Action RPG

Review: Elden Ring Nightreign (PS5) – A Ruthless Roguelike Reinvention of the Lands Between

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In a fresh twist for FromSoftware enthusiasts, Elden Ring: Nightreign offers an unprecedented gaming experience. It blends their signature challenging combat with a unique three-player cooperative format, drawing elements from battle royales and roguelikes. The question remains: does the distinctive FromSoftware charm persist amid these fundamental shifts? This may not align with everyone’s expectations or taste from the developer, but it promises to be an exciting ride nonetheless.

In essence, Nightreign is set in an alternate reality alongside Elden Ring, where players aim to ward off the darkness. Essentially, it’s a standalone spin-off utilizing assets and adversaries from the original game, described by FromSoftware as a “session-based RPG”. Translated more casually, this means that day and night cycles are crucial for teams of three to endure: two 15-minute day segments where players gather runes to boost their characters and amass weapons to shape their build before a battle royale-like boundary encloses; followed by two randomized boss encounters from Elden Ring and earlier Dark Souls titles; concluding with the Nightlord fight, a unique challenge for each round that serves as the ultimate test of every run.

In simpler terms, during the day parts of the game, you can choose to respawn, but at the cost of losing a level. However, if any of the three players perish during one of the boss battles, you’ll have to start from scratch entirely. This mechanic adds an element of risk and reward to the game, as every second in your playthrough is crucial.

In this latest release, the complexity of crafting within the core gameplay is prominently featured, but in a more simplified form. There are eight character classes available, each equipped with a passive skill, an alternative ability, and an ultimate power. These serve as the foundation for customizing your playstyle in every run.

Across these character classes, you’ll find unique skills that cater to different playstyles: for instance, the Duchess can mirror damage inflicted on enemies, while the Wylder excels at closing gaps with a grapple. Each class offers something special and there are numerous opportunities for combining abilities effectively. While some characters like Ironeye may become favorites quickly, and we barely explored the Executor, it’s the experiences in battle that truly shape or break a build.

In Elden Ring Nightreign, armor takes a backseat, allowing players to focus exclusively on weapons. Factors like elemental properties, Ashes of War, and the weapon type itself remain essential considerations. However, the passive bonuses are particularly significant in this game as they determine whether a player chooses to wield a weapon that might otherwise go unused.

Each of the six equipment slots offers an opportunity to customize your character’s abilities, as they come with passive skills like restoring health upon enemy defeats, boosting damage resistance when health is low, or adding elemental damage to all weapons in your arsenal. It’s not just about finding a weapon that suits your playstyle, but rather one that complements your build, since the passive effects apply regardless of which weapons you actively equip.

It’s when you truly sense the roguelike elements, as you plunge into a fresh version of The Lands Between. In the early stages, it was a frantic search for any runes available, exploring nearby significant spots to defeat bosses and gathering more flasks at Marika sites, all in pursuit of the perfect game setup.

Occasionally, the luck of the random number generator may not be in your favor, but as you play more, you’ll get to know the map better, uncovering its hidden features and dependable elements. This knowledge will help you devise strategies to boost your odds of getting a better layout in the future.

For instance, decaying churches typically feature a boss that’s relatively simple to conquer, and they almost always contain a Stonesword Key, allowing you to engage in an Evergaol battle as well. Usually, Evergaols offer runes among their rewards, enabling you to progress through levels at a slightly faster pace.

Most camps are categorized by an essential attribute, implying that defeating the boss associated with that camp will result in a reward related to that attribute. Additionally, each Nightlord has an elemental vulnerability, making it beneficial for you to tackle the camps corresponding to the final boss. Lastly, if you wish to upgrade your new elemental weapon further, subterranean mines contain certain trolls that consistently drop a level two Smithing Stone.

With this information, runs transform into opportunities for optimization, allowing you to discern if you’re ahead or behind your target as you conclude your first day. It’s an exhilarating sensation as you and your team strategize and collaborate, pooling your efforts to conquer the ultimate obstacle. However, Nightreign doesn’t want you becoming overly complacent or accustomed to a run, so it has several surprises in store.

The map, to begin with, isn’t randomly created, but it comes in multiple shapes, with key locations scattered haphazardly. However, after spending several dozen hours, the map can start feeling repetitive since similar points of interest are duplicated and moved about, with different enemy types inhabiting them.

Additionally, unexpected Geographical Transformations may occur, altering the map significantly by adding features such as a fiery volcanic crater or a vibrant red rot forest. These new landscapes can introduce their own difficulties, for instance, when the final circle converges within the scarlet rot forest, you will need to uncover “the secret of the forest” to counteract the accumulating scarlet rot.

After that, there are unpredictable occurrences such as when our team was afflicted by a curse, causing our health reserves to diminish. We had the chance to vanquish a boss and free ourselves from the curse, but time ran out too swiftly, effectively ending our quest. Encountering one of the previously defeated Nightlords can either be detrimental or advantageous; if you defeat it, you gain its runes and bonuses, but if you fail, it could spell disaster for your campaign.

As a dedicated player, I’ve found that this game offers a rich layer of complexity within its core mechanics, gradually unveiling more depth as I progress. The game subtly introduces new elements, such as unlockable classes hidden in secret questlines and world-changing events triggered by defeating Nightlords. Even after investing over 20 hours into the game, I’m still discovering fresh challenges, making every session exciting and rewarding.

Leaving aside the Nightlords themselves, unfortunately, every battle unfolds in a barren sandy landscape. However, each one has its own distinct character – from the chaotic Equilibrious Beast driven by madness, to the refined Augur, and the three-headed Gladius brandishing swords.

The challenge of reaching the Nightlords after hours of gameplay and cycling through day and night feels overwhelming. Every piece of equipment, your latent skills, and boosts are at stake, creating an intense atmosphere that could rival or perhaps even surpass the tension experienced in the original game.

These supervisors can be incredibly challenging, and it’s disheartening to lose against them because you find yourself returning to the starting point. But, overcoming them is an exhilarating accomplishment that often leaves us leaping out of our seats in triumph. We’ve had several such instances where we celebrated our victories.

After defeating all the game’s bosses, you might wonder what else is there to accomplish. Given your team’s abilities, finishing the game could take around 30 hours or more. The game offers a substantial multiplayer experience already, but it extends beyond the Nightlords.

In this game, you’ll find a process called grinding for relics: these are stat boosters that level up with each playthrough, and can be equipped across your characters, serving as additional building blocks for your strategy. Additionally, there are remembrances specific to each class: side missions to accomplish while exploring the field. Lastly, don’t forget about Murk coins, which you can use to purchase new character skins and extra relics.

According to FromSoftware, additional bosses, Earth-shifting events, and potentially new character classes will be added after the initial launch. It’s unlike a standard live service, suggesting that once the Nightlords are defeated, many players may choose to stop playing. Whether the absence of a robust endgame is a problem or not depends on individual preferences, but it seems that a game with a definite multiplayer conclusion is generally positive.

When tackling Elden Ring Nightreign, it’s worth pondering if you’re playing alone or with others. The game allows for both single-player experiences and matching with strangers, but it seems FromSoftware designed the game more for cooperative play.

In the realm of Nightreign, collaboration is key, yet sometimes it feels incomplete due to our limited verbal communication through pings. It’s as if a significant piece of the gaming puzzle is missing, especially when I partner up with unpredictable players who seem to have their unique strategies.

When teammates abandon a match, it can significantly impact the enjoyment of the game for solo players, who might otherwise be penalized for backing out. Our personal experience shows that playing with a full team using voice communication is much more enjoyable than going solo and relying on pings alone.

To conclude, it’s important to mention that the optimization for PS5 Pro wasn’t impressive before its launch, and there’s no Pro Enhanced version available at this time. We tested the game in “prioritize framerate” mode, and we encountered significant performance issues, with the frame rate often dropping significantly as we moved around the map. Additionally, the PS5 version of the game lacks substantial use of DualSense haptics or adaptive triggers, which is noticeable. However, it’s expected that performance will likely improve following a few post-launch patches.

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2025-05-28 17:38

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