Like many others, I was completely caught off-guard by the announcement of Elden Ring Nightreign, and even more surprised by the game being an action RPG that adds roguelike and extraction elements in a new faster paced multiplayer-focused excursion into the Lands Between. I didn’t think FromSoft would revisit the setting so close after the release of the recent and massive Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, much less with a concept that feels so foreign to the studio. But after the recent Network Test, it is fair to say that the blend of ideas fits FromSoft’s typical action RPG formula better than I anticipated, albeit with some serious concerns ahead of the game’s May 30, 2025 release.
At its core, Elden Ring Nightreign plays like the original game. It’s a third person action game where you fight enemies in open areas, settlements, castles, and caves to gain Runes, find new equipment, and upgrade materials. So far nothing new. Where the formula gets twisted is in the encroaching circle that diminishes around the players as each of the 3 days in a given session advance. The circle is tense and interesting, it encourages fast decision making and requires planning ahead of each day’s final boss, with a healthy dose of luck from weapon and upgrade drops. There’s a reason why it is a true and tried staple of plenty of competitive multiplayer games, and this still works in a cooperative game.
As part of the Network Test, I was able to try four out of the eight total playable classes that Elden Ring Nightreign will feature. These were Wylder, a strength focused character with good mobility tools and great damage output; Guardian, an imposing bird-like humanoid with powerful defensive capabilities and crowd control; the nimble Duchess, a fragile glass canon capable of dishing an incredible amount of damage and supporting her foes; and the Recluse, a witch that can absorb elements from the spells casted around her to concoct powerful improvised spells. The idea of selecting preset classes with unique abilities, both active and passive, that favor different playstyles greatly appealed to me, and it was easily the highlight of Elden Ring Nightreign.
While you can use magic or heavy weapons with any characters, some are better suited to each archetype, with damage scaling being massively influenced by their apparent roles. Wylder might be able to equip magic catalyst, but only Recluse will get the most out of them once her level is high enough and her upgrade paths are high. This level of flexibility is nice, while retaining the build crafting elements that I and so many find appealing in FromSoft’s RPGs. Meanwhile, abilities like Wylder’s powerful ultimate can decimate bosses’ health bars, and with Duchess’ normal ability that rewinds damage done you can synchronize yourself to do some ridiculous stuff.
However, magic builds in the Network Test felt absolutely pitiful. As my favored playstyle, I made them work several times, and while the Recluse’s magic cocktail is very fun, it feels like you need a powerful frontliner to take aggro away from you in order to be able to make it work. Couple that with the fact that there aren’t enough weapons that properly scale with magic, compared to regular non-magic equipment, and your damage is going to be severely capped compared to other characters. Another thing I really disliked is the way catalysts work. Each magic catalyst gives you two spells, the item’s signature one and a randomized spell that can be useful or absolutely laughable. I get that it’s not easy to balance things out, but the same way you can carry up to 6 weapons, you should be able to carry any 4-6 spells at any time and alternate between them. As it stands, magic builds feel really strange and not as viable as hitting things with a big metal slab or big stick, and it feels like a shame. Granted, I spent a limited time with the game and maybe this will feel different in the final version of the game, or it gets changed. I just hope magic and incantations have a place in Elden Ring Nightreign.
Another element of the game I’m not so thrilled about is the way the game overdoes its various upgrade systems. Fitting a faster paced rhythm, leveling up has been simplified and players simply chose to spend runes to upgrade their level, starting with 1 and capping at max level 15. However, a single level up marks a massive difference in stats, with each single unit increased being the equivalent of raising about 10 levels in the original Elden Ring. The way this works is fine and makes sense, and you absolutely need to level up, not just to raise your stats and survivability, but to be able to acquire higher rarity weapons. Gray weapons are common and anyone can use them, with blue, purple, and orange rarity being more powerful and rare and requiring at least level 3, 9, and 13 to be able to use. This restriction would be fine, if not for the fact that dying reduces your total level by 1 and makes you drop all your runes (like in the original game) until you require them.
The waste of time is big enough with the clock ticking down, and having to decide to bail or recover your runes makes for a tense moment. Having the player lose a level feels like kicking you while you’re down, and can lead to moments where your weapons are not usable if you only have certain rarities and you are below the usable threshold. While dying normally will give your allies a chance to be revived if they hit you enough times, during the Network Test there was no targeting system, and with the Elden Ring funky control scheme made things quite frustrating when having to help allies or be rescued. Meanwhile, dying against a final boss at the end of each day will result in defeat and end the run in defeat.
This wouldn’t be so frustrating if you could just leave a game that you know is doomed after enough failures and start again. However, for some reason, FromSoft decided that leaving an ongoing game would penalize players. This would make sense if the game was a PvP competitive experience, but in a PvE co-op game it baffles me to see this implemented. During my time with the Network Test, I had a run playing as the Recluse where my allies left on their own after taking any melee weapons with them, leaving me with no magic to cast and no way to defend myself (as there is no FP flask in Nightreign.) I was stuck in a loop in which I had no frontliners to defend me and kept dying, unable to progress, which ended in our team eventually getting wiped at the end of the first game. I can blame this to a lack of communication and it being a test run after all, but I still don’t understand the need for putting a penalty for leaving when the original Elden Ring doesn’t do this at all.
On a more positive note, the open world design of Elden Ring lends itself nicely to Nightreign. The area available in the Network Test was a Limgrave-inspired zone mixing vaguely familiar locations not quite where you remember them, giving the game a dream-like quality. Fighting enemies like the Centipede Demon from the first Dark Souls was very interesting, especially seeing them in a much faster paced game. The map is very useful and being able to tell your allies where you’re going and planning with them with simple commands was very rewarding, as I started to get matched with people that were more coordinated and in sync with me. After a few tries, me and my allies started to realize patterns, like how Churches of Marika always give you an extra healing charge, or where you could find certain bosses to get permanent passive or active bonuses before the end-of-day main boss. I’m very excited to see more parts of the Lands Between rendered in this strange liminal world, and seeing what other biomes can offer.
Gladius, Beast of Night, was the final boss available at the end of each run during the Network Test, and the very first completely original element in Elden Ring Nightreign. Unsurprisingly, Gladius is an excellent enemy. While I didn’t manage to beat him during my time with the test, I really enjoyed the concept behind a boss designed to be fought in multiplayer, transitioning from a three-headed wolf to three single-headed wolves in its second phase and splitting each player’s attention. While the test was limited to multiplayer, it makes me wonder how this boss and the overall balance of a run will feel while playing solo. I’m also perplexed by the lack of an option to play in duos, with only solo or trios seemingly available. Hopefully we see the option appear by the time the game comes out.
The practice range available in the Roundtable Hold version of Nigthreign is a great. You can choose any character class as well as any piece of equipment and alter your level to your heart’s content to try different builds and combinations, as well as test the moves on each weapon. Something I noticed as well in this Roundtable Hold and that feels promising is character dialogue. Every class in the game is not a voiceless character, and you can interact with those you aren’t playing as, which have their own lines and things to say. I would love to see this expanded upon in the final release, maybe with characters having certain requirements or requests to make, such as exploring particular areas of the map and then returning to talk to them.
There are some really cool things going on in Elden Ring Nightreign so far. The character classes, fast pace, and new boss being the obvious winners. However, I am unconvinced by the shift towards a punishing roguelike and multiplayer extraction blend. I want to like the idea so badly. I have put over 300 hours into Elden Ring and I’ve seen everything I could out of the game. Which is what makes getting a more arcadey version of the full experience so appealing, getting to make random endgame builds on the fly with what you’re given. I can almost see on the horizon the version of the game that feels like a fun multiplayer power-fantasy romp. Unfortunately, the Network Test left me feeling worried that Elden Ring Nightreign is a niche experience for a very specific type of player, with the game design opting to pursue more blasé and trendy elements in favor of reducing the complexity to allow for an immediate fun. We’ll have to wait for May to see how things end up shaking out.
Elden Ring Nightreign will come to the PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC via Steam on May 30, 2025.
Published: Feb 28, 2025 09:00 am