Highlights

  • Elden Ring features a record-breaking 165 boss encounters, with some bosses, like Leonine Misbegotten, reusing movesets from previous games.
  • The complex combat of the Soulsborne series helps make even minor bosses like Leonine Misbegotten stand out among the extensive list of fights.
  • While Leonine Misbegotten offers a unique combat experience in Elden Ring, it falls short compared to Slave Knight Gael in terms of complexity and variety in attacks.

With 165 boss encounters, developer FromSoftware went well above their previous record for quantity in Elden Ring. However, as some fans have noticed in the past, this massive quantity is made possible in many ways by reusing assets from previous Soulsborne games. One of the best examples of this among these many bosses comes from the moveset of the Leonine Misbegotten.

While the visual presentation of a game like Elden Ring is important to catch a player's eye off the shelf, what helps FromSoftware's genre-defining titles stay relevant is the complex combat of the Soulsborne series. So, for a game trying to fill out 165 boss encounters, pulling from some of the most successful enemies in previous games can help to make even minor bosses like Leonine Misbegotten shine among the giant list of fights.

elden ring malenia armor detail
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Leonine Misbegotten Brings Dark Souls 3 to Elden Ring

Leonine Misbegotten jumping with a sword in Elden Ring

Slave Knight Gael's Moveset Returns in Beastly Form

As the final boss of the final DLC for Dark Souls 3, Slave Knight Gael does not disappoint as the current endpoint of the entire Dark Souls series. It can be easy to point at Gael's incredible difficulty in proving the success of this boss, but that doesn't quite sum up how fun mastering his complex moveset can be. This is because Gael is more than speed and aggression, and is instead best defined by his arcing lunges that can be followed by either a flurry of crossbow bolts or powerful miracles.

It's these arcing lunges from Slave Knight Gael, however, that bring Dark Souls 3 and Elden Ring together with the moveset of Leonine Misbegotten. This borrowing of the older moveset then leads the Leonine Misbegotten to offer a unique combat experience for Elden Ring, as the somewhat erratic movement swipes in counter-intuitive arcs that can easily catch players off guard. These strange combos with odd movements help to make the Leonine Misbegotten relatively difficult to most players, but it can fall short against the original Gael in several ways.

Leonine Misbegotten Removes What Makes Gael Most Unique

Elden Ring - Leonine Misbegotten Roaring

One aspect of the fight against Gael that made the boss unique in Dark Souls 3 comes in the form of the follow-up attacks from the crossbow, miracles, and eventually skulls flying from his cape. This is where the first major difference between Gael and Leonine Misbegotten can be seen, as the newer boss only really inherited the melee combat from its predecessor. The result is a much simpler fight that doesn't manage to iterate impressively on the previous boss, even as the enemy appears repeatedly throughout Elden Ring like many other less-difficult bosses.

Across the handful of encounters against Leonine Misbegotten, the most that the boss elevates its own archetype is in the version found in the Cave of the Forlorn, which both wields and drops Elden Ring 's Golden Order Greatsword —this variant is named Misbegotten Crusader.

However, the most impressive change that Misbegotten Crusader really adds to this boss' formula is one holy blast that has little telegraphing for players to properly react to. This leads to the various versions of Leonine Misbegotten coming up severely short of the original template that the moveset appears to be reworked from.

In the case of the first Leonine Misbegotten, the simplified moveset that so heavily resembles the melee combat of Slave Knight Gael makes for a great end to Castle Morne. As an early boss in an early Elden Ring dungeon, Leonine Misbegotten is actually an impressive way to prepare players for what can be found throughout the Lands Between. This initial fight wouldn't even be considered too much of a downgrade from Slave Knight Gael if it wasn't for the way Leonine Misbegotten appears repeatedly with little evolution to what was already an incredible moveset.