Inside the Diablo x Berserk Collaboration: Art Directors Share Insight Into Historic New Partnership

One theme that continued to be repeated throughout the conversation was how perfect a marriage was between Diablo and Berserk for a collaboration. Emil Salim, art director for mobile game Diablo Immortal, and Viviane Kosty, art director for mainline series game Diablo 4, continued to emphasize this point throughout each line of questions. As Salim stated, “It was a natural fit, right? From the very beginning, it kind of fits with Diablo on a story level. The story of Berserk is really, really dark, dark fantasy, full of violence, endless war, and desperation. So it’s … perfect for us,” a sentiment Kosty wholeheartedly supported moments later.

Later on in the interview, the two directors were asked about concerns the gaming community may have that the series will become weighed down by a plethora of money-grab collaborations, in the spirit of Fortnite or Call of Duty. Fans of the Diablo series do not need to worry about this, though. The fit visually was natural, as it ties well into Western themes, including armor and weapon design. Moreover, the collaboration process is highly meticulous, in which Blizzard must ensure that the two IPs not only pay tribute to each other in the collab, but that they complement each other as well.

Equally, the influence of Berserk artist Kentaro Miura is seen throughout the interview. As many fans of the iconic manga likely already know, Berserk and Miura’s artwork within it set the standard for dark fantasy. Most current dark fantasy artists are inspired by Miura’s designs. Kosty and Salim spoke a bit about the never-before-seen concept art they had access to after Miura’s passing. While fans will not get to see the art itself, they are used as references and models throughout both sides of the collaboration. Kosty referred to Berserk as a “gateway media” for the team, and that the studio has many fans of Berserk within the ranks.

For both artists, having the opportunity to work off of Kentaro Miura’s work and legacy was a truly once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Miura is largely considered one of the best fantasy artists, and possibly one of the best artists, period, in this generation. The dream is to be able to reach the level of his character designs, and both started learning from his style. Salim even began teaching himself art through Miura’s models. Fans can expect to see that inspiration in the games: Diablo Immortal will feature deliberate cinematic 2D cuts in traditional anime style, and Diablo 4 will showcase classic Berserk textures within models, such as cape textures for Griffith.

As Salim stated at one point during the interview, when asked if Berserk had anything too dark or too heavy for the Diablo Universe, the simple answer was, “No.”

What Should Fans Expect In Diablo Gameplay With The Berserk Collaboration

The second piece to the puzzle, aside from the clear relational ties between the two IPs, is what exactly to expect in Diablo when playing the game. On this topic, Immortal and D4 diverged a bit. For Immortal, there is a lot to expect from the new gameplay. With nearly three decades of material to choose from, the Golden Age Arc became the focus of the collaboration because it triggered the rest of the manga’s future story development and answered previous questions. Looking at Eclipse as the central theme, Immortal chose to focus on major battles and storyline elements with their main event release.

Diablo 4, meanwhile, looks at the Golden Age Arc as well, but unlike Immortal, the focus is on the artistic content. Specifically, Kosty says, the focus is on visuals, the weapons and armors, and building in the most iconic characters from the manga. Many of these characters are recognized in pop culture in general. “Even if you haven’t read the books, you kind of know who they are. At least at a glimpse, if you went to a store or if you went to a comic shop, you’ve at least seen one of them before,” she shared.

There are certainly challenges and hurdles to working on any type of collaboration, such as this one. Diablo simply does not have the bandwidth to cover the full timeline of the story and events that the massive manga series tells. Therefore, for Salim, it is to take the main plot lines, such as the first battle with Zodd and Griffith being folded in as a boss fight, building in what happened to Zodd, and capturing the essence of Berserk. “What is the eclipse truly about? It’s about betrayal, it’s about sacrifice. It’s about the brutality of all of these demons and monsters… It’s about that feeling of hopelessness… What’s going to happen to me?”

What makes the collaboration still feel like Diablo, though? At the root of the game, it is still a struggle of humanity, the artists say. It is a battle between two massive entities: light and dark, heaven and hell. Classes, armor, and visual elements are still grounded in the series and what makes it such a classic, memorable video game experience for so many gamers. With this in mind, I asked both Salim and Kosty about what Diablo fans, specifically, could expect to see out of this collaboration that brings something new and different to the series that could not have happened without Berserk.

For the Immortal side, the answer is, essentially, new content. “We hope that bringing this collaboration will give them something new as far as the main event. The game mechanic that calls back to the eclipse… hopefully that will give them something new. Battling Zodd as a new boss that literally will give them something new, a new experience. We’ve also inserted a lot of references and call-outs to the manga series, like different moments in the manga series, in that boss fight alone. And then obviously the cosmetics that are literally offering something new as well.”

On the D4 side, Kosty sees the collaboration as a celebration of two iconic IPs. “The first one is to kind of celebrate, both communities, to kind of bring people together after this experience. This is our very first external IP collaboration, so hopefully it is able to bring together different people from different places and build this one community of shared interest. And the other is the [collaboration] brings a new level of, I am gonna say, ridiculousness? In a game where it is quite serious and dark, and brutal… this is really the first time where we bring something that makes you kind of pause and wonder, ‘What is that thing’.”

Any fans of Berserk, or gamers in general, who have not yet played Diablo but are intrigued by the concept, do not fear. There are no barriers to playing the new content found in the collaboration. Both games offer access to the content immediately upon starting, through normal gameplay, stores, etc. Fans will see evidence of the collab right from the get-go. Even with the boss fight teased by Immortal, the level required to get to that stage is fairly low and early on in the trajectory of the leveling system.

Final Thoughts

Diablo x Berserk collaboration will run from May 7- June 3. However, the directors say there will definitely be more collaboration on the horizon. The Berserk project will open the door for the future, and has taught the team at Blizzard what it means to work with external IPs for the first time, and how to find a balance that is respectful to both entities and does justice to each IP.

Why this manga in particular to start? It is a natural fit. Salim shares, “As far as what Berserk brings to Diablo, I think it brings what Viviane mentioned, a brand new community to the Diablo community of players. It also brings a lot of new content, new designs, speaking of visuals… being able to kind of incorporate [iconic designs] into our game.”

As Kosty so eloquently put it, “I even say it brings in a certain celebration of some sort. To celebrate something that we’ve perhaps grew up with or something that we hold dear. Something that got us into the genre in the first place.” With the passion and commitment the team has shown for merging the two IPs, I have a feeling fans and the gaming industry as a whole will be seeing the celebration as well.

Catch the Diablo x Berserk collaboration on Diablo Immortal for mobile and PC, and Diablo 4 for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series, Xbox One, and PC on May 7.