FromSoftware’s Bosses Should Be More Malenia, Less Consort Radahn

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home November 10, 2024 105 Views 5 Min Read
FromSoftware’s Bosses Should Be More Malenia, Less Consort Radahn

FromSoftware has built a reputation on the backs of excruciatingly difficult games with Elden Ring being one of them. Despite a number of accessibility considerations and design choices that make for a smoother experience, Elden Ring ultimately has some of the hardest bosses FromSoftware has ever unleashed on the gaming world, for better and for worse. Nowhere is this white-knuckle difficulty more apparent than in the fight with Promised Consort Radahn at the end of the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC.




With the expansion dropping over two years after the base game, this encounter essentially serves as the finale to the Elden Ring experience as a whole—the “final” final boss of the game. As such, one would naturally expect this to be a difficult bout, but few could have anticipated just how unforgiving and relentless it would be. This sparked several hot takes within the game’s community, with many arguing that Radahn was either poorly designed, unfair, or hard for the sake of being hard. While these criticisms may vary in validity, they are indicative of a broader issue about difficulty in FromSoftware’s games.


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Messmer the Impaler, Demigod Boss in Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree

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Why Malenia Would Be a Better Blueprint for Future FromSoftware Bosses Than Consort Radahn

Before Shadow of the Erdtree, Malenia, Blade of Miquella was almost universally regarded as Elden Ring‘s toughest boss battle. Tucked away in Miquella’s Haligtree, players have to fight through an immense, challenging, totally missable region to get to her. Since the Haligtree isn’t even accessible until after players reach the Mountaintops of the Giants, it’s guaranteed that Malenia will be at least a late-game boss fight, making her perfect for those seeking an extra challenge.


And an extra challenge is precisely what Malenia offers. She attacks the player with graceful ferocity, with a moveset that is one of FromSoftware’s hardest to counter. Nigh-unavoidable attacks like her Waterfowl Dance combo, coupled with her Scarlet Rot status effects and health regeneration, make her encounter one that’s reserved for only the most experienced (or masochistic) players and beating her essentially feels like overcoming the base game’s final challenge.

Malenia’s Optional Nature Offsets Her Crushing Difficulty

As is often the case in FromSoftware games, Elden Ring‘s optional bosses are usually the hardest, and Malenia is no exception to this trend. But this informs their position in the overall structure of the game since players can tackle them at their own pace, with beating them being like an extra reward for mastering the game’s mechanics or strengthening their character. This is inherently different from brutally challenging mandatory bosses like Promised Consort Radahn, who are more likely to be seen as frustrating roadblocks than worthwhile challenges.


In the case of Radahn, players will have to spend several hours making their way through the DLC, empowering themselves through Scadutree Fragments and the like, before hitting a brick wall. And make no mistake, Consort Radahn can indeed be a brick wall, especially in the pre-nerf build of the game, as his attacks are devastating, nearly impossible to dodge much of the time, and often difficult to even see thanks to the visual noise of his second-phase Faith effects. Upon reaching him at the end of Shadow of the Erdtree, it can feel like an abrupt halt in momentum, lessening the overall experience for some players.

If Promised Consort Radahn was just as powerful but included as an optional boss battle, then it’s probable that he would not have been so maligned by the playerbase. Radahn would have been viewed the same way as Malenia: a tough-as-nails fight that nets bragging rights upon completion.

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