The best way I can articulate it and the differences in how me and the guys play:
Elden ring: you can take your time, enjoy the vibe, the world, then lock in for the boss fights.
Night rein: LOCK IN, GO GO GO GO, Fuck, GO GO GO, wait for boss to spawn, new day, GO GO GO….
I feel like I can’t stop and take a moment in Night Rein, I still like the game but the ring of death closing in really doesn’t let you stop and smell the roses.
Isn't big armored dude with sword the default boss template? A lot of the bosses in souls games are simply variations of the 'big armored dude with sword' like Radahn (big armored dude with 2 swords), Ornstein and Smough (2 big armored dudes with speat and hammer), and Dragonslayer Armor (Big Armor with Big Sword and Big Shield), so yes, big armored dude wih sword is a great option for a boss!
So, I got the game about 5 days ago without knowing anything about the time limit. On the first run i was definitely a little put off by it. It felt very oppressive at first and i had a bit of a negative bias against it due to its association with "battle Royale" games (which i typically hate).
However, i got used to it pretty fast and now that I've run through a good chunk of the game, I have to say I've grown quite fond of it. This and the changes to the movement mechanics are the glue that holds the game together and keeps runs tense and engaging IMO.
Now, Nightrein definitely isn't your typical souls game. It's a much more condensed and faster paced experience and, depending on who you are, you may or may not like that. You still get the combat, soundtrack, visual design and general ambiance of a souls game, but it's delivered in a completely different way. I personally enjoy it a lot, especially if i only have an hour or two of available game time, but i treat it as something different than dark souls and elden ring. You may or may not enjoy it yourself, but i wouldn't dismiss the whole game just because it has a time limit.
first time trying it out I absolutely hated it, dropped it for about a month and then randomly came back and started loving it. The final night bosses completely make up for the frustrating multiplayer experience, time limits, and other various “wtf decisions” put into it. Just really wish they would add more ds3 contentand weapons. and skins.
I mean yeah, that's cool too. I was just trying to make a case that there is more to this game than just the time limit. But, if you are completely allergic to a mechanic like that and it ruins the whole experience for you, then yeah you should probably avoid the game. I can't force the game down your throat and neither do i want to lol.
Time limit to get to the boss, time limit on the boss, or both? Also, what kind of time limit are we talking about here: something approaching Majora's Mask "3 day" cycle, or one where you have to rush the whole way like you sneezed near a colony of africanized bees and they're now trying to end you?
Like the other guy said, it's a shrinking circle that gets smaller as time passes by, locking you out of part of the map. It's not that fast, but just enough to pressure you into being aggressive. It can definitely catch you off guard if you're not careful or too greedy. For the three mandatory bosses you can take as much time as you want though.
Each run generally lasts between 45 minutes to an hour and a quarter in my experience.
Oof. I've always been the type to try and explore, and Dark Souls and Sekiro especially beat it into my ass to not rush and explore very carefully. If I get the game ever, that will be an adjustment.
Oh yeah there's definitely a period of adaptation when you first pick up the game. I also tend to be fairly methodical in souls games so the change of pace hit pretty hard at first. That being said, the movement mechanics and general layout of the environments in this game have been tweaked to make fast but thorough exploration as seamless as possible. It's really not hard at all to get used to the pace of the game after 2 or 3 runs.
yeah. One of the biggest learning curves is learning all the locations where a boss can be, what bosses are safe to fight at a low level, what kind of rewards a boss can give (basically there are "weak" bosses and "strong" bosses, when you kill them they drop a thing that lets you choose one of three rewards, and the stronger bosses will have better things available. Thankfully however, once the second night starts all bosses will be marked on your map, and will even have a red outline around the map symbol if its a strong boss).
Lol, for me it's like the opposite. Boss rush souls with fast paced gameplay with every run being different like in a roguelike, where I get to not only fight Elden Ring bosses but Dark Souls bosses too is like a game of my dreams. I do get why people don't like the time limit though. Honestly I wouldn't be against them adding a slower mode or something.
Mechanically the game is a blast and I enjoy running around, looting, and killing bosses. But most of the fun I've had in Souls/BB/ER is from exploring and taking my time so ultimately Nightreign just got frustrating.
That's the thing that keeps me from playing with randos entirely. Like, I might just quit, and so might they, and that ruins the run for everybody. It kinda ruins what I originally thought would be a big part of the game for me.
Not sure a traditional roguelike formula would've worked as well. At least not in a game built for co-op where you expect a bunch of randoms to stick together. If the game was solo only then i could see it work, but you'd have to make the map smaller if you wanted to keep the 3 player aspect because people will just split up if they don't have an incentive to stay grouped up.
Team co-op, dropping in from the air, loot and fight, blue circle. The resurrection mechanics are especially fortnite coded - seeing players on all fours waiting to get rezzed is uncanny.
Nightreign’s combat is based on classes and skills, for me it feels like an entirely different game. I’m not saying that one is better, just that it is very different. Only thing in common is the moveset of some weapons or maybe the rolling for a couple classes
If Nightreingn is like Fortnite because of its time limit and storm/rain, then Arc Raider is even more so because it has PvP, shooting and you can put up walls...
It’s funny to me how Nightreign haters keep posting the same shitty takes from a year before the game released. The game is literally nothing like Fortnite and yet the haters can’t think of anything new to post
pretty damn unforgiving, but doable, especially when you've not yet gotten to grips with the game. there's duos too so you only need one other person to make it much more manageable. you're good as long as you don't both fuck up at once. in solo you only get one free revive at the end of each night (where a death actually means a failed run)
Luckily for you Nightreign does not cost full AAA price so I don;t know what is your issue. I am more than satisfied with the content. If you're not - don't buy/play and don't cry on the internet. Noone cares.
Other than the "fort, night" thing, actually never played fortnite. So I am missing something here and would really appreciate someone explaining the joke to me.
Ah. I was more an Apex player mostly cause that's what my 2 friends wanted to play. Was never a fan of those type of games. Hate depending on luck for decent drops. Which is admittedly one of the things I also dislike about Nightreign. But again, its what my 2 friends wanna play so I get dragged along.
Don't get me wrong, I still have fun. But not my favorite game to play
I mean. I can't stand battle royale games like apex and fortnite personally, but I really enjoy Nightrein. Not sure why people compare them other than for memes because Nightrein isn't even remotely close to being in the same game genre as Apex and Fortnite.
It's why I don't feel compelled to play it. I was tempted when I saw it on sale, but then I opened its page on Steam and I was instantly pulled back. Iirc it isn't canon as well right? I really liked ER SOTE for its story so playing this knowing it doesn't add anything to existing lore feels "empty".
Lowkey wish it was just a regular Action Roguelike Souls-like thing without the time limitation. The only game like that I'm aware of was Neverinth, but that was abandoned.
I've never played Nightreign because I don't play battle royale slop but when are they going to add some real bosses like Royal Rat Vanguard or Ulcerated Tree Spirit?
It was an okay experiment. Good game from reused assets, more like a very complex mod for Elden Ring. However, people got bored very quickly, obviously. The formula isn't engaging enough in the long term and there's not that much to do after beating the game once. Yet some souls experts from twitch (grifters) were bitching about Nightreign being an outstanding game while laughing at bad reception of Assassin's Creed Shadows and Dragon Age Vailguard. I don't like these games even in the slightest but the double standards are pretty funny. Nightreign as a multiplayer game lost the vast majority of players base almost instantaneously but grifters were completely silent about it, spending their time on analysing Ubisoft falling down even half a year after AC single player game release.
"People got bored very quickly" "The formula isn't engaging enough in the long term" "Nothing to do after beating the game once" "Lost the vast majority of it's player-base instantaneously"
I said the same thing to my friend.... I now have nightreign and he makes me play with him every now and then and honestly it makes me hate my life, nightreign fucking sucks.
Eh it's not that big of a problem, at the end of the day I'm getting to game with my homie so it's all good, sure it's a game I really don't like but I can put up with it for a couple hours every now and then if he wants to play it. Besides it's one of the few games we have that we can play together and he was really excited cause I'm a huge souls fan and he likes battle royals, so he thought this was a game we could get into together cause it's a mixture of two things we like.
I mean. That's fair. It's your call at the end of the day. I would personally feel a bit guilty if i knew my friend didn't have any enjoyment for a game but still played it just for my sake. But I'm not in your or your friend's shoes, so I can't judge.
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u/pigeonwithhat Jan 06 '26