The issue with the Anguished Guardian is that people often can't see the limb he's attacking with. Usually the safest place to be standing is pretty much directly under him, which means that all you can see are vague blobs of grey filling your screen. Sure, you can back off from him to see what's going on, but that's a worse tactical position to fight from.

Giant bosses can be done very well. Humanoid bosses can be done very well. Medium-sized bosses can be done very well too though. Even in Lies of P, that's about half the bosses honestly. Parade Master, Fuego, Scrapped Watchman, Simon, etc. Elden Ring had Maliketh, Godrick, Radahn, Mohg, and so on. DS3 had the Dancer, Vordt, Oceiros. Enotria had Zanni and Giangurgolo. I could go on quite a while.

Originally posted by LuckyCheshire:

The issue with the Anguished Guardian is that people often can't see the limb he's attacking with. Usually the safest place to be standing is pretty much directly under him, which means that all you can see are vague blobs of grey filling your screen. Sure, you can back off from him to see what's going on, but that's a worse tactical position to fight from.

Giant bosses can be done very well. Humanoid bosses can be done very well. Medium-sized bosses can be done very well too though. Even in Lies of P, that's about half the bosses honestly. Parade Master, Fuego, Scrapped Watchman, Simon, etc. Elden Ring had Maliketh, Godrick, Radahn, Mohg, and so on. DS3 had the Dancer, Vordt, Oceiros. Enotria had Zanni and Giangurgolo. I could go on quite a while.

That has to be bad peripheral vision or something because I can see him just fine while standing in that same position. He always gives you time to make out his telegraphs, so I can clearly see what he's going to do next.

Also, I count most of those bosses from DS and Elden Ring as "human-sized." Not just because they're humanoid, but because DS frequently made the player half the size of whoever you were fighting for no reason. Dancer is a human-sized boss, just tall.

As for Parade, Fueco, Watchman and Simon, they're okay bosses, but they're not the best. I especially hate fighting Simon, who just litters the map with AoEs.

I think he's a decent boss except for his phase 2 where he starts using the giant spear because of this particular combo where he quickly thrusts it in quick succession.

It doesn't really help that one of his lock-on points is on his left hand and his head, though perfectly deflecting his red falling over attack will let you hit both for a good second. For this boss, it really does reward you for learning to perfect guard his red attacks.

I initially hated fighting him at first but when I treated him as Darkeater Midir with pointy sticks, it became much more fun to fight him. Just have to be on the look out for his giant spear moves and he's not that bad.

Besides the fatal attack animation is amazing.

Originally posted by AZRA3L The Eternal:

I think he's a decent boss except for his phase 2 where he starts using the giant spear because of this particular combo where he quickly thrusts it in quick succession.

It doesn't really help that one of his lock-on points is on his left hand and his head, though perfectly deflecting his red falling over attack will let you hit both for a good second. For this boss, it really does reward you for learning to perfect guard his red attacks.

I initially hated fighting him at first but when I treated him as Darkeater Midir with pointy sticks, it became much more fun to fight him. Just have to be on the look out for his giant spear moves and he's not that bad.

Besides the fatal attack animation is amazing.

Yeah, I was really surprised by the custom fatal. Carlo just goes full God of War on him.

It was also funny to me because of the gate immediately outside of the boss fight. For some reason, you need a key to open it, but it's a thin, flimsy gate that barely looks locked. One of the first things Carlo does at the start of the game is punch straight through a much thicker and padlocked gate than this, and right after daintily opening this fence, he lifts the giant heavy door to this boss fight with just one hand.

It's like watching Goku decide he can't enter an area because he doesn't have permission. And then go super saiyan after he gets it.

I'm normally not a fan of giant boss fights but Anguished Guardian was truly excellent.

Anguished Guardian was done VERY well in my opinion, stark contrast with the Tyrannical Predator, and the reason why is obvious: AG has the space to fight you in and doesn't push you back with every single attack.

This game does large enemies infinitely better than any FromSoftware game in my opinion. Didn't take any issue with any of them, except for Tyrannical Predator. But that's due to reasons irrelevant to his size.

As a Monster Hunter fanatic, I was very pleasantly surprised with both "Rex" and the Anguished Guardian.

in my opinion i think the 1v1 more knight like fights are more fun since it allows you to have a faster paced fight that feels as if you are having a duel rather than feeling as if you are hunting something (exception being the golden snail guy, hate that guy) but lies of p did a great job with the boss but that was mostly because he had attacks that made sense in hitboxes unlike elden ring with the fire giant and such. My only gripe with the AG fight was that it didnt feel as fast paced as i wanted which is why i loved the final boss, like damn if you played that boss with the katana like weapon you know what im talking about

Interesting, I felt that the Anused Guardian was by far the worst boss of the DLC, although I do agree that he was well done for a giant boss, but that's a bit like being voted the most charming sex offender.

AG to me combines the worst aspects of the Bishop from LoP with the worst aspects of the Elden Beast: a slow, giant blob of a monster that combines huge slow swings with golden laser show shenanigans, and combining two of the worst bosses from two otherwise excellent games is a baffling design design.

His melee attacks are generally readable and parryable, except for his spear stab fury, which comes from offscreen when you stand close to him due to his sheer size. Thankfully the rhythm of the stab attacks is readable as well, but he will get you a few times until you work it out.

Then there are his laser attacks, which are equally infuriating, do big damage and are spammed towards the end of the fight.

None of this would matter, however, if he was just ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ killable in any reasonable amount of time. I feel that the AG has about 15% too much HP. The fight drags on WAY too long and the super-duper animated critical hit doesn't do anywhere near enough as much damage as its animation would suggest. I DO like having him recoil in pain if you perfect guard his red smash attack if you break his hand crystals first, but even that doesn't seem to significantly boost your damage dealt.

All in all, this boss is a chore, outstays its welcome and should be reassigned to another game with worse boss design. Like Elden Ring.

Originally posted by gungadin22000:

None of this would matter, however, if he was just ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ killable in any reasonable amount of time. I feel that the AG has about 15% too much HP. The fight drags on WAY too long and the super-duper animated critical hit doesn't do anywhere near enough as much damage as its animation would suggest. I DO like having him recoil in pain if you perfect guard his red smash attack if you break his hand crystals first, but even that doesn't seem to significantly boost your damage dealt.

All in all, this boss is a chore, outstays its welcome and should be reassigned to another game with worse boss design. Like Elden Ring.

Can't disagree there, he did seem to have a lot of HP, but I thought it was because my damage was low.

Might be because I've played a lot of Monster Hunter, monsters taking too long to kill doesn't bother me as much.

Originally posted by Netsa:

I've read that people don't like really big giant monsters because of the camera or whatever, and I've never understood why. How can a boss be "too big"? As long as I can still see whichever limb the boss is attacking with, there's nothing wrong. I don't really need to see my own character, just the enemy's attack so I know when to counter it, like ye olde Punch-Out.

Making bosses extra-large makes the game feel more over-the-top and badass, since the whole fight becomes completely impossible. Your little dude taking down a monster with hide thicker than a brick wall with nothing but a toothpick (and infinite stamina) makes no sense, but is really epic to watch and play. Think about it, all of the coolest bosses in action games are either human-sized or giant-sized, nothing in between.

Didn't play the DLC so can't say for that boss but yes giant bosses were pretty nice fights too. However imo the main issue anyway the size is when ennemies push you back by their attacks even when you parry them.
Which sounds fine but when they attack in a row and you find yourself stuck in a corner it's already less fun because you can't roll through their hitbox to escape and they take some time to move back on their own. You can continue the fight in the corner but if you really are too much in an acute angle corner the weapon may collide with the environment forcing you to only be able to parry until you escape this.
And if you try to roll, since sometimes ennemies move a bit while attacking, it's taking the risk you receive damages while P has to stand back up between rolls anyway you achieved to pass but ennemy turned towards you or you didn't pass and didn't have the time to parry just yet.
You can prevent that sometimes by moving a bit around between boss attacks but it's not always easy to remember

Adding to all that the fact giant ennemies are giant, when you are stuck you don't see a lot of their body so you really have to already remember their patterns or moves to be able to understand what they are doing. And the roll escapes are even harder because their hitboxes are giant so it's longer to escape being stuck between them and the environment

Also few giant bosses requires you to move back enough to dodge some of their attacks, unless apparently you roll around them which didn't felt very intuitive to me. Maybe because I play free cam without lock on ennemies
But to attack them you have to more or less melee with them and walking to the boss can take few seconds which means you can miss the window to attack them easely. Finding how to manage the two distances wasn't very quick


Really wouldn't want them to reduce the number of giant boss fights in the sequel, I just hope they will find a way to have them stuck you a bit less in a corner or for a shorter time or being easier for the character to move around. There's already a bit of the bosses replacing themselves but it can surely be more polished especially now they have more experience and more time for this kind of details while making a sequel

The Anguished Guardian is pretty well-designed as a giant boss, in my opinion. Because he isn't that tall, he is very wide (like fightin' a crab!) which means he's made to fit snugly in view of modern day PC/Laptop monitors. The few moments when he does rear up and becomes "tall" the camera is more than adequate to deal with it.

Except that this is not the case with his golden spear stab, which just comes in from above out of camera range. It's the Elden Beast problem and it is downright disappointing that LoP's devs fell into the same trap.

Heavy agree, love anguished guardian, I think tyrannical predator also gets too much flak. Parrying huge attacks from big bosses is just never not satisfying.