Rllmuk's Top Fromsoft Bosses Poll!

[Strafe]

55 minutes ago, Thor said:

 

 

Edit: Or Guardian Ape! I couldn't beat him. Fuck that absolute twat. 

Once you get to Sword Saint you tend to look back on Guardian Ape as a sort of long since gone family pet you actually quite miss. Happier times.

[Oz]

6 hours ago, robdood said:

Ok I think I'm done, my list is a bit weird as I've ended up with no actual Dark or Demon's bosses, lol.  A lot of people love the Dark 3 bosses, but although I did enjoy them (I almost pick Champion Gundyr, I did really love that fight), I have always found Friede and Gael to be on the 'bit too mad' side of hard.  Perhaps I've just not fought them enough times.  But anyway, my picks:

 

5. Father Gascoigne (Bloodborne)

He's a great gatekeeper.  He is there to make sure you don't get to access the opened up world of Yarnham without at least getting the gist of how you're supposed to play (that's why you shouldn't cheese him!!).  I remember being stuck on him for hours the first time I played.  So hard.  Bloodborne felt so completely different to Souls even though it also felt very familiar. But that adrenaline when I eventually figured out how to play Bloodborne, and got him.  He also has my favourite backstory (sadface) and oh myyyy gooooood that theme music. ❤️  

 

4. Genichiro Ashina (Sekiro)

The best 'gatekeeper' Fromsoft have designed yet imo.  Similar to Gascoigne, I was stuck here for a long time.  At first I felt like I just didn't 'get' Sekiro.  Up until this point I'd just been floundering my way through fights.  But he taught me.  He forced me to play Sekiro properly.  To just get up in his face.  To not hesitate.  To stop playing like Dark Souls.  And that epic, dramatic final stage of the fight!  Michael Zaki you bastard, with your hidden phases/health bars. Superb visually, and a moment the game started to lean into the more mystical side of things.  Superb.  I love revisiting the fight with him even now. 

 

3. Orphan of Kos (Bloodborne)

The culmination of everything you've learned in Yarnham.  There are certainly more dramatic bosses in BB.   Ones with better music or visual design.  But Kos is the one who I felt to be the epitome of Bloodborne's combat philosophy; frantic, desperate, bloody, violent, noisy, and all at 100mph.  Incredibly intense fight (I still get shudders thinking about the sounds Kos makes during some attacks), it's still one I've not truly mastered, and in a way that's what makes it so great for me.  Each time I've beaten Kos, I feel like I've only just scraped through with my life.  And that's the thing Bloodborne does better than any other game. 

 

2. Owl (Father) (Sekiro)

Daddy! Hard to write much about this fight as I feel a bit like I'll end up repeating myself for the number 1 slot, but what a fight.  Owl is just a stupidly great boss.  After feeling like I'd learned to play the game thanks to Genichiro, I kinda found the rest of Sekiro to be.. well, not *easy*, but certainly more.. straightforward.  But then I reached Owl at the top of the castle.  He was ENORMOUS. He killed me in one or two hits!! It seemed insanely unachievable (aside - Is till think From made the time to kill Wolf a little too short on these fights, it is a shame as I know loads of people have given up on the game for this reason), but I persevered, trying to get myself back into that mindset I had vs Genichiro countless hours ago...  And I got there, slowly.  Again, by the time I beat him, I felt I had learned the encounter inside out..  Getting a super secret bonus version of him, with his complete moveset (so amazing when he uses what feels like 'your own' moves against you) was just a delight.  Plus cool ghostly birds are always a positive. 

 

1. Sword Saint Isshin (Sekiro)

Similar to Kos, Isshin is just the culmination of everything you've learned in Sekiro, and everything the combat system is about. "Hesitation is defeat", indeed.  And the poor guy is basically summoned back to life through someone else's body through some evil magic!  Poor sod.  But what a fight.  The scene is amazing, the storm building in intensity during the fight, the music, everything is *chef's kiss*.   The phases build nicely on top of each other, each feeling familiar enough but with crazy new tricks that seem downright unfair the first time you encounter them - that fuckin' glock, man!!  I'm not really sure what else to say, he's got it all.  Fromsoft boss battles always tend to get the blood pumping, but I think Isshin is the one that, despite feeling like I know it really well, and I'm not really 'scared' of him any more, I still get the insane adrenaline  rush every single time.  The best rush out of all the Fromsoft games.  That's why he's my number 1.  Does Elden Ring really have a chance of topping this guy?  I bloody hope so. 

Ok I came to post my list but… it is basically this… with two corrections:

 

1) Replacing owl with the second time you meet him in the dream (maybe you meant this one already) and 2)replacing number three with ornstein and smough. I just have so much nostalgia for that duo.

I think sword saint is basically perfect. I can say that with no hesitation. 

[robdood]

9 minutes ago, Oz said:

1) Replacing owl with the second time you meet him in the dream (maybe you meant this one already)

I did! that's why I put Owl (Father) instead of Great Shinobi Owl /nerd

[Oz]

28 minutes ago, robdood said:

I did! that's why I put Owl (Father) instead of Great Shinobi Owl /nerd

Then I have no rebuttal. This is the perfect answer. 

 

[Goemon]

Completely missed this thread so here’s my list again

 

Vicar Amelia

Pontiff Sulyvan

Dragon Slayer Armour

Martyr Logarius

Fume Knight

[Ry]

The first guy in Dark Souls. As it's the only one I have seen. 

[Oz]

19 minutes ago, Ry said:

The first guy in Dark Souls. As it's the only one I have seen. 

What?.. the one you are supposed to loose to/run away from?

Edited February 5, 2022 by Oz

[robdood]

Come on rllmuk souls bros, we've only had 19 responses to the poll so far! Am gonna post it on reddit tomorrow but will calculate rllmuk result before that! 

[Flanders]

1. Genichiro Ashina 

2. Artorias the Abysswalker.

3. Great Grey Wolf Sif.

4. Owl (Father)

5. Ornstein and Smough.

 

Interesting that I consider Bloodborne to be the all-round best From game but none of its bosses crack the top 5. 
 

Also, Isshin would be top 3 but I’ve still never beaten him so I didn’t feel he could qualify. Sekiro really did perfect the boss fight didn’t it?

[Keyboard Koala]

I haven't played much of Sekiro yet, so I 'll stick to four I really liked:

 

The gaping dragon (not so much in itself, but the first boss I beat that made me addicted to the proper Souls experience)

Father Gascoigne (oh the human tragedy... )

Ornstein & Smough (the quintessential Dark Souls series boss fight imo)

Slave knight Gael (beating him made me feel like I was finally getting the hang of From Software games)

 

 

[Flanders]

Also I’m going to stick up for Rom the vacuous spider, it’s a good boss. Great setting and it’s a great example of one of From’s guiding principles - do not give into intimidation. Don’t let the smaller spiders freak you out, you can go around them and get up close with the big guy. Was a proud moment when I realised he really doesn’t like the Tonitrus trick version, so just get in and fuck him up with that before his mates overwhelm you. 

[squirtle]

37 minutes ago, robdood said:

Come on rllmuk souls bros, we've only had 19 responses to the poll so far! Am gonna post it on reddit tomorrow but will calculate rllmuk result before that! 

I'm thinking! I'm thinking!

[squirtle]

Ok...

 

1. Lady Maria of the Astral Tower.

 

Everything about this is perfect. The setting. The staging. The introduction. The ramp up of abilities, but still only having one health bar. Top fight.

 

2. Orphan of Kos.

 

Just Kos. I didn't get this at first, but the fight is all fury and horror and madness. Perfect end to the DLC.

 

3. The Two Princes

 

I hated this at first. But once I learnt it and figured it out, owning these two was just so amazing.

 

4. Slave Knight Gael 

 

What at first seems like utter madness soon transcends into a ballet of dodging and grinding the fucker down. 

 

5. Father Gascoigne

 

What is there to say? The boss that teaches you how to play the game. All that horror and spectacle in one gnarly mother fucker. I still get nervous facing off against him.

[squirtle]

I will add that my viewpoint is probably clouded by the fact that I did Bloodborne first and then the souls games so I found the bosses in Demon's, DS1 and 2 a little underwhelming. And I don't really get along with Sekiro.

[Mike S]

1.  Ornstein and Smough

 

2. Genichiro Ashina

 

3. Blood Starved Beast

 

4. Orphan of Kos

 

5. Artorius

 

Chosen based on a mix of atmosphere, drama, lore, challenge and plain old playability. All bar the BSB I found to be real challenges but each new attempt (mostly) taught me a little more and each time I got a little better. It is the teaching and learning that I love so much about the best From bosses - the ones you finally beat and just feel better equipped to take on whatever is next. I really hope we get a good few new contenders in Elden Ring in a couple of weeks.

 

Best game is Bloodborne, obvs.

 

[Keyboard Koala]

1 hour ago, Flanders said:

Also I’m going to stick up for Rom the vacuous spider, it’s a good boss. Great setting and it’s a great example of one of From’s guiding principles - do not give into intimidation. Don’t let the smaller spiders freak you out, you can go around them and get up close with the big guy. Was a proud moment when I realised he really doesn’t like the Tonitrus trick version, so just get in and fuck him up with that before his mates overwhelm you. 

 

Good ol' Rom. Always reminds me of GoT's Yoren:

 

[BadgerFarmer]

1. Smough & Ornstein

Like entering a tag-team wrestling match and realising you've forgotten your partner. I like that they seem like genuine good mates, and try to stick together, one keeping you occupied while the other sneaks off camera and suddenly hits you like a train. So it becomes a case of using the cover of the pillars and trying to exploit the speed of Ornstein to trick him into pulling too far away from the big guy. Then of course there's the choice - who to kill first - which changes the second half of the fight dramatically. Smough is easier on his own, but sometimes you want the other ring.

 

2. Father Gascoigne

The 'welcome to Bloodborne' moment. Getting cocky on the first part (having worked him out by hiding behind the grave stones), then the sheer panic when he transforms. Trying not to flinch as he piles in towards you, betting everything on a perfectly timed a gunshot.

 

3. Aldrich

It must be something about this location. One of those fights where I spent plenty of time getting summoned into other people's games to learn the patterns, then kicked its arse in my own game immediately after. I do like a boss that mixes things up a bit, with cheeky big moves you have to look out for and exploit. Running around the perimeter to avoid the deadly arrow rain and finishing up right in front of him, ready to give him a smack.

 

4. Capra Demon

This is audacious, ballsy design and I love it. Even though I can do it almost every time now, the tension outside the fog door never fails to arrive. Like charging into a gladiators arena with your eyes closed, opening them to find it's a tiny room and you've got about a second to react.

 

5. Lady Maria

The best one of those technical BB fights, and as I recall not as horribly difficult as some. I could feel like I was figuring her out relatively quickly, although dealing with her later phase is a different matter.

[Nick R]

To those who've played through most/all of Elden Ring: would any of that game's bosses make it into your top 5? (Or, for that matter, your bottom 5 - is there anything in there that'll come to be as universally hated as the Bed of Chaos?)

 

Spoiler tag your replies!

[Strafe]

I don’t think it’s a spoiler but fighting dragons in Elden Ring is generally epic. Especially the first one you find.

[Qazimod]

49 minutes ago, Nick R said:

To those who've played through most/all of Elden Ring: would any of that game's bosses make it into your top 5? (Or, for that matter, your bottom 5 - is there anything in there that'll come to be as universally hated as the Bed of Chaos?)

 

Spoiler tag your replies!

I’m still working through it but I’ve enjoyed the non-gimmicky one-on-ones that are all about the fundamentals - reading the animations, reacting, exploiting the long cooldowns. It was fun thinking aloud and posting a mini breakdown of the whole MtFE encounter; likewise SR.

 

The encounters I don’t enjoy are the ones where melee users are fucked and miss out on a load of visual information (animations of larger foes) because they’re so close range. Or they get rocked by other enemies in a group encounter because they have to go in at close range for one enemy at a time…

[Kryptonian]

Radahn.

[Vemsie]

So far, no ER bosses for me. I have a long way to go though and while there have been cool ones and even weaker From bosses are still way better than most bosses in other games, I do think there are too many big creatures with massive swipes and jumps and AoE attacks. I want more fights like Lady Butterfly, Papi Gascoigne, Lady Maria, Isshin, Owl etc.

[merrychan]

I really really like O & S, great fun if you're familiar with it and hammering through like a Cleric Knight, even better with Jolly Cooperation.

However the Old Monk from Demon's Souls is something so completely brilliant in concept and execution it really sticks in my mind...

 

Spoiler

...and honestly the first time I played it on PS3 I don't think either of us playing that scenario had a clue what was going on

 

[friedgold]

Great thread and great reasoning from all. One big thing I've taken from this is that I need to play Sekiro, ASAP.

[Qazimod]

On 17/03/2022 at 12:30, Qazimod said:

I’m still working through it but I’ve enjoyed the non-gimmicky one-on-ones that are all about the fundamentals - reading the animations, reacting, exploiting the long cooldowns. It was fun thinking aloud and posting a mini breakdown of the whole MtFE encounter; likewise SR.

 

Other honourables now that the credits have rolled:

 

The GD - one of my longest sticking points, but very satisfying when I found a solution.

GFEL/HLW wasn't amazing but I absolutely loved his moveset because at times he's a

Spoiler

grappler archetype in a fighting game

 

I might even drop one of my Sekiro nominations in favour of SR.

[Benny]

Amazingly enough, I actually think Elden Ring has one of the overall weakest selection of bosses in any From game. But many of them are still fantastic. In Elden Ring it's the world itself that's the real star of the show, so it's still their best game yet, but I think the best bosses they've done are probably in Sekiro or Bloodborne. Or the Dark Souls 3 DLC.

[Qazimod]

Updated, and now wrapped in spoilers because people are still playing ER.

[Jamie John]

As others have suggested, so far (after 100 hours) the bosses in Elden Ring have been interesting and varied, but none can really hold a candle to From's other bosses. I'll no doubt be eating my words towards the end of the game, but they're all a bit too easy to be that memorable, certainly when there are so many different summons you can use and 101 different ways to break the game. There's not been anything to get the blood pumping so far in the same way as Genichiro, or Artorias, where you feel like you have to master every single move. A lot of the time I seem to be able to brute force my way through everything in a DPS race, or otherwise I'll circle strafe until the boss gets distracted by my summon before bringing on the pain. It's quite telling that Margit (who I faced when I didn't yet have summons) and the Crucible Knight in the Limgrave Evergaol (where you can't use them) have been the best encounters so far.

 

I could just play without summons, of course, but the game is exhausting enough already without being stuck on the same encounter for hours, like in Souls games of old. The developers appear to be aware of this, which is why they give you everything and the kitchen sink to throw at most of the bosses.

 

It's amazing, really, how ER and Sekiro are such completely different games, despite being developed by the same company, in the same engine with lots of the exact same mechanics and aesthetical choices.

[Vemsie]

I agree that ER, while probably their best game overall, has the 'worst' bosses since DS2. Still better than those in DS2, DS and Demon's for me. Which means they're also better than 99% of the bosses in other games.

 

Still some excellent ones, even if it's just for the spectacle. And Sekiro is a high bar to clear.

[Timmo]

Completely agreed on Isshin being their best boss, by some distance.

 

The thing about Sekiro is that it was so limited in "build", with your choice of sidearm basically being it, that the bosses could be tuned to suit. The Souls games suffer from having to cater to any and all builds, and in Elden Ring's case a much larger span of player levels. On top of that there are the summonable Ashes. Too many factors.

 

I do wonder if a lot of the ER bosses will be better when I do a no summon run, or even a Level 1 run, but to honest I'm probably not good/determined enough for the latter.