buff them and put on a Relic that lets you do a follow-up attack with a Hookshot. There’s also a build that allows you to become an Ultimate spammer, nuking enemies with high fire damage. The more you obtain these Relics, the more playstyles become viable. Ironeye with melee focus, Revenant that uses her health to deal damage, or Duchess that becomes a full-time caster are all a thing. There’s a lot of variety waiting for you to explore.

What about the Bosses?

Now, we all know that what makes FromSoftware games really memorable in the 2010-2020s are the boss fights, for better or worse. If you love the boss fights in Elden Ring and Dark Souls, then you’re in luck because Nightreign might as well be renamed to Souls-Ring All Stars.

For each run, you as a player get to pick one of the many Nightlords the game has to offer, all with a huge range of variety when it comes down to their fighting styles and their own strengths and weaknesses. Pre-planning by bringing relevant Relics or characters can be rather important, given that Monster Hunter feels to it. However, these Nightlords are what the community calls “Night 3” bosses, and you've got a crap ton of bosses you've got to beat in the run before you get there.

There are multiple types of these bosses types so let’s start with the ones that you are most likely to run into first: the location bosses. The map of Limveld contains multiple camps that you will be visiting to obtain weapons and buffs to make you stronger, and these mini-bosses are the ones guarding these places. They are usually your “elites” enemies and aren’t anything special; however, they can still wipe your party out if you are not careful enough. Knowing where you are going and what you will be fighting can be very important, as you want to go through them as fast as possible, so weapon elemental types can give you a huge edge. Of course, you also want to visit the locations with symbols of the element the Nightlord of your choice is weak to, as these bosses will most likely drop this type of weapon. While one could argue that the lack of variety in these locations bosses can make them a bit mundane, I do think that it adds to that “knowledge” check as you get to make options you feel are the most optimal.

While walking around the maps, there are chances you run into Field Bosses. These are the major bosses from Elden Ring and the Dark Souls games, and they are rough as hell to beat. There are two variants of these baddies; one with a grey icon and another with red. The grey ones are quite manageable after a few levels, but the red ones are mostly designed for the party being at roughly level 10, but with the right setup and the right weapon type, you can actually burst them easily too. These fights are, in my opinion, well thought out implementations as the trade off of these fights are quite massive, but the risk is high as you might be wasting a lot of time on these guys as opposed to exploring. The risk-rewards and also yet again the “knowledge” check of these Field Bosses add a lot of strategic depth to how the party plans their run.

We can’t definitely forget about the Night Bosses, which literally decide your fate each night every time you fight them. These are THE bosses from all the games, be it the classic Tree Sentinel or the surprise fights from Dark Souls like Nameless King or Smelter Demon as featured in the trailer. These fights will get a lot of old fans screaming, and the new ones too, as they can be very challenging for those who are underprepared. Not only do they deal a ton of damage, but the additions to their moveset to adapt to a three-player co-op game can be quite new and challenging even to veterans. Definitely takes a lot of players, including myself multiple runs before consistently beating the Night Bosses, and even to this day, we still do wipe to it. And that’s right, you can actually have your run end by dying to these guys, unlike other bosses

What’s really cool about these Night bosses is that the fight starts before they even spawn. To me, the fight starts as soon as the Night boss circle appears, where you will be needing to wrap up whatever you are doing and prepare for the worst. If you are in the middle of fighting a Field Boss, you and your party have to ask yourselves whether or not finishing it off is worth it or is it actually time to bail. You have to consider an optimal route to the Night boss while trying to make the most out of the situation, as you need every single advantage possible to get it through this night .These guys not only serve the game as a stat-check, but also help build tension a lot every 15 minutes.

Nightlords Themselves

However, the highlight of this game is none other than the Nightlords themselves.

In my opinion, the Nightlords are some of the most memorable fights that FromSoftware have ever designed. Not only because of the build up and the anticipation of having to survive roughly 35-40 minutes of the first two nights really help build up the hype, but these Nightlords being original bosses specifically made for this game (and designed for three players with one player moveset in mind), is probably what make them such incredible fights.

They are the true knowledge test of Nightreign as all of them have clear strengths and weaknesses, and we are not only talking about the elemental weaknesses that will give you a whooping 30% damage advantage, but the window for us to actually deal damage to them, when is it save to revive you friend, or even the kind of party buffs do I want to bring in the form of items, spells or incantations. It’s also not very surprising that on average it takes many players up to 10 hours before they actually beat the first Nightlord. This is most likely due to how they are quite different in the design philosophy, again being tailored for this game and having their arena to be an unconstrained open zone that allows the camera to fly free. Their higher than average HP can be a bit daunting, but never do they feel like a bullet sponge either.

The fights themselves are already top notch, but of course, what really elevates these fights can be none other than their models and the music. They look menacing and unique while still feeling like an entity that does really belong in the world of Elden Ring, and the music is just crazy as they all get their own unique theme that reflects on their lore.

These fights are also where you, as a player and your build, get to shine. You've got to bring the most and the best out of whatever you've got, from the weapon passives to Relics and weapon types that you bring. It’d be quite a big shame that you bring Rot and Poison weapons to ones that are immune to both statuses, so that knowledge check is still as important as ever. However, the game still tries to do its best to cater to all playstyles and honestly, I think that’s also where these Nightlord fights allow this idea to shine. I’ve brought a Guardian whose role was to just hold down the shield button and tank for an entire team before and win in the most lazy way, but I also find huge success in bringing two giant hammers on my Revenant because I know I can get away with that with certain boss’s slower movement, too.

Ever Shifting Environment

What keeps each run of Nightreign fresh, though, is the random events that can occur on the map along with it randomly generating the locations of the game (aside from the main castle in the middle). While Limveld does look and feel like Limveld most of the time, sometimes Limveld can become… very different. Sometimes, a giant lava pit, a snowy mountain, or deadly swamp can spawn out of nowhere at the start of each run, waiting for you to explore and tackle them with a lot of hidden lore and bosses that are only available to these events!

That’s not all, however, as sometimes, in the middle of your runs, weird events can also happen that might throw everyone in for a loop. There are occasions that you might find yourself randomly getting kidnapped by one of the Nightlords you didn’t even pick, an invasion by Morgott the Omen King, or having to fight back-to-back Night boss fights.

Definitely trying their best to keep you on your toes, adding a lot of variations and surprises for the players to adapt and play around.

UI/UX and the other things

However, what FromSoftware still somehow fumbles in the year of our lord 2025 is once again the UI/UX of it all. This is probably one of the most infuriating parts of this game; as someone who’s put 70 hours into it like me should not be finding something new at this point. This game is the epitome of whatever the opposite of the word “intuitive” is.

For example, recently around my 50 hour mark, I, for the first time, found out about the Relic Loadout system on the character selection screen. This is due to how the prompt for it is rather small and snuck in a corner, whereas the screen is quite busy in the middle, making it very easy to ignore for so long. I misclicked and found the menu during a run and was amazed at how badly it was thought out because it should be in a more visible place for such a helpful system.

This is not only limited to the menus or other out of game features, but a lot of smaller QoL in the designs are often overlooked. Something as small as including weapons scaling in the game just like in Elden Ring and other mainline games, would have been totally fine here as there is space for it, but for some reasons, the dev opted out of this and encouraged players to check out the menu at the Roundtable Hold itself. There is a bit of difference between knowledge checks and inconvenience for the sake of it.

However, I definitely am aligned with the developers in many of the “missing features” that the community talks about. I think that this game does not need a complex pinging system like Apex Legends, as the current voting system via map ping is sufficient and encourages the entire team to commit to the “voted” objective. It’s not very spammable unless you really want to destroy your R3 button, either on top of being a very effective way to community in a game that requires you to keep moving.

The lack of text chat and voice chat is also a huge part of making this game not toxic. The classic way of jumping and emoting to communicate in FromSoftware games is back and creates memorable moments between players. The addition of item pings with the right emotes allows people to convey what they are trying to say, which again is sufficient for the game that Nightreign is. In the many hours of playing with randoms, I’m very pleased that there was only one particular “bad” experience I had with a teammate who straight-up rage quit, which is definitely an outlier overall. This may vary from person to person, but I think I’ll give my flowers to the community in general.

Ultimately, Nightreign is an incredibly social game, just like your typical FromSoftware title in all honesty. Be it the social aspect outside the game in the game’s official Discord or the subreddit, or maybe that one lore server you join and made life-long friends, or the moments you get to spend with people you incredibly love. I was lucky that I got to play Nightreign with my wife the majority of the time, and our best friend, who is still stuck at the fourth boss because he’s too busy playing Warhammer (we still love you, Scott). It kinda became an unwritten rule that we’d try to meet up on the weekend to get a few runs in. While some of these runs are incredibly cursed, every moment I get to spend with the two of them are something that I’d treasure forever and are some of my career highlights when it comes to playing video in general. I know that we’ll definitely be playing this game for a while (unless Darktide somehow takes over our hangout time XD).

Nightreign'd

I seriously think that somehow FromSoftware did it again. An experimental AA title that confuses the masses on release is now quickly becoming one of the fans’ favourites after a couple of months. I still remember the game coming out to mostly negative reviews on Steam, and now it’s comfortable at 86% positive reviews (making it the highest rated FromSoftware title on Steam, funnily enough).

This game is not perfect, and its UI and the nature of being a roguelike, boss-rush, and a Souls game really does require you to give it a lot of time before it clicks. This game has a horrible first impression that I can’t really blame people for trying to get into it bouncing off super hard. Five to ten hours is a big ask after all, but it’s a hurdle that’s really worth getting over.

Thankfully, if you don’t like the idea of playing this game with other players, the game is now balanced for solo players to the point that it’s a running gag that single-player run is the “easy mode” due to the balanced scaling. There are multiple resources covering this, as for the patch 1.01.4, and it’s worth looking up those reviews too

Some of the best 40 bucks well spent, and a great testament of lower-budget games with strong support from studios can really take over the gaming world by storm. If you are a fan of this genre, it’s definitely a must-play.