There are a lot of little balance issues and oversights that make this hard to recommend in it's current state.

NPCs will attack each other in town because they go full aggro on people when they wander into their homes. You can't even enter their houses to pick up the quests because they'll chase after you immediately and if you retaliate the entire town will stop talking to you until you pay a fine for trespassing.

NPCs will charge at you and run circles around you without tiring out turning a quarter of your fights into an old cartoon skit. Some early game enemies will insta-cast a DoT on you that kills you in 3 ticks if you don't drink a potion. The game is AGGRESSIVELY obtuse in so many ways.

I can see the good parts of this game underneath it's problems, but the problems are genuinely far too frequent and far too bad to recommend. It feels like this wasn't even given a basic pass before launch to make sure these things didn't happen because they happened at least a dozen times within a few hours of play.

It's genuinely baffling to see the city guard aggressively beat the snot out of the citizens for crossing the bridge in one of the starting towns for no reason when I'm trying to turn a quest in.

There is a lot to like about this game, but I can't stand by the undisclosed use of AI assets in the game. Some of the banner art is very clearly done by AI, and then covered up with the game's logo because the developer knows it looks bad.

I know people have a different mix of opinions on it's use, but I draw, and have been drawing for almost 10 years now. It's mistakes are obvious when you scrutinize them, but most people won't notice. What worries me most is whether or not this is indicative of it's use further down the development pipeline. Whether something is vibe-coded and leaving in bugs that you will persistently run into with this game, or whether it's a developer mistake. At least when the developer makes a mistake while coding they can fix it. If the AI makes a mistake that the developer isn't proficient enough to fix then the problem will become exacerbated.

I did put a little money into the game, and would have continued to do so. I will not continue supporting the game for the foreseeable future. Understand what parts of the community you lose when you poison the well.

I am not the biggest fan of Elden Ring, Roguelites, or Battle Royale-esque games. . . So what gives?

Nightreign falls into a strange realm of games I enjoy in the same way I enjoy Monster Hunter, Outer Wilds, and Peaks of Yore. The game thrives on being driven by a player's knowledge of it's semi-static map, enemy placements, PoI layouts, Boss patterns and weaknesses, and semi-obfuscated meta knowledge. When I first started playing I absolutely did not know how to manage the first day of the game, after another run I got to the second day, and after that I made it to the final day with a bit of flailing.

After about 30 hours I can safely lead most expeditions in the base map to hit enough points on the map to make it close to max level, if not max, with a decent set of gear. The reality of this learning process is not done through in-game tutorialization or looking up guides, but by a natural learning process from letting other people lead me through the game. By making mental notes about how to better optimize my own time, and apply it to games that I'm in.

That is the crux of this game's joy for me; it's silent community. Able to instill parts of their knowledge on me in order to collectively teach me to be a better player by paying attention to what they're doing that works, and the things that don't. Every run that I go on seems to teach me something new about the map that I didn't know of before, and that always feels like an absolute blast to me. Watching all of this come together to execute a plan driven by the collective knowledge of other players to get through the game's nights.

Beyond that the exploration, combat mechanics, and bosses are all better designed and feel as though they have a bit more intent behind them than most souls games. The minimalistic building elements mean that you can get in and out of games relatively quick and will pick up on what works and doesn't work in a rather natural way.

Being that this isn't a PvP game in the slightest the ability to cooperate with others is always fun for me, and I haven't had too much truly awful experiences to say that I've had a bad time outside of the occasional bit of frustration over failing a couple of clutch moments.

Nightreign is a game that I think will hold a special place in my heart for proving me wrong about a great deal of apprehensions I had going into it, but I think it's worth people's time if they enjoy learning and optimization in games to try to attain a perfect run and mitigating the curveballs it throws you with it's shifting elements.

You've likely seen a list of oddities surrounding this game's balance, and I think in large part this game is a game made for the actual developers of the game, rather than for an audience. That's not to say that the game was not made to sell, or appease fans, but that it is balanced in a way that the developers thought was fun and they wanted to share that with the world.

Silksong is Art in it's highest form. Uncompromising in it's challenge and vision. I don't think that the balance is an oversight. It's just the way that the developers like the games they play to be. Kaizo is a term for extreme precision platforming games; often uncompromisingly cruel to the player. Silksong is not 'exactly' that, but it's philosophy echoes that of games like Wings of Vi or I Wanna Be the Guy. There are strictly timed jumping puzzles, enemies littered throughout platforming sections, demoralizing 'gotcha' moments after extreme stretches of difficult content, bosses that can kill you extremely fast with little to no warning, and very very sparse checkpoints.

The game is good, but it will not be for everyone when it comes to it's gameplay. It does have a broad appeal, and I know a lot of people will be drawn to it's surrounding story, artstyle, music, and general vibes. It will test player's patience in a way that a lot of games just don't do anymore. I certainly am not on board with all of the things the game throws my way, but sometimes you have to take the good with the bad.

I recommend the game with the caveat that this game 'can' be extremely painful at times. If it seems too hard, it probably is, but that's just the way some people like their games. If you're struggling too much I do recommend looking into the mods. I think the game is worth experiencing. I have experience with precision platformers, and I can only imagine what the latter parts of the game might feel like for a more casual audience. There's no shame in finding ways to tailor the experience in ways that make it more enjoyable.

Artis Impact is an exceedingly unique and charming experience that hides some of it's best moments behind hidden nooks and crannies. The intended way to play the game is exactly to spend hour doing part time jobs, exploring the cities, checking every corner, and talking to the different NPCs you find. There's very little in the way of signposting sidequests, and largely the reward is simply more story, and more character interactions. The best part about this is that this is exactly what the game does best, and if you rush the objectives you are missing out on a pretty massive chunk of the experience.

I wholly recommend the game for people going into it with and open mindset to slow down and let the timer run on certain actions. You may be surprised by just how reactive the world is to what you do.