What’s On The Shelf | Games, Music & Culture

Welcome back to the Race to Git Gud, where a below-average player takes on the monolith of the FromSoftware catalog with all the confidence of your average New York Yankees fan. Today, Katia mops up the last of Lost Kingdoms and we take a look at what comes next for the series.

With three of the four extra levels down, only two challenges remain: the burning domain of the Golden Phoenix, Yalwog, and the home of the final Big Bad, Broch Black. Yalwog boots up and immediately burns my retinas clean out of my skull with how absurdly bright this zone is. It’s like FromSoftware has never quite figured out how to properly render lava. We saw it in Dark Souls with Lost Izalith and we’re seeing it again here.

The fiery jets of Mount Jarndunn make a return appearance, now paired with the added joy of a swampy marshland later in the level. What a treat.

The central shrine of the area houses the Golden Phoenix, who informs Katia that the blackened swamp is corrupting the land. Clear out the source of the sludge, and the Phoenix promises aid in return.

Despite the blinding red assault on the eyes, this is actually one of the cooler areas in the game. The enemies are tough, with Red Dragons constantly crossing your path, but it never quite tips over into frustration. Honestly, Lake Bestriel is still the hardest section of the game for my money.

Cutting through the enemies eventually leads Katia into the swamp and toward the source of the corruption: the Demon Fox.

He’s slow, launches homing fireballs, and each attack erupts into multiple splitting projectiles that can cover huge sections of the arena. It’s a surprisingly difficult boss fight and one of the better encounters in the game. Katia barely survives, but the deck holds together long enough to bring the Fox down and purify Yalwog.

In return, the Phoenix rewards Katia with the Golden Phoenix card. Similar to the Blue Dragon, it doesn’t attack directly. Instead, it absorbs all incoming damage aimed at Katia and her summoned monsters, redirecting it to itself. It can absolutely save a run in a pinch, but the enormous magic stone cost limits how often you can realistically use it.

Now only one destination remains: Broch Black.

Home of the Enchanter and some of the strongest enemies in the game, this feels like an appropriate sendoff for Lost Kingdoms. Many of the encounters involve fighting earlier bosses again, including Beelzabub, the Vampire, and the Puppet Master. It’s a grueling gauntlet, but also a nice retrospective on the adventure up to this point. It also gives you a chance to bully bosses that may have ruined your day earlier in the game now that Katia is armed with a wildly overpowered endgame deck.

The throne room of Thalnos the Enchanter leads into another runestone duel similar to Helena’s fight. He’s quick, aggressive, and equipped with a strong lineup of cards backed by a sizable health pool.

Unfortunately for him, I spent too much time doing side content and now possess cards that border on criminal.

Upon defeat, Thalnos reveals that he’s merely a vessel for the true final boss: the God of Destruction.

The fight takes place on what appears to be a massive doily floating in the sky, because apparently even cosmic annihilation needs decorative interior design.

The God of Destruction floats around like a buoy in open water while launching enormous orbs of light that erupt into towering pillars of damage. He also sacrifices his elemental minions to completely wipe out monsters standing in the center of the arena, forcing Katia toward the edges of the platform and shrinking the usable summoning space. Meanwhile, the surviving minions bombard the arena with fire blasts, ice breath, rock attacks, and stretchy punch combos.

For the first time in quite a while, Katia actually dies.

One badly timed summon animation leaves me trapped inside a light pillar and immediately vaporized.

Naturally, this means getting kicked all the way back out to the world map and replaying portions of Broch Black again. It’s annoying, frustrating, and one final reminder that Lost Kingdoms occasionally makes baffling quality-of-life decisions that drag down the experience.

Still, Katia makes the trek back, demolishes the Enchanter again, and defeats the God of Destruction with barely any health remaining. Credits roll. The world is saved. The Alanjah monarchy survives another day.

Lost Kingdoms remains a fascinating game. There are moments that showcase FromSoftware experimenting with genuinely creative ideas outside their normal formula, and there are other moments that feel like an early prototype for the “git gud” frustration they’d later become famous for.

Even with all its rough edges, though, I still love this game.

It’s aged poorly in some ways, especially in terms of quality-of-life systems and repetitive level structure, but it still nails a specific nostalgic atmosphere that keeps pulling me back every few years. There’s something charming about its awkward experimentation, strange pacing, and card-based combat that still feels unique more than two decades later.

That closes the first lap of the Race to Git Gud. In total, Katia died only twice and completed the game in roughly six and a half hours. A solid run through a game that clearly laid the groundwork for the much stronger Lost Kingdoms II.

Next, we leave the GameCube era behind and return to the world of Dark Souls with Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin. The PS4 version should provide the best overall experience, along with all DLC bundled together in one package.

How quickly can this one be cleared? Will the changes to the Dark Souls formula completely melt my brain? And is anyone still online for what might be the best PvP in the entire Souls series?

Stay tuned.