When Dark Souls exploded in popularity well over a decade ago, it felt like a bolt from the blue, as if FromSoftware suddenly, single-handedly demonstrated that many players wanted challenging, often obtuse games that demanded time and attention to truly master – a fact that Elden Ring would embrace to even greater heights. Of course, the truth is a fair bit more complicated than that, not least because FromSoftware was already burning the RPG rulebook back in the '90s with King's Field.
Shinichiro Nishida is a longtime FromSoftware developer who is still working at the studio to this day. He spoke candidly about the development of the studio's original RPG as part of an interview in the King's Field Verdite Trilogy Perfect Guide in 2001, which was recently translated by shmuplations.
