I have bought Nightreign (FromSoft) and have it preloaded because of course I did. It’s FromSoft. I will buy any game by them sight unseen because I am that much of a fan. There are two other PC players in the RKG Discord (well, three, but one is not going to be able to play this weekend), so we are planning on squadding up. You can play solo or you can play with three people total, but the agreement from the reviewers who have played is that playing solo is not a good experience. The game is tuned for three players, and it doesn’t really scale down for a solo player. Reviewers have also said that that it’s just not fun solo. FightinCowboy is the most positive about it, and that’s still kinda lukewarm. He does say it’s growing on him (solo).
I’ve watched a few reviewers play it, but have not watched most of the trailers (I’m trying to avoid spoilers). The thing that is emphasized over and over is that it’s very fast-paced. I see people zipping around the map (there’s a super-sprint), barely stopping to do anything other than kill enemies and bosses. One of the reviews I have watched is FightinCowboy’s, and he talks about how you have to ABR (always be running).
Another thing reviewers have noted is tha tit’s best played with friends because you can communicate with them (through Discord or whatever). There is no communication in the game because that’s From’s style. When you’re playing with randos, you’re not going to be able to talk to them. This game seems to be very heavy on teamwork. You share loot so you want to make sure you give the right equipment to the right person. Also, you want to be able to give tips to each other and to coordinate where you’re going to go.
Oh, I should have given the basic description of the game. It’s an multiplayer co-op roguelite based on Elden Ring. You have a three-day/night cycle. During the day, you run around and kill as much as you can, looting as much as possible while a ring of death is closing in on you. You get equipment and level up, and then you do this again on the second and third days. The third night, you face the night lord, and that’s the end of the run. That’s the very basic cycle of the game.
There are some things that persist between runs, but I don’t know much about that. As I said, I have tried to resist watching trailers and such.
I’m going to say something that might seem at odds with my rah rah FromSoft fanpersona: I don’t think I’m going to like this game. I don’t like having to rush around. I don’t like multiplayer co-op games. I do like some roguelites, but that seems to be the weakest aspect of this game. I’ve seen enough to be worried about, well, everything.
The video I have included above is from Kinda Funny Games, and it’s Blessing and Andy Cortez chatting about what they liked and didn’t like about the game.
Oh, one thing they and other reviewers mentioned was how shitty it was in 2025 that there was no cross-play. FromSoft has never had it, but it’s inexucsable in a multiplayer game. Plenty of other multi games do it, and it would make it so much easier to squad up that way, especially for those of us on PC.
Here’s the thing. I don’t play the games for the hard bosses. I know that sounds pretentious or anti-pretentious, but I am truly in it for the exploration. There is none of that in this game. As I mentioned a time or ten, you’re zipping around and doing everything as fast as you can.
Bless and Andy talk about this in the video I posted above. You have to love Elden Ring, but that’s not enough. You have to be into Fortnite-like games in which you’re dropped somewhere and you have to make it to certain points and have certain goals (while there’s a ring of fire or whatever it is closing in on you), and you have to like roguelites. Bless joked that the game was made fro him and Andy and no one else at all.
That doesn’t inspire confident in me. This may be ungenerous of me, but it sounds like it takes the things I like least about ta genre and mashes them together. Bless ranked it 7.5 and Andy ranked it 8. They both had many positives to say, but also many negatives. Which is how every review talked about the game.
Side note: There’s a guy named Mitch Saltzmann from IGN who is known as the FromSoft guy at that website. In fact, even among the FromSoft guys, he’s the guy. In this review, both Andy and Bless mentioned that they did the best with Mitch in their party. Which made me laugh, but sounded very reasonable.
I will try every class, of course, even though I already know that I’m not going to like a few of them. The Duchess (rogue) and Executor (Sekiro, basically) are right out. The Recluse (magic chick with a cool hat) is supposedly the hardest character to master, but someone in the RKG Discord said they did not have any problems with it. Oh, and the last character revealed looks amazing, too.
The other four, I could take or leave. One is an archer, and bows aren’t good in FromSoft game. I have heard that they really souped it up for this game, so if that’s the case, I might be swayed because I am a ranged person at heart. Two are different kinds of tank. One is a birdman with a shield and the other is a seaman who likes to drink and shout. The last character is a quality build, meaning well-rounded and probably the safest beginner pick.
In the video I posted, Blessing repeated at the end that the game was for him and Andy, and not many other people. I’m worried about that because I know that I don’t like one big aspect of the game–multiplayer co-op. And every review emphasizes that you need a good squad in order to get the most out of the game. You have to be able to communicate clearly, quickly, and be of similar playing level.
Another thing reviewers mention is that the night lords are all really fucking good. Supposedly, some of the best bosses that FromSoft has ever designed. But, you only see them once and then you either die or kill them, and it’s another forty-five minutes before you can see them again. That’s antithetical to what makes Elden Ring so enjoyable. In past games, they had crazy boss runs. In Elden Ring, they put a site of grace or at least a stake of Marika in front of the hardest bosses.
My prediction is that I’m going to play for about a week and then regretfully decide it’s not for me. Not because I won’t like it, but because I won’t be able to play it well. And you have to be able to play it well to, well, do well.
It’s dropping tomorrow at 5 p.m. for PCs, Central time. My hype is muted, but it’s there because FromSoft. We’ll see how I feel in 14 hours or so.