"We didn't start off by saying, 'let's aim to build a roguelike'": Elden Ring Nightreign director says FromSoftware wasn't really aiming for a roguelike feel, it just kind of happened

Elden Ring Nightreign offers a unique roguelike twist on the Souls genre we all know and love, but it turns out that the devs at FromSoftware didn't set out with that exact term in mind when they began creating it.

Asked about whether the term "roguelike" came up a lot internally when speaking in an interview with GamesRadar+, Elden Ring Nightreign director Junya Ishizaki tells us that while "a lot of our team members and developers are familiar with these games and how they work," he doesn't "feel like they are an axis for how we base these projects and how we branch out the gameplay ideas." Rather, this came after "a lot of feeling out the gameplay and the structure."

Ishizaki explains: "We didn't start off by saying, 'let's aim to build a roguelike,' or something, a game that features a lot of random elements. It's not necessarily a jumping off point for the game design, is what I'm trying to say. It was more the result of a lot of feeling out the gameplay and the structure, and figuring out what the best solution to a certain problem was or what made sense in terms of where that particular gameplay element was headed at the time.

"So these are, again, quite serendipitous elements, but they are more answers or solutions to problems than actual game design templates or axes, if you will."

Regardless, the final result sees Nightreign as a refreshing take on FromSoftware's brutal action RPG formula. In fact, producer Yasuhiro Kitao recently acknowledged that it has "some peculiar aspects," and is thankful that so many fans have already "bravely jumped into this world."

While you're here, be sure to check out our Elden Ring Nightreign review, as well as our roundup of other upcoming new games for 2025.