Even creators have favorites and recently Elden Ring's director, Hidetaka Miyazaki, revealed which boss he prefers over all the others in the Lands Between. Since its debut back in February, FromSoftware's open-world title has been met with incredible success by garnering near-universally high scores from critics and acquiring a massive player base that includes the likes of Elon Musk, who has praised Elden Ring on multiple occasions.
Like FromSoftware's many other Soulslike games, one of the biggest draws to Elden Ring is its extensive boss roster which features over 100 such encounters even though only 12 of them are actually mandatory in order to beat the game. Now that the community has had three months to fully experience the Lands Between, the bosses found throughout have started solidifying their reputations such as Malenia, who is often deemed to be the hardest fight in the whole game. Some fans have even taken to using mods that allow for more unique experiences with the game's bosses including one that pits Elden Ring's demigods against each other to see which one actually reigns supreme in head-to-head combat.
When it comes to favorite bosses, however, that is largely left up to personal preference and recently Elden Ring's Hidetaka Miyazaki shared with Xbox Wire Japan that his choice was Starscourge Radahn. The director sighted his liking for the whole situation of the Radahn Festival and laughed when recalling a time where the development team did not take the concept of such a battle so seriously. Miyazaki went on to say that Godrick the Grafted and Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy serve as his personal runner-ups.
Miyazaki's favorite Elden Ring boss has gotten a lot of controversial attention since launch. Shortly after the game's debut, Elden Ring's Starscourge Radahn was significantly nerfed much to the outrage of many players. Given the character's lore as well as the festival surrounding him, many believed that the general should remain difficult, and loudly voiced their concerns. Fortunately, the developers somewhat listened and restored some of Radahn's former might in another patch.
It speaks to the quality of FromSoftware's design that many elements in its games, particularly bosses, are discussed with so much enthusiasm. Elden Ring continued this trend and even pushed the boundaries of what can be done with open-world game design. Right after the game's release, many hailed it as one of the greatest of all time, and while it is still too early to call that definitively, there is some certainty that Miyazaki's latest creation will have an impact across the industry going forward.
Elden Ring is available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and PC.
Source: Xbox Wire Japan