Ok. Everything about this post is a *SPOILER WARNING* because I’m about to talk about the last boss whom I reached last night.
Hm. Well. Ok. I’m going to take this in chronological order and stop numbering these posts. This is going to be about bosses in general because I fought the final boss for three hours last night. I was taking by surprise that it wsa the final boss because the southeast portion of my map is still a bit fogged. For whatever reason, I thought I would be transported there after fighting one major boss in the area in which the final boss actual is.
I knew who this boss was going to be, kind of. I tried to stay clear of spoilers, but it’s hard to do when you’re googling things in the game. One thing leads to another, and for whatever reason, the name of a certain boss popped up when–I think I was googling Radahn because of something in the main game, and it came up that (again, *MASSIVE SPOILER WARNING*) there was a boss called Prince Consort Radahn in the DLC. In his second phase, he became Radahn, Consort of Miquella. And the fight becomes batshit cray-cray.
I mean, the first phase is already tough. Let me put it this way. I have not had to do more than a half-dozen attempts on any other boss except Commander Gaius. I think that took about a dozen tries. Real tries, by the way. I don’t inculde the fights in which I am immediately killed after entering the arena.
In contrast, Mesmer, who is prominent in the gameplay trailer and the story trailer, you would be forgiven for thinking he would be the last boss. I mean, FromSoft has had a habit of putting the last boss on the box. Well, at least that’s what they did for Dark Souls III. Plus, Mesmer is barely mentioned in the base game, so when he was featured so prominently in the trailers, it made sense that he would be the big baddie. Except, really longtime From fans know that From likes to fuck with us.
For example, anything time-related is to be disregarded. When they were talking about the base game, the rep said th at it would take roughly 30 hours to do the main storyline. Which is a joke. Maybe after you’ve played the game once, you could–actually, yes you can do the main storyline in less than 30 hours when you need to. I know this because I did it in about a dozen hours when I needed to get the third ending for my hundo chievo. Someone in the RKG Discord did it in 2 hours for his plat. Someone else in the Discord did similarly.
But on a first playthrough when you don’t know what’s happening? Yeah, no. You are not even going to get out of the first area in 30 hours, let alone finish the main storyline. As I’ve said, I’m slower at these games than most people. Like twice as slow. So, yes, while it took me over 200 hours to do the main game, many people did take over a hundred hours to finish it as well. And I didn’t miss that much in the main game–no bosses at all. Well, maybe one or two small dungeons, but that’s it as far as bosses.
Mesmer was the halfway boss–or thereabouts. I’m not exactly sure because I played the DLC in a very screwy sequence. Shadow Keep at the end of which is Mesmer. As I said in an earlier post, I expected him not to be the final boss, but I did not expect him to be the midway boss.
Anyway, the final boss. Oh, and I incrluded the launch trailer above. I’m glad Idid not watch it before playnig the DLC because there are so many spoilers in it. So. Many. Spoilers. FromSoft always does this, and it’s why I rarely watch the launch trailers until after I play the games. Look, I know that without context, it’s hard to tell what’s going on. However, in the launch trailer, which I have included abovethere are so many big hints as to what will happen.
Th every first thing is Miquella talking to the final boss! We knew that Miquella was going to be very prominent in the DLC. Hell, the way to get into the DLC was by touching Miquella’s egg. In Mohg’s arena, which is a rather late-game spoiler. Hm. Maybe more middle-ish to slightly late than actually late. Of course, it depends on how you play the game. Plus, you can get there in more than one way. You can either go through the waypoint in the midgame, or you can do what I did–an NPC’s questline that takes you there on a more windy road.
Bcak to that final boss. I had the boss spoiled for me, but I did not know it was the final boss. In fact, I thought I was spoiled on the final boss, but unless it’s a boss in a dungeon, that was not what was happening in that link. It’s funny because I was ready to face that boss for the last few days, but then it didn’t happen. And, as I said, this boss was spoiled for me, but I did not even imagine that it was the last boss.
First of all, I’m sure there are lore beats that explain the ties between Miquella and Radahn other than they are stepsiblings with Radagon being the father of both. I do know that Miquella is an Empyrean, which means the right to be a god. That’s my basic understanding of it. It’s him, Ranni, and…one other person. I want to say Marika. Google tells me I’m right. Anyway. Each Empyrean can have a consort. Ranni’s is, well, you as the player if you want. Marika had Godfrey and then Radagon. Apparently, Miquella has Radahn?!
Here’s the thing, though. Empyreans have shadows. Marika has Maliketh. Ranni had Blaidd (sob). Miquella has….well, let’s just put it this way. In the final boss fight, Miquella becomes a beast regent like Serosh. He drapes himself around Radahn in the second half of the fight and gives Radahn his (Miquella’s) godly powers.
By the way, Miquella says at the beginning of the trailer (and in the boss fight), “My loyal blade and champion of the festival”, which would have been a clue if I had watched the launch trailer before I played the DLC. now, I know what that means. Granted, I probably wouldn’t have figured it out if I watched the launch trailer beforehand, but I’m glad I skipped it.
Anyway. Back to the final boss. I lit the Site of Grace, Divine Gate Front Staircase, and I noticed that it looked a LOT like the staircase leading up to the Godfrey fight in the main game, which is the second to the last fight. I realized I was about to go into the final boss. This was 2 a.m., and I knew I should have just walked away and left it for another day.
We all know that was not what I did, right? Of course I had to take a peek. I had to see who was behind the door. Now, I had just fought Needle Knight Leda, an acolyte of Miquella along with Dryleaf Dane, two NPCs I had met much earlier in the game.
By the way, I fucked up most of the NPC questlines in the DLC because the world is so densely and elaborately entwined/stacked. I did things in such a screwy order and missed so much at first, well, it’s one thing I regret. I wanted to do it as spoiler-free as possible. That meant that I did not look things up unless I absolutely had to. But that also means that I fucked up almost all of the NPC questlines. I missed Thollier after his first spot because I completely missed that spot until much later. I missed Sir Ansbach in the Shadow Keep because as I’ve said more than once, I got hopelessly lost in that place. Repeatedly.
It’s not just me, either. There was someone in the RKG Discord today who had totally missed the main boss of Shadow Keep–one that you have to fight in order to make progress. You have to pull a lever and walk across the ceiling (not exactly, but close), and it just got me hopelessly lost. Sir Ansbach was in a small reading nook on the first floor, and when I went back to find him, he was dead. Then I went to check on my beloved Freyja who was also stuck in the Shadow Keep. Sadly, she was dead, too. I got her sick-ass armor, though.
I am running long again. More tomorrow.