Elden Ring - The Many Problems With Its Bosses

I like Joseph Anderson's take on the Elden Beast. "I wouldn't be surprised if they simply forgot to enable Torrent for this fight and now they're too embarassed to admit and fix it"

My biggest issue is how many bosses you have to constantly chase around the arena to even try to hit

I hate how fromsoft knows gamers have gotten used to their attack animations so now every enemy drags his weapon for like 49 seconds before swinging it incredibly fast just to arbitrarily disrupt your timing by making the enemies move in a completely unrealistic and unnatural way

I feel like Elden Beast should have been more similar to Moon Presence from Bloodborne in that it could have been a kind of secret extra boss. Radagon feels like a much more fitting end boss, and Elden Beast feels more like Moon Presence thematically.

A great boss like Ishin tests all the skills you learned during the whole game, a boss like Malenia tests your ability to watch a youtube video on how to dodge waterfowl dance.

One thing that i really wish they did, is have the camera zoom out on bigger bosses. They did it in sekiro, and it makes it soo much easier too see what the boss is doing when you you're close and attacking. Now with no camera change, it sometimes makes the boss figh just seem cluttered, sparaddic and sometimes unfair. (Just realized while waching, this happens on some bosses, but is inconsistent)

I'm surprised there was no mention of easily the most hated boss in the game, the Godskin Duo, a fight that fools you into thinking it's like Ornstein and Smough where one is slow and does massive damage and the other is fast and uses hit and run tactics but in reality both of them are ridiculously fast with no end to their combos and not to mention that bullshit nearly unavoidable roll the fat one does and it's mandatory to even get to Malekith

I agree with you on Hoarah Loux, but not on Godfrey. Godfrey was the only boss I felt like I could reliably dodge in the whole game because he was telegraphed properly every time.

I think the lack of Marika's Statues in Raya Lucaria makes a lot of sense, but I would have loved to see them replaced by Radagon Statues. Not only would this tie into the lore of the Marika/Radagon are the same being, but it would also promote the idea that these statues are still intact because Rennala still cares for Radagon.

"the other games sped you up with the enemy" that finally got me on board with what you were saying. I think that's the biggest issue with all of this. BB and Sekiro had insanely fast bosses but you were also insanely fast

Dark Souls 3 felt like fighting Bloodborne bosses with a Dark Souls character Elden Ring feels like fighting Sekiro bosses with a Dark Souls character, like you're literally not equipped to deal with some of their shenanigans

"Nothing links Yura to Mohg" when the first instance of seeing Yura is killing a Mohg follower together ? And every part of his questline is killing mohg followers ?

The most annoying thing for me in ER is abundance of huge, colossal bosses (compared to main character height and size). Its like Miyazaki wanted to do something really epic and cinematic by forcing player to fight freaking buildings, but it ended up in encounters where you have to cock and ball torture bosses/enemies because you never see anything over their belt for the whole fight. Also, its super dumb to die because big dude dropped a sword in couple meters from you. These aoe attacks are outrageous

I absolutely hate the delayed strikes. Yea, I agree that if used once in a while it would actually be really cool, but it seems like almost every single boss does it. You can't get naturally better at dodging attacks with instinct, instead, you just have to memorize the delay, which is super frustrating when you can die in 2-3 hits

The delayed attacks really are a nuisance and ruin a lot of would-be great fights. I don't care for being punished for my natural instincts. Granted, its a good mechanic when used scarcely. However, the problem is that the majority of bosses are chock full of off-speed goofy attacks with timing that makes no sense. Couple that with hyper aggressive bosses with crazy long attack strings, long and obnoxious death runs, and tilt (lmao); and I find myself saying things like "When do I get to play the game?" (Lies of P was the WORST offender of this - still enjoyed it though; or in Elden Ring's case, a boss like Malenia).

I think the issue having gone through Elden Ring a few times is that the game feels as if a lot of the bosses are balanced around the summons the game gives you. FS WANT you to use them. So bosses end up feeling overturned because they’re not balanced to be fought one on one. Going through the game with and without summons on bosses are completely different experiences

The camera problem can be solved by what Generation 5 Monster Hunter games do; whenever a monster is about to do a wide scaled attack the camera zooms out to give you the vision cue you needed. These things will make fighting things like the Ulcerated Tree Spirit or giants much more comfortable.

One thing I will say about Astel, I was one of the seemingly very few people who didn't do Ranni's questline at all, so my first exposure to Astel was the Stars of Darkness variant. The Stars of Darkness variant is just straight-up much stronger, more health, more damage... and if you haven't seen its version of the grab, do yourself a favor and check it out. Its absolutely ridiculous.

"Even the worst of the worst fights in the game, or even the whole series, don't have anything on Elden Beast." I won't tolerate this Royal Rat Authority disrespect.

The amount of bosses that are just two variants of one another is really bad. Throwing two nearly identical bosses in one room is really lazy and creates an artificial difficulty.