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[SargerusBR]

To avoid this becoming a list thread, please explain your choice.


Best: Soul of Cinder - Dark Souls 3

This is my favorite boss for both lore and gameplay reasons, the Soul of Cinder is basically Gwyn, your player characters in DaS and DaS2 and every other person that linked the fire, all in one being. It has a lot of movesets, from standard melee to pyromancy and sorceries and it's theme song is amazing.

Worst: Royal Rat Authority - Dark Souls 2

This fight is plagued with a boss with broken hitboxes, it hits you pretty hard, a horrid design, and mobs that are there only to annoy you, on top of that it can get you toxic which eats you health like crazy. I love Dark Souls 2 and defend it a lot, but there is no defense for this boss fight. It's shit, plain and simple.

 

[finley83]

Best: Kalameet, from Dark Souls: Artorias of the Abyss. Genuinely a fair but very difficult fight, and it never felt cheap for a minute. I also love that you can cheat and get the giant to hobble the poor fella if you can't beat him in his full strength mode.

Worst: Dark Souls - 4 Kings. People rightfully shit on the Bed of Chaos but this is where my replays stop. Just the complete antithesis of what I enjoy about these games, it's no fun at all, the run from Firelink to the boss is unreasonably annoying, and the best strategy is to put on Havel's armour set and tank the whole thing. Bleh

 

[120v]

I re-wrote like five paragraphs about Bed of Chaos but decided i don't even know where to begin with that one. speaks for itself i guess

 

[Tactics18]

Best: Gehrman.
The arena, music, moveset & animations are all pretty much perfect.
Just an all round fantastic fight.

Worst: Bed of Chaos.
I get that From was under time constraints and what not to meet the deadline, but nothing can justify this piece of trash of a fight.
It's annoying to just think about it.

 

[Lux R7]

Welp, it's difficult.

The worst is Bed of Chaos mostly because it's not fun, which is a big problem.

The best one..let's say Artorias.
Hitboxes are amazing, the fight is fair, fun and epic. Also he's an amazing character.

However, i have to mention Kalameet, Friede and Gael for pretty much the same reasons.

 

[luulubuu]

Worst;

Royal Rat Vanguard was dull, dumb and idiotic, plus it's a very uninspired battle

Best;

There's something about the last half of The Old Hunters. There's always this feeling in Bloodborne that everything happening is wrong and vile, but, after the battle with Lady Marya (which is also the best in my opinion) The Fishing Helmet seems like everything bad just happened and there's only room for hope.

All things that point into the Orphan of Kos battle are atmospheric and brutal, the battle setting is just amazing and the fight itself is the definition of Bloodborne combat;
frentic, savage and raw

But, after you finish and every piece of the puzle fits, you see that sea and you can only hope for the best.


Runner ups;

other best battle;

King Allant battle before the patch was brutal and I have fond memories of this battle because the SOUL LEVEL DOWN grab, an unfair attack that gave me many laughs back in the day

other worst battle;

( ;_

 

[sublimit]

It's impossible to choose for best but for worst for me it's easily Nameless King.It's the only optional boss in the whole series that i eventually gave up on beating (on my own) because that first phase was completely bullshit and felt that it was very,very poorly designed.

 

[silva1991]

Best is likely Gehrman. He is amazing with such a cool and awseom animations and move sets. Best boss theme and arena too.

It's hard to say which one is worst. Series has so many crappy bosses.

It's probably Bed of Chaos. It's bad, rushed, unfair and feels unfinished.

 

[TheThunder]

Best:

Artorias of the Abyss. Great humanoid sized boss (which are usually the best in these type of games), very fast and agile but also really strong and makes the fight really intense with a lot of clutch dodges and getting hits in when you can and the fight never feels cheap.

Worst:

Bed of chaos. It's like a horrible interactive cutscene gone to shit with 2 -3 almost guaranteed cheap deaths built in. It doesn't help as well that the boss is stuck in pretty much the single worst area in the entire fucking series by a mile.

P.S. only played Demon's and the 3 dark souls, no Bloodborne.

 

[Thud]

I liked King Allant and Artorias best. King Allant build up is straight from jojo, za warudo included. Artorias is Berserker armored Guts.

 

[johntown]

Best - The 4 Kings in Dark Souls - one of the most unique and challenging boss fights ever.

Worst - Watchdog of the Old Lords in the cursed chalice dungeon in Bloodborne. Not only do you need a ton of health to not be one shot they but you in a small room with the large boss. Took me hundreds of tries since I had to play perfectly to win.

 

[Mafro]

Thought the Ancient Dragon in DS2 was far worse than Bed of Chaos.

 

[galv]

Best: Soul of Cinder

The best boss, but it was close with Artorias for me. It was the perfect end to a fantastic set of games, and the second phase with the shift in music was one of the highest highs in the entire series.

Worst: Royal Rat Authority, Royal Rat Vanguard, Old Dragonrider, Twin Dragonriders, Covetous Demon, Prowling Magus, Giant Lord, Belfry Gargoyles, Bed of Chaos and Lud/Zallen all are equally awful.

 

[ubiblu]

Best: Gael. The fight encapsulates so much about what makes one-on-one melee bouts truly harrowing and is the perfect 'skill check' after a long journey.

Worst: Covetous Demon probably. Literally a blob of shit.

 

[RuinerPrime]

well I've only played Bloodborne and Darksouls 3 all the way through.

Best: Lady Maria & Abyss Watchers

Worst: I...cant think of any? I don't really hate that many...maybe Witches of Hemwick? it wasn't bad just a little boring.

 

[The Wraith]

Best: Ebrietas Daughter of the Cosmos

 

[Greatest Ever]

Best: Soul of Cinder off the top of my head.

Worst: Dragon God. Genuinely bad all around. Boring too.

Edit: Don't know how I forgot Bed of Chaos. I'd still say Dragon God is worse.

It's impossible to choose for best but for worst for me it's easily Nameless King.It's the only optional boss in the whole series that i eventually gave up on beating (on my own) because that first phase was completely bullshit and felt that it was very,very poorly designed.

I can get behind this. I want to finish the fight but the first stage's camera is complete basura.

 

[Menome]

The best for me is The Four Kings:

It's the one fight in the whole of the series that's given me such an intense feeling of fear, oppression and wonder. The entire thing taking place in an immense never-ending black void, seemingly located below the floor of the world itself adds to the intense atmosphere this fight produces.

An absolute masterpiece in build-up and execution.

 

[Stone Ocean]

Best: False King from Demons
Worst: Vendrick from 2

False King is such an intense battle if you don't cheese it, meanwhile Vendrick is everything that is wrong with Dark 2 turned up to 11.

 

[kc44135]

Best boss: Sif, from Dark Souls 1.

Is this mechanically the best or most challenging boss in the series? Probably not, but it is easily the most memorable for me, by far. The area you fight him in, the music that plays throughout the fight, the amazing design of Sif himself, and of course, the final moments of the fight where the proud wolf is reduced to limping as he weakens, which makes defeating him a bittersweet moment like no other in the franchise. It's truly unforgettable, which is why it's my personal favorite.

Worst boss: Bed of Chaos, from Dark Souls 1.

Yep, DS1 has my favorite and least favorite bosses in the entire series, which I think goes to illustrate just how uneven in quality DS1 really is. When it's good, it's the best game in the series, and when it's bad... it's pretty damn bad. Case in point, bed of Chaos, an inconceivably awful boss fight (if you can even call it that) in every possible way. From the floor randomly breaking underneath you, to the way the boss tries to randomly flail and swat you into said holes, to it's random firestorm attacks that are unavoidable, there is nothing fair or fun about this fight, and it is the antithesis of Souls design. That's not even considering the fact that this isn't even a fight, with the "boss" dying in a single hit once you reach it. Yuck.

 

[InsaneTiger]

Worst;

Royal Rat Vanguard was dull, dumb and idiotic, plus it's a very uninspired battle

Best;

There's something about the last half of The Old Hunters. There's always this feeling in Bloodborne that everything happening is wrong and vile, but, after the battle with Lady Marya (which is also the best in my opinion) The Fishing Helmet seems like everything bad just happened and there's only room for hope.

All things that point into the Orphan of Kos battle are atmospheric and brutal, the battle setting is just amazing and the fight itself is the definition of Bloodborne combat;
frentic, savage and raw

But, after you finish and every piece of the puzle fits, you see that sea and you can only hope for the best.


Runner ups;

other best battle;

King Allant battle before the patch was brutal and I have fond memories of this battle because the SOUL LEVEL DOWN grab, an unfair attack that gave me many laughs back in the day

other worst battle;

( ;_

Allant was worse before patch? How are hell did I beat him? Wow

 

[LiK]

Best:

Lady Maria - Amazing 1v1 action. A boss that keeps upping the difficulty with every phase but is fair and there's no extended runback for a rematch. Also, her design is beautiful.

Lord of Cinders - Loved how he kept changing phases making the player adapt and the music was amazing. A nice send-off.

Worst:

Pinwheel - You can kill it in less then 2 seconds.

Bed of Chaos - Garbage-tier design that was frustrating to play legit. Very cheap boss.

 

[Neff]

Best: Fume Knight
Worst: Bed of Chaos, easily

 

[Finnroth]

Personally, the best would be OoK, but I think there are a lot of *really* good boss fights by now and the top is actually heavily contested.

On the bottom...well, From has tried quite a few things, and while I am not a huge fan of gimmick bosses, I think most of them are at least somewhat fun. They make for a good mix up. The really worst are the truly boring ones, and the completley broken ones.

So, Bed of Chaos would be a contender for sure, Ancient Dragon vanilla and maybe some of the humanoid bosses from Dks2 where you could just strafe around the entire fight (e.g. solo Dragon Rider). The garbage trash mob bosses like Rat Vanguard and Congregation are certainly good candidates as well.

 

[psynergylover]

The best and worst boss was the Old King in demon souls. His "soul stealing" grab was absolute bullshit!!! It hit me especially hard because I had just gotten the level requirement for the gear I wanted to wear, he said nope and I died quickly after as my character looked like he was hit with some sort of slowbeam.

 

[140.85]

Bed of chaos absolute best, no question.

 

[Skii]

Best is Gehrman by far. The build up to it and just the general vibe is unrivaled.

I'd also give mentions to King Allant, Vicar Amelia, Pontiff Sulyvahn, Champion Gundyr and O+S

Worst bosses: Almost all of them from DS2. Arguably the worst is Ancient Dragon simply because it was the worst designed. It was literally impossible to do with my build as I put no points in adaptability. But even the "best bosses" in the game barely compete with the worst in the likes of DS1 and DS3.

 

[Lumination]

The best for me is The Four Kings:
It's the one fight in the whole of the series that's given me such an intense feeling of fear, oppression and wonder. The entire thing taking place in an immense never-ending black void, seemingly located below the floor of the world itself adds to the intense atmosphere this fight produces.

An absolute masterpiece in build-up and execution.

I will never forget the moment I found out that there were more than four "Kings".

 

[ChoppedandScrewed]

I've only played Bloodborne and part of Dark Souls II so far but my favorite is Lady Maria. The walkup to the battle, the awesome battle arena, and the fact that she's the ultimate "swordfight" boss make her stand out in my head. It took me forever to kill her but I never got frustrated.

 

[mrmickfran]

Best - Ornstein & Smough, Ludwig, Lady Maria, Twin Princes

Worst - -Capra Demon, Bed of Chaos, Micolash

 

[Nightmare452]

Best boss: Abyss Watchers (Dark Souls 3)

Excellent boss fight. Starts with one, then multiple enemies show up and change your whole strategy. But thats not all, once thats done, one more change and a biffed up version, changing strategy once more. A very fun boss fight, not super tough, but very memorable for me. This is personally my best "fight" in Souls history. Had to beat his last form with no Estus left as I had used all of mine in the multi-enemy phase. The way I beat him was also intense. He and I hit each other at the same time, double KO. I died, but I had technically beaten him on the first try since it counted!


Worse boss: Demon of Song (Dark Souls 2)

This boss was unnecessary. I went into the room thinking I would find a bonfire after that swamp, and found this guy. I was terrified in the beginning since I didnt even knew a boss would be there. However, I beat him in about 60 seconds. Just smacked him around, his attacks are easily avoidable. Used maybe 1 estus. Worse boss, and just an ugly design.


Personal Favorite Boss: Maiden Astraea (Demons Souls)

My favorite boss fight in all gaming. Being in that room, fighting her loyal knight and defender. Trying to reach her either in person or ranged. Its a fantastic boss setup. The music itself, amazing.


Best gimmicky boss: Storm King (Demons Souls)

Fun boss fight. Gimmicky with the sword, but very memorable and enjoyable. Just fun to figure out and get this giant mantaray off the sky.

 

[BossDarkseid]

Best: Ornstein & Smough, Ludwig, Lady Maria, Twin Princes, Soul of Cinder,

Spoiler

Gael

etc. Really, its so up to the player.

Worst: Royal Rat Authority, Prowling Magus etc. None of the games has spotless records on bosses but DS2 has more than a few. Probably Bed of Chaos though. Even if some of the bosses are terrible, Chaos is the one that can constantly feel cheap and antithetical to the series.

 

[Kyleripman]

The best:

O&S from DS1. Shit got real for me at this moment. What appeared to be a crushingly unfair fight turned out to be a perfectly executed duel all about timing and exploiting their weaknesses, like a good fight should be. And the music is the best.

The worst:

Darklurker from DS2. Having to actually use a consumable to get to the fight, plus having to run the gauntlet of phantoms to get there (on a narrow ass ledge, no less) is the most frustrating part of this fight. But I didn't really enjoy the fight itself, either. Once it splits in two, I found tracking them to be annoying.

 

[JonnyDBrit]

I admit to only have played DS1 and parts of Bloodborne, so my actual experience of the majority of bosses beyond concept and what I have seen from LPs is limited. Of those I have actually tried:

Best Boss

While I recognise there are bosses in the game that are technically more challenging, more creative, and even bigger deals in terms of sheer lore implications, Sif strikes a balance between those various points that has become pretty much legendary in the fandom. Usually Sif is second to Artorias himself in this regard, but for me, the big bad wolf comes first. With pretty much every other boss in the game, there is one of the following to mitigate you feeling bad about your actions:
1) The boss is a monster, straight up. The world is better off without it.
2) The boss may be simply following its duty, or perhaps even doing some good, but it's also secretly an asshole that means they implicitly deserve an early demise.
3) The boss is a good person/thing, but is it also suffering, and therefore must be put down for their own sake.

Sif? Sif's a good dog.

Worst Boss

My god, fuck the Capra Demon.

I know, I know, the Bed of Chaos should be the obvious answer, especially given the Capra Demon turns into a generic enemy later on. But then, that's half of why I just absolutely hate the Capra Demon. The Bed of Chaos at least means something in terms of the wider series. You can understand how its design - however botched it may be - reflects the story and feeds into it. Capra Demon is literally just an endgame minion that is made particularly frustrating by a couple of dogs intended to limit your movement around a space designed to be small enough that it is difficult for the Capra Demon's swings to miss. It is the very embodiment of 'cheap' in this game.

 

[LaunchpadMcQ]

Personal low-key favorite is the Abyss Watchers. That fight was such a delightful surprise the first time.

Worst, Adjudicator. I literally forgot he existed until I was looking up bosses the other day. He was just too easy and not at all a well-designed fight.

 

[JMY86]

Thought the Ancient Dragon in DS2 was far worse than Bed of Chaos.

I played through SotFS late last year and they nerfed the ever loving shit out of the Ancient Dragon. The fight is kind of a joke now compared to what it was.

 

[moustascheman]

Best: Artorias. Fantastic fight with great mechanics, lore, and challenge. It's great watching him go through the multiple phases of the fight and it honestly feels like you're fighting a fallen legend.

Honorable Mentions: Sinh, Manus, Kalameet, Fume Knight, Sir Alonne, O+S, Nameless King. Really great bosses that manage to bring out the best of the combat and challenge you to learn their patterns and attacks.

Worst: Bed of Chaos. One of the most terribly designed things in the entire series. Literally no boss is as much of a chore to fight, not even ancient dragon from DS2 and he's already annoying as hell.

Most disappointing: Yhorm. I went in expecting an epic boss fight, not another gimmick boss in a game already having enough gimmick bosses. He could've been a fantastic fight but instead is only somewhat memorable for his design and Siegward, kinda similar to the rest of the profaned capital in that regard.

 

[xviper]

the best is hard to decide, there are so many great bosses in this series, mostly from Demon's souls, Bloodborne and Dark souls 1, on the top of my head these are the bosses i had so much fun fighting them:

Cleric Beast (Bloodborne)
the Nurse (Bloodborne)
Old Hero (Demon's souls)
Flamelurker (Demon's souls)
Artorias (Dark souls 1)
Gaping Dragon ( Dark souls 1) loved this boss because i used to do it a lot with co-op

the worst bosses are easily found in Disgrace souls 3: humanoid bosses edition, some dishonorable mentions:

The fucking tree
all the humanoid bosses in the game which are like 80% of the game's bosses( there are exceptions such as Nameless king, abyss watchers and Gael) the rest are trash and Fromsoftware should be ashamed of what they offered in DS3 after the amazing bosses we got in Bloodborne

Dark souls 2 had it's ups and downs when it comes to bosses

it had good bosses like Ancient Dragon, Glass knight, Nashandra, Vendrick, Bell knight and The rotten

and it had horrible bosses like, The rats, the lots of enemies bosses( forgot their name) and the three tall brothers

 

[eot]

The best:



O&S from DS1. Shit got real for me at this moment. What appeared to be a crushingly unfair fight turned out to be a perfectly executed duel all about timing and exploiting their weaknesses, like a good fight should be. And the music is the best.

The worst:



Darklurker from DS2. Having to actually use a consumable to get to the fight, plus having to run the gauntlet of phantoms to get there (on a narrow ass ledge, no less) is the most frustrating part of this fight. But I didn't really enjoy the fight itself, either. Once it splits in two, I found tracking them to be annoying.

I think Darklurker is a really good boss. I agree that the way you access it is kinda bullshit, but that shouldn't be held against the boss itself.

 

[Lady Siara]

Best: Artorias, by far.

When you first encounter him, you know you're in deep shit and the fight is flashy and fun. His move set is a joy to behold as he flings himself with all his might at you. He has my favorite design and left a lasting impression.

Worst: Leechmonger.

Located in the worst location in the entire Souls series, this boss just flings its proverbial great mighty poo and swings its arms. Ugly, boring conceptually, and a bother to even get to. While many bosses are more annoying, few are as uninspired as this one.

 

[Eria]

Dark Souls 2 has the worst bosses excluding Fume and Sir Alonne.

Best: Lady Maria

Worst: rat ds2

 

[Mafro]

I played through SotFS late last year and they nerfed the ever loving shit out of the Ancient Dragon. The fight is kind of a joke now compared to what it was.

I never even bothered with him in SotFS so I dunno what was changed. He was ridiculous in the vanilla game.

 

[Mman235]

Best: Ornstein and Smough

There are various bosses I'd probably consider better in a pure mechanical sense, and even a setpiece/"feels" sense, but this is the boss in the series that really captured the perfect narrative of a Souls boss. I went from "wtf this is almost impossible" to "actually this isn't that bad" through learning them. On top of that it's got great music and spectacle, and the reward of fast travel for finishing it made the difficulty feel meaningful as the final obstacles before a big change.

In mechanics a runner up would be Ludwig, who's easily my favourite "monster" boss in the series.

Worst: Bed of Chaos

Several bosses have tried to dethrone the Lord of Shit, but it still reigns above all others. I've started the most characters in Dark Souls 1, and abandoned the most pretty much solely because I can't be bothered with the shittiness of this boss (and there's very little after anyway, especially with the DLC accessible easily when you know how).

 

[Kyleripman]

I think Darklurker is a really good boss. I agree that the way you access it is kinda bullshit, but that shouldn't be held against the boss itself.

I didn't mind the first phase, at least!

 

[JMY86]

I admit to only have played DS1 and parts of Bloodborne, so my actual experience of the majority of bosses beyond concept and what I have seen from LPs is limited. Of those I have actually tried:

Best Boss

While I recognise there are bosses in the game that are technically more challenging, more creative, and even bigger deals in terms of sheer lore implications, Sif strikes a balance between those various points that has become pretty much legendary in the fandom. Usually Sif is second to Artorias himself in this regard, but for me, the big bad wolf comes first. With pretty much every other boss in the game, there is one of the following to mitigate you feeling bad about your actions:
1) The boss is a monster, straight up. The world is better off without it.
2) The boss may be simply following its duty, or perhaps even doing some good, but it's also secretly an asshole that means they implicitly deserve an early demise.
3) The boss is a good person/thing, but is it also suffering, and therefore must be put down for their own sake.

Sif? Sif's a good dog.

Worst Boss

My god, fuck the Capra Demon.

I know, I know, the Bed of Chaos should be the obvious answer, especially given the Capra Demon turns into a generic enemy later on. But then, that's half of why I just absolutely hate the Capra Demon. The Bed of Chaos at least means something in terms of the wider series. You can understand how its design - however botched it may be - reflects the story and feeds into it. Capra Demon is literally just an endgame minion that is made particularly frustrating by a couple of dogs intended to limit your movement around a space designed to be small enough that it is difficult for the Capra Demon's swings to miss. It is the very embodiment of 'cheap' in this game.

These were the two bosses that gave me the most trouble in Dark Souls. The Capra Demon was pure hell it easily took me 60+ tries and hours upon hours to kill him. Sif I stumbled onto WAY earlier than I should have at the time. I did not yet understand most of the games systems and was trying to use a crappy shield to block his attacks and was getting wrecked. I literally smashed one of my Xbox 360 controllers to pieces from frustration fighting Sif.

 

[Noobcraft]

Lots of great suggestions in here for the best fights. I thought Martyr Logarius was fun (painful to get to though), Champion Gundyr was great too. I didn't like the wyvern in D3 (I didn't know he was a gimmick boss so it was a long and boring fight), the witches of hemwick were boring, and Rom wasn't fun for me either.

 

[Bowler]

Best lady Maria... damn that fight. Was epic.
https://youtu.be/gxC2iSm-WB8 https://youtu.be/gxC2iSm-WB8

Worst...bed of chaos

 

[Weiss]

Ludwig is probably my favourite. Apart from having one of the most grotesque designs in all of video games, seeing that towering pile of mangled limbs pick up its sword and speak in that silky voice was genuinely as horrifying as the rest of the actual nightmarish monsters in the game.

Bed of Chaos isn't just the worst Souls boss, it's one of the worst bosses in any game.

 

[zoodoo]

Best: Ebrietas Daughter of the Cosmos

Curious to know why.
I've only played bloodborne and she's the worst for me.

 

[Magnet]

Worst: Leechmonger.

Located in the worst location in the entire Souls series, this boss just flings its proverbial great mighty poo and swings its arms. Ugly, boring conceptually, and a bother to even get to. While many bosses are more annoying, few are as uninspired as this one.

Huh, I've beaten all the Souls games, and I had to look up a video to remind myself of this one. This might be one of the most forgettable bosses in the series.