Major spoilers obviously. Do not click if you haven't beaten the desert guy.
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So i just beat Radahn and o boy, that was a lot.
One the one hand, it's probably the most cinematic boss battle From Software ever made. It's kind of a set piece, a legitimate raid boss where you have to switch aggro and get in DPS where you can and swerve around the battle field looking for a tiny opening and respawning allies. He's outshining pretty much most end bosses ever made.
The opening is, while getting a little repetitive, brilliant. I wonder what the percentage is of people who got one-shot by the first arrow. It sets the tone and feels legitimately terrifying. Radahn does NOT play around. He's a mad god and you just stepped into shooting distance.
The visuals of the dunes, the music, the red sky, the charge of the phantoms, his absurd arrow rain, the MASSIVE swords, the tiny fucking horse on which he is tokyo drifting across the dunes, the falling-meteor-move. It's all genuinely cool and among the best things From Software has ever done.
One the other hand his third phase (second half of HP pool) is pure bullshit. It's difficult enough to get hits in before, but once those 4 purple orbs are out, you are just not getting near him. Insane reach, speed, constantly moving, undodgable aoe attacks, a combo of homing orbs and aoe stuns and several long range one shot moves and projectiles. If you get bad luck, he just wipes your summons in a combo and then chases you pretty much until the end of time.
I ended up poisoning him with poison darts and just hiding in the dunes, while occasionally respawning a dude. Didn't even see him die, because i was so scared of those one-shot orbs.
Elden Ring bosses in general are very very tough, with their kind of endless combos, heavy delays and insane tracking but usually there is a moment of revelation, of pattern recognition and joy after beating something you thought unbeatable. And i'm sure someone is already beating Radahn with no summons, fist only SL 1, but i personally have no desire to fight him ever again. Riding in circles and throwing darts to kill a god didn't feel exactly rewarding.
Thoughts? :::
Yep, mechanically that's the absolute worst fight in the game hands down. It's designed to be cheesed like that and it just feels bad because it's just 100% move RNG against a boss that you just flat out can't melee at all without being wrecked with erratic, fast AOEs and one-shot tracking projectile spam. Or maybe, theoretically, you could learn to fight him in melee without the summons except how do you even reach him in the first place without them, since his ranged attacks alternate between sniping and a very long lasting tracking AOE that can only be outranged, not dodged or outrun? Every pull starts off a long slog just to start fighting the boss at all and it's miserable.
mechanically that’s the absolute worst fight in the game hands down.
See that's what I was thinking . . . until I ran into the literal next boss after him.
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Valiant Gargoyles
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They're the worst general type of boss, but I don't think that fight was as bad as Radahn is. You just need an upgraded big weapon that'll chunk them and some luck, namely that the first one doesn't just start running away after it hits half or zone you out with its poison, because you need to burn it down in about 15-30 seconds after the second one spawns.
Tbh I don't think even the duo crucible knight fight is as badly designed as Radahn, and that fight is easily the hardest one I've run into so far.
It feels like a cool idea that had a problem, and then every solution created a new problem, and the end result just isn't any fun.
A boss you fight with a small army of summons (cool idea) -> Too obviously easy to cheese by constantly trading aggro -> Sweeping attacks that hit everyone -> Summons keep dying too early -> Make them re-summonable -> Obviously cheesable by just running around summoning -> Make the summons do almost no damage and give the boss attacks that can get a lucky one-hit kill if the player just runs around
I got him down to like 40% my second try and after that I just end up getting shreked by some one shot by the time I get some summons off and get in a few hits.
Between this and his ex, it seems like the game has some really cool major boss fights that have innovative mechanics and excellent atmosphere that are just overtuned. Godrick and Margit were great fights though. Godrick was pretty straightforward, but exciting and with a cool second phase and I can't help but love Margit as a classic "the real dark souls starts now" gatekeeper boss like the Taurus demon.
Really though, I've been loving that there are just so many little fights under every rock and behind every tree.
How would you best a god in a straight up fight? Don't most "real" mythologies have gods cheesing each other to death by technicalities?
How would you best a god in a straight up fight?
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By invoking a dragon spirit to vomit scarlet rot all over his bitch ass which I guess might be a technicality
Pretty much agree with you. Visually, one of the best fights. Mechanically, one of the worst. I don't think he's the hardest (though it is a difficult fights), but definitely feels like the most bullshit to me. Most of the other bosses (including the one I'd consider the hardest) were at least fun to fight and learn; Radahn really wasn't fun at all IMO.
the boss was fun and fine except for the stupid one shot meteors in phase 2
the entire game is trivialised by playing sorcery while melee builds play like slamming glass in to your balls
oh yea no doubt. I tried playing a few sorcery builds in DS3 awhile back and thought it was ass. Could be wrong about that but who knows lol.
Decided to play Elden Ring as a mage for my first go and found out that not only is there a huge variety of spells but that some are just plain overpowered. I’m loving it tbh, I usually default to “paladin” in western fantasy games but going in as a “wizard” made me change my approach to nearly everything. Pretty much refreshed my love for these types of games.
I very well could have just been under leveled but overall it's a very cool fight, I just think some of his attacks go on for too long and do too much damage
secret end game boss spoiler below
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Malenia is somehow worse, multiple 1 shot or near 1 shot moves, an insane anime combo that is virtually undogeable and will kill you even with heavy armor and 60 vig, inflicts scarlet rot, and fucking heals every time she hits you, even if you block the damage with a shield. The only saving grace is you can stagger her but she still gets alot of hyper armor so you still have to wait for her to finish most combos before its safe to hit her. I hated fighting Rahahn and I hate her even more. Infact about the only endgame boss I liked fighting is the second to last story boss
first half is fun as fuck just watching the homies do work and trying to take aggro from them so they dont get killed so fast but the last half i just felt like rng if my summons would kill him before the meteors killed me tbh
I just jousted with him on my horse. Only had to hit him like 7 times with my greatsword.
