Elden Ring: Nightreign PS5 PS4 1

The announcement of Elden Ring: Nightreign will have caught many FromSoftware fans, especially as the studio wasn't really expected to have any news to share having put out Shadow of the Erdtree earlier this year. It did, however: a co-op game for up to three players that uses the frameworks of Elden Ring for a different kind of experience. Over on IGN, the outlet was able to play the game ahead of the reveal and interview game director Junya Ishizaki.

What FromSoftware is trying to do with Nightreign is take all of those elements you associate with Elden Ring and try to condense them into a "shorter, tighter play session". It's like playing Elden Ring in co-op at a much quicker pace. Here is how IGN puts it:

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"You squad up with two other players at the start of each round, get dropped into a densely-packed alternate reality chunk of Limgrave that has both its enemy types and the placements of its castles and forts randomly shuffled around at the beginning of each session, and it's up to you and your squadmates to build up from your lowly level-one character status as fast as possible by harvesting runes and weapons as you slash and dash through every enemy-filled camp and castle that you come across."

Here's how a play session in Elden Ring: Nightreign goes:

  • Nightreign is structured around a three-day cycle, with each day lasting 15 minutes
  • During the daytime of the first day, you can choose to go wherever you like
  • As night approaches, where you can go becomes restricted as acid rain closes in on you like a Battle Royale circle
  • When the circle is at its smallest, you enter a random boss fight, including both old and new foes
  • This process repeats for the second and third day
  • There are 8 distinct characters to play as that all have clear strengths and weaknesses
  • Each character has a unique skill and ultimate attack that operate on cooldown meters
  • If you die, your teammates can revive you by attacking you
  • In between rounds, you go to the Roundtable Hold
  • In the Roundtable Hold, you can spend a currency called Murk on emotes and skins
  • Relics offer permanent upgrades to your characters, and you slot up to three in your loadout

Those last few bullet points may make Elden Ring: Nightreign sound like a live-service effort, but it's explained that just buying the game gets you access to the "complete package". There aren't any Battle Passes or microtransactions, and you can actually play the game in single player and offline.

What do you think of this co-op approach to Elden Ring? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

[source ign.com]