 |
| source// FromSoftware |
Dark Souls 3 is expected to be the last game in the legendary, tortuous series, and looks set to give us a send-off equivalent to picking you up by the back of your pants, giving you an excruciatingly pleasurable wedgie and throwing you out the front door.
No aspect of Dark Souls better embodies this cruel, challenging spirit than the bosses – menacing demi-gods tormented by their undying state or arisen after a thousand-year slumber to dutifully carry out some oath or another. You’ll die, die, die again as you throw yourself against these goliaths, but when you finally topple them it’s one of the best feelings you can possibly experience from a video game.
With plenty of trailers for us to dig into and Dark Souls lore-ologists (not a real word, but it should be) rigorously analysing everything, we’ve seen plenty of the Dark Souls 3 bosses that await us. Here are 10 of the game’s bosses (some of which have only just been unveiled), that we’re already terrified of, yet can’t wait to take on.
Need we say SPOILERS ALERT?
10. Pontiff Sulyvahn
Of all the bosses in Dark Souls 3, this is the one whose name seems to nod most towards Bloodborne, with its looming cathedrals and religious themes. This being a Souls game, the pontiff in question isn’t your typical friendly withered dude in a tall hat. He’s more like the medieval kind of pope who’d rouse thousands into going on a crusade and not flinch at the thought of thousands of them dying. According to the lore, Sulyvahn controlled his knights using a cursed ring that sent them into war frenzies, and would then – like any good old-school pope – send them on murderous foreign expeditions in the name of whatever god he worships.
Alternatively, judging by his blue and red light-sabers, he’s a former Sith Lord who’s somehow found himself in the wrong dimension, and thought ‘to hell with it. May as well put my blade skills to good use by slashing up people half my size’. You fight His Unholiness in an impressive, glossy-floored cathedral, in what looks like a tense one-on-one duel where he’ll have a distinct reach disadvantage.
9. Curse-Rotted Greatwood
Anyone who saw that trailer a few months ago will tingle with trepidation at the thought of fighting this abomination. What’s exciting about the Greatwood is that it reveals some of the new mechanics and pitfalls you’ll need to look out for in boss fights that we’ve never seen in previous Souls games.
Unlike your typical Dark Souls boss, there’s no fog gate or strange Dark Souls 2-style ‘bloody eye’ effect here, as you walk through a courtyard, before a tree that seemed like a part of the background suddenly lumbers to life and starts stomping towards you with murderous intent. It’s a horrifying sight, with corpses in metal caskets hanging from its branches, and a vile swollen sac of what looks like giant frogspawn between its legs (I shudder to think that this is probably some kind of reproductive…thing).
This creature was once in fact a spirit tree, whose biological (or spiritual?) role was to absorb and seal away curses that permeated into the Undead Settlement. Eventually, all those pent-up curses took their toll however, resulting what you see above; another tragic story to add to a Dark Souls repertoire that’s positively brimming with them.
8. Yhorm, The Giant
Probably the single most imposing creature from all the Dark Souls 3 trailers we’ve seen so far is this faceless dude, who’s clearly of the same species as the giants from Dark Souls 2, though decidedly more menacing with his flaming sword and suit of chainmail.
Billed as the ‘reclusive lord of the profaned capital’ and one of the Lords of Cinder, Yhorm presumably presides over the capital of Lothric, the kingdom where Dark Souls 3 takes place. The fact that he’s a giant has given rise to a fair few theories that the world of Dark Souls 3 is connected to that of Dark Souls 2 in a quite literal way, and is possibly the ‘Land to the North’ from which the giants invaded the kingdom of Drangleic.
Hopefully Yhorm will give a better account of the giants than the ones who we fought in Dark Souls, where the fight mostly entailed running between their gangly legs and hacking at their heels. The latest launch trailer suggest Yhorm is a more vicious, proactive boss who’s not afraid to unleash some combos with that smouldering blade of his.
7. The Nameless King
In Dark Souls 2, we were up to our knees in Dragonriders, who acted as kind-of caretaker bosses who’d jump in when the creative department couldn’t be bothered to come up with full-on original boss battle (‘Let’s throw them a Dragonrider or two to keep ’em busy’). But those guys never really lived up to their names, choosing to fight on foot rather than aback dragons like they damn well should, and therefore have nothing on the Nameless King from Dark Souls 3, who’s the first Souls boss actually riding a great big winged beast.
Judging by its appearance, the creature he rides looks like its flown over from Bloodborne’s city of Yharnam (though it’s probably a little bit too far to suggest that the Bloodborne and Souls universes are connected). We don’t yet have any idea what this guy’s place is in the Dark Souls 3 universe, although his lightning-charged attack triggers fond/ traumatic flashbacks to Dragonslaver Ornstein.
The setting looks awesome too, as you take him on in some kind of stormy, fog-filled hellscape that looks about as hospitable as the atmosphere of Jupiter.
6. Farron’s Undead Legion, The Abyss Watchers
No Dark Souls game would be complete without a brutally difficult multi-boss battle. In Dark Souls we had the Four Kings, in Dark Souls 2 the Ruin Sentinels, and it looks like Farron’s Undead Legion will be stepping up to the plate in Dark Souls 3.
The Abyss Watchers are introduced in the trailer as some of the Lords of Cinder… or is it that together they add up to one of the Lords of Cinder, sort of like the Power Rangers combining to form the Megazord?
Having already seen them in action, we can confirm that their fighting style has echoes of Lady Maria from Bloodborne, with a similar appearance and fast, duelling fight style. All you Dark Souls lore buffs will also notice that they carry similar swords to Dark Souls’ Knight Artorias, suggesting they fulfill a similar role in making sure that the abyss doesn’t spill out into the land.
All in all, they seem like a pretty good-hearted bunch. Shame you’re gonna have to kill them (after they no doubt kill you countless times).
5. Aldrich, Devourer Of Gods
Don’t worry, I’m with you. I’ve no clue what’s going on in this image either, but it’s the best one out there of Aldrich.
What better way to intimidate and terrify your foes than with a moniker like ‘Devourer of Gods’. There’s just no way you can’t take this guy seriously, even if from what we’ve seen so far he/it/whatever looks like an amorphous black ooze kind of like the not-so-intimidating Phalanx boss from Demon’s Souls. Maybe the name is compensating for the weird appearance?
Among the Dark Souls 3 bosses, Aldrich is one of the biggies as he, along with the Abyss Watchers and Yhorm the Giant, is one of the Lords of Cinder. His other alias is ‘Saint of the Depths’, suggesting that you may encounter him in one of Dark Souls 3’s obligatory subterranean levels equivalent to Blighttown in DS1 or Black Gulch in DS2.
Some of the shots of Aldrich actually reveal him to be more than just a blobby mass, rising out of the ooze with a spear and a helmet that looks not too dissimilar to that worn by the Gwyndolin, the spooky cross-dressing god who resides in Anor Londo in the original Dark Souls. Could there be a connection?
4. High Lord Wolnir
One of the most brilliantly spine-tingling moments in the original Dark Souls 3 trailer was a shot of some poor adventurer walking through a dark, dingy chamber with a torch, when suddenly a giant floating skull emerges out of the darkness and hovers towards them.
Meet High Lord Wolnir, a colossal shambling skeleton who may not be the most original boss in gaming, but is undeniably menacing. Judging by his publicity shots, Wolnir doesn’t seem to have a lower half to his body, shambling around using his arms and at the same time trying to swing a sword at you. Though judging by the above shot, it almost seems like’s he’s just a floating head; perhaps he can be assembled and disassembled like a Lego man, which would make him even more menacing seeing as we all know such things are basically indestructible.
Don’t let his shambling, pained form fool you though. These Dark Souls bosses have a penchant for looking like they’re in excruciating agony while being absolutely lethal. In fact, it’s almost as if their turmoil fuels their rage and prowess in battle, and something tells us that this guy is no exception.
3. Crystal Sage
You can’t go too wrong with the classic ‘witch in a wide-brimmed hat’ getup. Clichéd though it may sound, fairytale witches haven’t featured in many video games since the SNES/Master System era, so it’s nice to see them given the brooding Dark Souls treatment.
You take on the Crystal Sage in some kind of overgrown, forested ruin, and need to chase her around as she disappears into the ground, before reappearing and multiplying herself in different parts of the arena, blasting you with all kinds of hocus pocus that you need to evade.
Rumour has it that when you get her down to half-health, she summons a broomstick, at which point you need to shoot her down with a bow or magic spell. Incidentally, that rumour started in this very paragraph…
She does, however, have a crystal ball!
2. Deacons Of The Deep
There’s rarely much love among Souls fans for bosses that are simply made up of a large crowd of enemies marching towards you, yet there’s something charmingly sinister about this malign brotherhood of monks, who once again evoke the christian imagery (lackies of Pontiff Sulyvahn, perhaps?), and walk you down while pelting you with fireballs and magic.
Without giving too much away, the battle is more than a simple matter of slashing your way through all of them, and you’ll need to figure out a way of taking them down before they overwhelm you like a horde of George Romero zombies.
The lore suggests these guys are worshippers of Aldrich (who is, after all, the Saint of the Deep), and look after his coffin after he left for the Boreal Valley. The deacons are led by one Archdeacon Royce, who heads this most sinister of processions as it attempts to prevent you from violating Aldrich’s tomb.
1. Dancer Of The Boreal Valley
Arguably the poster child for Dark Souls 3 bosses so far, based on the plethora of Let’s Play videos and gameplay trailers that have shown countless people taking on this ethereal-looking creature. You can see why From Software wanted to show off this boss in particular, as her ghostly cape gives her an elegant, flowing appearance that you could almost just sit back and admire if she wasn’t trying to slash you in half.
Some lorehunters have suggested a connection between the Dancer and Ciaran, one of Gwyn’s knights from the original Dark Souls, based on the slight similarity in weapons and armour, though this has mostly been refuted for there being no logical reason (from what we know so far) for her to make an appearance.
The Dancer’s hypnotic movement makes it awkward to anticipate her attacks, and no doubt plenty of players have already seen people in action against her and thought ‘pffff, I could do better than that’. Well, soon you’ll get your chance…
Are you hyped for Dark Souls 3? Sad to hear that this will be the last one? Which boss has got your adrenaline going the most so far? Let us know in the comments!
No comments:
Post a Comment