Dark Souls and The Witcher 3 don’t seem like obvious games to compare on the face of it. While The Witcher 3 is a brilliant, narrative-focused RPG with more traditional action combat, the Dark Souls series offers a brutal and unforgiving experience with a notoriously high-skill floor. Therefore, it might be expected that there is little crossover in the way flagship fight sequences in the game are played out.
There are some obvious ramp-ups in difficulty within The Witcher 3, as well as ways to make the game more difficult, that feel more akin to the challenge of a Souls game. Still, similarities in the mechanics of an encounter or how the player has to play against it are few and far between. One boss, however, does its level best to bring the challenge of a FromSoftware game into the world of Geralt and his companions.
Imlerith, although not the leader, is a General of the Wild Hunt that Geralt has to defeat to progress through the story. Encountered during the “Bald Mountain” quest, players need to kill a significant number of enemies before combat with Imlerith can even start. Although there are arguments for other characters being more difficult to take on initially, with a steeper learning curve, there are very few ways to cheese the fight with Imlerith.
Generally accepted as the most difficult of Wild Hunt‘s bosses, Imlerith’s mechanics eliminate some staples from the player’s arsenal. As with almost all of the bosses in Dark Souls, Imlerith’s lunge attacks cannot be parried or blocked. It also isn’t beneficial to attempt normal attacks, as his speed is deceptive for his size. Frontal attacks are also almost always blocked, and he is largely immune to Geralt’s signs. This is where Quen — The Witcher‘s equivalent to Dark Souls‘ Magic Shield — comes in as an absolute staple of this fight, as both are hugely important for boss encounters.
Any Dark Souls comparison wouldn’t be complete without at least one reference to dodging, and the fight against Imlerith requires tucking and rolling in spades. Timing is absolutely critical, and poorly timed efforts take a huge chunk of Geralt’s health pool. Rinsing and repeating the classic Dodge followed by a quick attack is the only way to win here. Chipping away at the boss’ considerable life bar might not be the most satisfying moment in The Witcher series, but there’s no denying how much it feels like Dark Souls.
The other main ability to keep track of is Imlerith’s ability to teleport at various points in the fight. Although this is not regularly seen in the Souls series, it is reminiscent of the Lothric, Younger Prince and Lorian, Elder Prince encounter from Dark Souls 3. Predicting when the teleport will occur is actually easier in Dark Souls 3 than it is in The Witcher 3. Lorian does so at the beginning of the engagement and sporadically throughout, but with a subtle animation warning. The effects are more devastating, though, where being hit with an attack post-teleportation is an instant kill, something that is not the case in the fight with Imlerith.
A veteran of the Battle of Kaer Morhen, if any boss deserves to provide such a challenge to Geralt, then it’s probably Imlerith. With his vast hulking armor and toothless crone followers, he could likely be placed into a Dark Souls title with little to no adjustments. While the fact that the two games don’t intersect that much is a good thing for most players — not to mention the tone and content of each game, which serve different purposes — with Imlerith, it absolutely works.
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