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AddRat on 02 June 2025
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IcaroRibeiro said:

About Nightreign: It's really only for the most hardcore Souls fans you can imagine.

Positives:
- The best combat gameplay to date, surpassing that of the original Elden Ring
- Boss design is the best I've ever seen in any action RPG. They have very rich movesets, with multiple phases and micro-systems, and the battles last long enough for you to repeatedly observe their movements and gradually learn how to deal with them
- It's faster, more dynamic, and more satisfying to navigate the map than other Souls games, which can sometimes feel a bit slow
- The lore, design, and gameplay of the playable characters are excellent, each with a very individual and unique combat style. They all feel special and distinct, offering many hours of gameplay for those interested in exploring their personal quests
- The remembrance system is interesting to keep you engaged through multiple runs. It encourages you to experiment with all the Nightfearers and likely pushes you to play outside your comfort zone

Mixed points:
- The game has enough depth in both map design and battles that the trio interactions make for one of the best cooperative multiplayer experiences I've ever seen, but there's a catch: verbal communication is essential. Without strategy and communication, many moments will become frustrating
- RNG is a double-edged sword in RPGs with this much depth. It can create unexpected situations and force you to use weapons you normally wouldn't, but it can also ruin a run, which is quite annoying and frustrating
- Random map events are fun and add layers of uncertainty to a run, but over time they can become a frustrating inconvenience.
- Weapons having passive effects encourages you to try out different ones throughout the run, but communication around weapon scaling and effectiveness is poorly implemented
- The time-limit system is similar to Fortnite, where a safe area shrinks periodically and staying outside it leads to death. This adds variety to playthroughs and creates a sense of urgency and pressure, but it also prevents you from calmly exploring the map and its enemies , terrible for newcomers

Negatives:
- There's little map variety , you'll memorize the layout of all castles, fortresses, churches, caves, camps, and ruins, and after a while it'll just be about repeating your exploration route based on your starting location
- The Nightlords are extremely difficult , in a very unfair way. Their HP should be reduced by 20–30%. Battles against them drag on for 10–15 minutes, like a Monster Hunter fight , 10–15 minutes of constant pressure and minimal room for error. Otherwise: Game Over
- No design work was done to "teach" you how to play properly , the developers expect you to be a master of Elden Ring meta-knowledge, and also an extremely skilled player
- The roguelite elements are some of the poorest and most underdeveloped I've ever seen. The vast majority of relics you get randomly to build your character are practically useless , except for the ones earned in the absurdly difficult battles with the Nightlords or by progressing through the also absurdly difficult quests of the playable characters

I do agree that the game balancing feels like it's built around you knowing stuff about Elden Ring and already having a good grasp of most mechanics, especially when the expedition bosses push you even when you have all that.

On the flipside, every time I have finished an expedition successfully, it has been with a decent team, on a decent run, with all healing running out on the last 1/6th of the boss' HP after building knowledge on the previous 3-5 boss attempts. I usually don't expect to beat a rougelike's run boss on a first attempt so I think this balance is not unfair and leads to some of the most best multiplayer boss moments outside of something like MH.

I would not be too disappointed if they tone down the boss HP bars or something but I really think the main aspect they should work on is teaching people about the game in an organic way. The cryptic stuff is great for their single-player focused games as you do not have a clock, the concept of losing a run and also a constant online connection to worry about there.

For example, using poison to create openings and break grabs on a certain bite-happy boss changed the fight a great amount but you need to get people to see the small weakness icon when choosing the expedition (or read the cryptic description), understand that location rewards have their elements/ailments displayed on the map so you can track a poison wep and also remind the player that a lot of those weps have poison applied on them only after using the skill. And it's not like you can talk to non-party people to communicate any of that info while doing the run.