Mytha, the Baneful Queen

You'd eat so much you'd transform into a horrible demon, too

(if she broke YOUR heart)

    This is an another easy battle in a little string of them recently. After killing the Covetous Demon and working your way through the mildly annoying Earthen Peak, you’ll find the oh-so-familiar fog gate. Now, a note about this battle (that EVERYONE knows about at this point, whether they read about it or figured it out themselves). This battle has a little trick to it, much like the Fool’s Idol battle from Demon’s Souls. In that game, there was a point where you can find a hollow enemy that doesn’t attack you, and in fact begs you not to attack him. You need to kill him, because he can revive the Idol when you kill her. Not good. With this battle, the Queen’s room is filled with poison, and the only way to clear out the poison (thus making this battle possible. I suppose it is possible with the poison, but boy I don’t wanna be the one to try it) is by burning a windmill earlier in the level. It’s super vague and I don’t know how people discover this kind of stuff. Not that it even makes sense logically: if it was a lever somewhere that visibly drained poison, that would make sense. But there are literally dozens of windmills in the level. How would anyone reason that this ONE windmill needs to be burned? Oh, Dark Souls!

    With the windmill dispatched, you walk through the fog gate, and you are probably a bit shocked at the God Of War-looking boss across the room. The ol' Queen isn't doing so well these days. In fact, she's basically a snake woman. She has a very strong Medusa vibe about her. Her chest and arms are still a female's chest and arms, but where legs should be, she just tapers down, like a snake. She's also green, which I assume is from all the poison. But what about her head, you may be asking? Well, her head has been decapitated! But don't worry, she's holding it in her hand, and uses it as a weapon, along with the long spear in her right hand. I think this is absolutely fabulous. I love this boss design. Finally, her room is round, and bug enough, but it's still surrounded by poison at the edges, so be careful you don't poison yourself. I'm sorry about the quality of the pictures for this one, they are particularly shitty. Taking pics and videos of this game is very difficult by myself, with just my phone camera.

There she is, being all baneful

    She has a few attacks with her spear, and a few with her head.She uses her head to attack with magic (which she shoots out of her, mouth? I guess?), but this is preceded with a scream, so it's telegraphed and very easy to roll away from. She has two different ranged magic attacks, and she will also toss her head at you. It'll land on the ground, and it'll explode with a large AoE magic attack a second or two later. So when she throws her head, back up a safe distance. Again, easy to dodge as long as you are paying attention (and really, who ISN'T paying attention during a Souls boss fight?). Also, she jumps on her head to reclaim it, and she stays stationary for a second, so you can get a few good hits in here. She also has some spear attacks and thrusts, but everything is easy to block with a shield, and even easier to just roll from. I didn't even bother with my shield for this battle, so I two-handed my (now +5 FINALLY) longsword and got to work. 

    I beat her on my first try. That even includes me strafing around her, with my shield up (I lied, I didn't totally ditch my shield), and maybe only 30% of my health, just getting a video of the battle, so I could grab these wonderful looking pictures. We're hitting on a bit of a trend here, with the ugly queen being the second or third easy boss in a row. But, what she lacks in difficulty she makes up for in great design (although I feel like people will dislike this design. I will say this is decidedly un-Souls-like) and interesting lore, at least as far as her boss Soul description goes. 

Times I died: 0

Difficulty: 1.5/10

Rating: 4/10

Up next we have Dragon God's little cousin, or something

Whiffing on her attack

Another glamor shot

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BOSS SOUL DESCRIPTION: "...who lives in the Earthen Peak; The Queen sought the King's affection, even poisoning herself to attain beauty, despite the monstrous consequences. All for the compelling madness known as love."

Mytha's Bent Blade

Mytha's Bent Blade: "Mytha was the fairest queen in the land, until something unhinged her. Was it the poison found deep within the earth, or the passion that consumed her heart?"

Covetous Demon

Slimer The Hutt

    After you’ve made it through the poison ponds of Harvest Valley (and what a great looking place, I might add), you end up in the interestingly named Earthen Peak. Before the fog gate, there really isn’t much at all to explore in this area. I haven’t gone further yet, but I would assume it opens up after the boss. And what a strange, unexpected boss it is. I was expecting a different boss, but that one must be next. Here was a boss that I hadn’t really read anything about, and maybe had only heard its name once in various forums/threads. 

    What is it, you might ask? I affectionately refer to him as Slimer the Hutt. You see, he’s a large slug-looking monster. He’s got two small-ish arms, a face (complete with a mouth full of razor sharp teeth), and the other end of his body tapers off into a tail. He looks a decent amount like Jabba the Hutt from the Star Wars movies, and there is something distinctive about his face that really reminds me of Slimer from Ghostbusters. Really, if he were green, he’d be a dead ringer! I personally think his design is awesome. He might be considered a more “throw-away” boss, and he’s certainly quite easy, but he looks awesome. This is the kind of stuff I love: big monstrosities. Sure better than an endless stream of knights (even though I know we’ll be revisiting knights at some point down the line). 

Profile pic

     

    This fat bastard seems like he’d be awfully slow, but if you’re close to him, he can move very quickly. But he’s very easy to run away from to heal/buff/whatnot. If you go straight up right in his face, he can swing his arms to hit you, or he has an attack where he basically eats you. This actually doesn’t do a whole lot of damage (I thought I was a goner last night when he did it to me, luckily I was a phantom helping someone else out), but it does un-equip ALL your equipment. Very interesting, and something I don’t think I’ve seen in a Souls game. You’re naked with no weapons, no armor, and no rings. Nothin’, nada! But even so, it should be easy enough to run and re-equip your stuff. At least your weapons. 

Action shot!

  

    Besides these two attacks, if you go on either of his sides, he’ll roll over onto you, much like a cat might. It’s almost funny to see the first time, but it’s less funny when he rolls a second time when you aren’t expecting it, crushing you, dealing quite a bit of damage. That’s how I died the one time I did: I was on his left side, with a broken staircase behind me, and he rolled, but I had nowhere to go, because I was basically up against the staircase. I got away from the first roll, but he crushed me with the second. Such is life.

    If you try to attack his tail, he’ll do a tail smash move, which, again, hurts. Finally, he has a jumping attack that is so very easy to dodge; you don’t have to do anything other than strafe. There are plenty of opportunities to attack too; he’s basically the anti-Lost Sinner. His room is just a round room, lighted by candles and torches (I believe, I didn’t pay close attention to the small details of the room). As mentioned, there is a staircase that leads up, but the bottom portion is broken, so you can’t get up it.

    This is likely to be my shortest post. I even tried to pad this out just a bit, but really, there’s not much to it at all. It’s a very simple battle. There’s not a lot of nuance, strategy, even the danger of dying is small. I will say, on the left side of the room from the entrance, there are those silly poison pots, so I suppose you could get poisoned if you were careless. Hardly a problem, though. At least he’s a great (in my opinion, curious as to what others think) looking boss, and something that’s fairly unique for a Souls game.

Timed I died: 1

Difficulty: 2.5/10

Overall rating: 5/10

Next up is whatever waits past and through the Earthen Peak. We shall see, we shall see. Also, briefly explored the Gutter. Ugh

Lllllllll you died!

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BOSS SOUL DESCRIPTION: "...that devours all things; Eating is an expression of desire. There was once a man whose deep affections were unrequited. He transformed into the Covetous Demon, which only made him lonelier than before."

Bone Scythe

 BONE SCYTHE DESCRIPTION: "The curved spine of the Covetous Demon is hard as rock, and rather than slicing through flesh, this weapon seems to grind it apart."

PICTURES!

    Really quick note here. I have finally started adding some pictures to these blogs! Hallelujah! Nothing like barely-in-focus pictures taken with a phone! So far they are only on Lost Sinner and Royal Rat Vanguard, but I do think they add a lot. From here on out, I'll be putting them on. I'll try to figure out a way to get pics from the bosses I've already fought. I do apologize for the quality, it's pretty hard to take a video with my phone, being held in one hand, while I have the controller in the other, trying to move my character around without getting killed, trying to get the boss in frame. Anyway, enjoy!

ALSO, ALL PICTURES WERE TAKEN BY ME. THEY ARE MY OWN

Royal Rat Vanguard

There's kind of a lot of rats down here

    Have you ever wondered what was down that giant hole in the middle of Majula? You can see items glowing down there, and that first plank looks juuuuuust close enough to jump to and survive. It very well could be, if your HP is high enough I suppose. I bought the Silvercat Ring from that talking cat in Majula, and this ring reduces fall damage. I had horrible PTSD flashbacks to jumping down similar broken boards in Stonefang Tunnel to get to Flamelurker's den in Demon's Souls (that may still be the most irritating run from archstone/bonfire to boss in the whole series). But, once you are down this hole, you find yourself in the Grave Of Saints. It's a very Catacombs-looking area, but it's adorned with rat statues and candles. I like the look of this place. After you get through the small area (with several, several, locations to place Pharros Lockstones. Hhmm) you find a bonfire (!!) right in front of a fog gate. How do you like that? A bonfire right near a boss? Like ten steps away. Certainly nice if you die, but this boss is not very hard, so chances are you won't be dying much. Why couldn't this have been outside Lost Sinner's room? But I digress.
    Leading up to this gate, you fight rats. Lots and lots of rats. Foreshadowing? Well, yeah, obviously. I know there is another boss with a similar name that must be past this, and from what I read, he's tough, but this one is pretty easy. It's the Royal Rat Vanguard! Strange, yet awesome, name. The room is perhaps a shrine/ritual sort of room, because it's full of those rat statues (and the statues depict the rats standing on hind legs, holding some sort of vase/jug. Odd). It's also got lit candles running along where the floor meets the walls. More candles in the walls. Once you walk in, there is no boss name, but definitely boss music. Then rats start pouring in. The same normal rats you've been killing. Dispatch them, but make sure not to get cornered, because you certainly can. There must easily be 15-20 in the room, and more take the place of the ones you've killed.
    Once you've killed ten (I counted to find the exact number), the eponymous Vanguard shows up. No, not that Vanguard from Demon's Souls, he's just a rat. He's got something resembling a mohawk on his head, running down some of his back. But he's a rat. He's the same size, and looks almost identical, to the normal rats.

The Vanguard, bottom-middle.

    You can see him in the (crappy) picture above. Besides the cool haircut, he's got a mean streak that's two miles wide. He's quite a bit stronger than the normal rats, and I think poisons upon contact. So once he hits you and takes 80% of your health, you're poisoned to boot. Gotta be quick with the Estus here. Luckily that's easy. Just run to the opposite side of the room, and heal. As far as strategy, there really isn't much of one. I blocked, and attacked, making sure they didn't swarm me. Once the Vanguard comes in, make sure you don't lose him. He one-shotted me at least twice. I don't know if it was because I wasn't at full health, or he REALLY is that strong, but stay alert. But hell, if you die, you're right back there anyway.

Told you he poisons you!

    I'm not sure what else there is to say. It's a simple battle, but there is opportunity to die. I did a few times (the first two times because I didn't even realize there was that Vanguard rat, and he was in with a group of regular ones, and he attacked me from that). At least we're getting another cool-looking boss room. And the overall atmosphere of the whole place reeks of death and the absurd. I know some information about the rats, but there's a strange air of bizarresness down here. It's like a cult or something. Final note, I got summoned once as a grey phantom, basically the moment I stepped into the area. This is part of the Rat Covenant I do believe. It didn't go well. I was killed very quickly. I'm having lag problems playing online, so I succumb to getting hit even though my shield is up. Not a full excuse, but it doesn't make PvP'ing very easy. With that being said, I'm interested to join the Covenant and mess around.

Times I died: 4
Difficulty: 3/10
Overall rating: 5/10 (one full point for the cool name)

I currently don't have anything else in the queue, but I have a feeling it'll be the next boss that's down here. I did abandon going through Harvest Valley, so I could go back there too. That remains to be seen.

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BOSS SOUL DESCRIPTION: "Soul of the Rat King's vanguard; The Rat King's loyal servant judges the worthiness of those who seek royal audience."

The Lost Sinner

Once was lost, but now am DEAD   

    I’ll do this one a little differently. It’ll be one long post, and it’ll be split up into a few different smaller pieces, since I went through a few different thought patterns throughout this battle.

    Lost Sinner is found inside Sinner’s Rise. This is a small, but difficult area. You have to take out a bunch of crossbow-men (sounds easy, but trying to take out four in the same room is tough), then you descend an elevator, and get to the real bitch of the matter. A watery temple-looking area (not THE Water Temple, of course) that’s populated by only two kinds of enemies: large, hulking beasts with big tails, and big, slamming arms; and also those delightful exploding hollow bastards, (you know, the ones that follow you, then explode when they get close, completely draining your stamina/life). And hey, sometimes they like to hide under the water!

    Once you get through here, you find the fog gate. Walk through this, and you’re treated to a cool cut-scene of a ragged, malnourished prisoner (or, probably, a sinner) with her arms in wooden shackles, sitting on the floor. He’s got what looks like a metal mask (kinda like the one from the Metal Health album cover) on, and there’s a strange bug hanging from one of the eye sockets of this mask. It wriggles inside the mask, and seemingly gives this prisoner/sinner Artorias-like sword skills. She (yes, the Lost Sinner is a woman! I didn't know this until recently, but the boss soul states such!) wields a giant blade, and boy does she know how to use it.

Lost Sinner, or Big Foot?

THE FIRST NIGHT (deaths 1-11):

    Firstly, this room she is in is DARK. It’s a large round room, so space isn’t a problem, but barely being able to see her and her dark clothes, is. There are no less than eight player messages urging you to bring a torch, but that’s a bit tedious. You would need to kill the crossbow hollows, then light the torch, go down that elevator, and make a mad dash through that water area. I will try to bring a lit torch to her room to see if I can light it somehow.

    The Sinner is very aggressive, and dodges often. All her sword strikes are blockable/dodgeable, but she gives you a VERY small window to attack back. You can, and probably should, spend several minutes just blocking, strafing, and learning her attacks and her tells. She has a forward thrust, a few side-to-side slicing attacks, an overhead attack, and she’ll also jump in the air. Again, they are all easy enough to dodge, but the Sinner hops around so much, it’s tough to block an attack, then get a hit in before she jumps back. And damn, I really need to try to bring a torch into the room.

USING A TORCH (death 12):

    After several more attempts, I decided it was time to light this room. I was able to bring a lit torch into the room, and it certainly will make a nice difference. Too bad there doesn’t seem to be a sconce to light it. I got killed pretty quickly on that attempt, so I guess it’ll stay dark.

    My major gripe with this battle is the lock-on. She’s very easy to lose when you’re locked-on, because she either gets far enough away, or she jumps in the air. Once this happens, it’s very easy to lose both your orientation, and her. It’s very frustrating too. At least twice I’ve died because I was locked-on, then I lost the lock-on, and wasn’t sure where she was. She would then reintroduce herself to me via her sword. And she is relentless, too. It’s insane. This is shaping up to be my most defensive Souls battle ever. I hide behind my shield way too much. As aggressive as she is, I’m that passive. I’m practically glued to my shield. I’m gonna try just two-handing my halberd and dodging all her attacks instead of using my shield.

TWO-HANDING SILLINESS (death 13):

    Yeah, fuck that.

   

WEAPON CHANGE (deaths 14 & 15):

    I was up until 3:04AM the first night I tried fighting her. I did discover (as I pointed out in my second Gargoyles post) that my halberd is just too slow. I upgraded to that +4 longsword, and tried a few more times. Definitely makes a big difference. I can get more attacks in, and it takes less stamina. The damage output is basically the same. I have three dark pine resins, and I’m going to use those. Lost Sinner death counts sits at 15. Yikes.

LIGHTING THE DAMN ROOM (deaths 16-18): 

    A few nights after my original failures, I tried again. Firstly, I must admit, I figured out how to bring light into her light-eviscerating domain of dark bullshit (I think it's called) by accident-on-purpose. I was browsing YouTube videos that Gamesrader put up of individual boss strategies. I was only watching the ones I've already beaten. Why was I watching strategies on bosses I've already beaten? I told you, I'm obsessed! Anyway, I was watching the video for ol' Flexy, and I saw on the side, they had one for Lost Sinner. I debated a moment, and thought, what the hell. I'm sure it won't really help me. Might as well take a look-see. While it didn't give me any help strategy-wise, they do tell you how to light up her room. If I can redeem myself, I WAS planning on checking out the two small rooms that sit up the stairs past her fog gate, I swear. Also, a friend gave me the hint about those rooms as well, so let's just call it a collaborative effort. Anyway, with her room nice and bright, I immediately realized something: my lock-on problems I was having, which I had originally though were more on the technical bug side, were, in fact, tied 100% into the fact that I was losing her lock-on because IT WAS TOO DARK. Makes sense, duh. With the room brightened, I NEVER lose the lock-on (well, except when he leaps high in the air, but that's easy to dodge anyway) now. It's great. 
    But alas, she still killed me three times. I tried getting a little more aggressive, but I still find it difficult to get good hits on. I always revert back to soaking up her attacks with my shield, then not having stamina to do anything else. Not much else to add yet, but I do plan on killing this bastard soon. I didn't play last night, but I plan on playing again either tonight/tomorrow morning. I'm currently in Harvest Valley (after killing the Skeleton Lords), and I'm torn between continuing forward through this poison-laden hell hole, or steeling my resolve and going back to fight this Sinner until I kill her. 

FOR THE WIN! (deaths 19-21, and victory):

    I woke up early this morning (although I meant to wake up at 5AM, but I fell back asleep, so I started playing at 6:21) to play, and my main goal was to take down the Lost Sinner. Well, after three deaths, on my fourth attempt, I was victorious! Feels good, too. I realized I had to become more aggressive. Can't kill an enemy without attacking, right? And oddly enough, I found the battle a bit easier once I became more aggressive. Generally I just held my shield up, and rolled towards her, provoking her to attack. Depending on her attack, I would attack. If she did a forward thrust, she always jumped after that, and I had a difficult time hitting her before she jumped. So if she did a forward thrust, I would just hang back, and wait. She did a variety of other swinging attacks that can be rolled into, then she can be attacked after that. Sometimes she will jump away, but you can hit her first, so she takes the damage AND puts some distance between you and her. It was a tough a battle, and required a good amount of patience and a general knowledge of her attacks (remember I mentioned spending time just learning her tells? Helps immensely). That's all I can really say about it. I'll finish this long post with a few quick bullet points:

• Lifegems are great for this battle, but if you run out (as I did this morning), you CAN heal with an Estus Flask, but it's tough. Best time to use one is when she jumps in the air, occasionally she'll land clear on the other side of the room, then she'll swing a few times. This give ample time to heal, but you kind of have to predict it first. I had a VERY close call with an Estus this morning, can't believe I got it in in time. Man, NOTHING is more nerve-wracking then trying to use an Estus during a battle like this
• I still blocked with my shield, but FAR less. It was probably 50/50 between using my shield and rolling
• I started the winning battle with aromatic ooze. It didn't make a huge difference, but added around 50 pts of damage to my attacks until it wore out. I also know dark pine resin does similar extra damage. If you're having trouble, try using a weapon buff
• I tried using poison throwing knives. Yeah, don't bother
• Watch out for her overhead attack. That thing eats stamina for breakfast
• Finally, something I meant to write about at the beginning. From Software trolled us gamers nicely with the bonfire that you respawn at if you die. Usually bonfires are bastions of safety, right? WRONG! This one has three crossbow-men standing right next to it, who give you about .5 seconds before shooting you with crossbow bolts. Several times I would get attacked, because after I died to Lost Sinner, I would put the controller down to make a note, or just for a tiny break, but then I'd have to scramble to grab it and run down the ladder, because I was getting pelted by bolts. Happened way more than it should have. 
• I just spent about ten minutes replacing all of the he/his/him with she/her/her, because I thought Sinner was a man, but it is definitely not. Sinner is a female. Very intriguing...

The killing blow (to me)

Times I died: 21
Difficulty: 8.5/10
Overall rating: 7.5/10

RATS! RATS! RATS!

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BOSS SOUL DESCRIPTION: "...prisoner of Sinner's Rise; The Lost Sinner eternally punishes herself for the sins of her past." 

 

Lost Sinner's Sword

 

Lost Sinner's Sword: "The true nature of this sword is unknown, even to the Lost Sinner herself. Those who choose this sword will share the burden of the Lost Sinner's misdeeds."

Skeleton Lords

More like Skeleton bitches

    This is an interesting little battle here. It's located deep within Huntsman's Copse. After going through this fairly large and confusing area (which is sort of reminiscent of Shrine Of Storms 4-1 and 4-2 from Demon's, and a bit of the outside part of the Catacombs from Dark Souls. Well, a LITTLE bit at any rate), you'll get to a waterfall. Behind this is a large fog gate. Don't let the size of the fog gate scare you, or let you think you're gonna fight some HUGE monster. These guys are EASILY the simplest, most pathetic bosses up to this point, despite their badass name that sounds like it's a reject song title from Metallica's Kill 'Em All album.
    You enter the gate and are inside a gigantic room with bones (and some fire) covering the floors (perhaps the floors are nothing but bones?), with mounds of bones and tall, bone thrones (I guess?), that the Lords came down from. Notice a theme here? This is one of the BIGGEST boss rooms in any of the Souls game, which helps in making this fight so easy grandma can probably do it. Despite that, this room is actually really cool looking, and a great set piece. Thinking back on some of the other boss rooms/arenas/lairs/whatever-you-wanna-call-them, not many up to this point have been great. Last Giant is in an old, cave-looking room, which is visually appealing; ol' Flexy (that's what I call Flexile Sentry) is in a ghost ship which I personally think is great, because that's kind of unexplored territory for these games; and now these guys have a great-looking room. Otherwise, you fight the other bosses on rooftops, in small castle-like rooms, ON castles, and in big, empty rooms. Kinda boring. The point of this long-winded aside is this: the Lords are easy as sin, but at least you fight them in a cool place.
    Wow, that section was two sentences long in my notes. Humor me here a moment. This is what I had in my notes (note on notes, I purposely just keep them short, and I don't bother trying to make them sound good. I just need to write stuff down so I don't forget anything. I'll leave the grammatical error in as a fun gift): "Your enter the gate, and you're in a huge really cool looking room. It's covered in bones and fire, with some big mounds of bones strewn about".
    Okay, finally back on topic here. Once you enter the gate, the three Lords descend down, briefly on fire. There are three, but they share one health bar. They move slowly, their attacks are easy to dodge, and they don't have great defense. Probably because they are wearing semi-tattered royal-looking robes. I thought at first that they looked like grim reapers, but they really don't, despite the fact that two of the three Lords have huge scythes. The other has a huge staff with a large skull on it. For whatever reason, these three aren't even unique enough to have their own names, but the Ruin Sentinels do? If anything, I would have expected these guys to have names, and the Sentinels just be the Ruin Sentinels. Probably some lore behind that that I'm missing. The two Lords with scythes just attack with them, and again, very easy to dodge or block. The third shoots fireballs of varying size and speed. He shoots a large one which, I can't imagine, has ever hit any player. It's SO DAMN SLOW. Each of the three only took me 6-7 hits to kill, and they honestly don't put up much of a fight, like they could care less about trying and kill you. When you kill one, he explodes and spawns a handful of normal enemy skeletons. One Lord spawns normal ones, one Lord spawns slightly tougher ones with armor, and the Lord with the staff spawns those, horrible, awful, rage-inducing wheel skeletons from Dark Souls. Probably the single most irritating regular enemy in that game. I actually did die the first time I fought these guys, because I killed two Lords at the same time, and then saw all the skeletons spawn. I didn't really bother with them, and I went after and killed the final Lord. I didn't realize that these normal skeletons also shared in that one health bar, so I kinda waited around for another Lord to spawn (because they had a quarter of their health bar left), and I got ganged up on and killed.
    There was no real strategy for me. Just go up, block or dodge an attack, then whale on them. That's all there really is to the whole battle. In the end, they're just SLIGHTLY tougher versions of skeletons. Just try not to get overwhelmed by the skeleton spawns, keep your cool, and fuck those wheel skeletons! They are the only reason this boss could be remotely hard. Just keep your eye on them, and keep moving to avoid their attack. Even getting overwhelmed is tough because the room is huge (makes healing super easy), unless maybe you were in a corner. Also, after I killed them, I proceeded to put my summon sign down and help people fight them for a bit. Why anyone would need to summon help, I'm not sure. But it was fun wrecking these clowns, and it's a pretty easy spot to farm Tokens of Fidelity (and souls). Just put a summon sign down, fight, and repeat. That whole process takes maybe five minutes. One final note, I was fully prepared to give these guys the dreaded "1/10" difficulty rating I refused to give to ol' Flexy (see? It sounds good), but I just couldn't seeing as I died. Boo

Times I died: 1
Difficulty: 1.5/10
Overall rating: 5/10

My next post will be Lost Sinner. I still don't have him beat (despite three or four attempts last night), but I'll split it up into 2 posts, like the Gargoyles. I think I have a lot to write about this one.

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BOSS SOUL DESCRIPTION: "...who reigned from deep within the Huntsman's Copse; The Old Iron King commanded the capture of all Undead, but those charged with the task were overcome by the curse."  

 

Roaring Halberd

Roaring Halberd: "The unsettling skull carved into this halberd recalls the final moments of the Skeleton Lord from whom it was created."

Belfry Gargoyles (pt. 2)

YOU DEFEATED!

    Man, "You defeated" really was awesome. It should be up in the pantheon of ridiculous winning messages, along with "A winner is you!", and "You're winner!".

    Here we are, part two. I left off being killed 18 times by the Gargoyles, feeling helpless. Strangely enough, it wasn't until I started fighting The Lost Sinner (yeah, fuck him. More on him in a later post) that I figured out how I would beat the Gargoyles. Up until this point, I had been using my halbred +4, which I've said a few times already is awesome. It IS awesome: it's pretty powerful, and it has a crazy reach. But you know what it doesn't have? Speed! And the attacks take too much stamina. Enter the boring old longsword. I had one, and decided the moveset was good, and while it wasn't as powerful as my halbred, I could afford to sacrifice some power for the speed I so desperately needed. So I upgraded the longsword to +4 (I really need to get more titanite to upgrade my equipment past +4), and tried the Sinner again. Well, he killed me a bunch more. But then I got the brilliant idea to use it on the Gargoyles. Lo and behold, it was exactly what I needed!
    Firstly, I tried twice on the night of 3/21 (a very late night gaming session, which started at 11PM and ended a little after 3AM. I don't regret a thing!). I got killed twice, and I was still using the halbred. The second attempt I got them down to about half health, but I was still running into the same problem as before. I was too slow, and they were ganging up on me. I did put a summon sign down, and I helped a guy take them out, with the help of an old friend named crazy lag. It was entirely in our favor, and we took them out easily. Aah, good ol' Souls online lag.
    After those two attempts, I left and decided I'd level up a bit and try later. I played for a while after. The following night, with my newly upgraded longsword, I decided I wasn't going to bed until either these assholes or the Lost Sinner were dead. I started with the Gargoyles, and in quite a glorious, tense, scary battle, I took them out (on my first try with the longsword, no less)! It took all six of my Estus Flasks (puts your nerves on edge when you have to dash to the other end of the roof and use a flask, just HOPING they don't get to you and kill you first), and one or two Radiant Lifegems, but I did it. Solo, just like I wanted to. It turned out the longsword did almost as much damage as the halbred, but was so much faster, with so much less stamina needed. I could swing it and attack THREE times and still have the stamina to either roll out, or put up my shield. I was also able to keep them at bay, and I don't think I had more than three to deal with at a time. I speculated in the first part of the post about the amount of Gargoyles that can show up. Well, in being summoned and helping the guy I referred to above, there must have been six Gargoyles flying (read, flying = being frozen and transporting. Lag!) around at the mid-point of that battle. Back to my solo battle, I took out one of the first two Gargoyles shortly after the third one joined in, so it was very manageable. My basic strategy was to dash in, get a few hits (when I was sure the other Gargoyles had already attacked) off, then get out. I always kept them in front of me, and I strafed around a lot. Also had to just run straight past them at times, to avoid getting caught in a mob (I did get caught once, can't believe I got out of it). When one started breathing fire, I would try to finish him off quickly. They generally stay behind the others when they breathe fire, and you can get a free hit or two because of this.
    Even through all the deaths, the frustration, all that running from bonfire to fog gate, I ended up enjoying this battle. It was quite difficult, but it never made me wanna break my controller. That moment came basically immediately after (I won't go into it, but let's just say a long ladder, a pack of AT LEAST ten dogs, and an NPC black Phantom by the name of Vorgel the Sinner make for an INCREDIBLY RAGE INDUCING TIME). Beating the Gargoyles was such a great moment of triumph, it made me feel like a god or something. It's still the best thing the Souls games have going for them. Almost no other games give you that incredible feeling. I love you Dark Souls II.

PS: In browsing through the names of Boss soul weapons, I found out the name of the Belfry Gargoyles' weapons that I had a tough time describing in the first post. They are bidents (like trident, but only two prongs). Makes sense to me!

Times I died: 21
Difficulty: 8.5/10
Overall rating: 8/10

I currently am not sure what's next. I'm hoping I can kill Lost Sinner tonight. That death count is at a nice 15 so far.

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BOSS SOUL DESCRIPTION: "The elaborate stone statue on the belfry mysteriously came to life." 

 

Gargoyle Bident

Gargoyle Bident: "Gargoyles are said to guard castles and forts from ill fortune, and they have appeared in many forms in all the great lands throughout history. Some of them are so meticulously crafted that they look as if they might come to life."

Flexile Sentry

We're all on a boat!

    Excuse my missing a blog post yesterday. Didn't have time. But don't worry, that means you get two today! Huzzah! Up now, we have Flexile Sentry. This name culls up images of a robot for me, probably because of the use of the word "sentry". Well, he certainly isn't a robot. He resides at the bottom deck of a ghost ship that you call for in No-Man's Wharf. A quick note on No-Man's Wharf: man, what a HUGE pain in the ass that place is. Probably the toughest for me so far. This guy, on the other hand, wasn't too tough. In fact, I came in, smacked him around a little bit, and called it a day. Yup, I beat this clown on my first attempt. Beating any boss in these games on my VERY first try is a pretty rare occurrence  for me. However, I got a little wind taken out of my sails (get it? Because you fight him on a ship!) when, while reading a thread on a DSII forum I frequent, I discovered he was a boss many people took down on their first try. Whatever, still awesome. The only other boss I can think of bringing down in one attempt is Pinwheel from Dark Souls (not sure if I can count King Allant from Demon's Souls, because it's almost impossible to die in that battle). I was happy I beat him in one try also because I spent the better part of probably 60+ minutes getting through No-Man's Wharf, and wanted to be done with it.
    Okay, now to the battle. Flexile Sentry looks very cool. He's two torsos conjoined, back-to-back, upon one pair of legs. He has four arms, and he quadruple-wields! Two arms hold some sort of falchion/scimitar curved swords. The other two arms hold giant metal spiked clubs.He moves very gracefully around his small room, and he has some great looking moves. In fact, the fluidity of his moves is close to stunning. It's almost fun just to sit back and watch him leap, spin, slice, and smash around. But of course, that's not what we're here for. We came for blood! As you could probably guess, he slams the clubs down with brute, slow force, and he uses the swords for quick attacks. It should be noted that both his sets of weapons cause bleeding, so BE CAREFUL. That's probably the biggest concern with the battle. I could see it ending very badly for someone who gets hit with too many bleeding attacks. There's an indestructible pillar in the middle of the room, and this can be used (to great effect) to keep something between him and you. I just blocked his attacks, and my halbred has such a great length, I could usually get one or two hits in after his attacks finished, before he started the animation for a new one.
    As far as his difficulty rating, I'm going to give him a "2". I know he's no pushover, and I'm sure it'll be much different on NG+, but I hesitate to give a "1" to any boss, because I want that to be reserved for the total pusses (again, this would be Pinwheel. I was so shocked at how incredibly easy he was the first time I fought him in Dark Souls. He's still the "1" standard). Also, I was constantly on alert, and felt that if I wasn't perfect, I would get killed. It was an anxious fight. So, it's a 2, but could easily be a 5+. Finally, I should mention the battle takes place in knee-high water, and it restricts movement somewhat. Not enough to make the battle significantly harder, of course. Overall, I liked this battle a lot. It was fun, still challenging, and it took place in an interesting area. Also, the boss looks just great. Not a knight!

Times I died: 0
Difficulty: 2/10
Overall rating: 8/10

Next up, the THRILLING conclusion to my two-part Gargoyle series...

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BOSS SOUL DESCRIPTION: "The Flexile Sentry is a merciless creature whose purpose is to punish the Undead." 

 

Arced Sword

Arced Sword: "Long Ago, the dungeons overflowed with the accused, and the King commanded a contorted sentry to deliver those who had no cells to a faraway land, and to make certain they were never heard from again."

The Old Dragonslayer

The Big "O"

    Well, well, well. Looks like an old friend from the past (but is it though?) has come to visit. I had quite the smile on my face as I walked through the fog gate and saw a tall, slender knight on the other side. First off, yes, another knight boss. But what's so special about this knight boss? Why did I smile (and secretly cry tears of pain on the inside?)? Well, it was none other than Dragon Slayer Ornstein! You know, of Ornstein and Smough fame, from Dark Souls? Arguably the toughest bosses in the game (that's where my money goes anyway)? He seems to make an appearance as a boss in this game -- even though his name is Old Dragonslayer --, which I personally think is awesome. At this point, I haven't seen much tying Dark Souls I and II together, and this is a nice touch...strenuous as it might be. As I was marvelling aloud at how cool it was that he was in this game, he killed me within five seconds of entering his arena. That's how it goes. But hold on, gentle reader, because I don't think all is as it seems here.
    Is this REALLY Ornstein? Let's backtrack a bit. I certainly am no master of the Dark Souls lore, as complicated and hidden as it is. In fact, I didn't really know lore existed for these games until I stumbled upon EpicNameBro's AMAZING lore videos on YouTube. If you haven't watched them, check them out. I also believe he co-authored the strategy guide for this game too, which is neat. Anyway, from what I know of Ornstein and Smough, and from what I've read online, I don't believe this Old Dragonslayer to be the same boss from the first game. I mean, you do kill him in the first game. I think there are two possibilities (WARNING: lore conjecture from me upcoming) here: either this is actually the REAL Ornstein, and the one from the first game was an illusion (I've read things online that support the illusion angle), or this is just some sort of imposter/distant relative, and the Ornstein from the original is the real deal. I suppose it's possible that O from the original game is the real one, and perhaps (if Dark Souls II is even set after the events of the first game. Remember, I haven't beaten it yet, I'm not up on the lore of this one yet, I'm flying by the seat of my pants, just having fun) this Old Dragonslayer is a relative, as I've said, and he's keeping the tradition alive. Perhaps, also, that since O was the captain of Gwyn's knights, he could have been famous with the people, and now, long after his death, knights are still honoring him by dressing like him and fighting like him. Long shot probably, but it's not insane. But if this was the case, why would the name be Old Dragonslayer? That seems to indicate an established, seasoned veteran, who's put years into his knighthood. The final odd piece of information that differentiates Old Dragonslayer from Ornstein is that Ornstein uses lightning attacks (and armor imbued with lightning), yet O.D. (sick of typing that long name!) is weak to lightning, and uses dark magic. At any rate, this is one of the most exciting aspects of Dark Souls II lore. Let the speculation continue!
    Now, onto the actual battle. It's very similar to the one in Dark Souls, although considerably easier of course. Firstly, he's a pretty early boss, so he's not supercrazyhard. Also, you fight him alone. Hallelujah! Finally, I think he's more normal size, compared to his bigger version in the first game. Even so, it took me a few tries to get this guy down. But it was still fun anyway. He has his trademark long spear, and all his awesome-looking armor (including the lion helmet). I can't recall the names of his equipment at the moment. EDIT: After quickly looking it up, his armor in Dark Souls doesn't have a special name. It's just, "Ornstein's Armor". You do get a Leo Ring for defeating him, but I believe it's an Old Leo Ring. I'm not sure the significance of it being "old" (another piece to the puzzle). Anyway, you can block his quick attacks and strafe to a side of him, and get a few hits in, before you need to put your shield back up. I didn't roll much in this battle, I was all about the shield. And for fun, summon a phantom or two, and show this motherfucker how much fun a lopsided battle can be. But if you summon a shade/phantom, know this battle gets supremely easy, as it goes.
    Overall, this is a great battle, and is a nice callback to probably the most famous (and again, arguably most difficult) boss battle in Dark Souls. Yes, he's a knight boss (I think we're finally escaping the knight-boss-quagmire), but he's the coolest one yet, for sure.

Times I died: 4
Difficulty: 6/10
Overall rating: 8/10.

Get ready to flex!

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BOSS SOUL DESCRIPTION: "The Old Dragonslayer is reminiscent of a certain knight that appears in old legends." 

 

Dragonslayer Spear

 Dragonslayer Spear: "The spear of the knight known as the Dragonslayer was imbued with the power of lightning, and shattered the stone scales of dragons."

The Ruin Sentinels

Give me monsters, damn it!

    Looking back on this battle, having just beaten it recently, I can't help but feel disappointed. Now, don't worry, the boss battle is fine. I'm disappointed in myself. I again had to summon help to fight these guys. Aah, oh well, I'll take them down on NG+ by myself (hopefully...). But I digress. The Ruin Sentinels are three tall, lanky statues that have been inhabited by spirits, I believe. They all have round shields and halbreds. Each one has its own health bar (unlike those Gargoyles), and they all have the exact same attacks. And they all look identical to one another, too. They do look interesting, but it's more of the same, with the humanoid-knight motif that's been the through-line of most of the early bosses. I must say, I'm also a little disappointed by the bosses so far. I know there are literally DOZENS more, and from the little I've gleaned from reading online, they get way better (and harder). I'm just getting sick of seeing knights. Give me monsters, damn it (I'll use that as my subheader, instead of what I originally went with).
    These guys are the toughest fight to this point because there are three of them -- NOTE: I wrote the notes for this entry before I tried the Belfry Gargoyles. The Sentinels are considerably easier than the Gargoyles. But don't get that mistaken with total ease. These guys are still bastards -- Although, you don't actually have to fight all three at the same time (unless you fall from where you start the battle), because you can kill the first one before the other two join in. Some notes about the room you battle them in: it's a large, mostly-empty room (empty except for some breakable pillars), with a platform-area running around the top of the room, acting as a makeshift second floor. But there are no walls to this, so falling down is easy (and mandatory I would think). Also, it's broken up, so you can traverse the whole thing until after you beat the bosses. So you enter the room, through the fog gate, which is essentially a whole in the wall. You fall slightly to this platformed area. If you aren't ready, you will IMMEDIATELY get met with a halbred to the face, from the first Sentinel. They also have names, which I think is a nice touch (and begs the question, are those the names of the spirits that have taken over their bodies? I plan on diving into the lore on my second playthrough, so hopefully I can figure out some of this stuff). The first one is called Yahim, and other two, which start on the floor below the platform, are called Ricce and Alessia. Once you drop into the battle, you have to immediately put your shield up. Otherwise, fighting Yahim is quite easy. All his (her? I feel like all three names are vaguely feminine, especially Alessia) attacks are easy to dodge/block, and are telegraphed. Just block the attacks, strafe around when needed, and attack when you have a chance. Easy as pie. Once Yahim dies, another one will jump up onto this platform. After a few seconds, the third and final will jump up too. I should point out that part of the platform you start on is quite small, and I wouldn't suggest fighting the final two on this platform. I'm sure some people can, but I couldn't risk it. If you can't fight them on the platform, well, it's time to jump down.
    Too bad you take semi-significant  fall damage (I did anyway). It was probably 1/6 of my total health. So once you jump down, quickly heal, or just man up. As I said, I summoned a phantom for the battle, and it was actually an NPC phantom. I can't remember his name, but his summon sign is found in one of the open jail cells in the corridor leading to the boss. It's funny, because, as I usually do, I spend time putting my own summon sign down, to help others. Two or three other people also summoned this NPC, and I didn't realize it was an NPC at the time. I kept thinking, wow, EVERYONE is summoning this guy. He must be super popular or something. But anywho, generally in these games, NPC summons kinda suck. This one absolutely does not. He has strong magic (one of those Soul Arrows, not sure which one), and he can stand back and just whip magic at them, staying alive for quite awhile himself. In fact, thinking on it briefly, the only other NPC I can think of that was helpful in a boss battle was Biorr, back from Demon's Souls. He makes the fight against The Penetrator a joke. Back to mystery NPC here, he can draw attention away from one of the Sentinels, while you fight the other one in the same way you fought Yahim: block, attack, block, attack. However, Ricce and Alessia have two new attacks on the ground floor. They can do a cyclone attack, which if you get hit full on, will destroy your stamina and most, if not all, of your health. I found this pretty easy to dodge, however. The other attack is a shield throw, which, is, well, a shield throw. They whip it at you, and it imbeds itself into the wall, not useable for the rest of the battle. This is easy to dodge, although this attack killed me at least twice anyway.
    This battle can be manageable solo, but it takes quite a bit of patience and awareness. It's tough, but you can do it! Even though I found this battle difficult, I enjoyed it. That's one thing I can say about this game. So far, anyway, all the battles have been enjoyable. But I just KNOW there's stuff that awaits me that won't be so enjoyable. This battle was interesting, the boss design was kind of cool (buuuuuuut, still not the awesome design I'm expecting from this game), and it's a nice challenge. I'd call this my second favorite boss, behind Pursuer.

Times I died (again, this is approx. because I didn't keep track. This should be the last approx. number): 8
Difficulty: 7/10.
Overall rating: 7/10

Next time, on Nosferat2's Emporium of Ruthless Viciousness...we visit an old friend. Or, do we? Well, yes, we do.

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BOSS SOUL DESCRIPTION: "...a creation of the jailer; The Ruin Sentinel has no corporeal form. It is only an empty soul that haunts the armor."

The Pursuer

Nothing to crow about (sorry, ugh)

 Another early boss (again, second or third?), and he’s the coolest one yet. He’s also the first challenging boss in the game, and definitely the most fun so far. He reminds me of equal parts False King Allant from Demon’s Souls (the way he effortlessly floats from afar right at you. That was the first thing that popped into my head when I saw him do this) and Artorias from the Dark Souls DLC (because of his fluid sword-work). I will say Pursuer is quite a bit easier than either of those bosses. And, between you and me, I haven’t beaten Artorias on my own. I had to summon help for that battle. It’s my secret shame (also I had to summon help for Manus. That DLC was no joke).

    He’s yet another knight in a line of knight (or knight-like) bosses, but he’s the best yet. He has a pretty cool looking shield and a sword he can wield like no one’s business (and a bizarrely small head). He’s not amazing to look at from a creativity standpoint (definitely better looking than Dragonrider), but he’s intimidating to say the least, especially when he starts gracefully slicing you up like deli meat. There’s a point earlier in this level (Forest Of Fallen Giants I’m pretty sure) where you can ascend a ladder on the side of a small building. There’s a hollow throwing firebombs down. When you climb up and get to the roof, a giant crow flies in and drops off the Pursuer. He only appears the very first time, and the first time I saw this big, scary knight fall from a crow, well I high-tailed it the hell back down the ladder. When you step through the fog gate to fight him proper, there’s a cutscene of a giant crow flying in and dropping him off. I didn’t even make the connection at first that this was the guy that had been dropped off at that building. Silly me. That little cutscene is pretty badass too. First his sword slams down from the sky and imbeds itself in the ground. Shortly after, he follows suit and slams down. He looks at you, and has this glowing red beam (laser??) from his helmet, which is just totally awesome. Perhaps he uses this to pursue? It reminds me of a cyborg.

    As far as my strategy I used, it was simple, and I really didn’t have a huge problem with him. Reading online, it seems some people were really stymied by him for awhile. I almost got him on my second try (he smoked me on my very first try), but I bested him on my third attempt. If you’re far from him, he’ll quickly float at you, and end with a sword swipe. This is very easy to dodge, then it sets you up to get a few hits. Hold your shield up after this, and don't stay too close to him. Try to get some distance again, and he’ll float and slice, which you can again roll away from and get some damage in. I don’t know if he alters this pattern much, but he basically stuck in this pattern for me, so it was fairly simple. He also has some forward slashes that can be rolled from. At some point, he may try an attack that turns his sword blue. If you’re close, you’ll get impaled. Try to avoid this because, a.) you’ll get some heavy damage dealt to you, and b.) I believe it curses you. I got hit with this, and I still carry that curse (I’m still unclear as to what exactly this does, however). There’s also two ballistas in the area you fight him in, and you can try to shoot giant arrows at him (and these things do some massive damage, like 900+ from what I saw). It takes a long time to shoot one, however, and he can usually just destroy them before you can even get a shot off. Not worth the trouble I’d say. But BE CAREFUL if you have shades/phantoms helping you, or you are a shade/phantom helping someone else. It seems people like to use the ballistas, and they don’t care if you are in the way. I was summoned into someone’s game to help them fight Pursuer, and I was meleeing him, showing him the business, and I got destroyed by one of those arrows, because I was just in the wrong place. If possible, try to coordinate with the people helping you. 

    Overall, this was the first boss that I really thought was cool, and I'd call him my favorite so far. I haven't encountered very many bosses, and I know there is a HUGE amount, so I'm sure he won't stay my favorite, but he's definitely awesome in the early goings. He's tough, but fun; he looks cool enough (if not the tiniest bit bland), and I really enjoy the fact that you can find him earlier and fight him (disappointing that you don't get anything special for beating him here) before you find him beyond the fog gate. 

Times I died: 3

Difficulty: 5/10

Overall rating: 7/10

Next up on the docket? Three tall, skinny living statues.  

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BOSS SOUL DESCRIPTION: "...who lurks in Drangleic; The Pursuer, who seeks the bearer of the sign, will not rest until his target is slain." 

 

Pursuer's Ultra Greatsword

 

Pursuer's Ultra Greatsword: "The Pursuer hunts down those branded by the curse, as if each Undead soul he claims will atone one of his sins."

Belfrey Gargoyles (pt. 1)

...or, UUUUGGGH

(this doesn't follow the end of my Dragonrider post, where I teased Pursuer. I meant to have that one next, but I couldn’t resist putting this one first. Pursuer should be tomorrow)

    You've just fought through a small secret area (which you gained access to with the cool Pharos Lockstone) filled with strange, black (phantom? I don't think so, but that's what they look like) dwarves and invading gray phantoms (part of the Bell Keeper Covenant I have since found out from joining it myself), and now you stand in front of a fog gate. Boss imminent? Oh, most certainly.
    You walk through, and immediately you're met with a sense of nostalgia. You're on a rooftop. This sure looks familiar, you think to yourself. Then you see the name at the bottom of the screen, over the health meter: "Belfry Gargoyle". Flashbacks of the painful Bell Gargoyles fight from Dark Souls rush back to you now. Okay, another Bell Gargoyle fight, you might think to yourself. I mean, no HUGE deal right? They were tough, but certainly manageable.
    You see the first Gargoyle hop down from his platform, and the battle is on. You go in closer, annoyed that you can't immediately lock on. About five seconds after the first one hops down, a second Gargoyle swoops down behind you (and perhaps catches you off guard, especially if this is your first time fighting them). You circle around and get both of them in front of you. Okay, two Gargoyles, not a huge deal. Didn't we just recently beat THREE Sentinels?
    You start fighting away at these two, carefully keeping them in front of you, and noticing thankfully they share one health bar (like the Four Kings from Dark Soul–more on them in a bit.). This ultimately doesn't matter though. A little bit into this battle, a THIRD Gargoyle hops down to join in on the fun. Well, you think to yourself, now a little more than weary, that's certainly different than the Dark Souls battle. Luckily, one of the first two is most likely almost dead, so you can quickly bring this back to a 2-on-1. Or you could, if he wasn't cowardly hiding behind the other two, breathing all matter of hellfire at you. But you're resilient, and you carefully block and roll around, whittling away at the health of the other two, while the first still blows fire right up your ass. Pretty tough, but as soon as you get that fire breather dead, this will be...oh hell, what's that noise from behind you? Oh, just a FOURTH Gargoyle joining the battle. Hip-hip-hooray!
    And at this point, you've either been killed, or you managed to kill one of the first three, bringing this back to a "manageable" 3-on-1. I'm not sure how many can gang up on you at once, I never saw more than four, but I imagine if you don't kill them fast enough, they just keep joining. And that's the real issue with this battle, you gotta do it fast. Well, fast-ish. First, let me go back to the Four Kings battle. I'd feel no embarrassment saying this Belfry Gargoyle battle is more difficult than Four Kings. The mechanic is similar (IE, one shared life bar, and enemies appearing after a certain amount of time), but I never had a HUGE problem with the Kings. I could run up to the first one and slap him around good enough, so when the second one appeared, the first was either dead, or almost dead. I withstood their attacks well. But these Gargoyle assholes? I died 17 (SEVENTEEN!!!) times last night fighting them. I don't think, over my two main characters and 200+ hours with Dark Souls, I died 17 times to the Four Kings (even through NG+ and beyond).
    Now, the fast aspect. I basically start the battle by getting one or two hits in on the first Gargoyle, then becoming super defensive and hiding behind my shield while I either strafe around or straight up run to the other end of the rooftop. So I'm taking this battle very slowly, patiently, methodically. The Gargoyles will have none of that. The window to attack these guys is razor thin, too, so that doesn't help. It adds to my being slow. I'm sure there are players who can take the first two Gargoyles out before the third enters (that's impressive, the third one comes in after a minute, maybe less), but I certainly can't. Luckily I'm rocking a Halbred +4, and it has a crazy good reach. I can stay just out of reach of their short weapons (more on those very soon) and get in an attack, then roll back to get my bearings. It's gonna be a slow war to take these guys down.
    I'd like to quickly describe the general look of these guys. Firstly, THANK GOD THEY AREN'T VAGUELY HUMAN KNIGHTS! These Belfry Gargoyles look more like stone Gargoyles than the Bell ones in Dark Souls. The ones in the first game look more like actual creatures (they have axe-tails and shields, I feel this supports the creature look) as opposed to statues that have come to life. Also, they (Bell G's) have some color. The Belfry counterparts are a stony gray color, and, well, look like stone. They are basically one uniform color. They have a strange weapon, one which I can only describe as a short, two-pronged speared. It seems more ornamental than an actual weapon (lending creedance to the fact that these guys are/were statues). They can attack with their tails, and they have that lovely fire-breath when their health gets low enough. They have a seldom-used lighting attack, which I think is a small AOE deal.
    Finally, I've decided I'm beating these guys alone. Solo. I'm not summoning anyone to help (to make up for my previous two summons for bosses I probably didn't need them for). I want to prove to myself I can take them down alone. It goes without saying (and I'll stop saying it soon) that summoning one or two other phantoms will make this battle IMMENSELY easier (but still no cakewalk). I did put some summon signs down last night, and I was helping one guy, and we got them down to probably 20% health left, maybe only two Gargoyles left, and the guy died. I was heartbroken, and it wasn't even my game. He must have been pissed. Another good thing about this battle? The trip from the bonfire to the fog gate is super short. Takes maybe 30 seconds, and the small amount of enemies can all easily be avoided.
    That's all I have for now. As a note, I'm putting these posts up in the order I beat the bosses, with this exception. I don’t have these guys beat, and I have three others beat I can write about, but I thought my experiences last night should immediately be typed out. I'll make another post when I take theses guys down. Tonight, maybe? For you keeping track at home, I've died 18 times to them so far.

To be continued...

Dragonrider

The first of many knight-bosses

    As previously mentioned, it's tough to say who the true second boss is. Dragonrider was my second, but he could have been the third or fourth for other people (I've read online that people were fighting The Pursuer shortly after beating Last Giant. I didn't fight Pursuer until like 10 hours in). At any rate, this was my number two, and eh, he was okay. But he did give me some damn problems, for whatever reason.
    He's located in Heide's Tower Of Flame, and to get to him, you have to battle at least six giant, hulking knights. Some of them have a large sword and a shield, while a couple just two-hand a sword. They aren't too tough, because they are predictable and slow, but they can hit hard. The Dragonrider is basically a tougher version of these guys, which is disappointing. He certainly looks different, and again, he's harder, but he's essentially just a big fat knight. He's boring to look at, also. He carries a large, halbred-looking thing (whether it IS a halbred, or just a giant axe with a tip on the end for thrusting attacks, [but isn't that basically a halbred?] I’m not sure) and a large shield.
    As I said, I had a tough time, and I ended up summoning in someone to help me. I wish I had just persevered and had patience, because I absolutely could have taken this guy down by myself. I think I didn't want to get hung up on a boss so early on, and my impatience to see what lies ahead made me summon. Also, I learned via reading (I try like the dickens not to read much about this game, I want to go in blind and figure things out myself, but I'm SO OBSESSED it's so very difficult for me NOT to read. I’m not even looking things up, I just genuinely enjoy reading about the game: other peoples’ experiences and difficulties, etc) that this battle can be more difficult if you don't pull a few levers through the path to him (these are only revealed if you kill those aforementioned giant knights). Pulling the levers raises additional parts of Dragonrider's arena to make it bigger, with more space to move around. If you don't get these levers, his arena is smaller, with a much bigger opportunity to fall to your death. But at any rate I never experienced this.
    My strategy was to block (with my not-100%-physical-reduction-shield, no less) his attacks, and counter when I had a moment to. He isn't fast, but he can attack you unexpectedly if you're close. He can also destroy your stamina, so be careful of that. I summoned someone to help, so this battle really was a piece of cake. With two people, his attention gets split, and one person always has an opportunity to attack, or heal if needed. Also of note, now that Estus Flasks take longer to consume, they can be difficult to use in the heat of a boss battle. Not so with Mr. Rider here, he's slow enough where you can run to the other side of the arena and use one. Still, stay on your toes.
    Overall, this guy is only decent. He's boring to look at, and ultimately not much of a challenge (despite my bitching out of any kind of challenge, which I won't do in NG+, even though I hear NG+ is waaaaay scarier than in the previous games). But hey, only the second boss of what, 35 or so?

Times I died (this is approx because I stupidly didn't keep track): 6
Difficulty: 5.5/10
Overall rating: 5/10

Next, we have someone who may like to, let's say, pursue you...
*tee hee*  

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BOSS SOUL DESCRIPTION: "...who faithfully served King Vendrick; Long ago, the dragonriders mounted wyrms, and were feared on the battlefield for their unparalleled strength." 

 

Dragonrider Bow

Dragonrider Bow: "Bow wielded by the Dragonrider, King Vendrick's personal guard. Merely drawing this bow requires inhuman strength, but each shot has deadly potential; Demands great skill of its wielder, and thus served to test the worthiness of those who aspired to join the Dragonriders."

Dragonrider Halberd

Dragonrider Halberd: "Demands great skill of its wielder, and thus served to test the worthiness of those who aspire to join the Dragonriders."

Dragonrider Twinblade

 Dragonrider Twinblade: ""The Watcher has stood by the throne for ages. Will his wait be worth the while?"

The Last Giant

  ...but the first boss!

    The first boss (if he can so be called. The beginning of the game is fairly non-linear, so while he was my first boss, someone who went to Heide's Tower Of Flame would fight a couple more first) is The Last Giant, who resides, logically enough, within the Forest Of The Fallen Giants.When you first enter through the fog gate, you are treated to a small cut-scene of the strange-looking giant (Giant? Should it be capitalized I wonder?), who sort of looks like a tree, motionless for a brief moment before his faceless head turns up at you and utters a nice, guttural growl. He then breaks from his bondage (seemingly debris and general nature that has grown up on/around him over the years), lets out one more growl, then charges.
    He's certainly scary when you first see him, and will intimidate first time Souls players (and maybe even veterans), but he turns out to be a fairly atypical Souls "first" boss. He's similar to Phalanx from Demon's Souls, and Asylum Demon and Taurus Demon from Dark Souls, wherein they all are fairly big, look scary as hell, will kill you a few times, but once you get the pattern down, you'll likely never die to them again, unless you're experimenting with a new build/weapon set-up/spell, or are just being ridiculously careless. Last Giant works well to introduce you to Dark Souls while not being terribly difficult. Sure, you'll die, but after two or three times, this lanky bastard will call you master.
    As far as aesthetics, I think Last Giant looks pretty cool. So far, about 15 hours in (only at the Belfry Gargoyles, more on them at a later date), he's the coolest looking boss. Many of the bosses in the beginning are humanoid, or are outright knights. While the Giant IS sort of humanoid, he's also a monstrosity, and doesn't look very much like a human. He's thin, fragile looking, and he doesn't have a face, just a hole where it either should be, or where a head would connect to the rest of his body. I actually thought that was his proper face (I mean, he does howl), but I think I read somewhere that he's supposed to have a head that connects to that hole. Who knows, but I choose to believe that's his natural look. But anyway it does add to his creepiness. I didn't realize when I fought him, but he's got several swords and axes sticking out of his back, like he had been attacked and left for dead for ages. I did notice he has a huge tree trunk impaling his torso, which again adds a nice touch. This poor (well, not really poor. I mean, he does try to kill you for no real reason) Giant has been through a lot, or at least that's what's implied. Why was he attacked? Why are the other Giants you find in the forest dead and decaying?
    This guy's really pretty easy, and my basic strategy was to run and roll through his feet. He'll do an arm sweep attack that will completely miss you. And look at that, now you're directly below him, in between his feet, near his ankle. In this position, you're free to take a couple swings. Be aware that you should save some stamina to run/roll out from underneath him, because he will stomp around before too long. I found these attacks to be fairly devastating, and I couldn't withstand more than two of them. But after you hit him a few times (I could hit him twice), just run out, and you'll easily avoid this attack. And now, you're far enough away that you can heal if needed. After that, just run back to him, roll under the arm sweep attack, and hack away again. Run out before the stomping. Rinse and repeat. I'm sure there may be better strategies, but this is what I used, and what worked for me.Also, about halfway through this battle, he rips one of his arms off to use it as a club, giving himself a little extra reach. I didn't find this to affect the battle for me in the slightest.
    Overall, a pretty decent fight to kick off this great game. He's a good first boss that  follows in the footsteps of previous first bosses in the other games. I know some people dislike this one, but I'm not sure why. I read somewhere (a diary article on IGN I believe) that the design of the Giant isn't a true Souls design, and that there's no elegance to it. I disagree with this. I find a certain elegance, and maybe a bit of sadness too. He's as elegant as a dying, killer ballerina. But that's neither here nor there.

Times I died (this is an approximate number, because I stupidly didn't keep track, but it should be within 1-2 deaths): 3
Difficulty (based on the very first playthrough, no Company of Champions or anything): 4/10.
Overall Rating (a mix of difficulty, the overall battle, aesthetics, and lore, if applicable): 6/10.

Next up, we have the Dragonrider.

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BOSS SOUL DESCRIPTION: "Soul of the surviving giant, who was bound below the Forest of the Giants; Many seasons had come and gone, and the giant prepared for his final rest. But his soul remained magnificent, testimony to his former strength."

 

Giant Stone Axe

Giant Stone Axe: "The Giants were eventually defeated by an unnamed hero, but alas, victory came all to late."