Yikes, Elden Ring's Malenia Used To Be Even Harder To Beat

Elden Ring is, naturally, a pretty tough game. It's the trademark of FromSoftware's work, proving with Dark Souls that punishment can actually be great fun, and with Bloodborne showing that even without the option to block attacks, you can create a Soulslike experience that has a rich world without deviating from its roots.

And of course, Elden Ring builds on this tenfold, with brutal bosses aplenty. Yet, many find themselves stuck on Malenia, Blade of Miquella. She's tough as nails, and has proven a challenge that is constantly being buffed or nerfed. But as it turns out, she used to be worse. Much worse.

Did Elden Ring's Malenia Used To Be Harder?

According to new datamines, it turns out that before the fantasy epic launched, Elden Ring was a little too optimistic in players' combat abilities, and as such, the blade of Miquella herself was much tougher.

An analysis of the base version of the game has taken place, assessing the 1.0 edition of Elden Ring that is untouched by patches and updates - a version that has rarely seen the light of day.

Now, dataminer Kotn3l has released a video that looks at this untouched Malenia. Her attack patterns and abilities are different enough to make her appear much more aggressive.

Why Was Malenia Changed In Elden Ring?

This build of Malenia is pretty shocking, especially as she blocks a lot of player attacks if they're too similar to each other over time. It has left players wondering why exactly FromSoftware decided to ease up on her a little bit.

It's hard to tell exactly, but it's probably down to us, the players. Even though she's an absolute brute now, if she had been much worse, it's easy to imagine that the rate of players putting down the game for good would dramatically increase. Elden Ring is an absolute brute, but it could have been much worse. And thank god it wasn't.