Door Guardian - pure sadism from the devs.

[catnipdave]

How the devs must have giggled and laughed when they developed this one.
Give the boss some weird timing that's unique to this particular boss,
Which means you will get hit - and you will get killed in 2 hits while trying to learn the timing. So far maybe ok.
But here's the icing on the cake - make the run back a couple of minutes SLOG.
Two hits to die - run back, etc etc.
Pure sadism.
Feels good when you beat it like when you stop banging your head against a wall.

[Jaquavious]

It took me 2 tries, get good

[Amene]

But here's the icing on the cake - make the run back a couple of minutes SLOG.

This is TBH a valid critique imho, particular in context of people doing challenge runs. Btw - you can savescum and restore super fast with this game (you don't have to quite the game, title screen is enough) - this will save you tons of time in that particular spot.

Other than that this boss dies very, very fast once you open it for a fatal strike. Don't forget an elemental effect.

[catnipdave]

I understand why they devs put distance between bosses and save points - it ups the tension (although we've come a long way since the ludicrous distance used in Demon Souls) but in the case of the Door Guardian it is unwarranted. The fight isn't that interesting, it's a gimmick boss - but it's still very easy to die until you learn the timings, so the major frustration isn't the fight but the stupid run back and that annoyed the hell out of me, and it certainly didn't take me anywhere close to beat as some of the other bosses.

Btw, I don't mind gimmick bosses every now and then, but if a fight's not particularly fun then don't make the run back a long tedious slog.

[Krypto]

It's an endurance fight. You need to whittle down its legs, then it's basically fodder - similar to Tower Knight in Demon's Souls.

If there was no shock status, the fight would be too easy.

[Uhtred son of Uhtred]

I can't get how people struggle with this boss. With just two letal attacks win the fight.

[Ash]

Originally posted by Uhtred son of Uhtred:

I can't get how people struggle with this boss. With just two letal attacks win the fight.

For me it was because I tried to fight him like other LoP bosses while he's more of a classic DS "turn off target lock and hug its leg" kind.

[Heiinz]

You take minutes to run back? Weird... (39 seconds here: https://youtu.be/qfFmB7ZtfTE?t=2719)
But over all i would recommend to learn to parry him or just dodge far away once he starts an attack.

[greenlionguard]

I love how this game punishes you for getting into a "habit" when dealing with enemies.

[catnipdave]

Originally posted by greenlionguard:

I love how this game punishes you for getting into a "habit" when dealing with enemies.

Some people have masochistic tendencies and enjoy being "punished".
Me, I'm not keen on wasting my time for no good reason.

[Shreddy]

I thought he was a nice change of pace with the whole leg thing. If you sprint to him from the stargazer without stopping for more than a couple of seconds for stamina regen the enemies cannot catch you and back off as soon as you get close to the boss door so it's an easy retry not a slog.

[strangerism]

you can literally run and avoid all mobs up to the boss entrance. It's seconds to get there

[LuckyCheshire]

I agree, it'd definitely a bit of a slog to get there, and the difficulty of the fight varies *wildly* depending on how much posture damage your weapon does. At least Laxasia, the next major boss, has a checkpoint about three feet from the boss arena.

[CosmicGumbo]

Originally posted by greenlionguard:

I love how this game punishes you for getting into a "habit" when dealing with enemies.

Same, it keeps the gameplay fresher, longer. I appreciate the souls genre's ability to make you think about even minor encounters. When I want to mindlessly mash buttons I can play Palworld and that's fun too.

[greenlionguard]

Originally posted by CosmicGumbo:

Originally posted by greenlionguard:

I love how this game punishes you for getting into a "habit" when dealing with enemies.

Same, it keeps the gameplay fresher, longer. I appreciate the souls genre's ability to make you think about even minor encounters. When I want to mindlessly mash buttons I can play Palworld and that's fun too.

I understand how a small thing can be vastly different game play experiences for me visuals do play a part. The souls games were far too monochrome in most instances for me like I get you want the environment to have a feeling but the overreaction on one color selections and limited visuals does them little favors given the effort put into the modules designs. I like that the art director form lies of P understood that the time period had bright colors and was not afraid of using dull version of this to impose the feeling of gloom and disaster. it just works and is still a far improvement form the "only gold" of elden ring