Elden Ring - Crystalian - Review

Crystalian is a very unique concept where the player must shatter them in order to deal significantly more damage and it is absolutely satisfying to achieve. I originally had one Crystalian ready to review however once I found this duo fight I had to review it instead. I am aware of the others that I haven't currently discovered only by accidentally seeing videos on social media. If those fights offer a well designed challenge then I will eventually review the one that displays the concept in the most faithful manner.

Since I was dealing with a sorcerer and a spear wielder, I had to utilize the statues to block the incoming projectiles while I parry and heavy strike the other. The reason why I used heavy attacks instead of the riposte is because it never shattered the Crystalian so using heavy strikes caused a visceral opportunity which does shatter it. After finishing off the spear wielder I basically just back stab for the rest of the fight with heavy strikes in between.

The element of being aware of your surroundings is one of my favorite aspects in a boss fight whenever it's utilized properly like Father Gascoigne from Bloodborne and Elana, the Squalid Queen from Dark Souls 2. I hope the other battles take it a step further instead of just having poorly designed difficulty which has been present in the game already with bosses having overly aggressive and annoying smaller enemies that compromises any difficulty identity.

I loved this fight and it's one that I can watch multiple times because of how much fun my strategy was executed and presented. Try looking up Dot Matrix from Spaceballs because these guys look just like a blue version of that character and it was all I could think about during the fight.