Demon's Souls is by no means perfect, and I believe that re-balancing this battle is a bit of a missed opportunity for Bluepoint, especially when the team clearly put so much work into fixing so many other issues. Alternatively, the boss could have been made slightly weaker to allow players to take it out faster.
Bluepoint could have implemented a longer timer between the first and second Maneater, or decreased the frequency at which the first would fly around the stage. There are many ways the boss could have been altered to be more balanced. So, the precedent for altering the game to make for a more enjoyable experience is there, and it's unclear why Maneater wasn't improved upon in any meaningful way in the remake. Bluepoint fixed a lot of issues found in the original improving the load times, removing many unfair cheese techniques, and allowing the ability to fast travel between Archstones – among other quality of life improvements. While Bluepoint Games has stated multiple times that it wanted to maintain the integrity of Demon's Souls, that mantra falls a little flat when faced with Maneater. None of these issues in the original have been updated in the remake, and it's a shame. It's quite easy to die to this enemy, meaning you'll be spending more time trying to get to the Maneater instead of fighting it. It's not the most difficult journey to overcome, but it takes forever to get to your destination – made even worse by the Mind Flayer Black Phantom that guards the final stretch before the boss. The other major problem is just how far this fight is located from the nearest checkpoint, making the trek back even more frustrating.
"It's quite easy to die to the Mind Flayer Black Phantom, meaning you'll be spending more time trying to get to the Maneater instead of fighting it." (Image credit: Sony Interactive Entertainment) This is one of the few instances in which you might actually have an easier time doing the fight solo, simply due to the way the boss is designed. And, as you might know, when playing cooperatively, the bosses gain extra health to keep things more balanced. You might consider summoning someone to help you take the boss down, but even with a second player to help even the odds, you'll still have difficulties, as the same problem remains: attacking the Maneater before it flies away randomly. In the original, many players also resorted to cheesing the boss by shooting arrows through the fog door – an exploit that has been understandably patched in the remake. In the original, the first Maneater would get stuck in the aforementioned animation loop more often, making it slightly easier to continue dishing out attacks before the second one would spawn. All of these design decisions remain in the remake – and, in some cases, are worse than before. In most cases, you'll have to face off against both Maneaters at once, which is pretty much unbearable, even if you're over-leveled. Having to rely on tactics like this now, just as we had to back in 2009 – gaming the system to stand a chance of winning – is a sign that something might be amiss with this boss battle, and that an opportunity has been missed to amend it. Your best course of action is to get the beast stuck in an animation loop, in which it continuously jumps forward towards a wall or other piece of geometry instead of flying away – freeing it up for melee attacks. All this means that you are often left to waste precious time, desperately trying to eliminate the first before the second arrives and do so without accidentally falling to your death on the narrow staging area.Įven with high-damage ranged weapons like bows or magic, connecting a shot while the Maneater is flying around is unlikely, so you often have to just hope for the best when attempting to take out the first one quickly. Whether or not the creature decides to fly around is also down to luck, which is at odds with the skill-based nature the Souls games have become famous for. One of the reasons that the Maneater battle can be so tricky is that the first creature has a tendency to fly around and is near-impossible to hit in the air for most Demon's Souls character builds – if you've got a high damage melee weapon, you can't do much if the Maneater is out of reach. Ideally, your best ticket to success is to take out the first Maneater before the second one lands so that you aren't outnumbered, but that's easier said than done. To make matters worse, after you've dealt enough damage to the Maneater (or after a minute and a half has surpassed), a second Maneater swoops down, meaning you have to fight two of them at the same time. "Even with high-damage ranged weapons like bows or magic, connecting a shot while the Maneater is flying around is unlikely" Might look worse, but it's no less of a pain in the ass.
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