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."