Elden Ring Nightreign Director Interview Part Two: Why There's No Poison Swamp and Future DLC

CNET

2 days ago

Elden Ring and its DLC Shadow of the Erdtree have been phenomenal successes for FromSoftware, which enabled the studio to grow beyond its devoted but niche following to explode into the mainstream. Its spinoff, Elden Ring Nightreign, takes a different approach with a co-op multiplayer focus and repeatable run-based gameplay.
Nightreign is a bold direction for the studio, which had found success with dark fantasy single-player adventures like Bloodborne and the Dark Souls series of games. Most of its hits were directed by Hidetaka Miyazaki, the creator of the Souls formula of tough third-person combat games. The new multiplayer game, Nightreign, builds on Elden Ring's success by remixing its elements into a new gameplay format of fast-paced action.
Fitting this new direction, Nightreign is the directing debut of Junya Ishizaki, who had worked on many earlier FromSoftware titles and been the combat director on Elden Ring. Over video chat, CNET got to talk with Ishizaki about his thoughts on Nightreign and many other topics. In part one of our interview, we discussed how things changed over the course of the game's development, from dropping fall damage to collapsing multiple maps into the final one we see today. And, yes, how he solo'd every boss in the game.
In part two below, we chat about Ishizaki's favorite Nightfarer class to play and least favorite boss, as well as DLC info and what FromSoftware learned that it'll carry into future games (like, potentially, the Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive The Duskbloods coming next year).
Of course, we also had to ask the poison swamp question.
Woods infested with scarlet rot are the closest you'll get to a poison swamp in Nightreign.
Screenshot by David Lumb/CNET
David Lumb: I feel like I need to ask about the absence of another element that's been present in many other FromSoftware games: Where's Nightreign's poison swamp?
Junya Ishizaki: I think the main reason is that this is not a Miyazaki title so that could be one explanation. Jokes aside, I think it's just a serendipitous factor of game development and what goes into the idea process and what comes out. So who knows what could happen in the future with Nightreign?
DL: Considering Elden Ring, Bloodborne and two of the three Dark Souls titles are Miyazaki games, what makes Nightreign an Ishizaki game?
JI: I think one of the aspects that not necessarily sets me apart from Miyazaki, but that I like to think of as my specialty, is that I like to prioritize the "game feel" more than a lot of things -- these detailed and fine-tuned things, like what happens when a player falls from a height and hits the ground? How is this supposed to feel? And how does this translate into good-feeling gameplay and into player comfort?
So as you know, Nightreign doesn't feature any fall damage but there are ways the characters behave when they hit the floor from various heights and what you can do to counteract that. So these are areas that I like to look at -- the relationship between player and controls and how that translates to game feel.
Hidetaka Miyazaki, director of Elden Ring and other FromSoftware games, at CNET's 2024 interview alongside the release of the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC.
David Lumb/CNET
DL: This is a question I asked Miyazaki-san last year when the Elden Ring DLC, Shadow of the Erdtree, came out: Of all the FromSoftware games you've worked on, which is your favorite child?
JI: That's a tough question. I've worked on Dark Souls 1, 3, Bloodborne and Elden Ring, of course. I think I'd say the project I have the most memories with is the original Dark Souls. This is the first project I was involved in at FromSoftware and it was my first foray into serious game development, learning the game systems and architecture and every aspect of what goes into these games at this company and what we wanted to convey to the user through gameplay.
Learning all of this was extremely valuable to me. Of course, I was new at the time so I was very earnest in helping to make it succeed.
DL: During my runs in Nightreign, I ran into memorable Dark Souls bosses like the Gaping Dragon. How did you choose which of the Dark Souls series' many bosses to include?
JI: From a gameplay perspective and our sense of, first of all, would they be a good fit for the world and structure of Nightreign. It's the same for the bosses that appear from Elden Ring's world as well. Whether they fit and use the base boss battle format of Elden Ring, we wanted to make sure that they adapt to Nightreign's framework and gameplay as well, and add to that in order to make the experience fresh.
Gladius (shown above) and the other eight Nightlords were created for Nightreign. Other bosses, found in the field and appearing at the end of the first two days, are from Elden Ring and Dark Souls games.
Bandai Namco
DL: Speaking in terms of crossovers, it's great to see Dark Souls bosses in Nightreign, as well as some character costume skins that look straight out of Bloodborne. When are we going to see the Armored Core crossover?
JI: We have a very high level of respect for the games that other directors and other creators in the company have created and we never wanted this to feel like a random grab bag kind of approach. We have very fond memories of each of these titles and there was very careful selection that went on in order to choose the right fits and what we felt could be interesting for Nightreign. We didn't want this to feel like too lighthearted of an effort -- we wanted it to feel like there was some love and care and respect put into it.
As to the question of an Armored Core or mecha crossover … who knows? It's very difficult to say right now what the future could hold for the company. I think if someone was so inclined, they could approach a crossover of worlds in such a way. But right now, there's really no hint of that.
DL: Now I need to know more about how you've played your own game. What's your favorite Nightfarer class? And what's your least favorite boss?
JI: I'd have to say my favorite Nightfarer, from a character perspective, is probably the Guardian. I like to feel like I'm protecting the team and that I'm a strong anchor, very unyielding in my approach to any enemy that I've come up against. But he also has some cool aspects to him. He doesn't feel like a full-fledged tank, he feels a little more flexible than that.
The Duchess is a powerful and fragile but nimble fighter who pours on damage in fights.
Bandai Namco/Screenshot by CNET
In terms of pure gameplay, I like the Duchess. She's really quick, fun to dodge with, uses teammates' attacks effectively and, I think, she's very intuitive for me to play. She's the kind of character I would choose in another game. I can really immerse myself in the gameplay without worrying too much about what's going on.
As for my least favorite boss fight, obviously I love all boss fights equally [laughs]. The one I have most trouble with is Fulgore, sort of a centaur type character missing one arm. That one really requires me to keep on my toes and keep focused. That's a tricky one for me.
DL: Interesting, he definitely wiped the floor with me when I went against him -- and I appreciated how tough he was without seeming unfair. Broadly speaking, have players responded to the game as you expected or surprised you?
JI: The overall response to the network test and to the cycle of the game has been incredibly strong. I'm really glad to see all the feedback we've been getting and we have a lot of great points to learn from and to examine in terms of balancing the game's difficulty, bringing up the highs and tweaking the lows up until release.
Personally, I love playing multiplayer games and being part of that community discussion, so seeing this take off with Nightreign, seeing what players thought was [overpowered] or what was meta or what's going to be the new meta when a new character is released -- this was really fun to see. This really made me glad to see these kinds of divisive opinions and discussion. I can't wait to see everyone play it at launch.
DL: Great segue -- what is the future of Nightreign? Does that include more content beyond the announced DLC?
JI: For future content, we have the already-announced DLC, which we're currently underway on developing. The content for that will be focused on mainly new playable characters and new boss encounters, so please look forward to that.
And then of course, beyond that, we can't say definitely right now but we will be continuing to support the game with patches and updates according to what we see from player data and player tendencies. So sticking tight to the game and watching for balance changes that need to be made and generally supporting the game as we have done with our previous titles.
Elden Ring Nightreign launched on May 30 for PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One consoles for $40. Owning the original Elden Ring is not required to play this game.