Having sunk an unhealthy amount of time into the original Elden Ring, Nightreign was easily my most anticipated roguelike for 2025. Ever since taking a gamble on Bloodborne back in 2015, I’ve been hooked on the genre and have now played the entirety of FromSoftware’s catalogue and many of its best imitators. Now, as an editor for Rogueliker, it felt like the stars had truly aligned, seeing my favourite genres collide against the backdrop of the excellent Elden Ring.
Before I get into my thoughts, you might be thinking, “Didn’t this game come out a month ago?” And yes, you would be correct. With us being a smaller site, we sadly didn’t get launch access. Rather than rush out my impressions, I’ve spent the last few weeks into this roguelike offshoot, to deliver a fair and balanced review. With eight Nightlords slain, 30 hours logged, and experience with all eight of its classes, I finally decided the time was right to put pen to paper.
What is Elden Ring Nightreign?
Nightreign is a standalone adventure where players have just three nights to survive and prepare for a final showdown against an all-powerful Night Lord. Using the limited daylight hours, you’ll scramble to strengthen your build, slaying bosses for new perks and XP, levelling up at Sites of Grace, and collecting additional health flasks. The first two days conclude with a random boss, but after the second night, you ascend to the heavens to face the run’s final challenge.
Forcing you to act quickly is a giant Fortnite-esque blue ring that sweeps across the map, narrowing your area for exploration and eventually pushing you to the night’s boss. If you get caught outside of the ring, your health deteriorates rapidly, making it essential for you to keep moving and watching over your shoulder. I like how the ring pushes you to strategise and think on your feet, but I lost track of the times I was killed with my character glitching out climbing.
Let’s address the elephant in the room, Nightreign isn’t a built-from-the-ground-up experience. Instead, each expedition unfolds on different sections of the Elden Ring map and many of the bosses and enemies are reused. It’s perhaps easier to think of the game like a mod for the original, introducing a completely new style of gameplay to existing content. That’s not to say there isn’t anything new, all of the game’s mostly excellent Night Lords are original, and so are several of the night and field bosses (more on those later).
Git Good, Or Rage Quit Trying
Unlike traditional FromSoftware games that are single player experiences, Nightreign is intended to be played with a group of three in co-op. There is the option to brave things solo, though, and the game’s difficulty scales to make for a fair challenge. That said, with the game’s classes, systems, and boss encounters being largely crafted with co-op in mind, it does certainly feel like the way to go.
When it comes to classes, there are eight to choose from with six being available from the get-go. Each of these comes with its own special moves, skills profiles, and signature weapons. Group composition is very important to consider when playing together, as not all classes synergise effectively. The bow-wielding Ironeye, for example, can revive fallen allies from a distance, whilst the massively tanky Raider can deal some big damage up close swinging his signature hammer.
I’ll be real, my first few hours with Nightreign were a pretty miserable experience. I played the game largely solo with pairs of strangers, and I was surprised to find there was no proximity voice chat. Sure, you can place pins on the map to suggest locations, but it was impossible to discuss deeper strategies with others. For an online roguelike RPG brimming with this much depth, it does feel like a glaring omission, and I hope it’s something the devs patch in later.
The biggest test of my patience, though, was with players rage quitting. If a player abandons ship, the game doesn’t search for a replacement, and the difficulty level remains the same. This made me want to tear my hair out 20 minutes into a run as the odds felt almost completely stacked against us. As it stands, the punishment for leaving a session is too lenient as I received barely a slap on the wrist when leaving a game after another player backed out.
Playing with my co-editor Mike, things felt much more like the game was intended to be played. Whilst Mike did spend most of his time bleeding out on the ground, being able to communicate made a significant difference. In a party, we could plan routes, compare builds, and, most importantly, I didn’t have to worry about someone rage-quitting and tanking the run. Honestly, I still have trust issues.
Harnessing the Night’s Treasures
When it comes to meta progression, Nightreign has a pretty original approach. After completing runs, you’re rewarded with shiny relics that can be equipped to deliver permanent upgrades. These include boosts to specific skills, adding certain items to your inventory at the start of runs, and resistances to particular status conditions.
Relics come in three levels of rarity (dedicated, polished, and grand), with each level adding an additional passive bonus. Each class only has three relic slots initially, but more chalices, urns, and goblets can be purchased at Roundtable Hold (the hub area) to allow you to hold more. There are also relics that can only be obtained by slaying Night Lords, making the spectacle of taking them down even more thrilling.
The rewards you receive at the end of an expedition aren’t tied to success, which helps take the edge off the game’s more frustrating moments. I like how they can be mixed and matched between runs, so you can create a build that is more effective against the Night Lord you’re facing. Sentient Pest is weak to fire, for example, so ahead of my run I equipped a relic to boost my fire damage and another that gave me Fire Grease in my possession at the start of expeditions.
New Threats and Familiar Foes
When it comes to fearsome bosses, Souls fans are spoilt for choice as there are there are 119 in total including field bosses, specific Night 1 and Night 2 bosses, and Night Lords. Besides the concluding Night Lords, which are tied to their own expeditions, all bosses are randomised, helping to keep consecutive runs fresh. For me, the weakest of these are bosses such as Banished Knights, as they simply consist of several basic enemies to defeat.
Whilst I expected many recycled bosses from the original Elden Ring, I was pleased to see some familiar faces from the Dark Souls series. Feeling like a greatest hits package, I couldn’t help but smile when the likes of Gaping Dragon, Dancer of the Boreal Valley, or Centipede Demon spawned on the map. I do wish they did include more of these bosses and some from Sekiro and Bloodborne, but they still make for a nice burst of nostalgia every time they show their faces.
Now onto the main event, the Night Lords themselves. Let’s get it out the way, the only one I developed a serious dislike for was Maris, Fathom Of Night. This floating alien-like creature proved to be a major headache for me early on. I primarily mained as the melee-focused Wylder, and it felt tedious having to wait for it to float to the ground for me to attack. I had to exercise this patience whilst avoiding the many exploding jellyfish and slamming tentacles that it spawned.
Maris aside, I was a big fan of the other Night Lords as they provided a real visual spectacle and forced players to work together to overcome them. The first boss Gladius, Beast of the Night was a great example of this. This three-headed, fire-breathing dog will often break into three, encouraging players to take on one each independently. It also has a mix of ranged and close-quarter attacks, making some classes better than others to counter specific attacks.
My closing complaint is that I wish the arena was varied for these Night Lord encounters. All battles take place in the same empty stretch of desert which starts to feel a little tiresome on the eyes, especially after multiple failed expeditions.
The Verdict
Whilst there’s certainly fun to be had with Nightreign, it did admittedly fall short of my initial expectations.
Your fun and mileage will vary greatly here depending on whether you’re teaming up with a group of fellow Souls enthusiasts or braving it with randoms alone. With me largely falling into the camp of the latter, my first few hours were a grueling slog until I was finally able to push past the first hurdle and take down my first Night Lord.
After that breakthrough, I could appreciate the game’s strengths, such as its show-stopping Night Lord battles, a handful of throwback boss encounters, and a unique approach to meta progression.
If you’re a Souls enthusiast with a group of friends who are looking to play something together, I would say it’s worth it. However, if you don’t check both of those boxes, Nightreign has the potential to frustrate and I advise caution before diving in alone and unarmed.
Elden Ring Nightreign is out now on PC (Win), PS5 and Xbox Series. I played the game on PlayStation via access kindly provided by FromSoftware and their PR friends at Bandai Namco!
