I completed a bunch of the side-quests, too, or at least as much as I could at this point of the game. I did Blaidd the Half-Wolf's quest; I wrapped up the Castle Morne storyline with Irina and Edgar; I talked and got rewards from the other Tarnished in Stormveil Castle; I dashed through a bunch of golems to activate Godrick's Great Rune... and so far, I am kind of liking this experience. It is a bit different than the usual world-building because everyone is so cryptic and confusing, and you do actually need to pay a fair amount of attention to item descriptions and whatnot to get some context into things, but I am already the type of guy to read every single item description anyway, so it does fit rather well. I do kind of wish that at this point in the game they were a bit more clearer on some of the definitions, many of which are only cleared up for me thanks to the Wiki, but it's honestly a minor complaint. I'm having a lot of fun here!
I've been doing a lot of running around, trying to comb most of Limgrave and the Weeping Peninsula for dungeons that are a bit easier for me to clear now, so this sequence is a bit of a 'catch-up' to both that and some monsters I've missed in part 4-5.
I think I've done most of what I can do in Limgrave, I'm wrapping up the Peninsula, and afterwards I guess I'll properly explore Liurnia!
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Servant of Rot
I actually killed a lot of these to farm for runes in Caelid (and on my way to get the Meteorite Staff in the ruins they guard). I can't ever not like fungus-people, and Caelid itself is best described as... as if the land itself is a clump of meat that's overgrown with decomposers. This imagery is especially clear if you get to the bird's eye telescope and look at it from above... it really does look like a particularly gnarly piece of rotting flesh overgrown with fungi and lichen... or a bacterial petri dish.
And some humans that have spent too long inhaling this Scarlet Rot plague have had their bodies transformed into these... fungus-people. they're hunch-backed, their flesh are pockmarked with mycelia, and their heads are overgrown with (or are replaced entirely) with multi-layered fungus. The area of Caelid I encounter them in is kind of dimly lit so it's hard to tell, but there are a couple of variations, some of whom have layers of shelf fungus while some have more amorphous-shaped specimens.
It's not quite clear how willing these guys are to their fungal transformation, because at this point I think it's around 50/50 whether some horror in the Lands Between are caused by voluntary cultists or poor unfortunate civilians dragged into godly corruption, but these guys are appropriately wretched and creepy. They shoot poison bolts with their staves.
Monstrous Dog
With a name like 'Monstrous Dog', you probably wouldn't expect anything super-duper threatening. Sure, we've got wolves, and dogs, and those nasty Strays with the delightfully ragged, mangled models... and then there are these guys. To call them a 'dog', I think, is just a function of their unmistakably dog-like heads. Their bodies, however, are mutated to look like some kind of a... well, a tyrannosaur is the best comparison. Huge, powerful hind-legs and tiny, wretched arms. Those arms don't even look like dog limbs at all.
They're also quite huge, with an utterly psychotic attacking animation where they whip their long heads around before opening their mouth and body-sliding in a way that their jaws would clamp shut horizontally. It's so frenetic and hectic that it was an actual surprise when one of those attacked me... and this attacking animation, more than anything, really makes them feel way more 'corrupted' than it would if they had, like, made this guy out of skeleton or flesh-soup or something.
The Monstrous Dog also hits very hard, but also remarkably easy to stun and stagger, which I guess shows how... malnourished they are? The huge things are often encountered lumbering near caravans and feeding on corpses.
Monstrous Crow
Interestingly, the Monstrous Dogs aren't the only tyrannosaur-like beasts that roam Caelid. Often found next to each other are these hideous, Monstrous Crows. Both the dogs and crows are scavengers, and it's very likely that something in the dead bodies that they're eating mutated them both into similar-ish body shapes? It's a bit less noticeable on the giant crow, owing that birds and theropodal dinosaurs already have a similar body plan, but where the crow bodies just get longer, their beaks are now filled with ragged, nasty teeth that really look very threatening as this giant bird-beast charges towards you.
And honestly, they did a great job doing the models for the Monstrous Crow, because everything about this thing is kind of disturbing. The sunken eyes, the mat of raggedy feather-hair behind the head, and of course that giant curved beak filled with nasty, very un-avian teeth. Rather gloriously, the Monstrous Crow can be extra assholish by pretending to be staggered, complete with the audio cue, when they can instantly counterattack when you charge in for a clean hit.
Anyway, either one of the Monstrous Crows or Monstrous Dogs would've been very memorable. Both of them at the same time, hinting at something sinister mutating these scavengers? Why are most of the things in Caelid some kind of rot or fungus-themed monstrosity, but these guys instead turn into dinosaurs? Pretty creepy. I like it.
Marionette Soldier
Skulking around the region of Caelid are also these guys, General Grievous cosplayers -- these marionettes skulk around with creepy puppet movements, quad-wielding daggers, and they're essentially avatar bodies of some sorcerers... who wisely don't want to travel into Caelid and instead send these non-decaying puppets to do their dirty work for them. Some of them have swords, some have spears, and some have bows. The bow ones are particularly fun, you see them wield two bows with their two lower hands, and the two upper ones reload the bows with arrows. It's a nice bit of levity in a world where most of its enemies play up how grotesque or how cool they are.
They also patrol Liurnia, which is the territory of the mages of Raya Lucaria -- the mage organization that made them into first place. These guys will probably be the main focus of my next review, as I plan to tackle the area and the legacy dungeon next! Puppet-making is... not a thing I would normally associate with mages, but I suppose I'm playing a mage and I sometimes rely on summoning ghost jellyfishes and ghost wolves to fight for me, so that tracks.
One last fun detail is that they get sent in with these funky steampunk balloons that airdrop three or four of the marionettes down as a little strike-force. It's surprisingly adorable! If you're an archer you can shoot them and blow up their balloons. Sometimes when they are being airdropped, they trip and fall and take some time to get up. Now people would argue that this is too 'wacky' for a SoulsBorne game, but I honestly do like that these guys can be a bit more whimsical while still fitting into the Berserk-esque 'dark fantasy' genre.
Bloodhound Knight Darriwil
So in the previous articles I mentioned 'Evergaols', these seemingly extradimensional prisons guarded by the strange stone formations acting like security cameras. One of these contain the Bloodhound Knight Darriwil, who is the target of one of our friendly NPC's, Blaidd, who thinks that imprisonment is too good for Darriwil and wants to kill him for whatever betrayal Darriwil committed in the past.
And I wouldn't really pay too much attention to a humanoid enemy, except... Darriwil is really lanky and huge. Even accounting for the fact that video game bosses tend to have their sizes exaggerated, Darriwil moves more like some kind of a beast, with arms probably longer than my main character is tall. He wields a giant curved sword on one hand and giant fuck-off Wolverine claws on the other, and... is he also a 'half-wolf' like Blaidd is?
Miranda Blossom
This one is a boss fight of the "Tombsward Cave" dungeon, which is an underground cavern in the Weeping Peninsula filled with Miranda Flowers and Servants of Rot -- which, by the way, is probably a way to meet them outside of Caelid. The final boss of this dungeon is Miranda Blossom, or in earlier patches, "Miranda the Blighted Bloom". So is this the 'Miranda' that the other Miranda Flowers are born from? It is interesting that seemingly Miranda's influence has caused a lake of poisonous fluids to sprout not just in the dungeon, but also the part of the overworld terrain that corresponds to it. That's a
neat bit of in-universe storytelling that I really appreciate.
Tibia Mariner
Oh, this one is a cool one. Found in a deserted, flooded village called Summonwater Village, the Tibia Mariner is just... hanging around on his spectral boat, sitting on his throne and summoning skeleton minions with his giant trumpet. Now, the idea of a 'skeleton necromancer' sorcerer isn't particularly fresh. But the fact that the Mariner is summoning them with an oversized trumpet? And if we're not disturbing him, he's content to just ride his boat around his area. What are you patrolling, Mariner? Are you a fisherman before you died, or something? Out-of-universe, yes, the Tibia Mariner is likely based on the traditional depiction of Charon, ferryman of the dead... but still, in-universe it's a bit interesting to think why this guy is on a throne, on a boat, with a trumpet.
You'd expect them to just be super-serious necromancers summoning skeletal minions and attacking from afar. And yes, the Mariner can teleport away into another part of the battlefield while his goons fight you. But their best attack? They do these sick wheelies with their ghost boats to slam them down onto us, which is just another level of ridiculousness. Using that boat as a gimmick really does give them an extra bit of memorability than if they were just another human-like enemy or 'just' a big skeleton.
Oh, and I also really love that name. Using 'tibia' as an adjective is fun enough, but he's not like, a necromancer or a summoner or a puppeteer or any of the badass-sounding descriptors. No, he's just a mariner, which just sounds way more whimsical than a decrepit old man ghost summoning skeletons.
The Mariner also sets off a whole questline revolving around 'Deathroot', but to be honest I don't understand half of the things that our buddy D says so I'll reserve any discussion for later on.
Even More Soldiers
I'm kinda obligated to have these guys here, yeah? Raya Lucaria Soldiers are in Liurnia and they sometimes use magic spells (or magic items). Radahn Soldiers are in Caelid, and they tend to have more armoured variants. These guys are often found fighting the giant Caelid beasts.
They sure are humans knights. I do like that there're slight variances between each region, and they provide a nice contrast to the regional enemies, but that's honestly all I can muster to say about them.
Grave Warden Duelist
He sure is a big guy dual-wielding two hammers? And he's got a bunch of chains and a cool helmet. He's also shirtless. So he is a warden, but also a duelist? Item descriptions from the wiki give the minimal backstory for them. They're apparently former gladiators who now protect gravesites, since this one was the boss of a Limgrave catacomb... which, sure? I think it's just an excuse for the game developers to have a 'Pyramid-Head' style boss at the end of an undead-themed one. I must confess I forgot I beat this guy until I looked through my scribbled notes. He's cool, I just wish I had a bit more to talk about him.
Wraith Caller
Ohhh, look at these fuckers! These are the type of low-level body horror monsters I'd expect to find in Godrick's castle, and why I expressed some frustration with it almost exclusively being populated with normal-looking knights. I first encountered them rising from the waters of the Liurnia Lakes, and they aren't much of a threat. They move like ghouls or Witcher's Nekkers, and I initially just brushed them off at that. Yes, I could tell they had a couple extra limbs, but I thought they were just like, four-armed ghouls or something.
But looking at proper screenshots really does highlight how wretched they look. With longer necks bent at an angle that human necks probably aren't supposed to, a massive hunchback, and really gnarly-looking limbs, these guys are completely hostile and are apparently a part of a cult. I'm not sure why they patrol and lurk in the lakes and graveyards of the Liurnia lake. Some variants just jump you and attack you with their limbs, like the ghouls they are, but some carry bells with which they just ring all the time and these create warbling black-brown globs of energy that follow you around.
Some wikis call them the 'Revenant Follower', since they worship things called 'Revenants'. Some also ride horses, who are delightfully skeletal, appear to be tumour-ridden, and their eyes glow and trail this eldritch evil black aura behind them as the Mounted Wraith Caller gallop around the swamp. It's such a nice image, and a very nice contrast to the more regal and heroic mounted knights we've been seeing so far -- so see this hunchbacked, multi-limbed ghoul man with robes ride this seemingly undead horse.
Their name, 'Wraith Caller' does imply that they are undead of some kind, but until I saw a closer look at a screenshot of that horse, I wasn't super convinced that they're not just particularly cursed humans or a humanoid race similar to the Demihumans. Okay!
Flying Dragon Agheel
I saved this guy for the end of the review! Agheel here is one of the couple of bosses that should make new players go "oh fuck no", because you can really encounter him quite early on in your journey, flying in and crushing a bunch of random Wandering Nobles in some ruins in a lake. That whole lake seems to be Agheel's territory, with multiple locations called 'dragon-burnt ruins' and this giant lizard is just stalking that swamp, crawling around like many modern-day popular depictions of dragons thanks to Skyrim and Game of Thrones -- the wyvern-like, pterodactyl-inspired two wings, two legs body layout. I am told, however, and rather pleasantly, that differently shaped dragons will show up in the game!
Agheel is... he sure is a dragon. He flies, he breathes fire -- a lot of fire -- and he's got a couple of attack patterns with his tail swings and the way he shoots out fire. The area is large enough -- a whole swamp -- that you can really take advantage and ride around on your horse while Agheel goes through the motions, and zip in and launch some attacks onto his wings and run off again. Agheel never really flies up and chases me -- I think in the half-dozen times I tried this boss fight over the course of my playthrough, he does that maybe twice? There is a pretty damaging sequence where he flies up and does what's essentially a bombing run with his fire breath, but he mostly sticks to the ground despite his moniker. I guess he is meant to be the first dragon boss we encounter in the game, so I can forgive him being slightly formulaic.