Malenia = everything that is wrong with Elden Ring

[Koreanpowerman]

Elden Ring has some of the laziest boss designs I have seen so far in a Soulslike game. Monotonous, whirlwinding attacks, repetitive patterns, bosses too big to play comfortably on a screen, you name it.

Half an hour into Malenia, I realize that she is the absolute epitome of what is wrong with this game`s design:

She has lifeleech, hits like an absolute truck, can reach across the map in a second, has animations that render her immune, has a whirlwind that is so retardedly unbalanced that it`s almost funny. And when I thought that I got her down: bam, second phase and instantkill from 100% to 0 (52 vitality) while crashing down on me.

I can overlook all the horrible level designs in the later game (ever since the capital the quality took a nosedive), but this is just inexcusable.
Malenia showcases that the designers have no idea how to make content hard and fun at the same time. They just slap ♥♥♥♥ on as they go to make it "hard" for the sake of being hard.
Bosses that can 1-2 shot you all the time are not hard. They are garbage game design.


FromSoftware, you had 7 years and this is the only thing you could come up with? Pathetic.

[keepitkool1]

Yeah thats cause you have 52 vitality instead of vigor ;D

[Janthis]

Inb4 fanboys crowd into this thread to link some videos of a handful of players beating her after 100 tries as proof that she's totally fair and balanced.

[la sanie des siècles]

I loved the game, but it really is ♥♥♥♥ tier FromSoft bosses, i would prefeer every boss to be a reskinned Capra Demon, worst bosses on the entire franchise, not just cause of the hit kill moves and cheap difficulty, but the fights are boring, Malenia, Hourah Loux and Radagon were ok-ish, i like de design of the Lord of the Storms too, but that's it.

[The Black Baron]

Yeah, I'm always quite critical of the game aswell, Ds3 has already been feeling quite devoid of mechanics unlike ds1 and 2 where some felt obscure but at least those mechanics where there. Elden ring's covenants only offer a different flavour of ending cutscene where only the skybox is from then on different and the actual content gets so stretched thin over a mostly empty world. There are hardly any traps in dungeons besides the pillars with ice and fire or the arrow traps. Nothing you can trigger to mess with invaders or the host as an invader.

It is sad to see that all previous souls games had like ONE great idea, but decreasingly well execution of most ideas. Where you can see that they have good ideas, but they half arse most of the execution or implementation. It is so sad to see that they are just dilly dalling along on their previous accomplishments that they just fall into the same patterns of going full throttle on like 40% of the game and then all ideas just get dropped , and the slither of a shade of that idea still lingers , taunting you with what could have been if they didn't grossly mismanage their resources again. I know how this can play out. I work in the software field, how features start out and how they end up.

Sorry for the long response, I agree Milenia is a lazy boss and most of them are rather forgettable. Not because of their naming scheme( partially) to resemble the name of their parents Marika/Radagon etc but because some of them just use the same models and it is lazy. I could recognize the move sets, when i was playing with my friends I told them so many times " Oh he's using the attack moves of X boss from X game" One friend of mine that hasn't played ds1 or ds3 had a better time because he did not know what the enemy was . Basicalyl lots of reskins from previous games and partial movesets from others.

[Cyrus]

her encounter is optional, therefore she has weird gimmicks. If your build can deal with it then great, if not your screwed. That is bad design, since the game rolls a dice to see if your hit lands, if it rolls a 0 like a DND or a 20, the boss AI will dodge your attack. Its stupid af

[Mixue Pizza]

She is hard but it's become impossible if you have awful build as well. Try respect your stats and pick better weapon or ash of war.

[Q̴̡̼̽̒̕u̸̘̪̾͊̚͜e̴]

You can dodge both the whirlwind and flower crash thing.
But I agree, this boss is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

[Brahminmilkshake]

Honestly considering she is supposed to be the strongest demigod now that Rahdahn has lost his mind it would be bad design if she wasn't a stupid ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ fight. However, the only way I could consistently dodge waterfowl dance was with bloodhound step so you're probably right if you're talking about that.

[The Black Baron]

Originally posted by Cyrus:

her encounter is optional, therefore she has weird gimmicks. If your build can deal with it then great, if not your screwed. That is bad design, since the game rolls a dice to see if your hit lands, if it rolls a 0 like a DND or a 20, the boss AI will dodge your attack. Its stupid af

Sure she's optional, doesn't mean that she has to be a non brainer boss fight where the best course of action is to stunlock her before she can stunlock you. This is a fundamentally bad boss design. I've beaten the game twice. Her scaling in Ng+ is just silly. Especially when you're considered to be "overleveled" and she still 2 shots you with 60 vigor.

[Tinkuwu]

Originally posted by Johnny_B_80:

Inb4 fanboys crowd into this thread to link some videos of a handful of players beating her after 100 tries as proof that she's totally fair and balanced.

I beat her on my second try with a mimic tear, a big hammer (heavy giant crusher +25), and full bull-goat armor.

[Cyrus]

I found an easier way to take down malenia - also every boss. Use any weapon that gives you scarlet rot as base. Use the ash of war that gives you ice build up [hoarfrost stomp], then use the item that gives your weapons poison for stabbing yourself.

This shall give you 3 dots on your weapon, you can kill her in like 30 seconds

[The Black Baron]

Originally posted by Brahminmilkshake:

Honestly considering she is supposed to be the strongest demigod now that Rahdahn has lost his mind it would be bad design if she wasn't a stupid ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ fight. However, the only way I could consistently dodge waterfowl dance was with bloodhound step so you're probably right if you're talking about that.

I personally think that you should not get railroaded to use ONE specific op ash of war, it kills build variety if you don't want to use that. Beating a crutch boss with a crutch ability is not challangeing, it is boring.

[willy bammy]

Look out, here comes the crowd that thinks just because something is still possible, that makes it well made

[Project Danny]

Git gud

[Dropkick]

Git gud