A/N: Never gonna let you down, never goin' to run around and desert you!
W00t m8? Nine chapters, seven of which we're created by you users? I didn't think this was really going to go that far, thanks for your support and half a thousand views! Seriously, you people are all awesome, so I bring you another special chapter by me (Much lousy singing will be sung)
The Demon of song, and why it was so terrible…
I'm sure that's a question we all asked ourselves- the Demon of Song could've been a positively brutal and amazing enemy to complement our time through the Shrine of Amana (I liked the shrine and even I found it nerve racking at times, especially that five archdrake zerg rush at the end of the first area!)
Even if you excluded our tendency to be masochists, that doesn't change the fact the Demon of Song was not only anticlimactic, but incredibly tedious to fight. Here's the main problems I found and ways to remedy them:
1). The lore is lazy and not very compelling: What a wasted opportunity- they come up with a freaky looking and unique boss- one of the few in Dark Souls II that actually felt like brought home the signature Souls "mindfuck scary boss monsters from your deepest nightmares" style- and they give it little to no Lore surrounding it-
You could summarize the entire thing as "it was a happy singing demon toad but then it got a taste for meat and wants to nom your face".
That's it- it has no great origins or backstory, little explanation for why it is there and why it hasn't escaped from the shrine thus far save the threadbare "it was an oddity that sung to the king in the scenic Shrine of Amana, but things went awry", rather than give a solution right now, it'll lead into the next major problem…
2). There is no buildup: Tell me something, were you hyped to fight the Demon of Song? No, probably not, and for good reason. The Demon of Song has no buildup to it- you just walk in the boss room and he's just- there.
Some of the best introductions for bosses in the Souls series were made great by one of two options: they were either referenced and alluded to over a period of time, so by the time you actually reach the fog gate you're piddling in preemptive terror (Gravelord Nito, anyone?)
Or the boss appears without warning and is so massive and terrifying you're first response is to freak out and reach for the nearest homeward bone (Gaping Dragon- you know you had a mini heart attack there)
Of course, you can't give every boss a massive entrance or terrifying lore, but for Gwyn's sake the Demon of Song had nothing- sure he looked a little creepy but he just didn't impress me, my response went as: "oh look, a boss."
Solution: the Demon of Song- the Demon of Song- it just has such a creepy and ominous ring to it. When I spotted the name surfing the interwebz, it immediately caught my interest and made me hesitant to fight it-
I thought it was either a creature with psychic powers and abilities, or perhaps a demon so deadly and powerful songs of it appeared in folklore as a warning to wayfarers everywhere- maybe even both!
Imagine if Troll Soft used that? If they said that the armies of Archdrake paladins and sorcerers all over the place that have been kicking your ass left and right were there to contain the Demon of Song- their item descriptions telling of a beast that had the order gripped in fear- thus they moved below to stop one of Aldia's demon that had gone rogue (and you know all the freaky shit that went on at Aldia's funhouse)
Imagine talking to the Melfinito, who speaks of the great Demon of Song who sung to the king to soothe his nerves, but something went awry and now it preys on anything that ventures too close. You could allude to victims of its hunger- or great destruction to the shrine caused by it (the shrine is ruined, maybe he is the cause?)
If you had to go through the massive shrine of Amana, encountering dozens of Archdrakes- seeing them so powerful yet so afraid of whatever was at the end of the way- that would build up tension to fighting the demon and make the fight a lot more memorable, like the journey into the chasm to fight Kalameet, who you know is really pissed off and ready to fight you with all he's got now that he's been felled by Gough's arrow. This leads me to another important point-
3). The atmosphere is very bland: So here's the environment you fight the Demon of Song in: a, big, round stone area with some water in it.
Yup, that's it-
And we'll give him an awesome, really scary and twisted theme to compliment him perfectly- that we will turn down super duper whisper quiet so no-one can hear it-
Solution: the best part about the Souls series is that the areas you fight the bosses in are not only interesting with a lot to look at, but they tell some of the boss's story- or at least the good ones do.
I agree with having a bowl shaped arena to fight the Demon of Song in to explain why it is stuck (it has armies of archdrakes warding one entrance and armies of ghost legionnaires on the other in the Undead Crypt) but it needs to have more going on with it-
You could have some big vines and decayed trees felled around in it, some more rough and uneven landscaping around the wall so it looks less blatantly like a wall and more like a natural rock formation, some plant life and foliage. Basically, turn it from "generic stone arena with water" into an actual swampland with all the plants and algae and trees.
Why is this area so murky while the rest of the shrine is so pristine? Give it a great veil of trees overhead to dim the sunlight with fallen rocks blocking the flow of water in and out (collapsed by the archdrakes to keep the beast in). A dim environment with stagnant water will get pretty mucky pretty fast, no matter how attractive the rest of the shrine looks.
And last but not least- bodies! Loads of dead, chewed up archdrake bodies to indicate a ton of people went into battle here to trap this demon and very few made it out.
Imagine walking through the fog, hearing this things dark and deformed theme roaring out before you see the boss, walking through the cave with your guard up, only to step out into this dark, decayed swamp basin filled with the rotting dead with this toad- wood- thing sitting there in the mire, watching you…
Now that the atmosphere and buildup of the fight have made you well and surrender all hope of sleeping that evening, comes he actual fight and the numerous mechanical blunders surrounding it…
4). The fight lacks innovation: of course, I'm borrowing this one from ASouffleToServeTwo, but this perfectly describes the utter tedium of this battle, and why it was just so- boring and unfulfilling.
This boss forces you to fight it the same way every time no matter what your build since it is indestructible over its whole body save its face.
The whole fight is you waiting for its face to appear, attacking the face, letting it close its hood, then running around waiting for its face to appear again.
Rinse and repeat until dead- which may take awhile since this guy has a GODLIKE level of health-
The developers knew this fight would be centered around patience and fleeing his attacks- which telegraph more than the entirety of Google's processing servers yet hit with the power of the Hiroshima bomb, which seems expressly created for the purpose of giving a big "fuck you" to melee builds everywhere (I swear, had I not had the dragonrider bow and hundreds of arrows I would've flipped my shit)
Solution: first of all, get rid of his cloak of invulnerability-
"Bud it mayks the fite mur interesting becuz it mayks it mur than just run and attack!" Says Yui-
"Neigh, you naïve casual!" I say, "Leave the invulnerable-until-weakspot-appears cliche for other games, but not Dark Souls! It is built around tactics and strategy, so why create a boss that runs entirely counter to that!"
"But I did that and the gamers loved-"
"Silence thyself Dragon God- you are not welcome here!" I say. What the fight really needs is incentive to attack the weakspot- you don't have to, but attacking the skin will only do about 25% the damage the face would take- meaning you are relatively safer attacking from the sides, but the fight will be a lot longer.
See, it's okay to make a fight tedious if you get the option to do so. If the arena is a lot more uneven and filled with obstacles, you could also try firing from the highground or using plunge attacks so while the Demon of Song may have godlike levels of health, you can pick from many different angles of attack and open opportunities to fire on it.
Since the thing is an absolute tank, it would offset its tendency to be an attack magnet from ranged or fast melee builds who can outmaneuver him. Which leads me to another major point:
5). The Demon of Song should be more than a punching bag: Lo, the Demon of Song should be more than a ragdoll to commemorate the misery of the Shrine of Amana. For one, the fight should not cater to ranged combatants- hence removing the invulnerability, but more than that- it needs to be a lot more dynamic but a lot less punishing.
Being ungodly slow and having all of four different attacks- each one able to cripple if not outright one shot a high level melee build is not new or interesting- it's just another way Troll Soft gives you the finger for trying to kill their precious monsters.
The Demon of Song should be able to overtake and beat on a build of any speed to make up for being an unwieldy target. It should telegraph less and move a lot more- like that body slam and diving belly flop attack, make that two or three times as fast, allowing him to cover the arena in an instant if you stop paying attention-
That would encourage even the swiftest builds to stay frosty, and if the demon has to turn really, really slow, give him the ability to jump back away to put some distance between him and the player, allowing him to get face to face and fight back. You could even have a player standing right next to him when he jumps back take heavy damage getting clipped by a leg.
Needless to say, higher speed should mean less damage- I'd say two or three direct hits to kill a level appropriate fighter is pretty fair- taking a third of large lifebar, maybe two thirds for a heavy attack- is very punishing, but survivable, allowing the player to get back on their feet and adapt to the situation.
Special attacks like the grab and water cannon should be left at their current preposterous level, but only because they telegraph and are special moves, so it makes sense they'd be so powerful. Now that we have a good arsenal or basic attacks, let's add a special (aside from the water gun)-
He gives you the spotted whip from his soul- which mimics a frog's tongue, yet the actual boss never uses his tongue as a weapon? Let's fix that and give him a set of tongue slap attacks to hit mid-range fighters, with the water gun used on long range fighters, including ones that try to use the environment.
Bosses in the Souls universe based on animals and mythical beasts usually have a tie in to their natural abilities/habits they use as a weapon- with examples too numerous to name. So, how about adding the frog/chameleon's use of their tongue to catch pry?
He would have a special move where he hunkers down and maybe has a slight throat bulge to indicate he is about to do something unpleasant, only for his tongue to launch out and hit the player and stick on, continually poisoning them as they are drug up to the Demon's face to get nommed for gigantic damage, though the player can wrestle their way out by running, rolling, or smashing the bumpers before they are brought to close. Which brings me to my final grievance and biggest missed opportunity:
6). The demon of song does not sing: for me, that was the biggest shortfall of my expectations and the biggest missed opportunity. You are constantly reminded in the Demon's Soul's description and his spotted whip that the demon has a surprisingly beautiful voice that he uses to lure prey to their deaths-
As I said before, I was terrified to fight this thing- the notion of an enemy with access to psychic/sound based attacks, that used its voice as a weapon made me hesitant- until I realized it was a false alarm. This boss, especially with revisions- is an awesome adversary to fight, but that doesn't change the fact there is nothing that marks him as a demon of Song-
Maybe a "Demon of Swamp" or "Demon of Toad" or "Demon of Wood" but Song?
Solution: Load that bitch up with psionics! The Troll Soft developers wanted a boss that took patience and strategy over brute force? Imagine if the demon had access to a form of sound wave pulse from its body, and the ability to actually sing in a gorgeous male choral voice (it's not like Troll Soft has an enormous chorus to choose from or anything) hypnotizing the player and rendering them unable to fight back, or forcing them to wander towards the demon-
That would be a bit OP, but you could have something like the screen getting messed up or the controls being inverted while he is singing, disorienting the player and potentially causing them to miss an opportunity to attack or causing him to wander into the range of the Demon's attacks-
That would explain why he is so dangerous and wreak havoc in battle without being too imbalanced.
Note by ASouffleToServeTwo: That last one makes me think of Psycho Mantis in MGS. That fight is SO awesome, and very few games have allowed such an interconnectivity between player and game since.
What would be really cool? What if he Demon could literally take control of your player unless you turn off vibrations or unplug it from a charger? What if the song came out only through the controller? (think Dualshock 4) What if the screen went black, causing you to have to change channels to see the game?
Just a few ideas for ya. If you couldn't tell, I really love Metal Gear. I wish more games were like it! The Japanese really do make the besy games!
Yes, they do make the besyest games around X3
MGS was the only game to do justice to mind control- when my screen went blue with that "Hideo" i had no clue what was going on. Sadly, MGS was a thought intensive espionage (before the series was lobotomized by the "mo vilenc yo" pandemic) with the colonel to help you out while Dark Souls is predominantly a fighting game were you are pushed to adapt and figure things out on your own.
I'm pretty sure even the most veteran players would have no idea how to handle the situation if the freak out was that great, but i do agree with messing with the screen on top of scrambling the controls- you could more or less discern what was going on, but you would need insane adaptability to fight and dodge proficiently- especially if the controller did sing and vibrate in the player's hands.
It would let the player experience the same short-term disorientation their character is and add an interesting new level of immersivness, and that's always a plus.
Furthermore, Dark Souls is meant to be scary, and that would certainly do the trick- an unblockable attack that compromises your ability to react to the enemy, even if the effect would only last ten seconds maximum? That would do it :3
Well, this was an especially long rant, but I've had worse, Praise to the Sun! :3