There are a few crucial tweaks to the Elden Ring formula aiding you in this newly speed-focused effort. For one thing, your character now has an unlimited “surge sprint” that can get you from one part of the map to another at a pretty rapid clip. For another, there’s a nice springy wall jump that lets you climb up stair-step cliffs and walls that are much taller than your character. Add in occasional jump pads for quickly leaping over cliffs and a complete lack of fall damage for descending into valleys, and you get a game that feels more like a 3D Sonic than Elden Ring at points.
Credit:
Bandai Namco
You’d better have a few levels under your belt if you’re going to take on a battle like this.
Credit:
Bandai Namco
Things feel more like the old Elden Ring during battles, where you’ll quickly fall into the familiar rhythm of managing limited stamina to attack, block, and dodge enemies’ heavily telegraphed attacks. Even here, though, things feel a little more action-oriented thanks to powerful, class-specific “character skills” and “ultimate art” attacks that slowly recharge over time. The quick pace of leveling also aids in the power fantasy, condensing the progression from zero to hero into an extremely tight time frame, relative to Elden Ring proper.
Try, try again
Speaking of classes, the eight options here tend to fall into the usual archetypes for this kind of action-adventure game: the tank, the mage, the defensive specialist, the dextrous dodger, etc. For myself, I tended toward the Ironeye class, with an unlimited supply of arrows that let me deliver consistent (if relatively weak) damage against flying and/or zigzagging bosses, all while maintaining a safe range from all but the widest-ranged attacks.
But one big benefit of Nightreign‘s faster-paced design is that you don’t have to tie yourself to a specific class for hundreds of hours at the outset. You’ll get ample opportunity to try them all—and different combinations with teammate classes—across dozens of individual, bite-size runs.
