Elden Ring: Nightreign is weird. It’s a cooperative roguelike with a bit of battle royale that remixes a lot of existing Elden Ring assets and spins it into something new. It’s by far the last thing anyone expected FromSoftware to do, though maybe less so now with The Duskbloods on the horizon. Multiplayer games are on the mind over there.
As their latest foray into the space in some time (Armored Core: Verdict Day in 2013 was their last game to focus on multiplayer), it’s very different from the studio’s usual output, but not unwelcome. As is tradition, I roped Eduardo into playing and chatting with me about this one.
Callum: I didn’t expect to enjoy Nightreign as much as I have. Based on my time with the network test a few months ago, I expected it to be merely OK. I could see the vision, but it seemed like something that was going to be contingent on having a regular group to play with, that wouldn’t hold my attention long based on how limited in scope it felt.
But here I am now having finished the game after a few dozen runs and I still have the urge to play more. It’s really good, actually! It all comes together surprisingly well.
It’s a bizarre game in many ways because of how much it borrows from popular design trends. It’s a multiplayer focused game that’s a mix of the roguelike and battle royale genres through the lens of Elden Ring. That’s an odd pitch no matter how you look at it. On one hand, it’s easy to look at this as everyone eventually succumbing to chasing whatever’s the current hot idea. And that’s technically not wrong — it is a case of FromSoft making something trendy — but it feels more considered than I would expect from something like this. It doesn’t feel like the cynical cash-in it could have been.
On the other hand, this was clearly stated to be a project meant to give other staff members experience in the directors chair. Taking a bunch of existing assets and remixing them into something new and weird is a great way to do that since we still end up with something new. In that light, even if Nightreign was a wreck, then at least they got to try something.
I think why Nightreign works is that it’s ultimately just a boss rush. A lot of the design makes sense in that context. It’s a great form for this kind of multiplayer because it’s building off what FromSoft’s been doing with co-op since Demon’s Souls. It’s still wildly chaotic and leans into how easily you can snowball enemies when there’s three people attacking the same target, it just requires a bit more teamwork than usual due to playing pre-defined characters with specific skill sets than fully custom characters that can be made utterly broken in multiplayer.
The characters and their unique classes do a lot to make playing Nightreign fresh compared to Elden Ring proper. It forced me out of my comfort zone by making me learn how to play with builds I would usually never touch. If you told me playing the tank would be something I’d enjoy, let alone relying on heavier slower weapons like greatswords and halberds, I wouldn’t have believed you. But the character skills and their unique movesets for certain weapons do a lot to make play styles I would usually avoid fun to learn.
I know you’re cooler on the game than I am, Eduardo, but it seems like you were having more fun with it after we ran some games together. How you feeling on Nightreign?
Eduardo: Yeah, having played some of the game with you has definitely helped me appreciate it more than I did initially. That doesn’t mean I think it’s good per se, not even close to that, even less in comparison to other Souls games in a more proper sense — you know, single player, slow-paced, deliberate experiences — but I can see the value of it, especially through your growing enthusiasm about it. To me, after all of that and the trial and error of playing with random people for about 10-15 hours before joining you, Nightreign is a game you absolutely HAVE to play with people that you know and are in the same mindset with.
It’s highly annoying otherwise, and not all the blame falls on the shoulders of other players who are obviously following their own gameplan, I put it squarely on FromSoftware. And okay, before the cavalry comes down to shoot me, hear me out. I didn’t expect them to add voice chat to the game, but man, outside of putting markers on the map, there’s no way to communicate with your team. Some form of the bloodstain/etching messaging system would’ve gone a long way in at least trying to convey some sort of quick relay between team members. There’s nothing of the sort, and when you are playing with people you don’t know, there’s no conceivable way of talking to them, at least you can start a party chat with your pals with outside tools like PS chat or whatnot, but when you’re dropped in with randos, not a chance. Then there’s the fact that matches last for 30+ minutes and you’re penalized for leaving one for whatever the reason. I’ve been in some where other players deliberately lost and sabotaged our time, or were doing their own thing knowing they were getting in our way, and there was nothing to be done until we all died during one of the sub-boss stages.
It’s things like that that soured what could have otherwise been a decent experiment in my mind. The gameplay ideas are sound, but their execution is also very so-so to me in a way that doesn’t really gel with my personal idea of what these games are, and while that might be my problem since Nightreign is selling gangbusters, there is something sad about seeing From not only try an experiment like this with a series that was already established as through and through Souls, but that they’re gonna do it again with that new Switch 2 title they’re working on. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoy playing co-op Souls, we played through pretty much all of them that way in some form — the Chalice Dungeons in Bloodborne we ran together being some of my best multiplayer gaming memories by far — but doing it all rushing along like it’s Fortnite or any other battle royale game just didn’t sit with me right.
On the other, more pulled back hand, this game IS still From through and through when it comes to presentation. I’m interested in knowing more about its characters — I dug the classes and their unique powers aspect of Nightreign, especially the Revenant and the Recluse — and I love the atmosphere and world building that is there that these devs are known for and do so well, but man, I HAVE TO PLAY THE DAMN thing to see those all those things come to fruition, don’t I? Ugh. Well, at least I can still count on you to maybe jump in and help a guy out so he can at least see some of them, right? RIGHT?
Callum: See, Nightreign doesn’t feel that different from regular Souls co-op to me at its core. If you’ve ever tried summoning or being summoned in those games anywhere other than right outside a boss gate, a lot of the same behaviors Nightreign encourages are common in those games as well. I can’t count the number of times I was summoned somewhere in Elden Ring proper where me and the host would have to chase another summoned player because they would sprint through the level leading to the boss. It was always a gamble whether they could actually survive the run or get themselves killed from running ahead on their own. Same happened with each of the Dark Souls games here and there.
The difference is that Nightreign is built entirely around cooperative play, so there’s more friction involved because of how past experience has conditioned everyone to play these games over the years. Actual teamwork isn’t something those games actively encourage — or not as much as they used to, anyway. Dark Souls 1 (the original version, not the remaster) had it so summoned players couldn’t use their Estus Flask and instead had to rely on the host to keep them alive, which I think was a fantastic dynamic to encourage everyone to stick together and help one another. Protecting the host was always an unspoken understanding and making them be in charge of healing everyone made it that much more important to play smart. But that vanished in subsequent games in favor of just giving summons a reduced number of heals. That’s more convenient, sure, but it’s nowhere near as interesting design-wise. It leads to everyone just rushing in and acting of their own accord because there’s no more risk to that than there is playing solo.
And I mean — it works! Overwhelming enemies and bosses gets the job done. You might occasionally see people carefully trading aggro to keep the boss’ attention divided to give people openings to strike or windows to heal, a great example of the kind of cooperation these games enable, but the majority of the time, everyone’s just going in without much thought about what their allies are doing. Nightreign can’t escape that problem — people will sometimes just head off in a direction without pinging where they’re going or rush into a boss none of us have any business fighting at our current level — but the design does push for increased awareness of your co-op partners at least.
Some of the best moments I’ve had involve either myself or someone else making clutch plays to revive downed allies or timing an ult just right to interrupt a boss’ attack that probably would have killed one of us. There was one moment where I was fighting the first nightlord, the three-headed fire dog, and right after it had split into three and marked someone, the Raider on the team moved in close to who the boss was focused on and used his ult to create a pillar to keep our other teammate out of reach of the boss. The dogs just kept lunging at the pillar for a bit trying to attack their target while they sat still, so we got a chance to get some free damage in. It was a really smart move and one of those moments where this game began to click.
Nothing can compare to when the two of us tackled the chalice dungeons in Bloodborne, as that was easily the smoothest most coordinated experience I’ve had with playing co-op in any of these games. But there have been runs in Nightreign where everyone was in sync enough to pull off some very clean runs or clutch a victory despite the odds that have gotten close to capturing the same highs (the best cases being runs where it felt doomed early on but managed to be turned around completely). I’ve had mostly good success playing randos, but it is definitely a game that’s at its best with a crew you know.
So I’m kinda of two minds regarding The Duskbloods after playing Nightreign. On one hand, I’m more interested in it now because Nightreign clicked with me more than I expected to. If it’s playing with some of the same ideas (unique characters with their own play styles and abilities, namely), then it could be fun to see another take on that. But on the other, a large part of what makes Nightreign work for me is that it’s a co-op-focused game that is largely mechanics driven. The Duskbloods, from what we know so far, being a player-versus-player-versus-environment deal is less appealing to me since PvP isn’t all that fun outside of very specific circumstances. FromSoft doing something brand new is always nice to see (wouldn’t mind getting some more Armored Core, though), but I can’t say it’s the kind of thing I actively want to play. (There’s also the fact of having to buy a new, very expensive console to even play it, which is hard to justify when the Switch 2 lacks a proper software lineup.)
Back to Nightreign: I think the characters are unexpectedly my favorite part of the game. I didn’t think there would be much to them outside what they’re designs project, but the remembrance quests and how they flesh everyone out and get them to interact is fun. It makes the cast feel like a team rather than a bunch of characters just occupying the same space, which could have easily been the case given how often multiplayer games can lean on extremely basic, surface level characterization. I’m not gonna say Nightreign is like super deep or anything, but there’s more there than I thought.
Only downside to the remembrance quests is how hard it can be to get people to go along with them. Had at least one case where I marked where I needed to go, and got promptly ignored. Not the biggest issue in the grand scheme, but it is annoying for sure.
Eduardo: I get what you say about the co-op in the game being quite similar, and to a certain degree, well, I agree! When people don’t want to help, things get chaotic on just about any game online.
I also wish that Armored Core would get more love, especially after 6 did so well last time. We’ll see what comes out of Duskbloods and hope that it propels them to get more going with their other properties, right?
Can’t get enough out of the characters in Nightreign either. I wish I could also get all the remembrances done, but as you said, it’s highly dependent on other players, much like the rest of the game, heh.
Well, this has been a big, BIG piece about the game. I don’t absolutely love it and it’s certainly on the bottom of my ‘Top From Software Games’, without a shadow of a doubt… still, I don’t absolutely hate it! And it’s been a good time playing with you, as always, so there’s that.
Callum: I’ll just touch on some quick points:
Solo play is nowhere near as fun. It’s like… fine. Fighting the end of run bosses solo is a good challenge, but everything else doesn’t quite hit the same when you aren’t running with a crew. The patch that increased the number of runes obtained and giving you at least one free revive against bosses helps make it more viable than a pure challenge run, but you can feel how much this game is explicitly designed with multiplayer in mind.
The relics feel a little under baked. Once you get the relics each character obtains from their remembrances, in most cases, the unique abilities they grant kinda make anything else useless by comparison. Why would I want to increase the strength of throwing pots or specific kinds of spells in place of the buffs to each character’s abilities? There’s certainly utility in creating specific loadouts in prep for each boss or to play off your teammates if you know who’s playing who, but even in that scenario, some of the character relics are so strong that it’s hard to justify using anything else.
Bosses from the Dark Souls trilogy appearing in this is weird, but I get it. They’re fun fights! Using them to fill out the boss roster in the context of a spin-off feels appropriate for an experiment. But also, fighting them in the context of Elden Ring and its many tweaks and refinements to the Souls formula, to see the evolution of their approach to boss design be directly compared to one another and actively feel it shift over the course of the Dark Souls trilogy to Elden Ring is fascinating. The steady increase in aggression, the progression these games made into leaning harder into becoming action games is something I think anyone who’s played these games is aware of, but placing them all in the same game is a stark illustration of that evolution.
I didn’t really expect that much out of Nightreign originally, but I’m still impressed by how well it works and how much I clicked with it. I’m not always one for multiplayer-centric games outside of very specific circumstances, but Nightreign got its hooks in me in a way I never thought it would. I’m very curious to see what lessons, if any, they’ll take from this into their future games.
Eduardo: Yeah, I also felt that the relics were pretty weakly integrated as well since they kind of broke the game once you found the really good ones that added elemental buffs to your starting weapon, making the manic search for them moot during runs, and loadouts look almost the same everytime, like you said.
I did get a kick out of the bosses, not just the main ones, which are quite epic, even though they take way too long to kill. — seeing old “friends” like the Dancer from Dark Souls 3 and the Smelter Demon from 2 is always fun and always makes me shiver in my seat, thinking “are we gonna survive this fight and make it to the ACTUAL boss?!” which is always a good feeling to have when playing these games.
I’m glad that you got such a kick out of the game, it’s surprising considering how down on it you were at the start, which is the feeling I had from the beginning up to this point. Yeah, like I said before, it’s a game I’m always down to play with you and our friends, but it’s nothing I would ever dare rank too high on my list of favorites. We’ll see what From will do from this point forward…
Callum Rakestraw (he/him) is the Reviews Editor at Entertainium. You can find him on Bluesky, Mastodon, and his blog.
Eduardo Reboucas is a jack-of-all-trades and master-of-none when it comes to videogames and someone who likes talking about them a whole lot. You can find him over on Bluesky at @eduardo.entertainium.co.
