FromSoftware dropping the hardest boss ever: HAVING FRIENDS... Very bold of Miyazaki to think I have two friends to play with... I loved Elden Ring and FromSoft games in general but No Duos, crossplay, and voice chat is unacceptable in a game that really requires working together. This is a complete nightmare to play with randoms.
I swear, FromSoftware’s lore is like trying to read IKEA instructions written in Latin while blindfolded. And yet, I’d still equip it instantly if the passive effect reads
“The sword once wielded by the forgotten heir, forged in the screams of the cursed moon geese.”
Started up the game.
Killed a few easy mobs.
Felt good about myself.
Immediately got crushed by Fell Omen in under a minute.
10/10 Elden Ring experience.
Booted up the game, full of confidence
"Tutorial? Easy. I'm basically a Souls veteran."
Faced the first boss. He sneezed. I died. Twice.
Realized the real enemy… was hope.
Great game if you have short term memory loss making it feel like a new experience every run. Otherwise, have fun running the same map with 5 different points of interest slightly remixed every time, the same bosses in the same spot over and over again, and amazing upgrade options like 4% additional stamina or the much sought after ability to let out an ice fart once every 10 seconds when you are walking.
Impossible to make progress without voice chat.
If you have 3 friends you can talk to and play regularly, you will have a great time, the connection is smooth, the map is full of events and the game loop is very interesting.
However I am a 41 year old man and I don't have friends to regularly play this with, let alone 2 others (you need 3 people to go in as a team, 2 won't work either).
Even if they bring voice chat in the game (i'm not sure how there isn't one at the moment) you won't really enjoy this as much as if you were trying to fight with buddies, as your responsiveness with randoms will affect how you feel about your game a lot.
Playing it solo queue with randoms is hard, it's hard to communicate, it's hard to share items, it's hard to discuss tactics or decide on the next area to farm, it's just hard.
TL;DR, if you don't have 2 more friends you can group up with regularly, it's not fun.
Edit: So after 421 comments and 379 clown emojis as of writing this review, I'd just like to point out that I never expected this review to be this controversial, so I'd like to clarify a couple of points...
Not having friends who want to play nightreign is not the same as having no friends, not everybody is excited about this sort of game. Furthermore, I'm not going to go and join random discords to try and find 2 other people that I may click with.
With regards to skill issue for solo play, yeah, no shit I'm not good enough to beat the game in solo mode, I'd gather most people aren't... not sure why this is a talking point though when the game is clearly meant to be played coop.
I mentioned this in a few comments the day I posted this review but I find having no voice chat availability in a coop game and no way to ping items in a game about sharing items to be unacceptable in the year of our lord, 2025. You don't need to play for 20 hours to realise that voice chat is important in a game like this, two runs at 1.2 hours in showed me well enough that the game simply is not fun at all for me, unless you have two friends to play with.
And as a final point, I have recieved so many friend offers and people actually messaging me to tell me not to be worried about all the negative comments (which was honestly very unexpected and kinda sweet), and I would say that despite what everything looks like in the comments, souls community is still one of the best in my book. I'm honestly not bothered by the comments, I find them quite funny honestly and some of them aren't even wrong. I love the souls games and have been playing them (badly) for almost 15 years now, I wish this game clicked with me, I really did, but it didn't.
Poor tools for communication in a game about cooperation and teamwork is not acceptable. I will repeat once again, and if you disagree with this point, then good for you, it doesn't work for me though, and I have no problems telling people in my review about it.
Enjoy the game, happy hunting.
This game saved my life - Through playing this game, I began to confront my mental health issues and reflect on how past traumas have reshaped my adulthood personality, influencing my attitudes and responses toward both others and myself. These led me to my first-ever appointment with a therapist, which I should have done years ago. To be honest, it really helps.
Thank you, NightReign.
if you don't have 2 other friends to play with in voice chat, don't waste your time.
game is elden ring, but 3p, and the solo queue is abysmal (queuing up to play with randoms). without VC It's super hard to coordinate where to go, where chests/consumables are, trying to drop items for teammates, etc. even though i really love elden ring and roguelites in general as well as nightreign's syle of gameplay, I wouldn't see myself ever playing this game again without friends in vc, or if 1p experience wasn't as hard as a "level 1 elden ring any% speedrun".
i think no matter how good you are at the game, it doesn't matter if you're bad at teamwork, especially in an environment where communicating is close to nonexistent(pins in a punishing fast paced PvE game isn't it lol)
also some FPS breaking bugs here and there but not a big deal.
Great game if you have short term memory loss making it feel like a new experience every run. Otherwise, have fun running the same map with 5 different points of interest slightly remixed every time, the same bosses in the same spot over and over again, and amazing upgrade options like 4% additional stamina or the much sought after ability to let out an ice fart once every 10 seconds when you are walking.
Edit: I beat it. It's still ass.
Nightreign is an unevenly microwaved hot pocket. The edges are scalding and the center is frozen solid, and so for the most part eating it is a miserable experience. But the problem is, right at the border between the hot and cold sections? There's a bite or two that's just perfect
Oh, but also sometimes it's just full of broken glass and gravel.
This is either the most i've ever enjoyed a game i hate, or the most i've ever hated a game i enjoy. I just don't know which.
A few rounds of balance patches will probably help a lot, but i also feel like there are so many big structural issues that just can't be easily fixed. I think the core problem is it forgets the thing that makes Souls difficulty actually work: no matter how many times a boss kills you with cheap BS, you can just throw yourself at it again and again until you figure it out.
Here, each of those runbacks takes 45 minutes.
As of right now, its really only worth it if you are a massive fan of souls-like games. It can for sure be fixed with a few patches, but right now this game is just unrealized potential.
Here's what's good:
- Pace feels good
- Characters are distinct and the abilities are fun
Here's what needs improvement:
- Drops are not great. 95% of what you get doesn't matter
- Enemies are overtuned. EVERY boss is a sponge and do way too much damage unless you've played near-optimal up to that point
- It can get a bit repetitive at times. All rougelikes are to a certain extent, but after a few hours, you've legitimately seen everything there is to offer besides a few bosses.
Here's what is bad:
- Relics are terrible. The vast majority do almost nothing, and the ones that actually do something are still nearly useless. This is the main method of progression as they are supposed to allow for an increase in strength between runs, but it just doesn't work.
- No two player
- Matchmaking often doesn't work
- Single player is miserable
If the idea of Risk of Rain but it's Elden Ring strikes you as an absolutely deranged concept for a Fromsoft spin-off title, then you'd be right because it absolutely is but honestly it works and it works really, really well.
I don't really understand why people are acting like they're disappointed this isn't the next Shadow of the Erdtree, so many of the negative reviews early on are just "WAAAH GAME IS WHAT DEVS SAID IT WOULD BE INSTEAD OF WHAT I WANTED IT TO BE" which is useless as feedback. Fromsoft is allowed to try other things and experiment, they are not your Dark Souls slaves where they are only allowed to make one game forever.
Nightreign has a few issues, duo queuing for a matchmade 3rd is broken at time of writing, performance is a bit ass at times, the game renders at fully usable ultrawide but arbitrarily puts black bars on the sides and then EAC's you out of removing them with .ini edits, and the progression of the game is really stale until you've seen everything at which points your runs will start randomizing properly, but as a core concept it's incredibly fun.
Pick from a really well-rounded selection of characters with their own abilities and starting gear and distinct appearances, select the end-boss you want to hunt like you would Monster Hunter, then fly in, drop on to the map and run around doing Elden Ring open world content and clearing strongholds and killing mini bosses while levelling up and gathering gear to fight 2 random bosses from Elden Ring before getting to your chosen final boss which is entirely unique to this game.
It's fast paced, fun, and feels like they took that "jolly co-operation" feeling of the old Sunbros covenants and bottled it in to its own spin off game.
Like I said above, Risk of Rain but it's Elden Ring. If that sounds fun to you, you'll love this. If you are JUST here because you want the next Shadow of the Erdtree then Do Not Bother. This game is not for you and it was never made with you in mind.
See red glow, is him. Bell Bearing Hunter
He grab John
Dave shoot arrow
Arrow hit red man, tink
Red man look at Dave now, Very mad look
Red man have two friends now
Me have no friends, Me run
10/10
Best co-op game
Literal magic game. I was stuck on the dancer in ds3 and encountered it in this one. me and my group were able to beat it and i later went back to ds3 and was able to beat the dancer
What a shame. Game could probably have been fun if it was just rogue-like boss rush with friends, where you get new weapons, incants, gear and passives after fights, but all it feels like is an unfun, chaotic mess that offers absolutely no chance of understanding what is happening, what equipment you're finding, what items you're picking up, or where you should go. I completely undestand this is something you would get and learn by playing the game, but it feels awful.
If you don't bum rush you will get so far behind you get immediately one-shot by the boss. If you do bum rush though, you have no chance of learning or understanding anything. I like difficult boss fights, but the battle-royale circle rush fiesta really doesn't work, at least not for me.
FromSoftware dropping the hardest boss ever: HAVING FRIENDS... Very bold of Miyazaki to think I have two friends to play with... I loved Elden Ring and FromSoft games in general but No Duos, crossplay, and voice chat is unacceptable in a game that really requires working together. This is a complete nightmare to play with randoms.
I swear, FromSoftware’s lore is like trying to read IKEA instructions written in Latin while blindfolded. And yet, I’d still equip it instantly if the passive effect reads
“The sword once wielded by the forgotten heir, forged in the screams of the cursed moon geese.”
Started up the game.
Killed a few easy mobs.
Felt good about myself.
Immediately got crushed by Fell Omen in under a minute.
10/10 Elden Ring experience.
Booted up the game, full of confidence
"Tutorial? Easy. I'm basically a Souls veteran."
Faced the first boss. He sneezed. I died. Twice.
Realized the real enemy… was hope.
Great game if you have short term memory loss making it feel like a new experience every run. Otherwise, have fun running the same map with 5 different points of interest slightly remixed every time, the same bosses in the same spot over and over again, and amazing upgrade options like 4% additional stamina or the much sought after ability to let out an ice fart once every 10 seconds when you are walking.
Impossible to make progress without voice chat.
If you have 3 friends you can talk to and play regularly, you will have a great time, the connection is smooth, the map is full of events and the game loop is very interesting.
However I am a 41 year old man and I don't have friends to regularly play this with, let alone 2 others (you need 3 people to go in as a team, 2 won't work either).
Even if they bring voice chat in the game (i'm not sure how there isn't one at the moment) you won't really enjoy this as much as if you were trying to fight with buddies, as your responsiveness with randoms will affect how you feel about your game a lot.
Playing it solo queue with randoms is hard, it's hard to communicate, it's hard to share items, it's hard to discuss tactics or decide on the next area to farm, it's just hard.
TL;DR, if you don't have 2 more friends you can group up with regularly, it's not fun.
Edit: So after 421 comments and 379 clown emojis as of writing this review, I'd just like to point out that I never expected this review to be this controversial, so I'd like to clarify a couple of points...
Not having friends who want to play nightreign is not the same as having no friends, not everybody is excited about this sort of game. Furthermore, I'm not going to go and join random discords to try and find 2 other people that I may click with.
With regards to skill issue for solo play, yeah, no shit I'm not good enough to beat the game in solo mode, I'd gather most people aren't... not sure why this is a talking point though when the game is clearly meant to be played coop.
I mentioned this in a few comments the day I posted this review but I find having no voice chat availability in a coop game and no way to ping items in a game about sharing items to be unacceptable in the year of our lord, 2025. You don't need to play for 20 hours to realise that voice chat is important in a game like this, two runs at 1.2 hours in showed me well enough that the game simply is not fun at all for me, unless you have two friends to play with.
And as a final point, I have recieved so many friend offers and people actually messaging me to tell me not to be worried about all the negative comments (which was honestly very unexpected and kinda sweet), and I would say that despite what everything looks like in the comments, souls community is still one of the best in my book. I'm honestly not bothered by the comments, I find them quite funny honestly and some of them aren't even wrong. I love the souls games and have been playing them (badly) for almost 15 years now, I wish this game clicked with me, I really did, but it didn't.
Poor tools for communication in a game about cooperation and teamwork is not acceptable. I will repeat once again, and if you disagree with this point, then good for you, it doesn't work for me though, and I have no problems telling people in my review about it.
Enjoy the game, happy hunting.
This game saved my life - Through playing this game, I began to confront my mental health issues and reflect on how past traumas have reshaped my adulthood personality, influencing my attitudes and responses toward both others and myself. These led me to my first-ever appointment with a therapist, which I should have done years ago. To be honest, it really helps.
Thank you, NightReign.
if you don't have 2 other friends to play with in voice chat, don't waste your time.
game is elden ring, but 3p, and the solo queue is abysmal (queuing up to play with randoms). without VC It's super hard to coordinate where to go, where chests/consumables are, trying to drop items for teammates, etc. even though i really love elden ring and roguelites in general as well as nightreign's syle of gameplay, I wouldn't see myself ever playing this game again without friends in vc, or if 1p experience wasn't as hard as a "level 1 elden ring any% speedrun".
i think no matter how good you are at the game, it doesn't matter if you're bad at teamwork, especially in an environment where communicating is close to nonexistent(pins in a punishing fast paced PvE game isn't it lol)
also some FPS breaking bugs here and there but not a big deal.
Great game if you have short term memory loss making it feel like a new experience every run. Otherwise, have fun running the same map with 5 different points of interest slightly remixed every time, the same bosses in the same spot over and over again, and amazing upgrade options like 4% additional stamina or the much sought after ability to let out an ice fart once every 10 seconds when you are walking.
Edit: I beat it. It's still ass.
Nightreign is an unevenly microwaved hot pocket. The edges are scalding and the center is frozen solid, and so for the most part eating it is a miserable experience. But the problem is, right at the border between the hot and cold sections? There's a bite or two that's just perfect
Oh, but also sometimes it's just full of broken glass and gravel.
This is either the most i've ever enjoyed a game i hate, or the most i've ever hated a game i enjoy. I just don't know which.
A few rounds of balance patches will probably help a lot, but i also feel like there are so many big structural issues that just can't be easily fixed. I think the core problem is it forgets the thing that makes Souls difficulty actually work: no matter how many times a boss kills you with cheap BS, you can just throw yourself at it again and again until you figure it out.
Here, each of those runbacks takes 45 minutes.
As of right now, its really only worth it if you are a massive fan of souls-like games. It can for sure be fixed with a few patches, but right now this game is just unrealized potential.
Here's what's good:
- Pace feels good
- Characters are distinct and the abilities are fun
Here's what needs improvement:
- Drops are not great. 95% of what you get doesn't matter
- Enemies are overtuned. EVERY boss is a sponge and do way too much damage unless you've played near-optimal up to that point
- It can get a bit repetitive at times. All rougelikes are to a certain extent, but after a few hours, you've legitimately seen everything there is to offer besides a few bosses.
Here's what is bad:
- Relics are terrible. The vast majority do almost nothing, and the ones that actually do something are still nearly useless. This is the main method of progression as they are supposed to allow for an increase in strength between runs, but it just doesn't work.
- No two player
- Matchmaking often doesn't work
- Single player is miserable
If the idea of Risk of Rain but it's Elden Ring strikes you as an absolutely deranged concept for a Fromsoft spin-off title, then you'd be right because it absolutely is but honestly it works and it works really, really well.
I don't really understand why people are acting like they're disappointed this isn't the next Shadow of the Erdtree, so many of the negative reviews early on are just "WAAAH GAME IS WHAT DEVS SAID IT WOULD BE INSTEAD OF WHAT I WANTED IT TO BE" which is useless as feedback. Fromsoft is allowed to try other things and experiment, they are not your Dark Souls slaves where they are only allowed to make one game forever.
Nightreign has a few issues, duo queuing for a matchmade 3rd is broken at time of writing, performance is a bit ass at times, the game renders at fully usable ultrawide but arbitrarily puts black bars on the sides and then EAC's you out of removing them with .ini edits, and the progression of the game is really stale until you've seen everything at which points your runs will start randomizing properly, but as a core concept it's incredibly fun.
Pick from a really well-rounded selection of characters with their own abilities and starting gear and distinct appearances, select the end-boss you want to hunt like you would Monster Hunter, then fly in, drop on to the map and run around doing Elden Ring open world content and clearing strongholds and killing mini bosses while levelling up and gathering gear to fight 2 random bosses from Elden Ring before getting to your chosen final boss which is entirely unique to this game.
It's fast paced, fun, and feels like they took that "jolly co-operation" feeling of the old Sunbros covenants and bottled it in to its own spin off game.
Like I said above, Risk of Rain but it's Elden Ring. If that sounds fun to you, you'll love this. If you are JUST here because you want the next Shadow of the Erdtree then Do Not Bother. This game is not for you and it was never made with you in mind.
See red glow, is him. Bell Bearing Hunter
He grab John
Dave shoot arrow
Arrow hit red man, tink
Red man look at Dave now, Very mad look
Red man have two friends now
Me have no friends, Me run
10/10
Best co-op game
Literal magic game. I was stuck on the dancer in ds3 and encountered it in this one. me and my group were able to beat it and i later went back to ds3 and was able to beat the dancer
What a shame. Game could probably have been fun if it was just rogue-like boss rush with friends, where you get new weapons, incants, gear and passives after fights, but all it feels like is an unfun, chaotic mess that offers absolutely no chance of understanding what is happening, what equipment you're finding, what items you're picking up, or where you should go. I completely undestand this is something you would get and learn by playing the game, but it feels awful.
If you don't bum rush you will get so far behind you get immediately one-shot by the boss. If you do bum rush though, you have no chance of learning or understanding anything. I like difficult boss fights, but the battle-royale circle rush fiesta really doesn't work, at least not for me.
