While Dark Souls has 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 final challenge of Dark 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 that Dark Souls has 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.
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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 than Dark Souls' notorious Ornstein and Smough duo 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 of Dark 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 come walking through Dark Souls' final fog wall in 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 that Dark Souls' parry mechanic is the obvious choice for nearly skipping this encounter.
A Parry Shield and Estus Flask Can Destroy Gwyn in Little Effort
FromSoftware's Souls series 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 of Dark 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.
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 84 /100 Critics Rec: 88%
- Released
- May 23, 2018
- ESRB
- M For Mature 17+ Due To Blood and Gore, Partial Nudity, Violence
- Developer(s)
- From Software, QLOC, Virtuos
- Publisher(s)
- Bandai Namco Entertainment, From Software
- Engine
- proprietary engine, phyre engine
- Franchise
- Dark Souls
WHERE TO PLAY
Re-experience the critically acclaimed, genre-defining game that started it all. Beautifully remastered, return to Lordran in stunning detail. DARK SOULS: REMASTERED includes the main game plus the Artorias of the Abyss DLC.
Deep and Dark Universe— Delve into an epic dark fantasy universe stricken by the Curse. Explore its intricate world design, full of hidden passages, dungeons and secrets.
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The Way of the Multiplayer (up to 6 players)— Whatever your motivations are to play online – collaboration or confrontation, support or betrayal – you’ll find your true home among the nine covenants.
