I’ve known that Berserk was a major influence behind the souls games, but I just recently started reading Claymore and noticed a few things that seemed like inspirations. The Puzzle Sword makes an appearance, and there’s a character named Priscilla, but I figured that those could be coincidences. Well the setting just changed to the town called Lautrec and I don’t think it’s coincidence anymore lol. Does anyone know of any other works that are such a direct inspiration to the souls games? I’d love to read more. (Also Berserk and Claymore are both fantastic and I highly recommend both of you enjoy manga. Also also I haven’t finished Claymore yet so please no spoilers.)
I see a lot of theological references. Bits and pieces taken from all sorts of religions and mythologies. Mostly from the West, outside of Sekiro which is extremely Japanese with everything.
I find it interesting because they are still all shown thrown a lens of Japanese understanding so there’s a lot of twists and turns taken with, say, references to Christianity.
I recently got caught up with Berserk and also re read some arcs, and started compiling a file of the things that got directly referenced by fromsoft to do a post about it here XD (it’s a lot!/and also probably out there on the internet already) back when I started reading I hadn’t played any of the games.
One of the recent chapters is named “shadows die twice” so it’s nice to see the aknowledgement and little tribute made to the studio in return. Granted it was under Mori after Miura died, but still.
I’ll second that it’s great and definitely worth the time investment.
I’m not huge into manga so I wasn’t aware of Claymore, but I’ll check it out! thanks for the rec!
Claymore reads like the love child of Berserk and The Witcher. I don’t know what came first so maybe chronologically that’s not right, but that’s the vibe of the series. I hope you enjoy it too!
I started my own list of DS / Berserk references as well, but I lost it in a PC reformat. I’d love to see yours when you finish it, there really were a lot of references and it’s fun to see the ones I missed
I’m with you that timelines are confusing! At least berserk and the witcher started being published arroud the same time and the influences are there of course, at least from what you get to see in the witcher games. Which inspired which, I requires further investigation :P . I’ve been also meaning to read the witcher novels for a while but I haven’t gotten arroud to it.
As for the reference list, it was mostly visual design stuff, thematically theres also so much! I don’t know if I’m eloquent enough to put it into writing :P To do a solid post I’d probably have to re-read the whole thing, but honestly I kind of have the itch to do it. It has been so long I read some parts I have forgotten some details. But, I’ll check out Claymore first and also will compile what I find there.
Elric of Melniboné stories by Micheal Moorcock are very likely inspiration too, a lot of similar themes.
Looking at it on Wikipedia, he keeps himself alive by eating herbs which definitely gives me DeS vibes, plus the general setting seems very much the dark fantasy vibe of the souls series. I’ll check out the actual stories for more. Thanks for the recommendation!
How much of a topic is SA in Berserk? From what I’ve heard, literally the first chapter shows SA and that’s huge no for me even though I’d like to know what it’s all about
Unfortunately theres quite a few instances of sexual violence in it, most super graphic. Some are also unnecesarry for the plot imo , but some are central to main character and the central conflict) :(. The first time I picked up the manga I stopped reading it because of that. But maybe you can skip it, if you look up ahead which chapters have ocurrences of it.
The graphicness is what would be a no to me. It feels like unnecessary male-gazey voyeurism instead of commentary on the act itself. Probably judging too harshly, but I’m not sure if I would wanna read the rest even if I skipped ahead. Just knowing it’s there is enough for me
Yup, totally valid. No need to expose yourself to that. I powered through it 'cause Miura’s art in the series is absolutely incredible and it’s been a cornerstone reference un my own work since then.
It’s one of the central themes of the series, and affects multiple main characters in some way throughout the series. It’s portrayed as traumatic and horrible, but I totally understand not wanting to engage with it in any way regardless.
I mean, Igon is literally captain Ahab, but that one is very obvious
Do you count previous from games as sources of inspiration? Kings Field and Shadow Tower Abyss are slept on so hard. Everyone owes it to themselves to watch maajulars retrospectives and play something like Lunacid dread X delusions
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