The Lands Between are about to plunge into an all-new nightmare. Elden Ring: Nightreign, the highly anticipated spin-off from FromSoftware and Bandai Namco, has unveiled a stunning new overview video—and if you thought you knew what to expect, think again. This isn’t just more of the same. It’s a bold new take on the Elden Ring legacy, and it’s bringing roguelike brutality to an already punishing world.
Set to launch on May 30, 2025, for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S, Nightreign is both a spiritual successor and a standalone experience. With a format that leans into session-based action RPG gameplay, Nightreign introduces an evolving world, fresh characters, and a deadly new threat known as the Night’s Tide.
The new overview video gives fans their first real look at Limveld, a shifting, twilight-blanketed landscape that seems both alien and familiar to Elden Ring veterans. It’s not the Lands Between, but rather a parallel realm connected to the mythos. It begins at the Roundtable Hold—now a staging ground for the Nightfarers, eight unique characters that players can select from, each with their own playstyles, abilities, and devastating Ultimates.
FromSoftware hasn’t skimped on variety. Whether you’re a brutal close-range brawler or a nimble caster with time-bending powers, there’s a Nightfarer for every kind of Tarnished soul. And like any great RPG, these characters grow—permanently. Even in death.
Where Nightreign truly distinguishes itself is in its structure. Each session unfolds over three nights, with each phase growing more intense as darkness creeps in. The “Night’s Tide” is a gameplay mechanic that contracts the map over time, forcing players into deadlier zones and closer proximity to bosses. It’s a brilliant design that pushes tension to the brink, compelling players to make hard choices: risk a powerful enemy for greater runes or retreat and survive another night?
At the end of each night, a boss awaits—each a grotesque new terror from the deepest corners of FromSoftware’s twisted imagination. And if you survive all three? You’ll face the Nightlord, the final arbiter of this cursed realm.
In true FromSoft fashion, failure isn’t the end. Every run, successful or not, grants relics—customization items that allow players to upgrade and evolve their chosen Nightfarer. The roguelike element means no two sessions are ever the same. Enemies spawn in new places, loot tables shift, and even the terrain mutates. It’s as if the game itself is testing your resolve, learning your habits and reshaping itself in response.
But Nightreign isn’t built only for solo players. Co-op is at the heart of this experience. Coordinated teams can chain abilities, trigger devastating combos, and tackle the increasingly unrelenting bosses that haunt Limveld. It’s a symphony of chaos when it works—and a tragic tale of hubris when it doesn’t.
Visually, Nightreign continues the studio’s tradition of haunting majesty. Limveld’s sky is streaked with crimson dusk and broken moonlight, a surreal canvas painted with decay and mystery. Whether you’re stalking through a ruined cathedral or braving a biome where the laws of physics seem to bend, the game constantly bombards you with visual storytelling.
The soundtrack, too, is unmistakably Elden Ring—ethereal, foreboding, and perfectly timed to ratchet up the tension when the Night’s Tide draws close. Every aspect of the presentation feeds the mood: lonely, brutal, and grimly beautiful.
At its core, Elden Ring: Nightreign is a distilled version of what made Elden Ring a phenomenon. It’s relentless. It’s mysterious. It demands patience, planning, and sometimes, just sheer stubbornness. But the new mechanics—especially the session-based format and the map-shrinking Night’s Tide—make it feel like a fresh beast entirely.
FromSoftware isn’t just revisiting the Elden Ring formula—they’re rewriting it. Nightreign isn’t an expansion. It’s a resurrection, bringing familiar suffering in bold new ways. And if the overview video is any indication, players should be prepared for a whole new form of despair when the game drops on May 30.
The question is: when the night falls… will you rise?