Several live service games released in the last few years promise that they won’t instill you with any FOMO, to mixed results. Helldivers 2 won’t remove access to Warbonds (basically Battle Passes), and you can unlock things at your own rate, but if you’ve clocked out for several months then there’s a lot of player-driven lore you’ve probably missed out on. Remedy’s FBC: Firebreak is another low-pressure live service, and achieves that with a very limited amount of content along with slow updates, apparently.
Elden Ring: Nightreign should’ve flopped. Just the concept of transforming one of the biggest single-player action RPGs of the last decade into a multiplayer soft-live service should put the entire project in the ground, but FromSoftware’s Souls games have always had a multiplayer component – both PvE and PvP – bubbling away under the surface where a majority of players ignored it entirely. It’s not a game built for multiplayer, but it allows it, and most players forget it’s there until they come across a tough boss and start searching for help or an invader pokes them off a cliff.
Nightreign takes that often overlooked mechanic and makes it the crux of the entire experience. What if those tough bosses weren’t just tough, but devastatingly overwhelming to the point that you simply need a helping hand? What if the character builds you carefully craft over the course of an 80-hour RPG can be slapped into place in 30 minutes? What if it was a roguelike?
Again, if any other RPG series tried it, I’d cry blasphemy. The Tales series has long accommodated local pals, letting them take control of your extra party members, but that doesn’t mean Namco should turn it into a live service game. Nightreign has been smartly tweaked in every conceivable way to make multiplayer the best way to play — though true sickos can absolutely jump in solo for one of toughest challenges FromSoftware has ever developed.
I played the game day and night ahead of launch to get our Elden Ring: Nightreign review ready, and I loved almost every minute. But something was lost in the rush to the finish. We wanted to see and do as much as possible in order to write a review truly reflective of the game, but Nightreign is much better when played slowly.
I restarted the game on PS5 after launch, and my friends and I barely played the game for a full month. Instead, it gathered dust. But then a suggestion of “one quick game” turned into three, and then another session happened a few nights later, and then another, and another. Before I knew it, Nightreign was back on the menu.
This slower and more infrequent pace is a result of adult responsibilities, and has meant that we’ve often been playing with online randos to fill out the party – something that goes wrong more often than it goes right – and we’ve been struggling more against the Nightlords as a result. It has also meant that we’ve been learning the bosses better, mind, forcing us to become more aware of each attack pattern, how to avoid them, and when to inflict damage, instead of just having three Raiders jump in with heavy strikes to force staggers.
But by far the best part of this slow-paced approach is that we don’t feel like we’ve missed out on anything at all. A few Everdark Sovereigns have come and gone – ultra-tough versions of the game’s Nightlords – but they’ve been confirmed to return to the game permanently. Better yet, our patience has been rewarded and we’re now able to take on challenges as a duo instead of a trio, so we only need to go into battle with a rando if we feel like they’ll make a good distraction.
Nightreign doesn’t feature any kind of Warbond or Battle Pass, and while upcoming DLC has been confirmed (and was included as part of the Deluxe Edition), I’m happy to wait. I’ve completed a few Battle Passes on Apex Legends and Call of Duty, and they always feel as if they monopolize my free gaming time. If I want to get the rewards I have arguably already paid for, I need to dedicate all of my time to unlocking them. Helldivers 2 and FBC: Firebreak are a step up from that, but I feel like I’ve fallen behind the crowd in the former, and have already seen everything the latter has to offer.
You could argue that it has been a slow content rollout, sure, but a good game is a good game. Sports don’t need rule changes to be interesting to watch and play, and early competitive games like Halo and Counter-Strike are still being played despite not receiving updates. A good game is fun to play any time, anywhere, all you need is someone new to play with. Nightreign’s run-to-run changes keep it interesting, while retaining the core that works so well.
Every new Nightreign run with a different character, or using a different weapon, or making use of a Shifting Earth event feels unique. Minor boss placement changes and camps to raid can make a huge long-term change to your survivability in the final fight. I’m genuinely eager to finish off the base game’s bosses and get stuck into those Everdark Sovereigns, but I’m in no rush.
If you want a live service game to play every day for months on end, then Elden Ring: Nightreign isn’t that. Instead, this game invites you and your friends to jump into a few games every week or month, and you’ll miss nothing, while almost certainly finding something new each time. It’s a resounding, surprising success, and it makes me even more excited about The Duskbloods.
FromSoftware’s The Duskbloods is slated to drop in 2026 as a Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive, and from everything we’ve seen and heard, the vibe is that it’s another multiplayer-focused FromSoftware title, except more PvP than PvE. Nightreign only allows for co-op between real players, but The Duskbloods is going to set you against your fellow man.
The concept will likely play out a lot like Hunt: Showdown, where players are dropped into a large map and will compete with each other to retrieve rare macguffins. Will you beeline for the objective, rush to eliminate your opponents, or lie in wait to ambush whoever comes out on top? It’s a very different approach to what Nightreign offers, but it’s another aspect of Elden Ring’s multiplayer experience being brought into the spotlight. Only it’s not Elden Ring, it’s legally-distinct Bloodborne with a hint of Sekiro. You might be raising your eyebrow at The Duskbloods now, but there are dedicated FromSoftware PvP streamers that are having their wildest dreams fulfilled by The Duskbloods, even if they don’t realize it yet.
Elden Ring’s development was long and eventful, and patches that split weapon balance between PvP and PvE were a hint that multiplayer complicated the experience. FromSoftware multiplayer is a great experience that too many people ignored, and now FromSoft is forcing those experiences on the players that will buy the games anyway. And, honestly? Good. If the people are going to ignore Elden Ring multiplayer, just make it so they have no choice.
Nightreign is a genuinely great live service game, even with its slow-paced content delivery, and it gives me renewed faith in The Duskbloods. I don’t need a hyperactive content rollout with crossovers from every anime character and The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – and it is always the turtles, for some reason – that almost every other live service game gets. I just need a good game that actually has players online to team up with. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare only received one DLC ever, the Variety Map Pack, and even without that, people loved it. A game that’s truly compelling at its core doesn’t need anything else.
I think FromSoftware understands what makes a multiplayer game compelling, and I really can’t quite believe it. This is the last team I would expect to make me excited for a live service, but they did, and I am. Elden Ring: Nightreign is a great live service experience, and I’m sure The Duskbloods will be too.
