The boss design inBloodborneis easily one of the game’s strongest features, with the hunter forced to face off against gigantic and horrific beasts in order to make it to the end of the night. However, the encounter against Lady Maria stands out amongFromSoftware’s spectacle heavy bossesthanks to the tight combat and intimate distance of the fight.
More than seven years later, Lady Maria from theOld HuntersDLC still stands as the template for some of FromSoftware’s best boss battles. Even more recent games from the developer appear to have drawn from thisBloodborneboss design to deliver some intense encounters like Sister Friede inDark Souls 3and even Radagon inElden Ring.
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Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower
The fight against Lady Maria starts off impressively, with one of the few moments where the player has to fight against another hunter that has many of the same abilities as the player. Between using the dual-wielding form ofBloodborne’s infamous Rakuyo, as well as swapping out occasionally for an Evelyne pistol, Maria mostly fights on the same level as the player. However, this dynamic quickly changes when enough damage is dealt and Lady Maria makes the strikingly cinematic transition into her second form by impaling herself with her own weapon.
From here, the fight starts to completely turn against the player, with Lady Maria gaining additional range thanks to her own blood now flinging off the Rakuyo with every attack. This continues even further into the third form, which not only adds waves of blood to her attacks, but also a delayed flame that can catch players during moments that had previously been openings to punish. It’s a natural evolution that uses theFromSoftware formulain one of the best ways found withinBloodborne.
All of this spectacle is made all the better by being one of fewboss fights inBloodbornethat keeps the camera close to the player, since the target isn’t a giant monster that has to be kept in the frame. Fans of the most recentGod of Warmight recognize this intimacy, keeping the view close to the player character’s shoulder, as one of the draws of modern games that can maintain immersion outside of realism. The result is a tough fight that feels more like a test of skill than the ways that larger bosses can devolve into puzzles, more interested in finding the answer to an encounter rather than a strategy.
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How FromSoftware Continues to Iterate on Lady Maria
Fans that have continued to follow FromSoftware titles sinceBloodbornehave been given many fights that touch on the same aspects of speed and skill that Lady Maria does. Most notable among them isSister Friede fromAshes of Ariandel,the first DLC forDark Souls 3, who takes major notes from the Lady Maria fight in a slower, more deliberate context. It’s a taste ofBloodborne’s content taken out of the context of the much faster-paced game with a more active dodging and parrying combat system.
The comparisons don’t stop at Sister Friede, however, as many of the fights against humanoid-sized enemies in other FromSoftware titles give ample opportunity to test a player’s moment-to-moment skill. Not only do most of the encounters fromSekiro: Shadows Die Twicemaintain similar camera angles, with the frame drawing in close for one-on-one fights, but many of the best bosses fromElden Ringfollow this same design. One impressive showing of how Lady Maria has continued beyondBloodborneis inElden Ring’s final boss Radagon, who dashes across the arena at high speed, and launches into multiple phases with increasing range and closing opportunities to punish.
A lot of what makes Lady Maria such a stellar boss encounter comes from the basic formula for the best designs in many FromSoftware games. In fact, Lady Maria isn’t even the first time that the key aspects of her fight have been shown off by the developer, as she herself acts as an evolution in the fight against Artorias from theDark SoulsDLC. However, with the way that FromSoftware has made iterations on Lady Maria, hopefully, there will be a similarly impressive fight in anyBloodbornesequelthat might be in the developer’s future.
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