Director Elden Ring Nightreign Interview Part 2: Why There Are No Poisons and Future DLCs

Elden Ring and his DLC's Erdtree shadows have had a surprising success for FromSoftware, which has enabled the studio to explode into the mainstream by surpassing its dedicated but affluent niche. Its spin-off, Elden Ring Nightreign, takes a different approach to Co-op multiplayer focus and repeatable Run-based gameplay.

Nightreign is the studio’s bold direction, and it has been successful in dark fantasy single-player adventures like Bloodborne and The Dark Souls series. Most of its hits are directed by Hidetaka Miyazaki, the creator of the soul formula of the tough third-person battle game. The new multiplayer NightReign builds on the success of Elden Ring by remixing its elements into new game formats, remixing them in fast-paced action.

Nightreign fits this new direction, and is the debut of the director of Junya Ishizaki, who has worked on many early FromSoftware titles and is the battle director for Elden Ring. Through video chat, CNET had to talk to Ishizaki about his thoughts on Nightreign and many other topics. In the first part of our interview, we discussed what changes happened during game development, from dropping and breaking multiple maps to the last map we saw today. And, yes, how he plays every boss in the solo game.

In the second part below, we talk about Ishizaki’s favorite nightclub class, least favorite boss, and DLC information and content from Software to learn that it will be brought into future games (for example, the Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive Duskbloods will be launched next year).

Of course, we have to ask about the poison swamp problem.

David Lumb: I feel like I need to ask about many other lacks from the elements that exist in Software games: Where is the poisonous swamp of Nightreign?

Junya Ishizaki: I think the main reason is that this is not Miyazaki’s title, so this might be an explanation. Aside from kidding, I think it's just a chance factor in game development, and what's going on in the process of thinking and what's going on. So, who knows what will happen in the future with Nightreign?

DL: Considering that Elden Ring, Bloodborne and two of the three Dark Souls champions are Miyazaki games, what makes Nightreign an Ishizaki game?

JI: I don't think it will necessarily separate me from Hayao Miyazaki, but I like to see me as my profession, it's that I like to prioritize the “game feel” over a lot of things – these detailed and meticulous things – for example, what happens when a player falls from a height and gets stuck in a stumbling place? How should this feel? How does this translate into excellent gameplay and into player comfort?

So, Nightcrawler is known to have no damage from falling, but the character’s behavior when hitting the floor at various heights and what you can do to offset this. So, these areas I like to see – the relationship between the player and the control and how it translates into the game.

DL: This is a question I asked last year, when I asked Miyazaki-Elden Ring DLC ​​(Shadow of the Erdtree) out: Which of all the FromSoftware games you've worked on, is your favorite kid?

JI: This is a tough question. Of course, I worked in Dark Souls 1, 3. I think I would say that the most memories I have are the original dark soul. This is my first project at FrofSoftware, and it is my first time getting into serious game development, learning game systems and architectures and aspects of these games in these companies, and what we want to convey through gameplay.

It was very valuable to me to learn all of this. Of course, I was a newbie at the time, so I was very serious about helping it succeed.

DL: During my run at Night Walker, I met unforgettable dark soul bosses like The Huge Dragon. How did you choose the many bosses of the Dark Souls series to include?

JI: From a gameplay perspective, first of all, we have a look at whether they are very suitable for Nightreign's world and structure. The same is true for bosses from the world of Elden Ring. Whether they fit and use Elden Ring’s basic boss battle formats, we want to make sure they also work with Nightreign’s framework and gameplay, and add it to make the experience fresh.

DL: On the crossover side, it's great to see the Dark Soul Boss at Night Boss, as well as some character costume skins that look like Bloodborne. When will we go see the armored core crossover?

JI: We have a high level of respect for games created by other directors and other creators in the company, and we never want it to be a random bag-grabbing method. We have very good memories of each title and have made very careful choices to choose the right one, which we think might be interesting for Nightcrawlers. We don't want this to feel too lighthearted, we want it to feel like there is some love, care and respect.

As for the issue of armor core or mecha crossover… who knows? It is hard to say what the company's future can last now. I think if someone tends to, they can approach the intersection of the world in this way. But now, there is really no hint.

DL: Now, I need to learn more about how you play your own game. What is your favorite nightclub class? What is your least favorite boss?

JI: From a character perspective, I have to say that my favorite nightclub might be the guardian. I love feeling like I’m protecting the team and I’m a strong anchor, very unyielding to any enemy I’m facing. But he also has some cool aspects. He didn't feel like a mature tank, he felt more flexible than that.

As far as purely games are concerned, I like the Duchess. She is really fast, very fun and can effectively use her teammates’ attacks, which I think is very intuitive. She is the kind of character I chose in another game. I can really immerse myself in the gameplay without worrying about what's going on.

As for the boss fights I don't like the most, obviously I also love all boss fights [laughs]. My biggest trouble is Fulgore, a bit like a half-character character who lacks an arm. This really requires me to keep my toes and keep my focus. This is a tricky person for me.

DL: Interestingly, when I objected to him, he would certainly wipe the floor with me – I thank him for having a hard time without injustice. Broadly speaking, are players responding or surpriseing you as you expect?

JI: The overall response to network testing and game cycles was very strong. I'm really happy to see all the feedback we get and we have a lot of good points to learn and check before balancing the difficulty of the game, raising the highs and adjusting the lows until release.

Personally, I love playing multiplayer and participating in part of the community discussion, so seeing what players think is [overpowered] Or something that will be dollar or nickel when the new character is released – it's really fun to see. This really makes me happy to see this kind of split viewpoint and discussion. I can't wait to see everyone play it when it is released.

DL: The Great SEGUE – What is the future of Night Walker? Does this include more than the announced DLC?

JI: For future content, we have already announced DLCs that are currently under development. This content will focus on mainly new playable characters and new boss encounters, so look forward to that.

Then, of course, other than that, we can't say for sure now, but we will continue to support the game from patches and updates based on player data and player tendencies. So, like our previous title, hold on to the game and observe the balanced changes that need to be made and generally support the game.

Elden Ring Nightreign launched PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One consoles on May 30 for $40. There is no need to play this game with the original Elden ring.

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