Ranking Every Souls Boss
#99 - #80
The boss fights within the Souls series are some of the most compelling, dynamic and challenging in the industry. Many of them demand excellence when approached. They do not give quarter and we, the player, expect none. You must master the mechanics, persist through death, and, above all, learn from your mistakes in order to come out victorious. Regardless, some fights were clearly superior to others and, in order to make my opinions a little more balanced, I devised a five category, 50-point system to rank each of the bosses. The categories are Gameplay, Lore, Originality, Challenge, and Entertainment. Below, I go into detail about each category which I encourage you to read because it informs the bosses point totals. For example, Challenge is not just about how difficult it is but also about whether or not the difficulty is organic and fair (looking at you Ancient Dragon). Additionally, I'd like to note that I'm not including the Chalice Dungeon bosses on this list. Thanks for reading and please enjoy full list!
Gameplay
This encompasses the actions that you're taking during a boss. Are you frantically trying to avoid attacks and desperately chuggin Estus or are you trying to dodge randomly falling platforms that will instantly kill you. The way that a fight utilizes interesting mechanics will increase this score such as the tense Executioner Chariot battle while poor design choices will hurt this score like the Bed of Chaos falling platforms.
Lore
Lore takes a few aspects of a fight into account. This include the quality of the backstory of the character, the amount of investment you have when facing them, and overall environment and aesthetics of a fight. Are you fighting some random dude in a nondescript cave with no pertinence to the story or are battling a legendary figure of old in a glorious cathedral? Much of the time, the quality of the location and relevance of the story can be enough to elevate a boss into excellence.
Originality
How original is the concept for this boss? Is this the same design that From Software used before or is it something fresh? A unique design goes a long way in making a boss memorable. Large dudes with big swords and growling, burning demons are fairly commonplace but can set themselves a part with interesting mechanics or move sets.
Challenge
Not only does this score take into account the actual difficulty of a boss but also how 'fair' it is. What this means is whether or not a player can anticipate and counter a bosses attacks, no matter how difficult they are. The best bosses are demanding in terms of reaction time but never unfair in either their move set or how much damage they do (looking at you Ancient Dragon).
Entertainment
This score is more about gut reaction to a boss. How much fun did I have when fighting it? Was it exciting and interesting? Did I get a rush of adrenaline when defeating it or was it merely a roadblock before getting to the better battles? It's hard to define and tabulate what gives certain encounters that elusive magic but some have it and some don't.
Without further adieu, here's number 99 through 80 of the best bosses in the Souls series!
99. Micolash, Host of the Nightmare
Gameplay - 4.3 * Lore - 6.7 * Originality - 7.5 * Challenge - 2.3 * Entertainment - 3.4
Total - 24.2/50.0
So, I know that some people are going to hate this fight more than others but I thought it wasn't terrible. It's a puzzle boss where you have to figure out how to get to Micolash by chasing him through a labyrinthine nightmare realm eventually cornering him. Fascinating from a lore perspective as he's the literal 'host of the nightmare' and that throughout the fight he babbles incoherently about separate parts of the story. Additionally, you'll find these strange, unique, puppet demons throughout the boss area that will calmly try and smack you as you pass by. Once you actually find Micolash, he's actually pretty annoying, spamming Augur of Ebrietas and occasionally launching a devastating Call Beyond that can one-shot you if you're not careful. Finding him is fairly fun but actually engaging with him is the peculiar mix of boring and aggravating.
98. Vordt of the Boreal Valley
Gameplay - 4.3 * Lore - 5.1 * Originality - 6.6 * Challenge - 3.7 * Entertainment - 4.6
Total - 24.3/50.0
This armored dog of a boss is the second major boss players will encounter in Dark Souls III. Thus, it's understandably not that hard of a boss. While he looks intimidating, his incoming moves are so obviously telegraphed and he's so slow to actually deliver them that it's practically impossible not to dodge them. Regardless, for new players, this boss does exactly what the Taurus Demon did: Intimidate them until they realized they just needed to grow a pair and get into the fight.
97. Adjudicator
Gameplay - 5.2 * Lore - 4.8 * Originality - 5 * Challenge - 5.4 * Entertainment - 4.3
Total - 24.7/50.0
The Adjudicator boss is more of a puzzle boss than an actual one, requiring that you find the weak spots and peg them until he dies. You do have to descend a series of crumbling walkways to reach him but once you are at the bottom, there might as well be a big, flashing neon sign saying, "WEAK SPOT." It's way too obvious. However, if you don't know that, then this guy's wild tongue attacks can come out of nowhere and do serious damage. Also, if you want to cheese this boss, just shoot him in the head with arrows and watch his health plummet.
96. Vendrick
Gameplay - 2.4 * Lore - 9.2 * Originality - 4.3 * Challenge - 4.4 * Entertainment - 4.7
Total - 25.0/50.0
Vendrick is an absolute lore homerun and discovering him is the single best story moment in the entirety of Dark Souls II. For the entire story, you are told to seek the king, to uncover his secrets and to use his knowledge to defeat the coming age of dark. However, once you actually do find him, you don't see a regal figure of great power but instead a hollowed husk of a man, drained of humanity. Thematic to the series as a whole and an appropriately macabre twist of expectations, particularly when mirrored against the beauty of Gwynevere in the original. Beyond his discovery and appearance, he's an exceptionally boring boss fight with too much health and who does too much damage. Sure, you can reduce his hit points by finding Souls of Giants but, even still, taking him down is more of a chore than pleasure gameplay wise.
95. Mytha, the Baneful Queen
Gameplay - 4.7 * Lore - 6.8 * Originality - 5.3 * Challenge - 3.7 * Entertainment - 4.8
Total - 25.3/50.0
Mytha comes with perhaps the most obscure puzzle in the history of Souls games, perhaps only outdone by the recent 'Show your Humanity' riddle in The Ringed City. If you don't find the secret, you're forced to fight Mytha while trudging through knee deep poison, constanly poisoning you and making the fight immensely more difficult. In order to remove the poison, you have to
look online somehow figure out that you need to walk up to the base of windmill and set it aflame. What? Either way, once the poison is gone, Mytha has predictable attack patterns but does have incredible reach with her spear and mixes it up with magic every once and a while.
94. Throne Defender and Throne Watcher
Gameplay - 5.3 * Lore - 6.2 * Originality - 2.5 * Challenge - 6.2 * Entertainment - 5.3
Total - 25.5/50.0
Throne Defender and Throne Watcher is the one of the several times that From Software attempts to capture the magic of the Ornstein and Smough battle. In Dark Souls II alone, you have this fight, the Twin Dragonriders, and the Ruin Sentinels. As the worst iteration of this attempt, the Throne duo attack aggressively and can heal each other if given the chance. At first glance, it's a pretty fun fight with both of them dealing high damage and with enough tricks to set them apart. However, you soon realize that it has none of the tug and pull of quality dual boss fights. They both attack at the same time if you're close to them, sometimes stun locking you to death, and then they recover far too quickly, forcing you on to the back foot and just waiting for them to attack at the same time, hitting them once, and running away. The dynamics of this fight are too simple, aggravatingly slow and their movesets are too similar to really distinguish them.
93. Dragonriders
Gameplay - 5.7 * Lore - 6.2 * Originality - 2.5 * Challenge - 6.1 * Entertainment - 5.2
Total - 25.7/50.0
I've ranked the Dragonriders boss fight higher than the Throne duo which may confuse some people but let me explain. While there's very little in the way of originality here, the boss works because it has recognizable timing and patterns that you can take advantage of. The Dragonrider who's shooting the bow has clear audio cues and the timing remains the same, expecting the player to recognize these tells and adapt. Additionally, the actual attacks from the ground based Dragonrider are far more telegraphed and identifiable allowing you to bate out an attack on time with the arrow shots. Now, when the second one drops and joins the fray, it loses some of the predictability and gains a chaotic nature that is less appealing to me. At least their attacks are more clear.
92. Leechmonger
Gameplay - 4.6 * Lore - 4.0 * Originality - 6.7 * Challenge - 5.5 * Entertainment - 5.2
Total - 26.0/50.0
Leechmonger certainly adds a new spin to the disgusting slime boss motif. Not just a steaming pile of goo, he's actually covered in a mass of writhing leeches. Pretty revolting. Regardless, his difficulty really depends on when you head to the Valley of Defilement. Late game, he's pretty easy but if you brave the swamp early, you can get a good quality fight out of him. His AoE attacks fire quickly but are clearly telegraphed, and his ranged attacks can surprise those thinking to cheese him from a distance. I also love the fact that those clever enough to make the connection that leeches don't like fire can apply Turpentine to their blades and absolutely decimate this boss. Pretty much a blank in terms of story or lore but still an encounter that ranges from easy to memorable.
91. Stray Demon
Gameplay - 6.7 * Lore - 3.8 * Originality - 1.5 * Challenge - 7.1 * Entertainment - 7.5
Total - 26.6/50.0
As the third copy of this boss design in the game, the Stray Demon is certainly not original. What he lacks in originality though, he makes up for in sheer force. A deadly opponent for the timid, Stray Demon rapidly punishes those who do not take the opportunity to get up close and personal with him. His AoE attacks border on unfair as, getting comboed by two of them in a row is a possibility and can become ultra irritating. Nonetheless, once you get behind him and carefully manage stamina, the fight becomes an interesting affair. And, lest we forget, falling down into his boss arena for the first time is traumatizing for any player that didn't see it coming.
90. Deacons of the Deep
Gameplay - 5.2 * Lore - 7.3 * Originality - 4.7 * Challenge - 5.2 * Entertainment - 4.7
Total - 27.1/50.0
I'll admit that I'm not a fan of mob bosses. Generally, they're not as engaging as fighting a defined villain. However, I'm coming to appreciate the Deacons a little more nowadays, particularly from a lore standpoint. The actual arena that you fight in is the tomb that held Aldritch and with the deacons themselves slowly being taken by the Deep until they use not only fire and faith magic but also sorcery of the dark makes the boss a more intersting encounter. Additionally, you have to respect the cleverly implemented nature of the 'fat' deacons who can be knocked backwards, cutting a swath for you to the actual boss you need to damage.
89. Halflight, Spear of the Church
Gameplay - 5.4 * Lore - 5.8 * Originality - 3.5 * Challenge - 6.5 * Entertainment - 6.5
Total - 27.7/50.0
Obviously, this is a difficult boss to rank since, most of the time you'll be battling a human player. Therefore, I'm going to judge the mechanics of the fight moreso than the optional NPC you can fight. First off, the player summoned as the 'boss' can't use Estus but instead has a higher health pool like a real boss. That's actually a brilliant design. Secondly, there is a Painting Guardian who can heal in a vicinity around them that summons twice during the fight based on the summoned player's overall health. Okay, built in gank isn't great but since the Guardian isn't actually too much of threat, this seems intelligent. Then the Spears of the church are give a tool that makes damaging spears erupt from the ground and stay there, effectively making a wall. This is a great tool that can be used to separate groups of players or just surprise the foes. Finally, a holy version of homing soul mass appears over the summoned player's head that will increase in frequency based on the number of summons are in the fight. While I like the increased frequency, I'm not a huge fan of this mechanic as it seems to just add a level of unpredictability and can lead to a couple of cheap deaths. So taking all this into account, the fight is really solid, giving the Spear of the Church enough advantages to make up for their single health pool. However, the literal randomness of this can skew a player one way or another based on skill level, sometimes necessitating summons which is something I don't really like.
88. Shadows of Yharnam
Gameplay - 6.4 * Lore - 3.9 * Originality - 4.1 * Challenge - 6.9 * Entertainment - 6.6
Total - 27.9/50.0
As one of the few fights in Bloodborne that utilizes more than one enemy, Shadows of Yharnam does an admirable job balancing their separate abilities. You've got the mage and the melee one and the one that does both, making it feel like you can separate them easily enough to get a few hits in. Then in the second phase they get these wierd-ass tentacle arms that significantly increase the range of their basic attacks. This becomes problematic if you're unable to actually kill one during the first stage of the fight. Finally, once three becomes one, the last one gains the completely overpowered yet ridiculously cool ability to summon giant snakes across the arena. So, this makes no sense whatsoever lorewise but it's pretty awesome to behold (unless you get killed by it's completely random nature). This a fun fight that changes multiple times but, again, is held back by the lack of originality as we see these bosses later in the game as regular enemies and the inability to judge where the final snake attack will actually hit.
87. Demon Firesage
Gameplay - 7.2 * Lore - 5.2 * Originality - 1.5 * Challenge - 7.5 * Entertainment - 6.8
Total - 28.2/50.0
The best of the three Asylum Demon varients, the Demon Firesage does enough to mix up the formula to stand on his own. While he still has the massively damaging AoEs, he's now in a long corridor arena, which grants him the ability to leap long distances or utilize his staff in sweeping attacks. The plan to get behind him remains the same as the Stray Demon but he make it more difficult and more interesting by leaping away and using a more melee heavy moveset. Lorewise, he not only is located at the base of the Demon Ruins (makes sense right?) but he also drops a catalyst that gives insight on his former nature.
86. Capra Demon
Gameplay - 6.2 * Lore - 4.6 * Originality - 4.9 * Challenge - 5.8 * Entertainment - 6.8
Total - 28.3/50.0
The Capra Demon is really arsehole. But it's not really him, is it? It's those two damn dogs that immediately ambush you at the beginning of the fight, practically guaranteeing that they're going to catch you off guard and stun you for a big hit from the demon. On the plus side, once you smack the dogs around and catch your bearings of the environment, you can use a solitary staircase to lead them up one by one, removing them from the fight. The boss himself almost too clearly telegraphs his attacks, making him pretty easy after the dogs are dealt with. However, a word to the wise: Do not block his two-handed attacks as they will smash through your stamina with ease.
85. Velstadt, the Royal Aegis
Gameplay - 6.2 * Lore - 7.5 * Originality - 5.0 * Challenge - 4.8 * Entertainment - 5.6
Total - 29.1/50.0
Honestly, by this point in Dark Souls II, I had really been expecting better monster design rather than giant, bipedal knight so his design was fairly disappointing. However, he's an interesting character in his own right with him and his brother fighting for the privelege to guard the king. The fight with him gains its tension from his powerful attacks and surprsing reach. There was more than once that I was sure he wouldn't be able to hit me only for him to violently oustretch his giant bell-club like a spear, sending me flying. However, in a rare case, Velstadt actually becomes too easy in his second phase with a dark ranged attack that takes forever to fire and is super easy to punish. Regardless, it's an atmospheric fight with some tense moments and a bland design.
84. Oceiros, the Consumed King
Gameplay - 4.3 * Lore - 8.8 * Originality - 5.8 * Challenge - 5.1 * Entertainment - 5.5
Total - 29.5/50.0
What a weird dragon fight! Oceiros is one of the few bosses in Dark Souls that actually talks during the fight and what he says is not only intriguing from a lore perspective but also directly changes the fight. During the first phase, he'll hold his left hand to his chest and spout dialogue about his son, Ocelotte, who he apparently is carrying. But we can't see him. So is he crazy or not, is this Ocelotte real, or a figment of a fragmented mind? We're not sure but halfway through he screeches as though he lost his son and becomes vastly more aggressive, barrelling across the battlefield in erratic fashions. Unfortunately, during these attacks, his entire body becomes a hitbox and it's immensely irritating when you get hit by the back of his body when you perfectly dodged the front half of it. The second phase really has you turning yourself into a pretzel trying to figure out what the hell to do before you just get frustrated and bumrush him. Not great gameplay mechanics but great lore and reasonable difficulty.
83. Living Failures
Gameplay - 6.0 * Lore - 7.8 * Originality - 3.5 * Challenge - 6.5 * Entertainment - 5.8
Total - 29.6/50.0
First off, what an arena to battle in. The upper reaches of the clocktower amidst a giant twisted sunflower, or lumenflower. field. Pretty cool stuff. The boss itself tells a story even with just it's name. Living Failures. The failures of the experiment hall that you just traversed. The boss itself consists of four respawing bosses that alternate between doing quick melee attacks and firing off slow-moving magic at a distance. They look pretty bland just as giant blobs with spindly legs and arms. Managing their location around the central flower is key to victory and engaging one at a time is essential. All of this doesn't even mention the awe-inspiring second-phase attack where they call upon the power of the cosmos to rain down meteor shower. During this stunning attack, the skybox not only disappears in favor a swirly mass of stars but you're also able to get a highly damaging back stab off, combining great aesthetics with smart design. Still, you are just fighting a bunch of blobs on feet so it's not that original or pretty.
82. Judex Gundyr
Gameplay - 6.3 * Lore - 5.2 * Originality - 7.2 * Challenge - 5.0 * Entertainment - 6.2
Total - 29.9/50.0
Clearly, the best tutorial boss in the Dark Souls series, Judex Gundyr is a pretty engaging fight even before the Pus of Man erupts from his back, ramping up heartrates and levels of chaos. Kicking off the fight by pulling the bonfire sword out of his body is a great way to start and when he gets up and starts throwing around his halberd, it feels fast-paced and fun. As a tutorial boss, it makes sense that the opening moveset is highly telegraphed and easy to avoid. This makes it all the more surprising when his second phase emerges with sweeping and unpredictable hitboxes. A good tutorial boss with perhaps a too sharp difficulty spike in the second phase.
81. Rom, the Vacuous Spider
Gameplay - 4.2 * Lore - 8.7 * Originality - 8.0 * Challenge - 4.5 * Entertainment - 4.6
Total - 30.0/50.0
When I made this list, I felt pretty awkward about how high Rom made since, I, personally despise the fight. Looking over the numbers, everything just made sense so I'm not going to argue. First off, the positives of this fight are exceptionally positive with the lore, environment, and originality of this boss really shining through. It's important to remember that up until this point in Bloodborne, we've really faced very few kin of the cosmos. We've seen the blue aliens and we could have been to the Nightmare Frontier but aside from that, this boss is our first true departure into the lore of the Old Ones and it's presented beautifully. From falling into the moonlit lake, to Rom's initial pacific nature, to the ending meeting with Yharnam and the falling of the blood moon, it is just a spellbinding presentation from start to finish. However, when it comes to actual gameplay, Rom can play out as one of the most annoying bosses in the game, summoning hordes of highly damaging spiders that are basically immune to damage from the front. Then, in the later stages, she starts lobbing magic at you that is difficult to anticipate since you can't see it until it nearly hits you. Finding ways to outsmart this annoying scenario is one of the few pleasures of the fight with the Flamesprayer, Beast Pellets and Blue Elixer all able to play a role.
80. Aldia, Scholar of the First Sin
Gameplay - 4.5 * Lore - 6.2 * Originality - 6.3 * Challenge - 6.9 * Entertainment - 6.2
Total - 30.1/50.0
Aldia, Scholar of the First Sin is the extra NPC/boss fight that was added to Dark Souls 2 and, comparatively to the rest of the game, he's a thorough repository of lore. He delves into the reasons behind the cyclical nature of Dark Souls and what caused it in the first place. He'll also scare the pants off you as a sort of mimic bonfire from time to time. Battling him requires a fair amount of patience and timing, dodging his various ranged attacks and sneaking in a hit here or there. Honestly, he looks terrible as just a blob with tentacles but, hey, to each his own. The fight is medium, if demanding but lacks any real wow-factor.
Thanks for reading!
Comments
Post a Comment