How Diablo 4’s Story Breaks Free From Its Past

ign.com:

The Diablo series has made a return through the release of Diablo 4. An entirely new entry in the series, it takes place some 50 years after the end of Diablo 3, and introduces a new cast of characters, and a new antagonist. Story and Narrative Producer Melissa Corning, Senior Quest Designer Grzegorz Sadzinski, Associate Game Producer Kelly Yeo, and Art Director John Mueller took the opportunity to sit down with IGN and share information about the narrative, art direction, and how the team conceptualized this entry’s antagonist—Lilith.

Art Director John Mueller shared what the key visual inspirations were for Diablo 4’s overall art direction, and that it traces back to a trip to the Louvre when he was young. Theodore Jericho’s The Raft of the Medusa was the painting in question, stating that it helped create Diablo 4’s more classical approach in how it portrays Lilith in Inarius, while Yeo shared that these inspirations served as a broader message of humanity’s struggle against odds they can’t control, a proverbial eternal conflict brought to life in the Diablo universe.

The visceral nature of Caravaggio was also mentioned as key inspiration for how they chose to approach contrast within the visual elements of the game itself, and how Albert Bierstadt’s work helped inform the environments of the game. When asked if the art direction of the game was done as a deliberate choice in response to criticism of Diablo 3, Mueller elaborated and stated that each Diablo game has its own core visual identity, entangled with the different stories found within Sanctuary, and Diablo 4’s art direction reflective of the narrative this team wanted to tell. “I think that each of the games, I would say it’s a lens in which you view the world