Elden Ring: Frenzied Till The End

 I recently went back to Elden Ring in my attempts to finish the last few remaining achievements in the game that I needed. This included the Elden Lord Ending, Frenzied Flame Ending, and the Legendary Armament achievements. Nothing too crazy, but the bulk of the work came with knowing where to cut time. Luckily, Elden Ring is one of those games that has a fast track to the end of the game if you know what works and did a bulk of the work on new game. Which is where I was at before I decided to sprint to the finish. While I wasn't concerned as much with the Elden Lord and Legendary Armament, I was a tad uneasy with how Frenzied Flame would go.

Surprisingly, it was easy. The ending requirements were almost identical to Elden Lord with the exception that I had to go into the sewers below Leyndell. Which is running through and fighting Mohg, the Omen. Not as tough as regular Mohg, but you still have to fight Mohg. Then afterwards, you roll into an altar to reveal a secret passage where you must find a way down from the top. Yet here's the kicker, you have to engage in the illustrious platforming that the game is known for. Running and jumping from jutted out tombs until you reach the last one and walk onto safer ground. 

I had done this path on my first playthrough. However, I was dead-set on the Ranni ending because the blue lady is perfect and deserves everything. So, I just never did it and forgot how to get down from here before looking it up and seeing that I just needed to walk off the lowest ledge and the floor would break. In my Frenzied run, I did this before going to the Fire Giant. Meaning that I still had Melina with me. Her demeanor towards the situation was interesting as she exclaimed that she would hunt the player down if they chose chaos as this choice leaves the world in ruin. So, after acquiring the Frenzied Flame, Melina leaves.

Where does this leave the player after Fire Giant then? Well, now you are the kindling. The Erdtree burns and the player bathes in the flames instead of disintegrating like Melina. Waking up once again in Farum Azula. Then it's just business as usual through the end of the game as you cruise through the Godskins and Maliketh in Farum Azula and Gideon, Hoarah Loux in Leyndell. Then dispatching Radagon and Elden Beast before touching the decrepit corpse of Marika/Radagon to view one of the most intriguing endings.

However you never actually touch the corpse, but instead become frenzied as you switch to the end cutscene where your character lies on the ground as the severed head crumbles and the player rises.  Now sporting a flaming head as the player proceeds to laugh manically in a sense with flames engulfing the world. Shifting to a final scene where Melina appears amongst the ash, grabbing a burning ring and vowing to chase the new Lord wherever they may go next.

When I saw this ending, I got excited because Elden Ring has already announced DLC. Knowing From Software, the next expansion is bound to expand on the narrative and it may feature some long-awaited fights. This new version of Melina is one of those fights for me. It reminds me of Bloodborne having the Doll act as that game's Firekeeper, much like Melina is to Elden Ring, and then allowing the player to fight the real thing, Lady Maria. The Lady Maria fight is legendary and one of the best in that game. So the hopes and dreams to be able to go toe-to-toe with a tenacious Melina are now at an all-time high. 

I want to be stabbed over and over by this woman who does more than she should to aid the tarnished. I think she has the Lady Maria vibes going for her, maybe Sister Friede even. The fights are so important to these games, yet even the lore implications are there for the mysterious maiden. Give me the unhinged maiden who seeks to disrupt chaos. I need to fight this demon.