not because it's my most Epic Gamer Performance Ever!! or because it's my favorite most coolest boss in the game or anything, but because of how it shows off some of the coolest subtle mechanics in this game that keep you in the ring when in other soulslikes all hope would be lost
from the second this clip starts, my Estus Flask Equivalent is empty - the lil cylinder icon in the bottom left with the red and pink background, out of charges. and throughout this fight, i make some mistakes, i take some big meaty hits, i take a lot of chip damage while blocking. i spent almost this entire final phase of the fight dry on my main healing item, and yet i still manage to win
and that's because of two things. one is guard regain, the bloodborne-rally-esque system but that only applies to chip damage while blocking, and the other is because dealing damage while your pulse cell (flask) is empty gradually refills it back to 1 charge. so as long as i keep my cool here and continue landing the hits i know i can land, i will get more healing and i can keep powering through
my build also has several passives at this point that make those pinch healing mechanics even more effective, skill tree nodes for making me keep more of my guard regain through damage and recover it faster, and ones for making me take less damage and deal more while my pulse cell is empty, as well as recharge it more quickly
and it's just freakin cool! it's really fun! it takes those moments in souls fights where you use your last flask and you still have half the boss' health to go, from "fuck, it's over" to always still having a fighting chance, if you can just hang on long enough. and with my current build as mentioned, it lets me do a kind of high risk/reward playstyle that normally is reserved for people who are Perfect at the game (e.g. red tearstone ring) but instead lets me be scrappy and claw my way through tussles like this with confidence
anyway, it had been a bit too long since i gushed about this game so Thank's For Listening