GamesRPGI asked Dark Souls director Miyazaki about his now-legendary Undead Dragon quote, and he had a great response: ‘Something beautiful needs something depraved or tragic to embolden that beauty’When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
GamesRPGI asked Dark Souls director Miyazaki about his now-legendary Undead Dragon quote, and he had a great response: ‘Something beautiful needs something depraved or tragic to embolden that beauty’When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: FromSoftware)
There may be no more effective way to tank a conversation than trying to explain a meme, but screw it—I knew I had to try. When I visitedFromSoftware’s offices in Tokyo to interview company president Hidetaka Miyazaki forPC Gamer’s next cover story, I knew I had to ask him about my favorite bit of trivia from Dark Souls: the instructions he gave to the artist behind theUndead Dragon.
It may be my favorite quote from any videogame creator, and I know I’m not alone in loving it, because I see this quote from theDark Souls: Design Works bookpassed around all the time as an example of what makes FromSoftware’s games so special. But to my knowledge Miyazaki’s never spoken about the quote since—I wasn’t even sure if he knew it had become a bit of a legend on the English internet. So I plowed in headfirst, reading him the quote—reproduced below—and then asking if he knew that it was now often used as shorthand to express the ethos of FromSoftware’s games.
From Dark Souls Design Works:
“Masanori Waragai:I remember when I was drawing the Undead Dragon, I submitted a design draft that depicted a dragon swarming with maggots and other gross things. Miyazaki handed it back to me saying, ‘This isn’t dignified. Don’t rely on the gross factor to portray an undead dragon. Can’t you instead try to convey the deep sorrow of a magnificent beast doomed to a slow and possibly endless descent into ruin?'”
Miyazaki chuckled when I mentioned Waragai’s name, so I had a feeling he knew where I was going with the question. But his follow-up was everything I could’ve hoped for.
Miquella’s cocoon in Elden Ring(Image credit: FromSoftware)
“This is my personal ethos or approach to aesthetics—it doesn’t necessarily speak to the whole company,” Miyazaki said. “There are others with their own ideals and own aesthetic. But yes, it’s something I’ve tried to maintain with Elden Ring as well, that approach to design. I think what I’m trying to do is depict something beautiful, at the end of the day. How you interpret beautiful is obviously in the eye of the beholder; it doesn’t necessarily have to be something physically charming or outwardly beautiful. It can be something inside that lets you empathize with them on a deeper level.
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“To be realistic, I feel something beautiful needs something ugly—something that’s depraved or tragic to heighten and embolden that beauty. I think that’s a much more realistic depiction of beauty, to have something small and beautiful inside something tragic and decaying. Something that’s just plainly, outwardly always beautiful doesn’t have a sense of reality to me. I like to try to create something beautiful within that tragedy.”
TOPICSFromSoftware
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PRODUCTSDark SoulsElden RingElden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree
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