Great Grey Wolf Sif in Dark Souls. Eight enemies we were sorry to kill
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Hidetaka Miyazaki, the brain and heart of Dark Souls, when describing the goal of the entire series said: "I wanted to give the players the sense of doing something despite the immense difficulty." And indeed, throughout the first part (I still haven't figured out whether to treat Demon's Souls as a full-fledged installment in the series or as a prelude to it), we encounter monsters whose killing requires many approaches, which is a cause of great frustration but is ultimately rewarded with a moment of absolute triumph. The fight with the Great Grey Wolf Sif is an exception here – because although the fight itself turns out to be quite difficult, the victory has a very bitter taste to it.
This boss has a particularly heart-wrenching story. Sif was the faithful companion of the once-righteous Knight Artorias and hunted dark ghouls with him. Eventually, however, the Warrior was absorbed into the abyss, and his last heroic gesture was to save his four-legged companion from the same fate with the aid of the Cleansing Greatshield. Since then, the Wolf has guarded Artorias's Tomb, protecting it from desecration. At the same time, he scares off Daredevils who want to traverse the abyss, saving them from the corruption that has taken away his friend.
But even if you've treated Dark Souls the way I did – leaving out the plot background and focusing solely on checking how many controllers you're going to smash against the wall before you get to the end credits – fighting Sif is still an unpleasant experience. The Wolf is majestic, has silvery grey hair, and attacks carried out with a giant sword in its mouth have infinitely more grace than any of the blows inflicted by other opponents. At first glance, it appears to be an exceptionally noble creature. And to make us feel even worse – after completely depleting its health bar, Sif begins to limp on one paw. He looks like a wounded dog that we really want to take to the vet. The only thing for the player is to cut short his torment and enjoy a victory he would rather not have.
In case someone still doesn't feel like a monster after defeating Sifa, the Artorias of the Abyss expansion adds the option of travel through time and free the little wolf from the Abyss. If we do that, the clash with him will become even grimmer: the beast will knock us to the ground at the very beginning only to recognize the protagonist. When the Wolf realizes that we helped it once, it grabs the sword with a poignantly sad expression. There's been a lot of talk about the difficulty level in Dark Souls, but who knows if the toughest challenge in this game isn't to force yourself to kill this dignified creature after a scene like this.
There was even a legend circulating on the internet that Sif could be spared. Ultimately, however, there is no indication that this is possible.
