Junya Ishizaki is, understandably, a little nervous. After working at FromSoftware as a combat and level designer since the original Dark Souls, he's made his directorial debut with Elden Ring Nightreign, an off-the-walls spinoff of the studio's open-world masterwork, distilled and almost kitbashed into a session-based, three-player boss gauntlet. It's a weird one – about as quick-and-dirty as game development gets at this level – but exciting. "Personally," Ishizaki tells me over a Zoom call from Japan (via interpreter), "I feel confident about this game that we've made."
When I speak with him ahead of launch, Ishizaki seems contemplative. I ask him to walk me through the very beginnings of this game, which he's been thinking about since development on Dark Souls 3. Elden Ring, in all its hugeness, gave him the foothold he needed. He never thought he'd be the one directing it, let alone that FromSoftware boss and Souls maestro Hidetaka Miyazaki would specifically push for him to take the reins.
