hey it’s me the guy who’s going to bring up, you guessed it, Elden Ring for just about every eoty thread
From Software has always shown impeccable art direction, sound design, music, voice acting, and level design in their previous outings, but it’s even more impressive at the scale that they accomplish it with their very first big-ass open-world game.
The dark fantasy aesthetic would have already been overplayed even by their standards given it’s the one they’ve been using for all the Souls games, but of course, From Soft puts their own strange unique stamp on this style with Elden Ring’s mish-mash of Celtic and Norse mythology with a dash of Christianity warped through the ever-present lens of Berserk and Buddhism.
That signature From Soft mix of grandeur and grotesquerie is palpable in the wide range of areas, enemies, and bosses, and in the animations and soundtracks that bring them to life. There is so much character conveyed through the presentation of each of these elements; whether it’s the blood-red sky and fungal flower-infested rot swamp of Caelid, the whirling, twirling, trumpet-tooting, turban-toting Oracle Envoys AKA The Bubble Boys heralding your arrival in Leyndell, or the low ominous double-bass thrum of Spencer Mansion Volcano Manor that portends conspiracy.
Speaking of Volcano Manor, the boss fights highlight Elden Ring’s capacity to induce awe, terror, disgust, and sometimes even laughter through sheer absurdity, and the boss of Volcano Manor hits all of those points.
Volcano Manor Boss Spoilers
First off, you have to face the God-Devouring Serpent, a giant coiled snake deity slumbering in the depths of a volcano where piles upon piles of corpses on molten rock rise like pillars while enormous chandeliers and cages dangle from the ceiling, which you can reach either through a traditional Souls dungeon or by becoming an assassin for Volcano Manor where your final reward is being sacrificed to this giant snake. The only reliable way to kill this boss is with the Serpent Hunter, which is Elden Ring’s version of Demon’s Souls Storm Ruler. It’s enough of a spectacle on its own, having to dodge the snake’s massive frame and gaping maw that spews lava and acid while striking it with divine gale-force winds thundering from your blessed spear.
You finally kill it, and as its head falls dead on the ground, a cutscene plays. Praetor Rykard, the lord of Volcano Manor, reveals himself to be one with this giant snake deity as a human face waking up in its underbelly… who then pulls out this disgusting giant blood sword with writhing limbs from the mouth of the limping dead snake head… and finally delivers the iconic line “Join the Serpent King, as familyyyyy… Togethaaa, we will devowaaa the very godsssss!!!” in his iconic gurgly voice.
It’s a nasty, bewildering, and honestly quite funny cutscene that precedes an even greater spectacle of a fight compared to the first phase. This giant snake body is now wielding a giant sword with its humanoid arms that it swings with ground-cleaving heft, fire is now erupting everywhere, the cavern ceiling somehow turns into a swirling furnace where giant flaming skulls are descending from to chase you down, and Rykard, for his ultimate move, will raise the Blasphemous Blade to pierce the fiery heavens and call upon the Taker’s Flames to smite you in one mighty downward swing that shakes the earth.
Ultimately, you triumph, and the giant snake softly explodes into a mist like all the runebearers do. However, Rykard mocks you from beyond, saying in his now disembodied yet still comical gurgle that a serpent never dies, capping it off with a foreboding villainous chuckle.
For most bosses, it ends there, with no traces of your hard-fought victory. Not for Rykard! If you report his death to Lady Tanith, the proprietress of Volcano Manor, she will be momentarily distraught before composing herself to thank you, through her voice now shaken, for showing the house a lesson that there is still weakness that needs to be tempered, even with their own lord. She reminds you that Rykard is immortal then bids you farewell. She disappears not long after.
If you are the curious sort (or you’ve consulted a questline guide), you can warp back to Rykard’s arena where you’ll find the remains of his giant severed head at the center, with the same writhing snake-like limbs protruding from the carcass, and Lady Tanith… “attending” to the corpse. If you listen closely, you’ll hear what sounds like flesh being chewed and devoured.
She’s eating him.
If you interrupt her, she tells you she needs more time, because… you see just how big this corpse is, don’t you? She says that she needs to eat all of it to become his serpent, to be his family, to be his host, so that they can devour the gods together.
Shout-outs to other aesthetically stunning boss fights such as:
Ancestor Spirit
Dragonlord Placidusax
Astel, Naturalborn of the Void
Lichdragon Fortissax
and the final boss
And I haven’t even gotten to mention how cool so many of the spells and Ashes of War are!
but imma shut up now and let the game do the talking with some out-of-context screenshots i took
yes i’ve spent over 500 hours already in this game, yes i’ve taken over 500 pictures, yes i can write well over 500 words on it
