The Dark Souls series is infamous for its notoriously difficult gameplay and cult status among fans. It is also a meme heaven and some of these have migrated larger than the game itself. Git Gud!
The first game is also one of my favourites and also possibly my favourite in the entire Soulsbourne series. When a remaster was announced earlier this year I was quick to get my pre-order slammed down on the table, and that's when I had an idea. What if I went through the Soulsbourne series and ranked every boss based on how good I thought they were.
So that's what I have done. As I write this I am part way through my Bloodbourne run having completed all 3 Dark Souls games and DLCs. My ranking in this is entirely personal, based upon my experiences playing/replaying the games.
But how will I decide what makes a good boss? For that I have a ranking system based upon points given in 4 categories: Difficulty, Intensity, Design and Enjoyment. These 4 areas have individual scores that make up an overall score out of 60.
In the event of two or more bosses getting the same overall score I will place the one with the highest Enjoyment score ahead of the other(s). If these are even I will roll back through Design and Intensity, if all scores are the same then the bosses will be placed evenly, with the first boss mentioned purely being pot luck.
Difficulty
The difficulty criteria is as basic as it gets, how hard is the boss to defeat. In this case I am looking at how hard the boss is based around the point in the game that it should be attempted. These games are fairly linear but some bosses can be attempted much earlier or later than anticipated. In general levels and equipment play second fiddle to experience in these games, so facing a boss for the first time will always be tougher than later playthroughs.
For the sake of this list I have tried to keep to a reasonable level for the area I was in, kept my equipment and play style the same, and attempted all bosses in a logical order. Dark Souls 1 was the only game I had completed before taking on this list, and I had only really played the first half of Dark Souls 2 and the very beginning of Bloodbourne, therefore my scores on Dark Souls 1 are kind of based on how hard I can remember the boss being in my first playthrough as well as my most recent one.
The difficulty score is out of 10.
Intensity
Not to be confused with Difficulty, although it is closely related to it, Intensity is a measure of the amount of effort required to win the fight. I have based it on the diversity of the bosses movepool, the reaction time required to avoid damage or take chances, and how the boss reacts during the fight, such as undergoing a transformation or changing movesets.
I have also included in this category how the boss managed to keep my interest. I found some bosses more infuriating than intense because of cheap tactics or poor design, but some bosses really had me thinking and needing to be quick on my feet to spot an opening or possibly fatal attack.
The Intensity of a fight is also rated out of 10.
Design
The Design category is almost 2 scores in 1, the design of the boss and the design of the bossfight. There are some amazing looking bosses that have rather disappointing encounters, and likewise some incredible sequences are based on a boss that's a bit... meh.
The design of a boss is mainly about how cool they look, how imposing they are, essentially how much they look like a boss. Dark Souls sadly has a recurring problem with rehashing and reskinning old bosses to try and make new ones, and these bosses will lose points here.
The design of a bossfight is based around the mechanics of the bossfight and the arena that the fight is in. Some fights are so memorable purely because of the location, the importance of the fight in the game or even the way the boss has to be fought.
The Design category is scored out of 20.
Enjoyment
In my eyes this is the most important category, how much fun did I have fighting this boss?
Did I rage?
Did I cry?
Did I really get a kick out of winning or was it a relief not to go through that horror again?
This is the most personal category and likely the area where my score will differ to most others. Some bosses I hate, others will love. Some that I really enjoy others will think were awful.
This category is also scored out of 20.
All these scores will give the boss a final score that will rank them from worst to best on each game, I will start with what I found to be the worst bosses in Dark Souls Remastered soon, with some details of why I gave the scores I did.
This spot marks our graves, but you may rest here too, if you would like...
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