The Lands Between have finally been tamed, and Twitch’s latest Elden Ring warrior has emerged battered but victorious. In a recent headline-grabbing feat, top streamer Kai Cenat logged over 167 bone-crushing hours to overcome the notoriously difficult action RPG, racking up more than 1,700 deaths in the process.
His perseverance paid off with the takedown of Elden Ring’s ultimate test – the malevolent Malenia, Blade of Miquella. A staggering 24 hours and 400 deaths were required to topple this blade-wielding scourge alone. Several times it seemed Cenat might succumb to controller-hurling frustration, but the streamer’s grit and determination proved greater than the challenges thrown his way.
Rather than being sated by his hard-fought triumph, however, Cenat has announced loftier ambitions – to complete a comprehensive marathon spanning most of FromSoftware’s punishing Soulslike catalog. His docket is stacked with some of gaming’s most notoriously unforgiving adventures.
First up will be Elden Ring’s meaty Shadow of the Erdtree expansion, which Cenat anticipates may require even more Herculean efforts than the base game. Then he’ll move on to the battle-hardened shinobi thrills of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, a game that could push his newfound masochistic skills to their absolute limits.
Following a palate-cleansing interlude with Rockstar’s cult classic Bully, the onslaught will continue through the cosmic horror frights of Bloodborne. Finally, Cenat plans to persevere through the entire Dark Souls trilogy in chronological order – an odyssey that awaits its greatest challenges in the form of bosses like Ornstein & Smough, Artorias, Fume Knight, and many more.
While fans have criticized Cenat for omitting one particularly infamous foe from his “most annoying Elden Ring bosses” list – the gravity-defying General Radahn, whose pre-nerf iteration was borderline insurmountable – the streamer’s feat has nonetheless inspired both awe and curiosity. What strange mania drives one to relentlessly pursue such daunting interactive ordeals?
The simplest explanation may be that Cenat, having summoned the fortitude to overcome Elden Ring’s loftiest obstacles through sheer bloodymindedness, now seeks to push his newfound Soulslike mastery to its absolute zenith. Few games test a player’s grit and perseverance more severely than the frosted hellscapes of FromSoftware’s celebrated catalog.
For Cenat’s legions of fans, his bold quest to soldier through the entire Soulsborne gauntlet represents a tantalizing tentpole viewing experience that could consume the better part of the next year. As for the streamer himself, some speculate he may secretly be an adherent of the Age of Fracture, inured to fear and pain through sheer repetitive exposure.
Whether borne of incomprehensible madness or an insatiable hunger to git gud, Kai Cenat’s ambitious cross-title Soulslike runs promise to be an endurance epic for the ages. Strap in and secure your controllers – the road ahead grows only darker from here.
