What's cool about the "I'm on fire now" phase 2, are the bosses are becoming Embered. Like you can with an Ember. Which means more for the Lords of Cinder, since they succeeded in linking the flame the state seems to be more than a health boost.
I didn't learn to parry until I was well into my second or third run. Perhaps ironic because my first character was a sword and shield. I got good at blocking but always found parry attempts too risky to be worth it. Especially when I learned I could stancebreak when two handing weapons on my second character. I like how multiple approaches are viable, you can absolutely beat the game without using any parry equipment
Wolnir is my Crystal Sage. Sometimes he’s easy, other times his RNG breaks bad and spams skeleton summons and forward charges until I’m pinned against the wall with 3-5 carthus greatsword knights. Also the greatwolf does have a second phase, where its eyes go red, its wind dash gains a third pass, and he gets more aggressive. Also pretty sure it doesn’t do its frost breath attack until then.
Funny that you mention Siegward doesn’t respawn ‘because he isn’t an ashen one’ …because he actually is. After the first fight with the demon he says “we unkindled must put our duties first.” And yes, unkindled and ‘ashen ones’ are the same thing.
@@blackbloom8552 it would probably be unnecessarily complex to sort out. You just assume that everyone either goes hollow or moves away after you kill them
@@NoLifeKing_0 Also, in DS3 some Firelink NPCs do respawn out of necessity (you can't live without Andre, for instance). Needless to say, they aren't very happy with you when they come back.
The thing I appreciate the most about your analysis is how you are very willing to talk about when bosses under perform in feeling fun to fight. How minor frustrations in design can lead to the overall experience being subpar. A lot of discussion surrounding the boss fights of this series has way too many people being blase about how certain attacks/collision can be annoying to play around and simply not enjoyable. Just saying oh it's a "skill issue", because too many people in the community are living vicariously through no-hit and other challenge runners despite being an average joe amongst the playerbase. I don't like using video analysis to sort of self-validate thoughts I have but yours constantly hits opinions I also share so it's hard not to. :U
You know what's really ridiculous though? When those challenge runners happen to not think one of these games is perfect, they too get attacked with the same nonsense. There's a guy, I think his name is Nasu (apologies if I spelled that wrong), but he did the first level 1 no-hit run of Elden Ring, and because he had to learn all the bosses to such an extreme degree, he then did a review of them afterwards. Overall, he wasn't that impressed with a lot of them (I won't go through his criticisms here, but I think they were definitely accurate and have been echoed by others), and the FromSoft playerbase attacked him saying "skill issue" and "mad because bad" etc etc. They literally have no other defense and proper discussion with them is impossible.
@tWanderingBard Yeah, and it's really a shame. The souls series are a great discussion topic because of how subtly in depth these games are. But the marketing for it has done irreparable damage to the sub-culture surrounding this game. Not to say that the sub-culture itself also isn't at fault for perpetuating a lot of nonsense. You'd think, the guy who learned these bosses to a degree to be able to fight them flawlessly would have the best outlook on reviewing them in detail. But here we are. People are way too obsessed with the funny phrase.
@@TheLastWanderingBard Just because he did a RL1 run doesn’t mean he’s automatically correct. I did one too and I found a lot of his criticisms to be straight up wrong. I hate the get gud argument, but he doesn’t even understand some of these bosses on a fundamental level, like the beast clergyman and Maliketh fight.
my friend you totally missed what actually happened in the oceiros fight. you didn't kill the baby, and the animation was off screen during your footage. Oceiros blames the baby for him losing the fight and he goes BERSERK, flinging himself across the battlefield and slamming the baby against the ground over and over. That moment still haunts me after all these years.
Soul of cinder was truly a different experience the fight felt so personal like the game was talking to you, the player, for all the time you spent with it. Speaking to you about all your struggles. letting fight yourself, the you from all thoose years since the first game came out. And then when gywns theme hits and he shifts its something akin to the past its like over coming your own triumph in a way that lets you move on from it. The struggle is over.
Also, I just noticed this, but during the Soul of Cinder's second phase, the end of its five hit combo has it slam the sword into the ground at an angle, and the angled sword is in the exact same position as the swords at the bonfires in the rest of the series. the soul of Cinder linked the fires before, over and over and over again, and now it is so desperate to kill you that it starts using the same flame that you relied on through your journeys in order to kill you at the very end of the line. "Link the Fire" indeed.
Finally a relatable take on the crystal sage! I still have nightmares because of a INT only run I did while playing with keyboard and mouse. The sage was one of the most frustrating fights in the whole series!
just a note on yhorm: his arms and head take much more damage and cause him to stagger during his stagger you do thousands of damage to his head this makes his fight much more bearable and engaging as you try to line up opportunities to hit his hand
@@TheAkasharose personally i'd say 1:BB 2:DaS2 3:DaS3 4:ER 5:DaS1 (first half and dlcs carry it, of course) 6:Sekiro 7:Ds2 SoTFS havent played DeS yet
Jumping to the latest video to say WOW I so enjoyed your boss breakdowns, and agree with many of them. Keep up the amazing work, it's great to see new names in the Souls yt community.
Just came to say, I absolutely adore your boss analysis, I've practically binged the entire set. I just love how you've taken the time to think about each boss in a deeper way and your clarification of your preferences helps a lot, I feel like there are a lot of fights I've grown to appreciate far more, whether I liked them a lot or not. I am very curious about the opinions you hold for the future games from here, but I can wait patiently for such fantastic content!
I agree with you on the timing of Lorian's teleports. First time I went up against him, I had nothing but Artorias' gear and high hopes. Got vibe-checked a couple hundred times. Then, I realized that his attacks are perfectly in time with the Macarena, and it took five attempts because I also timed all my moves with the Macarena. Funniest thing ever, I tell you.
This video is good, but I wish you went MORE in depth. I want analysis of individual moves, lore tie-ins, any everything else. As is stands, I wouldn't call this "Over-Analysis", just "Analysis".
Great video, great series and I’m hoping you do analysis on bosses in series outside of Soulsborne! I do wish you would put up timestamps for each boss to make finding specific ones much easier, but that aside I loved this!
Timestamps are actually limited to 1000 Subscribers - so I'm actually really close to being able to do that! And 100% - I'm already planning on doing Hollow Knight & Death's Door, and I want to finish Lies of P and make a Vid on that soon!
@@TheAkasharosewelp, looks like; as of the time of this message posting, you are a good 70 subs passed your requirement for timestamps! Congrats and can’t wait to see your content moving forward! 🤘🏾
@@CyckOne I just finished Dark Souls - I'm hoping to have the other timestamps up by this weekend and post further videos with them up and active as we go now!
Another Vordt Greathammer enjoyer! Kudos I gotta say, you are the first person besides me claiming CrystalSage is a difficult boss. Even after couple tens of full playthroughs I'm still usually losing once or twice against him on any NG+0 run. Amazing video as always, thanks a million for that!
My favorite concept from Dark Souls III was without a doubt in the second DLC where another player is the boss, it was so cool to be the boss and fight other players trying to progress
@@DionPanday that is a stupid logic lmao. But no I didn't know that a precursor of the Souls series did that concept earlier, and it doesn't matter because my point is that I loved that in the game, not that Dark Souls 3 invented the concept. Wheter or not Dark Souls 3 invented it is irrelevant for my enjoying of that part, and I'm not a Souls Series historian to need to know everything about the series and what led to it, I'm just someone who enjoys the games and have more to do with my life than knowing everything about it
I have a personal tie for my favorites in this game and they’re for completely different reasons! The Abyss Watchers are so cool they have a great introduction to the fight with you fighting just one guy and you’re like “this is manageable” and then you get smacked with the reality that they’re gonna start jumping you! Then a third one pulls up and completely changes everything about the flow of the fight AND it builds this sad ass atmosphere that you are putting a legendary force to rest for good. It makes me feel bad and I love when bosses do that! I got stuck on this boss for 6 months during my first run and when I beat them I screamed a genuine scrumpt I was so happy Darkeater Midir tho, here’s the thing (and this is just a me thing so I get it if you disagree) I don’t like fighting dragons. Most of the time they share the same few issues with the disorienting camera, moves ya can’t really see, massive hitboxeds on moves ya can’t see cause of the crap camera that deals 70% of your health and can stunlock you into another hit? Yeah, it sucks. Midir doesn’t really run into that problem for me. You mention that it’s kinda lame that the only way to beat him is to fight the way that was seemingly intended, and I can understand that! I kinda like that the only way to kill only remaining true dragon, is to be literally perfect (which is something I think Gael and the Nameless King benefit from too). Make no mistakes, analyze its attack patterns and persevere to slay a freaking capital “D”, Dragon. This fight makes me genuinely feel like that’s what I’m doing! Roleplaying as a dragon slayer and the dragon fights back for real he doesn’t just stomp on the ground or rely on fire breath. He slams his full weight down, he claws at you, he fires a LAZER at you and at the end of it…you did it! It’s everything I love about these games shoved into one fight and I can’t tell which one I like better
Oh! So for crystal sage, he’s a guy! The one in Lothric Archives is the female one (she has visible hair while the farron one is bald), they’re like a brother-sister duo that serves the undead legion, and are possibly the reason why Seath is omitted from the trial of the legion (the flame extinguishing we do, behind the bowls (which are meant to symbolize the lord vessel) are depictions of Nito, Izalith, and the Four Kings) as Seath is like; the sorcerer’s God And their crystal ball is actually a big prism stone!
roughly 300 hour in DS3 and I'm only just now learning Deacons has an instant kill move that allegedly adds urgency to the end of the fight. I've never died to them, not even on my SL1 run
My favorite part of Champion Gundyr is how effectively the game frames it as a fair fight against someone who genuinely deserves to be called a champion. Gundyr in this form fights *exactly* like a skilled halberd user in PVP, constantly using his weapon and body in conjunction to deny the player any control over the fight, and the counter is also exactly the same as fighting a halberd user - learn the timing of his attacks and constantly stay in his face, punishing him for every second he's not able to punish you. Deny him the ability to constantly out-space, and learn when to strafe and when (and how) to dodge. It ties together especially well because it only becomes an unfair fight (weighted against the player) if the player tries to leverage the advantages they traditionally have over bosses - the ability to disengage and heal. You get the feeling that Gundyr is keenly aware that you can heal and he cannot, and that his choice of weapon is related to this. Halberds in PVP are jaw droppingly good at chase-downs and heal-punishing, and Gundyr's moveset is custom tuned to let him take even more advantage of this than a player. If you do not bait and space him perfectly, you essentially cannot heal without him doing more damage than you healed back. And so, the only right way to fight him ends up being to fight him on his own terms, to beat him at his own game - spacing and punishing just as aggressively, and genuinely understanding the moveset your opponent is throwing out. It feels like a duel against someone who doesn't feel like letting you win, and I love it. Or you could just parry him, I guess
Having to play DS games sound like shoving hot needles under your fingernails so I really enjoy these well-made videos that give us the good parts. Thanks!
Amazing vid! Really agree with most bosses. Surprised me with the sage take tho. My strategy to cheese the sage's 2nd fase, is throwing any type of projectile to the copies (throwing knives for example). If I'm not wrong they insta die with any hit, making it only a few spells coming at you.
I've been watching all these souls game boss analysis videos, they've been great. I was happy to see you comment on the ds3 protagonist getting into a lot of fights because they try to touch something, it is pretty funny. One of my earliest souls memories is someone describing them as "Ashen One, Toucher of Things"
I think Sulyvan and the second phase of Abyss Watchers are my favorite Souls bosses I've ever gotten to fight. Theres something so cool and satisfying about a nice speedy one on one battle with a flashy firey enemy. 😌
I remember thinking DS3 is Bandai being greedy and wanting something magical to happen. And yet I've grinded until platinum, and in retrospect it has several wonderful boss designs and a great conclusion to Dark Souls series. Great analysis on Bloodborne, glad you've continued.
One interesting thing about the Abyss Watchers is that if you lure the two nearby Darkwraiths toward the arena the boss will try to attack them through the fog wall, I once had a Darkwraith glitch into the arena and briefly help with the fight. Apparently their AI is built to recognize and prioritize eachother as enemies
I am playing DS3 for the first time ever right now, and also fought the Abyss Watchers 3rd. I just went straight! Then they were the next ones in my way.
Really graet video! Agree with your wife that you should do abyss watchers as soon as possible. Did it on my first play through and have done it most of the times since. The times i have done crystal sage and deacons first it felt weird as if it is a stalling period between actually ariving in the undead village and having a tough battle with a fellow swordsman, and doing them after abyss watchers and wolnir feels more like a true victory. My first run i tried the crystal sage before the abyss watcher, dying 3 times and giving up. When i came back after my lesson in souls i got from the watchers, it felt victorious. The crystal sage does not ever give me gratification from skill due to its randomness, but it does from out leveling it and saying: "you are beneath me" Additionally I wanted to mention that I am grateful of your words about aldritch. Ive heard people say that it is hollow fanservice and am always frusted by that mentality of "referencing the old game if bad". I felt aldritch evolved their idea, fits great in the world and its theme of holding on to ideas causing the idea to mutate and degrade, and was a fun fight on its own
You can tell every wiki of From Software game bosses is wrong because 'naked dude with a round piece of leather and a katana' isn't listed among everything's weaknesses.
I love dark souls 3, probably my favorite game of all time. The lore, the call backs to the original (even if everyone writes them off as fan service.) the bosses. I love bloodborne and elden ring but DS3 is what got me really hooked on the series.
fantastic video like the rest! but I must say I was very surprised the Nameless King got 0 mention of his story, it's one of the highlights of the whole game for me. I can forgive new players for glancing over the nameless King's identity if they haven't dug into the lore, but if you're familiar with the first game it should at least be familiar. but no mention at all? I find that a bit confusing, that alone easily makes it an S rank fight. but hey your list! and I'm enjoying it a lot.
Soul of Cinder is 100% my favorite fight ever thematically the idea of not only fighting yourself but everyone else and all the previous bosses in one I like that the fight is so straightforward it feels so personal and poetic
The Demon Prince has a very tragic story, he was trying to rekindle the flame of chaos, just like us with the first flame, when you kill him, that explosion that gave life to demons, it's all gone
I hear a lot of camera complaints about King of the Storms. I am curious, because I do see you freehand the camera in a lot of your footage - why do you lock on for this fight at all? Anytime I fight a boss significantly bigger than me (or a boss fight with multiple enemies), I hardly ever lock on, keeping my right hand in the claw-grip position to avoid camera issues, and it's never really felt like an issue. In fact, the boss the taught me to do that in the first place was Darkeater Midir, and I've been playing every Soulsborne game that way ever since.
I always assumed Vordt's behind weakness was an intensional choice by fromsoft to help players understand how much of a role positioning played. Iudex can be defeated easily by only standing in front of him, rolling his glave (and standing far enough to avoid punches), but tail hugging is a tried and true strategy in dark souls that will continue to play a role even against bosses and enemies that do have moves that respond to it.
One thing i think would be interesting is so to look at the unique bosses added by the Convergence Mod. It's very interesting how the mod changes boss locations are straight up makes new bosses to make up for the games flaws.
I love this game so much. Big agree with you on Yhorm. On my last playthrough I killed the dancer as 2nd boss and your STILL get teleported after the 3rd lord. Thankfully, I didn't do Yhorm last so I got to finish Siegward's quest properly
Not that it would change anything, but did you know the cursewood has a rare attack where it stands up , walks a few steps toward you then falls and tries to face plant on you lol its great with massive intimidation and comedy.
Some critiques of this video: 34:42 btw this is blatantly false the game waits for his dialogue to finish before it teleports you to the dancer. He says “best of luck with your duty” and then you get teleported. 43:11 This also isn’t true. The Dragonslayer Armour’s lore is that he is the armor of a knight who served under the Nameless king and Ornstein. This is heavily implied by the description of the Sacred Oath miracle you can get from the sunlight altar outside his arena after you turn in 10 sunlight medals. This also means that the original owner of the Armour was the first Sunbro 56:15 That isn't Artorias' grave. It's the grave of the Champion that the Champion's gravetender is guarding. The Champion was the Champion of the undead match and he gifted his weapon, the Valorheart, to his page, the gravetender 57:04 This is also wrong, the greatwolf does have a second phase. When the greatwolf reaches half health it will howl loudly and its eyes will turn red like Champion Gundyr’s did. It will immediately become 3x more aggressive and it will start using triple charges and a frost breath attack. Also if the champion is still left alive when the greatwolf howls he will gain a permanent damage buff signified by a red aura permeating off his weapon. He also becomes way more passive while the greatwolf is in the arena, using sorceries and actively attempting to distance himself from you. 1:13:24 Halflight doesn’t lock you out of two bosses. He only gatekeeps Gael, you can fight Midir before defeating Halflight all you have to do is knock him off the bridge which is before Halflight 1:23:51 this is just a nitpick but the soul of cinder didn’t bring you back to life, the bells of awakening did. The soul or cinder is the guardian of the first flame and it is the creator of all ashen ones. When an Ashen One fails to link the flame due to not being powerful enough to defeat the soul of cinder they are burnt to ash and only reawakened if the link of fire is threatened, which it was because the lords of cinder chose not to do their jobs
1) That might be me misremembering - looking it up, it looks like he does die if you step too close to the bonfire, but I'm not 100% sure on the trigger. I did Yhorm second this last run, so I'm definitely curious to experiment with the triggers here. 2) That still feels really heavily implied. Yes, the first Sunbro was a Dragonslayer as per Sacred Oath, but there are sets of armor for dragonslayers, which means there were more than one that participated in the war. Compared to the concrete nature of a lot of the other bosses in DS3, it still feels like grasping at comparative straws. Might just be me, though. 3) I'd heard a couple interpretations of the Champion being Artorius right when the DLC - but looking into it after you're comment, you're 100% right on this. 4) And yup - another comment actually pointed this out. I don't know how the increase in tempo never clicked, I had assumed it was just an increase in damage. Again, you're 100% right on it. 5) Another 100%, looking into it. I was operating off an incorrect piece of info I heard early in the DLCs release that the statue would not vanish until Midir had fallen and Halflight was dead. Appreciate the corrections on these!
18:34 Your wife is right; because the scenario you described for fighting it early as being unlikely is exactly what I did on my first playthrough 😅 granted i had played other souls games, so while it did seem like a difficulty spike it wasn’t TOO bad for me. EDIT: also didn’t even realise about Wolnir’s mist mechanic, since he went down so fast…
FINALLLY I THOUGHT I WAS TAKING CRAZY PILLS. Crystal Sage is one of the hardest bosses in this game for me, prob usually cause I'm low damage and hp but still.
What I find funny with the demon prince is that I've seen people confidently say "this attack is easier to avoid than the other" for both attack which makes me think it's really a matter of preference. which is pretty neat
What saves Iudex Gundyr's second phase for me is that the first phase teaches you that when you roll you really are impervious to any attack, so for phase 2 all you have to do is dodge. Don't overthink it
New to the souls series. 3 was my first and I beat it about a week ago. THANK. GOD. Somebody understands my hatred for Crystal Sage. As the second in game boss I did, I had trouble with that second phase and it’s clones. It took me about 40 tries. I hate everything about it. Even now, on NG+3, it’s a cakewalk, but a chore. most of my experiences with bosses were that they were challenging and frustrating at times sure, but after every fight, I looked back on it and realised I’d had fun. However with sage, there was nothing but.. thank god that’s over.
DS3 was the first Soulsborne game I played. To this day, I'll replay it with the bloodborne-movement mod. Having the step-dash at low equipment burden feels perfect.
fun lore facts, the demon prince fight takes place in ds1 firelink shrine. Midir takes place in the "rise of the lords" in the ds1 custscene when all the would be gods claim their lord souls and rise into existance. Some opinions on the bosses you said were bad, halflight... his damage i am pretty sure is BEYOND what a player can do with frayed blade.. the dark dmg on it is minor and the bleed does not matter cause i have never died to the bleed from him EVER on any build. It's always his katana laser that offs me if not his r1 SPAM. Now of the bosses i have EVER done without being hit are judge and champion gundyr,gael,cinder,dragonslayer armour,old demon king,aldrich,dancer cause.. bleed or magic build super EZ,wolnir,lothric,nameless. Every other boss has hit me at least once on every build and every run nearly. One last fun fact, cinder can PARRY you, i think its in his pyro phase. Anyway, i am loving these dissection vids on these games so souls or not i hope to see more from you.
23:27 "Sif's (last stand) was a bit more effective because dogs are cuter than...this thing." I actually think the opposite. I like how bosses like the Moonlight Butterfly, Last Giant, and the Old Demon King are more subtle in their goal of making you question yourself and whether you're really doing the right thing. Meanwhile, Sif feels like overwrought emotional manipulation trying *so hard* to make you feel bad for doing what the game forces you to do in order to progress, even when you both know each other post-DLC and the game still railroads you into the fight. Contrast this first to the Butterfly (not using Gwyndolin as an example because I'm too biased in his favor and would make a bad argument), whose ambiguity was more effective in my first playthrough because of its comparative subtlety. Even before I found out they were forcibly made by Seath out of human women, it seemed almost angelic and much more defensive in its behavior than the bosses up to that point. It's still clearly trying to kill you, and it's harder to anthropomorphize than a mammal, but there's that little nagging doubt it instills, that maybe you weren't in the right for putting it down. Then there's the Last Giant, which I think the Old Demon King ended up improving upon, where this monstrous creature is portrayed sympathetically, especially on a repeat playthrough where you know just who he is and why he recognizes you. Sif is a much more mechanically-engaging boss, but the Giant caused me to feel a bit bad for killing it even the first time because there was clearly an element of antagonistic tragedy; the literal Last Giant, desperate to kill you to the point where it mutilates itself. But the Giant was still a weaker boss than the Old Demon King, which has a more personal touch to it as a reminder of the demons of Dark Souls 1, not only portraying himself but also all demons by extension as sympathetic. Sif is hardly even a wolf, but an enormous dog carrying around a sword like a stick. The Old Demon King is not cute, it's not trying to make you feel bad for attacking something which looks like a 'good guy'. He elicits sympathy because he alongside the Smouldering Lake portrays the monstrous, swing-club-at-you-till-you-stop-moving demons as something which they were implicitly said to be from the very beginning, victims of their situation and the disaster that was the Witch of Izalith attempting to recreate the first flame. Now there's only a few of the original Chaos demons left, and this grizzled fossil tries in vain to slay this last opponent. He is the Merriam-Webster definition of a 'tragic *monster.'*
Ancient Wyvern is cool. It’s a spectacle encounter. If it didn’t have a boss health bar, people would probably see it for what it is: an epic interactive cutscene.
Crystal Sage drove me insane until I figured out that Throwing Knives delete the clones in seconds from basically anywhere in the arena, and they're hella cheap. Also, I recently finished my first DS3 SL1 run and Halflight was definitely the hardest, ended up cheesing him with a crossbow.
18:50 I missed the Sages at first on my first playthrough, so I got all the way to the bridge to Irithyll before doing them. The Abyss Watchers quickly became my favorite boss, and I was a little disappointed on subsequent playthroughs with how easy they became after doing the Cathedral first.
What's cool about the "I'm on fire now" phase 2, are the bosses are becoming Embered.
Like you can with an Ember.
Which means more for the Lords of Cinder, since they succeeded in linking the flame the state seems to be more than a health boost.
"you HAVE to fight gundyr!"
let me introduce you to black firebombs
Quick boss fight and an early chunk heck yeah
@@EinTheEinearly chunk?
@@KittensLeftFoot black firebomb trades for a chunk with the crows in the central hub
Beating champion Gundyr melee only no items no block no parry is still one of the coolest gaming experiences I’ve had
I didn't learn to parry until I was well into my second or third run. Perhaps ironic because my first character was a sword and shield. I got good at blocking but always found parry attempts too risky to be worth it. Especially when I learned I could stancebreak when two handing weapons on my second character. I like how multiple approaches are viable, you can absolutely beat the game without using any parry equipment
Good work
I've beat all souls bosses but I'm still terrible at the game, I just never give up
@@heatrayzvideo3007 thanks
@@heatrayzvideo3007 brute forcing is a legitimate strategy
Jerma, trying to remember the name of the ds3 tutorial boss: " what is his name again? Jumex Bunger?"
Wolnir is my Crystal Sage. Sometimes he’s easy, other times his RNG breaks bad and spams skeleton summons and forward charges until I’m pinned against the wall with 3-5 carthus greatsword knights.
Also the greatwolf does have a second phase, where its eyes go red, its wind dash gains a third pass, and he gets more aggressive. Also pretty sure it doesn’t do its frost breath attack until then.
I can see Wolnir's RNG getting wild.
And rewatching my footage... I never put together anything changed. I just thought his damage got boosted!
Funny that you mention Siegward doesn’t respawn ‘because he isn’t an ashen one’ …because he actually is. After the first fight with the demon he says “we unkindled must put our duties first.” And yes, unkindled and ‘ashen ones’ are the same thing.
always felt weird that souls games dont have npc respawn despite them canonically being able to do so in most of their games.
@@blackbloom8552 it would probably be unnecessarily complex to sort out. You just assume that everyone either goes hollow or moves away after you kill them
@@NoLifeKing_0 Also, in DS3 some Firelink NPCs do respawn out of necessity (you can't live without Andre, for instance). Needless to say, they aren't very happy with you when they come back.
we know solaire had his own world, so i presume NPCs respawn back in their own worlds just like the player does when summoned.
The thing I appreciate the most about your analysis is how you are very willing to talk about when bosses under perform in feeling fun to fight. How minor frustrations in design can lead to the overall experience being subpar. A lot of discussion surrounding the boss fights of this series has way too many people being blase about how certain attacks/collision can be annoying to play around and simply not enjoyable. Just saying oh it's a "skill issue", because too many people in the community are living vicariously through no-hit and other challenge runners despite being an average joe amongst the playerbase.
I don't like using video analysis to sort of self-validate thoughts I have but yours constantly hits opinions I also share so it's hard not to. :U
You know what's really ridiculous though? When those challenge runners happen to not think one of these games is perfect, they too get attacked with the same nonsense. There's a guy, I think his name is Nasu (apologies if I spelled that wrong), but he did the first level 1 no-hit run of Elden Ring, and because he had to learn all the bosses to such an extreme degree, he then did a review of them afterwards. Overall, he wasn't that impressed with a lot of them (I won't go through his criticisms here, but I think they were definitely accurate and have been echoed by others), and the FromSoft playerbase attacked him saying "skill issue" and "mad because bad" etc etc. They literally have no other defense and proper discussion with them is impossible.
@tWanderingBard Yeah, and it's really a shame. The souls series are a great discussion topic because of how subtly in depth these games are. But the marketing for it has done irreparable damage to the sub-culture surrounding this game. Not to say that the sub-culture itself also isn't at fault for perpetuating a lot of nonsense.
You'd think, the guy who learned these bosses to a degree to be able to fight them flawlessly would have the best outlook on reviewing them in detail. But here we are. People are way too obsessed with the funny phrase.
@@TheLastWanderingBard Just because he did a RL1 run doesn’t mean he’s automatically correct. I did one too and I found a lot of his criticisms to be straight up wrong. I hate the get gud argument, but he doesn’t even understand some of these bosses on a fundamental level, like the beast clergyman and Maliketh fight.
You changed my mind about Aldrich, and that's a tall order. Thank you my friend. Fantastic video.
my friend you totally missed what actually happened in the oceiros fight. you didn't kill the baby, and the animation was off screen during your footage. Oceiros blames the baby for him losing the fight and he goes BERSERK, flinging himself across the battlefield and slamming the baby against the ground over and over. That moment still haunts me after all these years.
you're quickly becoming one of my favorite channels to watch, really hope to see you grow soon! this series is golden
Soul of cinder was truly a different experience the fight felt so personal like the game was talking to you, the player, for all the time you spent with it. Speaking to you about all your struggles. letting fight yourself, the you from all thoose years since the first game came out. And then when gywns theme hits and he shifts its something akin to the past its like over coming your own triumph in a way that lets you move on from it. The struggle is over.
Oh boy oh boy, a new DS3 essay video to obsess over and fall asleep to? Yes.
Literally about to play this as I go to sleep lol
I’ve slept hundreds of times to people yapping about souls
Also, I just noticed this, but during the Soul of Cinder's second phase, the end of its five hit combo has it slam the sword into the ground at an angle, and the angled sword is in the exact same position as the swords at the bonfires in the rest of the series. the soul of Cinder linked the fires before, over and over and over again, and now it is so desperate to kill you that it starts using the same flame that you relied on through your journeys in order to kill you at the very end of the line. "Link the Fire" indeed.
Oh holy shit man these vids are SO GOOD i'm so hyped for yet another lets goooo
Finally a relatable take on the crystal sage! I still have nightmares because of a INT only run I did while playing with keyboard and mouse. The sage was one of the most frustrating fights in the whole series!
RUclips algorithm please bless this man!
Yeah I appreciate when people add new thoughts but sometimes it's like they're reading off a card of "opinions" that everyone thinks already
Yes bless him, but Don't bless him so hard that we have to listen to more VPN sponsors or raid shadow legends sponsorships god forbid.
just a note on yhorm:
his arms and head take much more damage and cause him to stagger
during his stagger you do thousands of damage to his head
this makes his fight much more bearable and engaging as you try to line up opportunities to hit his hand
Mild take but DS3 was the peak of the series
Homestly I'd put it right behind bloodborne and sekiro
For me it's between DS3 and Sekiro - they're by far my favorite complete packages.
The series as in the trilogy?
@@TheAkasharose personally i'd say
1:BB
2:DaS2
3:DaS3
4:ER
5:DaS1 (first half and dlcs carry it, of course)
6:Sekiro
7:Ds2 SoTFS
havent played DeS yet
@@carlossssssss5492 yeh, Sekiro is my favourite from game period
Loving the thoughtful, entertaining analysis-making me want to replay these for the 30th time
Jumping to the latest video to say WOW
I so enjoyed your boss breakdowns, and agree with many of them.
Keep up the amazing work, it's great to see new names in the Souls yt community.
Just came to say, I absolutely adore your boss analysis, I've practically binged the entire set. I just love how you've taken the time to think about each boss in a deeper way and your clarification of your preferences helps a lot, I feel like there are a lot of fights I've grown to appreciate far more, whether I liked them a lot or not. I am very curious about the opinions you hold for the future games from here, but I can wait patiently for such fantastic content!
Finally, a fellow Old Demon King appreciator
my fav ds3 memory is dodging the pontiff clone to parry the real one for a riposte win
That must've looked so cool!
i woulda bussed
And realising you can parry his leaping attack that he will always start with if you don't rush him
This is a solid analysis and your channel is definitely underrated
These videos are great, I hope you get more recognition!
Was waiting for this vid man!! As usual you knocked it out of the park.
I agree with you on the timing of Lorian's teleports. First time I went up against him, I had nothing but Artorias' gear and high hopes. Got vibe-checked a couple hundred times. Then, I realized that his attacks are perfectly in time with the Macarena, and it took five attempts because I also timed all my moves with the Macarena. Funniest thing ever, I tell you.
Your character's face, lord have mercy
This video is good, but I wish you went MORE in depth. I want analysis of individual moves, lore tie-ins, any everything else. As is stands, I wouldn't call this "Over-Analysis", just "Analysis".
Tbh I stumbled upon your bloodborne video and then suddenly was wondering wish he had a ds3 video so I could watch that too and here it is
What a fantastic video. Very happy I found this channel. Especially when I saw you have a AP of the single best ttrpg system out today, P2e
god, I love this game!
finally got time to watch this, and you didn't disappoint
so glad i could find someone to agree on the crystal sage
I love your energy and passion, wishing you many more subs
I've probably beaten this game 40 times. One of my all time favorites
Great video, great series and I’m hoping you do analysis on bosses in series outside of Soulsborne!
I do wish you would put up timestamps for each boss to make finding specific ones much easier, but that aside I loved this!
Timestamps are actually limited to 1000 Subscribers - so I'm actually really close to being able to do that!
And 100% - I'm already planning on doing Hollow Knight & Death's Door, and I want to finish Lies of P and make a Vid on that soon!
@@TheAkasharosewelp, looks like; as of the time of this message posting, you are a good 70 subs passed your requirement for timestamps! Congrats and can’t wait to see your content moving forward! 🤘🏾
@@CyckOne I just finished Dark Souls - I'm hoping to have the other timestamps up by this weekend and post further videos with them up and active as we go now!
DS3 has the best boss design and mechanics in the entire series. Easily, by far.
Even with the second phase, Crystal Sage is an absolute pushover
Great video. DS3 was my first FromSoftware game and it’s still one of my all time favs
Dragonslayer Armour catching people off guard with the fake stagger before Lies of P did it 😮
Another Vordt Greathammer enjoyer! Kudos
I gotta say, you are the first person besides me claiming CrystalSage is a difficult boss. Even after couple tens of full playthroughs I'm still usually losing once or twice against him on any NG+0 run.
Amazing video as always, thanks a million for that!
My favorite concept from Dark Souls III was without a doubt in the second DLC where another player is the boss, it was so cool to be the boss and fight other players trying to progress
You do know this happened before right?
@@DionPanday uuh no? Should I?
@@MessedUpSystem yes it was litteraly what put souls games on the map
@@DionPanday that is a stupid logic lmao. But no I didn't know that a precursor of the Souls series did that concept earlier, and it doesn't matter because my point is that I loved that in the game, not that Dark Souls 3 invented the concept. Wheter or not Dark Souls 3 invented it is irrelevant for my enjoying of that part, and I'm not a Souls Series historian to need to know everything about the series and what led to it, I'm just someone who enjoys the games and have more to do with my life than knowing everything about it
@@MessedUpSystem then why are you even here if you have better things to do?
I have a personal tie for my favorites in this game and they’re for completely different reasons!
The Abyss Watchers are so cool they have a great introduction to the fight with you fighting just one guy and you’re like “this is manageable” and then you get smacked with the reality that they’re gonna start jumping you! Then a third one pulls up and completely changes everything about the flow of the fight AND it builds this sad ass atmosphere that you are putting a legendary force to rest for good. It makes me feel bad and I love when bosses do that! I got stuck on this boss for 6 months during my first run and when I beat them I screamed a genuine scrumpt I was so happy
Darkeater Midir tho, here’s the thing (and this is just a me thing so I get it if you disagree) I don’t like fighting dragons. Most of the time they share the same few issues with the disorienting camera, moves ya can’t really see, massive hitboxeds on moves ya can’t see cause of the crap camera that deals 70% of your health and can stunlock you into another hit? Yeah, it sucks. Midir doesn’t really run into that problem for me. You mention that it’s kinda lame that the only way to beat him is to fight the way that was seemingly intended, and I can understand that! I kinda like that the only way to kill only remaining true dragon, is to be literally perfect (which is something I think Gael and the Nameless King benefit from too). Make no mistakes, analyze its attack patterns and persevere to slay a freaking capital “D”, Dragon. This fight makes me genuinely feel like that’s what I’m doing! Roleplaying as a dragon slayer and the dragon fights back for real he doesn’t just stomp on the ground or rely on fire breath. He slams his full weight down, he claws at you, he fires a LAZER at you and at the end of it…you did it! It’s everything I love about these games shoved into one fight and I can’t tell which one I like better
1.5 hour analysis of a fromsoft game?
you spoil us.
great vid
Fun fact if you’re colour blind like me the crystal stage fight is just a gamble
Oh! So for crystal sage, he’s a guy! The one in Lothric Archives is the female one (she has visible hair while the farron one is bald), they’re like a brother-sister duo that serves the undead legion, and are possibly the reason why Seath is omitted from the trial of the legion (the flame extinguishing we do, behind the bowls (which are meant to symbolize the lord vessel) are depictions of Nito, Izalith, and the Four Kings) as Seath is like; the sorcerer’s God
And their crystal ball is actually a big prism stone!
"the deacons feel...hollow" i saw what you did there
Great video and analysis! Can’t wait for the ELDEN RING VIDEO let’s goooooo
roughly 300 hour in DS3 and I'm only just now learning Deacons has an instant kill move that allegedly adds urgency to the end of the fight. I've never died to them, not even on my SL1 run
The only run I ran into it with was Pyromancy only. They have a ton of fire resistance, and it caught me really off-guard.
My favorite part of Champion Gundyr is how effectively the game frames it as a fair fight against someone who genuinely deserves to be called a champion. Gundyr in this form fights *exactly* like a skilled halberd user in PVP, constantly using his weapon and body in conjunction to deny the player any control over the fight, and the counter is also exactly the same as fighting a halberd user - learn the timing of his attacks and constantly stay in his face, punishing him for every second he's not able to punish you. Deny him the ability to constantly out-space, and learn when to strafe and when (and how) to dodge.
It ties together especially well because it only becomes an unfair fight (weighted against the player) if the player tries to leverage the advantages they traditionally have over bosses - the ability to disengage and heal. You get the feeling that Gundyr is keenly aware that you can heal and he cannot, and that his choice of weapon is related to this. Halberds in PVP are jaw droppingly good at chase-downs and heal-punishing, and Gundyr's moveset is custom tuned to let him take even more advantage of this than a player. If you do not bait and space him perfectly, you essentially cannot heal without him doing more damage than you healed back. And so, the only right way to fight him ends up being to fight him on his own terms, to beat him at his own game - spacing and punishing just as aggressively, and genuinely understanding the moveset your opponent is throwing out. It feels like a duel against someone who doesn't feel like letting you win, and I love it.
Or you could just parry him, I guess
found you from your bloodborne video, staying for everything else
samesies
Having to play DS games sound like shoving hot needles under your fingernails so I really enjoy these well-made videos that give us the good parts. Thanks!
1:27:18 one of my favourite little details there is that the soul of cinder looks directly at the player as it dies.
Amazing vid! Really agree with most bosses. Surprised me with the sage take tho.
My strategy to cheese the sage's 2nd fase, is throwing any type of projectile to the copies (throwing knives for example). If I'm not wrong they insta die with any hit, making it only a few spells coming at you.
I've been watching all these souls game boss analysis videos, they've been great. I was happy to see you comment on the ds3 protagonist getting into a lot of fights because they try to touch something, it is pretty funny. One of my earliest souls memories is someone describing them as "Ashen One, Toucher of Things"
I think Sulyvan and the second phase of Abyss Watchers are my favorite Souls bosses I've ever gotten to fight. Theres something so cool and satisfying about a nice speedy one on one battle with a flashy firey enemy. 😌
The Abyss Watchers theme is perfect
I remember thinking DS3 is Bandai being greedy and wanting something magical to happen. And yet I've grinded until platinum, and in retrospect it has several wonderful boss designs and a great conclusion to Dark Souls series. Great analysis on Bloodborne, glad you've continued.
One interesting thing about the Abyss Watchers is that if you lure the two nearby Darkwraiths toward the arena the boss will try to attack them through the fog wall, I once had a Darkwraith glitch into the arena and briefly help with the fight. Apparently their AI is built to recognize and prioritize eachother as enemies
The moral of Dark Souls 3 appears to be, *ahem*...
NO TOUCHIE TOUCHIE!
Ashen One; toucher of things.
I am playing DS3 for the first time ever right now, and also fought the Abyss Watchers 3rd. I just went straight! Then they were the next ones in my way.
Really graet video! Agree with your wife that you should do abyss watchers as soon as possible. Did it on my first play through and have done it most of the times since. The times i have done crystal sage and deacons first it felt weird as if it is a stalling period between actually ariving in the undead village and having a tough battle with a fellow swordsman, and doing them after abyss watchers and wolnir feels more like a true victory. My first run i tried the crystal sage before the abyss watcher, dying 3 times and giving up. When i came back after my lesson in souls i got from the watchers, it felt victorious. The crystal sage does not ever give me gratification from skill due to its randomness, but it does from out leveling it and saying: "you are beneath me"
Additionally I wanted to mention that I am grateful of your words about aldritch. Ive heard people say that it is hollow fanservice and am always frusted by that mentality of "referencing the old game if bad". I felt aldritch evolved their idea, fits great in the world and its theme of holding on to ideas causing the idea to mutate and degrade, and was a fun fight on its own
I beat Pontiff Sulyvahn without parrying and it felt like I had just run 5 miles once it was finally over
If Pontiff is so cool, tell me why he lets a naked fuck with a large stick parry him when he lunges for the first time
You can tell every wiki of From Software game bosses is wrong because 'naked dude with a round piece of leather and a katana' isn't listed among everything's weaknesses.
I love dark souls 3, probably my favorite game of all time. The lore, the call backs to the original (even if everyone writes them off as fan service.) the bosses. I love bloodborne and elden ring but DS3 is what got me really hooked on the series.
Oh boy, been waiting for this one
fantastic video like the rest!
but I must say I was very surprised the Nameless King got 0 mention of his story, it's one of the highlights of the whole game for me.
I can forgive new players for glancing over the nameless King's identity if they haven't dug into the lore, but if you're familiar with the first game it should at least be familiar.
but no mention at all? I find that a bit confusing, that alone easily makes it an S rank fight. but hey your list! and I'm enjoying it a lot.
thanks for putting the boss music its my fav out of all souls games
Soul of Cinder is 100% my favorite fight ever thematically the idea of not only fighting yourself but everyone else and all the previous bosses in one I like that the fight is so straightforward it feels so personal and poetic
I wish they dynamically adjust the camera distance farther away based on the boss size.
gow can you have only 6k abos. your vids are so awesome, i love this art of yours
The Demon Prince has a very tragic story, he was trying to rekindle the flame of chaos, just like us with the first flame, when you kill him, that explosion that gave life to demons, it's all gone
I hear a lot of camera complaints about King of the Storms. I am curious, because I do see you freehand the camera in a lot of your footage - why do you lock on for this fight at all? Anytime I fight a boss significantly bigger than me (or a boss fight with multiple enemies), I hardly ever lock on, keeping my right hand in the claw-grip position to avoid camera issues, and it's never really felt like an issue. In fact, the boss the taught me to do that in the first place was Darkeater Midir, and I've been playing every Soulsborne game that way ever since.
Damn, you have (so far, surely that'll change)
I always assumed Vordt's behind weakness was an intensional choice by fromsoft to help players understand how much of a role positioning played. Iudex can be defeated easily by only standing in front of him, rolling his glave (and standing far enough to avoid punches), but tail hugging is a tried and true strategy in dark souls that will continue to play a role even against bosses and enemies that do have moves that respond to it.
Rarely do I ever watch 1hr+ videos but this was a great watch!
I think Ds1 is the best for lore and atmosphere. Ds3 is also fantastic. Ds2 exists and is a video game.
17:25 is the most beautiful hitbox I've ever seen
Dark Souls 3 is basically hitbox porn simulator. I've never gotten through a run without something incredible.
One thing i think would be interesting is so to look at the unique bosses added by the Convergence Mod. It's very interesting how the mod changes boss locations are straight up makes new bosses to make up for the games flaws.
FINALLY, SOMEONE WHO PRONOUNCES “SIEGWARD” CORRECTLY
Quality content and a list I almost completely agree with. Good stuff!
I love this game so much. Big agree with you on Yhorm. On my last playthrough I killed the dancer as 2nd boss and your STILL get teleported after the 3rd lord. Thankfully, I didn't do Yhorm last so I got to finish Siegward's quest properly
Hell yes, so excited for your ds3 takes
Not that it would change anything, but did you know the cursewood has a rare attack where it stands up , walks a few steps toward you then falls and tries to face plant on you lol its great with massive intimidation and comedy.
I remember playing Darksouls 3 for the first time when I was a kid and it took about 2 days to bet Gundyr. I felt unbeatable when I finally beat him😂
Some critiques of this video:
34:42 btw this is blatantly false the game waits for his dialogue to finish before it teleports you to the dancer. He says “best of luck with your duty” and then you get teleported.
43:11 This also isn’t true. The Dragonslayer Armour’s lore is that he is the armor of a knight who served under the Nameless king and Ornstein. This is heavily implied by the description of the Sacred Oath miracle you can get from the sunlight altar outside his arena after you turn in 10 sunlight medals. This also means that the original owner of the Armour was the first Sunbro
56:15 That isn't Artorias' grave. It's the grave of the Champion that the Champion's gravetender is guarding.
The Champion was the Champion of the undead match and he gifted his weapon, the Valorheart, to his page, the gravetender
57:04 This is also wrong, the greatwolf does have a second phase. When the greatwolf reaches half health it will howl loudly and its eyes will turn red like Champion Gundyr’s did. It will immediately become 3x more aggressive and it will start using triple charges and a frost breath attack. Also if the champion is still left alive when the greatwolf howls he will gain a permanent damage buff signified by a red aura permeating off his weapon. He also becomes way more passive while the greatwolf is in the arena, using sorceries and actively attempting to distance himself from you.
1:13:24 Halflight doesn’t lock you out of two bosses. He only gatekeeps Gael, you can fight Midir before defeating Halflight all you have to do is knock him off the bridge which is before Halflight
1:23:51 this is just a nitpick but the soul of cinder didn’t bring you back to life, the bells of awakening did. The soul or cinder is the guardian of the first flame and it is the creator of all ashen ones. When an Ashen One fails to link the flame due to not being powerful enough to defeat the soul of cinder they are burnt to ash and only reawakened if the link of fire is threatened, which it was because the lords of cinder chose not to do their jobs
1) That might be me misremembering - looking it up, it looks like he does die if you step too close to the bonfire, but I'm not 100% sure on the trigger. I did Yhorm second this last run, so I'm definitely curious to experiment with the triggers here.
2) That still feels really heavily implied. Yes, the first Sunbro was a Dragonslayer as per Sacred Oath, but there are sets of armor for dragonslayers, which means there were more than one that participated in the war. Compared to the concrete nature of a lot of the other bosses in DS3, it still feels like grasping at comparative straws. Might just be me, though.
3) I'd heard a couple interpretations of the Champion being Artorius right when the DLC - but looking into it after you're comment, you're 100% right on this.
4) And yup - another comment actually pointed this out. I don't know how the increase in tempo never clicked, I had assumed it was just an increase in damage. Again, you're 100% right on it.
5) Another 100%, looking into it. I was operating off an incorrect piece of info I heard early in the DLCs release that the statue would not vanish until Midir had fallen and Halflight was dead.
Appreciate the corrections on these!
@@TheAkasharosethanks for taking the time to respond this is still a very good video 9/10
I just got into this video series a day ago, this is just perfect for me!
18:34 Your wife is right; because the scenario you described for fighting it early as being unlikely is exactly what I did on my first playthrough 😅 granted i had played other souls games, so while it did seem like a difficulty spike it wasn’t TOO bad for me.
EDIT: also didn’t even realise about Wolnir’s mist mechanic, since he went down so fast…
omg i never noticed that old demon king's theme could basically fit right into DS1 and it wouldn't sound out of place at all
Great video! Looking forward to the elden ring one eventually
FINALLLY I THOUGHT I WAS TAKING CRAZY PILLS.
Crystal Sage is one of the hardest bosses in this game for me, prob usually cause I'm low damage and hp but still.
Aside sekiro dark souls 3 is the best game from soft has ever made , tops Bloodborne easily and the ringed city remains top 5 dlc of all time
What I find funny with the demon prince is that I've seen people confidently say "this attack is easier to avoid than the other" for both attack which makes me think it's really a matter of preference. which is pretty neat
Crystal sage is about positioning . It requires some knowledge but is perfectly fair and in my opinion pretty fun to do
What saves Iudex Gundyr's second phase for me is that the first phase teaches you that when you roll you really are impervious to any attack, so for phase 2 all you have to do is dodge. Don't overthink it
New to the souls series. 3 was my first and I beat it about a week ago. THANK. GOD. Somebody understands my hatred for Crystal Sage. As the second in game boss I did, I had trouble with that second phase and it’s clones. It took me about 40 tries. I hate everything about it. Even now, on NG+3, it’s a cakewalk, but a chore. most of my experiences with bosses were that they were challenging and frustrating at times sure, but after every fight, I looked back on it and realised I’d had fun. However with sage, there was nothing but.. thank god that’s over.
DS3 was the first Soulsborne game I played.
To this day, I'll replay it with the bloodborne-movement mod. Having the step-dash at low equipment burden feels perfect.
fun lore facts, the demon prince fight takes place in ds1 firelink shrine. Midir takes place in the "rise of the lords" in the ds1 custscene when all the would be gods claim their lord souls and rise into existance. Some opinions on the bosses you said were bad, halflight... his damage i am pretty sure is BEYOND what a player can do with frayed blade.. the dark dmg on it is minor and the bleed does not matter cause i have never died to the bleed from him EVER on any build. It's always his katana laser that offs me if not his r1 SPAM. Now of the bosses i have EVER done without being hit are judge and champion gundyr,gael,cinder,dragonslayer armour,old demon king,aldrich,dancer cause.. bleed or magic build super EZ,wolnir,lothric,nameless. Every other boss has hit me at least once on every build and every run nearly. One last fun fact, cinder can PARRY you, i think its in his pyro phase. Anyway, i am loving these dissection vids on these games so souls or not i hope to see more from you.
23:27 "Sif's (last stand) was a bit more effective because dogs are cuter than...this thing."
I actually think the opposite. I like how bosses like the Moonlight Butterfly, Last Giant, and the Old Demon King are more subtle in their goal of making you question yourself and whether you're really doing the right thing. Meanwhile, Sif feels like overwrought emotional manipulation trying *so hard* to make you feel bad for doing what the game forces you to do in order to progress, even when you both know each other post-DLC and the game still railroads you into the fight.
Contrast this first to the Butterfly (not using Gwyndolin as an example because I'm too biased in his favor and would make a bad argument), whose ambiguity was more effective in my first playthrough because of its comparative subtlety. Even before I found out they were forcibly made by Seath out of human women, it seemed almost angelic and much more defensive in its behavior than the bosses up to that point. It's still clearly trying to kill you, and it's harder to anthropomorphize than a mammal, but there's that little nagging doubt it instills, that maybe you weren't in the right for putting it down.
Then there's the Last Giant, which I think the Old Demon King ended up improving upon, where this monstrous creature is portrayed sympathetically, especially on a repeat playthrough where you know just who he is and why he recognizes you. Sif is a much more mechanically-engaging boss, but the Giant caused me to feel a bit bad for killing it even the first time because there was clearly an element of antagonistic tragedy; the literal Last Giant, desperate to kill you to the point where it mutilates itself.
But the Giant was still a weaker boss than the Old Demon King, which has a more personal touch to it as a reminder of the demons of Dark Souls 1, not only portraying himself but also all demons by extension as sympathetic. Sif is hardly even a wolf, but an enormous dog carrying around a sword like a stick. The Old Demon King is not cute, it's not trying to make you feel bad for attacking something which looks like a 'good guy'. He elicits sympathy because he alongside the Smouldering Lake portrays the monstrous, swing-club-at-you-till-you-stop-moving demons as something which they were implicitly said to be from the very beginning, victims of their situation and the disaster that was the Witch of Izalith attempting to recreate the first flame. Now there's only a few of the original Chaos demons left, and this grizzled fossil tries in vain to slay this last opponent. He is the Merriam-Webster definition of a 'tragic *monster.'*
Ancient Wyvern is cool. It’s a spectacle encounter. If it didn’t have a boss health bar, people would probably see it for what it is: an epic interactive cutscene.
Crystal Sage drove me insane until I figured out that Throwing Knives delete the clones in seconds from basically anywhere in the arena, and they're hella cheap.
Also, I recently finished my first DS3 SL1 run and Halflight was definitely the hardest, ended up cheesing him with a crossbow.
Profaned Greatsword was my best counter. Halflight is just a nightmare at that low level point.
18:50 I missed the Sages at first on my first playthrough, so I got all the way to the bridge to Irithyll before doing them. The Abyss Watchers quickly became my favorite boss, and I was a little disappointed on subsequent playthroughs with how easy they became after doing the Cathedral first.