The dust has settled and the black eyes have been treated. Dark Souls III has been out for a little less than a month and the bosses are steadily being vanquished one by one. As with any From Software game, the boss fights are what make the game so thrilling. The difficulty of said boss fights has become the bread and butter of the Japanese video game company. As with the previous Dark Souls games as well as Bloodborne, Dark Souls III contains one perplexing boss fight after another but which boss is the hardest? There are 19 total boss fights in all of Dark Souls III and 5 (or 6) of them certainly stand out as the toughest.
#5. Tie between Champion Gundyr/Twin Princes Lorian and Lothric
I know, not a strong start to that whole top 5 thing. Oh well, these two boss fights belong on this list. Champion Gundyr is a tank and his Halberd weapon is one of the most powerful weapons in the game. Lorian, Elder Prince, begins the boss fight and Lothric, Younger Prince joins in halfway through as they combine to make a deadly combination of a sword using mage caster. Both fights can be characterized as difficult and are sure to give even the sharpest of Souls veterans some problems.
I just couldn’t put one ahead of the other because they both were hard in their own right. They were also two awesome boss fights that felt a cut above the rest and that is why I decided to include them.
#4. Aldrich, Devourer of the Gods
What even is Aldrich, Devourer of the Gods? Is it a worm or a snake? Is it human? These are questions I want answered but all I do know is that Aldrich can be a handful. From the magic arrows that Aldrich shoots to the fire damage added midway through the fight, the whole fight is meant to be a trap where one wrong move will get you killed. Aldrich may have been a push over for some but for others he could have been a nightmare. Personally, I think the raining arrow attack is the most unavoidable attack of any boss. There is simply no other way to dodge it but to roll and hope.
Aldrich, you disgusting worm woman you make me cringe. Hopefully everyone handles this weird boss with care because it is just waiting to kill you and it will.
#3. Pontiff Sulyvahn
In my opinion, the first truly challenging boss in Dark Souls III is Pontiff Sulyvahn (sorry Abyss Watchers). Found in the Irthyll of the Boreal Valley area, Pontiff Sulyvahn just does not care about you and your little attacks. He will slash and dash you to death over and over again with no remorse. Equipped with two huge swords, Pontiff barely gives you time to use an Estus Flask. To make matters worse, Sulyvahn summons a second ‘phantom’ form for you to deal with. So you basically are facing four swords at once. Good luck with that, says Hidetaka Mayazaki.
#2. Soul of Cinder
A game where the final boss isn’t the hardest truly means From Software makes this game. While there may be a certain King that is harder than this fearsome knight, he is still an absolute monster of a boss. Equipped with pretty much every possible attack in the game, the Soul of Cinder can kill you in every way imaginable. From casting pyromancies and spells from afar to using a huge great sword and slicing you to bits, this boss is trouble. A fitting finale to the game for sure, the Soul of Cinder does its job in making the player be as sharp as possible in order to react and conquer this beast. It wouldn’t be the final boss if it didn’t challenge you in every way. However, it is not the hardest as that honor belongs to…
#1. King of the Storm/The Nameless King
Good God, somebody tell this boss to calm down because he is TOO DAMN MUCH. This boss fight is 100 percent the hardest in the game and, quite frankly, it’s the greatest boss fight in the game. From the arena to the entrance of the boss on his fire-breathing dragon, everything is just epic. Basically, the Nameless King is basically Zeus and will try to kill you with his Dragon slayer sword spear and lightning based attacks. Being a two-part boss fight, the King of the Storm is the name of the dragon, which the boss rides in on. Once you kill this dragon, the Nameless King will not be happy and will battle you himself.
That is where the real boss fight begins and it is at that moment you realize that you are in way over your head. The Nameless King is hard because his attacks are sporadic and extremely difficult to dodge. The hit boxes are so unreasonably large that some of his moves are unavoidable. That is what makes the Nameless King the hardest boss in Dark Souls III.
The rest
Unfortunately, with the exception of the Abyss Watchers, the other bosses in Dark Souls III are not too challenging. In fact, a lot of them can be characterized as easy which, coming from the developers that are known to punish gamers, is actually kind of refreshing. However, people love the challenge of these bosses so the harder the better. Therefore, the reward of defeating these bosses will be that much sweeter.
Who did you despise the most in Dark Souls III? Disagree with my rankings? Comment below and tell me where I went wrong. Feel free to brag about how you beat the Nameless King in one try (you didn’t) or that you believe the Dancer of the Boreal Valley should have been included. Dark Souls III is out now for PS4, Xbox One and PC.
Published: Apr 25, 2016 10:11 am