Hidetaka Miyazaki and Dark Souls are one of the most iconic duos in gaming. But what inspired the world of Dark Souls?

Hidetaka Miyazaki and FromSoftware have pioneered the gaming industry with the Dark Souls trilogy and the sub-genre that it spawned. Miyazaki has been the creative mind behind these games and has really given us some crazy stuff in these games over the years. But what has inspired all of this?

The man has made worlds that have captivated us. | Image Credit: @thegameawards/YouTube

Miyazaki has drawn inspiration from a variety of sources throughout his career, from classic literature to manga like Berserk. But we’ve recently found out that one of the more surprising influences on the game was James Cameron’s Avatar. The world of Pandora has influenced Dark Souls.

Hidetaka Miyazaki was inspired by many things for the Souls games

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We can see the impact of Avatar on Dark Souls in the two locations—The Great Hollow and Ash Lake. According to Knowll, Hidetaka Miyazaki described that these areas were created with minimal concept art. The towering, twisting tree that we see at the center of The Great Hollow is similar to Avatar’s Home Tree, and Ash Lake is inspired by the lush environments of Pandora itself.

These two locations were entirely created by the designers, with almost no concept work. Most of the work was implemented straight from the rough map, but there is also more than a little Avatar in there, I believe.

This isn’t the only film that Miyazaki says influenced Dark Souls. The Harry Potter series, for example, inspired the revolving staircases in The Duke’s Archives. The unsettling gothic horror of Bloodborne can be linked to films like Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Miyazaki’s ability to weave these details into the game world is part of what makes FromSoftware’s games so compelling.

Hidetaka Miyazaki’s games are often praised for their uniqueness, but he has openly acknowledged the many influences that have shaped his creations. The Dark Souls series takes inspiration from medieval European history, gothic architecture, and even specific cultural locations like the Milan Cathedral and Mont Saint-Michel. And of course, we all know that the manga Berserk has also been one of the biggest influences.

Many “Soulslike” games look to just Dark Souls as inspiration, without looking at what inspired Dark Souls

Berserk is a key influence on SoulsBorne titles, & both series have grimdark settings but also moments of fun and whimsy. I feel like many Soulslike games lack this whimsy pic.twitter.com/Mtdr24E4OD

— Ash @ Comms Closed (@SantanaelChan) August 26, 2023

So Miyazaki’s approach to design hasn’t been about copying things he is inspired by but rather absorbing various artistic elements and reinterpreting them in his own unique style. And obviously, we all know that it’s succeeded. The worlds of FromSoft’s games feel like each location has carefully crafted artistic homage.

It’s part of the genius that we now know and praise

It’s cool to see what Miyazaki did with these influences. | Image Credit: 20th Century Fox

Despite their differences in tone, Avatar and Dark Souls have the same goal. Both of them are focused on immersing us, the players and viewers in a world that feels larger than life. While Avatar is bright and teeming with alien creatures, Dark Souls is dark, cryptic, and filled with the remnants of a fallen world.

One thing that both James Cameron and Hidetaka Miyazaki do well is how they use world-building as a storytelling device. As players and film audiences, we can piece together histories and ecosystems through observation rather than exposition.

More than a decade after its release, we still love Dark Souls for everything it started. It was a follow-up to 2009’s Demon’s Souls but it really popularized what we now know as the Soulslike sub-genre of games. These games let us piece together the story through environmental storytelling, item descriptions, and other non-conventional things.