Elden Ring DLC’s most notorious boss is based on a Dark Souls 2 monster
FromSoftwareThe final boss of Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree DLC has been tormenting players since launch, but it turns out they were fighting it over a decade ago, as its animations debuted back in Dark Souls 2. The following article will feature spoilers for Shadow of the Erdtree.
Elden Ring is stuffed with enemies and bosses of every description, which forced FromSoftware to dig into its library of games for content. This resulted in old monster animations being reused to save on development time, such as the Omenkiller using bits from Dark Soul’s Capra Demon.
Surprisingly, the most important boss in Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree DLC also features animations taken from an older game. As proven by a thread on the Elden Ring Reddit, Promised Consort Radahn is a faster version of Headless Vengarl from Dark Souls 2.
“Hahaha, I remember struggling with this guy, but now it looks so slow,” one user wrote, while another said, “Now I know why I didn’t like Radahn’s fight. It subconsciously reminded me of DS2.”
Fans don’t necessarily hate FromSoftware for this design choice. “I mean, there’s only so much you can do with two huge scimitars. You swing one, swing the other, or swing both,” one user mentioned, while another wrote, “How many different ways can one attack with two giant swords, though, really?”
“I think this has always been the weakest point of their games,” one user summarized, “There are several bosses in every game which have copy/pasted the exact same moveset. In Elden Ring, that is taken a step further. Reuse of several bosses, but just add some elemental AOE infusion in place.”
The comparison between Promised Consort Radahn and this Dark Souls 2 enemy shows the stark difference in how enemies are tuned across the series. The sheer speed, reactivity, and distance covered by Radahn can turn any enemy into a threat, even a reused one.
It’s surprising that a foe as important as the end boss of Elden Ring’s DLC didn’t get a fully unique moveset, but what can you really do with double sword swings? And it’s not like that’s the entirety of Radahn’s moveset, especially when you add Miquella into the mix. Reused or not, your chances of winning are still low.