Unleashing the Secrets of the Enigmatic Soldier of Godrick: A Jaw-Dropping Tutorial Boss That Will Leave You Begging for Elden Ring
The tutorial boss in Elden Ring disappoints as it fails to adequately prepare players for the challenging battles that lie ahead, leaving them unprepared for the game's difficulty
Highlights
Soldier of Godrick, the final boss of Elden Ring's tutorial, fails to prepare players for the game's difficulty as it is too easy compared to what comes next.
Including Soldier of Godrick after the challenging Grafted Scion misleads players into thinking that the game will not be too difficult right from the beginning.
However, Elden Ring should offer a formidable experience for players. Unfortunately, Soldier of Godrick lacks the necessary level of difficulty to truly test players' skills, thereby setting a negative tone for the rest of the game.
FromSoftware has a track record of creating impressive tutorial levels throughout the Dark Souls series. However, Elden Ring experiences a rare stumble in this aspect. While the tutorial messages and practice opportunities for game mechanics are successful, the final boss of Elden Ring's optional tutorial, Soldier of Godrick, fails to adequately prepare players for what lies ahead just a few minutes later.
This lack of preparation stems from Soldier of Godrick being nothing more than a typical enemy placed at the end of the tutorial solely to provide players with a chance to practice the guard counter. Unlike most tutorials, this boss lacks the ability to pose a real threat to players equipped with their starting gear, thus failing to adequately set the stage for the challenging difficulty that Elden Ring will later introduce.
Unprepared for Elden Ring's Difficulty
Elden Ring's first action towards players is fatal - their immediate demise. This typically occurs through the Grafted Scion's introduction, unleashing a series of powerful attacks that swiftly overpower a starting character. Even if the player manages to survive, they are met with a fatal fall before being resurrected in the Stranded Graveyard. This lightning-fast introduction effectively conveys to players that death is an integral part of the experience.
Ideally, if the Grafted Scion was positioned as the final challenge in the tutorial, requiring players to eventually defeat the boss, it would serve as a perfect segue into the challenging journey throughout the Lands Between. Regrettably, the opportunity to face the Grafted Scion again is not immediately available, as players must first practice against the Soldier of Godrick, a standard enemy with a boss-like health bar displayed at the bottom of the screen. However, this encounter hardly exemplifies Elden Ring's brutal difficulty.
Elden Ring Should be a Struggle, Not a Breeze
The placement of Soldier of Godrick immediately following the Grafted Scion in this tutorial gives the impression that although enemies capable of killing the player may appear, the overall difficulty level will not be too overwhelming right from the beginning. However, this notion is quickly contradicted with the introduction of the Erdtree Sentinel, a formidable opponent who can be defeated early on but is more likely intended to be faced later after gaining strength throughout Limgrave. As a result, Soldier of Godrick's significantly lower difficulty level, despite being labeled as a boss, sets an unfavorable precedent for what players can anticipate in future encounters.
FromSoftware's games have often been praised for their inherent difficulty, as players face off against formidable bosses that heavily favor the odds. However, a more accurate depiction of the Souls-like design philosophy is that these games are crafted to impose challenges upon players, with losing and retrying being an integral part of the experience. Consequently, Soldier of Godrick falls short in capturing the essence of Elden Ring's finest element, as it fails to provide players with any substantial struggle to overcome.
The disappointing aspect of the boss in Soldier of Godrick lies primarily in its placement. If it were located at the conclusion of a random cave or catacomb, it may have served as a comedic enemy or an optional side boss, preceding the true main battle of the dungeon. However, the current positioning of Soldier of Godrick would be better suited for any other boss that is relatively straightforward to defeat at the base level, yet still presents enough of a challenge to prepare players for the demanding nature of Elden Ring beyond the tutorial.
Elden Ring is now available for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
