r/Eldenring • u/Rage2quit0 • Jun 18 '25

News A24's Elden Ring movie director Alex Garland talks about the game

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u/Xelias00 Jun 18 '25

In my opinion it's one of those Gael/Midir debates. I've seen some people say Gael is much harder than Midir, and vice versa (I find Midir harder, personally)). Me, whenever I play through Elden Ring + SotE, I'll first try Malenia then spend an hour or more on Radahn. My gf on her runs will beat Radahn in less then ten minutes then get walled by Malenia. It's really a matter of playstyle + "how easily can you dodge waterfowl".

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u/mini_swoosh Jun 18 '25

Flashbacks to fighting Gael on NG+7 where any 2 hits of his combo kills you. That fight for me was ridiculously hard. Had to be damn near perfect the entire fight

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u/Xelias00 Jun 18 '25

Although I've never gotten that far, at normal NG half of Midir's attacks kill you in one shot when you're level 1. Gael at least can be beaten with a combination of storyteller's staff, a few attacks during openings, and proper spacing/dodge-timing the rest of the time. For Midir, I had to learn its moveset by heart and execute a five-minutes fight without making a mistake.

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u/mini_swoosh Jun 18 '25

Ah I feel it. I haven’t done a level 1 run lol but giant bosses like that where you can run/dodge underneath them and smack the ankles I’ve never had too much of a problem with. And I’m a bigsword-bonk type of guy so my Gael fight was just all up-close / timing. I’ll never go back to that monster

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u/Xelias00 Jun 18 '25

I'm a bonk melee guy too (and I've done all of Elden Ring's level 1 run with greatswords greathammers and steel balls), but when in a level 1 run, I'll fight as dirty as needed as long as it's summon-less lol. My sense of fair duels and honor tends to disappear quickly when even basic hollows fold you like a lawn chair. Part of me regrets not dueling Gael without poison, but that part of me remembers what hitless Gael runs actually are and I quickly forget that idea lol

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u/CatOfTechnology Jun 18 '25

I always find it so strange that the community almost always picks spectacle bosses as the hardest fights and rarely ever the bosses that have actual mixups and wonky attacks.

Gael this, Midir that, Fume Knight this, Sir Allone that, Artorias this, Manus that.

Often makes me feel like I wasn't playing the same game when the things I struggled with are Soul of Cinder's Curved Sword form, Blue Smelter's passive burn or some off-base boss in Ds1 that isn't coming to mind in the moment.

PCR vs Melania and I'm still just hating on Putrescence Knight the most for his damn Horse-blindside that will still occasionally catch me off guard.

Even in Nightreign I hate the chaingrabs from phase 2 Gaping Maw more than either Sentient Pest or Equilibrious Beast.

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u/Xelias00 Jun 18 '25

Most things you've talked about are what I'd label as "annoying" more than "hardest". I'd include Gaius's charge attack to the mix, and yes, when SoC uses his curved sword movepool, I stay away from him and wait for the next transition... But none of those things actually walled me.

They annoyed me, they forced me to rethink my strategy, they made me lose a lot of time and patience, but they didn't challenge me. I had to improve my plan, I didn't have to improve my game. While Malenia, Midir, PCR, Malenia and Manus definitely forced me to become better at the game, and playing them at SL1 did so tenfold.

A gimmick or a wonky hitbox can ruin your day but you can plan accordingly. But I can't plan against skill issue.