For all the trailers and articles dedicated to it, unless you got in on the 'network test' open beta event back in January, it can be surprisingly hard to pin down exactly what Elden Ring's upcoming co-op spinoff Nightreign actually is. A glorified boss rush? Some weird Fortnite-esque live-service Forever Game? Or is it an official replacement for Elden Ring's seamless co-op mod? None of the above, really, and the latest trailer aims to dispel some of those myths and explain exactly what players are getting into through ten minutes of soothingly infomercial-esque narration.
In the video below, FromSoftware breaks down the structure of the game, piece by piece, from the shifting overworld to the timed rounds, summaries of six of the eight launch classes and a quick look at the meta-progression options available between runs.
While I regrettably missed out playing the network test myself, I got to watch friends streaming it, and I'm eager to give it a spin. I've also got dibs on either the bird-man Guardian (the archetypical greatshield defender class) or the Duchess (an all-or-nothing glass cannon combo fiend with an aesthetic straight out of Bloodborne), although I'm gravitating towards the former purely because of the Solaire alternate skin that they show off in the trailer.
One thing that is relatively new in this trailer is the mention of personal quests for each of the playable characters. Talking with certain NPCs in the Roundtable Hold (your home between sorties) will unlock bonus objectives in the field which will build on the Deepest Lore of each hero. Probably not a major focus of the game, but it's nice to see a little bit of a narrative hook sprinkled in amongst the loot-hoarding, monster-mashing, semi-speedrunning combat.
The last segment of the trailer is dedicated to the big Nightlord bosses, which you'll be throwing down with on the third day of each session. While some of them are immediately familiar to anyone that has survived Elden Ring (horrible cosmic skull-bug Astel is returning to thrash another round of asses), there's some interesting new faces in there. I'm a little perturbed by the giant goat-man shaman with far too many giant googly goat eyes, but I especially want to tussle with the chunky-looking one-armed centaur warlord. His moves remind me of Ludwig from Bloodborne.
Elden Ring Nightreign launches at the end of the month—May 29th—with pre-orders open now on Steam. There's a £35/$40 regular edition and a £48/$55 deluxe version, which doubles as a preorder on some DLC coming further down the line, including "additional playable characters and bosses", hinting at a planned season pass kinda situation.
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