And while I'm doing that, I'm just going back and forth between Volcano Manor and Leyndell the Royal Capital dungeons, because they're both super long and... frankly, neither are the most interesting to go through. Volcano Manor's a bit more fun because the visuals and enemies are neat, but it's also a bit of a nightmare to navigate and it's a bit hard just bumbling around not being sure where to go. (I also fear going too deep into the Volcano Manor and accidentally screwing up some quests. I do really like Volcano Manor, though -- I've covered the enemies before, but there are a lot of Albinaurics being captured and tortured by the local cult, and they're also the ones responsible for the Abductor Virgins that have traumatized me just a little bit.
Meanwhile, Leyndell is immense. From a design standpoint, I absolutely love that this is a massive city that actually does feel like a city instead of just a block. But the lower levels are just super-duper boring to go through, all the streets do look the samey, and there are so many knights that can one-shot me. Leyndell actually became extremely not fun for me to go through, and that lower half of the city takes up so much time to explore. It's not until a fair amount of running around and being confused that I actually get to see what the game wants me to see -- the giant petrified corpse of a gigantic dragon the size of the city; giant tree roots that scale up and connect different parts of the capital; even a strange little parallel of the familiar Roundtable Hold, complete with all the same rooms. Except it's abandoned. Hmm! Some timey-wimey shenanigans? Extradimensional shenanigans?
Eventually, I did reach the boss room in Leyndell first before I did the Volcano Manor. Which is where this segment of the review nicely concludes. I would've liked to move the snakes into their own page with Rykard, but that would leave this review extremely short. Oh well, we'll see what enemies we see in the next leg of the game, and Rykard can hang with them.
Anyway, I'm progressing, bit by bit.
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Gelmir Man-Serpent
Rather subtly at first but a bit more evident later on, Volcano Manor has a very heavy 'serpent' theme to it. And once you start exploring what's beyond the bounty-hunting 'face' and go into the actual 'legacy dungeon' where a town seems to have sunken into lava, you find a bunch of these guys patrolling around. These Man-Serpents most often present themselves scrunched up, looking more like chunky lizard-people or something but with disturbingly gangly humanoid limbs growing out of it. They've got big, smiling faces that look quite accurate to snakes. And they fight with a glaive and a cute tiny buckler shield, although some have pretty nasty fire-whips... that are stored in a candlestick, ha!
They can also stretch, which they don't actually do often and caught me off guard when I first saw one do so. They stretch fully into the length of a giant snake and shoot straight up, which looks glorious but also hilarious when you see those tiny toothpick-like arms and legs hanging off of its giant snake body. In this form they kind of act like sentry towers, allowing them to attack at wacky angles and reach you when you're behind them. They're quite funny, and I actually really find it refreshing that we have a race of 'snake-people' that aren't poison-themed in any way, shape or form; and neither are they doing the typical 'humanoid upper body, snake lower body' look. This looks both comical and unnatural, both qualities applying very much to the Man-Serpents.
Living in a volcano, next to lava and the lava-slugs they are also resistant to heat... which doesn't come to play in my playthrough since I don't use fire incantations, but it's a nice little detail. I also like that, again, they don't just breathe or control fire, they're just resistant and able to live around lava. Some even hide in lava to ambush you! That's neat.
But while most of the Man-Serpents we fight in the game are hostile and just act like snakes, one of the recurring NPCs is a sweet girl called Rya. She has a very pronounced hunchback, like her spine refuses to bend 'properly' like a human. Taken on its own, it's just a quirkly little thing, maybe a medical condition or something along the lines. Rya's quite sweet and a bit of an airhead... and as we progress in her questline, she'd reveal her true self... she, too, is a Man-Serpent! One with a unique colouration, and she wears part of her dress like a poncho. And she never stops being kind in her dialogue, being more confused and a bit embarrassed that she needs to hide her true snakey form.
Unfortunately, as you continue on the Volcano Manor quest, you also meet Rya's mom... who made Rya through a 'hideous ritual'. The game is classy enough not to elaborate more on that, but knowing how Mother Tanith acts towards the serpent god she fanatically worships, it's not hard to put two and two together. And while it's implied that Rya was just born a shapeshifting serpent person, the implication is that maybe all the other serpent-people we see in Volcano Manor are also conceived this way? Or are they "merely" humans who get transformed over time, like so many other Elden Ring monstrosities? Our buddy Rya is genuinely horrified that her status as a snake person is due to this horridness and not the 'grace of a king', which apparently is something that's both unacceptable to men and serpents.
In any case, the Man-Serpents join the Living Jars and Demi-Humans in actually having friendly representatives that will talk to our hero.
Serpent Snail
We've seen the model of this thing a bunch of times before, with the Crystal Snail and the hilarious Spirit-Caller Snail boss, but the Serpent Snail here seems to be the most 'basic' of the snake-snail monsters. Its proximity to Volcano Manor also makes it feel a bit more natural, too. The design is pretty much what you'd expect. It's a snake body, the lower half sticks on walls and ceilings, it's got a snail's shell, and probably my favourite aspect is the upper half of its head, which doesn't have a regular snake face but terminates in the eyestalks of a snail.
Not a whole ton to talk about beyond being a weird animal, but it sure is cool!
Frenzied First-Generation Albinauric
I thought I talked about these guys earlier, but apparently I haven't! These guys show up in Leyndell's lower cities and sewers, but a lot of them appear in the Volcano Manor, seemingly left curled up in pain in the more abandoned segment of the mansion that's sinking into the lava. These Albinaurics used to be the 'First-Generation' Albinaurics, the ones that look like old silver men with stumped legs. These guys look way more wretched, however. Their heads are wrapped up in burlap sacks (which based on item descriptions are torture devices), with only their ragged beards and extremely angry mouths being visible.
These Albinaurics are extremely feral, having been driven insane by aforementioned torture. They are kind of blind, so most of them are just curled up in dark corners in the dungeon until you do the foolishness of walking into the room, at which point they scuttle and moan and charge you like a rapid dog. It does really make for a very terrifying jump-scare. It's a nice reuse of the same animations we've already seen for the 'sane' First-Generation Albinaurics, but the presentation and the much more frantic and animalistic sounds they make really do make these guys far more terrifying.
The 'non-tortured' First-Generation Albinaurics are still around, but they are mostly found in cages hanging on ceilings, looking down and screaming to alert their brethren like little watch-birds. While we've seen the Village of Albinaurics being put to the sword, turns out that the Golden Order's hatred towards things 'outside of the Order' goes to pretty terrifying torture. Whether it's the discarded Albinaurics (who hang out with Omens!) in the subterranean shunning-grounds of Leyndell, or the straight-up hellish torture grounds in Volcano Manor, these poor Albinaurics can't really catch a break, can they?
Lesser Bloodhound Knight
Volcano Manor is also home to these guys! We've fought a couple of 'boss' Bloodhound Knights before, but this is the first time they appear as regular enemies. They're a bit funnier now that I realize they can actually cling on walls like Spider-Man with their very bestial stance and the giant claw-weapons on their feet. It adds a bit of goofiness to a knight in a game with a lot of knights. Not much to say about them, otherwise, or the many different humanoid enemies in Leyndell.
More Random Bosses
I did clear these guys a while back, but never got to put them in a 'reviewing' segment. We get a proper, larger Full-Grown Fallingstar Beast, hanging out in a crater and looking as creepy as ever as a giant earwig meteor monster. I get to see a bit more of its gravity magic attacks, and it's quite fun fighting him while riding a horse as well. I think it's got some unique boss moves, like the ability to lift everyone around it up and then slamming them down to the ground. I also cleared a couple of caves with multiple unnamed Crystalians fighting me together. There were also some Magma Wyrms and Black Knife Assassins that I also fought in different parts of the world, which I guess is neat that older bosses are now just more troublesome enemies.
I also get to fight another Demi-Human Queen, Margot. Pretty cool monsters, but they are variants of things we've covered before. There's also Magnus the Beast Claw, who's just some dude I have to kill for a mission. A lady called Perfumer Tricia is hiding in a sealed dungeon tending to the Misbegotten, and I'm not sure why I have to kill her. I also killed a troll knight called Bols, Carian Knight which is kind of an unfortunate name. Cool to see a troll magic-user as the item descriptions have hinted at.
There's also Necromancer Garris, who's a psycho hiding in a dark dungeon filled with skeletons and illusory walls. Garris, your dungeon was shit to go through. And you're holding a flail called 'Family Heads' made up of the heads of your dead family? You're nuts, buddy. His dungeon also has a second boss, a Black Blade Assassin (who we've talked about before)... except she's invisible, which, yeah, the designers really wanted to fuck people up with this dungeon.
Skeletal Snail
The more notable thing about Garris, I think, are the minions he summons. Which are Skeletal Snails! Which are undead versions of the Serpent-Snails we talked about above. We've got a very nicely-detailed snake bone body, with some very accurate game sculpting for the snake head and the ribcages running down the body. Only instead of a snail shell, the Skeletal Snail hangs out inside of a giant skull! It's great. Undead variations that aren't just 'skeleton with a different weapon' is great. And in a game with such a rich bestiary, I very much appreciate this as a 'reskin' attempt to save on animations, but still deliver a really distinctive enemy.
The Skeletal Snail doesn't just spit poison or whatever, they can actually cast necromancy spells, sending screaming necromantic skulls chasing you around. They are undead half-snake half-snail skull-shelled necromancers! What's not to love?
Duelist
We leave behind the Volcano Manor and assorted bosses for a bit to go to Leyndell, Royal Capital. The vast majority of the enemies in the Royal Capital are variations of the Knights (those damn knights), Pages, Perfumers and the odd rotten dog or two. Oh, and a small wing overrun by Misbegotten. While the capital initially looked promising with a bunch of the Oracle Envoys, it really is just a slog of humanoids between entertaining minibosses. We do get some new ones, the Duelist, which are just former gladiators that fight for entertainment in the coliseums similar to the Pumpkin Heads. These guys have giant axes or hammers that are attached to their bodies with chains, and God of War style swing them around with the chains. It's gloriously over-the-top, I can't hate them for that.
Valiant Gargoyle
I have actually met these giant winged statue-men several times before, or at least enemies with the same model, but my principle is to only talk about them after I've beaten them instead of running away with my tail between my legs. And the Valiant Gargoyle serves as a mini-boss both within the Royal Capital dungeon itself and in a sub-area outside in Leyndell. Pretty impressive guys, these gargoyles tower over your characters, who barely reach their knees. Their design looks like some kind of emaciated stone angel, with a pair of jagged wings. It's a bit had to tell as it tries to murder the shit out of you, but the Gargoyle does have very prominent ribcage and a head that looks like a masked human.
They are insanely fast, jumping around and swinging those massive weapons of theirs. While we've had other large enemies like dragons and golems before, the gargoyles are nowhere as lumbering as the golem, and their attack patterns are way more erratic and frantic compared to the dragons. Honestly, playing as a 'glass cannon' sorcerer, these things are the bane of my existence since they catch up with me very fast and have pretty unpredictable spins that are a giant pain to fight. Oh, they also have a sonic screaming blast with an insane range. I don't have the energy to describe every attack that the gargoyles can do, but suffice to say that they are a gigantic pain in my playthrough. One of the boss fights in Nokron had you fight two of them at the same time!
There isn't much telling us what the gargoyles are, though, beyond them being big and stony. At least, not this variant...
Black Blade Kindred
Another variant of the gargoyles, the Black Blade Kindred, shows up as a 'gatekeeper' boss in a weird little passageway after leaving Leyndell and going up another elevation up to the Mountaintops of the Giants (which, spoiler alert, does mean that I did beat Leyndell). The Black Blade Kindred is a black-and-gold angel of death, and you can see a grinning exposed face beneath. They are specifically identified by item descriptions as being created to serve Maliketh, the demigod in charge of death, which is probably why he's hanging out guarding the pathway up to the Mountains. More disturbingly, however, it's also noted that the gargoyles and Black Blade Kindreds are created using 'corpsewax', and indeed looking at the equipment it does seem like they've 'patched' together black and golden material together. So these things aren't just stone giants in the shape of starving giants, they're also made up of corpses. Lovely.
Taking aside their insane abilities in combat aside, I do find these takes on gargoyles to be quite disturbing for the simple reason that they look quite similar to humans... in all the wrong ways. It would've been obvious to go for a 'demon' or even an uncanny valley 'angel', but going for a starving, gaunt old man as the base design and making the proportions just a bit off is a great, creepy way to make these things traumatically memorable.
Vargram & Wilhelm
Found within Leyndell's strange copy of the Roundtable Hold are two more targets for the Volcano Manor -- Vargram the Raging Wolf and Errant Sorcerer Wilhelm. Again... we know absolutely nothing about these guys beyond the vague bit of 'kill them for rewards', only learning a bit more about them from item drops. For as much as I do love Elden Ring's method of world-building, I'm not a fan of this. It would've been a bit more interesting to know who these guys are even if you don't want to waste time showing us their stories, at least tell us beforehand! Vargram is one of the founders of the Roundtable Hold, and Wilhelm is one of those sorcerers who was taken by the 'primeval current' and in following it, got into conflict with his old buddy Vargram. That's some backstory, but the game just tosses them at us and then they just die. I do find them notable for having some of the nicer-looking armour sets in the game.
Godfrey, the First Elden Lord
With the game prominently telling us in the prologue how everything went to shit after Godfrey died, it was definitely an unexpected bit when he randomly shows up partway through the Royal Capital. Boss music suddenly plays, and this hulking golden shining brute holding a battleaxe bigger than my character is tall just charges menacingly towards me.
He sure is a big guy with a big axe. It is cool because of the lore related to the character and the sheer surprise of the name of the boss showing up above the health bar, but he's just a straight-up Dark Souls melee fight. And design-wise it's a bit hard to see what's going on when he's literally shining, but he's just some warrior king. Okay!
Morgott, the Omen King
"Have it writ upon thy meagre grave... felled by King Morgott! Last of all kings."
This guy. Ooooh, this guy. In a plot twist, turns out that the demigod guarding the Royal Capital is... Margit the Fell Omen, the very first plot-relevant boss we met all the way guarding the gateway to Godrick's castle so many dungeons ago! Literally a year ago for me, since I took huge breaks in-between playing chunks of Elden Ring. It was quite nostalgic to hear his voice again. I was admittedly spoiled about Morgott/Margit's appearance as a boss fight later on, although to be fair it didn't take too much of a leap to guess that the demigod named Morgott might have some connection to this 'Margit' fellow we met earlier in the game. Not the best disguise there, buddy!
Morgott does have a killer of an opening cutscene. He counts down all the demigods, some we've slain, some we've helped, some we've yet to meet... and denounces all of his siblings as 'willful traitors, all'. Morgott then does a killer sequence as he smashes the walking cane he's in, Bleach style, to reveal one hell of a cool-looking sword within. And the giant dude starts the boss fight with that quote on top about thy meagre grave!
Pretty cool, even if for his first phase Morgott does a lot of the same things he did as Margit, just with a sword instead of a wooden cane. He still summons holy golden weapons (and the revelation that he's a god adds context to that) and still leaps around with his massive scorpion tail. I actually found Morgott much easier than Margit for the simple fact that we're not fighting in a bridge anymore, and the larger arena gives me more space to dodge and to snipe him with my spells. Morgott does have a phase two where he gains a lot of wide-area flame explosions and rains of holy swords falling from the sky, but ultimately it's just a couple of extra spells. He still beat me a couple of times, of course, but out of the demigods I'm pretty sure he was the fastest for me to slay. Did get to hear "put these foolish ambitions to rest" a couple of times.
Of course, as his titles note, Morgott is actually an Omen -- explaining those nasty growths on his face which are actually bony horns. Omens, if you remember, are cursed mutants that the Golden Order despise, and the official decree from the gods and the churches is to either kill or lock up these Omens, and all the Omens we've met are implied to have gone feral. That Morgott is an omen born to gods means that he's a pariah among his siblings, but he's living proof perhaps that Omens are not as cursed or separated from the Golden Order as religious propaganda made it out to be. He's clearly still able to use holy swords, and by his 'willful traitors' comment, it's notable that Morgott is probably the only demigod still protecting the Erdtree and doing what is supposed to be the duty of these demigods. Alas, he stands between the path of the Tarnished and the throne of the Elden Lord I still hold a fucking grudge over that bridge, okay? I'm sorry, Morgott, your story is cool and all, but honestly, I am glad I put you in the ground after the many, many times you killed me before Stormveil Castle. Ahem. I mean, I actually do think Morgott might be my favourite boss in terms of story, if not design. Shame he didn't actually get a second phase transformation.
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Anyway, after quite a fair amount of real-world time since I unlocked Leyndell, Royal Capital, I've finally finished it. Next up will be me going through the Mountaintops of the Giants, as well as wrapping up Volcano Manor!
The man serpent design’s goofiness makes them so memorable and makes rya’s true form pretty endearing. They’re so much more distinctive than the dark souls man-serpents imo. Anyways Rya herself and her relation with Tanith is one of the more sympathetic parts of the Volcano Manor(albeit still shrouded in deceit).
ReplyDeleteYeah from the little we know of her tricia seems to be one of the few genuinely kind people around(especially since most other perfumers seem to have strayed from their original healing goals). I suppose you could see it as a mercy killing? Bit of a disconnect between gameplay and lore.
While there’s technically ways around it, an invisible black knife really is one of the more diabolical things they could’ve thrown at the player. Definitely a memorable dungeon.
Man Morgott is sick. Arguably the most loyal remaining protector of the golden order as an omen, showing that there’s more than meets the eye. Now of course whether or not Morgott should be supporting the golden order with all the atrocities committed in its name(including all the omen that to this day remain in the sewers below) is a whole other conversation. I wonder what he’d think of goldmask. Also his opening cutscene used to have his staff burn as it turned into a sword and while sure lore-wise it makes sense since the bloodflame and omen powers is more of a desperation move, I do miss the effect.
As a side note should you defeat Morgott without fighting Margit then Margit does disappear, nice bit of attention to detail there.
I have since been made aware that previous Dark Souls entries have had more 'serious' Man-Serpents, and this goofier face is a nice little subversion to how a 'Soulsborne' snake-man is supposed to look like. I really like them! There are many kinds of snakes out there, and some of them do have doofier-looking faces than the super-serious viper/cobra face that becomes the model of all snake monsters out there. It also feels a bit more unnatural when the first cutie Man-Serpent you meet is Rya, and then we see all of these other savage Man-Serpents with the similar friendly face.
DeleteThere is an item to get around the invisible Black Knife Assassin, apparently. Which I had in my inventory but completely forgot about. I honestly just spammed Carian Phalanx and Glintstone Arcs a lot, and just paid attention to the puddles, but it was still quite interestingly tough!
I really like Morgott. The fact that he's one of the first 'time to do this several dozen times' bosses in this game made him super-duper memorable to me when he finally shows up, and the fact that he actually has a tragic backstory and a noble cause in spite of it? It's just such a shame that his rigid loyalty to the Erdtree meant that he would never, ever make a deal with us, and that he'd stay true fighting for the cause he believes in to the very end... again, despite that same order also loathing and rejecting his very existence. It really is such a shame that out of the factions we can side with, there wasn't one where we could do so with Morgott.
Yea honestly I feel like the factions could’ve been fleshed out a lot more in general. With all the talk about different orders and the many groups you see throughout the game, I wish supporting them had more impact on gameplay. Hell even an early Erdtree loyalist ending where you side with Morgott and go no further would’ve been neat as an option. He’s far from the only faction that doesn’t get an ending(Rykard is another for instance where you can’t ever really commit to Volcano Manor ideology even if you kill everyone they ask for) but it’s fun to imagine alternate routes.
DeleteI have been spoiled about the number of endings at the end of the game, and... and I'm honestly a bit disappointed. I suppose you get one for most of the 'arise, ye Tarnished' faces in the prologue, plus two prominent factions in the game (Ranni and the Frenzied Flame).
DeleteBut it is also surprising that we just don't have more endings. They don't even have to change all that much! Morgott is one. I also didn't realize that there was never a choice to fully side with Rykard... and sure, you can't really side with any of the hostile demigods, but they made a whole ending for the Frenzied Flame and the Dung Eater; you'd think a faction known for blaspheming against the Erdtree would get an ending as well.
I'm also disappointed that there's no new endings for siding with anyone in Shadow of the Erdtree as well.