Miyazaki: Eh? I said that? Surely I would have asked for Emma Watson. Anyway, I don't think she ended up resembling anyone in particular. Miyazaki: Yes, the Mimic. I wanted a mimic in the game from the very start, but mimics in other games are all the same, aren't they? The point of the enemy is to surprise people but in doesn't. I love the design but it's just been overused, so I wanted to create a imic that would surprise the player again, to go against their preconceptions… "oh this is a mimic isn't it… wait what!" That was the image I had for the enemy from the very beginning, it was designed out-of-house, but as long as it left a strong impression, it succeeded. The visual designs of the world and characters of Dark Souls, the application of the formal qualities of art to achieve certain emotions, atmospheres and its aesthetic drives the series forward in terms of its artistic integrity. The Dark Souls series is set apart from other commercially produced video games through the idea that each design found within Dark Souls has a purpose and relevance towards the narrative of the game. Instead of just being designed to please the average adolescent gamer, it is a game that throws the player into a world of decay and destruction, with only its visuals acting as a medium of communication from artist to audience. Here Iwill seek to analyse what techniques have been applied during the games design and what historical artworks have influenced the works aesthetic qualities and meaning. I will also explain what effect the stylistic choices of the game have in terms of its narrative aspects and how this may affect the viewer. The viewer may also be referred to the as the “player” depending on the context of the discussion. The majority of the people in the Dark Souls world follow the Way of the White or Gwyn and the Sunlight Warriors cove To digress for a minute, the above observations are perhaps a reason why the game’s more open and natural areas are not as interesting on a moment-to-moment basis. When much of the game’s situations depend on the explicit structural identity of architecture, there’s a reduction of specific design and discretely divisible landscaping when the space has exploded. This doesn’t mean that the relevant areas are bad to the core, really. It just means that places like the Darkroot Basin or Demon Ruins offer a different experience than the Undead Parish or Sen’s Fortress. They offer the mystery of space that has suddenly and atypically expanded, such that you can look at its vaguer sprawl and wonder about its extent. Just how far, and just how deep does this body of land go? Of course, this also means that once you do know their extent, it’s harder for those same places to register as engaging on later playthroughs.

The concepts of life and death are explored within Rosaria. She looks young, her skin shows no sign of wear or any blemishes, and she wears a dress that I believe represents maidenhood. However, her overgrown hair and the rustic colours used within her design indicate towards us that she has been existent for a time unbeknownst the viewer. She manifests herself as a beautiful and slender woman, representative of maternity and youth, but caring for beings so forlorn and grotesque you cannot claim that they once may have been humans. The Virgin Mary is the mother of Jesus, and thus the mother of “God” creator of humanity. Rosaria I believe is a mother of life, whether it be to those who live a miserable existence or those that live able. These contrasts I believe are representative of the dual nature of being. I believe that she is a symbol for the acceptance of flaws, the idea that dualisms will always exist and that one must be able to accept them. 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. Miyazaki: I'm sorry. Of course, If I don't get what I want, I start giving more specific descriptions and I might even start drawing things on the whiteboard, but even then I'd never go so far as to say "it has to be this colour or this shape", I don't want the designers to become my tools. It doesn't always go as I want, but I think that's probably due to me not getting the best out of the artists, and this is something I want to get better at in the future. Otsuka: I think it's a really unique area, I remember before travelling there I was excited to see what would happen.

Dark Souls Art Gallery

Miyazaki: I suppose it was… As to why I made him naked, I wanted to show that the character had found enlightenment but unfortunately the models in Dark Souls weren't built with a wide range of emotional expressions, so as I was thinking about how to overcome this problem, for some reason, I came up with the idea of making him naked… Miyazaki: In my mind, Sieglinde was always a cute character. I specifically remember asking for that.

A casual review of the environmental concept art for games such as God of War: Ascension, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Gears of War: Judgment, or titles in the Uncharted series, reveals a different pattern. Here, there is a stronger emphasis on macro scenery – the totality of a given environment rendered in as much detail as possible. Asymmetry is more prevalent than symmetry, and it’s harder to divide the environments into distinct chunks. In general, these games and others seem to prioritize compositional principles that (although present in many cultures’ creative expressions beforehand) were popularized in Europe and America during the twentieth century (there is also perhaps something else to be said, outside of this article’s reach, about artist Nicolas Bouvier’s influence within the videogame medium). Miyazaki: This is actually how most of the areas were constructed. The map design was really what dictated everything else, once we determined what needed to happen in each area we would immediately draw up a rough map, then once the basic layout of the area was decided, we'd work on the finer details. Through the rough map I was able to communicate the requirements, structure and appearance of an area to the artists, and have them develop those ideas through collaborating with one another. I'm never satisfied with design works that simply follows the design brief so I often requested that the artists and designers add some of their own ideas. I believe that these ideas can enrich the area, if not the entire game, although this can lead to more work of course. Miyazaki: As I said before, everything had its particular shade or tone; Blighttown, for example is the rawest, most disgusting area in the game, but looking at the area as a whole, I wanted it to both possess a deep sadness and feel bitterly cold, that's the atmosphere I tried to build on. You could say I that have a habit of working in this way, and I think you can really see that in Dark Souls' art direction.

Dark Souls II Art Gallery

Each colour used in the scene is a form of blue. The figure is surrounded by darkness with the only blue light emitting from the gothic rose window and illuminating the figure. The light source being directly behind the figure draws the attention to it and creates a threatening and eerie effect. This monochromatic colour scheme reinforces the raw, glacial and eldritch atmosphere created within the room. This kind of colour scheme is also highly atmospheric since some things may be represented in colour that they naturally would not take on, such as bluish skin, giving the effect that the work has been covered in a sort of ethereal haze. I suppose you could also add to that the image of the ancient dragons. These themes, along with utilising the artists' personal styles, formed the basis of the Dark Souls design principle. In contrast to most art teams, we didn't have our artists concentrating on a specific section, instead all the artists contributed to all areas.