I am firmly in the end game so I’ll be talking about end game bosses, questlines, and such. Therefore, consider everything I’m about to say to be some kind of spoiler and be forewarned.
We need to talk about Miquella’s Haligtree, an area that is the most miserable I’ve been in for any From game. Including DLCs. Blighttown is a cakewalk in comparison. even the Ringed City, which made me cry the first time I traversed it, would be a welcome respite from the hellhole that is Miquella’s Haligtree.
Let’s first talk about the area. It’s hard to get to in the first place. You need two halves of a medallion, and one of those halves include a mini questline in and of itself. Which, fine. I don’t actually have a problem with that because that’s FromSoft. It’s one of their quirks to have optional areas that are really easy to miss and really hard to find. There are some like the Great Hollow of Dark Souls that you find by hitting two illusory walls. When you go down it, you reach Ash Lake–a really serene and surreal area.
Then there are areas like Archdragon Peak in Dark Souls III that you need a gesture found in another completely optional place to be taken to another place where you use the gesture. It then transports you to Archdragon Peak. Did I find that on my own? Hell, no! Ash Lake is more of a set piece to wander through and marvel, whereas Archdragon Peak is an actual level with the hardest boss in the vanilla game.
Miquella’s Haligtree is hard to find. And, it’s hard to get to the first checkpoint because there is a hard-as-nails knight guarding it. Millicent, an NPC is also there, and I was worried that she could die if I tried to kill the knight in her vicinity. Not that it mattered because that knight one-shot me. Have I mentioned how much I love scrub enemies who can one-shot me? I know my vigor was low at that point (I’m at 30, which is laughable), but still.
At one point, there is a room in which there are two soldiers on ballistae, two hard-as-nails knights, some foot soldiers, and a Minor Erdtree. Yes, a field boss. They are just common enemies in this area. Which, fine for the ones you can run past and don’t have to deal with, but this one was in the thick of things. There is simply no way to kill all the enemies, so I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off, trying frantically to find where I was supposed to go. The killer? You don’t actually even need to go into that room.
Jokes. FromSoft has jokes for days. They always do this at the end of their games, and it’s really deflating. Next to another checkpoint, there is a trio of the crystal-encrusted asshole bosses (you have to break their crystal exterior before you can do any damage to them) in front of a chest. There really is a feeling of just throwing in a bunch of shit and seeing what sticks in this area. Which is a shame because it’s a beautiful area in general. And it doesn’t need the field bosses thrown in to make it difficult.
I actually reached a point in this area in which I just had to set down the controller and walk away for a few days. In every From game, I get SO TIRED OF THE GAME in the end game. It’s mostly my own fault for being obsessed with the game and unable to stop playing it, but it’s also because they start buying their own hype and just cramming all these hard bits and bobs.
I will say that I’m glad there’s the Hidden Body spell (er, Unseen Form, a sorcery) and the Slumbering Dragoncrest Ring (Crepus’s Vial, a talisman, and why does it sound like creep-us?) combo in this game, especially for this area because it allows me to run away more easily from some of the nasties. It’s not as powerful as it is in DS III, but it’s still worth something.
Millicent is an NPC and her questline starts ages ago in Caelid. Caelid is a mid-game area, but you can get there much earlier. Here is what you need to do with Millicent, as briefly as I can manage it. You have to talk to Gowry in his shack. He tells you about Millicent who has the rot. (Scarlet rot, a new and very much not-fun status affliction in this game). You need to beat the boss of the area to get the needle that will cure Millicent of the rot. Then, you talk to her and she tells you she has a journey to make. And Gowry tells you about her sisters that he had also adopted and how she’s the strongest of the lot.
Oh, side note: When I first met Gowry, I nearly got him killed. There are these huge rotted dogs in the area that can two-shot me (at the time). There are some even nastier big crows. But, anyway, there is one of these dogs outside Gowry’s shack. The first time, I just ignored the dog and tried to talk to Gowry. The dog kept attacking and started HURITING GOWRY. I panicked and ran away from Gowry, hoping the dog would follow me. It kept attacking Gowry so I panic-quit just as Gowry died. When I fired the game back up, he was back in his seat, much to my relief. I took care of the dog properly after that.
Anyway, you have to go to another optional area and get an item to give to Millicent. This is mid-game content. Well, past mid-game? Later content. This area frustrated the fuck out of me because even following a guide, I could not find this item. It took me some time, and caused me to curse quite a bit. I finally got the item and gave it to Millicent. Then, I went to Miquella’s Haligtree to talk to her.
After talking to her, you have to kill a field boss in a certain area. Once that is done, you have the option to either help Millicent fight her four sisters or aid them in fighting her. I don’t know why you would do the latter, but for the purpose of the plat, you have to do the former. And it’s frustrating as FUCK to help her fight four NPC invaders. Even if I survived (and they could kill me in two hits), Millicent quickly died. I was so frustrated, I wanted to quit the game. I Googled, of course, and followed what I thought was the best advice. That was to equip Shabiri’s Woe (talisman) that draws aggro, run around, use Hoarfrost Stomp, and let Millicent take care of her sisters. This actually worked the second time I tried it.
Now, we reach the point in the questline when you can accidentally kill Millicent by dropping on her head. See, you sit at a site of grace and go back to where you fought her sisters. You’ll find Millicent near-death, lying near a pool of scarlet rot, and talking about how her journey was nearly over. According to people online, they were jumping around to avoid the scarlet rot and accidentally landed on her, killing her outright. Which sucks, obviously, expect in the video I watched, it appeared you still got the item you need from her. Because, see, she tells you she’s dying and asks you to leave so you don’t witness it. You go away, reload, and come back again to get the item you need for one of the endings. I saved after killing her sisters just in case, but it was not needed.
Then, you continue on until you reach the final boss of the area. This post is running long again, so I’m going to end this here and pick up in the next post where I left off.