When Blizzard announced their dark action RPG franchise, Diablo, would have a third-party collab, fans were abuzz with what it could be. Now we know that the famous Anime and Manga series by Kentaro Muira, BERSERK, is coming to the world of Sanctuary for both Diablo IV and Diablo Immortal. We got to sit down with Diablo IV Lead Artist Viviane Kosty and Diablo Immortal Lead Artist Emil Salim to talk about their respective games and how Guts, Griffith, and other characters made their way to fight the hordes of hell.
Off the jump, BERSERK and its dark story feels like a perfect fit with Diablo. They both cover stories that show humanity on the brink of destruction, hopelessness, and what demons many of us face internally and externally. So how did this collab come about? What role do Blizzard’s art teams have in even getting these collabs to happen?
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Salim told us that they aren’t involved in the initial pitch, but they do have say in which collabs make it to Sanctuary. “The art team and our narrative design team are super involved in reviewing all of the ideas our product team will present to us. It’s like, hey, you know, there is this collaboration with BERSERK, what do you think? And we saw that it was a natural fit right from the very beginning. The whole process just felt easy, because both brands just complement each other.”
BErserk and Diablo are a match made in, well, hell. (complimentary)
Kosty added that the Diablo IV team spoke on the history of Blizzard collabs that led to this, and why this collaboration felt much easier this time around. ” Both IPs are based on medieval fantasy. Very dark, but very grounded. Challenge-wise, compared to previous collaborations within Blizzard IPs, I would say the past one has been a learning experience for us. It allowed us to make better decisions this time around to make sure that we can honor both IPS at the same time.”
While the recent collaboration with Warcraft in honor of Warcraft‘s 30th anniversary featured some unique skills in IV and a unique event in Immortal, the BERSERK presence feels grander this time across both games. Almost taking that past blueprint, which was just recently created to bring guests to Sanctuary, and evolving it to find better ways to fit into this universe. Not letting those characters feel out of place.
While Diablo IV will again feature new purchasable skins and a BERSERK Reliquary event, Immortal is taking the collaboration to eleven. Multiple new skins, new cosmetics, and several events inspired by massive moments from the Manga and Anime will be available for players to experience in-game.
During the Struggler’s Path event, several major events of the series’ Golden Age arc will be playable. For instance, you can fight Nosferatu Zodd as a new encounter, fight monsters during the Eclipse event, and earn rewards by completing both like the Broken Band Armament, the Crimson Behelit Gem, and Golem familiars.
Diablo Immortal is aiming to capture Berserk’s most iconic moment. But how?
Taking these massive events from a series that many players may not be familiar with is a daunting task. Developers must capture the importance of these characters and events without the history and lead-up. Salim spoke on this challenge, from not being able to give history of Griffith and everything leading up to the Eclipse, to how it was implemented to do the event and Zodd justice.
“So what we’ve done is we’ve taken the essence of the Eclipse. We ask ourselves, ‘Okay, what is the Eclipse truly about?’ It’s about betrayal. It’s about sacrifice.” Salim added that those feelings are what the team focused on with creating these new scenarios for the game. “So that essence is, in the end, the one that we focus in on. That we try to hopefully recreate into the event, without having to tell exactly the story of BERSERK that builds to this”.
Berserk and Diablo go hand-in-hand and feel like a perfect pair. From what we’ve seen so far, seeing Guts and Griffith in Sanctuary feels way more at home than a Jaina running around. From teams that both praise BERSERK so highly they definitely are doing both series justice with this collab, and hopefully many more beloved dark IP will make their way to fight alongside the Nephilim soon in the fight for good.
Diablo IV: BERSERK x Diablo will run through May 6th through the end of Season 8 on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5
Diablo Immortal: Struggler’s Path will be available from May 1st through May 30th on PC, iOS, and Android
