Dark Souls: Design Works

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Nakamura: Right from the initial concept stages, when we were still working from key words like "ancient dragon", "chaos demon" and "undead" I thought long and hard about how to create something fresh and new for the people who played Demon's Souls. Miyazaki: You may not believe me, but I always tried to maintain a certain level of refinement and elegance in all designs. I often told the artists that muddy or messy is definitely not good. I think this carries through the entire game. If you asked me to describe what this "elegance" is… well, I think you just have to look at the designs and judge for yourself, but it really is one of the most important factors in everything I oversee.

Waragai: Diligent people will notice I think, by that point you've already seen several large boulders.

Mostly for the fans

Miyazaki: Yes, but the artist had such a happy look on his face, I didn't have the heart to stop him. Miyazaki: Smough came form the initial concept stages, while Ornstein was introduced much later. I remember the Channeller's design was put forward around the same time as Smough's and we all took to referring to them as the four knights; Knights C and D, if I remember correctly. I hoped that by doing this, it would ensure that Knights A and B were implemented. In cases where I had a clearer idea of what I wanted, the design process was slightly different. For example, this is going to be used in this place to perform this function or, the area is designed in this way so it must adhere to these conditions, for example the mimic and the gargoyles. Regardless of which design process was used, rather than to appoint a person to take charge of each concept, I took the designs and talked them over with each of the artists and developed them in that way. Hatsuyama: When designing our cover, I have to admit, I was at a complete loss as to what to do, I was told I had to "face the darkness inside myself", which didn't really help at all.

Otsuka: Earlier we were talking about Crossbreed Pricilla, but are there any other characters whose role changed dramatically as development progressed?Miyazaki: Yes I suppose so, but each of the areas had it's own feel or tone, as far as art direction was concerned. for an area like Blight Town for example, we found that once we decided on the general direction and gathered together the appropriate reference materials, there wasn't really a need to spend too much time developing the look of the area, it just came together. However in areas which were composed of more traditional architecture we had to spend a lot of time working on the finer details. There weren't a huge amount of artists on the team so it was a case of moving people to where they would be of most use. All demons are born from the fire of chaos, but he was the first, born so long ago, when the fire wasn't yet stable. He possesses it, but he can't control it and it burns him constantly. Despite his size, he's actually the youngest of Izalith's children, he stands gazing up at the ruins where his sisters live. The only source of comfort in his pitiful, painful existence is the belief that they are watching over him.

Waragai: I remember you said that to me when I was working on the undead dragon. Originally, it was covered with maggots, but you told me that instead I needed to try and capture the sadness of this great creature as it marches towards extinction. Otsuka: I think it's a really unique area, I remember before travelling there I was excited to see what would happen. Miyazaki: The Catarina armour was designed by Mr. Waragai. Long before we started work on the game, in fact, not long after he joined the company we actually asked him to produce a number of designs, not for any specific project but more as a kind of test to help us decide which development team to attach him to. During that period I asked him to produce some fantasy armour, and among his designs there was a large, overweight character like Bazusofrom Berserk. It was really distinctive with a spherical, onion shaped helmet and I took to it immediately. Once we started working on Dark Souls and I began to outline Siegmeyer's character and it seemed like a perfect fit so I just used the design as it was. Miyazaki: We wanted his clothing to look ancient, he is an old king after all. I researched a lot of old clothing but I couldn't really find anything that looked cool. Short pants for example wouldn't create the image we wanted for the character. I'm happy with the final design though. Waragai: Yes, the idea was that the worn steps might give players a warning as to the dangers ahead.Miyazaki: In my mind, Sieglinde was always a cute character. I specifically remember asking for that.

Miyazaki: As I said before, everything has it's particular shade or tone, blight town for example is the rawest, most disgusting area in the game, but looking at the area as a whole, I wanted it to feel both bitterly cold and possess a deep sadness, and that's the atmosphere I tried to build on. You could say I have a habit of working in this way, and I think you can really see that in Dark Souls' art direction. -Collecting the dark and haunting artwork behind the critically-acclaimed Dark Souls II in a prestigious hardcover tome. Dark Souls II: Design Works features armor and weapon designs, character concepts, creatures, locations, rough sketches, an exclusive interview with the game's creators, and more! Hatsuyama: I drew a lot of designs for underwear so I'm a little disappointed he didn't emerge wearing one of those instead. Otsuka: So you had a team of one artist/designer and one 3D artist working on each area, and then it fell to you to make the final decisions?