Preview: After A Few Hours With Elden Ring Nightreign, It Might Just Be My Most Anticipated Game Of 2025

The first thing that stuck out to me as I dropped into Limveld, Elden Ring Nightreign’s version of the basegame’s Limgrave, was just how fast everything felt. Elden Ring for me has largely been defined by its slower, methodical approach to combat, where a single mistake can mean you’re respawning at a site of Grace, contemplating that decision. 

However, Nightreign, the three-player co-op spinoff that has many features you’d find in both battle royales and rougelikes, feels like everything has been given warp speed - ludicrous speed, even. As I manuevered Duchess, the DPS class I chose for this run, there were times I felt like she was moving too quickly, each dodge roll or sprint teetering on the literal edge of structures, in some cases. 

Thankfully, another major benefit of Nightreign is the removal of fall damage, so a tumble from a tower wouldn’t mean the end of a run. It would simply open up another avenue to complete the day. 

During a press preview earlier this month, I had the chance to go hands-on with Elden Ring Nightreign for a couple of hours, getting a sense for what players can expect when the upcoming technical test goes live. And after all my time with the upcoming stand-alone entry, I can honestly say it’s now my most anticipated title of 2025. 

Welcome, Nightfarer

Elden Ring Nightreign’s biggest change is noticeable right away: its speed. As I mentioned above, everything is faster in Limveld. This is key because you’re effectively racing against the clock. 

Each run consists of three days and two nights. Running around Limveld, gathering loot and powerups, defeating powerful bosses, and leveling up at sites of Grace, everything is leading up to the pivotal boss battle at the end of each day. 

Thankfully, things feel more streamlined compared to Elden Ring, especially with how you level up. Before starting a run you’ll choose one of eight classes to play. In our build we only had access to four classes (the all arounder Wylder, the tank-ish Guardian, the fast and damage heavy Duchess, and a powerful magic user, the Recluse), each one providing a very different way to play. There are no restrictions on how many of each class you can jump in with, meaning you can theoretically run a party of three Wylders and utterly wreck things, but party balance does help in the long run I’ve found. 

Because you start with a base class, whenever you level up there’s no need to pour over your stats and apply points to Faith or Dexterity. Instead these get auto applied based on your character build, putting players right back into the action.

Running against the clock, represented by the giant closing circle reminiscent of battle royale games nowadays, the faster traversal options are a huge benefit. Sprinting is unlimited (though it does cost a burst of stamina at the start), and there is no mountain or structure you can’t climb if you can find enough ledges to effectively parkour from. 

Need to get up a cliff quickly? Seek out a Spiritstream to shoot you up high into the sky, where you can more or less pick a direction and go from there. Oftentimes during my playsession, me and my fellow Nightfarers would use these Spiritstreams not to get up a cliff in front of us but instead to shoot up to the roof of a tower or ruined castle behind us, immediately putting us up against an army of enemies or a powerful boss.

Each run typically started out the same. We’d land nearby a small camp and take out the enemies there, earning enough runes to level up at a nearby site of Grace. As we were told many times during our session by Bandai Namco reps, the difference between level 1 and level 2 is huge, and the times where we sort of struggled were the runs where we didn’t level up quickly enough as the day passed. 

Thankfully, there really is no shortage of enemies and bosses to earn runes from. Points of interest dot Limveld, from ruins that house small bosses ready to be farmed to Evergaols that can be unlocked with keys that drop from loot to unlock a boss for a large pool of runes. While the map itself doesn’t change much, the bosses, loot and farming locations are going to be different with each run. 

This was exemplified in one of my runs where we unlocked an Evergaol to be met with an easy boss that was burned down in no time. However, the next one we unlocked spawned a giant dragon, which made quick work of us as we were severely underleveled. 

Dying during the day doesn’t mean the end of a run, however. Instead of being transported back to a starting lobby to equip Relics for each of the various classes, prepping for the next run, you are sent back to a site of Grace, still in the fight but down a level. Your runes are still on the map and you’re able to recover them, just like Elden Ring proper, but things are much harder down a level. Only once in all the sessions I ran were we able to recover our runes, instead it was less daunting to just plow on, heading to the next point of interest to try to catch up.

Surviving The Day

After that first surge of speed, I started to slow down and truly take in what was going on around me. From looting corpses, grabbing weapons and consumables, and plotting our next move, Nightreign isn’t just fast paced because you move quickly. Everything is in service of getting to that boss fight at the end of the day. 

Throughout most of my runs there wasn’t much time to simply stop and take in the views. Limveld looked amazing on the PlayStation 5 build I previewed on, but as much as it is a character in Nightreign it also at times felt like a blur, zipping past me as I headed to the next ruin, camp, or church to grab another flask charge. 

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and the moments where the action slowed down, such as grabbing a site of Grace and checking my loadout, or jumping on a Spectral Hawk to sail across the map, Elden Ring Nightreign looked spectacular.

I adore the randomness of the whole experience, as well. There was one time in a run where my group and I were fighting a boss when a swarm of giant ants invaded, meaning we were not just dealing with the Fire Chariots in front of us but also this new threat. These moments, alongside the daily bosses, felt like Nightreign at its best, as they required teamwork, communication, and an understanding of how each class operated in a fight. 

Each class is able to use any weapon, with each player sporting six weapon slots. Even if a weapon doesn’t necessarily fit your build (such as the low-HP Recluse wielding a giant war axe that requires getting up close and personal), it doesn’t mean you want to pass up a weapon if the stats or passive bonuses it confers are good. 

One run which saw me give the Recluse a try, and while I relied mostly on staves and bows for my damage dealing weapons, I had two other weapons in my inventory that gave FP back with each kill. This was incredibly valuable as FP doesn’t simply regenerate in a fight. Instead you need to beat down special trees which give some FP back, or find a site of Grace to replenish the pool. So having the passives helped get through some of the longer and harder fights.

Many weapons themselves have skills to deploy, but each class has its own set of skills, skills they have acquired over a very long career. The Duchess, my preferred class throughout the playtest, has an ultimate that renders the team invisible. Note, not indestructible - enemies will still attack and you can be hurt, but instead of attacking you directly they will instead attack an area they think you are. 

Combined with other skills, such as the Recluse’s curse which gives each player HP and FP back when dealing damage for a short period of time, or Wylder’s ultimate which staggers even the most powerful of bosses, these skills can make quick work of an enemy when used properly. 

There were moments when fighting the Fell Omen (Margit) where we would call out a rotation of ultimates when they were ready, opening with the Recluse, popping my invisibility, and ending with Wylder’s stagger. Duchess’ secondary skill, when it’s used properly, can turn Duchess into a glass cannon, as it effectively repeats the amount of damage done over a few seconds. There were times where field bosses felt a bit too easy because of how we coordinated these skills, but the challenge of each day boss was never lost, no matter how much coordination we used. 

In fact, as many times as we ran through Limveld, there was only one time in my near eight hours with Nightreign where my team made it to the third day. Beating a day boss effectively brings about another day to level up, but once the second day boss is defeated, you are transported to a lobby where you can prep for the final challenge: in our case a giant three-headed wolf. 

The exaltation I felt when we finally got past that second boss after multiple runs and attempts left me buzzing. Elden Ring Nightreign might be a bit more streamlined, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Boss fights are still challenging, and even if you’re faster, resource management is still key to win. 

As Duchess I found myself at times spamming the attack buttons, running out of stamina rather quickly, especially at the lower levels. In our final run, I had figured out that you still need to approach combat with the same level of caution that Elden Ring proper instills in each fight. 

Using Wylder, I would find myself ducking in and out of combat, swinging my powerful two-handed sword when I could get some hits in, dodging when I needed to, and many times using the unlimited sprint to just get out of danger when I could. Wylder’s main skill is a grappling hook that can pull him in close, so I’d use that that close the distance quickly, laying down a beating with my sword. 

Taking all the skill I had built up over a day of playing Nightreign, when it came time to fight that third boss, I felt more ready than I thought I would be. My weapons were powerful, we had hit level 13 on the run, the highest I’d seen all day (though, the team next to us also got to the end and I think they ended up the same level as well). 

In fact, the mood in the room took a fevered pitch. You could feel the energy as the six of us were all channeling the same goal: beating this demon Cerberus and claiming victory. Throughout this last run factions seemingly formed inside the room (the faction of the Red Pin versus the Blue Pin - the colors of the pins our respective shot callers would drop on the map to point out where we should go) as we tried to see which one of our teams would beat the Cerberus. 

That fight was intense, the boss arena an otherworldly wasteland with the Cerberus’ giant figure dominating my view no matter which way I approached it. Yet all the teamwork we had built to this point paid off. As we each wove in and out of harms way, our Guardian soaking up damage so my Wylder and our Duchess could dip in and out dealing what damage we could, we slowly started to make our way towards downing the boss. 

More than once one of us was knocked down from the Cerberus’ attacks. Elden Ring Nightreign has a funny way of getting your teammates up and back into the fight: you attack them. We learned quickly that the fastest way to get someone up wasn’t to try to move off the boss, but instead to move in where the damage dealers were posted up so they could attack the boss and our fallen member together. 

Eventually, as the fight progressed the Cerberus separated into three distinct wolves, each of us taking on one. This was somewhat harrowing, but we pulled through, eventually forcing the giant enemy to reform for the last stage of the fight. 

By this time our Duchess had perfected when to pop off her skill that redoes the damage done a few seconds previously, and we started to chunk down to the Cerberus’ life. A well timed stagger from my Wylder while the Guardian’s ultimate gave us a massive defense boost and we defeated the boss, finishing the run.

When it all comes together, Elden Ring Nightreign is one of the best session-based games I’ve experienced. It was a shame that was our last run, but it was a great one to go out on (the Red Pin team also defeated the Cerberus, making the entire room winners) as I immediately wanted to pour over the Relics we had earned, see how I could improve my characters and jumpright back into Limveld for another run. 

And I feel like that’s what Nightreign is going for when it launches on May 30th across PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S|X. The faster paced action, multiplayer focus, and repeatable runs might not necessarily appeal to every Soulslike or Elden Ring fan, which is why it’s smart that Bandai Namco is making this a stand-alone affair. But for my money, I can see myself easily spending hours romping through Limveld, either solo or with two of my friends,  just tyring to survive another day. 

For my part, Elden Ring Nightreign has dominated my thoughts ever since that Cerberus fight. It has easily become one of, if not the most anticipated games of 2025, and I cannot wait to jump back into Limveld for run after run. Thankfully the technical test will give another chance, while its full launch is only a few short months away. 

Full Disclosure: Travel to and from this event was provided by Bandai Namco.