Elden Ring Nightreign requires you to play a From Software game the wrong way. It asks players to prioritize aggression over stoicism; encourages almost reckless speed over careful strategy; and casts aside meticulous exploration for smash-and-grab expeditions.
In most From Software games, haste means failure and frustration, where lessons aren’t learned and progress is stymied. Nightreign, however, isn’t most From Software games. Perhaps, then, it’s more accurate to say Elden Ring Nightreign wants you to play a From Software game in an unconventional way.
While director Junya Ishizaki has expressed a fondness for multiplayer games, on paper, Nightreign seems more like a product of multiplayer trends. It’s a game in which a squad of three drops into a landmass and fights for survival as a circular wall of energy closes in. Although they’re not usually as PvE focused, games with a very similar premise are a dime a dozen, and in the shadow of the genre’s titans, very few of them have been able to survive, let alone thrive.