- Feb 7, 2011
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I beat Dark Souls 3 for the first time a couple of weeks ago, and have been ruminating on the game's design, and more specifically the boss fights and how they fit in with (or compare to) the rest of the bosses in the souls series. A lot of the bosses are call backs to old fights, but with new mechanics and visual styles and I wanted to see how people felt about each fight and whether they found them harder or easier than other fights in the series.
1. Iudex Gundyr
2. Vordt of the Boreal Valley
3. Curse-Rotted Greatwood
4 - Crystal Sage
5 - Abyss Watchers
6 - Deacons of the Deep
7 - High Lord Wolnir
8 - Old Demon King
9 - Pontiff Sulyvahn
10 - Yhorm the Giant
11 - Aldrich, Devourer of Gods
12 - Dancer of the Boreal Valley
13 - Dragonslayer Armour
14 - Ocieros the Consumed King
15 - Champion Gundyr
16 - Lothric, Younger Prince
17 - Ancient Wyvern
18 - Nameless King
19 - Soul of Cinder
Holy crap I wrote a lot. How'd that happen?
Anyway, now for my final opinion. The bosses in Dark Souls 3 feel like From Software learned from every single other boss that came before, and they tried to use the parts of those bosses that people liked from the previous games, and reworked them into something new.
It didn't always work (and stop making those mass group boss fights From Software, no one liked Royal Rat Authority or Celestial Emissary, what made you think they'd like Deacons of the Deep?!), but I honestly think that from a gameplay standpoint this game has some of the most well designed fights in the series.
Now someone please respond so that I don't feel like I wasted tons of time writing this.
1. Iudex Gundyr
Visually he reminds me a lot of a supersized Old King Doran from Demon's Souls, and he serves a similar function, you have to prove to him that you're worthy of what he's guarding. Old King Doran was guarding a special weapon, but to Gundyr you have to prove that you're good enough to get to play the game.
Mechanically he reminds me of The Lost Sinner and Old Dragon Slayer. He's decently fast and, has a long weapon and can close distance quickly but he also gives you plenty of time to heal.
As a tutorial boss I think he's the best one From Software has made. He really showcases everything that you can expect from the game, going from a large and powerful humanoid enemy with both big telegraphed swings but also some quick kicks and shoulder tackles to catch you off guard, and he transforms into a huge monster which prepares you for the larger non-humanoid enemies ahead.
Died to him 1 time.
Mechanically he reminds me of The Lost Sinner and Old Dragon Slayer. He's decently fast and, has a long weapon and can close distance quickly but he also gives you plenty of time to heal.
As a tutorial boss I think he's the best one From Software has made. He really showcases everything that you can expect from the game, going from a large and powerful humanoid enemy with both big telegraphed swings but also some quick kicks and shoulder tackles to catch you off guard, and he transforms into a huge monster which prepares you for the larger non-humanoid enemies ahead.
Died to him 1 time.
2. Vordt of the Boreal Valley
A cool spin on the armored knight that people were sick of in Dark Souls 2. I think he most reminds me of fighting Sif in Dark Souls 1 but also of Ludwig in Bloodborne. He has a big weapon with large swings in front of him and to the side, and he also has a quick charge attack that is absolutely devastating. Like Sif and Ludwig though he's extremely vulnerable if you get under him and attack his belly and hind legs from below.
I feel like the boss could have used more health, but I find him incredibly fun to fight. Dodging his charge attacks by rolling under them feels extremely fun and I love his boss theme.
Died to him 1 time.
I feel like the boss could have used more health, but I find him incredibly fun to fight. Dodging his charge attacks by rolling under them feels extremely fun and I love his boss theme.
Died to him 1 time.
3. Curse-Rotted Greatwood
I hate this boss. The fact that you can't lock onto its weak points makes it a pain in the ass, and there are only 2 weak points that are at your character's height (the one on his hand and the one on his groin) means you spent a lot of time just standing around waiting for him to position himself in a way that will allow you to hit him. The camera also does you no favors as he's just too big and the camera doesn't pull back far enough.
Mostly this fight reminds me of Ceaseless Discharge. He's big, his attacks are extremely telegraphed but the camera gets in your way, it can be hard to see what he's doing, and you can only reliably hit him while he's attacking you. It's an awkward fight.
Died to this boss 4 times.
Mostly this fight reminds me of Ceaseless Discharge. He's big, his attacks are extremely telegraphed but the camera gets in your way, it can be hard to see what he's doing, and you can only reliably hit him while he's attacking you. It's an awkward fight.
Died to this boss 4 times.
4 - Crystal Sage
Kind of a boring boss. It's a throwback to the Fool's Idol from Demon's Souls. Not much to say, it isn't much of a challenge.
Died 0 times.
Died 0 times.
5 - Abyss Watchers
Really cool boss fight. It's kind of like fighting Artorias from Dark Souls 1 and Maria from Bloodborne crossed with the Ruin Sentinels.
It starts as a one on one, then turns into a 2 on 2, and then back to a 1 on 1 but with a buffed fiery move-set. The cool thing is that you never quite know what's coming next because there's so many phases to the fight.
Died 0 times.
It starts as a one on one, then turns into a 2 on 2, and then back to a 1 on 1 but with a buffed fiery move-set. The cool thing is that you never quite know what's coming next because there's so many phases to the fight.
Died 0 times.
6 - Deacons of the Deep
Yet another of the giant group boss fights that are so boring. Exactly like the royal rat authority from Dark Souls 2 and celestial emissary from Bloodborne, except this time it's incredibly easy to identify the "real" boss.
These are my least favorite boss fights in the souls games, mostly because the enemies don't have any interesting moves. They just try to overwhelm you with numbers but even then they have such low health that they're easily dispatched. This makes for a very boring and very easy boss fight and its really disappointing because I think the Cathedral itself is one of the most fun areas in the game and deserved a much better boss at the end.
Died 0 times.
These are my least favorite boss fights in the souls games, mostly because the enemies don't have any interesting moves. They just try to overwhelm you with numbers but even then they have such low health that they're easily dispatched. This makes for a very boring and very easy boss fight and its really disappointing because I think the Cathedral itself is one of the most fun areas in the game and deserved a much better boss at the end.
Died 0 times.
7 - High Lord Wolnir
I died to this boss fight once because of a glitch which caused the lighting change not to trigger when I approached him. As a result the only thing I saw was his hand (his bracelets weren't even glowing), and then after hitting it a few times I was enveloped in a poisonous smoke that killed me. This rather soured me on the fight. The second time killing him was easy because I could actually see what he was doing.
Can't really think of a boss right to equate him with in the other souls games. Maybe the closest mechanically would be Seath the Scaleless from Dark Souls 1. He doesn't move much and most of his damage comes from the fog around him. Similarly Seath is slow to the point of almost being stationary and most of his damage comes from his breath attack.
Died to him 1 time.
Can't really think of a boss right to equate him with in the other souls games. Maybe the closest mechanically would be Seath the Scaleless from Dark Souls 1. He doesn't move much and most of his damage comes from the fog around him. Similarly Seath is slow to the point of almost being stationary and most of his damage comes from his breath attack.
Died to him 1 time.
8 - Old Demon King
Both mechanically and aesthetically he reminds me of the Demon Fire-Sage from Dark Souls 1, but with a meteor attack reminiscent of the Living Failures from Bloodborne. He killed me twice, once with his unexpected AOE which moves in from the outside of the stage and once with his meteors, which I had failed to notice him summoning until they had hit me (seriously, how is he summoning meteor's indoors?).
Honestly a pretty fair boss fight, and I would consider it quite a bit better than fire-sage, mostly because this fight doesn't have the same camera problems, and you don't get caught on the geometry of the arena all the time.
Died to him 2 times.
Honestly a pretty fair boss fight, and I would consider it quite a bit better than fire-sage, mostly because this fight doesn't have the same camera problems, and you don't get caught on the geometry of the arena all the time.
Died to him 2 times.
9 - Pontiff Sulyvahn
Holy crap what a wake up call. Huge combos, big sweeping attacks, and speed to back it all up. He seems like the new Fume Knight carrying 2 swords (one big and one small) and is unrelentingly aggressive. Dodging too early or too late means you can eat his whole combo because he can stunlock you pretty well. His second form is also incredibly intimating because OH SHIT suddenly there's 2 of him!
Reminds me a lot of the Ornstein and Smough boss fight, not so much mechanically but because it's the first real progress blocker in the game which people can and will get stuck at.
Died to him 7 times.
Reminds me a lot of the Ornstein and Smough boss fight, not so much mechanically but because it's the first real progress blocker in the game which people can and will get stuck at.
Died to him 7 times.
10 - Yhorm the Giant
Oh what could have been. He looks so cool in the intro and you think "Hey, maybe they have a good version of the Giant Lord boss fight from Dark Souls 2." Then you start fighting him and immediately realize "Huh...I'm not doing much damage, I'm probably missing something" then you find the Storm Ruler and suddenly everything fits together because it's yet another call back to Demon's Souls. The Storm Ruler completely trivializes the boss fight, and with it in your hands YOU'RE THE BOSS. It takes 5 hits with the storm ruler to kill Yhorm, and if you have enough health that's fewer hits than he needs to kill you. Funny how that works. It's a cool moment when you figure it out, but in retrospect quite disappointing.
I died to him 5 times.
...What? I didn't say I was perfect. I got the storm ruler and then in my overconfidence I couldn't figure out how to trigger the super attack and died. Then I died again. Then I figured out how to do the super attack and died 3 more times because I started rushing the boss fight and refusing to dodge. I'm stubborn ok?!
I died to him 5 times.
...What? I didn't say I was perfect. I got the storm ruler and then in my overconfidence I couldn't figure out how to trigger the super attack and died. Then I died again. Then I figured out how to do the super attack and died 3 more times because I started rushing the boss fight and refusing to dodge. I'm stubborn ok?!
11 - Aldrich, Devourer of Gods
Yet another boss I ended up really hating, and it's all due to his arrow attack. In the second phase those arrows seem to come down forever, and my character did not have enough stamina to outrun them, so I died over and over and over again. The only reason I ended up beating him was because on one of my tries he just decided not to use the arrow attack in his second phase at all and instead tried to melee me. I still have no idea how I'm going to soul level 1 him because again, not enough stamina to outrun the arrows.
I guess mechanically the boss he resembles most closely would be Martyr Logarius from Bloodborne, but at least Logarius's attacks didn't tend to go straight through the bits of cover on his rooftop the way Aldrich's attacks go through columns. I did not have a fun time with this boss.
Died 9 times.
I guess mechanically the boss he resembles most closely would be Martyr Logarius from Bloodborne, but at least Logarius's attacks didn't tend to go straight through the bits of cover on his rooftop the way Aldrich's attacks go through columns. I did not have a fun time with this boss.
Died 9 times.
12 - Dancer of the Boreal Valley
I honestly have no idea why this boss is considered difficult...
Ok, that's a lie, I can easily guess why this boss is considered difficult, I just know that during my run it was trivial for me because greatshields are amazing. I ran a strength build during my first run through the game, and after finding a greatshield in the mimic chest before Yhorm I thought "I haven't used great shields in this game, let me try it out." I beat Yhorm, and was afterward immediately teleported to the Dancer's boss room. With the Greatshield equipped I took her down in 1 try. I never got hit by her grab because it's pretty well telegraphed, and in her second phase my great shield was able to block almost her entire combo, and if I walked forward while she was doing it the last 2 hits would miss me every time allowing me to drop the shield and get stamina back. Other than that she's actually quite slow and gives you a lot of time to hit her.
I really love the design of this boss, and have ever since the first videos of her were released by From Software. The way she moves, like she's floating through the water is both really cool and really distracting, and makes it tricky to tell when she's about to attack.
Died 0 times.
Ok, that's a lie, I can easily guess why this boss is considered difficult, I just know that during my run it was trivial for me because greatshields are amazing. I ran a strength build during my first run through the game, and after finding a greatshield in the mimic chest before Yhorm I thought "I haven't used great shields in this game, let me try it out." I beat Yhorm, and was afterward immediately teleported to the Dancer's boss room. With the Greatshield equipped I took her down in 1 try. I never got hit by her grab because it's pretty well telegraphed, and in her second phase my great shield was able to block almost her entire combo, and if I walked forward while she was doing it the last 2 hits would miss me every time allowing me to drop the shield and get stamina back. Other than that she's actually quite slow and gives you a lot of time to hit her.
I really love the design of this boss, and have ever since the first videos of her were released by From Software. The way she moves, like she's floating through the water is both really cool and really distracting, and makes it tricky to tell when she's about to attack.
Died 0 times.
13 - Dragonslayer Armour
Really reminds me of the Pursuer from Dark Souls 2. Big attacks that are heavily telegraphed and easy to dodge and a shield bash. I would say that this is the most "dude in armor" boss fight in the game, mostly in that there isn't all that much going on in this fight. What you see is what you get, and what you see is armor, and bit shield, and a big ax and that's really all you need to worry about. Even in the second phase nothing much changes, the armor just gets more aggressive, and every once in a while some fire will rain from the sky.
Because of how straight forward and simple this fight is I found it to be one of the better ones for coop. It gives a decent amount of souls and you can earn some sun-light medals, and you don't have to worry about whether the host who summons you knows about the gimmick of the fight because in this case there is no gimmick.
Died 0 times (also fought him while wearing armor with the worst lightning resistance in the game...oops).
Because of how straight forward and simple this fight is I found it to be one of the better ones for coop. It gives a decent amount of souls and you can earn some sun-light medals, and you don't have to worry about whether the host who summons you knows about the gimmick of the fight because in this case there is no gimmick.
Died 0 times (also fought him while wearing armor with the worst lightning resistance in the game...oops).
14 - Ocieros the Consumed King
Reminds me of a mix of Blood Starved beast and Ebrietas from Bloodborne, mostly because of the charge attacks and the use of magic/curse. He's fast and hits hard and runs all over the stage, but each of his attacks gives you a large window to attack him or heal. Not a very difficult boss because he isn't as aggressive as many of the bosses that come before him (or any of the ones that come after).
Died 0 times.
Died 0 times.
15 - Champion Gundyr
This might be the hardest boss in the game for me. I'm not good at parrying, and he's just relentlessly aggressive in his second form so trying to heal is dangerous even immediately after dodging one of his combos. He can also knock you to the ground and keep you there while he smashes you to death.
Funny thing is on my first try I got his health down to within 1 hit and then while I was mentally celebrating killing another boss in one try he hit me with a three hit combo, knocked me to the ground, and then shoulder bashed me as I was recovering, killing me. It then took me 11 more tries to take him down.
Cool thing about this fight though, if you get tired of fighting him and want to get your souls out of his boss room you can do so by teleporting to the Iudex Gundyr bonfire (right before firelink shrine) and your souls will be there. Champ Gundyr doesn't really give you a change to homeward bone out of his arena. Once you're in there it's basically a cage match.
Died 12 times.
Funny thing is on my first try I got his health down to within 1 hit and then while I was mentally celebrating killing another boss in one try he hit me with a three hit combo, knocked me to the ground, and then shoulder bashed me as I was recovering, killing me. It then took me 11 more tries to take him down.
Cool thing about this fight though, if you get tired of fighting him and want to get your souls out of his boss room you can do so by teleporting to the Iudex Gundyr bonfire (right before firelink shrine) and your souls will be there. Champ Gundyr doesn't really give you a change to homeward bone out of his arena. Once you're in there it's basically a cage match.
Died 12 times.
16 - Lothric, Younger Prince
A cool twist on the 2v1 boss fight and one that I really enjoyed. I loved how mobile Lorain is and how he could appear anywhere at any time meaning that blocking is dangerous since he can just appear behind you can hit you in the back, and you have to constantly move and spin the camera so you don't get caught by him. Then you have Lothric healing his brother and providing support with magic. It's a hard fight, and it almost feels like it was balanced specifically to be fought in coop, but it also has a very elegant flow to it, and once you really get into the groove of the fight it becomes a bloody, brutal dance.
In a way I would say that this boss fight is a bit like Darklurker. You fight one on one for a short while, learning the boss's moves, learning how and when to dodge, and then the fight goes into phase 2 and suddenly you have more ranged attacks to worry about dodging, and you're constantly keeping your camera spinning trying to figure out where the next attack is going to come from. Very cool fight.
Died 6 times.
In a way I would say that this boss fight is a bit like Darklurker. You fight one on one for a short while, learning the boss's moves, learning how and when to dodge, and then the fight goes into phase 2 and suddenly you have more ranged attacks to worry about dodging, and you're constantly keeping your camera spinning trying to figure out where the next attack is going to come from. Very cool fight.
Died 6 times.
17 - Ancient Wyvern
Yet another gimmick/puzzle fight for the series, but honestly, this one kind of works, and I like it. We've fought a lot of dragons and wyverns in the souls series. A LOT, and when you first starting fighting this one it feels just like the Guardian Dragon from Dark Souls 2. Then you realize, like with Yhorm "huh, not doing much damage, probably doing something wrong" and end up taking a circuitous path around the stage, getting ever higher and higher until there comes a point where you can jump off a platform and drive your sword into the dragon's head, killing it.
As far as puzzle fights go it's significantly better than Dragon God from Demon's Souls, or Bed of Chaos from Dark Souls 1. Honestly I kind of wish the fight didn't end with a single attack though. Maybe if that attack just weakened the boss and put it to half health or something it might have been better.
Died 0 times.
Or maybe would could have made that fight better would be...
As far as puzzle fights go it's significantly better than Dragon God from Demon's Souls, or Bed of Chaos from Dark Souls 1. Honestly I kind of wish the fight didn't end with a single attack though. Maybe if that attack just weakened the boss and put it to half health or something it might have been better.
Died 0 times.
Or maybe would could have made that fight better would be...
18 - Nameless King
...If instead of killing the Ancient Wyvern in one attack you just injured it, causing it to fly away, and then reappear later on at the end of Archdragon Peak, being ridden by The Nameless King. This would explain why the Nameless King's dragon is so much squishier than the other dragons in the game, if it was already injured when the fight started.
Anyway, everyone can agree that this boss fight blows. The camera is awful in the first phase, and it makes it very difficult to track the dragon. After my first try I immediately understood that the camera was going to be a problem and decided that the best course of action would be to use a bow and kill the dragon from long range, allowing me to keep it in full view at all times. It took a while, but killing the dragon in this way ended up being easy, and then the Nameless King himself wasn't much of a problem. He has a varied move-set and he hits like a bus, but all of his attacks are heavily telegraphed and easy to dodge. He thankfully doesn't have any insanely long combos (at least not that I noticed). After Champ Gundyr every other melee boss seemed easy.
Died 1 time.
Anyway, everyone can agree that this boss fight blows. The camera is awful in the first phase, and it makes it very difficult to track the dragon. After my first try I immediately understood that the camera was going to be a problem and decided that the best course of action would be to use a bow and kill the dragon from long range, allowing me to keep it in full view at all times. It took a while, but killing the dragon in this way ended up being easy, and then the Nameless King himself wasn't much of a problem. He has a varied move-set and he hits like a bus, but all of his attacks are heavily telegraphed and easy to dodge. He thankfully doesn't have any insanely long combos (at least not that I noticed). After Champ Gundyr every other melee boss seemed easy.
Died 1 time.
19 - Soul of Cinder
What can be said of the final boss? Visually he's kind of boring, and his boss arena feels a little bare and unimpressive. He has a lot up his sleeve (his magic especially caught me off guard), and holy Devil May Cry combos what's with that air juggle, but all in all he really isn't that bad. Gives you time to heal, the arena is huge so you have plenty of space to run from him, and if you hit him enough times he gets stunned. He can also be parried but like I said, I'm terrible at that, and you also don't really need it.
He continues the tradition of lackluster final bosses. Also, did anyone else find it to be really weird that the final boss turned out to be the character that was shown off in all the promotional material? When I walked in and saw him it really took the wind out of my sails so to speak. It almost felt like instead of discovering something new and cool that I had stumbled onto something that had been left hastily unfinished.
Died 1 time.
He continues the tradition of lackluster final bosses. Also, did anyone else find it to be really weird that the final boss turned out to be the character that was shown off in all the promotional material? When I walked in and saw him it really took the wind out of my sails so to speak. It almost felt like instead of discovering something new and cool that I had stumbled onto something that had been left hastily unfinished.
Died 1 time.
Holy crap I wrote a lot. How'd that happen?
Anyway, now for my final opinion. The bosses in Dark Souls 3 feel like From Software learned from every single other boss that came before, and they tried to use the parts of those bosses that people liked from the previous games, and reworked them into something new.
It didn't always work (and stop making those mass group boss fights From Software, no one liked Royal Rat Authority or Celestial Emissary, what made you think they'd like Deacons of the Deep?!), but I honestly think that from a gameplay standpoint this game has some of the most well designed fights in the series.
Now someone please respond so that I don't feel like I wasted tons of time writing this.
