FromSoft has finally plundered its work from 2012 to put the best Dark Souls boss in Elden Ring Nightreign

ELDEN RING NIGHTREIGN The Forsaken Hollows | Official Gameplay Reveal Trailer - YouTube

We've been patiently waiting for FromSoftware to say a single word about its plans for Elden Ring Nightreign's DLC, which was meant to include new bosses as well as playable characters. Now we've seen it: in a surprise trailer during Sony's Japan-focused State of Play livestream on Tuesday, the studio debuted The Forsaken Hollows, its first expansion dropping December 4. And one of the studio's all-time great bosses is coming back.

That something is probably my memory of fighting Artorias in his namesake DLC for Dark Souls, Artorias of the Abyss, released in 2012. While FromSoftware's games are quite fast-paced today, demanding quick reflexes in fights against the likes of Malenia, that wasn't the case in Dark Souls. Many of the bosses are lumbering beasts, and even the fastest foes have simple, relatively short attack combos compared to what FromSoftware throws at players today. Artorias was the very beginning of that paradigm shift.

You hear stories about the legendary knight throughout Dark Souls, but it's not until the DLC that you get to face him: a hero corrupted by the Abyss, driven into a mad frenzy. He leaps around his battle arena swinging a huge longsword one-handed. His range is fierce, and he'll punish you for trying to step back and heal. His battle serves as a precursor for the many 1v1 duels FromSoft would later make some of the most memorable encounters in the Dark Souls sequels and Elden Ring.

Dark Souls: Knight Artorias Boss Fight (4K 60fps) - YouTube

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It was a hard fight by Dark Souls' standards, and also a thrilling way to kick off its expansion after a full game of lore build up. I can't think of a better fit for Nightreign, which FromSoftware is clearly treating as a greatest hits remix for beloved moments (and fearsome villains) from across its RPGs.

How well will this fight translate to a 3v1 co-op fight? I don't know! Artorias might need a bit of an AI tune-up to serve as much of a threat in Nightreign. But my #1 wish for the game since launch has been a deeper pool of mid-run bosses pulled from the older games for the sake of variety. I couldn't ask for a better first pick.

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Wes has been covering games and hardware for more than 10 years, first at tech sites like The Wirecutter and Tested before joining the PC Gamer team in 2014. Wes plays a little bit of everything, but he'll always jump at the chance to cover emulation and Japanese games.

When he's not obsessively optimizing and re-optimizing a tangle of conveyor belts in Satisfactory (it's really becoming a problem), he's probably playing a 20-year-old Final Fantasy or some opaque ASCII roguelike. With a focus on writing and editing features, he seeks out personal stories and in-depth histories from the corners of PC gaming and its niche communities. 50% pizza by volume (deep dish, to be specific).

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