Elden Ring Nightreign is a bizarre game. I think that was apparent to most from the reveal trailer, which debuted during The Game Awards last December. Is it a spin-off? A co-op mode? A roguelite? A battle royale? FromSoftware’s Monster Hunter? Is this just the studio’s way to squeeze more out of Elden Ring’s budget by reusing all of its assets for an online multiplayer game no one was asking for? The answers to all of those questions is “yes”, or, well, “kinda”, or more accurately, “it makes sense once you play it.” Unfortunately, because it’s so weird and hard to understand, I’m not sure the people who would really dig it will ever end up playing it.

Is Nightreign Still Elden Ring?

The people who are definitely going to play Nightreign are, of course, Elden Ring fans. There’s a ton of those people out there, so it stands to reason that a lot of them will really like Nightreign. But when I think about the kind of experience Elden Ring offers and what its fans like about it, I can’t help but feel like Nightreign’s appeal isn’t all that compatible. I’m not sure your average Souls stan is going to vibe with Nightreign’s online co-op roguelite battle royale energy. It looks the same, but it’s a completely different kind of game.

Looking the same is going to do a lot of the heavy lifting here. It’s got all of the Elden Ring iconography, from the ruined castles to the dragons to the severed-hands-with-too-many-damn-fingers. A lot of the bosses are from other FromSoftware games. Not just Elden Ring, but the Dark Souls trilogy too. There’s obvious references to Bloodborne in the weapons and items, and the movement feels far closer to Sekiro’s. This is a full-blown fan service game for soulslike geeks, no doubt about it.

Those fans value combat above all else, and I think they’ll find Nightreign to be pretty faithful. It’s a lot faster-paced with new mobility skills and traversal mechanics, and the progression and itemization are extremely streamlined (leveling up is completely linear with no attribute options, for example), but you still get that soulslike signature combat everyone loves; just as clumsy and awkward as ever.

But beyond those basic, and frankly, fundamental aspects, Nightreign is worlds apart from Elden Ring, and every other Soulsborne game for that matter. This is a multiplayer, session-based roguelite. It’s the kind of game you play for an hour or two while cracking open a cold one with your buddies. It’s just about the furthest you can get from a 60-hour RPG. Elden Ring is a mountain you climb so you can stand on its summit and feel like a champion. Nightreign is that camping trip where your friend Todd tried to jump over the fire and burned off his eyelashes.

Who Is Nightreign For?

A lot of people who love Elden Ring will enjoy Nightreign because it’s so different, but I don’t think that works vice-versa. People who play online games because they give them an excuse to socialize and spend time with their friends, who don’t take games too seriously and have more fun dying in funny ways than minmaxing the perfect build – those people would love Nightreign, but would never touch an Elden Ring game.

The only way those people are going to find Nightreign is if their Elden Ring-loving friends badger them into playing it. Then they’ll probably end up loving it just like I did. As a lifelong soulslike hater I really appreciated Nightreign’s more approachable and streamlined systems, and I could definitely see myself unwinding with a run or too after work on occasion – as long as my Souls-loving friends don’t take it too seriously.

Nightreign checked a lot of boxes for me. Every game is more fun with my friends so the way co-op is implemented in Nightreign is truly impressive. I also like the roguelite aspect, which makes every new run feel fresh and exciting. But most of all I loved the battle royale of it all. Nightreign has a big map with lots of static points of interest, and a huge part of its progression is based around your map knowledge. The more you play, the more you learn how to navigate the map to best utilize the time you have before the storm closes in and forces you into the boss arena. I’m excited about the prospect of learning the map and creating routes with my friends, slowly improving with my friends over multiple runs until we have a strong, reliable strategy. I love that about Apex Legends, and I think Nightreign will give me the same feeling.

While I’m not a Souls guy, I don’t think there’s anything like this in the original Elden Ring. Looting and POIs and time management are so specific to battle royales, and while I think it’s well implemented in Nightreign, it doesn’t seem like the kind of thing that’s going to click with Elden Ring, at least not right away.

Though the idea of an Elden Ring spin-off that’s a mashup of every popular genre may sound incredibly niche and off-putting to non-Souls enjoyers, I hope people outside the core fanbase will give it a try. It seems like the most FromSoftware game ever made, and in some ways, it is. But it’s also the least FromSoftware game ever. It’s a weird one, but it’s worth a try.