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[flipping_heck]

Just completed Dark Souls 3 and it was an interesting and fun game to the Souls series (played and completed all apart from Bloodborne). Overall, a bit better than DS2 but not as good as DS1 or Demon Souls.

Only wanted to highlight the issue I had with the bosses I had in this game, compared with other Souls games, pretty much all the bosses had a phase 2 or multiple phases to the fight, which is fine in some bosses in the whole series but becomes tiresome in DS3.

Almost every boss in DS3 had a different phase when they reach half health or reach a certain point in the game, this was cool in early Souls games like the Maneater fight, Gargoyles, O&S where panic kind of sets in and having to re-adjust strategy when you least suspect it. Why couldn't DS3 just give me the real boss fight from the start instead of waiting for me to whittle them down to half health?

Here in DS3, the surprise and panic is pretty much lost and ultimately becomes a game of dying a few times in the first phase and dying a few times in the second phase in order to beat the boss. Some key bosses that stuck out for me were Pontiff, Aldrich, Sword Dancer, Oceiros, Nameless King and Soul of Cinder, cool looking bosses but had very similar formula in approaching them.

Personally, the boss battles are some of the best things about the souls series, when you have bosses like Artorias, Sif, Kalameet, Old King Allant, Tower Knight and many others which are memorable due to the atmosphere and the fight being mostly about endurance and patience to learn their moveset and applying it through the whole fight.

 

[Red Liquorice]

played and completed all apart from Bloodborne

Bloodborne's bosses are all like this too, so look forward to it!

 

[Dervius]

Not sure I understand your overarching point, was it just that you'd prefer not to have the multiple stage fights?

Some of the bosses had pretty inconsequential second stages but then I felt that some were truly enhanced by their final stage.

Spoiler

The twin Princes

second form makes you totally rethink your strategy in the last stage.

I think it's a bit of a mixed bag but some fights definitely benefitted from it.

 

[d1ddy]

Dark souls 3 is the only souls game I've ever beat and I've played them all.... I think the bosses are waaaaaaay easier compared to what I've seen in previous games

 

[JebaćBiedę]

Bloodborne's bosses are all like this too, so look forward to it!

Fucking Ludwig.

 

[Nibel]

I like the bosses design-wise but yeah, I was always prepared to die because of the 2nd phase everybody has

Shoutouts to the Nameless King for being a beast

 

[Hypron]

I love it to be honest. It makes the fights more interesting and I like the feeling of apprehension I get whenever they are about to switch phase. "Okay, 2 more hits and I'm going to get my ass handed to me".

 

[ebullientprism]

Yeah I am with you OP. Its a good trick when used sparingly.

But then again, DS3 isnt really about restraint. Always felt that game was designed with the idea of "people liked X in the previous games, lets do X a LOT".

 

[OrbitalBeard]

You're pretty much criticizing my favorite aspect of the game. I loved it in Bloodborne and I love it here.

 

[Red Liquorice]

Fucking Ludwig.

That fight, that boss, that moment, THAT music, might just be the pinnacle of the entire Soulsborne series for me.

 

[silva1991]

I like it when bosses have different phases. it makes them more epic and interesting. Ludwig second phase is one of the best moments in souls games easily.

 

[Blobbers]

I hope this carries over to all their next games. I like more stuff to die to and more things to have to adapt to/learn. Boss fights might me my favorite part of the series at this point, so it's like double the fun.

 

[nailbombxx]

I'm not sure that I'm understanding why the bosses having multiple phases doesn't make them real boss fights. The bosses in Dark Souls 3 are more phase oriented than Demons Souls and Dark Souls for sure, but I'm not sure if I'd call that a flaw. Perhaps the surprise of bosses having multiple phases (like Ornstein and Smough) is gone when most every boss has them, but it makes the boss fights more dynamic at the least.

Personally, the boss battles are some of the best things about the souls series, when you have bosses like Artorias, Sif, Kalameet, Old King Allant, Tower Knight and many others which are memorable due to the atmosphere and the fight being mostly about endurance and patience to learn their moveset and applying it through the whole fight.

Can this too not be said of bosses with multiple phases? Instead of moveset, make that moveset(s).

Bloodborne's bosses are all like this too, so look forward to it!

Absolutely. It fits even moreso into the context of Bloodborne with the overarching theme of metamorphosis so I think its really utilized well in that game especially.

 

[Lt.Chips]

You're kinda missing the point if you think Soul of Cinder's two-stage battle is meaningless... agree with the Nameless King though. I hated fighting through the Storm King just to challenge NK.

 

[Hentailover]

Bosses that change their patterns/downright change forms as the battle goes on is a feature that needs to basically be mandatory. Considering how old the concept is, it's a shame so many games don't do that

 

[Palmer27]

Bloodborne's bosses are all like this too, so look forward to it!

Personally found the transformations much more effecting in Bloodborne

 

[Melkezadek]

People keep comparing it to Bloodborne, but I don't recall there being multiple bosses that when you took their line down to 0 they respawn with an entirely new form with a brand new line.

I found that shit really annoying in DS3.

 

[Creamium]

I had a hard time with the Two Princes the first time around, and was glad I finally got him down... only to realize he also had a second form. That brought a small sense of despair I hadn't felt since O&S. It gives the fights a bit of a twist, and I like it.

 

[spliced]

I agree I don't like it. You end up with easy first part and then extra hard second part to make up for it which throws it out of balance, especially when you're having trouble and you go through the motions over and over for the first part just to get to the part where the real fight begins.

Keep it as a gimmick for a boss here or there, these gimmicks that work for a single boss or two get tiresome when every boss has that same gimmick.

 

[into.it.over.it]

I think it's a bit of a mixed bag but some fights definitely benefitted from it.

This. I think it might have been better if it was used more sparingly so you're not going into a boss battle expecting it every time.

One of my favourite things about the boss battle transitions was the change in music. That was some Shadow of the Colossus level stuff.

 

[UnluckyKate]

That fight, that boss, that moment, THAT music, might just be the pinnacle of the entire Soulsborne series for me.

word. The boss is soul crushingly hard, huge, leaping fast, hitting like a church fell on your head and then... This moment holy shit

 

[Nocturnowl]

Personally found the transformations much more effecting in Bloodborne

Most of the bosses in BB had a far greater transformation, they'd go beyond just going "I'm angry now!" to turning into gosh dang monsters.

Not that DS3 lacks this entirely and BB had its share of bosses that just picked up the pace as well, but I think DS3 in general has more cases where the boss just got faster/more powerful leaving Bloodborne with the more memorable mid boss fight transitions.

One of the great things about this in both games is the dynamic soundtrack shifts to fits each phase.

 

[Despera]

It is an excellent design choice and I hope they keep it up. Bloodborne did it best.

 

[Sande]

I think it's a good idea that can be executed badly. Overall I like the notion of the boss going "wait, this guy is not screwing around" and going into full desperation mode, doing their damnedest not to die.

If the first form is too long and considerably easier than the second, like with Nameless King, it starts feeling like a pointless time-waster on repeated attempts. Then there's the final form that is accidentally (it can be great when done on purpose for a reason, like

Spoiler

Sif

in Dark Souls) way easier like Velstadt in Dark Souls 2. But that's just bad game design.

 

[Crab Milk Mickey]

Dark souls 3 is the only souls game I've ever beat and I've played them all.... I think the bosses are waaaaaaay easier compared to what I've seen in previous games

Nowadays, the majority of vanilla Dark Souls (and vanilla 2's) are the easiest of the series when you compare them side-by-side.

A select few from Demon's Souls are moderately challenging in isolation (like Penetrator for example) but FROM Software only escalated these established archetypes over the years with more attack variety and higher aggression, be it through faster movement or less downtime in between moves. They also cut Demon's fat with subsequent entries by heavily toning down the gimmicks once they realized which boss designs worked: Demon's had a bunch of them that either abruptly defied existing rules (such as Dragon God or Storm King) or relied on cramped-up arenas with a camera prone to spaz out near walls (like Flamelurker) for increased difficulty . Great aesthetics and atmosphere in their locations to this day though, but that's besides the point.

 

[Magic Mushroom]

You're pretty much criticizing my favorite aspect of the game. I loved it in Bloodborne and I love it here.

Yup.

 

[takriel]

It's a natural evolution of the boss design in the Souls games. As we get better playing these games, bosses need to pose more challenge.

 

[Dahbomb]

I love phase bosses.

Well within limits of course, as long as I don't fight more than 3 phases.

 

[Twenty7KVN]

I like the bosses design-wise but yeah, I was always prepared to die because of the 2nd phase everybody has

Shoutouts to the Nameless King for being a beast

Love that fight but the camera made the first phase way harder than it should be.

 

[Flame Lord]

Off the top of my head the only bosses that did that were the Abyss Walkers, Lothric, Nameless King and Soul of Cinder. That's really not that many, and of them I'd say the only annoying one was Nameless King, since neither his for or second form were to easy.

 

[Fancy Clown]

I'd like the multiple phases better if the boss didn't get a confidence wrecking totally full health bar for the new phase, rather than just switching phases throughout the same health bar, even if the total health is still the same.

 

[DemWalls]

I can understand the criticisms, though I think it works well if done right. About that, I think that's not the case for the Nameless King and Sulyvahn, at all; the latter especially, he most probably is my favourite boss in the game (and the only one that took more than a few attempts), but the second phase was a real downer after the adrenaline of the first. If only he was as aggressive with the clone as he is without...

 

[Jombie]

There a multiple phases to many of the bosses in the series, but the multiple health bar thing does gets a bit tiring. There's also a bit too much RNG involved with some of the bosses.

 

[AwakenedCloud]

Phased bosses are good once every handful of bosses, but they did start to get overused by the time 3 rolled around. When it becomes the norm, there's no real suspense when it happens.

 

[120v]

i know its nothing new to the series but Iudex Gundyr was one of the biggest Oh Shit moments i've had in awhile

 

[Whales]

Yeah, at first I remember going ''does every single boss in this game have 2 phases?''

I mean, you get used to it but it's never very fun to get to 50% and except the new phase. It's better when it surprises the fuck out of you

 

[ViewtifulJC]

I'm failing to see how this is bad...

you wanted to figure out the whole boss pattern in the first few minutes, never have the battle evolve or change or challenge you?

ummmmm

 

[Anura]

Fucking Ludwig.

The funny thing is that I think his first form is harder than his second. Oh, and he isn't even the hardest boss in the DLC despite being easily one of the hardest in the series. Bloodborne needed that though, the base game was too easy.

 

[Gin-Shiio]

People mentioned the bosses' health bars in DSIII reaching 0 before they transform, but then it's not really transformations, but rather resurrections or fighting someone else
entirely.

• The Abyss Walker you primarily fight dies, after which all the others transfer the remaining fragments of their souls into the corpse, becoming one
• Lothric's Elder Prince dies, the younger one steps in and resurrects him temporarily
• You defeat the NK's dragon, then you fight the NK himself
• Soul of Cinder is a being of many souls, you defeat one, many follow

It's different from Bloodborne, but it makes sense thematically. Note how some bosses like Gundyr have the snake coming out their backs, but they share their health bar, indicating they are one. It's interesting stuff.

 

[ZangBa]

I find it hard to believe you died to Oceiros, let alone multiple times. The phases don't really bother me, I don't really see the big deal. They are all done pretty well, and unique. It adds a lot to the gameplay for you to be on your feet and adjust to changes, and could potentially benefit different builds more. I'm replaying right now for probably the 5th time as a Pyromancer for example, and I didn't want to get any where near Aldrich during phase 2. Once phase 2 started, I started chucking all my Chaos Fireballs at him instead, fuck getting near his annoying ass with those giant hitboxes and purple turds.

 

[Thewonandonly]

That fight, that boss, that moment, THAT music, might just be the pinnacle of the entire Soulsborne series for me.

Is it sad that I have beat every dark souls and bloodborne main game and dark souls one dlc, but I can't make it to Ludwig in that damn DLC. It's just to hard man

 

[Palmer27]

Most of the bosses in BB had a far greater transformation, they'd go beyond just going "I'm angry now!" to turning into gosh dang monsters.

Not that DS3 lacks this entirely and BB had its share of bosses that just picked up the pace as well, but I think DS3 in general has more cases where the boss just got faster/more powerful leaving Bloodborne with the more memorable mid boss fight transitions.

One of the great things about this in both games is the dynamic soundtrack shifts to fits each phase.

Definitely, I love the way the soundtrack shifts. Makes for such an intense dance of death with the music - always die as soon as I become aware of it.

 

[Fahzgoolin]

I get you OP. I didn't care for Dark Souls 3 compared to DS1 and Bloodborne. Bloodborne has a bunch of multi-staged bosses, but I feel like they are a lot better and more balanced.

In Dark Souls 3 nearly every large boss had a lame Area of Attack blast that hurt you when you were behind them. It's like every time I started to master a boss, the game said, "Oh crap, he's figured us out! Spam the ground with AoE bullshit!"

 

[Afrodium]

That fight, that boss, that moment, THAT music, might just be the pinnacle of the entire Soulsborne series for me.

It took me so long to even survive his first phase for more than like 10 seconds, and when I finally got the hang of it the game had to fucking do that. I felt utterly defeated.

I was stuck on him for like 3 days.