Summary
The payoff of Champion Gundyr inDark Souls 3is a stellar revisit of a previous boss that not only beefs up the boss to endgame status with higher health and damage, but also alters the AI to completely recreate the fight. This results in a bait and switch in one of the optional areas towards theend of aDark Souls 3playthroughthat can easily force a player to reassess the laurels they’ve been resting on until this point.
What helps Champion Gundyr stand out as a payoff, rather than just any other boss fight, is the way that it ties directly into the introduction ofDark Souls 3. These ties come in the form of not only the arena, but also in how Champion Gundyr relates to the tutorial boss Iudex Gundyr, and how the second encounter elevates the earlier incarnation.
Champion Gundyr is the Blueprint for a Revisited Boss Fight
How Dark Souls 3 Handles Difficulty Through Enemy AI
The job of balancing thedifficulty of encounters in games likeDark Souls 3is a fine line that FromSoftware has managed to more-or-less successfully walk with the developer’s notoriously tough titles. However, Champion Gundyr himself is a brilliant showcase of exactly how difficulty is tweaked between enemy designs outside of the simple addition of higher health and damage stats that gradually increase over the course of the game. This is most notable in the differences between the second phases of the two Gundyr fights, with Champion Gundyr surprisingly being the more difficult of the two when it doesn’t appear as it should be at first glance.
More than any increased damage output or larger hitbox, Champion Gundyr pushes the difficulty into the territory ofDark Souls 3’s endgameby focusing primarily on aggression. So, even though Iudex Gundyr spawns a giant monster out of its armor halfway through the fight, the increase in size and damage is significantly easier to deal with than Champion Gundyr’s high-speed moveset and increased aggression throughout the second fight. With combos that can string together halberd swings, shoulder charges, and a powerful kick, there’s nothing that the slow, lumbering Pus of Man stretching out of Iudex Gundyr can even hope to compete with.
Elevating and Refining Gundyr To Polished Glory
While finding Champion Gundyr in the Untended Grave is a payoff on its own, the new difficulty of the fight is in itself a setup for a second playthrough or New Game Plus. This is because the comparisons between Iudex and Champion Gundyr can be traced in both directions, as the difficulty of the second fight recontextualizes the initial encounter. After facing off against the aggression and speed that defines thedifficulty of Champion Gundyr, running back into the Iudex version almost feels like turningDark Souls 3down to easy mode.
The new ease that comes from fighting Iudex after already defeating Champion Gundyr helps to emphasize exactly how much FromSoftware managed to polish the previous boss in preparation for the second encounter. This design concept is one that FromSoftware has continued toinfluence later titles likeElden Ring, with copies of earlier bosses reappearing later on in each game. However, few have managed to hit the heights that Champion Gundyr reaches, thanks to how much this boss updates and elevates the balance of the fight to contrast the two fights more than it compares them. Of course, that doesn’t mean that another Chekhov’s Gun encounter like this wouldn’t be welcome in the developer’s next title, as the success with Champion Gundyr could help flex how dynamic boss design can be across more games.
Dark Souls 3
WHERE TO PLAY
Winner of Gamescom 2015 ‘Best RPG” and over 35 E3 2015 Awards and Nominations, DARK SOULS™ III continues to push the boundaries with the latest, ambitious chapter in the critically-acclaimed and genre-defining series.As fires fade and the world falls into ruin, journey into a universe filled with more colossal enemies and environments. Players will be immersed into a world of epic atmosphere and darkness through faster gameplay and amplified combat intensity. Fans and newcomers alike will get lost in the game hallmark rewarding gameplay and immersive graphics.Now only embers remain… Prepare yourself once more and Embrace The Darkness!
