They look fucking ridiculous! Even the final versions. Super roided out with a hole for a face. DS2's art team was pretty good at doing environments, but I can't think of a single character model in the game that looks good and looks like it fits in the Souls universe. Not even the cat.
I definitely think they arrived at a much more striking design for the giants. the simpler single hole in the head fit well with them feeling inhuman, and showing an inner darkness. Plus the tree motifs as well.
Just a lot better than generic big trolls or big guys.
1) FROM being lazy leaving around assets that they though "nobody will look at with unlocked camera…" 2) DS2 was originally a separate game, so when it was decided it's going to be the DS franchise after all, then the giants got their hollow faces. 3) Miyazaki clearly wanted it to be this way – all the giants in DS1 have their faces covered, and it's still the same with DS3's Yhorm. It was 100% a conscious design.
Yeah, i can see why they went with the Hole Faces. The typical Troll/Orc face makes them less mysterious and turns them from "Oh, god, what is that?!" to "Oh, its just a giant orc"
I do see what they may have been going for with the Giants original fishlike faces, though the execution is terrible. My theory is that they were originally a take on Fomorians, a race of giants from Irish Myth that have ties to the ocean, sometimes even depicted as rising from it. They have rivals known as the Tuatha Dé, an opposing race of holy beings that bested the Fomorians in battle.
As for how this ties to the game or it's development, I don't know. I never played DS2 (I'm working on it), but I'm glad they changed the designs as they are super Fromsoft-esque.
So if we agree that these Giants are basically living Trees, then the holes for faces begin to make sense. For one, trees don't have faces, the Scarcrows neither the Demonic Foliage in DS1 appeared to have faces. There is a condition that can befall a tree called "hollowing," that's when a breakage of bark or a tree limb on the exterior goes so deep into the tree that it penetrates the sapwood. The heartwood then gets attacked by fungus or insects which enter through the hole (called a Cavity) and consume the heartwood at the interior of the tree. Though the innermost rings are gone, it can continue to live. If you look up pictures of Tree Cavities you will see they much resemble the hole faces of the DS2 giants.
I really like the hole-face, gives these Giants so much more intrigue, I wish they reused that 4 armed Giant with a hole in the face because that’s a cool model.
I like to think the giants are in the process of an evolution of some kind and used to look like the old designs before they grew new bark like skin, the reason those three corpses look like that being this bark skin was burned away.
Similarly, if Yhorm from DS3 is related to these giants (his hood seems to invoke their iconic image) I like to think his bark skin burned away when he linked the fire.
So did they forget to change the models or are they supposed to be like a special type of guard to the giant lord and that's why they're different from the others.
41 Comments
They look fucking ridiculous! Even the final versions. Super roided out with a hole for a face. DS2's art team was pretty good at doing environments, but I can't think of a single character model in the game that looks good and looks like it fits in the Souls universe. Not even the cat.
They made the correct choice in the end. The hole faces are so much more memorable.
My favorite ds2 giant is the really big one
I definitely think they arrived at a much more striking design for the giants. the simpler single hole in the head fit well with them feeling inhuman, and showing an inner darkness. Plus the tree motifs as well.
Just a lot better than generic big trolls or big guys.
Weird.
peak souls 2
my theory is
nobody said the dark sign had to be on the chest and that theirs is on the head and they got big hollow head face
The face of the giant looked like a shark face to me, I don't know why.
The giants we encounter are also hollowed, just google Hollow Tree.
1:59
“Desert Sorceress”
“Desert Sorceress Set”
“Desert Sorceress Kiss”
Don't stick your Things Betwixt in that
1) FROM being lazy leaving around assets that they though "nobody will look at with unlocked camera…"
2) DS2 was originally a separate game, so when it was decided it's going to be the DS franchise after all, then the giants got their hollow faces.
3) Miyazaki clearly wanted it to be this way – all the giants in DS1 have their faces covered, and it's still the same with DS3's Yhorm. It was 100% a conscious design.
Yeah, i can see why they went with the Hole Faces. The typical Troll/Orc face makes them less mysterious and turns them from "Oh, god, what is that?!" to "Oh, its just a giant orc"
The giant looks like hes taking a selfie in the thumbnail
I still don't understand why they changed the faces to the hole
Dark souls 2 giants seem more golem/elemental in nature compared to lets say the fire giants of elden ring or the giants in dark souls 1/3
I do see what they may have been going for with the Giants original fishlike faces, though the execution is terrible. My theory is that they were originally a take on Fomorians, a race of giants from Irish Myth that have ties to the ocean, sometimes even depicted as rising from it. They have rivals known as the Tuatha Dé, an opposing race of holy beings that bested the Fomorians in battle.
As for how this ties to the game or it's development, I don't know. I never played DS2 (I'm working on it), but I'm glad they changed the designs as they are super Fromsoft-esque.
So if we agree that these Giants are basically living Trees, then the holes for faces begin to make sense. For one, trees don't have faces, the Scarcrows neither the Demonic Foliage in DS1 appeared to have faces. There is a condition that can befall a tree called "hollowing," that's when a breakage of bark or a tree limb on the exterior goes so deep into the tree that it penetrates the sapwood. The heartwood then gets attacked by fungus or insects which enter through the hole (called a Cavity) and consume the heartwood at the interior of the tree. Though the innermost rings are gone, it can continue to live. If you look up pictures of Tree Cavities you will see they much resemble the hole faces of the DS2 giants.
Im scared……. HOLD ME!!!!!!!!
Honestly this could have been very cool. It almost has a very Biblical tone to it.
I would like to see that four armed giant in game
The goldish model looks like a goron lol
They look like trolls
That last one looks like Radahn.
i love the gaping gussy
Damn
Ds 2 is the best game in series
And find out new details is so cool
They look like they belong to Arlong Park
I really like the hole-face, gives these Giants so much more intrigue, I wish they reused that 4 armed Giant with a hole in the face because that’s a cool model.
Despair trailer giant looks like a buffalo monster
It’s funny one of the early giants can still be found in the floor in one of the memories, an oversight very likely.
1:31 seems chill to me
100 shrugs, 100 shoulder presses, and 100 oil injections every day for three years.
They looked more like kna'reens from Rayman 3
Is the Despair trailer giant not the same as the top left, just properly textured with additional features like horns and stuff?
Reminds me a lot of Innsmouth people
Their faces were so freaky, someone punched all of them in, creatinf the terrors we face now.
The yellow one looks like the beetle dude in the one one punch man episode
Their faces look like a type of fish to me
why do they look like deep sea fish
I like to think the giants are in the process of an evolution of some kind and used to look like the old designs before they grew new bark like skin, the reason those three corpses look like that being this bark skin was burned away.
Similarly, if Yhorm from DS3 is related to these giants (his hood seems to invoke their iconic image) I like to think his bark skin burned away when he linked the fire.
So did they forget to change the models or are they supposed to be like a special type of guard to the giant lord and that's why they're different from the others.