Messmer the Impaler - Solo, No Damage, No HUD Gameplay | Elden Ring DLC (4K)

Performance Setting: Prioritize Quality
No Damage / No Summons / Melee Build / No HUD
Weapon: Lordsworn's Greatsword +25
Scadutree Blessing +10
Talisman's: Crucible Feather Talisman, Radagon's Soreseal, & Two-Headed Turtle Talisman
Armor: The Raging Wolf Set
Light Equip Load

This is easily the best fight in the whole game for me including the base game so far. It really reminds of bosses like Nameless King and Slave Knight Gael from Dark Souls III, in a sense that, all of these fights have a move set that seemed impossible and insanely hard to learn for me at first, but after lots of practice, I started to see the move sets as COMPLETELY fair and balanced. Another thing that I absolutely love about this fight is the way it constantly REWARDS you for learning how to dodge full combos and learning aspects of Messmer's pattern. What I mean by this is, ALL of Messmer's combos have a SAFE opening on them, meaning that you are constantly EARNING the hits you get in due to learning his move set and dodging it perfectly, I see this as really good game design because it makes the fight feel like more of an ACTUAL fight because you are constantly trading attempts at hitting each other back and forth, and you are constantly getting hits in that you deserve for dodging his combos well, I believe this is great boss design because it makes the fight WAY more fun for me. This goes into a critique I have of a lot of this game's bosses, and the critique is that.. a lot of the bosses in this game don't reward you with safe hits that YOU EARNED. For example, in the Margit boss fight (which is on the channel if you all would like to check it out), there are only about THREE GUARANTEED SAFE OPENINGS in the WHOLE fight (this is just my knowledge of the fight, feel free to challenge this notion in the comments), meaning that there will be moments where you dodge A WHOLE COMBO during the Margit fight, and you try to get a hit in, except it's not a "safe" one, meaning that Margit can hit you during your attempt to get a safe hit in that you should have EARNED (in my opinion) for dodging his whole combo. My problem with this is that the boss design for that fight, makes it so that you're essentially dodging all of these combos and WAITING for him to do a combo that you can get a safe hit on, this makes that fight boring for me because the game isn't rewarding you for dodging a lot of his combos, in fact, the game PUNISHES you for trying to get a hit in after he's done doing a combo because, coincidentally, that specific combo doesn't give you the opportunity for a safe hit. Another perfect example of this would be Godfrey phase 2, if you watch ANY no hit video for that fight, it's just people RUNNING away and WAITING for him to do a specific move so that they can get a safe hit in. Messmer on the other hand, has a safe opening on EVERY combo he does, which is just so much more fun for me than just waiting for him to do that one specific move that has a safe opening on it. I just think that rewarding the player with an opportunity for a safe hit that they EARNED through learning and dodging an entire combo is important for making the fights more engaging and fair. This fight also LOOKS amazing, I love the fire trails that Messmer makes with his spear. A lot of people said that the hitboxes on the snakes were bad but I actually didn't feel like that at all. They seemed completely fine for me but that may be because I'm using the Crucible Feather Talisman. If any of you are having trouble with the snakes, I would for sure suggest using the Crucible Feather Talisman, as it gives you more invincibility frames on your rolls. But yeah, I think this boss is incredible, especially in terms of its boss design. if you enjoyed the video, or if the video helped you to learn more about the boss, consider liking and subscribing for more.

Chapters:
0:00 - Pre Fight Cutscene
1:15 - Phase 1
3:03 - Pre Final Phase Cutscene
4:57 - Final Phase
7:52 - Final Blow

All of the gameplay on this channel is played, recorded, and edited by me.