FromSoftware has consistently managed to improve the quality of combat throughout the Souls series, with Dark Souls 3 and Elden Ring standing out for having some of the best controls from the developer. However, while the control of the player character has continued to evolve, the series still hasn't managed to improve on a high point from Dark Souls 3's boss roster.
This highlight of the series comes in the form of Slave Knight Gael, a character that appears throughout both of the Dark Souls 3 DLC expansions and acts as the final boss for this add-on content. The heights that this boss fight reaches are especially impressive considering the otherwise lackluster design of The Ringed City DLC that he comes from.
Dark Souls 3's Mediocre DLC
Regardless of the quality of the Dark Souls trilogy and Dark Souls 3 as a standalone game, the DLC for this latest installment in the series is a strangely meandering mess that exists entirely as a vessel to hold a few extra boss fights that weren't available at launch. This is most prevalent in the Ashes of Ariandel DLC, where the player is given very little direction as they are tasked with walking in circles around the frozen and rotten landscape. That being said, while the areas are unfocused and turn back on themselves in non-intuitive ways, they include some of the best bosses that the series have seen.
In the first DLC, FromSoftware introduced Sister Fried, a Dark Souls 3 variant of the popular Bloodborne boss Lady Maria. However, after Ashes of Ariendel, the next piece of add-on content came in the form of The Ringed City, which introduced a host of new bosses that can be found along a much more linear new landscape. This is where bosses like the Demon Prince and Darkeater Midir were introduced, scattering a series of incredible fights throughout the otherwise boring new locations.
Slave Knight Gael as an End to the Dark Souls Era
It can be surprising to realize that the last piece of Dark Souls content was released almost six years ago, especially with FromSoftware and other developers continuing to launch new Soulslike titles over that time. Additionally, with the release of Elden Ring and the announcement for Armored Core 6, it looks like FromSoftware may be done with the Souls series, even if the developer isn't done with this archetype of games. This means that Dark Souls 3's last DLC could be the last official piece of Souls content to release, and likely will be the end of the series moving forward.
With Slave Knight Gael acting as the final boss of this last DLC, he is the cap off to FromSoftware's entire era of creating Dark Souls games that will follow the original formula so closely. That being said, there are a few better ways the series could have ended, as Gael is an incredible boss that is easily the most difficult in Dark Souls 3. This boss also acts as the evolution of a previous fight from the first game's DLC, emulating much of what helped Knight Artorias, The Abysswalker stand as the most interesting fight of his own game.
Gael manages to reach these heights by making the most of everything that had made other bosses like the Nameless King so compelling across Dark Souls 3 and its DLC. He has brutal combos that can be overwhelming when unprepared, but everything is telegraphed well enough that his moveset can be learned and slowly mastered over several attempts. Then there are the three phases, which add new layers to the already impressive moveset that expands as his health is slowly whittled down. All of these factors combine to make for an amazing callback to Artorias that is also able to stand out as a great encounter on its own.
Dark Souls 3 is available now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.