Hidetaka Miyazaki has always been clear in his love for the late Kentaro Miura’s work. Ever since the release of Demon’s Souls we’ve seen the manga’s dark, foreboding, and almost hopeless fantasy world have a tangible impact on FromSoftware’s repertoire.

Dark Souls’ character and world designs feel pulled straight from the pages of Berserk in some places, with knights wielding greatswords and otherworldly monsters pulling the strings of a world that relies on logic that is almost Lovecraftian in how it deals with our perception of higher powers and the control they have over humanity.

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Bloodborne continued to carry these influences proudly, with Yharnham leaning heavily into the doomed, apocalyptic oblivion that defines so much of Berserk’s world. It isn’t even subtle in places, with certain iconography pulling directly from the manga while simultaneously morphing it into something new. Miyazaki’s love for Miura’s talents are clear for all to see, and I love how this relationship has continued to build over the years.

Elden Ring feels like the culmination of this homage, with The Lands Between acting as a cohesive love letter to Berserk in infinitely concrete ways. Both are masterpieces of their respective mediums, and to see FromSoftware pull so liberally from Miura’s work after his passing to showcase how much of an influence his imagination had on so many is undeniably touching. He was gone too soon, and deserves to be celebrated.

I grew up reading Berserk, indulging in grotesque battles, sex scenes, and mature themes far sooner than I should have been. But my parents didn’t give a shit so I sunk into it and felt its influence wash over me. Guts’ journey was almost imprinted upon me as he pushed through countless battles both physical and emotional to become a character without equal. Miura sadly passed away before he could conclude this story, but his artistry will live on in the fictional realm he helped create, becoming a fixture in modern fantasy that deserves to sit alongside Game of Thrones and The Lord of the Rings in terms of cultural influence.

Elden Ring

Miyazaki has always described himself as a masochist, a creator willing to put people through untold challenges in search of victory, all while populating his worlds with a melancholic hopelessness so punctual that they even encroach on your mental wellbeing at points. But much like Berserk, there is beauty to be found amidst the darkness, small signs that all is not lost in the crumbling castles of Lordran or the rain-drenched spires of Yharnam.

You will meet characters who want to make the world a better place, and others who have long surrendered themselves to madness because the act of survival seems too much. We are often a silent spectre inserting ourselves into these stories, acting as passive onlookers or active participants who are willing to help peace disparate threats together or further a descent into frenzied nothingness. Berserk is all about this two-pronged approach, with readers being trusted to draw out clear imagery and character arcs before forming their own conclusions. It’s also absolutely badass, another quality sported by Elden Ring.

Berserk

In The Roundtable Hold we can find Master Blacksmith Hewg smashing against a greatsword awfully similar to Guts, while Blaidd the Half-Wolf is framed to resemble the figure of a key character in Berserk with his giant weapon and dominant silhouette. Armour, characters, environments, themes, and more are so deliberate in their homage to Berserk that it feels like Miyazaki hoped to make his love for Miura even more overt, perhaps in the face of his passing the wish to draw from him work and make it a tangible part of Elden Ring’s identity burst forth.

Even the heroine from the reveal trailer is strikingly similar to a character in the manga, her helmet sporting an obvious design influence as she carries herself with an equal amount of confidence. Just look at the Erdtree, its spiralling golden branches mimicking the imagery of landmarks found in Berserk with how it threatens to swallow up the entire world with its mere majesty. There’s a larger than life mystique to The Lands Between that has been a constant in Miura’s drawings, and that’s not an easy thing to imitate, let alone developing such influences into a branching world that draws in millions.

Berserk

We will never see the ending of Berserk - and I’d rather a new author isn’t brought in to replace Miura - so I think other creators building upon his work with new universes who make their influences clear in a much preferred alternative. Despite reviewing the damn thing it feels like I still have so much more to see in Elden Ring, and watching all the Berserk influences bleed through is a continued delight that I’m glad to see FromSoftware indulging in without compromise.

When it comes to fantasy in Japan, Berserk sits atop the mountain and will likely never be usurped, both in terms of what it managed to achieve and where it sits as an influence for authors, artists, developers, and even normal people to draw upon. If you’re loving Elden Ring or have a soft spot for any of FromSoftware’s previous work, do yourself a favour and check out Berserk. Demon’s Souls and everything that followed wouldn’t exist without it, and chances are you’ll fall in love with its disturbing world much like I did.

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