Gwyn from Dark Souls is a mixed bag compared to his game's notorious legacy

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While Dark souls established itself among the gaming community as a brutal challenge, Gwyn's final boss ended up being an underwhelming distraction for FromSoftware's fan base. That's not to say that Gwyn's moveset isn't as aggressive and powerful as players would expect from the latest challenge. Dark soulsbut rather that adding one mechanic can trivialize a boss in a way that none of the others do.




The key to getting Gwyn out of one of the hardest challenges Dark souls The fact that this is the only boss in the game that can be fended off is part of the quick credit build up. It's a part of the player's toolkit that's great to see come into play in the final encounter, but it's so strong and consistent that this single fight proves why no other boss was counted on to bounce back.

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Gwyn is potentially Dark Souls' best challenge

Gwyn initially fulfills every promise she made on Dark Souls difficulty

While it's possible to downplay Gwyn, it should be noted that this probably won't be the experience for most players fighting the boss for the first time. In the early game, Gwyn is instead an incredibly difficult fight, as he has one of the most aggressive and powerful movesets of any boss. Even as a single enemy, he quickly puts more pressure on the player than Dark soulsThe notorious duo of Ornstein and Smough face off.


Gwyn's aggression is achieved through a wide array of sword swinging moves, some of which are slow and deliberate, while others take barely enough time to react and can quickly punish players for being greedy or dodging wildly. Then there's the grapple he uses Dark souls' persistent, over spread hitboxes for this type of attack to make it extremely difficult to dodge the attack and stay in range and punish. All of this is also made even more bombastic by Gwyn's initial attack, which sends him through the air to take down players the moment they pass. Dark souls' the last fog wall in the first place.


For new players, Gwyn's moveset is on the edge of familiarity, as it doesn't stray too far from the “guy with a big sword” archetype, but still adds enough of its own flair to make the boss unique. It's a grim challenge, accompanied by an absolutely beautiful song and set in the context of knowing that even the mightiest of Lords is lost and not even fighting at full strength. However, all the savvy work that was done to elevate Gwyn above most other bosses and similar enemies falls away in future games as players find that Dark soulsThe parry mechanic is the obvious choice to almost skip this encounter.

Parry Shield and Estus Flask can destroy Gwyn with little effort

From Software Soul series is very familiar with cheesy tactics that can easily trivialize any boss by taking advantage of some quirk in the AI, taking advantage of damage weaknesses, or in some cases dropping them off the map. For Gwyn, this can be done by catching the initial jump attack with a parry and then immediately drinking from the Estus Flask. This is because Gwyn has a unique type of entry read, when players try to use items to set up another attack on his slow, two-handed swing, which can then be easily parried again.


It's the parry/Estus loop that can really downplay Gwyn more than anything else, but once players get the hang of parry timing, it's not too difficult to respond to any attack other than a quick one-handed flick. Although this may be an unorthodox usage Dark soulsThe iconic Estus Flask, it's a powerful use of a player's complete toolkit. However, the result for many players returning to the game is that, with or without the lure of a two-handed attack, the parrying strategy reduces Gwyn from challenging to work.

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