WhileDark Soulshas made a name for itself among the gaming community as a brutal challenge, the final boss, Gwyn, has become an underwhelming diversion at the end for the FromSoftware fanbase. This isn’t to say that Gwyn’s moveset isn’t every bit as aggressive and powerful as players would expect from the finalchallenge ofDark Souls, but rather that the addition of one mechanic can trivialize the boss in a way that doesn’t apply to any others.
The key to taking Gwyn from one of the toughest challenges thatDark Soulshas to offer down to a speed-bump towards the credits is the fact that this is the only boss in the game that can be parried. It is a part of the player toolkit that is great to see come into play for the final encounter, but is so powerful and consistent that this one fight proves why parries weren’t considered for any other boss.
Gwyn is Potentially the Best Challenge of Dark Souls
Gwyn Initially Fulfills Every Promise Made by the Difficulty of Dark Souls
While it is possible to trivialize Gwyn, it should be noted that this won’t likely be the experience for most players fighting the boss for the first time. On an initial playthrough, Gwyn is instead an incredibly difficult fight, as he has one of the most aggressive and high-powered movesets of any of the bosses. Even as a single enemy, he quickly puts more pressure on the player thanDark Souls' notorious Ornstein and Smoughduo fight.
Gwyn’s aggression is accomplished with a wide moveset of sword swipes, some of which are slow and deliberate, while others come out with barely enough time to react and can quickly punish players for being greedy or dodging wildly. Then there’s the grab, which makes use ofDark Souls' lingering, over-extended hitboxes for this type of attack to make avoiding the attack while staying within range to punish extremely difficult. All of this is also made even more bombastic by Gwyn’s opening attack, which sends him flying through the air to cut the player down the second they comewalking throughDark Souls' final fog wallin the first place.
For new players, Gwyn’s moveset verges on familiar, as it doesn’t deviate too much from the “guy with big sword” archetype, while still adding enough flair of its own to make the boss unique. It’s a somber challenge, accompanied by an absolutely beautiful song and contextualized in the knowledge that even the mightiest of the Lords has gone hollow himself and isn’t even fighting at full strength. However, all the subtle work being done to elevate Gwyn above most other bosses and similar enemies falls away on future playthroughs as players learn thatDark Souls' parry mechanicis the obvious choice for nearly skipping this encounter.
A Parry Shield and Estus Flask Can Destroy Gwyn in Little Effort
FromSoftware’sSoulsseries is very familiar with cheese tactics, which can easily trivialize any boss by exploiting some quirk in the AI, taking advantage of a damage weakness, or in some cases dropping them out of the map. In the case of Gwyn, this can be done by catching the initial jump attack with a parry, and then immediately drinking from the Estus Flask. This is because Gwyn has a unique type of input reading when players attempt to use items that will cue up the next attack to be his slow, two-handed swing, which can then easily be parried again.
It is the parry/Estus loop that can truly trivialize Gwyn more than anything, but once players understand the parry timings, it isn’t too difficult to react to any attack other than the quick one-handed swipe. While this might be an unorthodox use ofDark Souls' iconic Estus Flask, it is a powerful use of the player’s full toolkit. However, the result for many players coming back to play the game is that, with or without baiting the two-handed attack, the parry strategy reduces Gwyn from challenge to chore.
Dark Souls Remastered
WHERE TO PLAY
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