Interview: Matthew Morgan On Voicing Dark Souls’ Crestfallen Warrior

Dark Souls has a few iconic characters but none embody the game’s world quite like the Crestfallen Warrior.

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“I remember doing a game early on when games were a brand new thing and thinking how exciting it was,” Dark Souls’ Crestfallen Warrior Matthew Morgan tells me. “What I love about voice work is the concentration. It was sort of artistry but also like being a really good carpenter – you make the most incredible fits. I like the precision of work with the voice.”

FromSoftware’s games are gauntlets of swinging axes and oppressive bosses. You witness civilizations crumbling as their inhabitants turn into mindless husks with no purpose left in life. The few who remain share a common goal to fight back and survive in a society they can choose to either salvage or destroy.

In Demon’s Souls, Boletaria has succumbed to a devilish invasion, its king replaced by a false idol while the real deal transforms into a worming slug. In Dark Souls, a trio of worlds collapse as the First Flame begins to dwindle. Each leaves behind a Crestfallen Warrior, a man who has abandoned optimism and sheathed their sword, embodying the hopelessness of their world.

“I must admit, it was quite draining because FromSoftware wanted a de-energised sort of presence, but you can’t be de-energised because it becomes very dull to listen to, and it doesn’t engage the gamers at all,” Morgan says. “You need to have this sense of loss of energy but actually have energy behind it. You put a lot in and then pull it back. That was quite tiring, so it was fun when you could let go and cheer from Domhnall of Zena.”

“Aye, siwmae” – you probably know those words, eh? You venture down into the perilous Depths, slaughter a giant dragon that resembles a ripped open mouth with teeth protruding from the gashes, and receive a key to the accursed Blighttown. Open the gate and there’s a little man sat down in the filth, happy as can be. He’s oddly cheery, wearing bright attire, excited to see another soul he can sell his wares to. Speak to him and he’ll wander off to Firelink Shrine for future encounters. All in all, he’s a complete juxtaposition to the Crestfallen Warrior – yet, he’s also voiced by Morgan, an acting challenge that he enjoyed undertaking.

“It’s kind of easy, but that’s because I’ve done it a lot,” Morgan tells me. “One of the things about the radio drama company was that you’d often play three or four roles. We had to create different characters and you don’t want people thinking you’re the same person. I get a different physicality for each role, then I can switch between them quite easily. There was one day I lost a character, then I realized I was wearing a shirt and it was tucked in and I don’t normally do that. It makes me feel more formal. As soon as I realized, I slouched a bit, untucked my shirt, and got back into the character. That’s what I love about voice work. It’s so concentrated, so fast, and it’s really fresh all the time.”

While he is now beloved for his time as Dark Souls’ downcast favourite, Morgan has also dabbled in other roles. For instance, he helped BioWare out with Anthem and Mass Effect Andromeda, filling up the backgrounds of scenes with lively characters. “They’re never background characters,” Morgan affirms. “You have to – in my mind – give any of them a life and a sense of place and feeling of whatever’s going on.

“If you’re doing a crowd scene, then you can be cheering and whatever. You can moderate that around how you think other people are going to be. If I’m just doing a small background character, I don’t agonize over it, but I make a series of very quick decisions. Because they’ll suddenly say, ‘Oh, actually, would you mind doing this?’ So immediately, I can just look at the lines and make a few quick decisions. They’ll be hungry, tired, disappointed, had a bad day, and in the space of three seconds, I felt all that stuff would just feed itself in. That’s the joy of voice work because you really focus it all on the microphone and all of those little decisions will hopefully give the character a bit of flash rather than just being words.”

Now, Morgan is working on a few undisclosed projects he can’t talk about, but he did return for the Demon’s Souls’ remake in 2020, still carrying the Crestfallen Warrior on his back over a decade later.

“I was told after the first one that the Crestfallen Warrior was for some reason huge and a popular character that everyone really warmed to, which is odd because you wouldn’t expect that from the role he was playing. It was great to come back to it.”

Link Source : https://www.thegamer.com/interview-matthew-morgan-dark-souls-crestfallen-warrior/