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Dark Souls II: Design Works
Collecting the dark and haunting artwork behind the critically-acclaimed Dark Souls II in a prestigious hardcover tome. Dark Souls II: Design Works features armor and weapon designs, character concepts, creatures, locations, rough sketches, an exclusive interview with the game's creators, and more!
240 pages, Hardcover
First published November 12, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
February 6, 2016
My fandom for the Souls series extends beyond the games; I've been captivated by their design since popping Demon's Souls into my PS3 nearly sight unseen in October 2009, and devour any and all material related to their composition. Dark Souls II: Design Works is a sequel of sorts to Dark Souls: Design Works, a hybrid art/interview book that collects concept art from, and an extensive interview with the designers of the game in question.
In terms of artwork, DSII: DW once again sics its larger sweet tooth on any and all cake in the vicinity. The book was delayed several times, and I hazard a guess that one reason had to do with the sheer amount of artwork it collects. Concept pieces from the base game as well as all three excellent expansion packs are represented, and absolutely stunning. Better yet for devotees like me, designers off numerous comments on the making of this or that environment, character, or weapon.
But DSII: DW's interview was what I'd been looking forward to the most, and ended up being a mixed bag. Like the interview with series director Hidetaka Miyeazaki and some of the principles from Dark Souls collected in DS: DW, this interview features the game's director and a few key players in its design. They discuss the making of environments, characters, the DLCs, and the development process overall. However, some areas get glazed over, perhaps due to DS2's greater variety of areas. Some, like Majula and Things Betwixt, are discussed in detail. Others, such as The Gutter, are given a cursory sentence or two before the interviewer moves on.
The interview's questions were lacking in that they weren't questions so much as prompts. To paraphrase: "After Majula, players make their way into the Forest of Fallen Giants," prompting the designers to discuss any facet related to designing the topic at hand. Most of the time, the designers come back with something interesting. Other times, they just don't, because (I presume) the interviewer didn't give them much to work with. As someone who has conducts countless interviews for nonfiction books and articles, this sort of non-question method of questioning left me frustrated. I wanted to delve into deeper subjects, such as the decision to create a hub world rather than a seamlessly connected one, a move still considered a divisive topic among Souls fans.
For all my issues, I still enjoyed DSII: DW. It educated me on the topic of one of my favorite games by divulging trivia I didn't know about going in, and the staggering collection of concept artwork puts similar books to shame.
In terms of artwork, DSII: DW once again sics its larger sweet tooth on any and all cake in the vicinity. The book was delayed several times, and I hazard a guess that one reason had to do with the sheer amount of artwork it collects. Concept pieces from the base game as well as all three excellent expansion packs are represented, and absolutely stunning. Better yet for devotees like me, designers off numerous comments on the making of this or that environment, character, or weapon.
But DSII: DW's interview was what I'd been looking forward to the most, and ended up being a mixed bag. Like the interview with series director Hidetaka Miyeazaki and some of the principles from Dark Souls collected in DS: DW, this interview features the game's director and a few key players in its design. They discuss the making of environments, characters, the DLCs, and the development process overall. However, some areas get glazed over, perhaps due to DS2's greater variety of areas. Some, like Majula and Things Betwixt, are discussed in detail. Others, such as The Gutter, are given a cursory sentence or two before the interviewer moves on.
The interview's questions were lacking in that they weren't questions so much as prompts. To paraphrase: "After Majula, players make their way into the Forest of Fallen Giants," prompting the designers to discuss any facet related to designing the topic at hand. Most of the time, the designers come back with something interesting. Other times, they just don't, because (I presume) the interviewer didn't give them much to work with. As someone who has conducts countless interviews for nonfiction books and articles, this sort of non-question method of questioning left me frustrated. I wanted to delve into deeper subjects, such as the decision to create a hub world rather than a seamlessly connected one, a move still considered a divisive topic among Souls fans.
For all my issues, I still enjoyed DSII: DW. It educated me on the topic of one of my favorite games by divulging trivia I didn't know about going in, and the staggering collection of concept artwork puts similar books to shame.
October 9, 2016
This was a really good look at the final designs that went into the game. Unfortunately, there weren't any developmental designs though, but in the interview at the end of the book they do talk about what ideas they were aiming for while designing the game.
April 26, 2025
A much larger and more cohesive artboook than volume 1.
The artbook is broken down into chapters and thus I will review each chapter individually.
Chapter 1 - Concept art
World Design - Here annotations and explanations are with their respective concepts, you can see the ambition but also confused direction the creators had on their hands. On one hand you have the grandiose emptiness of Drangleic castle with its oppressive storms the next some bland cathedral sticking up out of the water.
Boss design - Its here you can see how safe and uninspired the bosses were (to me), none really evoked that nostalgic feel to them that i felt from dark souls 1. I did enjoy the concept behind the mirror knight with the mirror shield summoning in players or npc's to fight you.
Enemy design - Some real standouts here like the horse head stones knights with their double blade or the grotesque parasitized Undead with the spiders controlling them (peak design there). The Alonne knights inspired by Japanese samurai were also great and lets not forget the ironclad soldier with its tortoise inspire armour.
NPC design - This section was great with a vast wealth of all the NPCs you encounter in all there unique whimsical alure.
Weapons and armour design - Well this section is like four pages and missing pretty much all weapons and armour sets, only the excellent Faram armour and Alva armour and black witch sets are represented, not sure why so much is missing from this section, very disappointing.
Chapter 2 - The lost crowns DLC
This chapter is all based on the 3 dlcs which to this day are some of the best areas and story telling throughout all of dark souls 2. You can clearly see the clear direction and design that has been brought into sharp focus with excellent enemy and boss designs whether that be the Fume Knight, Sir Alonne himself or the incredible Sinh the slumbering dragon with the giant spear protruding from its chest, not to mention some great area pieces featured throughout the DLC's.
Chapter 3 - Interview and marketing
Its this interview that again once again elevates this artbook to 4 stars, its very informative and explains many of the inconsistencies and struggle evident throughout it production. It also shows how hard they care about getting this right and how they tried to do that. The marketing bits from the massive Faraam knight to the images used in the marketing were all super cool to see, it proves that the Faraam knight design was and is one of the best armour design from software have come up with.
Overall a good artbook that makes better use of its concept art with notes and introductions, unfortunately there is still an abundant use of empty spaces on the pages and some sections seemed missing like the armour and weapons sections.
The artbook is broken down into chapters and thus I will review each chapter individually.
Chapter 1 - Concept art
World Design - Here annotations and explanations are with their respective concepts, you can see the ambition but also confused direction the creators had on their hands. On one hand you have the grandiose emptiness of Drangleic castle with its oppressive storms the next some bland cathedral sticking up out of the water.
Boss design - Its here you can see how safe and uninspired the bosses were (to me), none really evoked that nostalgic feel to them that i felt from dark souls 1. I did enjoy the concept behind the mirror knight with the mirror shield summoning in players or npc's to fight you.
Enemy design - Some real standouts here like the horse head stones knights with their double blade or the grotesque parasitized Undead with the spiders controlling them (peak design there). The Alonne knights inspired by Japanese samurai were also great and lets not forget the ironclad soldier with its tortoise inspire armour.
NPC design - This section was great with a vast wealth of all the NPCs you encounter in all there unique whimsical alure.
Weapons and armour design - Well this section is like four pages and missing pretty much all weapons and armour sets, only the excellent Faram armour and Alva armour and black witch sets are represented, not sure why so much is missing from this section, very disappointing.
Chapter 2 - The lost crowns DLC
This chapter is all based on the 3 dlcs which to this day are some of the best areas and story telling throughout all of dark souls 2. You can clearly see the clear direction and design that has been brought into sharp focus with excellent enemy and boss designs whether that be the Fume Knight, Sir Alonne himself or the incredible Sinh the slumbering dragon with the giant spear protruding from its chest, not to mention some great area pieces featured throughout the DLC's.
Chapter 3 - Interview and marketing
Its this interview that again once again elevates this artbook to 4 stars, its very informative and explains many of the inconsistencies and struggle evident throughout it production. It also shows how hard they care about getting this right and how they tried to do that. The marketing bits from the massive Faraam knight to the images used in the marketing were all super cool to see, it proves that the Faraam knight design was and is one of the best armour design from software have come up with.
Overall a good artbook that makes better use of its concept art with notes and introductions, unfortunately there is still an abundant use of empty spaces on the pages and some sections seemed missing like the armour and weapons sections.
April 26, 2019
Contains much more in-depth art than the first game's book. I like the bits of world building myself.
March 31, 2021
Amazing book for anyone that loves the Dark Souls series. Highly recommended just for the illustrations alone.
December 31, 2023
claramente n sabiam o que estavam fazendo
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November 26, 2025Nop, no he leido esto, pero buscaba algo que me cuadrara el número de páginas que he leido.
Libro 13, abandonado en la 45
Libro 14, Abandonado en 65/115
Libro 15, En la 49
Libro 16, en la 80
Libro 13, abandonado en la 45
Libro 14, Abandonado en 65/115
Libro 15, En la 49
Libro 16, en la 80
May 3, 2016
There was some pretty cool art work for the game in here. You can tell a lot of time and effort went into creating this world.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews