Prolific FromSoftware dataminer Zullie the Witch is back with another interesting piece of Elden Ring Nightreign esoterica: The version of Dark Souls 3’s Nameless King you fight on foot is different than the one riding the dragon, and FromSoft had to get creative with how it hides the transition.
In the first phase of his boss fight in DS3 and Nightreign, the Nameless King rides a dragon, dismounting to continue on foot in phase two of the battle. According to Zullie, the dismounted version of the Nameless King is over a third smaller (35%) than his mounted counterpart, a striking discrepancy when you see them both side-by-side.
This is likely meant to accommodate aesthetic and mechanical hurdles FromSoft encountered in development. I’d wager that Little King just looked dinky perched atop his big old dragon, while Big King was an awkward fit for the moveset they had created.
In Dark Souls 3, the switcheroo is accomplished through a cutscene transition, the sort that would not fit with the pace of play in Nightreign. Instead, FromSoft just had him jump really high to disguise the swap—105 meters (345 feet) in the air, obscured by the boughs of the “Spirit Shelter,” that giant ghost tree hanging over the end of day boss arenas.
I always dig learning about the shortcuts developers use to make their games work, and Zullie the Witch has a well-earned reputation as one of the foremost experts on FromSoftware’s development processes outside the company itself. She recently revealed that those tree giants stomping around in the distance in Nightreign are actually among the biggest dudes FromSoft has ever created.