Elden Ring Nightreign Review

After the massive success of Elden Ring, making a spin-off no doubt sounds like the right call!

Enter FromSoftware and Bandai Namco’s Elden Ring Nightreign.

Is it title worthy of the Elden Ring name, or shoud it remain maidenless?

Elden Ring Nightreign Review

Elden Ring Nightreign tasks players with taking on the mantle of various heroes as they set out to take on the Nightlords in the Lands Between.

Unlike traditional FromSoftware titles, players will forego making a character in lieu of picking a class before venturing out in the Lands Between.

Your job is simple: Get as strong as you can before night three, and bring down the Night Lord.

To do this, you need to defeat mini-bosses, explore the world, and get new buffs and weapons.

Elden Ring Nightreign currently features an alternate version of Limgrave from Elden Ring, though the development team is looking to add more down the line.

We feel this is a smart move, as Elden Ring Nightreign’s environment is familiar and yet different enoug to still get lost.

Once one lands on the map, players will set out to grind to get stronger.

An example of one of our typical runs pains a solid picture…

After flying in from the Roundtable Hold, players will start looking for targets on the map.

While we normally hit a fort or go to a church for an extra health flask first, the most important thing to do is stick together.

Elden Ring Nightreign is designed for three people, so stay close.

We typically like to hit a fort early for a reason: Easy boss kill, a Stonesword key, and some clues about the local area.

This, in turn, lead to beetles – which provide talismans for additional buffs.

After clearing the fort and killing the boss, one can choose your reward after each boss is killed.

Options include weapons, buffs (like more HP or stamina), or a rare loot item like you revive once after dying.

From there, one can use the key to fight another boss and get another buff. The cycle repeats until the Night Tide comes in and threatens to wash away everything.

If you’ve played a battle royal game, then you know what the Tide is; it’s the storm. If you get caught in the Night Tide, you will die very quickly, but since it comes in slow, you also have time to get extra boss kills in before it hits you.

This will lead you to do the first main boss at the end of night one.

Beat this boss, and the Tide lets up, giving you another day to power up even further and do it all over again. If you beat the boss on the second night, you get to face off with the Night Lord – and hopefully win.

Regardless of whether you live or die, you head back to Roundtable Hold after and claim your loot.

Since both classes and weapons are predetermined, one’s rewards are relics of various colors.

On that note, each class has three different relics they can bring into the mission.

For instance, The Raider can bring in a red, blue, and yellow one. Each relic has a small buff, such as +2 strength or increased poison resistance, and affects items, allies, and other aspects.

This proves to be a fun grind, and you can get extra skins for your characters as well!

Speaking of Elden Ring Nightreign’s characters, let’s get into the classes.

Players start with six, and can get more doing certain tasks in the game.

The classic Knight, Archer, Tank, Mage, Warrior, and Dex-based fighter are there when you start.

We stuck to the Raider (Warrior) and Ironeye (Archer), greatly enjoying both!

As an added perk, when one levels, all stats go up automatically. On that note, the only thing one needs to build is one’s weapons and relics.

Another new addition to Elden Ring Nightreign are Class Skills.

We’ve had weapon skills before, but these new class ones are truly excellent.

The Knight has a hookshot to close the gap, along with a cannon on his arm for a massive explosion when going up close and personal.

Our Ironeye would get a giant bow, charge the arrow, and clear out five to 10 enemies easily.

Our favorite, and the reason we played Raider a ton, is the punch.

Essentially, as a Raider, you gain a punch skill. When you take damage, it powers up the skill. If you time it right, you can completely counter the enemy and stun it in one hit.

It is satisfying every time, especially when you stun a boss enemy.

Most of the bosses players face in Elden Ring Nightreign during the first few days aren’t new; one has seen them in either Elden Ring or some other Souls game.

While they might have some new modifications or movesets, but they are mostly the same.

This is good, because it lets you focus on beating the first couple of days instead of learning a ton of new bosses and tactics.

However, The Night Lords are new bosses, and they are very difficult for the most part. We aren’t talking Melania-levels of hard, but there are a couple of memorable moments for sure.

While there were no game crashes during the review period, we did have the occasional frame dip.

Do note that Elden Ring Nightreign lacks voice chat – and sometimes players will run off on their own.

If you leave, you have to come back; otherwise a penalty occurs.

We’ll see how it works in public, but there will no doubt be a lot of rage-quits.

Thankfully, they have private lobbies.

Elden Ring Nightreign is truly worthy of its namesake. Fans who still have the Elden Ring itch even after the DLC should gear up for some jolly good cooperation.

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