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.
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| 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.
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| 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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