Do You Know the Berserk, the Inspiration of Many Souls-like Games Such as Dark Souls and Elden Ring?

Berserk, drawn by Kentaro Miura, is a manga series dominated by the dark fantasy theme. Berserk, which has become the inspiration for Souls-like games such as Elden Ring and Dark Souls with its dark theme and intriguing universe, is also known for its anime series released in 1977 and 2016.
 
According to the creation story, The Dragon Slayer sword, one of Berserk's most iconic weapons, was forged from pure iron and the blood absorbed from slain enemies, and was given a rusted and beaten appearance with the drawings of Kentaro Miura. The sword used by the character Guts later becomes an effective weapon against evil spirits and possessed monsters.
 
The Berserk series, one of the most successful productions, has also been a source of inspiration for other anime and manga creators. The Berserk manga series, which Kentaro Miura started drawing when he was 23, also contains interesting information about its production and content.

Kentaro Miura had much different ideas about the sword Guts used. He was actually considering giving Guts a Japanese katana.

The Guts character in Kentaro Miura's mind was actually an Asian man with long hair, a crossbow hidden in one arm, and a katana in the other hand. If Miura hadn't changed his mind, Guts would have had a much different image.

Miura had previously talked about the factors that changed the character of Guts in an interview. Talking about the anime series Pygmalio and the illustration of a two or three meter tall sword-wielding giant in Guin Saga's spin-off story The Snow Queen, Miura states that Guts's sword bears traces from these two productions.

In the 2016 anime Berserk, a frying pan was used for the sound effects of Guts' giant sword, The Dragon Slayer.


Effects of The Dragon Slayer sword in the Berserk anime; It consists of the sounds made by tipping over a pile of pans and hitting the garbage bag strongly with a metal rod. Although the same method was used in the 1997 Berserk anime, the sword effects in the 2016 film were surprisingly much worse.

The carelessness of the pan sounds in the sword voice-overs created in the 2016 production and their ineffectiveness for a sword like The Dragon Slayer did not go unnoticed by the fans and caused the series to receive bad reviews.

In the Elden Ring game, you may come across a sword inspired by the sword of the character Guts, The Dragon Slayer, and even use it on your character.

Greatsword, which attracted the attention of fans with its similarity to The Dragon Slayer sword, is one of the equipable weapons in the Elden Ring game. Players who want to use the Greatsword can visit the Divine Caelid Tower near the Dragonbarrow West area.

The fact that Hidetaka Miyazaki, one of the creators of the Elden Ring game, is a fan of Kentaro Miura, is pointed out as a possible reason why Greatsword took a place in the Elden Ring universe with its similarity to The Dragon Slayer.

Not only Guts' sword is included in the Dark Souls game; The series' characters, villains and even the atmosphere of its universe have been a source of inspiration.


Dark Souls ranks second among the games most inspired by the Berserk manga, with a total of 15 references. The characters named Taurus Demon, Men-Serpent and Siegmeyer of Catarina in the Dark Souls game have visible similarities with the characters named Nosferatu Zodd, Snake Lord and Basuzo in the Berserk anime.

One of the biggest references in the Dark Souls game is the similarity of the cover design in the Artorias of the Abyss DLC to the cover image in the 28th volume of the Berserk manga.

Berserk's influence is visible in the creation of many anime series, including Hell's Paradise and Black Cover.

Berserk was the inspiration for many anime and manga, as well as video games. Hell's Paradise creator Yuji Kaku stated that he was a big fan of Berserk and that he often used inspirations when creating the style of the work. Hell's Paradise shares many similarities with Berserk, such as the use of supernatural elements and monsters, and the depiction of violence and blood.

The sword named The Demon Slayer of Asta character in the Black Cover manga and Guts's The Dragon Slayer have obvious similarities in terms of design. Like Guts, Asta uses his sword to fight in a universe full of wizards and demons. There are a few more similarities between Black Cover and Berserk.

Kentaro Miura frequently used French and Spanish architecture in the drawings of the buildings in the Berserk manga.

While drawing the architectures in Berserk's manga, which takes place in a world inspired by the Middle Ages, Miura used examples from French and Spanish architecture. It is possible to see at first glance that the design of Doldrey Castle was inspired by the Coca Castle in Segovia, Spain.

At the same time, if you pay attention to the drawing in the manga, you can see that the church located in the middle of Enoch village was designed with inspiration from the Church of San Martin in Fromista, Spain.

Kentaro Miura attributes the success of his eye-catching drawings to the surrealist painter H.R. He owes his inspiration to Giger's drawings.

Surrealist painter H.R., who was also the designer of the alien creatures in the Alien series. Giger was the inspiration for Miura in the Berserk manga. Frequently inspired by his nightmares and personal fears, H.R. Giger was mostly working in the science fiction genre and with a dark theme.

In the Berserk manga, H.R. You can see the effects of Giger's spooky subconscious, especially in the character types Conrad, Ubik and Femto. According to Miura in a 1996 interview, his drawings were made by painter M.C. He was also inspired by Escher and the movie Hellraiser. Drawing of Godhand members by artist M.C. The similarity between Escher's work is striking.

According to interesting information obtained as a result of a reader's attention, more than 100 eyes popped out of their heads in the Berserk manga. (From volume 1 to volume 32.)

User named u/berserk_prime on Reddit wrote in a subreddit that he counted all the drawings containing eyeballs from the 1st chapter to the 347th chapter of the Berserk manga. Stating that he counted 114 sample drawings, the user also states that there is a possibility that there may be parts that he may have missed. According to the user who came across the most popping eye drawings in the 30th volume, he did not come across even one in the 5th volume.

As proof that Berserk contains a lot of violence, we can point out that the drawings mentioned by the aforementioned Reddit user do not include eye injuries such as arrows stuck in the eye. According to what the user wrote, a very high number is reached when drawings related to eye injuries are included. Considering that the Berserk manga has 41 volumes, one person's eye popped out of its socket in all of the volumes from 1 to 32, except for the 5th volume.