Dark Souls is well-known for its boss battles. Most areas of the game conclude with a deadly and challenging opponent that puts everything the player has learned so far to the test. Defeating a Dark Souls boss requires cunning, quick reflexes, and often enough, burying your head in the boss's back and swinging your weapon until it stops moving.
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While Demon's Soulspredated Dark Souls, the latter is where most players became familiar with FromSoftware's style of dark fantasy RPG. Today, we are going to be looking at the best boss fights inDark Souls . Theranking doesn't just take its cues from themost outright difficult boss battles, but instead the bosses that balance difficulty with clever design, enticing aesthetics, and storytelling. Also, expect spoilers for the Dark Souls story here.
10 Asylum Demon
Since Dark Souls was the first FromSoftware RPG for many players, the Asylum Demon was the first FromSoftware boss battle for many players as well. Given that fact, the Asylum Demon is an excellent introduction to the concept: tough, intimidating, but beatable.
The visual design of the Asylum Demon is excellent, being a bloated, misshapen creature that moves awkwardly and gives the impression that it hasn't had a true challenge in a while. Returning to this boss in later playthroughs allows the player to see just how far they've come in their Dark Souls journey.
9 Crossbreed Priscilla
Most Dark Souls bosses have a story of tragedy somewhere behind them, and this is certainly the case with Crossbreed Priscilla. She awaits the player at the end of the prison-like Painted World of Ariamis and gives them a chance to leave without further violence. However, this is Dark Souls, and you want those souls — her Soul specifically, and her dagger if you manage to slice off her tail.
Priscilla is a half-dragon whom many believe to be a child of Seath the Scaleless, and her backstory has been theorized upon by many players. What we do know is that she wields the Life-Hunt, a power only she possesses that even the gods feared. During her battle, Priscilla will turn invisible, forcing the player to track her footsteps in the snow.
8 Black Dragon Kalameet
The Black Dragon Kalameet introduces itself to players sometime before his boss battle. In the Artorias of the Abyss DLC, players are taken to Oolacile, and Kalameet lands on a bridge to look at the player before they cross it. Later, Kalameet will ambush the player in a canyon in an encounter the player cannot win.
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However, if the Chosen Undead seeks the help of Hawkeye Gough, Kalameet can be shot down and forced into a showdown. Kalameet's approach, mixed with phenomenal music from composer Motoi Sakuraba, is an awesome and terrible sight. He's a fairly difficult boss fight too, and he forces the player to use all of their skill and wit.
7 Artorias The Abysswalker
The title character of the Artorias of the Abyss DLC, his story is a tragic one as well, as Artorias was charged with protecting Oolacile from the Abyss and its creatures, only to succumb to it.
His fight is a difficult one, as Artorias is a skilled swordsman and is further empowered by the Abyss itself. Thankfully, his companion Sif is elsewhere at this point and doesn't join Artorias in his fight against the Chosen Undead.
6 Seath The Scaleless
Arguably one of the most malicious figures in Dark Souls, Seath the Scaleless is the dragon that turned traitor against his own kind and helped Lord Gwyn win the war and establish the Age of Fire. Seath was born without scales and the immortality that comes with them, and he has been forever obsessed with creating or replacing scales of his own.
In his archives, Duke Seath has been performing horrible experiments on anyone and anything within reach. His visual design and backstory are utterly unique and make him one of the best bosses of the game.
5 Chaos Witch Quelaag
Deep within the dreaded Blighttown, the Chaos Witch Quelaag awaits the player. She is a Witch of Izalith that has been turned into a half-demon by the chaos magics the witches experimented with. Her design is both mysterious and terrifying, and she is one of the more difficult boss battles of the early game.
She is a creature of fire and chaos, and she is not to be trifled with. Furthermore, her domain is one of the coolest boss venues in the game — if you can forgive the area that precedes it.
4 The Gaping Dragon
The Gaping Dragon is a malformed descendant of the dragons of old that lives in the Depths beneath the Undead Burgh, which serves as the sewers for the city.
The Gaping Dragon ranks highly on this list almost entirely on its visual design — it is a horrible creature that has become so gluttonous that its abdomen has split open into a giant maw that vomits bile. It's absolutely disgusting, and yet it's a brilliantly-conceived creature.
3 Gwyn, Lord Of Cinder
The Godhead of Anor Londo, Lord Gwyn awaits the player at the Kiln of the First Flame, forever sacrificing himself to keep the final embers of the bonfire alive. He has lost much of stature, power, and sanity, and he instinctively tries to kill the Chosen Undead when they enter the Kiln.
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All of these details about Gwyn are established without a spoken word when the player meets him, and it is a brilliant bit of interactive storytelling and a prime example of what makes Dark Souls so good. Furthermore, Motoi Sakuraba's score truly hits a heart-breaking melody as the player puts the Lord of Sunlight and Cinder down for good.
2 The Four Kings
The Four Kings were former servants of Gwyn also corrupted by the Abyss, and they await the Chosen Undead in the Abyss at the heart of New Londo Ruins. Their venue is simple yet incredibly clever. They live in the Abyss, and it's simply a black and empty void. Distance and depth are hard to gauge, and the fight is all the more challenging for it.
Furthermore, the Four Kings also have a wonderful aesthetic design, though there are actually more than four of them, which the player discovers if they take too long putting the Four Kings down. Apparently, this was intended, as it's still a factor in Dark Souls Remastered.
1 Dragonslayer Ornstein And Executioner Smough
Famously one of the most difficult boss battles in Dark Souls, Ornstein and Smough protect the illusion of Princess Gwynevere in Anor Londo. They are warriors clad in golden armor who work together to stop the Chosen Undead from retrieving the Lordvessel.
In addition to difficulty, gameplay, and visuals, the Ornstein and Smough boss fight also achieves a brilliant bit of subtle storytelling based upon which of the two warriors are felled first. If Smough goes down first, we see Ornstein, the honorable Knight of Gwyn, mournfully add Smough's power this own. However, if Ornstein is the first to die, Smough gleefully cannibalizes his comrade by obliterating Ornstein's body with his massive war hammer.
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