Pre-patch Soulslike achievements are slowly becoming a thing as games get nerfed through post-launch updates 

Apart from the sighs of relief from Elden Ring players when they heard that FromSoftware was making the Promised Consort Radahn boss fight easier, another interesting phenomenon is that some started bragging about how they beat the boss pre-patch. This isn’t the first time a Soulslike title has been patched to make things easier for players, which brings topics like difficulty and bragging rights to light. 

One of the biggest draws of Soulslike games is how difficult they can be. The original Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls, which pioneered the genre, stood out from other contemporary video games because of how they appropriately rewarded (and more importantly, punished) players’ actions. A high difficulty is what draws a lot of players to the games; as there are few things more satisfying than conquering a Soulslike boss after spending hours trying to defeat it. Hacking away at the Asylum Demon during the first encounter in Dark Souls with a Broken Straight Sword is time-consuming, but defeating the boss rewards players with a Demon’s Great Hammer – a powerful Strength-based weapon, and more importantly – a concrete reminder of the players’ achievement. 

This brings us back to the Promised Consort Radahn boss nerf and why people are bragging about beating him before September 11, 2024 – the date when Elden Ring’s 1.14 patch was released. Promised Consort Radahn has some very strong attacks, many of which have large area-of-effect properties. While seeing players complain about their games’ difficulty must be nothing new for them, the developers at FromSoftware must have thought the boss fight to be too hard and nerfed him just a little. This is good news for both those who have yet to beat him and are planning to fight him again, but for those who defeated Promised Consort Radahn pre-patch, a sense of superiority starts to form. 

Anyone who defeated Promised Consort Radahn pre-patch will remember the boss at his strongest and how much harder he was compared to his current state. With the difficulty of the boss being lowered, some would view beating Promised Consort Radahn back then compared to now as a higher achievement. Since the only ways to fight Promised Consort Radahn at his full strength now are by playing an unpatched version of Elden Ring or modding the game, this makes video evidence, photos, and any sort of proof of defeating the boss before the 1.14 patch more valuable for some. Unfortunately, Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree DLC doesn’t have in-game achievements – so players can’t use those to prove that they beat Promised Consort Radahn at his full strength. 

It isn’t just Elden Ring that has been releasing difficulty nerfs. Other Soulslike titles have been employing patches that make things easier for players. Lies of P, for instance, decreased the health values of multiple enemies and bosses, increased the staggerable window time, and even changed the spawn locations for certain enemies throughout multiple patches. Unlike Shadow of the Erdtree, these games have achievements with accompanying time stamps that can be used by players to brag about their accomplishments.  

Soulslike developers walk the fine line between difficulty and accessibility. They need to ensure that their games pose hard enough challenges that players expect from the genre without frustrating the majority of the playerbase to the point that too many people quit them. Sometimes the balancing act continues after launch, which is why post-launch patches nerf or buff certain aspects of Soulslike games (as with other video games).  

Difficulty is one of the defining factors of the Soulslike genre, but to deliver the best experience possible, patches need to be implemented. Those who complete earlier versions of these games aren’t just players at this point – they are playtesters that help make the game better. In this regard, they can brag about their accomplishments in this manner before following up with something like a “I beat Promised Consort Radahn pre-nerf” statement. At least this way, they can say they helped balance a Soulslike game.