This is Elden Ring. And it is not Elden Ring.
The landscapes, controls, weapons and enemies are all familiar, but the gameplay loop is entirely new (or, at least, new for a FromSoft game). The open world role-playing game elements are swapped out for a 45-minute, multiplayer looping rogue-like format.
The Platinum trophy for this game was fairly straightforward; mostly involving beating all the bosses in different combinations.
I can’t say I’ve had the same sense of awe and wonder with this game as I did with the original, but I certainly have the same sense of challenge. Not because the game is inherently difficult (though it is pretty tough) but because Nightreign’s mechanics are limited.
You can only level up so much; so slightly over-levelling to push past a frustrating boss is not an option.
When you die to a boss, you have to restart the whole, 45-minute round again; so learning a moveset of a boss is much more tedious.
Every weapon and upgrade is down to the Random Number Generator in game; and all the good stuff – or at least, any of the stuff I like to use – is desperately rare.
The mechanics might be limited but the gameplay is fun. Every run is deeply chaotic. The new two-player option is great too.
My most major criticism is its depth. You run out of unique things to do pretty quickly. It’s a paid-for-upfront game that is screaming out for live-service treatment. There will be a DLC coming before the end of the year, and I hope that breathes some additional life into it before people get bored of it and stop playing!