The trailer for Elden Ring Nightreign that dropped during The Game Awards on Thursday doesn’t actually explain what’s going on. It opens with overhead shots of a world that looks sort of like The Lands Between if it was missing its giant golden tree, and then spends the next three minutes showing things that simply weren’t possible in Elden Ring. Characters fight bosses out in the open world, fly across lava on ghostly eagles, and — hold up — was that a grappling hook?
Yeah, that’s totally a grappling hook, according to hands-on previews from PC Gamer and IGN. Elden Ring Nightreign has eight heroes to choose from and one of them has the ability to yank himself toward enemies so he can set off an explosion that deals loads of damage. You read that right: This is a spinoff adventure where you won’t make your own character. Instead, there are several heroes to play as and ways to upgrade their unique abilities as you go.
Elden Ring Nightreign isn’t about clawing your way to another throne; it’s about surviving three nights in an ever-changing realm of familiar and unfamiliar monsters with your buddies. You might even call it a cooperative run-based roguelike set on a randomized map that looks a lot like Limgrave, Elden Ring’s opening area. PC Gamer says each session lasts around 30 minutes as long as you don’t get swallowed up by a dangerous ring that closes in on you like in a battle royale.
You start each run at level 1 and cash in runes to boost all your stats at once, sort of like the Scadutree Blessing system in Shadow of the Erdtree. Camps, caves, and crumbling ruins will be your sources for loot, but what you find will change each time. Enemy placements will shift around too, and should you fall, your teammates will be able to revive you. It’ll be a scramble to gear up before the sun goes down and one of the game’s bosses appears to gate your progress.
It wouldn’t be a FromSoft game if dying didn’t sting. If your teammates don’t reach you in time, you’ll respawn nearby and lose all your runes and one level. Both PC Gamer and IGN make it seem like this isn’t as bad as it sounds given how fast you accrue runes, but it can certainly lead to a full party wipe and end the run prematurely. For that reason, you may want to stick to playing with friends rather than random players. Even though Nightreign’s focus is on co-op, FromSoft hasn’t come up with anything better than setting up a shared multiplayer password to play with your pals. The seamless co-op mod has spoiled me.
There are plenty of other details in PC Gamer and IGN’s write-ups, like how each hero works and what kind of cool combos you can perform with your allies. But neither of them explain why bosses from Dark Souls are in the trailer. I know I’m not the only one who saw all the cameos from Dark Souls 3. Who does FromSoft think it’s fooling with that cloaked lady wearing the mask? That’s my Fire Keeper. All the press release says is that Nightreign is set in “a universe parallel to the events of Elden Ring,” and the lore-fiend in me is desperate to know more.
Elden Ring Nightreign will launch on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and PC in 2025.
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