Software games have always had a very clear visual style, so it’s usually very easy to predict when its iconic “Software” logo is about to pop up after Fade suddenly after the trailer for the game announced. This is thanks to many talented artists in the studio, and while in their office, I had the opportunity to sit down with one of them, concept and environmental artist Saori Mizuno, to talk about her inspiration, the direction of the art she was given to her for the Eldenling Night League, and how it was different from her work in the previous Fromsoft games.
Passthecontroller: So, what’s the difference between working on Nightreign and Base Elden Ring games, or the previous ones we’ve worked on with fromSoftware?
Syri Mizuno – Eldenling’s concept artist: Night Freeg: Generally, in the case of Nightreign, you take your design order and if it’s in charge of that particular concept, you’ll iterate through that image, the interpretation of the design I had, and work with other designers to create the final design. I think one aspect that has changed a lot in Nightrign’s design process is that rather than getting text-based feedback, there was a lot of interactions and a lot of brainstorming actually talking about these designs.
interviewer:
Can you talk a bit about Nightreign’s setup and how to approach it in a way that feels different from the base Eldenling game despite being a spinoff that uses many of the same assets?
I didn’t want to feel that it was too different from Eldenling because I used it as the basis for the design and setting. But one particular direction we got early on was creating what we first felt and looked like, gradually transforming into something unfamiliar, then transforming into something unknown. It was like a great policy or direction we had to approach design.
Eldenling felt in many circumstances for this kind of very gorgeous painter, but we wanted nightrign to feel beautiful at a glance, but when you look a little deeper, there is something ominous and something dark there. There may be plenty of bright colors in Eldenling, the scenery and Skybox, but I wanted players to feel the sense of darkness there too. It was another aspect of the design that was slightly different from the Eldenling.
One of the places that really thrust me was a very familiar place at base Eldenling, and it gives a very interesting twist on Nightreign. What came into the new designs of Roundtable Hold and what was some of the inspiration behind some of those changes?
With a new kind of fast, high-tempo gameplay from Nightreign, we wanted to feel like the round tables in particular could relax and cool off after a 3-day/night cycle. So we wanted to feel more comfortable and more welcome from a design perspective. One inspiration was the Fire Link Shrine in Dark Souls 1. There, you feel like you’re embraced by the atmosphere. You think that after these difficulties, after a fierce battle, and above all, safe.
Therefore, from a design perspective, techniques such as gentle lighting, a sense of the surrounding environment, and the round table itself were used. Also, many places are in abandoned in, but we didn’t want to feel it was completely destroyed and devastated. We wanted to feel safe to go home and that players could relax and spend time there.
Another driving force behind Nightreign’s roundtable design was this early morning feeling. So, a kind of dawn, dawn, the player sets out on a new adventure. So it got caught up in some of the changing lighting and architecture choices in Nightreign and we wanted players to be aware of this. I wanted them to be aware of this when they embarked on this new adventure.
So, when a player hits on the third day, they are transported to this new location that is completely different from the rest of Eldenling. It is mainly white, mixed with very colorful skyboxes, mixed with orange, blue and purple varieties. What was the story behind this environment and what was some of the inspiration that led to the job? If you want visual expression, this is it.
Therefore, one of the first requests we gained from the director regarding this environment was that it should feel like a final feeling and that we should get this sense of accumulation before the storm. Also, the impression I got from the Skybox is that the sky is falling, and that this disaster is coming to an end. It’s the boss at the end of the third day, so I wanted the player to feel this tension in his chest, just as he was preparing to embark on something bigger than him.
Plus, looking at the colours and composition of the sky again, we wanted to feel that something was about to come from that mixed chaos and that mixed scene. Again, the boss reaches its peak at the end of that third day’s struggle. I wanted players to feel this from the use of colour and the use of these design elements. And some of the inspiration we gained from it was from actual universe events. So we weren’t very understanding, something that is very far and abstracted from normal human perceptions, and we wanted it to feel abstract and grand even within the world of Night Grain.
What are you very proud of yourself for working on Nightreign just by talking to me personally?
Personally, one of my favorite areas is the realms we spoke to, the environment that we enter just before we face that boss at the end of the third day. One of the key words I found while exploring the design of this environment was this concept of taking off the skin. And this really resonated with me and stuck with me. This idea is to personify the surroundings and buildings once lived, and now they have petrified these eras and experienced the entire process. And we wanted players to feel the sense of this era. This old fantasy is felt from the work of this particular set.
What surprised us about the Night Train was the diversity of the environment, despite it being a much smaller, more condensed kind of world. Has it been difficult to achieve this kind of diversity in such a small, limited space?
So, in general, I wanted to feel like I could soon feel fresh and exciting with these types of emergency map changes and these types of terrain effects and events. So players will know that there have been changes that have affected the maps and scenery. So, for example, the volcano that is the displayed volcano, needs to dig deeper into it. Or, due to changes in the topography of the snowy field, you need to climb to that kind of thing, the top of it. We wanted this to be effective immediately and to change the way players approach and behave within the map simply by changing the sense of space.
And personally, is there anyone who can point out that you are some of your favorite classic or contemporary artists and that you are particularly influential in your work?
One of my personal favorite traditional or classical artists is Zdzisław Beksiński. When designing my work, I took a lot of inspiration from his various expressions. Also, after these repeated plays, with the concept of fighting Night Train and Night Road, I felt this was inherent in the design of the game. And I wanted to pass through this feeling even with the designs I created. And one feeling I got from it was watching a movie away from Miyazaki Hayo. It feels like you can’t escape your dreams and can’t go home. This kind of feeling was like a harness while designing these worlds and trying to pass it to the player while playing through the game.
Even when designing that first map, Limveld, the first environment on the first day, I wanted it to be beautiful. It looks beautiful and attractive, like from an outward gaze, but it immediately feels like something is off or something is not right at all. So I think that’s definitely part of the inspiration we’ve gained from the design of our Night Train.
So, can you talk about some of your favorite video games that switched to video games so quickly, which could have affected your work as well?
I enjoy Diablo II and other multiplayer games. I enjoy an open world survival game where you need to start from scratch and build something like your own home or that world. I like a variety of indie games, and since I was a kid I’ve loved games like The Legend of Zelda and Majora’s Mask. I think it’s been sticking to me since I was a kid. Yeah.
And the last question. Many designers and artists love to create their own personal imprints in the game. Are there any secrets or Easter eggs you sneak into the game? Or do you hope that players will watch and enjoy playing?
yes. I don’t think you would call this a kind of signature as an artist, but one of the important things I paid attention to when designing Nightreign was that it was all the overarching themes of this kind of night and how to express it. We’ve obviously tried a variety of things and different ways, but Limveld is where you’ll eventually keep coming back as a player. So we came up with one way to express these changes in the entire structure over the three days and what players can notice as their journey progresses. What will they come back and what will they keep interested.
And to talk a little more about that theme that night, we had to explore what it meant to us as designers as a base concept. So of course, night brings negative connotations like darkness and fear, and brings something like this. So, at first, they wanted the player to jump into this world and feel such negative emotions very directly transmitted, and that feeling of anxiety and unknown fear.
So we conveyed this straight through with things like this, such as the time limits imposed and the rings of rain intrusions. But we found out it was that night, we didn’t want it to be completely negative. Again, once the players get used to the cycle and get used to what they’re seeing, we wanted to make it more than that. We wanted players to almost start to admire the night. I was looking forward to this intruding darkness and even felt a sense of comfort from it, as I was used to this rhythm and these aspects. So, as the game progresses and players become more familiar with these things, it’s definitely an aspect of the design we wanted to incorporate and it becomes part of that player experience.
