FromSoftware has become very well known for its boss design and boss quality. In virtually every single game, from Demon's Souls all the way up to Nightreign, there are several exceptional fights for players to look forward to and enjoy, but at the same time, there are also plenty of pretty mediocre or downright unfair encounters that often put a damper on the entire experience.
Best Soulslike Games On Xbox Game Pass
Whether it's the punishing difficulty or epic boss encounters, these are the best Soulslike games on Xbox Game Pass.
Many of these fights feel unfair because of a specific attack or effect the enemy brings, or for a much larger reason, like the runback or the area that the boss is located within. Whatever the case, these battles become much more mental than mechanical, meaning that players need to remain calm and push through the pain, even if it means dying over and over again to cheap mechanics and tricks.
Rearrange the covers into the correct US release order.
Rearrange the covers into the correct US release order.
Ancient Dragon
More Health Than Necessary
Details:
- Dark Souls 2
- Enemy-filled runback
- Huge health pool and absurd damage
The Ancient Dragon is the perfect example of a fight that could have been impressive, but in reality, it feels far more underwhelming and downright frustrating. For starters, the run to the fight is beyond annoying, being filled with several groups of enemies that will almost always take a chunk out of the player's health pool, unless they decide to clear out the respawns entirely.
When they reach the fight itself, players are greeted with an absurd health pool that takes so many hits to take down, and that's when they can actually land more than a few swings before it takes flight and coats half the arena in flames. A lot of the experience boils down to dealing as much damage as possible and hopefully not getting one-shot, but as far as dragon fights go, it is certainly on the lower end of the scale.
Chained Ogre
Too Hard, Too Soon
Details:
- Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
- Early fight that feels incredibly challenging
- Contrary to the parry-centric gameplay
Sekiro is a game built and designed around parries, and players will need to learn how to use the mechanics if they are to have any chance of surviving the later bosses. When it comes to the Chained Ogre, although some of its attacks can be deflected, for the most part, the creature will spend most of its time throwing out perilous attacks over and over, forcing the player to run and dodge rather than fight it head-on.
FromSoftware: Hardest Beast Soulsborne Bosses, Ranked
FromSoftware's Soulsborne games are known for their difficult boss fights. The following eight animalistic beasts are among their toughest.
It is also pretty relentless in terms of aggression, constantly jumping and running forward with little to no windows in between. Worst of all, the boss can actually toss the player off the nearby cliff, which won't always kill them, but it still feels incredibly unfair given how early into the game they need to fight him.
Royal Rat Authority
All The Bad Things At Once
Details:
- Dark Souls 2
- Obnoxious gank fight
- Terrible camera angles
The Royal Rat Authority is effectively a checklist for things to avoid in a good boss fight. First off, it's a gank fight, meaning that there are several other enemies in the way that only make the whole encounter more annoying rather than satisfying.
More importantly, though, the big fella itself has some ridiculous hitboxes and crazy attacks that have seemingly no telegraphs, which will easily catch any unaware players off-guard and send them back to the bonfire. To top it off, the extra rats respawn every time, so the annoying task of picking off the smaller enemies becomes a regular chore that has to be completed on each death, only adding to the annoyance and unfair nature of the encounter.
Maneater
How Much Frustration Can One Boss Have?
Details:
- Demon's Souls
- Small arena with little room
- Janky design
The Maneater fight in Demon's Souls is often criticized as unfair because it combines multiple punishing mechanics in a cramped, hazardous arena. The battle takes place on a narrow bridge high above a lethal drop, meaning one mistimed dodge or camera shift can end the fight, and the boss itself is highly aggressive, capable of sudden charges and heavy knockback attacks that can easily push players off the edge.
What truly elevates the frustration is that a second Maneater joins the fight before most players have safely defeated the first. This overlapping phase creates even more chaos, with attacks coming from multiple angles in an already limited space, combined with high health pools and inconsistent hit detection, which makes the encounter feel less like a test of skill and more like a battle against unstable design elements.
Lud And Zallen, The King's Pets
Not Worth The Pain At All
Details:
- Dark Souls 2
- Absurdly long and tedious runback
- Two fast enemies at once
Lud and Zallen are the poster children for awful boss runbacks, and the fight itself isn't exactly enjoyable either. The Frigid Outskirts is easily one of the worst locations in the entire series, being a frosty wasteland with low visibility and constantly spawning enemies, so getting to the main fight is in itself a hefty challenge.
Hardest Bosses In Dark Souls, Ranked
Dark Souls is known for its difficulty, and here are the most challenging bosses in FromSoftware's beloved action RPG.
When players finally make it across the ice, they are greeted with a reskinned gank fight that consists of two aggressive enemies that swipe and attack in incredibly unpredictable ways, sometimes dealing lethal damage in a matter of seconds. There's no easy way of approaching the fight, just a slow struggle to chip away at the health pools and hope that this time will be the last.
Smelter Demon (Blue)
On A Clock From The Start
Details:
- Dark Souls 2 - Crown of the Old Iron King
- Terrible runback
- Frustrating magic AoE
The Blue Smelter Demon is annoying, unfair, and in general, just plain cheap. The biggest gimmick comes from the constant aura damage it inflicts that slowly chips away at the player's health bar, even if they manage to successfully dodge every other swing and blow heading their way.
The fight is also generally harder due to the aggression of the boss, being a step-up from the original, which means players need to deal with constant damage over time, as well as avoid relentless attacks for the whole battle. If those things weren't bad enough, the runback is equally, if not more, unfair, having dozens of enemies in the way that will easily rack up just as many kills as the actual boss in the end.
Libra, Creature of Night (Everdark Sovereign)
More Mad Than Madness
Details:
- Elden Ring Nightreign
- Overwhelming NPC summons
- Frustrating madness mechanics
The bosses in Nightreign are considered to be some of the most visually stunning but also challenging encounters that FromSoftware has ever made. Each brings a new challenge, and Libra is one of the more interesting fights, bringing madness to the fray, but its Everdark variant takes things to a whole other level.
For starters, every attack is faster and more intense, requiring better reactions and constant awareness to even avoid a single one. The more annoying aspect comes from the summons that act as mimics of the players, which add another component to a fight that already demands so much, taking it from a brutal boss to a completely unfair one.
Bed Of Chaos
Barely Even A Boss
Details:
- Dark Souls
- The fight often ends in a single mistake
- New players need to learn by dying
Bed of Chaos is iconic for all the wrong reasons. Calling it a boss is a generous description, as the fight can effectively be beaten in just a few swings, and players will find that they aren't actually fighting a ruthless warrior or a talented spellcaster, but the terrain and awkwardness of the arena.
Even overlooking the tedious runback, the battle basically revolves around platforming and running in a game famous for not having a dedicated jump button. This means that players will often overshoot or simply be knocked to their untimely death, so although the fighting component is incredibly easy, everything else makes it feel far more unfair than fun.
Promised Consort Radahn
Nerfed But Still Brutal
Details:
- Elden Ring - Shadow of the Erdtree
- Teleporting attacks and insane combos
- Visual clutter at all times
SOTE has so many hard fights that many players who had invested 100s of hours in the base game considered it to be too hard. That was certainly the case with Promised Consort Radahn, who was actually nerfed post-launch due to being far too punishing and unfair, even for veteran players who considered themselves soulslike veterans.
The first face is pretty basic, but when that health bar ticks down far enough, the real pain begins. Each swing brings a beam of light with it that disguises the attack, and the other moves, like the two-part instakill grab and the aerial slam, end up feeling pretty cheap, which led many players to write the boss off as a design failure and a truly unfair encounter overall.
Malenia, Blade Of Miquella
Far From A Relaxing Dance
Details:
- Elden Ring
- A single attack ruins a good run
- Self-healing with every blow
Out of every boss FromSoftware has ever made, not only is Malenia arguably the hardest, but she is also the most unintuitive and unfair. The basic fact that her swings heal, whilst doing insane amounts of damage, feels cheap right from the start, as a lot of the player's progress can be undone after just a few mistakes.
However, the real kicker is the Waterfowl Dance, the infamous attack that has easily killed millions of players over and over, and the sole reason for Malenia's high difficulty. Dodging it is nigh-impossible up close, except with a pretty awkward camera trick, and even once players get the timing down, the constant threat makes fighting her far more tense than it needs to be, as at any moment, she could leap into the air and completely annihilate anything in her path.
8 Best Soulslike Games That Let You Play Your Own Way
These great Soulslike games provide a wide variety of build options and approaches, allowing players to play their own way.