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Each week we search and gather up the coolest comic book art you won’t see in actual comics. The reason you won’t is because professional artists often draw sketches for fun or commissions and post them on their websites, blogs, and Tumblrs. Some artists even arrange commissions through their sites so be sure to check them out. This is a way to see the artists working on one book draw characters from other comics or publishers.

Todd Nauck posted new art on his Tumblr. He’ll be at Long Beach Comic Con this weekend.

Skottie Young posted more Daily Sketches and commissions on his Tumblr.

Chris Samnee posted new sketches on his Instagram.

Michael Walsh posted some commissions from FanExpo Canada on his Tumblr.

Chrissie Zullo posted a couple commissions from Rose City Comic Con on her Facebook page.

Dustin Nguyen posted another one of his late night sketches on his Instagram. He’ll be at Long Beach this weekend.

Paolo Rivera posted a Daredevil commission on his blog.

Kris Anka posted some recent commissions on his Tumblr.

Chris Giarrusso put some new sketches for sale here and more sketch cards on his website.

Jim Cheung posted some commissions on his Instagram.

Kevin Wada posted some recent commissions on his Tumblr.

Peter Nguyen posted some new sketches on his Tumblr. He’ll be at Long Beach this weekend.

Brett Booth posted some new sketches on his Twitter. He’ll also be at Long Beach.

Ryan Lee posted a Killer Croc sketch cover on his Twitter.

Agnes Garbowska posted some commissions on her Tumblr.

Joel Gomez posted new commissions on his Tumblr. He’ll also be at Long Beach.

Ramon Perez posted some sketches and commissions from FanExpo on his Instagram.

Franco posted new art on his Instagram. You can buy his art here.

Terry Dodson posted a Harley Quinn commission from Rose City on his Deviant Art page.

Mike Henderson posted new art on his Instagram. You can buy his art here.

That’s it for this week. Let us know which ones you dug. We’ll have more awesome art next time.

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Berserk is an odd series. The manga–which has been ongoing since 1989–has run the gamut of genres, from stories about brotherhood and love, to a somewhat lighthearted dark fantasy, to a different kind of dark fantasy tackling heavy themes of good versus evil and the nature of humanity. Both the manga and anime–now wrapping up its second season–have depicted more taboo topics such as religious fanaticism, mutilation, and sexual violence. It goes without saying that for someone hoping to bring this kind of story to a worldwide audience, it has the potential to be a localization nightmare to territories’ varying rating systems.

At Tokyo Game Show, I sat down with producer Hisashi Koinuma to discuss Koei Tecmo’s latest musou venture: Berserk and the Band of the Hawk. Koinuma touched on localizing the game while protecting its original tone, as well as why his team sought to make a Berserk title in the first place.

GameSpot: You’ve made a few musou games, so I have to ask: why Berserk?

Koinuma: For Berserk, in Japan, the latest anime series has begun broadcast and with that the anime production committee actually approached us to see if we wanted to make a game. The second reason is that in Japan it’s a popular IP, and whenever people in Japan or the fans go to talk about what kind of game you want to see next as a musou game, Berserk has always been within the top answers. So definitely, it’s definitely a challenge we’ve been wanting to tackle. This was the perfect opportunity to do so.

Had you see or read Berserk before the company approached you about making the game?

The manga itself has been continuing and it started 20 years ago, so when I was younger I actually had started reading it. It was really easy for me to get into the world of it and also, within our developing team members, we checked to see if there were people that had read the manga or watched the anime. Definitely having those staff members made it easier to start working on the game.

For clarification, exactly what part of the story does your game follow? The Golden Age arc and then the Hawk of the Millennium Era arc? What would you compare it to for fans who are only watching the anime?

For people familiar with the manga series, in terms of the manga volumes, our game covers from volume one until the first part of volume 32. For anime fans, and people who have seen the films, that part is covered as well. It goes a little bit beyond the story of the second anime season.

I played the demo yesterday. In the musou games, your character moves really fast and part of the appeal is being able to take out a bunch of enemies very quickly. But Guts moves very slowly and I can feel him hefting his sword. Obviously, it’s how he moves in anime, but why make that design decision to slow down your playable character for this particular game?

We wanted to stay true to the source material. So definitely, we wanted to make sure that you can feel the weight of Guts’ sword,. It was also something that the manga creator [Kentaro Miura] feels, he really wanted to make sure that the game included that element. As you go forward in the game and Guts becomes stronger, then his actions become a little faster because obviously he’s become accustomed to the weight of the sword. He does become not as slow as he was before. As he takes on different forms, then his actions become even lighter and faster. So you will see that change within the game.

Berserk has a lot of mature content. I read an interview with you from earlier this year where you expressed concern that this mature content might prevent from being localized. We are getting the game in the West, and I’m was just wondering if your concerns over the content have changed or if you know anything about the localization, or what would change for western release?

Even for the Japanese version, there are the depictions of violence, and there’s a little bit of erotic content as well. Those are some of the elements of the game that we had to look into to see what can stay and what would need to be removed due to rating restrictions. For the Japanese version, we’ve been discussing with the various ratings boards. We’ve been consulting with them to see how far can we go and to what extent can we do it. With the North American version we’ve also been consulting with the ESRB to see how far we can go with our depictions. So we have been careful with what we depict. So I think we’ve been able to retain a lot of the core elements of the of the original source material without stepping over any lines that will prevent us from releasing the game.

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Historical fantasy game Nioh was announced in 2004–back when Koei Tecmo was still just Koei, and back before the PlayStation 3 even launched. In development with Omega Force, Nioh starred a white-haired, Caucasian samurai battling his way across a fantastical version of Japan packed with demons. The game was initially slated to launch in 2006 with the PS3, but missed its due date and slipped into silence, with no word coming again until 2009.

Until September of last year, we had only received brief statements about Nioh from Koei Tecmo–yes, it’s in development, they said, but nothing more than that. Now, in fall 2016 and in development with Ninja Gaiden studio Team Ninja, Nioh has been through numerous alpha tests and is sated to launch early next year.

I sat down with Fumihiko Yasuda, Nioh’s director, to chat about the game’s extended development time and the difficulties of reviving the property. Yasuda revealed that not only was Nioh not always an action game–it was initially supposed to be a JRPG–but also shed some light on famed director Akira Kurosawa’s involvement as well as how the property itself has changed.

GameSpot: I played the Nioh demo, and I also played the Samurai Warriors: Sanada Maru game, and I feel like there are a few games and a lot of media out there that have this fascination with the Sengoku period, Japan’s Warring States period. Why do you think that’s such a compelling era of history to set a game in?

Yasuda: One, because this is when the first blonde samurai rose. That was Sengoku era. Also, just in general, the warring period of turmoil is just a fascinating stage for any good IP. In the West we have Game of Thrones, that’s kind of a period of turmoil, if you will. Heroes rise and fall. Also, it goes well with fantasy stuff, as seen in Game of Thrones. Based on above what I just said, ultimately we decided this is the period. And it’s not like we had a lot of choices, because that’s where William Adams made his fame.

This game was actually announced back in 2004, so it’s been in development for quite some time and when you initially announced it, you said that you were working on a script with Akira Kurosawa. I’m curious how much of that original script, how much of that collaboration, still exists within the Nioh that we’re seeing right now.

Well, practically, it just crashed, and we started again from square one. You can say that this game is entirely original and independent from that of Kurosawa’s unfinished script, yet the basic concept is there and the first blonde samurai, the Sengoku era, the very fundamental elements are still there.

Initially Nioh was supposed to come out in 2006, and then three years went by and we heard from Nioh again. Can you talk about what the development process like was during those early years? Whether or not development on Nioh was consistent, whether or not you back-burnered it for a little while, and what brought you back to it?

The original creator of this Nioh game concept was from our president and CEO Kou Shibusawa. He’s always had strong feelings towards this game. He was very persistent and you could almost say that he’s… Well, I wouldn’t want to use the word obsessive, but he had his principals and the earlier phases of the development obviously did not live up to that standard. For me personally, to join the Nioh project, it was roughly three years ago and since then the project was assigned to Team Ninja, and since it was assigned to Team Ninja the vision became clearer. Aside from the earlier ideas Shibusawa had about this project, eventually it became clearer that it needs to be an action game. It had to be challenging. Eventually he agreed to that and gave us the green light.

You said that when you came in on the project you decided that it had to be an action game. What kind of game was it before you decided to change directions? Was it a different genre?

From what I know, initially it was meant to be a Japanese RPG title. Sometime later, because it was handed to Omega Force, the plan resembled more of a Warriors game. He only jumped in three years earlier. Those were the different possibilities on the side.

Aside from the fact that it was meant to be a foreigner struggling to become a Japanese samurai, aside from that point everything was kind of up in the air three years ago. Not like there was a visible game. Obviously from there, once it was decided that it was meant to be an action game for it to be challenging, they decided that they needed powerful enemies. And powerful enemies–naturally they thought of the yokai from the Japanese folklore. That’s how it evolved into the form that you see today.

Can you talk a little bit about the decision to bring Team Ninja in on the project and how their involvement evolved and changed it from what it was when you started?

I thinks it’s just in the end, that’s what Team Ninja excelled in. Making satisfying, challenging action game. That’s how the project was eventually handed to them.

Do you feel a lot of pressure in delivering the final game? By the time it comes out it’ll be thirteen years since it was announced. Do you feel a lot of pressure?

Now that you mention that… It’s not like I’ve felt it until now, but now that you mention it… Yes. There is and there should be a level of anxiety, I believe, partially because it’s been so long and secondly just because we’ve been so encouraged by our fans. Though we probably should be a little fearful … But then again, because we’re proud of all the efforts we’ve put in in order to give the players what they want, and because we also take pride subjectively in what we have created, we’ll keep on doing our best and we think the final product will be awesome.

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