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!
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!
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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!
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| 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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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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