Elden Ring Nightreign Review: A Multiplayer Spinoff Steeped in Nostalgia

I still remember Hidetaka Miyazaki’s words in an interview after Shadow of the Erdtree launched he made it clear that FromSoftware wasn’t working on any more Elden Ring DLC or a sequel. Just a few simple words from him, but they hit hard for us Soulsborne fans. So when Elden Ring Nightreign was first teased, the excitement that surged through me was unstoppable… until I found out it was a multiplayer-focused title. As someone who tends to overthink, a hundred doubts crept in. Still, one thing remained unshaken: my trust in FromSoftware. With that in mind, I set my expectations aside and waited patiently for launch day.

Thanks to Bandai Namco, I was lucky enough to dive into Elden Ring Nightreign ahead of its official release. After clocking in over 60 hours and taking down every boss the game had to offer, I finally wrapped my head around its mechanics and overall experience. In this full review, I’ll break down whether this new multiplayer spinoff has what it takes to stand alongside the legends of the Soulsborne series.

An Divergent Tale from the Lands Between

Most FromSoftware games are rich in lore and storytelling, but Nightreign takes a different approach. While it does have a main story and each playable character comes with their own background that unfolds gradually through their “Remembrance,” often intertwining with others, it still falls short of the deep narrative complexity I’ve come to expect from FromSoftware titles.

Elden Ring Nightreign takes place in an alternate timeline within the Lands Between. In this version, the ‘Night’ has engulfed the Erdtree, and it’s up to the Roundtable Hold to push back by defeating the Night Lords. Eight champions, summoned by a priestess, have answered the call and gathered at the Roundtable to take on this mission.

While Nightreign’s story may be modest in scope, its quality more than makes up for it.

Several character stories are exceptionally well-crafted, each adding depth to the game by revealing subtle lore details that help piece together the new challenges facing the Lands Between. Elden Ring Nightreign also offers multiple endings, which vary depending on which characters you defeat the final Night Lord with and whether you’ve completed their “Remembrances.”

New Character Classes Broaden Elden Ring’s Combat Experience

Elden Ring Nightreign builds on the original’s combat and gameplay systems but adds a slightly faster pace with features like surge sprints, climbing, and spectral hawks. The real game-changer, however, is the introduction of eight distinct character classes, each with unique skills and ultimate abilities. Unlike most FromSoftware games where you customize your character’s playstyle, here you’re locked into each character’s specific style and it works surprisingly well.

While you’re tied to a specific playstyle, mastering the unique strengths of each class is incredibly rewarding. This encourages you to coordinate with your teammates and combine abilities for powerful effects in battle. If you don’t learn how to effectively use a character’s skill, you’ll quickly find yourself struggling and less effective during fights.

Elden Ring Nightreign features eight character classes: Guardian (Tank), Raider (Barbarian), Iron Eye (Archer), Recluse (Mage), Duchess (Thief), Wylder (Mercenary), Revenant (Summoner), and Executor (Shape-shifter). While every class can wield all weapon types, each weapon scales differently depending on the character’s attributes, so it’s best to stick with weapons that complement your class’s strengths.

Every character in the game has a unique feel, and understanding their roles is key to winning battles smoothly. For instance, the Guardian and Raider focus on drawing enemy attention, while Iron Eye, Recluse, and Duchess dish out most of the damage. Meanwhile, Revenant stays back, offering healing and support to the team.

Wylder and Executor serve as versatile hybrid characters, capable of fulfilling DPS, tank, and support roles all at once. Wylder, in particular, excels at darting around the battlefield, striking foes while dodging incoming attacks. His ultimate ability is especially powerful, stunning enemies and delivering a heavy burst of damage.

The Executor, meanwhile, can use his skill to deflect enemy attacks without taking damage and inflict significant bleed damage thanks to his Arcane scaling. His ultimate ability lets him transform into a giant wolf, enabling him to revive nearby allies while unleashing powerful attacks on foes.

Gameplay Core: Fight, Loot, Level Up, and Repeat

Elden Ring Nightreign operates on a 3-day cycle, featuring two main bosses at the end of the first and second days, with the Night Lord arriving on the third day. The core loop is simple: head to POIs > fight bosses and enemies > loot the boss > level up > repeat. The whole experience revolves around preparing for the final showdown with the Night Lord. On days one and two, you should aim for POIs that drop weapons aligned with the Night Lord’s weaknesses and help you level up sufficiently for the final battle.

The first two days serve as preparation for the Night Lord, with the main battle taking place on the third day. During this time, you’ll need to carefully plan your route on the map to gather essential rewards such as extra flask charges, selecting bosses that are easier to defeat and yield more souls, or hunting for weapons that boost your strength.

Most of the normal bosses are familiar faces carried over from the original Elden Ring. Alongside them, several iconic Soulsborne bosses make a return, including the Nameless King, The Duke’s Dear Freja, Smelter Demon, and others.

The Night Lords, however, are mostly brand new except for the Gaping Jaw. Each Night Lord has a unique style, and the majority of their battles are brilliantly designed. That said, there are a couple of fights I genuinely disliked. While I can’t fault the design, some encounters, like the one with Augur, felt more like a frustrating grind than a thrilling challenge.

Several Night Lord battles have truly stuck with me, and it’s refreshing to face them repeatedly without relying on mods or restarting the whole game like in Elden Ring. Beyond that, I can confidently say the final boss fight in Elden Ring Nightreign stands out as one of the best-designed encounters in the entire Soulsborne series think Slave Knight Gael-level brilliance. So, get ready for an unforgettable showdown.

Relics Gives a New Dimension to Nightreign’s Combat

Elden Ring Nightreign embraces a roguelike style. You choose your characters and dive into Limveld to explore, loot, and fight. But at the end of each run, you have to leave your gear behind and start over well, almost from scratch.

That’s where relics come in. These are permanent passive buffs you can equip on your characters before starting a run. Depending on how well you do, you’ll earn a certain number of relics after each run, each offering unique benefits.

These attributes can enhance your starting weapon with elemental affinities, boost base stats, grant resistances, or even upgrade character skills. They can significantly shift your playstyle. For instance, one relic heals nearby allies whenever the equipped character uses a flask, helping conserve resources and endure longer battles more effectively.

I also came across a relic that shares buffs from items and skills with nearby allies, opening the door to all sorts of creative strategies. One tactic we frequently used was grouping up before boss fights to stack buffs using consumables, conserving resources in the process. As a Raider, I often healed teammates just by using a flask near them. This kind of synergy builds a natural interdependence between allies, really shining when playing with friends each of us equipping relics that amplify one another’s strengths and cover weaknesses.

Events: Surprises That Don’t Always Work in Your Favor

To break the monotony, Nightreign includes five distinct Shifting Earth events along with various World Raids and smaller encounters. The Shifting Earth events transform parts of the map, introducing new mechanics and exclusive bosses. For instance, the Rotted Woods event turns a section of the map into a Rot-Blighted zone, where simply existing causes rot buildup. Navigating it becomes a real challenge at least until you find the power-up that grants immunity to the effect.

Once you’ve secured immunity to rot, the area opens up for exploration and becomes a goldmine for runes, with four to five bosses clustered in one spot. It’s rare to see that many bosses so close together, as they’re typically scattered across the map. While this might feel overwhelming early on, by day 2, it turns into an excellent opportunity for farming runes efficiently.

Aside from the Shifting Earth events, World Raids add an unpredictable twist to your run they can be either hilarious or downright stressful, depending on your perspective. Personally, I find them hilarious. These events range from Margit randomly invading and relentlessly pursuing a player until they’re taken down, to chaotic scenarios like black locusts stealing your levels or meteorite strikes crashing down alongside a rampaging Fallingstar Beast.

Defeating these enemies doesn’t yield loot, but instead grants buffs to all allies. For instance, taking down Margit during the Fell Omen raid gives players a buff that increases attack power near Sites of Grace.

Overall, these events bring a nice touch of variety to each run, but they currently feel a bit underdeveloped. Here’s hoping future updates expand on them, as the concept is great but not fully realized in the game’s current state.

Elden Ring Nightreign’s Fashion Is the Fanservice We All Wanted

One of the standout features in Elden Ring Nightreign is the Garbs, or character costumes. Each of the eight characters can equip up to six unique Garbs, all beautifully designed with attention to detail. The most coveted ones, however, are only unlocked after defeating the final boss for the first time and they’re worth the wait. These special costumes are iconic skins from the Dark Souls universe, offering a heavy dose of nostalgia and fanservice for longtime Soulsborne fans.

From Solaire’s iconic armor to the beloved Knights of Catarina, Elden Ring Nightreign masterfully taps into the nostalgia of every Souls veteran. Wylder gets a sleek Artorias skin, while Revenant dons the chilling elegance of Sister Friede’s attire. These coveted skins can be bought using the in-game currency called ‘Murk,’ earned after each expedition run. Honestly, these skins alone are a strong motivation to keep playing and exploring the game.

Elden Ring Nightreign Shines as a True Team Game

Every FromSoftware game so far has emphasized individual skill, especially in PvP, where solo mastery was key. However, Nightreign breaks this tradition.

Elden Ring Nightreign is a true co-op experience designed specifically for three players. Teamwork is crucial, much like in multiplayer battle royales. While it’s not a battle royale, Nightreign punishes lack of coordination even more. Each character has unique strengths and weaknesses, and only through effective teamwork can you amplify those abilities and succeed in battle.

During testing, some teams I played with managed to completely dominate every Night Lord we faced, even pulling off a 5-win streak against them. On the other hand, less coordinated teams often fell apart during the final battle. Team synergy is crucial in Elden Ring Nightreign, and while this is fantastic for players with dedicated squads, solo players might not get the best experience from the game.

Playing Solo Is a Chore

After all the praise, it’s only fair to mention some downsides of Nightreign. Elden Ring Nightreign offers a solo mode you can play offline, where enemies do less damage and have lower health. On paper, solo play seems like it should work smoothly, but from what I experienced, that wasn’t really the case.

Playing solo in Elden Ring Nightreign was frustrating and surprisingly tough. Each fight felt like a grind some characters barely did any damage at the start, while others went down way too fast.

The diverse characters, usually a plus in multiplayer, ended up feeling like a burden when playing solo. The toughest part was the constant fear of dying something I rarely felt in other FromSoftware titles.

As someone who never calls for help in Souls games and casually takes on the Tree Sentinel right from the beginning, I felt pretty confident about going solo in Nightreign. Unfortunately, that confidence was completely crushed after just a few solo attempts.

Unlike what many believe, death has never really been a big problem for me in Souls games. I actually enjoy the challenge of coming back repeatedly against tough bosses. But in Nightreign, that feeling just doesn’t exist dying to the Night bosses or the Night Lord means your whole run is over.

That means if you want a rematch, you have to start completely from scratch, grinding through 20 minutes all over again. It honestly felt like the longest runback I’ve ever experienced in any Souls game!

Random Matchmaking Faces ‘Comms’ Problems

Another big gripe I have with Elden Ring Nightreign is the matchmaking system it’s way too complicated. Even setting up parties using Steam invites is tricky to navigate, and the in-game party system feels just as confusing. That said, with a little digging, players can figure it out, so it’s not something that should cause ongoing problems.

What might be a bigger, long-term problem is the total absence of communication options in random matchmaking. While it’s understandable that the game doesn’t include voice chat, it also doesn’t offer any text or preset communication tools. The only way to get your point across with random players online is by aggressively pinging an objective hoping they’ll actually follow you there.

I recall grabbing a Rivers of Blood for our ‘random’ Executor teammate, but he completely ignored it the whole game. It took me jumping around like crazy just to get him to notice the amazing weapon drop right before the Night Lord battle. Eventually, he caught on, accepted the gift, bowed politely, and then we went on to crush the Night Lord him spamming the weapon art nonstop the entire fight.

There’s no room for discussion, no way to call out clutch plays, and no tolerance for mistakes. Since communication is crucial in this game, this often means the whole run can fall apart. Playing with a consistent team, whether you have comms or not, makes a big difference in how well everyone works together. That gap only widens when you’re teaming up with total strangers from around the world. Even something as simple as asking if someone wants a dropped weapon can be a real challenge without any form of communication.

I’m not sure if FromSoftware intends to add more preset communication options or introduce voice chat, but something definitely needs to be done. Communication has saved our team from death more times than I can count during tough battles. Even a simple call to use an ultimate at the right moment can make a huge difference for the whole run.

Graphics and Performance

Elden Ring Nightreign looks incredible and feels very much like Elden Ring, since it uses many of the same assets. While the graphics might not be top-tier in terms of raw fidelity, the art direction is absolutely on point. Some boss battles are genuinely stunning I’ve found myself amazed by them more than once. Before diving into the numbers, here’s the setup we used for testing:

The game is capped at 60 FPS, which is a bit disappointing. Still, on my RTX 5060 Ti setup, it ran smoothly, maintaining a steady 60 FPS on High settings without any issues. Multiplayer also performed well on my 100 Mbps broadband, with only minor latency that didn’t affect the gameplay.

That said, the game did freeze for a couple of seconds sometimes, and pushing it to max settings caused crashes. This might be due to missing driver support, but it’s something a day-one patch could easily fix. Overall, the experience was smooth and sharp, with only occasional glitches.

Nightreign’s Future Could Bring Plenty of New Excitement

Elden Ring Nightreign has the potential to offer a lot more over time provided FromSoftware keeps it updated with fresh content. Right now, the game offers about 50-60 hours of gameplay at most, which is solid. But I believe it could stay engaging for much longer if the developers added new events, bosses, and significant map updates on a monthly or quarterly basis.

The game is also missing a lot of the Soulsborne bosses I was hoping to see, with Artorius being a huge letdown. On top of that, some of the most anticipated bosses, like Godwyn, didn’t make the cut either another one I was really excited to battle.

That said, you can’t really fault a game for not including things it never promised to have so consider this more of a fan’s reflection than a formal critique.

I still believe Nightreign has plenty of room to grow by adding new content over time, which would help keep its player base engaged. It’s actually the only game I’d trust to follow a live service model even if that means paid DLCs, though I’m definitely hoping it steers clear of a battle pass.

There’s a DLC planned for Q4 2025 that’s expected to introduce at least two new characters. Hopefully, it’ll also bring in more bosses and events, because I really want to see this game thrive for years to come.

Final Verdict: Is It Worth Revisiting The Lands Between?

If you’re a Soulsborne fan, Elden Ring Nightreign is absolutely worth picking up. It delivers just the right amount of nostalgia that every Souls fan craves. The game boasts the best co-op system FromSoftware has ever made, running nearly flawlessly even when teaming up with players from all over the globe. Plus, the character classes bring a fresh spin to the familiar combat, making teamwork more important than ever.

Elden Ring Nightreign is definitely the ideal game for Soulsborne fans who’ve been craving a true co-op experience. The matches move quickly, usually wrapping up in 20 to 30 minutes, which is perfect for multiplayer lovers wanting to fit in a few rounds with friends even on a hectic day.

That said, the game isn’t without its flaws. The solo mode can be brutally tough, and random matchmaking might frustrate a lot of players. Plus, the lack of proper text or voice chat makes it really hard to communicate your intentions with other random teammates during matches.

During my review, I did run into some performance hiccups the game crashed when pushed to max settings and occasionally froze for 4 to 5 seconds. These issues should be fixable with a day-one patch and updated drivers. Aside from that, I noticed a bit of latency during multiplayer, but it didn’t really affect the overall experience. So, I still strongly recommend picking up this game.

What do you think about Elden Ring Nightreign? Let me know if you’re planning to dive into it in the comments below!

Pros and Cons

AzMo Tech Score

Elden Ring Nightreign takes players on a nostalgic journey, letting Soulsborne fans face classic Dark Souls bosses within the Elden Ring framework. Yet, it also forges its own path with fresh character classes, fast-paced combat, and smooth, team-focused co-op that really sets it apart. That said, the game isn’t without flaws. There’s no voice or text chat in random matchmaking, making communication tough. The solo experience is brutally challenging and often feels like a grind. Plus, for newcomers, Nightreign might be the toughest Soulsborne entry yet.