The Harvest Valley/Earthen Peak section was really fun. I'm really glad I ended up saving this place for last though as this area and the next one are easily the hardest ones I've been through so far. For this area it wasn't so much the combat (although trying to kill the pyromancers without ranged weapons was a challenge), but rather navigation. I got turned around quite a few times in this place, usually resulting in me walking into a group of enemies while thinking I was backtracking. Oh and I encountered my first mimic here. I was starting to think that they weren't in the game and stopped hitting chest. Thank goodness I accidentally hit this one while i was fighting an enemy. The bosses of this area also followed the trend of the combat not being too terribly tough. The Covetous Demon just kinda flopped around and died, and Mytha, while cool, was just kinda there. You'd think with how big of a role poison played in the area that it would also come into play during one of the bosses. I suppose there was the ring of poison around Mytha's arena, but it might as well have not existed.
Next up was the Iron Keep. I have three words for this area: Those. Fucking. Archers. This are would have been pretty good if it wasn't for them. Using the traps of the keep to kill enemies was cool, the main soldiers were decent enough (although terribly easy to backstab), and one of the bosses was great.
Speaking of said great boss, I actually almost skipped it. I took the middle path and reached the Belfry Sol bonfire before going through the Smelter Demon's fog gate. Thank goodness for the completionist in me driving me to go back and check out that fog door. The Smelter Demon was another A+ boss up there with Najka, Pursuer, Lost Sinner, and the sentinels. Up to this point I was genuinely curious about why life gems were included in the game. They were certainly useful, but they never really felt necessary. This boss made them necessary. Using life gems to counteract the bosses fire aura was really clever, and the actual fight was really fun too. It took me a few tries to finally take the boss down, but I was enjoying every second of it. The fight that it, not the run back (fucking archers).
I really wish I could heap as much praise on the next boos, but it was kinda boring. I get what they were trying to do, an actual fight with a creature similar to the Dragon God, but it just didn't work. All of it's attacks were slow, easy to dodge, and left it open for ages. The way it left it's fists on the ground for so long was particularly jarring. It didn't feel like I was fighting a dragon, it felt like I was fighting a generic video game boss. I suppose if you were to judge it on spectacle alone (which I suspect is the reason it's in the game) then the fight is decent. It's definitely something you's show off in a trailer/fight in front of your friends to try and sell them on the game.
After the fight I learned that there were multiple endings from whatever that thing was and not only did I find the Iron King DLC, the door to it actually opened. I'm not going to try and tackle the DLC until I'm about to face the final boss though.
After I warped back to Majula I noticed some guy I had never seen before sitting by the well. I guess he's just there for people that don;t realize that they can survive the fall with the silvercat ring?
So it seems that I'm rapidly approaching the end of the game. Will it be obvious when I reach the final area so that I know to go back through all o the old areas using a guide to find anything important that I missed?
Oh and one last question. What order was the DLC released in? That's the order I'd like to do them. I'd google this but I don't want to spoil anything about them.
I can't imagine beating the Executioner's Chariot without using the small alcoves to get out of it's way. Good job dude.
Thanks!
