Summary
There’s always a lot of pressure on FromSoftware’s shoulders when it comes to making its bosses. Over the last decade or so, challenging, spectacular boss fights have become an expectedstaple of FromSoftware games, and they’ve become one of the biggest points of speculation before a FromSoft release. Fans will theorize what types of bosses they’ll see in the game, what movesets they’ll have, and how difficult they’ll be, among many other facets. This was all true forElden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree DLC.
Essentially the length of an entire game in its own right,Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree DLC contains a ton of boss fights, some of which were teased in the DLC’s various pre-release trailers. One of the more intriguing bosses teased in Shadow of the Erdtree’s marketing was some kind of lion-like boss battle, and in the final product it lives up to its lofty expectations and then some, raising the bar for future FromSoftware beast bosses.
Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree’s Dancing Lion Is the New Bar for Beast Bosses
FromSoftware’s Beast Bosses Haven’t Always Been Great
FromDark SoulstoElden Ring, FromSoftware has included at least one kind of beast-like boss in most of its action-RPGs. These bosses can offer some of the most epic fights in the game, putting players face-to-face with a huge monstrous being that towers over them and can deplete their entire health bar in just a few hits. These fights are also usually accompanied by grand orchestral scores and plenty of flashy visual effects.
ButFromSoftware’s beast bossesdon’t always feel that epic in the moment. While the ideas behind these beast boss fights are often great, and the presentation is always first-class, the gameplay can often feel a little stilted or half-baked during these encounters.
With these enemies being so much bigger than the player-character, it’s a common occurrence for the camera to get trapped on parts of the environment or get stuck underneath the boss itself, making it very difficult for the player to read the boss' attack pattern.
These bosses also frequently come with a handful of AoE attacks that are usually a bit too tricky to avoid, leading to a lot of frustration. EvenBloodborne, a game that centers itself around hunting beasts, can occasionally stumble during some of its larger-scale beast boss fights.
Shadow of the Erdtree’s Dancing Lion Avoids a Lot of Common Beast Boss Pitfalls
ButElden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtreeintroduces a new beast boss that manages to avoid a lot of the usual FromSoftware pitfalls, at least for the most part. Namedthe Divine Beast Dancing Lion, this early-game Shadow of the Erdtree boss is large enough to feel suitably imposing but is small enough so that the game’s camera can track its movements fairly efficiently, which is particularly impressive as this boss' moveset contains a lot of frantic dashes and thrashes. This allows players to learn the Dancing Lion’s moveset quite easily, which then paves the way for the all-important moment where players finally adapt to the boss' pattern.
Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree’s Dancing Lion boss fightalso features some excellent presentation. The boss' arena is simple but impressively large, the visual design of the boss itself is sinister and intimidating, and the music that accompanies the entire fight is thrilling. The Dancing Lion’s moveset is varied with it having access to a range of elemental attacks that the player needs to counter in different ways. It’s not quite perfect, but the Dancing Lion does set a new standard for FromSoftware’s beast boss fights.
Elden Ring
WHERE TO PLAY
ELDEN RING, developed by FromSoftware, Inc. and BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Inc., is a fantasy action-RPG adventure set within a world created by Hidetaka Miyazaki and George R.R. Martin. Danger and discovery lurk around every corner in FromSoftware’s largest game to date. Hidetaka Miyazaki - President and Game Director of FromSoftware Inc. Known for directing critically-acclaimed games in beloved franchises including Armored Core and Dark Souls.George R.R. Martin is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of many novels, including the acclaimed series A Song of Ice and Fire - A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast For Crows, and A Dance with Dragons. As a writer-producer, he has worked on The Twilight Zone, Beauty and the Beast, and various feature films and pilots that were never made. He lives with the lovely Parris in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
