So awesome

Last night, I finally beat Rykard, the Lord of Blasphemy. I had been stuck on him for a couple days, but I didn't mind because I loved this whole fight.

To fight Rykard, you need to go to Volcano Manor, and this place took me a very long time to find. Early on in the game, I got an invite to Volcano Manor from an NPC that I helped. She wanted me to get her necklace back from some bandit. When I found the bandit, you have the choice to buy it from him or kill him. I am a nice guy, so I ended up buying it from him. I have heard that killing NPCs in this game can change things later in the game, so I have been trying not to kill anyone that isn't really an enemy.

After getting the invite, it took me a good work or more to finally find the entrance to Volcano Manor, but once you do get here, you talk to this lady that seems to be the Lady of the house. She sends you on a bunch of quests to go kill invaders and report back to her.

When you kill enough people to prove your loyalty to Volcano Manor, you are invited to meet with the lord of the manor, which is a massive serpent in one of the coolest settings I have seen in video games.

I died A LOT to this guy. He has so much range with his attacks and he chases you around and has a pool of lava around him that slows and damages you as you try and get out of it. My spells and attacks weren't putting a dent into this guy at all. My brother recently beat the game and he told me that there is a weapon that you find when you first walk into the room and that is what you need to use on him.

Once I equipped the weapon, things went a lot better. For the first attempt... The first attempt, I was able to get him passed his first phase.

When you complete his first phase, you learn that the serpent is just a vessel for Rykard and that he basically lives inside of this massive serpent now and just devours people. The sides of the snake are split and appendages dangle out of his guts.

Rykard reaches into the serpent's mouth and pulls out an awesome sword made of blood and guts and as he does, more souls pour out of his mouth and fall into the lava below.

This next phase of the fight gets pretty crazy. Once you get him to about half health, he starts shooting fire skulls all over the place and it is really easy to get stun locked and hit over and over until you die. So once again, I was stuck for a while. So I decided to go and make my guy stronger and get some new gear to try something new for when I was going to face him again.

I went and fought Radahn, which ended up being a surprisingly easy fight. I was nervous about this fight because so many people had said how they were stuck on this boss, but I ended up beating him on the first try without even getting hit by him. I think I was playing like a pro or something.

When you beat Radahn, a massive meteor falls from the sky and crashes through the ground and leaves a large hole that leads down into an underground city. Saying this game is massive is an understatement. The map is massive and it seems like it is just as big underground, which essentially doubles the size of the map.

It is crazy how much content this game has. It makes it really easy to go off and do other stuff when you are frustrated with a boss and you can just go do so many other things that strengthen your character for the fight.

So after exploring through this area of the meteor crash, I was able to find the coveted Mimic Tear spell. This spell basically makes a copy of your character with the stats and gear that you have equipped and it helps you fight. So now I was ready to go back and 2v1 this big ass snake.

I completed the first phase of the boss solo but when Rykard exposed himself and the second phase began, I summoned a copy of myself and we melted this dude from all sides.

When I was first thinking about getting this game, the difficulty is one thing that made me nervous, but after playing for so long, I can honestly say that the difficulty helps to make this game such a masterpiece. I had been stuck on this boss for so long and it was such a feeling of accomplishment when I finally did beat him.

Most other games I have played, I rarely die and bosses are usually pretty easy and there really isn't much to beating them. This game really rewards your persistence and hard work. If you are stuck, then you just go out and explore more of the massive world they have created for you. It is honestly one of the greatest games I have ever played. I have not had this much fun playing a video game, let alone a single player game, for as long as I can remember. This game is truly a masterpiece.