Elden Ring is undoubtedly one of the most important games that FromSoftware has made, completing the studio’s ascent from hardcore niche to the mainstream. It is staggeringly successful, having sold over 30 million copies, and when you compare that to the 2.5 million of the original Demon’s Souls and the 10 million of Dark Souls 3, you get a feeling for how far this genre has come. So, it’s probably only natural that FromSoftware then choose to make a spin-off title to try and make some more money, you know?
Gosh, that’s a really cynical way to frame it, but I’ll explain why. Nightreign takes the world of Elden Ring, remixes it, throws in some Dark Souls fan-service, and then has you and two other players drop in Fortnite-style for a co-op romp. The aim of each run is to take down a specific end-of-run boss called a Nightlord – bosses that all feel like they’ve got roughly 50% more health than is necessary, too. To start with, you can only attempt one of these Nightlords, but once that one’s been defeated, you can try six others and then eventually take on the final boss.
Nightreign could be described as a roguelike. You land somewhere a little bit different on each run, and not only are all of the camps and castles randomised, but there are also some cool random events that can happen as well. The run generally starts with one of your group selecting somewhere on the map, then everyone sprinting like a fool to get to it, kill the boss, and collect the loot. You then rinse and repeat that until the night closes in twice, and you fight the Day 1 boss. Then you do it all again for Day 2, and then you fight the Nightlord at the end of all that.
It’s not quite like your typical roguelike, though, because it’s more like you’re choosing from a range of mini-roguelikes than having a chance at encountering absolutely anything the game has in any given run. It’s a little more focused, which might be good for those who aren’t huge roguelike fans. I wouldn’t know about that, as I’m a roguelike zealot.
You choose your character at the start of a run, each of which has a special passive, a skill, and an ultimate. They also have unique stat spreads, so some will make better use of different loot and whatnot. And loot is a key part of the game’s loop. Each boss you kill drops a little orb you can interact with for high-grade loot, but you can also find it on some enemy bodies, in chests, and in little boxes too.
There are consumables, but you’re mostly hunting for good weapons with good passives. That’s because you can hold six weapons (weight isn’t a thing) and each of those weapons has a passive that might be active at all times, even if you’re not wielding it. It means you can just use the starting weapon and upgrade that, if you so choose, while also grabbing loads of cool passives for health regen or explosive walking effects.
The story will progress a little bit with each successful run, but even if you don’t defeat the big bad, you’ll still unlock special gems you can slot into your character for different passive buffs – you could start with a fire weapon, for example. That’s really the only bit of character progression there is, which will be aggravating for those who like Elden Ring or are coming from many modern roguelikes. It’s a fine system, but it’s not especially exciting as the majority of these are going to be absurdly useless outside of just selling them.
Is Elden Ring Nightreign fun though? Mostly yes. I’m really mixed on it, to be honest. I do have fun running around with two people in a voice chat, talking about optimising specific routes, how to take on different bosses, trading items, and so on. But, you’re really not doing anything all that different at any point. Most roguelikes will really change things up using builds and meta-progression, and that’s a lot rougher here. You could spec yourself out for a gravity sorcery build, but you might not get anything that gives you those spells, as each catalyst and staff comes equipped with two spells at random.
It makes really finding your perfect build less of a thing, and means you have to settle for mastering a few of the characters. The character options are cool, but they’re not really inspiring. You do get bits of story about them, and that’s nice, but they don’t feel integral to the world. FromSoftware games are about decay, loss, and deep lore hidden behind incredible descriptions and half-noticed expressions or lore connections. but Nightreign just sort of farts at that and throws in Dark Souls bosses randomly. Why are they here? Because it’s fun! That’s fine and all, but it means that this game isn’t adding anything to the rich lore of an incredible world. It’s just here as a more arcade-like experience.
That’s fine. It’s fun to play games that are fun. It’s fun to muck around more with Elden Ring’s combat, even if the targeting is worse in this game for some reason, and the slow plodding exploration of the main game has been replaced by an ADHD-fulfilling need to always be moving and planning the next move. I say that as someone with ADHD, so it’s theoretically my kind of game, but it still just doesn’t quite gel for me.
The end result is a game that’s fun to play with mates, infuriating with people who haven’t learned to stick together, and one where the lore might as well have been written by one of my cats. After all, how can any of it be relevant if Johnny Dark Souls keeps rocking up as a boss fight? It’s a game for gaming’s sake. That’s not a bad thing, but it’s not what I expect from FromSoftware and the brilliance of the developers there. I’m also a little wary about the potential for monetisation here, as the Deluxe Edition already reveals that additional playable characters and bosses will be premium content. Hopefully FromSoftware balances this to keep the player base united.