Elden Ring may be the latest and greatest out of FromSoftware, but the company has a solid catalog of punishing games to explore. Should players choose to follow Elden Ring with one of these, Bloodborne is a solid contender because of how different it is from past games. It’s faster and more action-packed, while its setting offers something unique among FromSoft’s catalog.
WARNING: Potential Spoilers AheadOf course, there are several similarities between all the Souls games, and Elden Ring and Bloodborne are no different. Whether that’s recurring weapons (if slightly changed) like the Holy Moonlight Greatsword or recurring characters like Patches, it’s fun to see these little meta touches. At the same time, Elden Ring’s Malenia boss fight and Bloodborne: Old Hunter’s Maria boss fight are incredibly similar and much deeper than these recurring elements.
Bloodborne’s Maria vs. Elden Ring’s Malenia
Each boss is difficult, but that can be said of any Souls game boss. What makes them unique is their intro. Both characters have deep lore connecting back to the main game’s antagonist—that being Maria’s connection to Gerhman and Malenia’s connection to Marika. Both were cursed: Maria with the Hunter’s Nightmare and Malenia with Elden Ring’s Scarlet Rot.
Both are also fought incredible locations of power. Players will encounter Maria in the Astral Clocktower, where she guards the secret of the Fishing Hamlet: The Orphan of Kos. She was cursed and trapped in the Hunter’s Nightmare to protect this, the result of her and the hunter’s desecration of Kos. Meanwhile, Malenia is fought at the roots of the Haligtree, which once stored her brother Miquella.
Both are viewed as powerful members of their respective families (of sorts): Maria’s Hunters and Malenia in relation to her siblings. But perhaps beyond all of this, the most convincing similarities lie in when their boss fights begin.
Bloodborne Maria’s Boss Fight vs. Elden Ring’s Malenia Boss Fight
The intros are eerily similar. Players will approach Bloodborne's Lady Maria as she sits in a chair, appearing to be dead. However, she will then quickly attack the player—making the first encounter a little more deadly. The same goes for Malenia. Players will approach her in a chair, where she appears to be dead. She’s really in a coma, awakening with the player's arrival, and after she pieces herself back together, she will immediately attack the player. This makes the first attempt even harder than subsequent fights.
Sure, there are differences and Malenia is far more powerful—she rotted all of Caelid and Radahn after all—but in terms of lore, there are surprising similarities. The boss fights are both punishing, of course, and something could be said of Maria’s use of Blood and Fire and Malenia’s use of the Scarlet Rot. Despite all of this (or perhaps because of this), both Maria and Malenia are rememberable FromSoft boss fights.
Elden Ring is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.