“Souls series”, the name fans give to every game in the same style FromSoftware has released since 2011’s Dark Souls, has enjoy꧟ed both a lot of success and the important distinction of providing the harde𓆉st challenge a (single player) gamer can find.
Most of the challenge in these games comes from their incredible boss fights, a then-in-decline gameplay element that this series clearly revived and reminded everyone should never go away. So, let’s look at the most memorably nightmarish bosses in the series, shall we?
Rom, The Vacuous Spider (Bloodborne)
Bloodborne is famous for the fast-paced action it used to completely re-energize the Souls formula. Most of its memorable bosses are as fast as the player, but don’t be fooled; one of the most challenging battles in the game actually comes from a deceptively slow critter.
Rom will lure players into a false sense of ease by making its early stage really easy, and then things will🔯 get harder, gradually, to an almost unbearable point. Not only is the arena filled with loads of guardian spiders you need to be wary of, but Rom also gains the ability to summon rather unpredictable and hard-to-dodge AOE blasts. Do not underestimate this foul thing.
Ludwig, The Accursed (Bloodborne, The Old Hunters DLC)
For a Soulsborne game, Bloodborne goes kinda easy on players. That, however, changes completely if we’re talking about its phenomenal The Old Hunters DLC. Straight out the gate, players will have to duke it out with Ludwig, a monstrosity who’s as large as he is agile. Ludwig knows an array of wildly varied moves, all of them challenging in their own specific way.
At a little below half HP, Ludwig will change to its second form, which is equally challenging and, just as importantly, incredibly fun to play against. Ludwig ranks high in the top most challenging bosses, but would rank even higher in the top best overall bosses in the series. Do not sleep on The Old Hunters.
Sister Friede (Dark Souls 3, Ashes of Ariandel DLC)
Remember the first time you brought a Souls boss’ HP down to zero, only to find out it had a more powerful form? Well, Friede does that, and her second form — the one where she enlists the help of her giant father, is already a hell of a lot of work. It really does feel like it would be the final form — it already proved challenging enough. Still, more than enough is not enough for FromSoftware.
As soon as players are done with this challenging second phase, they’re greeted with yet another form. This time Friede goes from a regular boss to the grim reaper straig🍰ht out of hell, with a skillset filled with hellish scythe moves that will eviscerate players first, then blow them up. Few bosses are as deadly as Friede, and few will ask as much of players to even get to.
Slave Knight Gael (Dark Souls 3, The Ringed City)
When FromSoftware was making The Ringed City DLC, they knew they were making the final piece of the Dark Souls puzzle. They had to finish it with a bang, and that’s what Gael is. This is an incredibly sturdy — I’d say too sturdy, even — knight, and one who possesses all the tricks in the book.
The encounter with Gael starts off simple enough, but everything goes haywire in his second form. Gael’s final form feels almost like a multi-enemy fight, or a bullet hell minigame, even. On top of a quick opponent, players will have to deal with a barrage of AOE attacks the likes of which they would only see again coming out of Elden Ring‘s more godlike enemies. All in all, Gael provides a challenge fitting of Dark Souls’ true final boss.
Sword Saint Isshin (Sekiro, Shadows Die Twice)
Most Souls games are at least kind enough to make the toughest boss optional. Sekiro, one of the most difficult games in the famously challenging Souls series, naturally doesn’t offer such courtesy. Isshin’s many lives will never fail to check if you’ve mastered the dodge jumping and the parrying that the game had been hammering into you (sometimes literally). Though he proves an extremely complex challenge, in a way, because Sekiro plays very differently from other Souls games, Isshin also f♔eels like a fair and awesomeﷺ final enemy.
Commander Gaius (Elden Ring)
This is one of the most understated menaces in gaming. You don’t even know you’re about to fight Commander Gaius, as there’s no fog or anything resembling a boss arena to prepare players for this fight. They just exit a safe zone, enter a regular field, and — likely when thinking about the next place to go — they get ambushed by this thing. Gaius is fast — fast to the point of making running away from him really hard — and hits both hard and true. Players have to be very mindful of both his and his mount’s hitboxes.
Aside from his movement speed, nothing seems extremely devious about Gaius, but ꦡthe highly effective way in which he performs seemingly ♋simple moves will have most players fall before him loads of times.
Fume Knight (Dark Souls 2, the Old Iron King DLC)
Most of Dark Souls 2’s many bosses are surprisingly easy in comparison to those of the original game. That, however might be no more than a high-effort ruse to get players to drop their guard before facing off against the Fume Knight. Gamers tend to complain about most bosses in Dark Souls 2 being “just one dude in armor”. Well, whether or not that’s a good thing, it sure is a true thing, and Fume Knight does quite the job of defending the honor of the “dude in armor” kin.
Even though he wields a huge weapon, he’s surprisingly fast and scarily relentless. He features a wide variety of moves, with all of them listed high on the damage output counter. Dealing with the Fume Knight requires a combination of good reflexes and mental fortitude, which makes him not just one of the most challenging but also one of the best encounters in the entire series.
Ornstein & Smough (Dark Souls)
Most boss encounters in the original Dark Souls offer their fair share of challenges by pitting the player up against one vile monstrosity, but this one further screws players by having them face two very distinct enemies. Beating both enemies is hard enough as is, and the immense feeling of accomplishment you’ll get after pulling it off is immediately ripped out of your hands as you learn there’s a second phase. After Ornstein & Smough, there’s no trusting a boss will ever be as simple as it seems.
These two could easily be the poster boys of difficulty in Souls games. Whenever someone mentions how hard these games are, it’s hard not to have your mind immediately teleported to that fateful boss arena in Anor Londo, the one where your only friends are the pillars you can use to block their attacks.
Malenia, Blade of Miquella (Elden Ring)
The toughest boss in the Elden Ring base game is what you get when you ask the team behind some of the most challenging games in recent history to come up with an optional challenge meant only for 🌠the most daring of players.
Malenia is fast, deals a lot of damage, and she’ll instill players with the need to make every dodge count because she’ll heal up whenever she hits the player or any of their summons. Moreover, on top of the second phase that all of these high-level monstrosities now come equipped with, she has the waterfowl dance, easily the most deadly and hardest-to-avoid move in the entire series.
Promised Consort Radahn (Elden Ring, Shadow Of The Erdtree DLC)
Souls downloadable content is where you tend to find the most difficult bosses. So, if Malenia is the second hardest boss in the series, and she’s from a base game, you can only imagine how difficult the hardest boss from that game’s DLC is going to be. “Prime” Radahn feels less like one boss, and more like a “greatest hits” of the most devious moves the developers at FromSoft were able to come up with throughout the many years spent perfecting their deviousness with the studio.
Radahn is not only relentless, he’s one of the very few bosses you just cannot run away from. You can dodge his moves — for as long as your stamina lasts, at least — but you’ll have to face his anger at some point. If this article is what finally gets you to challenge Radahn, know that you won’t even get to see the monster I’m attempting to describe, as he was originally so strong the devs just had to nerf him, hard.
Published: Jan 21, 2025 11:16 am