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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