NG+ Boss Notes

Here there be NG+

    Okay, I'm going to use this one post for all my NG+ boss musings. Some battles are exactly the same as the first playthrough, so those will be super simple. No need to retread old posts. I'm not keeping count of deaths, and I'm not going to rate difficulty like the first time around. This will be reserved for my general thoughts on how the battles differ from the first playthrough, and how, if it all, they were tougher. So check back here regularly, it will be updated a lot throughout the next two-or-so weeks. So, without further adieu, here we go! Finally, I'm not fighting every boss. I can tell you right now, unless I have a change of heart (I won't), I won't be fighting: Royal Rat Authority, Darklurker, or Vendrick. I might try Ancient Dragon with the Gyrm shield, just to see if I can cheese him. Otherwise, everyone else will be included.

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The Last Giant-

    This one was identical to the first battle. Just stay near his ankles, slash away, and make sure you avoid his stomping. Nothing new here. 

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The Pursuer-

    Again, this battle is the same as the first. He'll still fun as hell to fight, even if you can beat him in one or two attempts. I almost killed him the first time you see him, in that building with the firebomb throwing guy. I made a dumb mistake and got killed. It's supremely satisfying to kill him, deftly rolling from all his attacks, and not getting hit yourself. I will say, one thing I didn't notice on my first playthrough is the completely fucked hitbox of his blue-sword-curse attack. He stabs his sword forward, but if you're on either side, even if you aren't in the path of the sword, you'll get hit. Very annoying. He also has a dark attack I've only seen him use ONCE. If you're far away, he'll shoot  six or seven dark orbs at you. I've never seen him use this before, and it killed me because he caught me off guard. 

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Dragonrider-

    This battle was actually NG++ because of the bonfire ascetic I used in my initial playthrough. As you'll all remember, I had to summon a phantom to help me kill the Dragonrider on my very first playthrough. Well, I went through on my ascetic-ed Heide's Tower Of Flame to fight this guy proper. I beat his jabroni ass so easily. It was pathetic, really. WHY did I ever need help? Anyway, I just rolled from his attacks, and cut him down with my longsword. Simple. For my NG++ run, I actually summoned help again. But, I was grinding those Sunlight Medals (going for the Platinum trophy!), so I summoned a SunBro for that. This guy is super easy, enough said. 

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Skeleton Lords-

    I distinctly remember this being one of the easiest battles on my first playthrough. While it is still easy now, it's actually a little crazy and tense. Firstly, I spent a good 90-or-so minutes just co-oping this boss as part of the SunBro covenant (I honestly don't remember the name. Heirs of the Sun right?). It was amazingly fun. In fact, one of the most fun things I've done in this game. Some of those battles got hectic, and they kept me on the edge of my seat even. Especially when, instead of killing one Lord at a time, then dealing with the resulting normal skeletons, the clowns I was helping would just kill all three, then have like 15 normal skeletons ganging up on us. I died once, and a world master died once, during my co-op session. As for my own battle against them, it wasn't hard, but, again, I was much more cautious than I was the first time around. I thought this battle kinda sucked the first time through, but I've come to appreciate it more now.

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 Covetous Demon-

    This boss is just as easy as the first time. He killed me once, but I don't even remember how. Nothing new to add here, just watch out for that double-roll over move!

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Mytha, the Baneful Queen-

    Well, this one was certainly interesting, and quite a bit different than my initial playthrough. As we all know, you have to burn that windmill to drain the poison pool from Mytha's room. Except, apparently sometimes there's a bug where you burn the windmill...and it doesn't drain the posion. And there's nothing you can do about it, except man up and beat her in the poison. I basically did that. Two new aspects with the poison: first, you'll be constantly poisoned, and constantly losing health. Secondly, the poison heals her, so her health is always slowing returning. If you can hit her enough, this isn't a huge deal. But it's tough to constantly be on her, because you have to worry about your always-draining health, and you have to dodge her attacks (which I had a HELL of a hard time doing for some reason. It was partly due to being SO focused and concerned about the poison. It was partly due to it being very late at night). I got fed up with trying (died at least ten times), so I decided to just summon Jester Thomas, an NPC right outside her room. He's proficient with pyromancies, and he aggroed her enough for me to kill her easily. I could have probably taken her out myself, but I was tired and sick of dealing with her. I must note, if it wasn't for the poison, this battle would still be easy, and I would have probably killed her my first try.

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Executioner's Chariot-

    I decided I wanted to fight this guy earlier on, instead of being almost halfway through the game. The result? Eh, he still wasn't that hard. The skeletons were a little more annoying this time around (I killed all three mages this time though!), and the horses (after you crash the chariot with the gate) were much more of a pain, but all told, I only died three or four times.  The run-up to the boss is more difficult, as it was before. I'm sure you all remember how much I bitched about it, and how I was killed at the fog gate several times because I chose to run past all the enemies, and they follow you relentlessly up to the fog. Well, running past them all this time is not possible. For starters, four of the leather-clad guys are red phantoms (and they added another dual-moon sickle red phantom too), and there is also a red phantom in front of the fog gate that DOES NOT DISAPPEAR after you kill him. Luckily it only took a few tries, because fighting through them all gets tiresome.

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Old Iron King-

    I purposely tried to take a different path this time as opposed to the first playthrough. So here we are, at the Iron Keep. Tried (and failed. Ugh, I'll get to that soon enough) taking down Smelter Demon for a bit, but needed a change of pace, so I killed the King here. He was just as easy as before. Not much to say. I died once. However, I did realized there is a GODDAMN BONFIRE RIGHT NEXT TO HIM! In that final small square room (with all the fire and the spikes on the wall), before you get to the outside area, there is a ladder that leads to a bonfire. So, thanks anonymous player that left a message about there being a ladder and bonfire close by!

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Ruin Sentinels-

    Welp, this boss is still a huge pain in the ass. I did manage to beat them on my own (something I failed to do on NG), but it took close to (if not at least) a dozen attempts. This is also one of a very small handful of bosses that I still need a shield for. For whatever reason, I cannot consistently roll from their attacks. I had to soak up the damage with the shield, then get one or two hits in when I had a chance. This was a long battle that involved much patience. And frustration. I tried using Great Magic Weapon (a sorcery! I respec'd several times to land on this current build, with an absurd 18 intelligence) before the battle, to take out the first Sentinel, Yahim. By the time I killed it, my buff was basically gone for the fight with the other two. I didn't have the time to use it again. I also tried killing Yahim regularly, then buffing with GMW before I jumped down to fight the two. Eventually, I just went with killing Yahim as fast as possible (so, GMW) and focusing on slowly, methodically taking the other two down. The attempt before I finally killed them, I had the final two down to less than probably 20% health each, and my damn shield (durability was only 20) was about to break! So, in my extreme haste in trying to be able to equip a different one, I got killed. Of course after that, I equipped two shields. I was very happy to take these assholes out finally.

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Smelter Demon-

    At first, I thought I'd beat this bastard on my second attempt. I got him down to probably 20% health, and I was feeling good. Then I died, and the damn wheels just came off. I then had at least ten more failed attempts. Some were good (but none as good as that second attempt), some were bad, and some wer atrociously bad. I was getting beyond frustrated. I was going at him with my drakekeeper +10 sword (which has effectively replaced my longsword for now), two-handing, just rolling from his attacks. Exactly the way I played the encounter on my first playthrough. I was using my newly accquired Great Magic Weapon, and doing decent enough damage. When he went full-on fire berskerker, I just couldn't persevere. So, I pussed out, and in the name of getting a trophy, I summoned Lucatiel of Mirrah. Killed Smelter on my first try with her help. She didn't attack much, and drew just enough aggro to give me breathers when needed. She survived it (blah blah, she was way harder to keep alive pre-patch, I know. Trust me, I see it enough online), so, only two more boss battles with her. I started a new character (pure sorceries, baby!) when I beat NG with this character, and I was going to get the Lucatiel and Banhart trophies with her (since she wouldn't have to deal with NG+ difficutly), but I really just had no more patience with Smelter, so I decided I'll get those (at least Lucatiel) on this character. 

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Belgry Gargoyles-

    Boy, oh boy. I thought this was going to be a flashback to my first playthrough. I actually thought it was going to go worse, if that's possible. But I ended up beating them on probably my sixth attempt. Maybe seven at the most. Much better than 21. It went similarly to the first time: slowly chipping away the health of one; strafing; keeping my shield up (another battle I CANNOT do without a shield); and healing often. I even whipped out the avelyn, which was moderately helpful (although I didn't use it nearly as much as I thought I would. It just leaves you SO OPEN after you use it). Very happy to have these clowns dealt with. I believe Lost Sinner will be next, and that'll be a NG+ kinda battle. Hopefully Lucatiel is up for it!

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The Lost Sinner-

    I feel dirty about this one. Like, really dirty. I summoned Lucatiel to help (although mostly to continue her questline). I have read about this battle on NG+. I've heard it's one of the hardest battles in Souls history. Yikes. Well, Lucatiel and I stepped through the fog (after dicking around in Sinner's Rise for WAAAAY too long), saw that familiar cutscene, and...properly served the Sinner her shit on a silver plate. First try, destroyed her. The fabled red pyromancy phantoms that get summoned in halfway through the battle (or when her health is at 50% I believe) were no match for me. I took each out in three swings, I think, while Lucatiel kept the Sinner busy. Once the phantoms were dealt with, Lucatiel and I whaled on Sinner, and had her killed soon after. I could see the difficulty if you don't have some help, and I plan on killing her myself on my NG++ run. Until then...

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 Flexile Sentry-

    Another battle that I cheesed hardcore, and I feel bad about it. Again, I summoned my girl Lucatiel (my final summon of her), and we wrecked ol' Flexy's shit (you thought I forgot about that nickname?). Even the two assassins that are in the room were dispatched easily enough. This battle was a bit tougher than Sinner, even with Lucatiel. Still killed ol' Flexy on the first try. Again, on my NG++ run, I'll kill him proper. I still love this boss design though. 

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 Scorpioness Najka-

    Nothing new about this battle, although I will say it gave me some problems, and I died my first attempt. I found myself constantly scrambling, and I had to use lots of Estus. Overall, a bit tough, but not nearly as tough (or annoying) as the damn lion soldiers leading up to her.

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Prowler Magus & Congregation-

    I summoned Benhart of Jugo for this battle (again, trying to complete his questline for the trophy), and I plan on bonfire ascetic-ing and fighting with Benhart again. I actually died on this battle. I was beside myself. The battle I had ruthlessly mocked on the first playthrough, I now die on? Yuck. Those damn white-robed sorcerers (or whatever the hell they are) killed me with lightning the first time.Otherwise, it's still super simple. Kill the white-robed guys, kill Magus, kill the rest of the congregation. Bam! Also, this battle was already NG++ because I used an ascetic at the end of my first playthrough, to kill these idiots to get some last-second souls, I believe.

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The Duke's Dear Freja-

    Now we head into the portion of NG+ where I had far more trouble on easier bosses than I did on my first playthrough. Freja took me at least seven attempts, which I know was less than the first time. Those damn spiders, which I had said were no problem at all, well, they were a big fucking problem this time. Seriously, why are they so damn powerful? Each one could legitimately two-hit me. Huh? In comparison, at full health, I could withstand probably four of those laser beam attacks from Freja and still be alive (although, when he (or she? Is Freja a girl?) stomps with his (her?) legs, that killed me in one hit, having probably 90% of my health). Anyway, the spiders were the huge annoyance here. Otherwise I just baited Freja into the laser attack, then ran up and smashed away at the other head. Also, I briefly switched up weapons, to a Curved Dragon Greatsword +3, which deals great damage, even one-handed (and is fairly quick for a greatsword), but still was just too slow. I may have settled on the Mastodon Greatsword (currently +7). Once I get it to +10, it should output crazy damage. Two handed swings fairly fast, and in wide arcs. Also, forgot to mention, on NG+ and beyond, after you go through the encampment, and past the part with the falling boulders, Freja shows up to attack, outside the doors to the spider caves. I think this is very cool, and it just adds to the truly "new game" that NG+ is.

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Royal Rat Vanguard-

    This battle is just as easy as the first time. There's not a whole lot to add. I actually killed the Vanguard with three Flame Swathes. Simple stuff

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The Rotten-

    My god, what a pain in the ass this battle was. I distinctly remember this battle being pretty easy. Welp, I died at least eight times. He only killed me with ONE move: he has two overhead cleaver swings, and one is very slow and telegraphed (easy to dodge from), and the other is fast. I could never dodge it. Worse still, he follows it up with a second quick slam, then either a final third one, or a wide swing. For whatever reason, I could not predict that attack and roll from it, and he caught with me it time and time again. I finally took him down (using that Curved Dragon Greatsword, with Flame Weapon), and boy, was I happy to do it.

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Dual Dragonriders-

    Well, this battle was way harder than it had any right to be. It was also a case of frustration taking over, so I'd take dumb risks and I just got careless. I used the same strategy as before, but for some reason (perhaps they were offended at how easy I found them on NG?), they put up quite a fight.

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Looking Glass Knight-

    This battle was highly annoying because Benhart is a complete moron. I know the AI for computer-controlled summons is normally pretty bad, but god, Benhart takes the idiot cake. I summoned him because I needed one more boss battle with him kept alive to get the trophy for inheriting his equipment (update: got both his and Lucatiel's trophy!). Without him, this battle can be tough, but really it isn't too bad. Trying to keep this bastard alive was not easy. He doesn't block or dodge, at all. I don't know if it's possible for AI summons to dodge or block, but he just stood in front of Looking Glass Knight, ABSORBING damage like it was his day job. I suppose it sort of was. I had to get that Red Eye Ring (which looks super badass, by the way) which puts enemy focus on you, so that I could keep Benhart alive. Otherwise, the battle was pretty easy once I did this. 

 

 

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Demon of Song-

    Simple. I actually re-read my blog post on this guy, to remember my exact strategy. I used it, and whooped him on my first try. Thanks me! This blog is already paying off!

 

 

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 Velstadt, the Royal Aegis-

    I'm not going to lie, by this point, I was just sort of rushing to get through the rest of the game, so I could get onto NG++, so I could REALLY rush through that, to get to Wellager in Drangliec castle, so I could buy a few spells and get my platinum trophy. Between that, my huge backlog of games (which will be featured on this very blog!), and my need to put this game down and give it a rest for a bit, I decided I'd just kinda fly through the rest of it. With that in mind, I summoned help for this battle. This guy is still a bastard, and I would have spent a long time on him if I went at it by myself.

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Guardian Dragon-

    He's still a giant puss.

 

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Giant Lord-

    This battle is still simple. I had an easier time with it this time around. I really find this one of the most underwhelming bosses in the game. He has great lore attached to him, but otherwise, how BLAH!

 

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Throne Watcher & Throne Defender-

    Oi freaking vey. God, what a giant pain in the ass these guys are. I was dreading having to fight these guys basically as soon as I opened the Shrine of Winter. I didn't spend as many deaths on them, but I still summoned help. I summoned Benhart (the big galoot!) and Head of Vengarl again. They drew both of their aggro, and actually dealt decent damage, as I just slammed them with my Mastodon Greatsword +10 (imbued with flame weapon. My favorite pyromancy). I did start the battle with a nice chaos storm, which did pretty good damage to both the Watcher and Defender (even though I took some damage). 

 

 

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Nashandra- 

    This one was decidedly easier than the first playthrough, mainly because I had a good strategy (I again referred back to this very blog to refresh my memory!). I beat her my second try, I believe. One amazing factoid I hadn't realized until I saw it written somewhere on the Giantbomb Dark Souls II forum (or an articale on IGN, honestly can't remember which) is that, if you get the cut scene of Nashandra right after killing the Throne defenders (I don't think you get this if you kill the Throne defenders before you have the giant's kinship), Nashandra enters through a fog gate .Like you're her final boss she has to fight, to finish her own quest. Which both slightly validates my thoughts on Nashandra manipulating you, and blows my freaking mind. I find this so incredibly awesome, all I can do is use cliches and boring adjectives to describe it.

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    Well, that's it folks. That's all I can really write about the bosses of this game. Sorry the last few updates have seemed rushed. Here's what's upcoming, as far as Dark Souls II is concerned. I hope to have a "stats" post (number of times I died, things like that) up tonight, or this weekend. Beyond that, I'm going to make an ultimate ranking of all the 70+ bosses throughout the three games and DLC. That should be up this upcoming week. After that, I think I can close the book on DSII. I plan on playing through some of my backlog of games over the summer, starting with some SNES. I'll go into more detail in a later post, but it won't focus solely on boss battles. Let's face it, not every game has such nuanced, detailed, spectacular boss battles as the Souls games. So, hopefully you'll continue to join me in my video game endeavors. Thanks all!

 

 

Darklurker

Asshole(s)

     Where to start with this one? This guy is one of the hardest bosses in the game, and you have to go through three of the hardest areas of the game to get to him. Firstly, you have to find Darkdiver Grandahl (the old guy in the fancy wheelchair) in three hidden area. Once you find him in all three, you can join the Pilgrims Of Dark covenant. Unlike every other covenant in the game, this one has nothing to do with any multiplayer. This is strictly PvE. As such, there's no ABSURD requirements to rank up in this covenant. All you have to do is beat the three Dark Chasms Of Old. Beat one, and you gain rank one. Beat the other two (for a total of three), and you gain rank two. Beat Darklurker, and your gain rank three and max out the covenant. Even though this is a tough covenant, it might be my favorite. I wish there were more PvE covenants (I do plan on trying the Company Of Champions also).
    Okay, each Dark Chasm Of Old has four enemies you must kill. After that, all you have to do is light a giant torch. Killing four enemies sounds easy, but they are very difficult enemies. There are a couple NPCs from Dark Souls (Havel the Rock, Pharris, a few others I don't remember), and other various tough human-type enemies. Havel in particular is the toughest of all the regular enemies in the Chasms. All three are dark and full of cliffs and falling hazards, which just makes it all so much harder. But, preserve throughout the three, and you're "rewarded" with one of the toughest bosses in the game.
    After you beat the final Chasm, you'll jump into the hole with the mist, and you'll get a loading screen. Shortly after, you'll land in a dim cave, and in front of you is the Darklurker. I was hoping he might be some new, updated version of Flamelurker. But alas, this one might be more annoying. Let's talk about his appearance: very unique for a Souls game. He's a dark, angelic being. He has wings, and four arms (one set of arms is always crossed over his chest). He wears some dark robes with a hood. He's great looking, and very ominous and mysterious. 

Casting that bullshit dark orb attack

    Now, his attacks. He has a million attacks. Literally, I think he has more attacks than any other boss, by a couple at least. If you're close to him, he'll swing a bright sword at you. This sword has a longer reach than you would think, and it can be tough to dodge. Next up, if you're really far away, he shoots a soul spear, which can be rolled from easily enough. He has two other attacks where he lifts his arms and creates either a fire, or dark, circle over his head. The fire one shoots three fireballs, and these are very easy to dodge. The dark one shoots a slow, semi-homing dark ball, and it explodes when it hits you or the ground. This attack DESTROYED me so many times. It does considerable damage, and it's tough to dodge. Run from it! Don't roll! ROLLING JUST DOESN'T SEEM TO WORK!
    Besides these attacks, he can also teleport, which doesn't really accomplish much. He will float up and shoot a magic beam out of his hands. It is slow, but hurts a lot. It's easy enough to dodge (run under him), and it gives you a brief breather to heal/buff, what have you. Now, the fun part: when he gets down to around half health (sometimes it's like 75% of his health left, sometimes it's less than 50% of his health left), he duplicates himself! Oh yes! You thought one Darklurker was too easy? Well, take this motherfucker! THANKFULLY, they both share a health bar. I couldn't imagine doing this battle if the second Darklurker had its own health bar. After the split, they both have those same moves. Let's get down to the dirty. 

He's more dangerous than he looks

    Fighting two of these guys is incredibly difficult. They both use different attacks, and they don't let up. You have to keep them both in front of you at all times (this is where the teleporting move really sucks. Having them both in front of you, then having one teleport to anywhere else in the cave, thus losing him, can be a battle-breaker). Also, BE MINDFUL OF THAT SOUL SPEAR ATTACK! Let's set a scene quickly: you have Darklurker(s) down to only a quarter of his health. They are both in front of you, and you're feeling good. Let's say you get hit with a sword attack from one, and the other moves back a bit. As you back up, getting ready to heal, you keep your eye on the Darklurker closest to you, and you press, "square" to drink Estus. Just then, you notice the other Darklurker has hurled the soul spear at you, and you don't see it until it's too late, becayse you forgot about him. You die, because you can't possibly get healed in time before the spear hits. I died this way at least four times. It's unbelievably frustrating.
    Next frustrating thing: dying. And why is this? Because, every time you die, you have to go through a Chasm again to reach the Darklurker. This is super tedious. And you can't even just run through the Chasm, bypassing the enemies. You have to kill all the enemies in the Chasm to open the fog gate to access the boss. I cannot tell you how tired this is. Actually, I can! First off, I'd suggest using the Chasm that's past the Shaded Ruins bonfire. It's the easiest of the three. So, you start at the Shaded Ruins bonfire, and run through the area, killing all those lion soldiers, until you get to the Chasm. Then, you have to talk to Grandahl, and offer up a human effigy. YUP! Every time you die, you need to use a human effigy to gain access to the Chasm again. I ran out, and had to murder the old hag Fire Keepers and their handmaid, for nine more effigies. Anyway, after the portal to the Chasm opens, your step in it, and wait for the loading screen. Then, you run through the Chasm, carefully killing the enemies (can't die here, that would be a waste of a human effigy), until you get to the fog hole. Jump in, wait at a loading screen, then FINALLY you're at Darklurker! Imagine doing this a dozen times. Not fun. I will say, by the end, all of the lion soldiers and the enemies in the Chasm stopped respawning, so the last few runs were pretty easy.
    Okay, I think I've discussed every annoying thing about this battle. How did I beat Darklurker? This was the only boss battle where I didn't use my sword to kill the boss. I have a Pyromancy Flame (+7 I believe), and a few pyromancies. I used Flame Swathe and Fire Orb, because Mr. Lurker is weak to fire. At first, I would use these as much as I could, then use charcoal pine resin on my sword. Eventually I ran out of the resin. My sword otherwise wasn't doing sufficient damage, and I don't like fighting him close anyway. I also used every item I had that restored spell usage. After I ran out of ALL OF THAT, I decided I needed to change my strategy. And here it is:
    I used the Pyromancy Flame, and, wait for it, an avelyn! This is a fast-shooting crossbow. I bought 180 fire bolts for it, and used almost 80 of them. They only did 39 damage, which sounds super lame, except it was enough to push me over the edge. I needed distance, and the avelyn really helped with that. The battle I finally beat Darklurker I didn't take my sword out once, which must be a first for me, for a non-magic build. I kept my distance, shot fire bolts (the avelyn shoots three in quick succession) until Darklurker split, then I exhausted all my pyromancy spells (which all told was only 6). After that, it was just about being very careful, shooting one of them when I had a chance. The avelyn is dangerous, because after you shoot, you can't roll, and you walk very slowly, for close to a second. You're VERY vulnerable. Through determination, attrition, and that trusty avelyn, I beat Darklurker, and my final boss of my first playthrough of Dark Souls II.
    Sorry for the lack of (good) pictures with this very lengthy post. I couldn't afford to get killed taking pictures in this battle. The battle was tense enough. This is a great one though. It makes up for a few of the easy bosses, for sure. His design is really great, and the whole dark environment was overall fabulous. Tedious to fight him over and over again, but I'm very glad I persevered and beat him. So y'all in NG+! 

Times I died: 12
Difficulty: 9/10
Rating: 9/10

So, what's next? Well, I have ideas for two more non-boss-specific posts (an overview of the bosses here, and a ranking of all the bosses throughout all the games and DLC), then I'm going to make a NG+ boss update blog. I'm going to do all updates in this one post, because some bosses I'll either write very little, or write quite a bit. I don't want entire posts dedicated to three sentences. So, ladies and gents, thanks for joining me in this crazy journey. I plan on doing boss posts for different games, so stayed tuned! Smooches!

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BOSS SOUL DESCRIPTION: "Soul of what lurks in the Dark Chasm; The Dark Chasm of Old is the remnant of some ancient, dissipated being."

Ancient Dragon

King of the one-shot kills!

    This was the boss battle I was most worried about. From reading on forums, I thought this would be the one boss I just couldn't beat. Or it would take endless attempts. In actuality, it took only (I use the term loosely here) thirteen attempts, and twelve deaths, to take this behemoth of a dragon down. You first meet this dragon towards the end of the game. You talk to him (telepathically I guess?), and he gives you the ashen mist heart, which allows you to enter the Giant and Dragon Memories. After that, you're free to aggro him. I would suggest doing it in the end game, before starting NG+.
    This boss is tough for one simple reason: that fucking flying fire breath bullshit! It'll kill you. And kill you. Aaaand kill you. Blah blah, you get it. It one-shotted me. Every. Single. Time. I'm not sure it's possible to survive his fire breath attack. Other than that tiny little detail, this fight is eazee peazee!
    First off, you fight him on a HUGE outdoor platform. It's gotta be the largest boss area in the game. The Ancient Dragon himself thankfully looks way cooler than the normal red dragons flying around (not that they look bad, just bland). Ancient Dragon, besides being completely, absolutely fucking huge (seriously, probably at least three times the size of the Guardian Dragon), is a gross, brown color. He just looks old and withered, yet full of wisdom. Too bad it's not even a real dragon. As far as moves for this bastard, he has a few, but really, like I said, only one to be worried about. If you're directly in front of him, but kinda far off, he'll shoot fire from his mouth. He shoots it in a wide arc in front of him. Very easy to dodge, just run to his side. This is important, and it's integral to the strategy to take him down.

Before you aggro him...

     If you're closer to his face, he has a biting attack. I only saw him do this once, so it doesn't seem to be terribly common. If you stick around his back feet, he'll stomp those, similar to the Guardian Dragon. And finally, yes, the flying fire breath. Similar to the one he uses to sweep in front of him, but this one he flies up in the air, and breaths down hellfire in an AMAZINGLY large area underneath him. If you are anywhere close to him when he does this, you're dead. Simple as that. One goddamn hit. Souls games are always very fair about bosses not being able to one-shot you. Try to think of other bosses, from any of the games, that can do this. Unless you are severely under-levelled, it basically doesn't happen (recently defeated Vendricks does spring to mind, but he wasn't a one-shot machine). Ancient Dragon almost exclusively one-shot-kills you. If he was a required boss, I think this would be problematic. Seeing as how he's optional, I don't mind it. And he's still not the hardest boss in the game anyway.
    This is an annoying battle no matter how you cut it. The strategy I used worked pretty well once I got the pattern down, but it was time consuming. My sword was doing puny damage, but I just had to deal with that. One final note, the run-up to the boss is annoying too. You have to run through (or fight, but this would be super time consuming to do every time) I believe nine of those big Drake Keeper knights, one magic-wielding priestess, and four gold-clad agile knights (that remind me of Yurt from Demon's Souls, or Lautrec from Dark Souls). They can be run past, usually with no damage taken, but I did get killed a few times because I got caught in a group of them.

He's truly large

    My strategy, which is the generally accepted one I believe, was to get in front of the dragon, and bait him into his normal fire breath attack. This allowed me to get to his front foot and get in between 3 to 5 hits. After that, I walked (don't run yet, save that stamina) away from him, and waited for his flying breath attack. The split-second he starts this, I hauled ass in the other direction, towards the edge of the platform. I was unscathed. He'll eventually end this, and land again. Now, I ran back to him, directly in front of him, to bait the ground-level fire breath. When he did, it was time to get a few more attacks in on his foot. Then I walked away, waited for the signal, and ran like mad again. Rinse and repeat for quite a long time (dude has a crazy amount of health). If done correctly, you can dodge his first fire attack, hit him, run from his flying fire, avoid the regular fire, and keep him in this pattern.
    It sounds easy, but it truly isn't. Remember, one hit and you're dead. No if's, and's, or but's. So you gotta be careful. Eventually you can settle into a nice routine, but I was still tense and nervous for the whole battle. But, for this reason, I didn't bother with any armor, and I unequipped my shield, to get my stamina recovery to be juuuust a bit faster. You could use the Red Tearstone Ring too, for a little extra damage. Ultimately, this boss took me about 30 tries less than I was expecting. From everything I read, I was expecting this battle to be total hell, and for it to take me literally days and days. It was pretty hard, but Smelter, Lost Sinner, Darklurker, and the Throne knights were definitely harder. Just don't get too scared before you go in. You'll get killed a bunch, but you should be able get through it!

This is what I looked like after victory!

Times I died: 12
Difficulty: 9/10
Rating: 8/10

Up next, we have the final boss of my NG playthrough. Join me for a ridiculously tough boss battle, in the very depths of Darkness itself.

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BOSS SOUL DESCRIPTION: "Soul of the great ancient dragon that stands magnificently, deep within the shrine; This powerful being stands and waits, for whoever may visit him; Use the dragon soul, created by those who peered into the essence of the soul..."

 

Vendrick

He's in the doghouse (permanently. Also, he's hollowed, and he just wanders mindlessly around)!

    Chances are, if you tried to engage Vendrick in battle after Killing Velstadt way back in the Undead Crypt, he whooped your ass. As I'm sure everyone knows by now, Vendrick's defense is astronomically high, and your normal attacks do almost nothing. You can only weaken him by holding Giant Souls, which you obtain through those Giant Memories (plus two other places). This makes the battle possible, but it's still pretty tough. 

Just wanderin' all around

    I had four Giant Souls, and I know there are five you can get (three from the Memories, one from the Giants in Black Gulch, and one from killing the Ancient Dragon), and my two-handed attacks (still trusty longsword +10, if anyone is wondering) were only doing 162 damage. I buffed this up to 202 with aromatic ooze, though. So, even though I had four of the Souls, I was still doing miminal damage. Just made the battle longer.
    When you run through that Bullshit Hallway, I believe I called it (back in the Velstadt post), you get into the lair where Vendrick is mindlessly wandering around in, dragging his sword behind him. He doesn't aggro you until you attack him three or four times, wherein his name/health bar will appear on the screen. The first thing you'll notice is that his sword is STRONG! He was one- and two-shotting me regularly (in fact, I don't think I could ever take more than two hits from him). My first five-or-so attempts ended within five seconds. I would run in, try to attack him, and get sliced up by his sword. It wasn't fun. In fact, I thought it was gonna be impossible to even hurt him, until I realized his ridiculous vulnerability: his back. 

He's tall!

    If you run up to him, and stay at his back, you're basically invincible. He swings his sword from side to side, or does an overhand attack. I still rolled when he did these, but I'm not sure it's necessary. You can't get hit if you're behind him (or to his left side a bit). However, if you are directly behind him, he'll hop backwards, thus putting you in the direct path of his next attack. If he hops back, make sure you get your ass back to the safe spot! The only real problem with this strategy is just making sure you both don't get backed into the walls. It can be tough to get around him again when this happens. As I said, his attacks are devastating, and I couldn't withstand many. It'd be much more advantageous to just not get hit at all (which is probably true of EVERY boss, really). Overall, this battle can be very tough, and even if you know what you're doing, it's fairly time consuming. Vendrick himself is nothing too special to look at (he's a huge, hollowed human, with just tattered rags and a crown), but he's interesting to fight at least. Just two left to go now... 

Another shot of me getting killed. How nice!

Times I died: 9
Difficulty: 7.5/10
Rating: 7/10

I'm not sure which boss will fall next. My guess is Darklurker, so expect (hopefully) that post to be up in a day or two. After that, I honestly don't know how long it's gonna take me to kill the Ancient Dragon, but he'll be the last thing holding me up from starting NG+, which I'm greatly looking forward to. 

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"SOUL OF THE KING" DESCRIPTION: "...King of Drangleic; The King was wasted away, a shadow of his former self, but still held something dear; Use the soul of he who would link the flame..."**

 

**NOTE: I always omit the beginning of each Soul description, because it's always just the name of the boss. I do it for repetition's sake. Also, I always leave off the final line, which says something like, "Use it to gain many souls, or make something great...". That's not verbatim, but it's close enough. It says the same thing on every boss Soul, but I noticed on Vendrick's it specifically mentioned him linking the flame, so I included it here. Final note, you don't get his Soul from killing him. You find it in the Shrine of Amana, after you've killed him. It's in an empty room, sitting on a human-sized throne. Obviously the Vendrick you fight here is not human-sized. Hmmmm...

Nashandra

The beginning of the end

    After the Throne knights fall, a cut-scene starts. It shows a grotesque, skeletal woman, with a large dress (made out of pure death itself?) and an equally large scythe. She readies her scythe for battle, and mentions that you've proven yourself to her, and it's time to become one with the Dark. The scene ends, we see the boss name "Nashandra" pop up, and we know it's time to take this bitch down.
    This is the Queen we see early in Drangleic castle. She comes off as sweet and normal (relative to every other crazy that inhabits Drangleic), and you never get a hint she's evil. Apparently, she is a legit piece of Manus, the Father Of the Abyss (truly, she looks like Manus's little sister?), from the DLC. Well, that explains her look. I know it's still pretty debated what her ultimate purpose is in the story. My guess, from what I've gathered online and from the game itself, is something like this: she wants the Throne, because she wants to rule/kill. The best way for her to do this is to lead you to the Throne Of Want, with the Giant's Kinship, and just take it from you. There's probably way, WAY, more to it, but that's my general guess. She's evil, and I think she wants the world to fall to Darkness again. Or something. Let's fight her!

See? Told you!

    You fight her in the same area as the previous boss fight, so the same falling hazard persists (let it be known, I fell to my death THREE TIMES fighting Nashandra). She starts out in the middle, sort of towards the back. She sets up some black curse clouds all around her. They curse you, but you also slowly lose health. I'm not sure if it's poison (there's nothing on the screen that indicates you get poisoned), or if it's just a special kind of curse she has. The draining health is the number one reason I died so many times to her. From what I saw, her attacks are limited: if you are close, she'll swipe with her scythe (a move that, for whatever reason, I had a hell of a time dodging consistently), or she'll bring it down in an overhead chop attack. This is easy to dodge at least. If you run from her, she has two dark attacks: one where she shoots a beam of dark from her hand (she telegraphs this, so it's very easy to roll from), and she has an AoE dark attack. I continually died because I would stay close to her, and dodge her scythe attacks, then get some hits in. The problem was, I would always forget my health was draining. When I finally noticed, I didn't have enough time to drink an Estus before I died; alternatively, she would swipe me as I was drinking said Estus. She is very relentless if you stay close, and healing next to her is basically impossible.

Another from the cut-scene. Caressing her scythe with that come-hither look

    Eventually, I realized my strategy was just not getting it done. I switched it up a bit to a strategy that won me the battle: I would run up to her, get a few hits in, dodge the scythe as necessary, then run back. This would bait her into doing the dark hand blast, which allows you to easily run up to her side and get a few hits in. I beat her, easily enough, with this strategy.

Final from the cut-scene. A beautiful dress!

    Overall, the final battle (story-wise) of Dark Souls II is a pretty good one. I really enjoy the design, and it's decently difficult. The lore is a little fuzzy, but it's not abhorrent. I still think Gwyn is the hardest end-game boss (ever beat Gwyn without parrying? It is hard as all hell), but Nashandra is second (of course King Allant is the easiest. Can he even kill you?). This is the final required boss, but there are still three more in the chute. One I'm particularly afraid of trying to fight. I've heard too many horror stories already! So, join me for the final few battles. Let's see if we can't just learn a few things about life, love, and feeling good about ourselves!

Starting to create those curse clouds

Times I died: 12
Difficulty: 7/10
Rating: 7/10

Well, with this, we've beaten the game. But you need not worry, for there are still three more bosses to take down, before starting NG+. And from where I'm sitting now (in a chair), it's looking like it may take a while to kill them. Please excuse me if there are longer lapses in between blog entries. Next up on the docket, we fight Nashandra's better half!

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BOSS SOUL DESCRIPTION: "...Queen of Drangleic; Nashandra was born of the Dark with an insatiable lust for strength."

Throne Defender & Throne Watcher

Bad boys

     These boys are the real deal. If not for certain help (I'll get to that later), I would consider these guys the hardest bosses in the game for me. Perhaps I still do. Maybe From went easy on some of the later bosses, but these guys (and the boss fight immediately proceeding this one) are ROUGH!
    Firstly, the run-up to this boss is annoying, and it gets old fast. You have to wear the King Ring, and it opens (very slooooooooowly I might add) a big door in the Castle. Luckily this door is just steps from a bonfire. After the door opens, you'll be in the Throne Of Want, which is reminiscent of the Kiln Of The First Flame. It has an ashy, dark look. The whole area is just a dark chasm, with a LONG bridge, lined with torches. It takes quite awhile to run along this bridge. There's no way to run along it without losing stamina. You have to run until your stamina runs out, then walk while your stamina fills up, then run again, then walk, then run, etc. It loses its luster quickly, I'll tell you that. It's probably a comparable run to Gwyn in Dark Souls (as far as the amount of time it takes), but this is more annoying, even though there are no enemies.
    Once you get through here, and walk through the fog gate, you'll see two knights. The area you are in is similar to what your just ran through: dark, looks like everything was burned, and there's a curious looking white dome structure in the background. The large area is a platform, with falling hazards all around you. BE AWARE OF WHERE YOU ARE! I died two or three times just because I was backing up and fell off the platform to a very annoyed death. I found myself doing a lot of strafing with my shield up, and, well, the area is smaller than you think it is.

Here they are, as you walk through the fog

    There's two knights, as I've said. One is an old man with a long, grey beard, and bronze-looking armor, along with a sword and shield. This is the Throne Defender. The other is clad in white, with a mask over his face. He also has a sword and shield (his shield has a face on it, and looks awesome). His sword is shorter than the Defender's. This one is much quicker than the other, with backflips, jumps, and general dodginess. If you haven't guessed, this is the Throne Watcher. You fight these two bastards together, and they basically stay at each other's side the whole time. I'm gonna say it now, but (surprise surprise!) I spoiled this battle for myself with reading. If you kill one of them, the other one will revive him to full health. Wow. I would have been pissed if I killed one, only to have him resurrected. So how do you get past this? You have to damage them concurrently. What I mean is, make sure their health bars match. If you hit the Defender five times, go and hit the Watcher five times. You have to kill them both within a few seconds of each other, I believe, so that they don't resurrect each other. Very interesting mechanic that I REALLY wish I hadn't spoiled for myself (even though it would induce the aforementioned, "been pissed").

A bit closer. Fuck these guys

    This is the Ornstein and Smough battle of this game. They are both aggressive, strong, and they will hound you. They will either both attack at the same time, or one will attack, then the other will start their attack as the first finishes. Several times I was killed because I chose a bad time to heal, thinking I had the time, only to get run through with one of their swords. My original strategy was to keep my shield up, and absorb their attacks (luckily it didn't seem like their attacks were super powerful), waiting until they had both finished attacking. If I could bait them to both attack, then I could get a few hits in on one (or both). I rarely tried to attack one if they had both not attacked first, because every time I ended up taking damage. Hopefully this makes sense.
    Try as I might, I could not beat these guys. I would either: fall off the edge; pick a bad time to heal (Estus is tough in this battle); pick a bad time to use aromatic ooze (ugh that was a bad one); or get overwhelmed by both of their attacks at the same time (I said their individual attacks aren't super powerful, but if you get hit by them both, especially if they are doing combos, forget about it. You'll die. Have a shield up? You'll lose all your stamina, get stun-locked, and die). There was a few times I got them both down to 30%-or-so of their healths, but I couldn't finish the job. They just don't give up. Oh, by the way, when they get low on health, less than 50%, they both buff their weapons with lightning! How nice! Oddly enough though, one is yellow lightning, and one is blue lightning. But this is a legit buff (unlike Smelter or Velstadt), like they are using gold pine resin: they back off from the fight, and buff their swords. It eventually wears off, and they'll back off and re-buff.

Man, these guys are tall!

    Okay, now my shame. If you couldn't guess by my introductory paragraph, yes, I summoned help for this battle. I ended up summoning a Sunbro near the bonfire, hoping to at least grab another Sunlight Medal. Right in front of the fog gate, there are two NPC's to summon, so I figured, eh, what the hell, and summoned Head Of Vengarl. With my team, we geared up, prepared mentally, confidently walked through the fog, stared down our enemies... And absolutely smoked them. The guy I summoned had a CRAZY POWERFUL lightning spell (Sunlight Spear I think?) that he sat back, and just launched at them. For perspective, my one handed longsword attack did between 205 and 222 damage. ONE of his lightning spears did 450 (!!!). Man, spells are overpowered as hell, huh? So, suffice to say I didn't need Head Of Vengarl, but for what it's worth, he lived through the battle! He and I smacked the bosses up close (each drawing aggro from one boss), while the Sunbro provided spell coverage. The battle lasted less then a minute.
    I'm pretty disappointed I pussed out and got help for this battle. Oh well, I'll take them out in NG+. I thought this was a great, challenging battle to (almost) cap off the game. Good boss design, too. After you take the two out, you get a cut-scene, and are immediately thrown into the final battle...

Times I died: 14
Difficulty: 9.5/10
Rating: 9/10

Here we go. Hope you caught your breath, 'cause it's time to take down Nashandra.

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THRONE DEFENDER SOUL DESCRIPTION: "The throne of the King is sacred, and requires an appropriate guardian."

 

THRONE WATCHER SOUL DESCRIPTION: "The throne of the King is sacred, and must be observed closely at all times." 

 

Watcher Greatsword

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

Defender Greatsword

Defender Greatsword: "The Defender has stood by the throne for ages. Will his wait be worth the while?"

Giant Lord

Time travelin' fools

    This is the last easy boss in the game. Mind you, that doesn’t make him less annoying than a tougher boss, though. The Giant Lord resides in one of the strange Giant Memories, the Memory of Jeigh (must be the Lord’s name?). Let’s talk about these Memories for a moment, because I find them both fascinating and a little off-putting. Essentially, you are using the memories of long-dead Giants (that you find throughout the Forest Of Fallen Giants) to travel back in time, to the (I assume) height of the war between men and Giants. Now, time travel isn’t new ground here, it’s been breached before (with the excellent Artorias DLC), but it’s still just odd to have it in a dark fantasy game. It’s not relegated to sci-fi anymore, I guess. While I appreciate the idea, and this is in fact the closest a Souls game gets to a “set-piece” (they don’t need to get any closer), I feel this is slightly half-baked, or underutilized. You can only access three Giants’ Memories, and in reality only one is necessary to beat the game. Each of the three sections are very short, too. It’s very interesting to get a bird’s eye view of the war, but I wish it was a bit more fleshed out, I suppose. At least it’s different, and I applaud From Software from switching up the elements of the game.

    Okay, once you’ve gotten into Jeigh’s Memory, there isn’t much to do. Kill the Giant Lord, and gain the Giant’s Kinship, and that’s about it. When you start, you’ll go up a staircase, and walk through a fog gate. You’ll see Giants destroying the normal soldiers (seriously, their attacks do like 800 points of damage to the soldiers, while their attacks on the Giants do like 7 or 8). Be careful also, because besides the Giants and soldiers, you can also be slammed with huge fireballs that are catapulted from some indistinct area right onto where you are. This is where the annoyance comes in. After going through the fog, there’s a long stretch of area you have to run through to get to the boss, who just stands at the other end until you get close enough. You have to run and avoid the Giants’ attacks (not too hard, although I must say, in general, I HATE fighting these Giants), and you also have to be careful of the fireballs that rain down on you.

There he is, just chilling. I also love that this mask makes me look like I have a sick mullet

    About halfway through the area, you’ll see fireballs hit a large statue to your left side, and its head will come off, and roll towards you. Don’t panic though, if you go to the far right , it’ll roll by you, and get stuck, preventing the Giants from following you to the boss battle. At least you don’t have to deal with them. Once you get within distance, the boss name/health bar shows up, and it’s time to dance. Be mindful, those fireballs will still be shot at you.  The Giant Lord is a much bigger Giant, almost twice the size of normal ones (as far as height goes). He has a crown, some sort of kingly robes, and a large sword. I’ve seen it theorized that Giant Lord is in fact the Last Giant (whom you fought AGES ago. Remember him? Seems like I’ve been playing this game for a lot longer than 55 hours). This makes sense, and it probably is true. I think they are both the same size, and if you stripped the clothes and sword off the Lord, they’d look very similar. Much more so than if compared to a normal Giant. Also, in my Last Giant post, I talked about reading that maybe the hole in his face is not actually his face, like maybe something is supposed to connect to that hole. Well, seeing as how every Giant you see in the game has a hole in its face, I’m gonna go ahead and say this is indeed their face. How’s THAT for closure?

    This battle is easy. It can be played very similar to the Last Giant battle. Just stay near his feet, avoid his stomping attacks (you should be pretty proficient at avoiding getting stomped on by now), and just whack away at his ankles. If you stay close and under him, you don’t have to worry about his sword attacks, or those stupid fireballs (and I realize they probably aren’t actually fireballs, more like flaming rocks (??) being thrown via catapult), and this battle is fairly stress free.

I'm huge!

    I like the design of the boss, and his size is impressive. I realize he’s very significant to the story and the lore, but his battle is lackluster overall. It’s not an awful battle, but there isn’t much too it. A scary trend with boss battles, you say? Well, maybe. I think there are a staggering 33 bosses in this game, which has to be like ten more than the first game, so there are bound to be some stinkers. I’ve always maintained that I like the bosses in this game, and I truly do. Even the weakest of them are better than most bosses in other games. But it can’t be overstated: there are a lot of easy bosses in this game. I’m sure there will be new challenges with NG+, and I cannot wait for those. I’m conflicted, because I LOVE the sheer number of bosses, but I’m disappointed with the challenge of some of them. Eh, give a little, get a little, I suppose. But, as far as challenge goes, I’m in for a doozy with the final five bosses (three are optional). They are brutal, relentless, unforgiving, and HARD. Yowza. 

Times I died: 0

Difficulty: 2.5/10

Rating: 6/10

Okay, let's get down to business. Let's fight who might be the toughest boss(es) in the game (except for maybe one): the Throne Watcher & Throne Defender

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BOSS SOUL DESCRIPTION: "...who once conquered Drangleic; The Giants landed on the northern shores, and set siege to King Vendrick's castle to claim an invaluable prize."

Guardian Dragon

Wow! So scary!

    This is a pretty pedestrian boss, made all the more inconsequential by the fact that this boss appears at least three times more as an enemy in the Dragon Aerie (god, what a great-looking area). Now, I'm going to go off on a tangent here, so bear with me! One thing I HATE in the Souls games (and truly, any game) is their willingness to reuse bosses as enemies. Very rarely, this can be used to cool effect (I can't necessary think of an example off the top of my head), but mostly it's lazy, and I feel it severely cheapens the boss in question. I don't believe it happens in Demon's Souls past the Vanguard (who is the tutorial boss, with a big health bar and his name) being used as a once-per-playthrough mini-boss in 4-1. That's cool, because I would assume 99.9% of players were killed by Vanguard on their very first play through the tutorial, and it's nice to be able to actually kill him later on. Okay, Dark Souls drives me crazy with this! Taurus Demon, Capra Demon, Moonlight Butterfly, and Pinwheel are all reused as enemies later on. They REALLY couldn't have created a few other enemies for their respective areas? Instead of Taurus or Capra being one time bosses, they're reduced to bigger version of normal enemies (or the enemies are just smaller versions of the boss. Either way, I don't like it). I find this very lame and trivializing. And don't get me started with Asylum Demon being reused for Stray Demon and Demon Firesage. Finally, to end this tangent, for Dark Souls II, Flexile Sentry and the Ruin Sentinels are used as enemies as well (ol' Flexy only once as a one-kill deal). While this is still annoying, I don't find it quite as egregious as the first game.

Dual wielding +10 longswords (one is Raw) for this bastard!

    Which all brings me to Guardian Dragon. He's wholly un-unique, and boring. They could have just called him "Dragon #1". It would be like if, instead of Lost Sinner being at the end of Sinner's Rise, it was just a bigger version of those beasts you find down there. What's so special about THIS Guardian Dragon that he gets to be a boss, and gets his own big health bar? I don't know, I'm getting waaaay off topic here. Once you get through Aldia's Keep, you come to this boss, who guards the Dragon Aerie. You fight him in some cage-kinda thing, which admittedly is pretty cool looking. He'll breathe fire at you, he'll fly up, and he can stomp with his back legs, hit with his head, and swipe with his tail. The fire can be troublesome, and I'd say the most dangerous part of the battle. He can fly up onto the wall of the cage, and breathe fire from there. In fact, if he gets to flying around, you're in for a tough time.

It was certainly perilous to get this picture! Or my wife took it...

    But to alleviate this, just stick close to his legs. All you really have to do is avoid is stomp, which is a bit tricky because he stomps backward, so even if you roll back to avoid it, and think you're far enough away, you may very well not be. I just got up close to his legs, rolled when necessary, and attacked. If you get behind or in front of him, you'll face a painful tail swipe or head hit, respectively. If you're close, there's no need to worry about the fire, so really this battle just comes down to not getting squished by his feet. Definitely not a hard battle. I'm sorry this post was dominated by stuff other than this boss, but if I stuck strictly to him and this battle, it'd be done in one paragraph. Overall, a boring, meaningless fight against what amounts to a normal game enemy. He doesn't even look amazing. He's in line with the more "traditional" dragons of the series (the red and blue dragons of Demon's Souls, and the Hellkite Dragon from Dark), wherein he's red, has a tail, wings, etc. This is officially my least favorite boss of the game. Oh well, one dud out of 30 ain't bad.

Immolation! Let the fire consume you!

Times I died: 1
Difficulty: 2/10
Rating: 1/10

Well, we're at the home stretch. I have six bosses left. Let's travel back in time and enjoy our last "easy" battle.

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BOSS SOUL DESCRIPTION: "Soul of a dragon that guards the path to the shrine; Do the dragons watch over the land of their own will, or are they in the grip of one of Aldia's spells? 

 

Draekwing Ultra Greatsword

Drakewing Ultra Greatsword: "Drakes are likely descendants of the ancient dragons, and although their strength pales in comparison to what is described in legend, to mere humans they are still mighty beasts."

Velstadt, The Royal Aegis

What the hell is an, "aegis", anyway?

     Wow, talk about a nerve-wracking battle. This might be THE most hold-your-breath, anxiety-bringing battle in the game. The main reason for that, at least for me, was because of the run-up to the boss. There's a bonfire close by, and strictly just running from it to the boss would be very fast.
    But let's back up for just a moment. Velstadt exists deep within the Undead Crypt (maybe the only end-game area that is bland, and it doesn't quite stack up to Shrine Of Amana or Drangliec Castle, let's say). After you make it through this annoying area (those magic-sword wielding guys! Aack!), and open the shortcut from the bonfire to the boss gate, things get really hairy. There's a massive hallway you have to run through to get to Velstadt. And wouldn't you know it, it's COVERED with enemies! Remember when I likened the run-up to the Looking Glass Knight with a mini-gauntlet? That was child's play compared to this. THIS hallway is a gauntlet. For starters, if the bell that's underneath the stairs gets rung, FOUR of those Blue Flame (that's the sword they use. A very interesting one, it seems, for magic users) using apparition guys appears (Aack!). You can take them out one at a time, it's just time consuming. Also note YOU can accidentally ring this bell. I jumped down to where the bell was, and I killed the zombie that rings it, but I was madly slashing with my sword, and hit the damn bell anyway. After that, it was all thrusting attacks to kill him!
    So you've either avoided or killed those four. All you have to do now is kill seven (zzzzzz) Syan (big knights with gold armor. They are in the castle as well, plus a few other places in the game) knights. You can aggro a few at a time, so you end up fighting two, then one, then two, then the final two, situated on the stairs right before the fog gate. And these two DO NOT MOVE off the stairs, eliminating your ability to just run past them all. They aren't particularly hard to kill, but it's a situation where every time you have to do it, you wanna get through it faster and faster, making you more careless and careless, meaning you die more often. Very annoying. In short, THIS is the reason I didn't wanna die to the boss. Oh yeah, this blog post is about a boss isn't it?

From the cut-scene. Garl?

    Once you get through Bullshit Hall, you come into a small, ruined room. There are destructible pillars around it. You get a small cut-scene of Velstadt, basically just looking ominous, getting ready to fight you. Once you see him, if you've played Demon's Souls, you'll notice he quite resembles Garl Vinland, the knight that protected Maiden Astraea. They both wear gold, they both have very similar helmets, they both have huge hammers for weapons, and they both have nearly identical motives. They both have an undying devotion to protect their respective masters, I'll say. Velstadt here protects the mad King Vendrick, who is found immediately after this battle, mindlessly walking around, dragging his sword behind him (and he's huge!).

Also, he's quite large

    Enough of all that. Let's finally get down to the fight. It's equal parts easy and hard. Velstadt will swing his huge hammer, he'll thrust it forward (with remarkable reach, I might add), and he'll bring it down for a devastating overhead slam. They can all be rolled from, or you can put up your shield. I actually went with my shield for this battle, because I was so afraid to take any risks. And it's tough to block many of his attacks in a row, because it kills stamina. Eventually, I think after he's taken some damage, he'll kneel down and imbue himself with dark magic. Sort of like Smelter Demon, but not nearly as dangerous. All this does is allow him to shoot dark magic orbs in a wide spread. He only shoots them straight, and he telegraphs this by waving his hammer, and you'll hear a bell. Once this happens, just run to his side and smack him a few times. Otherwise, carefully block/dodge his attacks. It would do you good to be patient and take your time. I did. There is a cheap strategy that I'm pretty sure works too: once he starts using the dark attacks, get far away from him. This will prompt him to do the attack. When he starts, simply run up to his side and attack. Once he ends the attack, just run away, and he'll start the dark attack again. And the attack will only shoot forward, so if you just run to the side, you're golden.

Almost looks like he's doing a jig

    Velstadt is tough (I see people comparing him to Smelter. Yeah, I don't think so), to be sure. But at the same time, he only took four attempts. Mind you, they were very anxiety-inducing attempts (maybe that's hyperbole?). I enjoyed the battle, and the design of the boss (knight!), but I wish he was more difficult. I appreciate the ridiculous amount of bosses in this game, but I wish they had ratcheted up the difficulty of them a bit. Well, that's what NG+ and Company Of Champions is for right? With that being said, I'm a homer for the Souls games, and I can overlook the relative easiness of most of the bosses, because they (and the game) are a joy to play through!

By the way, fun fact for the day: "aegis" means, "the protection, backing, or support of a particular person or organization", or so says my Google search results. At least his name is quite fitting!
 

Times I died: 3
Difficulty: 5/10
Rating: 7/10

Are you ready to fight a pansy dragon? Of course you are! Let's go to Aldia's Keep!

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BOSS SOUL DESCRIPTION: "...defender of the King inside the Undead Crypt; Velstadt was always at the King's side, as if he were his lord's own shadow. After the King retired to the Undead Crypt, Velstadt followed, never to return."

Demon Of Song

More like, Demon Of AWESOME!

    Before ever playing a single second of Dark Souls II, before there was ANY information about it, way back when they showed a teaser trailer at the VGAs, I told myself I'd get through it the first time by myself. I'd refrain from spoilers. I'd discover what I could on my own. I'd let the pure magic of discovery lead my initial playthrough. Well, readers, if you've read the previous 20+ posts, you know I failed miserably at this. And I rarely sought out information; I just found myself so enamored, so obsessed, so deep into this game, I couldn't HELP but to read and spoil things for myself. It really sucks, because I don't feel I'm the best Souls player I can be. I also know I'm just not smart, resourceful, or patient enough to figure out the more obtuse things in this game. That rambling is a preamble to this: going into this area, I knew two things about it from reading online: The Shrine Of Amana is the toughest area of the game, and the boss of it is a pushover. I found both of those statements to be false (slightly).
    The Shrine Of Amana is a pain, that part is certainly true. The mages that have a RIDICULOUS reach on their homing spells are assholes. 'Tis true! But their magic didn't hurt me as much as I was expecting it to (maybe due to the Spell Quartz Ring +2 you find directly after killing Looking Glass Knight but before coming down to this area). So I was able to slog through the area with my trusty Dragonrider bow. Looking past the annoying enemies, this place really is breathtaking, and looked NOTHING like I expected. Based on what I had read, I expected a super dark old tomb filled with narrow corridors and water. It's really like a much larger, more fleshed out Ash Lake. It looks amazing, and it's the best looking place in the whole game (so far).

Something wicked this way sits

    Once you crawl (it really does feel like a crawl: you have to be slow and methodical) through the level, you reach a fog gate in a cave area. Through the gate you'll meet the Demon Of Song. As I said, I had read he was super easy. I also read he was a frog-like boss. He is, but, again, nothing like I expected. This has to be probably my favorite looking boss in the whole series. He is a frog, somewhat. He has that brown, wet-looking amphibious skin; he has the typical frog legs; and he can hop and shoot across the water like a frog. His face, however, is something close to truly terrifying. It's an old, withered, human face. From afar, I thought at first it was a skull. This is much better. Sometimes he'll pull excess skin on his head over his face, to create a mask of sorts. The first time I saw him do this, I was simply astounded at how creative it was. To top it off, he's got two long skinny arms that come out of where his head is (perhaps the frog-skin is just a cover for his true body? All we get to see if that are his arms and face).

Tell me this isn't disturbingly awesome

    At first, this thing killed me twice right off the bat, and then another time as a phantom helping someone out. I thought, man, this thing is hard as hell. Well, turns out it really isn't very hard at all. He attacks a few different ways: he slowly swipes with his arms, which does crazy damage, even through my shield. He'll also jump high in the air and try to crash down on you. You fight him in a small amount of water, and he can shoot himself across the water like a rocket. I found all his attacks to be quite devastating, and difficult to dodge. However, I realized he has an easy pattern to figure out. If you go up to him, he'll take his head and arms out, and swipe them around. Just back up and let him do this. Once he finishes, he just sits there for a second or two. Now's the chance to go and pummel him. Just repeat this process, and be aware if he jumps or glides over the water. I should have said earlier, but only his head and arms are vulnerable. His frog-skin can't be harmed.

Cross up!

    Once I figured out how to kill this guy, it was pretty easy. I learned something in the Shrine Of Amana: the way I picture things in my mind, and the way they actually look, are almost ALWAYS WILDLY DIFFERENT. I really wish I hadn't spoiled so much of this game for myself. At this point, I'm close to the end, but I know the remaining bosses and areas. Not what they look like, but I know about them. And that's enough for them to be spoiled. I'm hoping maybe there is a super secret area that no one has discovered yet, and I'll discover it on my own. Prooooobably not though. Hey, let me say it here: for Dark Souls III, or its spiritual successor (hopefully the latter), I'm NOT GONNA READ ANYTHING ABOUT IT UNTIL I BEAT IT ONCE IN MY OWN!

Every senior citizen should have Life Alert!

Times I died: 2
Difficulty: 3/10
Rating: 10/10 (yup, I went there)

Up next, we venture deep through the Undead Crypt and find a big, giant, gold guy

BOSS SOUL DESCRIPTION: "When the demon developed a taste for human flesh, it was contained within the Shrine of Amana, but the line of priestesses who looked after the shrine and appeased the creature have died off." 

 

Spotted Whip

 Spotted Whip: "The Demon's sonorous voice, in stark contrast to its hideous form, is sure intended to lure people close so that it may devour them."