A few days ago, YouTuber Gael Slave Sax asked the Elden Ring Reddit community a simple question: “Does anyone here enjoy the basic Sword and Board Knight builds?“Turns out, a lot of people do. Gael's clip of a fight between knights and Consort Radahn caught on with the community, so he soon returned with another duel pitting the knight against fan-favorite boss Bayle the Dread. . which quickly accumulated Almost 10,000 votes in favor.
For the true creation of Lore Accurate Knight, one of my favorite new original Elden Ring characters, we have to go back to Gael's video from March in “How to create an authentic knight build” focusing on blocking and counter guarding. But it was the Knight's battle with Bayle that put their saga on my radar, and Gael tells me that after this unexpected surge in popularity, their feud isn't over yet.
Gael isn't the first person to play an archetypal knight in Elden Ring, far from it, but the cinematography of Lore Accurate Knight's fight with Bayle gives the character some real personality and finally won me over. As someone who really learned to love counter-guarding in the Elden Ring DLC, and who still has a fondness for that unmistakable knight in rifled armor dating back to the original Demon's Souls trailer, Lore Accurate Knight hits all the right notes. It's the purest distillation of FromSoftware's disempowerment fantasy: you're just a guy with a sword in a world of gods and monsters. Okay, you're also a guy with Sekiro-grade Deflecting Hard Tear, but still.
Lore Accurate Knight – The Murder of Bayle the Terror | A cinematic – YouTube
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“My main canon for this character is that he is a solitary Knight of the Round Table who doesn't fight because he necessarily wants to, but because those he meets on his journey have told him to,” Gael tells me. “He has no desire to become an Elden Lord, but he has been told that is his destiny, so he remains loyal to that cause as part of his Knighthood Honor.”
Gael has been creating Elden Ring content for years and has collectively spent over 3,000 hours playing hundreds of builds. Something about the sword and board still impacts. “Overall, I prefer the more basic things in Elden Ring, like the great iron sword, the great mace, etc., but I especially enjoy the sword and board style of play, as there's something very satisfying about overcoming a difficult feat using the absolute minimum.”
“The build is definitely influenced by the OG Knights that appear in From's previous Souls games,” he continues. “The Elite Knight set from the Dark Souls series is one of my favorite sets in the entire series. The inspiration was definitely a callback to those previous games, but my overall inspiration has been to show that, even though it only uses the Basic basics, a simple knight can still defeat some of the most challenging and intimidating bosses in the game.
“I think it's the idea of how in a world like Elden Ring, where we have all these powerful demigods, powerful dragons with special powers, a simple knight with a shield and a sword able to overcome them makes it so memorable,” he said. says. “Imagine how it must feel to lose to an ordinary knight with all his power. I think the classic Yhorm the Giant meme captures that feeling perfectly.”
After the overwhelming response to the Knight's Bayle fight – “one user even paid me to do it again with the UI/HUD disabled for a more cinematic effect, which I happily obliged” – Gael is now planning another entry and a longer video explaining The Knight's Journey. His current build is a level 150 Wanderer with 60 Vigor, 40 Stamina, and 80 Strength, the only stats a knight really needs.
“It's wonderful to see so many players appreciate the simple things in such a complex game with so many ways to play,” adds Gael. “It's definitely helped revive my creative thinking and inspired me to create more knight-themed characters, as there are many like me who are passionate and interested in this style of play.”
The owner of Dark Souls and Elden Ring developer FromSoftware confirms that its studios have 20 console games in development, and we can only hope that one of them will be a Bloodborne remaster.