In the last post, I talked about how the second half of Elden Ring was not as good as the first half (overall). I stopped at the Mountaintops of Giants, but I’m not done with it yet. There will be SPOILERS for the second half of the game, including bosses.
The boss of this area is aan important one because once you beat him and go forward, you can’t go back to Leyndell Royal Capital and there are ending s that can be locked out at this point. It’s an impressive moment, and one that was lost on me because I was immediately one-shot by the boss.
I can’t do a boss if I can get one-shot. I cannot be flawless in a boss fight. Granted, I was low on Vigor at this point, probably 25 at best, but a boss really shouldn’t be allowed to one-shot a character. It should be coded so that you can have a sliver and survive. I understand that I should have upped my Vigor to at least 30, but if a game is touting that you can play it any way you want, well, that’s very glass-cannony for me.
This boss is the Fire Giant. He is a giant and he uses fire. This means that it’s really hard to target him because he’s so large. His weak point is his aankle (one in specific, but I don’t remember which). It’s really hard to target his ankle and keep his upper body in view. I have peryiphery issues so there’s that as well.
More to the point, this boss has 42,363 HP. That’s the most of any boss in the game. The last boss (which is actually two bosses) has 22,000 HP or so. The first half of that boss fight (a whole different boss) has 13,500 or so. So together, they have roughly 35,5000 HP. Still approximately 8,000 HP less than the Fire Giant.
One of the things that annoys me about FromSoft is how by the end of the game (and/or in the DLCs), they tend to buy their own press. In Elden Ring, the whole game is well-balanced with a nod towards newbies. Then, once we hit the Mountaintops of the Giants, it’s as if they said to the fanbois, “You made it this far? Here you go.”
Let’s back up a step. The soldiers in Leyndell are fucking annoying. With my first character, they could almost one-shot me, and they had ridiculous poise. And lightning. And there were just groups of them when there was no need for that.
To be fair, in Dark Souls III, the soldiers in the last area were ridiculous, too, but it was easy to ignore them. You just ran by them and did the ‘I can’t see you’ dance. Or, if you’re me, you do Hidden Body/Slumbering Dragoncrest Ring and they won’t even notice you.
There is one area in Dark Souls III (pre-DLCs) that is pretty difficult and the boss is the hardest in the vanilla game. It’s the Archdragon Peak. Getting there is a chore and a half. You have to have a gesture and do it in a certain place. then, you get whisked away where you are first confronted with a boss right away. The Ancient Wyvern. This is a puzzle boss, not a real boss. You need to race through the level, get high up, and then jump on his head and plunge a sword into his head.
After, you’ll get whisked to another part of the level and then you have to progress through it until you get to the second boss. The most difficult boss in the vanilla game. The Nameless King.
It’s funny how THE HARDEST BOSS IN THE SERIES changes so often. In the first game, it was Ornstein & Smough. Until the DLC. Then it was Manus or Kalameet, depending on the person. Some would even through Artorias into the mix. In Bloodborne, two bosses were considered the hardest (in the main game), both optional, Ebrietas and Martyr Logarius. In the DLC, it was the Orphan of Kos.
In Dark Souls II, no boss was that hard in the main game. They made up for that in spades in the DLCs. Throwing out the gank squad bosses (one per each DLC), I think the hardest are Sinh the Slumbering Dragon, Sir Alonne (but mostly for the brutal boss run), and the Fume Knight. The Ivory King is pretty vicious, too, but that’s a great spectacle fight.
In Dark Souls III, it’s the Nameless King in the main game. Then, in the DLC,s it’s I could name several. Sister Friede is the first time there’s a three-phase boss and pretty epic. Darkeater Midir is a slog, but maybe not difficult, exactly. Then there’s Slave Knight Gael who is really a lot, especially for a squishy caster.
Sekiro is its own thing. It’s my least-favorite game, and I never gelled with the combat. I have a post about the five hardest bosses for me. Madame Butterfly, Genichiro, Demon of Hatred, Isshin the Sword Saint, and Owl (Father). Most people would agree that Isshin, the Sword Saint is the hardest boss in the FromSoft games up to that point. He himself has three phases after you have to fight Genichiro. So it’s a four-phase fight. The only time this has happened.
I’ve heard the explanation that because you can theoretically take out a pip in less than fifteen seconds, that’s why having four phases is no big deal. But if you’re me and have to whittle away the health every time, well, that one-minute boss fight can turn into a twenty-minute boss fight failure.
Then, along came Elden Ring. And it was as if in the last quarter or so, they said to the hardcore fans, “You’ve been so patient. This is for you.” The Fire Giant is tedious, though not that hard. I hate him, though, because for such a momentous boss. This is the point of no return! And this is the boss? Ugh.
I was so disappointed to fight him, I summoned two humans. I did not care. I have since fought him with just my Mimic Tear and on a different run, Alexander. The latter is cute, but not that helpful. And the Fire Giant has like three moves that he repeats over and over and over again. He looks amazing, but he’s just…boring as fuck.
I’m done for the day. More tomorrow.