The Astral Clock Tower
After finishing of Ludwig’s fight, (See part one for more on that: ) You must move o to the second section of the DLC, which, in my opinion, is the weakest part of all three sections. Now, it isn’t a bad area, not at all. The level design is great, everything intertwines in that masterful From Software sort of way. However, the enemies of the area feel a little lacklustre. Where the first area had beasts, hounds, large monsters, villagers and tense, fast paced Hunter on Hunter combat, section two simply has bland enemies. To flood the spiralling staircases and dark Hospital rooms.
Atmosphere wise, this place is probably my favourite. It’s mysterious, creepy and seeing the tied down, screaming patients scattered around really builds on the unsettling feeling the area leaves you with.
After some climbing, slicing and dicing you’ll then move back down to fight the boss of the area, the Living Failures.
Living Failures.
This boss is the worst of the four bosses in this DLC. It isn’t a BAD boss, not at all. More an average boss that is, unfortunately, placed alongside the best bosses this game has to offer. Therefore, it’s average, little over mediocre challenge and display feels far more underwhelming.
The boss is your basic whack-a-mole but big Alien style with the occasional meteor shower and arcane blasts to keep you on your toes. There isn’t much else to say, it’ll take you two or three attempts at most to figure out and kill this boss and you’ll immediately forget it when you go through the next set of doors. Why’s that? Because next we have...
Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower.
Maria is, with out a doubt, one of my favourite bosses of this whole game and franchise.
The perfect blend of frantic and heart-racing combat of a Hunter duel mixed with Incredible music, amazing visual designs and rising difficulty through all the phases, this boss is phenomenal in every sense of the word.
You start out with a regular dual, the sounds of slow and beautiful violins to accompany the fight. Then, things crank up to 10 real fast when Maria stabs herself and starts to attack with Bloodtinge. Her sword swings, blood flying towards you, extending her reach and giving bonus damage should she hit you with it. The best part about it, to me, is that her moves never change. They simply get longer reach and do more damage. You never have to learn new attacks, you simply have to master the attacks she has early on so that it’s easier in the later stages.
Speaking of stages, her third stage is simply amazing. Her blood attacks from before now catch fire, dealing even MORE damage on top of what she did before that. The boss is just so much fun. Words really can’t do much justice to this fight, watching the fight is decent, but not the same as doing it yourself.
Now, if the boss is too tough, you COULD simply parry her over and over again like with most Hunter bosses. However, I completely recommend not parrying and doing the fight the hard way. It’s just way more fun that way. As a wise man once said...
“Git gud.”
In summary, the second section of The Old Hunters may be a little underwhelming through standard enemies, however, it makes up for i with atmosphere, level design and Lady Maria. As I said, arguably one of the best bosses the series can offer.
