Highlights

  • Maiden Astraea can be the easiest boss in Demon's Souls if players can successfully parry Garl Vinland. Defeating either of them leads to victory.
  • In this fight, all shields have equal parry frames, making even lighter shields like the buckler effective against Garl Vinland's heavy hammer.
  • Maiden Astraea and Garl Vinland serve as a blueprint for parry-vulnerable bosses in the Soulsborne series, with parrying becoming a powerful tactic against bosses in later games.

With so many of the major bosses in Demon's Souls capable of being broken down into their individual gimmicks, Maiden Astraea is unique in how straightforward her fight can be. This is best seen when players choose to ignore the name above the health bar, and instead focus their efforts on Astraea's bodyguard Garl Vinland in a simplified version of FromSoftware's classic PVP encounters.

Standing as the final boss of the Valley of Defilement, one of the last areas that many players will clear throughout Demon's Souls, Maiden Astraea and Garl Vinland act as a final test of the basic combat mechanics before jumping into the real endgame. This is because to get through this encounter, players will either need to have their DPS through the roof to kill Maiden Astraea outright or have mastered the parry to get past Garl Vinland.

demon's souls adjudicator
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Garl Vinland's Great Hammer Bramd VS A Buckler

Demon's Souls-maiden-astraea-garl-vinland

Potentially the Easiest Boss in Demon's Souls

Maiden Astraea has the potential to be the easiest boss in Demon's Souls, as long as the player is able to pull off a handful of consecutive parries and ripostes against Garl Vinland. This is because when Garl Vinland is killed, Astraea essentially gives up the fight, meaning that only one of the two enemies needs to be defeated in order to come out victorious. Given the history of the parry mechanic in the Soulsborne series, that should come as little surprise for most of the regular enemies fought throughout the game, but it does strike as strange against a major boss.

As strange as the utility of the mechanic is, however, challenging Garl Vinland alone on a ledge leading into the arena proper can give players the opportunity to parry almost every single one of his attacks and beat him without taking a single hit. There are naturally a few caveats to this strategy, such as when Garl Vinland heals himself periodically or forgoes attacking with his slow, heavy hammer in order to cast God's Wrath instead. This does mean that the fight isn't completely free as long as the player can get the parry timing down well enough, but it does put a handful of Demon's Souls' weapons above the others if they have extra critical damage and can maximize on every riposte.

All Shields are Equal to Stop the Great Hammer

Demon's Souls Hoplite Shield in Inventory Screen

Unlike other Soulsborne parries, Demon's Souls doesn't differentiate the parry frames between different shields, although thrusting swords do have a slightly extended window to manage the maneuver. While this doesn't necessarily give a player an advantage on the timing while using a lighter shield, it does mean that the buckler is equally qualified to stop the Garl Vinland's massive hammer as anything else that might have a heavier impact on equip load. This can make for an empowering fight for the player, and a demeaning one for Garl Vinland, as the quick swing of a buckler is enough to carry fans towards an easy win.

Maiden Astraea as a Blueprint for Parry-Vulnerable Bosses

Maiden Astraea boss fight

The parry has evolved greatly throughout the Soulsborne series, elevating from the most formidable tactic to use against regular mobs, to a full-fledged boss killer in later games. To a degree, Garl Vinland is the blueprint for these types of bosses, which includes endgame opponents like Dark Souls' Gwyn or even encounters as recent as Elden Ring's final boss Radagon. This ability to parry some bosses into submission has previously been seen by some fans as a strange choice, given how it can trivialize some otherwise impactful fights. However, as the systems of the series have elevated since Demon's Souls, so has the utility of parry mechanics on bosses. So, in the long stretch of FromSoftware's history as a developer, Garl Vinland and Maiden Astraea have become the first step toward some of the best bosses in the series.

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