Yesterday, I was bitching about—*SPOILER FOR END GAME SHIT*–Miquella’s Haligtree. I had just done the area again for the second time and hated it nearly as much this time. The only reason I didn’t hate it as much was beacuse I felt no remorse for hooning it through the area.
This is the way it’s normalized to play these games. The first time trhough, you go carefully through the area, killing each enemy. After that, you’re free to run like the wind because you’ve done it once properly.
At least that’s how I play it. I have no issue this time just ignoring the death room. That’s the room with the Erdtree Avatar, two big soldiers, three shit-munchers, two ballistae (with shit-munchers) and I don’t remember what else. The thing about that room, too, is that it’s not necessary to go into it. That’s when I put down the controller and walked away.
Crumbling Farum Azula is the last new area. It’s hard as nails and has two dragons with lightning. It’s funny because in the previous games, dragons were weak to lightning. In this one, though, nope. They live on the lightning. They fucking use the lightning. And, in true FromSoft fashion, they are so fucking difficult. There are two named dragons in this area, and one of them in considered the secodn-hardest boss in the game by many. The other is not as bad, but still.
I ran through the area yesterday because I wanted to grab a talisman I missed. The normal shit-munchers were taking half my bar with their lightning attacks. It’s not normal lightning–it’s pinkish-orange. And it does so much damage. When I went through as my squishy caster, it was so misrable. I hated it a gerat deal. I summoned two humans for the big dragon because my god I was worn-out by then. He has four arms and two phases, and he’s just terrible. I should try him solo, I guess. With my Mimic Tear, of course. But…I just don’t want to.
I had no joy in this area. As is the case when I’m at the end of a From game, I was full of hate. That’s how I get at the end of the From games in general. I know it’s temporary, but it’s still paniful. Theoretically, I could take a break when I wear myself out and then come back, but I am not going to do it. I know that. I’m going to keep going, gorging on my hatred and my weariness, until I finally beat the game.
Oh my god.
The last boss.
I’ll get to that in a sec.
I will say from an aesthetic point of view, I love this area. It’s really cool, visually, with the steps and platforms in the air. You can get here early, just a taste of it, and be amazed by it. Very early on, indeed, if you do a certain thing and choose a certain transporter.
It has a really hard double boss (Godskin Noble & Godskin Apostle), which would probably be a really exciting fight, but I was not having it at that point. I had already fought each of them before. Twice! And together once. Or maybe that was after. So this boss fight isn’t that special. Except they heal each other. I hate that mechanic in a boss fight.
I will say though that I used sleep on them the last time I fought them individually. That’s something that is known to work well on them. It puts them to sleep for about fifteen seconds? And you can whale on them as they’re sleeping. Actually, in reading up on them, it’s about three seconds. But it builds up over time? At any rate, it doesn’t last that long, but you can get several hits on them.
I have fought this boss three times because they’re not optional. Each time, I used my Mimic Tear and the NPC summon, Knight Bernahl. He is a beast. I’ve never had much trouble with this boss duo, but I do wonder how taking them on solo with only the Mimic Tear would work.
The base soldier of this area is the Banished Knight. They are all over the game, and I hate them so much. They have a whirlwind attack that can just decimate me. Then, there are the Beastmen of Farum Azula who hit so fucking hard for crazy damage.
I know better than to do a caster, but I can’t help it. It’s how I roll, and I will never go pure non-caster. Strengthcaster is my comfort zone, with very much leaning heavily towards the caster. Any time I try to do anything different, I always drift back to strengthcaster. That’s not unusual for From games, though. Everyone jokes about how they vow to do something different in their next playthrough, and they end up back to the same build.
It goes like this. “I have never done a dex build. I should do one.” I started my next playthrough as a samurai named Lone Finch in honor of the Lone Wolf from Sekiro and Finchy, the RKG’s name for the protag in every From game. Then, I got the Bloody Fang which needs both strength and dex. So I boosted those. But I also needed to have a few basic spells, so that was increase of intelligence and faith.
Now, that character is a strengthcaster like the other three characters I have in the game. Lone Finch is no longer a dex character and hasn’t been for several dozens of hours. I keep thinking I’ll recturn to dex, but I won’t. It’s just not my thing.
The big boss of this area is guarded by the Draconian Tree Sentinel. When you first step into the Lands Between, your eye will be drawn to the big, gilded lad who is prancing about on his horse. It’s a Tree Sentinel, and he’s not one to mess about with. This one has the pink lightning that everything has in this area, and I just could not be fucked on my second and third time around. Except the third time, the humans I summoned killed him for me.
Beast Clergyman/Maliketh is a pretty cool boss. I said that I was not happy about how all the last bosses were double bosses, but this is the coolest one. This is another one that takes your health as his own, which is a very irritating feature. But, he’s really fucking cool as Maliketh. I thought he was a big black cat, but he’s a big black DOG. Which makes much more sense, but it shooketh whe when I found out.
Then, once you beat him, it’s back to the royal capital, but it’s now Leyndell, Ashen Capital rather than Leyndell Royal Capital. I’m presuming because you burned it all to the ground.
That’s all for now. I’ll get to the last bit in tomorrow’s post. Probably.