Hold on.. online matchmaking? The battle royale “shrinking circle” mechanic? An extraction shooter gameplay loop? And it’s developed by FromSoftware!?
Yeah, “weird”; that’s what the Internet said when Elden Ring Nightreign was revealed to be an online roguelite. Nightreign may brandish the Elden Ring title, but the two games are very different.
This time, you’re not creating your own character. Instead, you play as one of eight “Nightfarers”, pre-built characters that have unique abilities and play styles. You’re then matched with two other players to fight against increasingly difficult odds with the goal of reaching the match’s final boss, the Nightlord. Most gameplay sessions end in defeat, but it makes the few victories that can be secured that much sweeter.
Even though Nightreign is not a conventional FromSoftware title, the same heart-and-soul are present. Still, there are some growing pains that come with such a drastic change for the studio.
Relics
At the Roundtable Hold player hub, you can equip “relics” to playable characters. These relics offer stat bonuses and passive buffs intended to influence your effectiveness in combat, but seldom do they make a measurable impact. Most of the bonuses offered to attributes don’t seem to matter all that much, and buffs are so situational – or so minor – that they aren’t noticeable.
The best and most interesting relics I’ve come across are obtained through defeating the different final bosses. The third Nightlord Gnoster, for example, gives a relic that allows your starting weapon to build up poison on enemies, which is quite a bit of fun.
Adding more relics that offer interesting effects and tuning up existing, non-unique relics would go a long way to making players feel like they’re progressing and continuously improving, even in the face of back-to-back defeats.
Remembrances
Each character has a “remembrance” quest line that adds personal objectives to fulfil during your sessions. As you progress a remembrance, you learn more about the origin of the character and the stakes they have in the fight. I love this aspect of the game. These quests add depth, agency, and personality to the roster of playable characters.
Nightlords
The highlight of any FromSoftware title is, of course, the boss battles. Nightreign does not disappoint in the slightest. The crushing attacks employed by the Nightlords paired with the explosive visuals make the fights feel on par with those in Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree DLC. Beautiful soundtracks, devastatingly difficult, and an absolute joy to fight with three players.
The potential, oh, the potential! With the right combination of balance changes and new content, Nightreign could go from good to great. I played over twelve hours of Nightreign within three days of its release; it’s a lot of fun – but I do have concerns with the end game. Sporting only eight final bosses, I’m curious what player retention will look like given enough time passes and the majority of the player base has finished all of the content. Unlike FromSoftware’s single player “Soulslike” games, Nightreign doesn’t let you build your own character, so there may be a drop-off in engagement once you’ve finished everything for the first time. However, I remain optimistic and utterly engaged with Nightreign, I can’t wait to see where they take it next.