From Software Favorite Souls boss

[ghostdog]

King doran is one of those optional bosses that kinda make you feel bad when you kill them. I mean the guy was this awesome old hero-king who still appears before you and helps you. The dude is champ and he still lets you fool around and cut 1/3 of his health, while you, a fucking slimy bastard is trying to kill him and get his awesome loot. Of course when he gets mad you'll be duly punished.

 

[Gozma]

Kalameet. I thought Manus was a little bit too hard for his long boss run (with the underlevelled character I was using to learn him, he'd OHKO me on a roll counterhit with his normal stuff and all the dark magic, so this is pretty unrepresentatively subjective). Fun tail cut too.

 

[Grimwulf]

Kalameet. I thought Manus was a little bit too hard for his long boss run (with the underlevelled character I was using to learn him, he'd OHKO me on a roll counterhit with his normal stuff and all the dark magic, so this is pretty unrepresentatively subjective). Fun tail cut too.

Actually, Kalameet isn't that hard to kill. Now, cut his tail is really, REALLY hard to pull out on your own. So, I guess my favorite (=hardest) boss is Kalameets Tail.

And the strongest impression was left by Maiden Astraea. I played Demons Souls blind and after that boss I literally got that shock-strike, when I just had to pause the game and go take a smoke. It was even more shocking for me, when I didn't know what to expect from Souls series, to hear "You abandoned us long ago" from Garl Vinland. At the time I got the impression they knew each other, which made the whole scene absolutely insane. Dammit, Astraea. Why couldn't you just stay away from those people?

 

[Strayed]

Favourite boss would probably be Manus. I quite like the dynamics of the fight; his moveset seems to be designed to punish turtles, what with the five hit combos. His dark magic causes him to be a threat at range as well as a massive pain in the ass if you're stubborn like me and tried to beat him without the Silver Pendant. Basically, he's just an awesome, well-designed fight and a good challenge. Satisfying as hell when you beat him too, there isn't much that matches that feeling of sticking it to a filthy dark magic user.

 

[Great Deceiver]

My favourite boss out of the entire series is Flamelurker. The music for that fight still gives me the chills:

 

[Damned Registrations]

I think my two favourites were Sif and 4 Kings. The way the fight with Sif starts immediately makes you feel like you're in the wrong, especially with the preamble from the cat. Poor dog is clearly just guarding the grave of her fallen master. And then when she's almost dead and starts limping... excellent touch.

4 Kings was fantastic just for the atmosphere of it. It's otherworldly; you're in this pitch black space with no landmarks or anything, and then these fuckers just start to appear out of nothing all around you. My one gripe is that they had a big obvious video gamey health bar. Can you imagine falling into that place if they had no health bar? Killing them only to have another take it's place, in a blank abyssal hellspace with no way out? That shit would have been terrifying.

Honourable mention goes to the cutscene intro for the Gaping Dragon. Starting with the croc head (already a credible threat) and then it just gets bigger... and bigger... and bigger... I've fought other gigantic bosses (hell, Sif isn't exactly tiny) before, but this is the only one that ever made me feel intimidated by the size as it showed up.