Eldest Souls is a new boss rush game heavily inspired by Dark Souls and other Soulslike games, and it shows thanks to its intricate progression system combined with incredible boss fights. With bosses being at the very core of EldestSouls' gameplay and mechanics, they up the challenge when compared to similar games and double down on the rewards, especially in the long run. Game ZXC spoke to Francesco Barsotti and Jonathan Costantini, founders of Fallen Flag Studio and developers of EldestSouls, who explained how the game's bosses evolve after beating the game and starting a New Game+.
"[ Eldest Souls ]Â went through all sorts of reworks, we redid the scripts 3-4 times over. This might be cheesy, but I think in a way it symbolises the challenge in Eldest Souls, if you keep failing, even if it keeps turning out wrong or bugged you keep trying until you make it, and the satisfaction is in a way proportionate to the struggle you put in. "
There are around 10 unique bosses in EldestSouls, as Barsotti and Costantini explained, and each of them has its own move set that makes the fight challenging in a different way every time. The moves change when the bosses get lower on their health, adjusting their behavior and pattern based on the new combat phase, and this concept further evolves once players finish the base game and gain access to new game+ and Arena Mode. Beating the base game is no easy task, and it will prove to be a challenge even for veterans of Soulslike games, mainly because there's a lot going in with Eldest Souls and how its skills work.
Eldest Souls' Bosses and New Game+ Make it Very Challenging
The first few bosses of Eldest Souls share some elements with more classic Soulslike bosses, and that's because Fallen Flag Studio wanted players to become acquainted with the mechanics against familiar bosses before delving into crazier ones. The very first boss encountered within the game is called The Watchdog, and it is linked to tutorial mechanics for players to learn, even though it also happens to be a not so easy fight. EldestSouls' second boss is called The Guardian, and that is where Costantini and Barsotti wanted to place the first "skill block" of many, meaning that unless players become better at the basic actions and skills they won't get easily past this huge armored knight.
There are more bosses as the game progresses, of course, including a personal favorite of Costantini: Azikel, God of Light. In EldestSouls, Gods were the overlords of mankind, so humanity led a crusade against them to kill them or imprison them, and Azikel is one of them. This boss features a varied move set that includes unlimited teleportation and incredibly fast attacks, either in close range or from afar, and then plenty of lasers too.
These are just examples, and what happens in the game is that these bosses change over the course of the battle and require a very different approach from the one that allowed players to get them low on health in the first place. Not only that though, because when beating the full game players can start a New Game+, and that's where the challenge becomes even more intense. As a matter of fact, the bosses' move set changes throughout the New Game+, making the encounters different from those of the base game and adding an extra layer of difficulty that will please hardcore players. As Costantini said:
" We also have a New Game+ system, but we don't simply have improved stats on each boss, and they also get new moves, new mechanics, and new stuff to make the fight different. By playing the Arena Mode and defeating a boss, its New Game+ version is unlocked as well, so you can go and try that one too. "
Then, there's the Arena Mode, which is a game mode that allows players to jump into the fight with any specific boss of their choice. This can help players refine their technique against bosses who instead were particularly pesky to beat, and it also helps to learn all the changing patterns and move sets. Still, Eldest Souls remains a difficult game that truly nails that aspect of boss rush and Soulslike titles, while also offering a progression system akin to that of Path of Exile and other RPGs.
Eldest Souls releases on July 29, 2021, for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
