Our individual rankings: (Don't read before watching) Alex's Rankings: 41. Lud and Zallen 40. Afflicted Graverobber, Ancient Solider Varg, and Old Explorer Cerah 39. Executioners Chariot 38. Royal Rat Authority 37. Belfry Gargoyles 36. Royal Rat Vanguard 35. Ancient Dragon 34. Prowling Magus and Congregation 33. Twin Dragonriders 32. Dragonrider 31. Covetous Demon 30. Scorpioness Najka 29. The Last Giant 28. Giant Lord 27. Guardian Dragon 26. Aava, the King's Pet 25. Aldia, Scholar of the First Sin 24. Vendrick 23. Demon of Song 22. Throne Watcher and Throne Defender 21. Lost Sinner 20. Mytha, the Baneful Queen 19. Old Iron King 18. Old Dragonslayer 17. The Pursuer 16. Flexile Sentry 15. Ruin Sentinels 14. Nashanda 13. The Duke's Dear Freyja 12. The Rotten 11. Elana, the Squalid Queen 10. Skeleton Lords 9. Smelter Demon 8. Blue Smelter Demon 7. Sinh, the Slumbering Dragon 6. Looking Glass Knight 5. Velstadt, the Royal Aegis 4. Darklurker 3. Fume Knight 2. Sir Alonne 1. Burnt Ivory King Jacks Rankings: 41. Lud and Zallen 40. Afflicted Graverobber, Ancient Solider Varg, and Old Explorer Cerah 39. Belfry Gargoyles 38. Twin Dragonriders 37. Royal Rat Authority 36. Ancient Dragon 35. Aldia, Scholar of the First Sin 34. Executioners Chariot 33. Guardian Dragon 32. Royal Rat Vanguard 31. Demon of Song 30. Prowling Magus and Congregation 29. Dragonrider 28. Giant Lord 27. Covetous Demon 26. Throne Watcher and Throne Defender 25. Scorpioness Najka 24. Nashanda 23. Vendrick 22. Old Iron King 21. Mytha, the Baneful Queen 20. The Last Giant 19. The Rotten 18. Aava, the King's Pet 17. Old Dragonslayer 16. The Duke's Dear Freyja 15. Flexile Sentry 14. Ruin Sentinels 13. Skeleton Lords 12. Lost Sinner 11. Elana, the Squalid Queen 10. The Pursuer 9. Sinh, the Slumbering Dragon 8. Smelter Demon 7. Blue Smelter Demon 6. Looking Glass Knight 5. Velstadt, the Royal Aegis 4. Darklurker 3. Sir Alonne 2. Burnt Ivory King 1. Fume Knight Who do you agree with more?
You forgot the hardest boss in the game. NG+ dual buffed pursuer. Puts midir and gael to shame in difficulty. Prolly only rivaled by dual guardians from ds1. Some of the game's bosses, become far easier with a UGS. Graverobber and ivory king come to mind. Why? Because you can knock down the NPC's with it. And a UGS can stagger and lead to riposting the burnt knights meaning you can 1 shot them. That can be achieved with a 2h heavy/running attack. I'd also rank executioner's chariot much higher. He does give you multiple ways to beat him, you can dodge his wheel spikes (gotta time it right and have enough AGL), the run up to him can be trivialized by jumping to the platform, etc. Like the fume knight you can skip his phase 1. I'm all in for bosses who give you choices to beat them. I'd also put elena above looking glass knight and velsdat. Because her fight is more about environmental awareness.
Ivory king is such a chad that he did get the affection of the daughter of Manus, even after he got corrupted, she carried his will and frozen the kingdom to stop the chaos, and when the bearer of Curse gets on the the castle, she undo the ice so you can put the Ivory king to rest, together with the other corrupted knights(you get a reward for collecting 50 souls of the knights)
@@siyzerixActually it's because the chaos flame was going out with the first flame. The chaos flame couldn't sustain all the demons at once so it started abandoning them, turning them into mere husks, then eventually empty statues. Then, when there is only one demon left, that demon becomes the Demon Prince who could keep the chaos flame alive by combining it within them. You see the Demon in Pain and the Demon from Below near the end of their rope when you find them. Constantly having their flame go out and intermittently reigniting. Then, when you slay one, the other gets the full Chaos Flame, the full Lord Soul of Life more accurately, and becomes the Demon Prince and its flame never goes out. The one last beacon of hope for the demon race, where he could have eventually revived his species should the Chaos Flame eventually regain its strength. Then you slay him too and dash all hope. All because you were scared of one another. If that sounds like the exact situation that humanity and its collective Dark Soul and Gwyn are in, that's very much an intentional comparison I think. The Ivory King's fight against the demons was pointless and misguided. All he did was keep them in the ruins of Lost Izalith. Likely out of fear.
@@dutchvanderlinde248 At this point, I think its best to treat ds2 sotfs lore as a separate timeline because almost nothing makes sense with ds3's lore regarding ds2 sotfs. Cause the Ivory King had kept them at bay for so long, that demons were basically forgotten and basically extinct in the overworld. So it wasn't misguided or pointless. Otherwise you'd be seeing a lot more monstrosities and demons in ds2 sotfs. Alsana has simply been keeping up the defenses in his absence.
Great list! Darklurker is my favorite. As a 100% melee character I died on that boss about 42 times, I’m not even joking. What an amazing fight that was. Unfortunately, most of the bosses in this game were just generic big guy swinging a weapon, or broken gank fights. It’s hard for me to rank the bosses in this game because I never know whether to rank them mechanically or how much I enjoy the fight. For example, Lud and Zallen is a terrible fight mechanically, but to me it’s so epic. Royal Rat Authority is even worse, but I’d play that fight any day over something generic and boring like Dragonrider or Flexile Sentry.
Jack here, glad you enjoyed the ranking and thanks so much for watching! Darklurker is a great boss, and props for fighting him 43 times, that’s warrior level determination. For the most part this games bosses are average but i think they’re enjoyable nonetheless. Royal Rat Authority over Flexile Sentry is news to me however, that might be the hottest take I’ve seen! Once again thank you for watching, it means a lot. Have you checked out our Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls boss rankings?
@@Cytonox want a hot take? to me the gank fights are all fun except for the gargoyles and lud and zallen is my favorite boss, it's all about positioning and making them block each other.
@@Ghorda9 I'll concede that if the run up wasn't a problem Lud and Zallen are far from horrible imo, I just can't separate them mentally from the ghastly area preceding them -Alex
@@Cytonox it would be better if people would separate the boss run from the boss it self otherwise people could confuse the ranking, they are separate challenges after all.
Yeah, I am pretty sure Darklurker is my most attempted Soulsborne boss at this point. More attempts than Malenia, Ishin, and Orphan of Kos... I don't know why, but this fight kicked my butt, and I would probably have ranked it higher in my personal list if I didn't have to farm for SO much human effigy. I had to put like 10 bonfire aesthetics at majula to farm the skellies so I could attempt the boss. Plus, having to fight all the enemies in one of the 3 chasms was annoying, but I died enough to the boss that the enemies stopped spawning eventually, making the experience much more bearable. Really cool boss tho, and one of the few ganks I do not mind.
About the belfry gargoyles, they actually aren't on a timer. The first two spawn almost immediately and then the rest spawn in as the boss health bar lowers. You can have one gargoyle almost dead before the third spawns. So the trick is to focus them down one at a time and that has always worked for me. Edit: spelling and grammer
It took me way too long to realise that Raime is left handed. Don’t why that just stuck out to me but it did … Apparently the Ivory King was too. Why are all the badass warriors in this franchise left handed?
@@lewispooper3138 No different then Rom the Spider fight in Bloodbourne. Almost all souls games have gank fights, some are more annoying then others, but all are beatable.
@@bearwooden660 ok? 3 npcs all that follow you The fight is literally run around, turn around, smack once, keep running forward At least rom isn’t a basic enemy in a boring arena There is no “tactic” for the three gankers
We'll do em all EXCEPT Sekiro, which we both dislike actually (We know this is a very unpopular opinion but it's just not our thing). Bloodborne is coming in the near future and souls 3 not long after.
@@scrimmybingus9279 Neither of us think the bosses were too noteworthy is a big reason, save for some like Genichiro and the Guardian Ape. Most of them were just throwaway minibosses that blended together so neither of us really feel like talking about "General Yoshiwazakarusuzakiwaru of the seven centipede dicks" or whatever other guys there were. I personally didn't care for the areas either, and the soundtrack is not at all memorable which is something we care a lot about. I won't say it's a bad game myself, but it's one that neither Jack nor I want to revisit.
@@Cytonox I think there are a lot more really memorable bosses then that. You got Demon of Hatred, True Corrupted Monk, Devine Dragon, Owl Father, Isshin the Sword Saint and Emma the Gentil blade. Although the Mini-bosses are mostly re-fights, and annoying after the first re-skin. You’re right absolutely about the sound-track, although do like the battle theme for Sen-Po temple. The areas, although not very plentiful, a very hit and miss for me. I think Fountain-head palace, Sen-Po temple and Ashina Castle are all really cool, and I really like Mibu Village. I think the bosses and Combat are the game’s main attraction though, and it’s why it’s my personal favorite. I also really like the game’s story and cutscenes.
fun fact: i didn't remove the poison in mytha's fight, and i really enjoyed it for the poison aspect since it forced you to manage your healing items to not die from it. maybe i'm weird
I had heard the theory on Bonfireside Chat that the Giant Lord is the Last Giant in the past, that's why he goes nuts when you see him because he remembers you killing him.
Great video, Guys! I'd watched it a while back but held off commenting until I'd played the game, myself. Previously, the only FromSoftware games I had played were Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Sekiro (I plan to play Dark Souls III at some point in the near future), although I have watched Let's Plays of all of the games. Fresh off of my first playthrough, here is my personal top 10 favorite bosses in Dark Souls II: 1. Sir Alonne 2. Fume Knight 3. Darklurker 4. Burnt Ivory King 5. Looking Glass Knight 6. The Pursuer 7. Velstadt, the Royal Aegis 8. Sinh, The Slumbering Dragon 9. Smelter Demon 10. Blue Smelter Demon I agree that the Blue Smelter Demon is an underrated fight. Sure, it's an unoriginal boss concept (this game has a lot of those), but that, in itself, doesn't make it a significantly worse fight in my opinion. The only changes made to the boss are the magic replacing fire, the different attack timings, and higher difficulty, but I still think it's one of the better bosses in the game from a mechanical perspective. I also get the feeling a lot of people also hate this boss because of the atrocious run-up to it. Iron Passage is an abysmal area, much like Cave of the Dead and Frigid Outskirts (although that one deserves an extra special tier to itself), but I personally view bad run-ups to boss arenas as faults of the areas in question, rather than the bosses, themselves. Otherwise, Sir Alonne would get docked plenty of points for his run-up. That said, I also agree that both Lud and Zallen and the Gank Squad are horrendous bosses, and I was lucky to get past both of them on my first attempt. After dying at least twenty times in the Frigid Outskirts, I somehow succeeded on my first attempt against Lud and Zallen -- which I attribute to my character being leveled up into the 190's by then (a little over-leveled, I know) and that I was adamant about not traversing Frigid Outskirts ever again. 2-handing my fully upgraded broken Santier's Spear worked well against them, as well. I was very cautious and methodical with the Gank Squad, using the terrain to my advantage and leading the two melee opponents on a wild goose chase around the arena, while periodically pausing just long enough to get a hit off on Cerah. Once Cerah was dead, I continued the same strategy but attacked the Afflicted Graverobber when Varg was some distance away. Varg was easier when saved for last since I could just back-stab him. It didn't make the fight any better, though. Lol. My absolute least favorite boss was Royal Rat Authority, though. It may not have been as technically difficult as some of the other fights, but sending a swarm of toxic rats at you at the beginning felt like a cheap way of artificially inflating the difficulty. This was the boss I died to the most (16 times) because I kept getting afflicted by toxic before I could finish off the rats. The only saving grace was that the bonfire was right outside of the arena. Imagine if this RNG-heavy boss waited at the end of Frigid Outskirts.... *shudder* Frigid Outskirts may very well be the worst level I've played in any game, and, as many times as I've heard fans bemoan this area, it still didn't prepare me for how terrible it is to experience, first-hand. It's hands-down the worst-designed run-up to a boss I've ever experienced... but there are two others I consider even tougher. The run-up to Death, the penultimate boss of the original Castlevania, is incredibly unforgiving, especially the final corridor before the boss, where your path is blocked by axe knights while constantly-spawning medusa heads fly at you. Holy water makes this easier, but it's a battle in and of itself to hold onto it that long. Additionally, unless you bring holy water into the boss arena to cheese Death, you're in for arguably the hardest boss in the entire franchise, who will kill you in four hits assuming you're at full health when you reach him. Unsurprisingly, I've only ever defeated Death by stun-locking him to... well, death, by spamming Holy Water. The run-up to Doppelganger, the penultimate boss of Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse (especially the harder American version), is even tougher. Between insta-death spike traps, the toughest staircase segment in a series already notorious for them, a vertical auto-scrolling tower where you can't see what's coming next, and bottomless pits galore, few levels have infuriated me as much as this. Not to mention that the Doppelganger is another strong contender for the toughest boss in the franchise and is harder to cheese than Death from the first game. This is what they mean by "Nintendo Hard." Anyway, I enjoy your content as always and look forward to your future videos!
@@ORCA1739He is, just not by name. He's implied to be the one who swayed Lorian to not be a Lord of Cinder and thus jumpstart the whole game. Then when you get to the end, if you choose the ending where you summon the firekeeper to snuff the flame, whether you kill her or not, you're essentially doing what Aldia would want. That being, to snuff the fire to stop the degradation of the world. Whether you chose to allow it to eventually catch alight once more or leave the world in darkness is thus just as alright of a choice since there's no way to know what would happen either way. As Aldia said: "There is no path, yet we seek it insatiably." Implying really that there is no definitive correct answer past getting to an ending. Whatever an ending happens to mean and entail.
Funny thing about Elana for me was that I had no idea she could summon skeletons or piglets. I fought her twice. First time I lost, second I won. She summoned Velstadt twice in the first attempt and once in the second. She never summoned anything else and I figured that this was the game teaching me that Velstadt was supposed to only be dodged, not attacked. In reality, the fight is much easier if you just try for the skeleton spawn and kill 2 of them. I honestly kind of liked dodging Velstadt to sneak in hits on Elana though, it felt like a fairly fresh take on the gank fights that had been getting on my nerves up until that point.
Fume Knight is my #1, but I respect the Burnt Ivory King choice I also love the Ruin Sentinels and the Skeleton Lords, glad to see some respect The two I disagreed with alot we're Aldia and The Chariot. Aldia is a really good fight, he's like bed of chaos but good, and it plays very tactically. Executioners chariot is just a fun gimmick
When you guys talked about the covetous demon, i misheard mytha and thought it was Mythra (a hot chick from Xenoblade Chronicles 2 if you don't know what i'm talking about.) Also, you did a good job describing the dude! I laughed my ass off as you explained his lore!
Thoughts: Lud and Zallen: Even without the horrific runback, the fight's still terrible, it's just 2 Aava's and they don't work well as a duo. Gank Squad: This is my least favourite fight in the game, it's almost as bad as Bed of Chaos. Executioner's Chariot: I actually like this fight, it's unique and fun, and the skeletons aren't annoying, though the fight with the horse could be better. Belfry Gargoyles: This is a poorly balanced gank fight that just becomes frustrating. Royal Rat Authority: I don't hate this fight as much as a lot of other people do, but the small toxic rats definitely make it a bad boss. Ancient Dragon: This is a boring slog and is the 2nd worst dragon fight in the series. Royal Rat Vanguard: First off, why does this boss have an amazing theme? This fight is extremely uncreative and I think this is WAY worse than the Authority. Double Dragonriders: The solo dragonrider is passable because it's such an early game fight, but these two are the epitome of lazy design. Prowling Magus: And now I owe the Dragonriders an apology. Dragonrider: He's OK because this is probably the first or third fight you face. Seeing him fall to his death is hilarious though. Covetous Demon: This boss is so bad that it's good, and the lore is funny. Aldia, Scholar of the First Sin: A fairly lame final boss with an awesome soundtrack. He is probably my favourite NPC in this game, so there's that as well. Scorpioness Najka: This ripoff Quelagg is a pretty meh fight, the burrowing attack is cool I guess. Giant Lord: This has great cinematic scale but it's a pretty dull fight. Guardian Dragon: This and most of Elden Ring's dragons are the rare ok dragons from these games as they're usually terrible or great. Demon of Song: It's a cool idea that's executed fine. Throne Watcher and Defender: This is a surprisingly balanced duo fight in this game. Aava, the King's Pet: Weapon durability is stupid, but anyway, this fight is pretty good. It's actually funny how the two mandatory fights in each DLC are good, but the optional ones aren't. Vendrick: This is a great lore fight with great music but the mechanics are pretty dull. Last Giant: This is probably the worst tutorial boss but it's still a good one. I've never seen the falling over attack, so that was a joy. Mytha, the Baneful Queen: This fight is annoying with the poison but OK without it. Old Iron King: It's a pretty cool fight visually but it's super annoying to fight, I can see how you like him though. Nashandra: It's a disappointing final boss but she's still fun. The Lost Sinner: I can definitely see how this fight can be frustrating for strength builds, but I'm never one, so I enjoy it. Old Dragonslayer: This is a reskin fight I'm fine with, he feels different enough from Ornstein to not feel lazy. Flexile Sentry: It's a really cool concept executed pretty well. Ruin Sentinels: A surprisingly well balanced gank fight that's enjoyable. Duke's Dear Freja: This is one of my favourite fights in the game. I'm not afraid of spiders, but this is a pretty scary boss. The Rotten: He has a rotten runback , but everything else I like, even the arena. Skeleton Lords: I think this is a bit high personally, but it's definitely overhated and a pretty good boss. Elana, the Squalid Queen: This is a pretty good boss with a pretty memorable soundtrack, and I got a rush of panic when she summoned Velstadt. The Pursuer: This is a very memorable early game fight that gets kind of ruined with all the Pursuer enemies, but it's a fun fight. Smelter Demon: The runback is bad, but it's not THAT bad. Anyway, the fight is enjoyable and feels pretty tense with the music that fits the Smelter Demon better imo. Sinh, the Slumbering Dragon: This is one of these great fights I was talking about, and a large part of it is due to the music, I love it.Tue toxic can be annoying but his moves are fair and the flying away doesn't bother me too much. Blue Kool Aid: He's OK, he's a decent fight because it's Smelter Demon again, but it definitely feels lazy. Looking Glass Knight: THE MUSIC!! DS2 is my least favourite ( I still love it ) for many of the reasons the community says, but the soundtrack definitely isn't bland. The fight is pretty fun, I don't really get the spirit summoning, but I don't mind it too much. Velstadt the Royal Aegis: He's the Penetrator of DS2 for me, easy but fun. Darklurker: This is my favourite fight in the game, He's fun, hard but fair, and his 2nd phase is a great gank fight. He looks really cool as well. Sir Alonne: Best soundtrack in the game, he's a little overrated by the community to me, but he's still a blast. Fume Knight: Really great, he has fun moves, a great theme and arena. Burnt Ivory King: He's like Radahn before Radahn, and while I think Radahn is better, this guy is the the original.
Personally I feel like I am the opposite when it comes to the Sunken King DLC. I think it is one of my favorite areas in souls because it introduces a bit of puzzle solving and feels like a refreshing change. It looks cool, has interesting new enemies, has some neat new mechanics, and is overall just a really fun area... except for literally every boss in that dlc👀
For me personally, the most annoying part of this DLC is not the stinky knights with huge poise or ghosts, who have a huge amount of hp until you find their bodies but the whole location in general. Like, I'm the type of person who wouldn't leave a location until I found every item and explored every corner. But I also get lost easily. Because of this combo, it was annoying af to explore and I postponed getting the OP Flynn's ring until late game just because I didn't want to deal with this place
Spoilers for the ranking. Felt like giving my own thoughts on these cuz uhh idk I'm bored I guess #41: Lud and Zallen. This is actually the only boss in the Dark Souls trilogy I have never beaten. In my first playthrough, I went out of my way to attempt every boss, but this one eluded me like no other. The fight itself doesn't seem too awful, but I don't know firsthand because I only managed to reach them twice; the runback through the Frigid Outskirts is just too horrible to bear. That alone means I have no qualms with this fight's placement. #40: Gank Squad. I got lucky enough to beat these guys first try after also doing the boss run first try. Pretty boring fight, but I did find a decent strategy which just involved running around the corner of the room near the entrance and dropping down to make the slower NPCs follow me while I take out the archer, then again for the swordsman. Took forever and I had a few close calls, but I made it work. Still, very boring and lazy fight, so no real complaints about placement here. #39: Executioner's Chariot. Another bad runback, though not as bad as the other two. The boss itself is kinda frustrating at first, but once you get the timing down on rolling past the chariot, it becomes a bit trivial. Then the real fight begins and it's super easy (so easy that I beat it first try). Shitty fight, but a cool spectacle. #38: Belfry Gargoyles. A little overhated imo. It's really just another DPS test. Unlike the Bell Gargoyles in DS1, these guys are kinda small and don't attack as quickly, so if you manage to take the first few out in a timely manner, you can easily keep your distance away from the last couple. Not a great fight, but one that was overhyped for me in terms of difficulty (another first try, though I was pretty prepared going in). #37: Royal Rat Authority. Surprised to see this not second-to-last. Usually I see people rank this as the worst base-game boss. I also beat this one first try cuz I managed to kill the rats quickly, so it just became Great Grey Wolf Sif but boring and without memorable music. Lame, dumb, whatever. (Also I might have gotten lucky cuz I managed to avoid toxic buildup until literally the last few seconds. #36: Ancient Dragon. The only boss I cheesed cuz I just couldn't be bothered to try and fight it legit. It still took forever to kill with melee so it's really just an autoscroller imo. Bad fight. This trilogy really isn't that great at dragon bosses, huh? #35: Royal Rat Vanguard. This is the dumbest fight in the series, but I kinda can't help but love it lmao. It's goofy and insanely simple, especially for a Dark Souls game, but I kinda found it fun running around and smacking the little rats until the big one showed up. Another boss I first tried. #34: Twin Dragonriders. I beat these guys in literally 35 seconds. I think that says it all. #33: Prowling Magus and Congregation. A little surprised not to see this near the bottom lol. I genuinely forget these guys are even a boss more often than not, which I can't even say about Pinwheel. Not much to say, really. At least the lore is neat. #32: Dragonrider. This guy can be a lot of players' first boss. In this case, I actually think it serves as a decent tutorial fight. However, in any other case, it's crazy easy. It will always gets points for being able to make him fall off the stage though. It's just too funny. #31: Covetous Demon. Complete joke of a boss, although it has a certain charm to it that somewhat endears me to him. Plus, that attack where he eats you is pretty unexpected, and shooting the barrels on the ceiling is a neat gimmick (that I didn't know about in my playthrough lol). #30: Aldia, Scholar of the First Sin. Award for the most disappointing boss in the game. No reward for beating a fairly mid "final boss" that takes way too long to kill but isn't particularly challenging. #29: Scorpioness Najka. Quelaag Lite. She's neat. It's a somewhat dynamic fight, and I like that you can cut her tails off. Very good arena as well. I would not rank her as high as Quelaag, but I would rank her a little higher on this list. #28: Giant Lord. Cooler arena than The Last Giant, but the fight itself is nothing special. Would rank this lower for sure. #27: Guardian Dragon. Stop. Fucking. Flying. Away. I played vanilla instead of SotFS, so I hadn't actually fought one of these guys yet, and that might have added to my disappointment with this fight. I beat it in one long, agonizing attempt, but didn't find it very fun at all. #26: Demon of Song. Embarrassingly, I died to this boss once. Like a noob. The fight is pretty boring and is in a lame arena, but I'll gladly take an easy boss after one of the worst areas in the base game. Again, I played VANILLA and still despised this area. I am so thankful I didn't pick Scholar..... #25: Throne Watcher and Throne Defender. I honestly enjoyed this fight. It felt pretty dynamic compared to the other bosses in the game and I had a good time trying to manage both of their health bars. The only thing I dislike is the arena. It's pretty empty and doesn't accommodate a double boss like the arena for Ornstein and Smough, making it much harder to single out one target. Overall, I like these guys more than most players, but wouldn't rank them near the top of my list for DS2 bosses. #24: Aava, The King's Pet. Has some annoying attacks that feel like they have bigger hitboxes than they should, but overall it's a pretty neat fight. I like the arena quite a bit, it's very unique for a Souls boss. Would probably rank it toward the middle as well. #23: Vendrick. Lore-wise, this guy is awesome. But as a boss? Incredibly lame. Just run around, hit his ankles, dodge his telegraphed swipes, repeat. Very confused to see this one so high (although getting the Giant Souls was actually pretty fun. More fun than this lame-ass fight). #22: Last Giant. As a tutorial boss, he's okay. Not as great as Asylum Demon and Iudex Gundyr, but it's decent enough. I don't have much to say about him except it's kinda cool when he rips his arm off and starts swinging it at you. #21: Mytha, The Baneful Queen. Another fight I beat first try (and I think it's the only boss I did no-hit, somehow). Not really much to say. The gimmick of the pool of poison being removable is cool, but otherwise the fight is kinda whatever imo. #20: Old Iron King. Love this guy's design, but he's a little too easy for being a Great Soul boss. I did fall into the hole once admittedly, but otherwise I didn't struggle too much. It was honestly fun, but it could have been better. (continued in reply)
#19: Nashandra. I liked this fight pretty much equally as much as Throne Watcher/Defender. Not a very dynamic fight, nor a very difficult one, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't find it fun reading her attacks and predicting when her little curse orbs show up so I could go destroy them. Fine fight, but not the best final boss. #18: The Lost Sinner. Somehow beat this boss first try, which was actually a bit disappointing cuz she was really fun. The reduced lock-on range forced me to adapt to a new playstyle that I found surprisingly fun, and I think the fact that I used a dex build helped negate the issue of her jumping away before I could land an attack. Not the best boss in a the game, but a fun one for sure. #17: Old Dragonslayer. I've never fought Super Ornstein in DS1, so I guess this is the next best thing? For an early game boss, he's a little tough, but I didn't find it frustrating at all. I liked the callback to the first game as well. Not too shabby for an optional boss. #16: Flexile Sentry. Definitely an underrated fight. Wish it was harder, since I like the gimmick of it being two conjoined enemies and the water rising, but neither one was much of a problem because he dies too quickly. I am glad this thing reappears as a normal enemy later, at least. #15: Ruin Sentinels. Hated these guys until I figured out how to fight them one at a time. Once I stopped being dumb, this fight was kinda neat but not one I really cared for that much. Some attacks have really shitty hitboxes, which is always fun. Not the worst gank fight, but I wouldn't place them this high. #14: The Duke's Dear Freja. How fun this fight is pretty much comes down to how quickly you beat the small spiders, or if you have a torch. Once the little spiders are taken care of, Freja herself is pretty damn easy. I kinda like it though, the moveset is interesting for sure. #13: The Rotten. My favorite boss design in DS2. Fighting a boss literally made of a bunch of undead is super creative and cool to look at. The fight itself is pretty easy since his attacks are very telegraphed, though the fire around the arena can throw a wrench in your dodging sometimes. Good fight, but I'm not sure if it beats Lost Sinner as my favorite Great Soul boss. #12: Skeleton Lords. Bring Alluring Skulls to this fight and it becomes trivial. Otherwise, it's skeleton gank city, which wouldn't be too bad if it weren't for those fucking bonewheels (which, admittedly, aren't NEARLY as bad as they are in DS1). Outside of them, this fight is nothing special imo. Wouldn't rank it this high personally. #11: Elana, The Squalid Queen. Cool gimmick which makes up for a kinda lame moveset imo. Having Velstadt summoned in the middle of the fight is hilarious but also makes the fight a lot more interesting. Not my favorite DLC boss, but certainly not the worst. #10: The Pursuer. Such a cool concept for a reoccurring enemy, and the ballistas in the arena open up the opportunity for a really sick boss kill. Even without the ballistas, this guy is pretty fun to fight early on. Cool fight, no complaints here. #9: Smelter Demon (Red). If it weren't for the runback, I would have no complaints about this guy (the runback is not as bad in vanilla thankfully. Fuck SotFS). Really fun moveset and a shockingly balanced arena despite it being really small. The small DOT he deals when you're near him also adds a neat element of health management to the fight. I didn't expect to enjoy this fight as much as I did. He might be my favorite boss in the base game. #8: Sinh, the Slumber Dragon. This would be a lot higher for me if the fucker didn't keep flying away. When he's on the ground, he's a surprisingly manageable and fun boss (way moreso than Kalameet, Guardian Dragon, Ancient Dragon, and even Midir. Yes, I like this guy more than Midir. Fight me.). The one thing holding him back is that HE KEEPS FLYING AWAY. COME BACK, FUCKER. It drags the fight out way too much and makes an otherwise great fight kinda tedious. At least his health pool isn't massive, and the increased weapon degradation is easy to mitigate. #7. Smelter Demon (Blue). Yeah, this one was unexpected. A much worse runback for a copy-paste boss. As much as I love the Red Smelter Demon, the blue raspberry flavor feels much worse to fight. A lot of people say his hitboxes are way bigger than the red one's, and tbh I think that could be the case. I felt like I was taking cheap or outright bullshit hits quite a bit. It's still a fun fight since the moveset and arena are the same, but I don't care for this one nearly as much as the one in the base game. #6: Looking Glass Knight. Very climactic fight, and one of the coolest looking bosses in the series to boot. Really cool gimmick while also just having really fun and balanced mechanics. If Red Smelter Demon is not my favorite boss in the base game, then the award definitely goes to this guy. #5. Velstadt, The Royal Aegis. Pretty cool fight, though the moveset leaves a bit to be desired in my opinion, even in the second phase. Not much to say, it's just a decent late-game Souls boss. #4: Darklurker. Easily the placement I disagree with the most. This would be my second lowest-ranked fight (and lowest in the base game), probably cuz I did a dexterity build and this fucker basically says "LOL eat a dick, melee builds". Getting to him is very annoying since the NPCs you're forced to kill can be tanky or super fast or can just never aggro while you're trying to lure them away to fight them one at a time, and you have to use a Human Effigy every time you wanna attempt the boss. To be honest, he wouldn't be so bad even with all that if he didn't split in two. The moveset is interesting but easy to deal with when fighting one, but adding a second one to the equation sucks every last drop of fun out of this fight for me. I actually ended up leveling up a Pyromancy Flame and using fireballs + flame swathe just to kill this fucker. Bastard cost me hours of my life. Never fighting him again. #3: Sir Alonne. Awesome design and a very cool arena, but his moveset is a bit lacking in my opinion. He only ever used about 4 or 5 unique moves on me, and none of them were particularly difficult to deal with. Beat this guy first try, probably with some luck, but I had also just fought Fume Knight and Blue Smelter Demon, two bosses I found much harder. Great fight, but I wish it was a bit harder or threw more unique moves at you. His moves look fucking badass though. In fact, I think design-wise he's the second best in the game behind The Rotten. #2: Fume Knight. My personal favorite boss in the whole game and top 5 fight in the trilogy. Took me an hour to beat this guy, but the whole time it felt incredibly fair despite being crushingly difficult and very intense (and that bonfire being right next to the arena is so nice. Why did DS2 not do this more?). Awesome spectacle as well, especially when he pulls out that giant flaming sword. The only thing I'm not a huge fan of is the arena. It's a little uninteresting. But truthfully, when that's the only critique I can muster, that's how I know I have a masterpiece on my hands. #1: Burnt Ivory King. Best boss lore-wise, hands-down. Also a very fun and thrilling fight with a fantastic arena and introduction. Didn't find it quite as fun as the Fume Knight fight, but his moveset was still pretty awesome. Unfortunately, the knights you have to deal with before the fight make it very tedious after the initial awe of watching the Loyce Knights fight alongside you, and sometimes they just decide not to freeze the portals. Remove this blemish and this would probably be in the top 3 for me in this game and maybe even top 10 in the trilogy. If you read all this, I hope you get a million dollars and a free burger.
@@nintendude6477 great list, man! Thanks for that comment, and we're glad that you watched the whole thing (+ our lists are similar so you got good taste). Thanks! - Jack
Actually, considering Aldia speaks after his battle and doesn't drop a boss soul or souls in general it is pretty safe to assume you didn't kill him. In lore he literally can't die as he is linked to the bonfires themselves. As for why you fight him, I always thought it was his final test to make sure you were worthy of becoming king and linking the flame. Also, I would argue the Moonlight Greatsword is cooler than the Fume Ultra Greatsword
I watch both Demodcracy and SunburntAlbino videos similar to this one, and it’s bizarre how you guys are as if those two RUclipsrs made a joint channel so it has the advantages of both
It has been a long time since I've played DS2 and maybe this is an unpopular opinion, but there are only 4 bosses I'd give above an 8/10 in DS2. The vast majority of bosses I do not like for various reasons. I just found myself getting frustrated (or bored) with almost every boss on different playthroughs. I love Sin and Ivory King. I really like the pursuer, Sir Alonne, and Fume Knight. I think flexile sentry, ruin sentinels, mirror Knight and Velstat are good and every other boss is okay to bad. The runbacks, hitboxes, slow healing, and lack of methods in arenas to deal with ganks make most bosses not great. For example, I disagree with everything you mentioned for darklurker. The room was tiny, it did a shit ton of damage with very little room to heal, there is nothing in the arena to help mitigate the gank, the runbacks is one of the worst in the series, the hitboxes are awful, and I found it to be one of the most frustrating bosses in the entire series. I also despise both smelter demons for their god awful runbacks and shitty hitboxes. Same with Ava and Elana for the hitboxes. Maybe my first run where I didn't level adaptability is clouding my memory, but does anyone else agree? Bad runbacks ruin bosses for me because I'm not great at these games.
FUME KNIGHT AND BURNT IVORY KING TOOK ME A LONG FRRRRRRRRRKN TIME. A LONG HECKING TIME. I beat every DS2 Boss but it took me A LONG TIME because of these two ABSOLUTE MONSTERS. I appreciate this video and ranking order 👍
Watching this is cathartic in the midst of my ng+7 fresh start run. The whole Darklurker arc is making me contemplate life choices atm. They really did not play test this game on NG+ it is miserable. And I keep thinking "I'm not even to the DLC yet"😭🤢
The only reason I did not flat out uninstall during Royal Rat Authority was thanks to the bonfire being right next to the fog wall. I think I would have lost it otherwise.
My Ranking: 1. Sir Alonne 2. Fume Knight 3. Darklurker 4. Burnt Ivory King 5. Looking Glass Knight 6. Velstadt, The Royal Aegis 7. Sinh, The Slumbering Dragon 8. The Pursuer 9. Aava, The King's Pet 10. Smelter Demon 11. Skeleton Lords 12. Lost Sinner 13. Flexile Sentry 14. Ruin Sentinels 15. Duke's Dear Freja 16. Throne Watcher And Defender 17. Demon Of Song 18. Blue Smelter Demon 19. Executioner's Chariot 20. Elana, The Squalid Queen 21. Guardian Dragon 22. Scorpioness Najka 23. Mytha, The Baneful Queen 24. Nashandra 25. Old Dragonslayer 26. The Rotten 27. The Last Giant 28. Dragonrider 29. Giant Lord 30. Twin Dragonriders 31. Prowling Magus 32. Vendrick 33. Covetous Demon 34. Aldia, Scholar Of The First Sin 35. Old Iron King 36. Ancient Dragon 37. Lud And Zallen 38. Belfry Gargoyles 39. Royal Rat Vanguard 40. Royal Rat Authority 41. Graverobber, Varg And Cerah
The gaping dragon from DS1 actually takes headshot damage too (tho to be fair youre more inclined to jusr hit the tail so more people prolly saw the damage for guardian dragon since theres actual reason to hit the head in that fight)
I'm on my first run through of DS2, and I'm at the Shrine of Amana (god help me), but the only bosses I've had trouble on - ignoring the boss runs - are Prowling Magus and Congregation and Royal Rat Authority. I don't know why PMaC is part of my struggle bus, but it is. My favorite fight so far has been either Smelter Demon or the Looking Glass Knight, both felt really epic and took a combination of mind and might to take down. DS2 probably has my favorite bosses of the Dark Souls trilogy but has my least favorite regular enemies.
Let me preface this by saying Dark Souls II is unironically my favorite of the trilogy. That being said, it is objectively the worst of the series, and I think Nashandra is a perfect example of what most of us think of the game. The curse mechanic is interesting and I can see what they were going for, but it just doesn't work. If curse worked like it does in DS1 or 3 it'd make the fight considerably more dangerous. I do love the game, but there is a lot wrong with it, but the good FAR outweighs the bad
Jack here, personally the variety in playstyles through weapons, stats, magics and such make it so charming, and it’s bad moments are so bad i find them funny. just my take though. thanks for watching!
Just a bit of a critique. The way you use UGS seems... a bit generic. For example, in your lost sinner fight you say she punishes you for your weapon type. But thats not really the case. DS2 has the fastest swinging UGS of the 3 souls games. Yes, faster than ds3. The game lets you swing the ugs faster after a rolling or running attack. Ds2 like elden ring has a jump attack that goes pretty far and with lock on almost never misses. Great to close the gap fast. Like elden ring, you can stance break enemies in ds2 like heide knights, stone knights, charred loyace knights, harvest valley blacksmights, etc. with a 2h running/heavy attack from a UGS. That lets the UGS 1 shot these enemies. And trust me, there's several enemies this is useful against. You also don't seem to take full advantage of the UGS ability to throw NPC's around like ragdolls. Feeling a bit low on poise damage? Slap on the stone ring and go to town on them. Another thing is ds2 sotfs changes the bossfights a bit during NG+ with additional loot or additional NPC's and some new encounters like dual pursuers and duke's dear freja ambushing you in NG+. Lost sinner and flexile sentry gain 2 new NPC's to help them in NG+. So that should go into the boss rankings. For example, you complained about the flexile sentry being too easy. Well, use a bonfire aestic and fight him in NG+. He gets more health and 2 shadow ninja's to help him. That really ramps up the difficulty as now you have to contend with dealing with his base moveset and handling the shadow ninja's. NG flexile sentry is like phase 1. NG+ flexile sentry is the real fight. Same with lost sinner. Good video, but ds2's bosses are the least punishing for a playstyle out of any souls games bosses. Thats one of the reasons they are great. Ds3 and especially elden ring really punish you for using a UGS/colossal sword. I mean you've fought against gundyr in phase 2 with a ugs. Compare that to alonne with a UGS. Night and day difference in balancing despite both being fast bosses in their respective games.
A lot of these bosses would be much better with a year's worth of extra time. They could have made runbacks shorter with Darklurker and Sir Alonne as well as Lost Sinner.
Great video. this is easily my least favorite souls game but it does have its amazing moments for sure. one thing i never understood though is why people like sinh. i mean to each their own but i absolutely hated that fight. people complain about the guardian dragon flying around too much and being too boring for melee players. On my one playthrough of ds2 sinh was like 5 times worse than guardian dragon. he would not stay on the ground for longer than 10 seconds and it was one of the most boring bosses i have ever fought in my life
Bad rng can definitely make Sinh much more annoying, but in my experience he doesn't do this too horribly often. I'd hate him if he pulled that on me all the time also -Alex
Personally i found lud and zallen quite an ok fight, i agree that the runback is horrendous, however the pacing of the fight was about right, avaa was for me a boring one simply because of the tiger constantly running back. Another thing are the graverobbers, the runback is atrocious however it is possible to do hitlles, the bossfight kept me on the edge. To beat the boss without cheesing you got to use the arena which does give you a lot of various strategy options. Other thing is that you can poise brake them with a ugs or curved ugs with the use of stone ring. As to the ivory king i personally found the fight underwhelming, starting with the chart loyce knight"s, which on subsequent playthrough's can be overwhelming because of their damage. The ivory king is supposed to be a tragic character and that stuff, but lore, cinematography, music can't make the best boss without a diverset or lack of combos. Besides he has some strange hitboxes. For example Fume knight can varify his combos, has unique moveset in his second phase and in general is a great boss, for many number 1 which i'd agree with. Some bosses, like lost sinner, flexile sentry on ng+'es add hostile npsc's to the boss encounter make it essantialy 3v1, it's not a masive game changer, however makes a tiny bit more annyoing. Lastly a short list of things: Velstadt is high up the order with his simple movset and can be easily melted with lightning infused weapons' Ruin sentiels are one of the better bosses for early game, ussualy are fought to early, plus there is a hidden runback path, making it extreamly easy, Freja is not a good boss, should be deffenitly lower especially with that long runback, Skeleton lords are way to high, Many people ranking's include the runback, which i find fair but how do rank the runback, what makes it fair or offensive, the length, enemy placement and difficulty? What makes a good experience? I often take into consideration is it realistic in terms of does it make sense. For the point of argument let's take alonne's runback. First part of it is a simple long empty room with alonne knights and salamander's as sentry guns. Second part gives us archers instead of salamanders. Now the part that makes me question the developers the most is how they are connected - you drop down in a hole. It just does not make sense. I could care less about the windmill-iron keep elevator, however you do not make a boss run where you basicly agro all the enemies in the area. Sorry for the butchered english.
no mention of bs lost sinner on ng+? she's like 10 times as agressive and has two lackeys. hate the lackeys but fight feels much different even without them. like a different boss. or at least that's my experience. also Duke's dear Freja ng+ encounter before prowling magus was a fun addition. if you manage to take her down she's at half hp on boss fight. shame it wasn't in ng and that there aren't any other fun changes in ng+ or at least I don't think there are.
all gameplay is our own, we credit all footage used from other channels. I can see how itd look similar though, since the trick to make Dragonrider suicide himself needs you to move in a very specific way -Alex
Ruin Sentinels is WAY too high, but other than that, I agree with most of the placements. My top ten would be: 1. Fume Knight 2. Ivory King 3. Sinh 4. Velstadt 5. Looking Glass Knight 6. The Pursuer 7. Allone (So low down because the boss run is the worst in the entire series) 8. Lost Sinner 9. Blue Smelter Demon 10. Duke's Dear Freja
The Dark Souls series has just stockholmed me into enjoying stupid bullshit half the time I think lol. Most gank fights are lazy and kinda dumb but I just embrace it now
It’s my favorite in the series it may not have better gameplay than 3 but the vibe hits different and I like how the lore here is separate than 1 and 3
Clearly Giant Lord was the best. Why else would some of us have fought him so many times? This message paid for with souls provided by Giant Lord for best DS2 boss PAC.
I didn't light the windmill haha I tried to break it by hitting it these inconsistencies are dumb imo sometimes but the boss fight is still easy if you just use the life stones instead of estus
DS2 was the only Dark Souls where I was like... "Is this just a bad game?" And yes, yes it is. Saying this as a huge DS fan who has finished every game (except DS2) numerous times. It is so heavily flawed and it is honestly frustrating to see the fanboys defending it so much even over its GLARING issues that are present in every. single. location.
There are just weird contrarians for everything now, especially on the internet. If something is almost universally loved, there are people who go out of their way to give their opinion that it sucks and vice versa.
that's a valid point, but from our perspective if making it back to a fight is obnoxious it makes the fight inherently less enjoyable because you're forced to go through poorly designed arenas and such instead of just being right outside the fog gate
only one i REALLY disagree with is dark lurker. he has to be one of the worst bosses for me in the entire series. the clones can go on opposite sides of the arena and make it impossible to keep track of both of them in one camera angle and the explosion projectile feels very finicky to dodge
darklurker was the only boss in the game i raged to bwcuase of the stupid runback and another overdone dual bossfight. i could not agree less with that placement on this list lol
im trying to avoid spoilers on most other souls games right now, but its great to hear that opinion changed. i had a feeling i couldnt be the only one that suffered to them
NOP ! Lud and Zallen, Gargoyles and even the 3 guys or chariot are way better boss than some other, mostly for optionnal boss The most important boss regard to the lore, the quest... are just crappy to fight... Old Iron King ? Aldia ? Ancient Dragon (optionnal but important in the story)? Nashandra ? these boss are complete joke Dragonrider ? 80% of trash mobs have better moves Gardian dragon ? trash mob 5 minutes later skeleton lords ? arena with trash mob
Our individual rankings: (Don't read before watching)
Alex's Rankings:
41. Lud and Zallen
40. Afflicted Graverobber, Ancient Solider Varg, and Old Explorer Cerah
39. Executioners Chariot
38. Royal Rat Authority
37. Belfry Gargoyles
36. Royal Rat Vanguard
35. Ancient Dragon
34. Prowling Magus and Congregation
33. Twin Dragonriders
32. Dragonrider
31. Covetous Demon
30. Scorpioness Najka
29. The Last Giant
28. Giant Lord
27. Guardian Dragon
26. Aava, the King's Pet
25. Aldia, Scholar of the First Sin
24. Vendrick
23. Demon of Song
22. Throne Watcher and Throne Defender
21. Lost Sinner
20. Mytha, the Baneful Queen
19. Old Iron King
18. Old Dragonslayer
17. The Pursuer
16. Flexile Sentry
15. Ruin Sentinels
14. Nashanda
13. The Duke's Dear Freyja
12. The Rotten
11. Elana, the Squalid Queen
10. Skeleton Lords
9. Smelter Demon
8. Blue Smelter Demon
7. Sinh, the Slumbering Dragon
6. Looking Glass Knight
5. Velstadt, the Royal Aegis
4. Darklurker
3. Fume Knight
2. Sir Alonne
1. Burnt Ivory King
Jacks Rankings:
41. Lud and Zallen
40. Afflicted Graverobber, Ancient Solider Varg, and Old Explorer Cerah
39. Belfry Gargoyles
38. Twin Dragonriders
37. Royal Rat Authority
36. Ancient Dragon
35. Aldia, Scholar of the First Sin
34. Executioners Chariot
33. Guardian Dragon
32. Royal Rat Vanguard
31. Demon of Song
30. Prowling Magus and Congregation
29. Dragonrider
28. Giant Lord
27. Covetous Demon
26. Throne Watcher and Throne Defender
25. Scorpioness Najka
24. Nashanda
23. Vendrick
22. Old Iron King
21. Mytha, the Baneful Queen
20. The Last Giant
19. The Rotten
18. Aava, the King's Pet
17. Old Dragonslayer
16. The Duke's Dear Freyja
15. Flexile Sentry
14. Ruin Sentinels
13. Skeleton Lords
12. Lost Sinner
11. Elana, the Squalid Queen
10. The Pursuer
9. Sinh, the Slumbering Dragon
8. Smelter Demon
7. Blue Smelter Demon
6. Looking Glass Knight
5. Velstadt, the Royal Aegis
4. Darklurker
3. Sir Alonne
2. Burnt Ivory King
1. Fume Knight
Who do you agree with more?
I think the combined ranking is better
my next boss I have to fight is kid and sallee this is also my first play through
You forgot the hardest boss in the game.
NG+ dual buffed pursuer. Puts midir and gael to shame in difficulty. Prolly only rivaled by dual guardians from ds1.
Some of the game's bosses, become far easier with a UGS. Graverobber and ivory king come to mind. Why? Because you can knock down the NPC's with it. And a UGS can stagger and lead to riposting the burnt knights meaning you can 1 shot them. That can be achieved with a 2h heavy/running attack.
I'd also rank executioner's chariot much higher. He does give you multiple ways to beat him, you can dodge his wheel spikes (gotta time it right and have enough AGL), the run up to him can be trivialized by jumping to the platform, etc. Like the fume knight you can skip his phase 1. I'm all in for bosses who give you choices to beat them.
I'd also put elena above looking glass knight and velsdat. Because her fight is more about environmental awareness.
Ivory king is such a chad that he did get the affection of the daughter of Manus, even after he got corrupted, she carried his will and frozen the kingdom to stop the chaos, and when the bearer of Curse gets on the the castle, she undo the ice so you can put the Ivory king to rest, together with the other corrupted knights(you get a reward for collecting 50 souls of the knights)
bro built his castle on top of the entrance to hell just so he could beat them up more easily, cool ass character
Too bad he’s a shit boss
@@Cytonox Sounds like dark souls version of doom guy. I believe by ds3 its said he's the main reason the demons were near extinction.
@@siyzerixActually it's because the chaos flame was going out with the first flame. The chaos flame couldn't sustain all the demons at once so it started abandoning them, turning them into mere husks, then eventually empty statues. Then, when there is only one demon left, that demon becomes the Demon Prince who could keep the chaos flame alive by combining it within them. You see the Demon in Pain and the Demon from Below near the end of their rope when you find them. Constantly having their flame go out and intermittently reigniting. Then, when you slay one, the other gets the full Chaos Flame, the full Lord Soul of Life more accurately, and becomes the Demon Prince and its flame never goes out. The one last beacon of hope for the demon race, where he could have eventually revived his species should the Chaos Flame eventually regain its strength. Then you slay him too and dash all hope. All because you were scared of one another. If that sounds like the exact situation that humanity and its collective Dark Soul and Gwyn are in, that's very much an intentional comparison I think. The Ivory King's fight against the demons was pointless and misguided. All he did was keep them in the ruins of Lost Izalith. Likely out of fear.
@@dutchvanderlinde248 At this point, I think its best to treat ds2 sotfs lore as a separate timeline because almost nothing makes sense with ds3's lore regarding ds2 sotfs.
Cause the Ivory King had kept them at bay for so long, that demons were basically forgotten and basically extinct in the overworld. So it wasn't misguided or pointless. Otherwise you'd be seeing a lot more monstrosities and demons in ds2 sotfs. Alsana has simply been keeping up the defenses in his absence.
Great list! Darklurker is my favorite. As a 100% melee character I died on that boss about 42 times, I’m not even joking. What an amazing fight that was. Unfortunately, most of the bosses in this game were just generic big guy swinging a weapon, or broken gank fights. It’s hard for me to rank the bosses in this game because I never know whether to rank them mechanically or how much I enjoy the fight. For example, Lud and Zallen is a terrible fight mechanically, but to me it’s so epic. Royal Rat Authority is even worse, but I’d play that fight any day over something generic and boring like Dragonrider or Flexile Sentry.
Jack here, glad you enjoyed the ranking and thanks so much for watching! Darklurker is a great boss, and props for fighting him 43 times, that’s warrior level determination. For the most part this games bosses are average but i think they’re enjoyable nonetheless. Royal Rat Authority over Flexile Sentry is news to me however, that might be the hottest take I’ve seen! Once again thank you for watching, it means a lot. Have you checked out our Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls boss rankings?
@@Cytonox want a hot take? to me the gank fights are all fun except for the gargoyles and lud and zallen is my favorite boss, it's all about positioning and making them block each other.
@@Ghorda9 I'll concede that if the run up wasn't a problem Lud and Zallen are far from horrible imo, I just can't separate them mentally from the ghastly area preceding them
-Alex
@@Cytonox it would be better if people would separate the boss run from the boss it self otherwise people could confuse the ranking, they are separate challenges after all.
Yeah, I am pretty sure Darklurker is my most attempted Soulsborne boss at this point. More attempts than Malenia, Ishin, and Orphan of Kos... I don't know why, but this fight kicked my butt, and I would probably have ranked it higher in my personal list if I didn't have to farm for SO much human effigy. I had to put like 10 bonfire aesthetics at majula to farm the skellies so I could attempt the boss. Plus, having to fight all the enemies in one of the 3 chasms was annoying, but I died enough to the boss that the enemies stopped spawning eventually, making the experience much more bearable. Really cool boss tho, and one of the few ganks I do not mind.
About the belfry gargoyles, they actually aren't on a timer. The first two spawn almost immediately and then the rest spawn in as the boss health bar lowers. You can have one gargoyle almost dead before the third spawns. So the trick is to focus them down one at a time and that has always worked for me.
Edit: spelling and grammer
The only one I disagreed with was the chariot I loved that fight everything else was perfect tho great vidro
fr? I think it's overhated but still alright - hurt severely by the run up
- Jack
@@Cytonox true but Blue Smelters run up wasn't even mentioned
some of your best content yet. Good Stuff.
It took me way too long to realise that Raime is left handed. Don’t why that just stuck out to me but it did
…
Apparently the Ivory King was too. Why are all the badass warriors in this franchise left handed?
My favorite game of the series DS2! I loved fighting the 3 fighters boss. Havel is a bit annoying but totally beatable!
jack here, ds2 is the best!
How can you like that fight?
@@lewispooper3138 No different then Rom the Spider fight in Bloodbourne. Almost all souls games have gank fights, some are more annoying then others, but all are beatable.
@@bearwooden660 ok? 3 npcs all that follow you
The fight is literally run around, turn around, smack once, keep running forward
At least rom isn’t a basic enemy in a boring arena
There is no “tactic” for the three gankers
@@lewispooper3138ok and artorias is dodge and hit, does that mean it's a bad fight? You can easily make anything sound dumb like that
Props for taking the time to rank every one of this game’s bloated boss count!
Will you continue to do all the souls games? (Including Sekiro).
We'll do em all EXCEPT Sekiro, which we both dislike actually (We know this is a very unpopular opinion but it's just not our thing). Bloodborne is coming in the near future and souls 3 not long after.
@@Cytonox *Cries in Ashina*
@@scrimmybingus9279 Neither of us think the bosses were too noteworthy is a big reason, save for some like Genichiro and the Guardian Ape. Most of them were just throwaway minibosses that blended together so neither of us really feel like talking about "General Yoshiwazakarusuzakiwaru of the seven centipede dicks" or whatever other guys there were. I personally didn't care for the areas either, and the soundtrack is not at all memorable which is something we care a lot about. I won't say it's a bad game myself, but it's one that neither Jack nor I want to revisit.
@@Cytonox I think there are a lot more really memorable bosses then that. You got Demon of Hatred, True Corrupted Monk, Devine Dragon, Owl Father, Isshin the Sword Saint and Emma the Gentil blade. Although the Mini-bosses are mostly re-fights, and annoying after the first re-skin.
You’re right absolutely about the sound-track, although do like the battle theme for Sen-Po temple.
The areas, although not very plentiful, a very hit and miss for me. I think Fountain-head palace, Sen-Po temple and Ashina Castle are all really cool, and I really like Mibu Village.
I think the bosses and Combat are the game’s main attraction though, and it’s why it’s my personal favorite. I also really like the game’s story and cutscenes.
@@Cytonox serious question, did you Betray Kuro? Doing that Blocks out the best part of the game.
I remember my first time fighting Mytha, I didn't know about the windmill, it took me a LOT of attempts until I finally killed her
Very nice list. The Fume Knight is my favorite Soulsborne boss of all time.
30:27 him mentioning how bad the spear heide knight is made me happy , I died to him about 30 times I’m not kidding
fun fact: i didn't remove the poison in mytha's fight, and i really enjoyed it for the poison aspect since it forced you to manage your healing items to not die from it. maybe i'm weird
Pretty well done video , the narration is well balanced and I agree with most of the list expect the first half
I had heard the theory on Bonfireside Chat that the Giant Lord is the Last Giant in the past, that's why he goes nuts when you see him because he remembers you killing him.
Great video, Guys! I'd watched it a while back but held off commenting until I'd played the game, myself. Previously, the only FromSoftware games I had played were Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Sekiro (I plan to play Dark Souls III at some point in the near future), although I have watched Let's Plays of all of the games. Fresh off of my first playthrough, here is my personal top 10 favorite bosses in Dark Souls II:
1. Sir Alonne
2. Fume Knight
3. Darklurker
4. Burnt Ivory King
5. Looking Glass Knight
6. The Pursuer
7. Velstadt, the Royal Aegis
8. Sinh, The Slumbering Dragon
9. Smelter Demon
10. Blue Smelter Demon
I agree that the Blue Smelter Demon is an underrated fight. Sure, it's an unoriginal boss concept (this game has a lot of those), but that, in itself, doesn't make it a significantly worse fight in my opinion. The only changes made to the boss are the magic replacing fire, the different attack timings, and higher difficulty, but I still think it's one of the better bosses in the game from a mechanical perspective. I also get the feeling a lot of people also hate this boss because of the atrocious run-up to it. Iron Passage is an abysmal area, much like Cave of the Dead and Frigid Outskirts (although that one deserves an extra special tier to itself), but I personally view bad run-ups to boss arenas as faults of the areas in question, rather than the bosses, themselves. Otherwise, Sir Alonne would get docked plenty of points for his run-up.
That said, I also agree that both Lud and Zallen and the Gank Squad are horrendous bosses, and I was lucky to get past both of them on my first attempt. After dying at least twenty times in the Frigid Outskirts, I somehow succeeded on my first attempt against Lud and Zallen -- which I attribute to my character being leveled up into the 190's by then (a little over-leveled, I know) and that I was adamant about not traversing Frigid Outskirts ever again. 2-handing my fully upgraded broken Santier's Spear worked well against them, as well. I was very cautious and methodical with the Gank Squad, using the terrain to my advantage and leading the two melee opponents on a wild goose chase around the arena, while periodically pausing just long enough to get a hit off on Cerah. Once Cerah was dead, I continued the same strategy but attacked the Afflicted Graverobber when Varg was some distance away. Varg was easier when saved for last since I could just back-stab him. It didn't make the fight any better, though. Lol.
My absolute least favorite boss was Royal Rat Authority, though. It may not have been as technically difficult as some of the other fights, but sending a swarm of toxic rats at you at the beginning felt like a cheap way of artificially inflating the difficulty. This was the boss I died to the most (16 times) because I kept getting afflicted by toxic before I could finish off the rats. The only saving grace was that the bonfire was right outside of the arena. Imagine if this RNG-heavy boss waited at the end of Frigid Outskirts.... *shudder*
Frigid Outskirts may very well be the worst level I've played in any game, and, as many times as I've heard fans bemoan this area, it still didn't prepare me for how terrible it is to experience, first-hand. It's hands-down the worst-designed run-up to a boss I've ever experienced... but there are two others I consider even tougher.
The run-up to Death, the penultimate boss of the original Castlevania, is incredibly unforgiving, especially the final corridor before the boss, where your path is blocked by axe knights while constantly-spawning medusa heads fly at you. Holy water makes this easier, but it's a battle in and of itself to hold onto it that long. Additionally, unless you bring holy water into the boss arena to cheese Death, you're in for arguably the hardest boss in the entire franchise, who will kill you in four hits assuming you're at full health when you reach him. Unsurprisingly, I've only ever defeated Death by stun-locking him to... well, death, by spamming Holy Water.
The run-up to Doppelganger, the penultimate boss of Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse (especially the harder American version), is even tougher. Between insta-death spike traps, the toughest staircase segment in a series already notorious for them, a vertical auto-scrolling tower where you can't see what's coming next, and bottomless pits galore, few levels have infuriated me as much as this. Not to mention that the Doppelganger is another strong contender for the toughest boss in the franchise and is harder to cheese than Death from the first game. This is what they mean by "Nintendo Hard."
Anyway, I enjoy your content as always and look forward to your future videos!
OMG dude wrote an entire essay on this video and Dark Souls 2 bosses. Kudos to you for being able to write this!
@@Aquiteprolificcommenter Thanks! I tend to go on and on about topics that interest me, and this here is a prime example of it. Lol.
Great content as always
I love the addition of Aldia to the remake. It was great to see him while you heard so much about him.
Its such a damn shame he was not even mentioned in dark souls 3
He's in the original too, he was added in an update.
@@ORCA1739He is, just not by name. He's implied to be the one who swayed Lorian to not be a Lord of Cinder and thus jumpstart the whole game. Then when you get to the end, if you choose the ending where you summon the firekeeper to snuff the flame, whether you kill her or not, you're essentially doing what Aldia would want. That being, to snuff the fire to stop the degradation of the world. Whether you chose to allow it to eventually catch alight once more or leave the world in darkness is thus just as alright of a choice since there's no way to know what would happen either way. As Aldia said: "There is no path, yet we seek it insatiably." Implying really that there is no definitive correct answer past getting to an ending. Whatever an ending happens to mean and entail.
Funny thing about Elana for me was that I had no idea she could summon skeletons or piglets. I fought her twice. First time I lost, second I won. She summoned Velstadt twice in the first attempt and once in the second. She never summoned anything else and I figured that this was the game teaching me that Velstadt was supposed to only be dodged, not attacked.
In reality, the fight is much easier if you just try for the skeleton spawn and kill 2 of them. I honestly kind of liked dodging Velstadt to sneak in hits on Elana though, it felt like a fairly fresh take on the gank fights that had been getting on my nerves up until that point.
I dont hate the blue smelter demon fight in a vacuum, but that run to the fight is cancer and annoying.
another thing about fume knight if you go into the fight wearing velstadt's helm, the fume knight will go straight into his buffed phase
That's very good content! Can't wait for Dark Souls III!
Thanks so much for watching! Bloodborne is next then Dark Souls III, both are coming up soon however.
@@Cytonox That's good to hear! Both of them are some of my favourite games which is why I can't wait!
@@alexandrejust4771 Stay tuned and thanks once again!
Amazing just like always
Glad ya liked it!
What soulsborne ranking are you doing next?
@@PolarPig109 Bloodborne boss ranking
Can’t wait
Fume Knight is my #1, but I respect the Burnt Ivory King choice
I also love the Ruin Sentinels and the Skeleton Lords, glad to see some respect
The two I disagreed with alot we're Aldia and The Chariot. Aldia is a really good fight, he's like bed of chaos but good, and it plays very tactically. Executioners chariot is just a fun gimmick
When you guys talked about the covetous demon, i misheard mytha and thought it was Mythra (a hot chick from Xenoblade Chronicles 2 if you don't know what i'm talking about.) Also, you did a good job describing the dude! I laughed my ass off as you explained his lore!
I honestly don't understand why people don't like the executioners chariot, it's one of my favorites honestly
Probably the runback. I thought the gimmick itself was actually pretty neat.
@@maxburrill6192 the wardens aren't too bad to run past.
Thoughts:
Lud and Zallen: Even without the horrific runback, the fight's still terrible, it's just 2 Aava's and they don't work well as a duo.
Gank Squad: This is my least favourite fight in the game, it's almost as bad as Bed of Chaos.
Executioner's Chariot: I actually like this fight, it's unique and fun, and the skeletons aren't annoying, though the fight with the horse could be better.
Belfry Gargoyles: This is a poorly balanced gank fight that just becomes frustrating.
Royal Rat Authority: I don't hate this fight as much as a lot of other people do, but the small toxic rats definitely make it a bad boss.
Ancient Dragon: This is a boring slog and is the 2nd worst dragon fight in the series.
Royal Rat Vanguard: First off, why does this boss have an amazing theme? This fight is extremely uncreative and I think this is WAY worse than the Authority.
Double Dragonriders: The solo dragonrider is passable because it's such an early game fight, but these two are the epitome of lazy design.
Prowling Magus: And now I owe the Dragonriders an apology.
Dragonrider: He's OK because this is probably the first or third fight you face. Seeing him fall to his death is hilarious though.
Covetous Demon: This boss is so bad that it's good, and the lore is funny.
Aldia, Scholar of the First Sin: A fairly lame final boss with an awesome soundtrack. He is probably my favourite NPC in this game, so there's that as well.
Scorpioness Najka: This ripoff Quelagg is a pretty meh fight, the burrowing attack is cool I guess.
Giant Lord: This has great cinematic scale but it's a pretty dull fight.
Guardian Dragon: This and most of Elden Ring's dragons are the rare ok dragons from these games as they're usually terrible or great.
Demon of Song: It's a cool idea that's executed fine.
Throne Watcher and Defender: This is a surprisingly balanced duo fight in this game.
Aava, the King's Pet: Weapon durability is stupid, but anyway, this fight is pretty good. It's actually funny how the two mandatory fights in each DLC are good, but the optional ones aren't.
Vendrick: This is a great lore fight with great music but the mechanics are pretty dull.
Last Giant: This is probably the worst tutorial boss but it's still a good one. I've never seen the falling over attack, so that was a joy.
Mytha, the Baneful Queen: This fight is annoying with the poison but OK without it.
Old Iron King: It's a pretty cool fight visually but it's super annoying to fight, I can see how you like him though.
Nashandra: It's a disappointing final boss but she's still fun.
The Lost Sinner: I can definitely see how this fight can be frustrating for strength builds, but I'm never one, so I enjoy it.
Old Dragonslayer: This is a reskin fight I'm fine with, he feels different enough from Ornstein to not feel lazy.
Flexile Sentry: It's a really cool concept executed pretty well.
Ruin Sentinels: A surprisingly well balanced gank fight that's enjoyable.
Duke's Dear Freja: This is one of my favourite fights in the game. I'm not afraid of spiders, but this is a pretty scary boss.
The Rotten: He has a rotten runback , but everything else I like, even the arena.
Skeleton Lords: I think this is a bit high personally, but it's definitely overhated and a pretty good boss.
Elana, the Squalid Queen: This is a pretty good boss with a pretty memorable soundtrack, and I got a rush of panic when she summoned Velstadt.
The Pursuer: This is a very memorable early game fight that gets kind of ruined with all the Pursuer enemies, but it's a fun fight.
Smelter Demon: The runback is bad, but it's not THAT bad. Anyway, the fight is enjoyable and feels pretty tense with the music that fits the Smelter Demon better imo.
Sinh, the Slumbering Dragon: This is one of these great fights I was talking about, and a large part of it is due to the music, I love it.Tue toxic can be annoying but his moves are fair and the flying away doesn't bother me too much.
Blue Kool Aid: He's OK, he's a decent fight because it's Smelter Demon again, but it definitely feels lazy.
Looking Glass Knight: THE MUSIC!! DS2 is my least favourite ( I still love it ) for many of the reasons the community says, but the soundtrack definitely isn't bland. The fight is pretty fun, I don't really get the spirit summoning, but I don't mind it too much.
Velstadt the Royal Aegis: He's the Penetrator of DS2 for me, easy but fun.
Darklurker: This is my favourite fight in the game, He's fun, hard but fair, and his 2nd phase is a great gank fight. He looks really cool as well.
Sir Alonne: Best soundtrack in the game, he's a little overrated by the community to me, but he's still a blast.
Fume Knight: Really great, he has fun moves, a great theme and arena.
Burnt Ivory King: He's like Radahn before Radahn, and while I think Radahn is better, this guy is the the original.
Wonder if some if this stuff was ideas that they had on paper but just couldn't get the right words out. Such as Vanguard, Najka, or Nashandra.
most of elden ring dragon designs are horrid
Personally I feel like I am the opposite when it comes to the Sunken King DLC. I think it is one of my favorite areas in souls because it introduces a bit of puzzle solving and feels like a refreshing change. It looks cool, has interesting new enemies, has some neat new mechanics, and is overall just a really fun area... except for literally every boss in that dlc👀
For me personally, the most annoying part of this DLC is not the stinky knights with huge poise or ghosts, who have a huge amount of hp until you find their bodies but the whole location in general. Like, I'm the type of person who wouldn't leave a location until I found every item and explored every corner. But I also get lost easily. Because of this combo, it was annoying af to explore and I postponed getting the OP Flynn's ring until late game just because I didn't want to deal with this place
Spoilers for the ranking. Felt like giving my own thoughts on these cuz uhh idk I'm bored I guess
#41: Lud and Zallen. This is actually the only boss in the Dark Souls trilogy I have never beaten. In my first playthrough, I went out of my way to attempt every boss, but this one eluded me like no other. The fight itself doesn't seem too awful, but I don't know firsthand because I only managed to reach them twice; the runback through the Frigid Outskirts is just too horrible to bear. That alone means I have no qualms with this fight's placement.
#40: Gank Squad. I got lucky enough to beat these guys first try after also doing the boss run first try. Pretty boring fight, but I did find a decent strategy which just involved running around the corner of the room near the entrance and dropping down to make the slower NPCs follow me while I take out the archer, then again for the swordsman. Took forever and I had a few close calls, but I made it work. Still, very boring and lazy fight, so no real complaints about placement here.
#39: Executioner's Chariot. Another bad runback, though not as bad as the other two. The boss itself is kinda frustrating at first, but once you get the timing down on rolling past the chariot, it becomes a bit trivial. Then the real fight begins and it's super easy (so easy that I beat it first try). Shitty fight, but a cool spectacle.
#38: Belfry Gargoyles. A little overhated imo. It's really just another DPS test. Unlike the Bell Gargoyles in DS1, these guys are kinda small and don't attack as quickly, so if you manage to take the first few out in a timely manner, you can easily keep your distance away from the last couple. Not a great fight, but one that was overhyped for me in terms of difficulty (another first try, though I was pretty prepared going in).
#37: Royal Rat Authority. Surprised to see this not second-to-last. Usually I see people rank this as the worst base-game boss. I also beat this one first try cuz I managed to kill the rats quickly, so it just became Great Grey Wolf Sif but boring and without memorable music. Lame, dumb, whatever. (Also I might have gotten lucky cuz I managed to avoid toxic buildup until literally the last few seconds.
#36: Ancient Dragon. The only boss I cheesed cuz I just couldn't be bothered to try and fight it legit. It still took forever to kill with melee so it's really just an autoscroller imo. Bad fight. This trilogy really isn't that great at dragon bosses, huh?
#35: Royal Rat Vanguard. This is the dumbest fight in the series, but I kinda can't help but love it lmao. It's goofy and insanely simple, especially for a Dark Souls game, but I kinda found it fun running around and smacking the little rats until the big one showed up. Another boss I first tried.
#34: Twin Dragonriders. I beat these guys in literally 35 seconds. I think that says it all.
#33: Prowling Magus and Congregation. A little surprised not to see this near the bottom lol. I genuinely forget these guys are even a boss more often than not, which I can't even say about Pinwheel. Not much to say, really. At least the lore is neat.
#32: Dragonrider. This guy can be a lot of players' first boss. In this case, I actually think it serves as a decent tutorial fight. However, in any other case, it's crazy easy. It will always gets points for being able to make him fall off the stage though. It's just too funny.
#31: Covetous Demon. Complete joke of a boss, although it has a certain charm to it that somewhat endears me to him. Plus, that attack where he eats you is pretty unexpected, and shooting the barrels on the ceiling is a neat gimmick (that I didn't know about in my playthrough lol).
#30: Aldia, Scholar of the First Sin. Award for the most disappointing boss in the game. No reward for beating a fairly mid "final boss" that takes way too long to kill but isn't particularly challenging.
#29: Scorpioness Najka. Quelaag Lite. She's neat. It's a somewhat dynamic fight, and I like that you can cut her tails off. Very good arena as well. I would not rank her as high as Quelaag, but I would rank her a little higher on this list.
#28: Giant Lord. Cooler arena than The Last Giant, but the fight itself is nothing special. Would rank this lower for sure.
#27: Guardian Dragon. Stop. Fucking. Flying. Away. I played vanilla instead of SotFS, so I hadn't actually fought one of these guys yet, and that might have added to my disappointment with this fight. I beat it in one long, agonizing attempt, but didn't find it very fun at all.
#26: Demon of Song. Embarrassingly, I died to this boss once. Like a noob. The fight is pretty boring and is in a lame arena, but I'll gladly take an easy boss after one of the worst areas in the base game. Again, I played VANILLA and still despised this area. I am so thankful I didn't pick Scholar.....
#25: Throne Watcher and Throne Defender. I honestly enjoyed this fight. It felt pretty dynamic compared to the other bosses in the game and I had a good time trying to manage both of their health bars. The only thing I dislike is the arena. It's pretty empty and doesn't accommodate a double boss like the arena for Ornstein and Smough, making it much harder to single out one target. Overall, I like these guys more than most players, but wouldn't rank them near the top of my list for DS2 bosses.
#24: Aava, The King's Pet. Has some annoying attacks that feel like they have bigger hitboxes than they should, but overall it's a pretty neat fight. I like the arena quite a bit, it's very unique for a Souls boss. Would probably rank it toward the middle as well.
#23: Vendrick. Lore-wise, this guy is awesome. But as a boss? Incredibly lame. Just run around, hit his ankles, dodge his telegraphed swipes, repeat. Very confused to see this one so high (although getting the Giant Souls was actually pretty fun. More fun than this lame-ass fight).
#22: Last Giant. As a tutorial boss, he's okay. Not as great as Asylum Demon and Iudex Gundyr, but it's decent enough. I don't have much to say about him except it's kinda cool when he rips his arm off and starts swinging it at you.
#21: Mytha, The Baneful Queen. Another fight I beat first try (and I think it's the only boss I did no-hit, somehow). Not really much to say. The gimmick of the pool of poison being removable is cool, but otherwise the fight is kinda whatever imo.
#20: Old Iron King. Love this guy's design, but he's a little too easy for being a Great Soul boss. I did fall into the hole once admittedly, but otherwise I didn't struggle too much. It was honestly fun, but it could have been better.
(continued in reply)
#19: Nashandra. I liked this fight pretty much equally as much as Throne Watcher/Defender. Not a very dynamic fight, nor a very difficult one, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't find it fun reading her attacks and predicting when her little curse orbs show up so I could go destroy them. Fine fight, but not the best final boss.
#18: The Lost Sinner. Somehow beat this boss first try, which was actually a bit disappointing cuz she was really fun. The reduced lock-on range forced me to adapt to a new playstyle that I found surprisingly fun, and I think the fact that I used a dex build helped negate the issue of her jumping away before I could land an attack. Not the best boss in a the game, but a fun one for sure.
#17: Old Dragonslayer. I've never fought Super Ornstein in DS1, so I guess this is the next best thing? For an early game boss, he's a little tough, but I didn't find it frustrating at all. I liked the callback to the first game as well. Not too shabby for an optional boss.
#16: Flexile Sentry. Definitely an underrated fight. Wish it was harder, since I like the gimmick of it being two conjoined enemies and the water rising, but neither one was much of a problem because he dies too quickly. I am glad this thing reappears as a normal enemy later, at least.
#15: Ruin Sentinels. Hated these guys until I figured out how to fight them one at a time. Once I stopped being dumb, this fight was kinda neat but not one I really cared for that much. Some attacks have really shitty hitboxes, which is always fun. Not the worst gank fight, but I wouldn't place them this high.
#14: The Duke's Dear Freja. How fun this fight is pretty much comes down to how quickly you beat the small spiders, or if you have a torch. Once the little spiders are taken care of, Freja herself is pretty damn easy. I kinda like it though, the moveset is interesting for sure.
#13: The Rotten. My favorite boss design in DS2. Fighting a boss literally made of a bunch of undead is super creative and cool to look at. The fight itself is pretty easy since his attacks are very telegraphed, though the fire around the arena can throw a wrench in your dodging sometimes. Good fight, but I'm not sure if it beats Lost Sinner as my favorite Great Soul boss.
#12: Skeleton Lords. Bring Alluring Skulls to this fight and it becomes trivial. Otherwise, it's skeleton gank city, which wouldn't be too bad if it weren't for those fucking bonewheels (which, admittedly, aren't NEARLY as bad as they are in DS1). Outside of them, this fight is nothing special imo. Wouldn't rank it this high personally.
#11: Elana, The Squalid Queen. Cool gimmick which makes up for a kinda lame moveset imo. Having Velstadt summoned in the middle of the fight is hilarious but also makes the fight a lot more interesting. Not my favorite DLC boss, but certainly not the worst.
#10: The Pursuer. Such a cool concept for a reoccurring enemy, and the ballistas in the arena open up the opportunity for a really sick boss kill. Even without the ballistas, this guy is pretty fun to fight early on. Cool fight, no complaints here.
#9: Smelter Demon (Red). If it weren't for the runback, I would have no complaints about this guy (the runback is not as bad in vanilla thankfully. Fuck SotFS). Really fun moveset and a shockingly balanced arena despite it being really small. The small DOT he deals when you're near him also adds a neat element of health management to the fight. I didn't expect to enjoy this fight as much as I did. He might be my favorite boss in the base game.
#8: Sinh, the Slumber Dragon. This would be a lot higher for me if the fucker didn't keep flying away. When he's on the ground, he's a surprisingly manageable and fun boss (way moreso than Kalameet, Guardian Dragon, Ancient Dragon, and even Midir. Yes, I like this guy more than Midir. Fight me.). The one thing holding him back is that HE KEEPS FLYING AWAY. COME BACK, FUCKER. It drags the fight out way too much and makes an otherwise great fight kinda tedious. At least his health pool isn't massive, and the increased weapon degradation is easy to mitigate.
#7. Smelter Demon (Blue). Yeah, this one was unexpected. A much worse runback for a copy-paste boss. As much as I love the Red Smelter Demon, the blue raspberry flavor feels much worse to fight. A lot of people say his hitboxes are way bigger than the red one's, and tbh I think that could be the case. I felt like I was taking cheap or outright bullshit hits quite a bit. It's still a fun fight since the moveset and arena are the same, but I don't care for this one nearly as much as the one in the base game.
#6: Looking Glass Knight. Very climactic fight, and one of the coolest looking bosses in the series to boot. Really cool gimmick while also just having really fun and balanced mechanics. If Red Smelter Demon is not my favorite boss in the base game, then the award definitely goes to this guy.
#5. Velstadt, The Royal Aegis. Pretty cool fight, though the moveset leaves a bit to be desired in my opinion, even in the second phase. Not much to say, it's just a decent late-game Souls boss.
#4: Darklurker. Easily the placement I disagree with the most. This would be my second lowest-ranked fight (and lowest in the base game), probably cuz I did a dexterity build and this fucker basically says "LOL eat a dick, melee builds". Getting to him is very annoying since the NPCs you're forced to kill can be tanky or super fast or can just never aggro while you're trying to lure them away to fight them one at a time, and you have to use a Human Effigy every time you wanna attempt the boss. To be honest, he wouldn't be so bad even with all that if he didn't split in two. The moveset is interesting but easy to deal with when fighting one, but adding a second one to the equation sucks every last drop of fun out of this fight for me. I actually ended up leveling up a Pyromancy Flame and using fireballs + flame swathe just to kill this fucker. Bastard cost me hours of my life. Never fighting him again.
#3: Sir Alonne. Awesome design and a very cool arena, but his moveset is a bit lacking in my opinion. He only ever used about 4 or 5 unique moves on me, and none of them were particularly difficult to deal with. Beat this guy first try, probably with some luck, but I had also just fought Fume Knight and Blue Smelter Demon, two bosses I found much harder. Great fight, but I wish it was a bit harder or threw more unique moves at you. His moves look fucking badass though. In fact, I think design-wise he's the second best in the game behind The Rotten.
#2: Fume Knight. My personal favorite boss in the whole game and top 5 fight in the trilogy. Took me an hour to beat this guy, but the whole time it felt incredibly fair despite being crushingly difficult and very intense (and that bonfire being right next to the arena is so nice. Why did DS2 not do this more?). Awesome spectacle as well, especially when he pulls out that giant flaming sword. The only thing I'm not a huge fan of is the arena. It's a little uninteresting. But truthfully, when that's the only critique I can muster, that's how I know I have a masterpiece on my hands.
#1: Burnt Ivory King. Best boss lore-wise, hands-down. Also a very fun and thrilling fight with a fantastic arena and introduction. Didn't find it quite as fun as the Fume Knight fight, but his moveset was still pretty awesome. Unfortunately, the knights you have to deal with before the fight make it very tedious after the initial awe of watching the Loyce Knights fight alongside you, and sometimes they just decide not to freeze the portals. Remove this blemish and this would probably be in the top 3 for me in this game and maybe even top 10 in the trilogy.
If you read all this, I hope you get a million dollars and a free burger.
@@nintendude6477 great list, man! Thanks for that comment, and we're glad that you watched the whole thing (+ our lists are similar so you got good taste). Thanks! - Jack
Actually, considering Aldia speaks after his battle and doesn't drop a boss soul or souls in general it is pretty safe to assume you didn't kill him. In lore he literally can't die as he is linked to the bonfires themselves. As for why you fight him, I always thought it was his final test to make sure you were worthy of becoming king and linking the flame.
Also, I would argue the Moonlight Greatsword is cooler than the Fume Ultra Greatsword
I watch both Demodcracy and SunburntAlbino videos similar to this one, and it’s bizarre how you guys are as if those two RUclipsrs made a joint channel so it has the advantages of both
Omg 3 years ago?! Okay well. I appreciate this video even though I just found it’s good job guys 🎉
Prowling magius and congregation imo shows how some people can twist and manipulate religion for their own personal gain , pretty interesting concept
if not overdone to death
@@sodafromteacups4029 its the 2nd boss does that in the series chronologically speaking
Damn the burnt ivory king fight looks super badass
best fight in game
Great video ,overall solid rankings. But my brother in Christ... If you said drangliak instead of dragleic one more time i was gonna unalive myself
It has been a long time since I've played DS2 and maybe this is an unpopular opinion, but there are only 4 bosses I'd give above an 8/10 in DS2. The vast majority of bosses I do not like for various reasons. I just found myself getting frustrated (or bored) with almost every boss on different playthroughs. I love Sin and Ivory King. I really like the pursuer, Sir Alonne, and Fume Knight. I think flexile sentry, ruin sentinels, mirror Knight and Velstat are good and every other boss is okay to bad. The runbacks, hitboxes, slow healing, and lack of methods in arenas to deal with ganks make most bosses not great.
For example, I disagree with everything you mentioned for darklurker. The room was tiny, it did a shit ton of damage with very little room to heal, there is nothing in the arena to help mitigate the gank, the runbacks is one of the worst in the series, the hitboxes are awful, and I found it to be one of the most frustrating bosses in the entire series. I also despise both smelter demons for their god awful runbacks and shitty hitboxes. Same with Ava and Elana for the hitboxes. Maybe my first run where I didn't level adaptability is clouding my memory, but does anyone else agree? Bad runbacks ruin bosses for me because I'm not great at these games.
FUME KNIGHT AND BURNT IVORY KING TOOK ME A LONG FRRRRRRRRRKN TIME. A LONG HECKING TIME. I beat every DS2
Boss but it took me A LONG TIME because of these two ABSOLUTE MONSTERS. I appreciate this video and ranking order 👍
Nashandra is so cool looking, I really wish there was more to her fight because aesthetically she's one of my favorite bosses in the series
one of the best parts about this video was finding out that royal rat authority is an optional boss
Why wouldn't it
Watching this is cathartic in the midst of my ng+7 fresh start run. The whole Darklurker arc is making me contemplate life choices atm. They really did not play test this game on NG+ it is miserable. And I keep thinking "I'm not even to the DLC yet"😭🤢
Best sword for me is definitely the Farron Greatsword with it's legendary unique moveset.
The only reason I did not flat out uninstall during Royal Rat Authority was thanks to the bonfire being right next to the fog wall. I think I would have lost it otherwise.
I just realized I think part of the reason I like ruin sentinels is bc they remind me of the mantis lords in hollow knight
Sir alone and fume knight is awesomeness bosses 💯
My Ranking:
1. Sir Alonne
2. Fume Knight
3. Darklurker
4. Burnt Ivory King
5. Looking Glass Knight
6. Velstadt, The Royal Aegis
7. Sinh, The Slumbering Dragon
8. The Pursuer
9. Aava, The King's Pet
10. Smelter Demon
11. Skeleton Lords
12. Lost Sinner
13. Flexile Sentry
14. Ruin Sentinels
15. Duke's Dear Freja
16. Throne Watcher And Defender
17. Demon Of Song
18. Blue Smelter Demon
19. Executioner's Chariot
20. Elana, The Squalid Queen
21. Guardian Dragon
22. Scorpioness Najka
23. Mytha, The Baneful Queen
24. Nashandra
25. Old Dragonslayer
26. The Rotten
27. The Last Giant
28. Dragonrider
29. Giant Lord
30. Twin Dragonriders
31. Prowling Magus
32. Vendrick
33. Covetous Demon
34. Aldia, Scholar Of The First Sin
35. Old Iron King
36. Ancient Dragon
37. Lud And Zallen
38. Belfry Gargoyles
39. Royal Rat Vanguard
40. Royal Rat Authority
41. Graverobber, Varg And Cerah
Interesting video.
I really like the Charriot, but i can take your words)
Worth playing? I love DS1 and DS3
The gaping dragon from DS1 actually takes headshot damage too (tho to be fair youre more inclined to jusr hit the tail so more people prolly saw the damage for guardian dragon since theres actual reason to hit the head in that fight)
Dude I loved that fuckin gank in the ds2 dlc. It was fun to just kite them around the room. Hit one fucking kite around again hit him again.
yeah lowkey they aren’t as horrible as i remembered on my recent replay lol
-alex
I'm on my first run through of DS2, and I'm at the Shrine of Amana (god help me), but the only bosses I've had trouble on - ignoring the boss runs - are Prowling Magus and Congregation and Royal Rat Authority. I don't know why PMaC is part of my struggle bus, but it is. My favorite fight so far has been either Smelter Demon or the Looking Glass Knight, both felt really epic and took a combination of mind and might to take down.
DS2 probably has my favorite bosses of the Dark Souls trilogy but has my least favorite regular enemies.
I enjoy fighting Demon of Song because it means I'm out of Shrine of Amana.
Im definitely grateful that it ends with an easy chump of a boss and not some Fume Knight level guy, that would be pretty evil
I think the ringed knight great swords are a good contender against the fume ultra great sword even though it’s 2 v 1
I think the Fume Ultra Greatsword looks cooler and has a better moveset personally both are baller weapons tho
@@Cytonox true
Let me preface this by saying Dark Souls II is unironically my favorite of the trilogy. That being said, it is objectively the worst of the series, and I think Nashandra is a perfect example of what most of us think of the game.
The curse mechanic is interesting and I can see what they were going for, but it just doesn't work. If curse worked like it does in DS1 or 3 it'd make the fight considerably more dangerous.
I do love the game, but there is a lot wrong with it, but the good FAR outweighs the bad
Jack here, personally the variety in playstyles through weapons, stats, magics and such make it so charming, and it’s bad moments are so bad i find them funny. just my take though. thanks for watching!
I learned so much about the Rotten...
Glad to know that the two bosses I skipped in this game were the lowest ranked 😂
Just a bit of a critique.
The way you use UGS seems... a bit generic. For example, in your lost sinner fight you say she punishes you for your weapon type. But thats not really the case. DS2 has the fastest swinging UGS of the 3 souls games. Yes, faster than ds3. The game lets you swing the ugs faster after a rolling or running attack. Ds2 like elden ring has a jump attack that goes pretty far and with lock on almost never misses. Great to close the gap fast. Like elden ring, you can stance break enemies in ds2 like heide knights, stone knights, charred loyace knights, harvest valley blacksmights, etc. with a 2h running/heavy attack from a UGS. That lets the UGS 1 shot these enemies. And trust me, there's several enemies this is useful against. You also don't seem to take full advantage of the UGS ability to throw NPC's around like ragdolls. Feeling a bit low on poise damage? Slap on the stone ring and go to town on them.
Another thing is ds2 sotfs changes the bossfights a bit during NG+ with additional loot or additional NPC's and some new encounters like dual pursuers and duke's dear freja ambushing you in NG+. Lost sinner and flexile sentry gain 2 new NPC's to help them in NG+. So that should go into the boss rankings. For example, you complained about the flexile sentry being too easy. Well, use a bonfire aestic and fight him in NG+. He gets more health and 2 shadow ninja's to help him. That really ramps up the difficulty as now you have to contend with dealing with his base moveset and handling the shadow ninja's. NG flexile sentry is like phase 1. NG+ flexile sentry is the real fight. Same with lost sinner.
Good video, but ds2's bosses are the least punishing for a playstyle out of any souls games bosses. Thats one of the reasons they are great. Ds3 and especially elden ring really punish you for using a UGS/colossal sword. I mean you've fought against gundyr in phase 2 with a ugs. Compare that to alonne with a UGS. Night and day difference in balancing despite both being fast bosses in their respective games.
So awesome :)))))
Can someone teach these guys what a scythe is?
A lot of these bosses would be much better with a year's worth of extra time. They could have made runbacks shorter with Darklurker and Sir Alonne as well as Lost Sinner.
i have more fun with this games bosses than i do with most of ds1s but bosses like nashandra and covetous demon could of been harder.
Blue Smelter is a good boss, the biggest problem is that he has such an AWFUL runback, one ao bad that I might hate it even moe than Outskirts.
it's actually not that hard to run to blue smelter, just go down the hole instead of trying the gauntlet.
Great video. this is easily my least favorite souls game but it does have its amazing moments for sure. one thing i never understood though is why people like sinh. i mean to each their own but i absolutely hated that fight. people complain about the guardian dragon flying around too much and being too boring for melee players. On my one playthrough of ds2 sinh was like 5 times worse than guardian dragon. he would not stay on the ground for longer than 10 seconds and it was one of the most boring bosses i have ever fought in my life
Bad rng can definitely make Sinh much more annoying, but in my experience he doesn't do this too horribly often. I'd hate him if he pulled that on me all the time also
-Alex
Is it possible to do a ranking on boss weapons from Dark Souls 1,2,3
Personally i found lud and zallen quite an ok fight, i agree that the runback is horrendous, however the pacing of the fight was about right, avaa was for me a boring one simply because of the tiger constantly running back.
Another thing are the graverobbers, the runback is atrocious however it is possible to do hitlles, the bossfight kept me on the edge. To beat the boss without cheesing you got to use the arena which does give you a lot of various strategy options. Other thing is that you can poise brake them with a ugs or curved ugs with the use of stone ring.
As to the ivory king i personally found the fight underwhelming, starting with the chart loyce knight"s, which on subsequent playthrough's can be overwhelming because of their damage. The ivory king is supposed to be a tragic character and that stuff, but lore, cinematography, music can't make the best boss without a diverset or lack of combos. Besides he has some strange hitboxes. For example Fume knight can varify his combos, has unique moveset in his second phase and in general is a great boss, for many number 1 which i'd agree with.
Some bosses, like lost sinner, flexile sentry on ng+'es add hostile npsc's to the boss encounter make it essantialy 3v1, it's not a masive game changer, however makes a tiny bit more annyoing.
Lastly a short list of things:
Velstadt is high up the order with his simple movset and can be easily melted with lightning infused weapons'
Ruin sentiels are one of the better bosses for early game, ussualy are fought to early, plus there is a hidden runback path, making it extreamly easy,
Freja is not a good boss, should be deffenitly lower especially with that long runback,
Skeleton lords are way to high,
Many people ranking's include the runback, which i find fair but how do rank the runback, what makes it fair or offensive, the length, enemy placement and difficulty? What makes a good experience?
I often take into consideration is it realistic in terms of does it make sense. For the point of argument let's take alonne's runback. First part of it is a simple long empty room with alonne knights and salamander's as sentry guns. Second part gives us archers instead of salamanders. Now the part that makes me question the developers the most is how they are connected - you drop down in a hole. It just does not make sense. I could care less about the windmill-iron keep elevator, however you do not make a boss run where you basicly agro all the enemies in the area.
Sorry for the butchered english.
no mention of bs lost sinner on ng+? she's like 10 times as agressive and has two lackeys. hate the lackeys but fight feels much different even without them. like a different boss. or at least that's my experience. also Duke's dear Freja ng+ encounter before prowling magus was a fun addition. if you manage to take her down she's at half hp on boss fight. shame it wasn't in ng and that there aren't any other fun changes in ng+ or at least I don't think there are.
I never knew to burn the windmill, so I kinda just fought throw the poison and killed her first try
cool vid. worst boss for me is lud and zallen, best boss is sir allone!
Am i the Only One who noticed that dragonrider clip was from Demodcracy channel?
all gameplay is our own, we credit all footage used from other channels. I can see how itd look similar though, since the trick to make Dragonrider suicide himself needs you to move in a very specific way
-Alex
I dont think I've ever killed the anchent dragon, that fight royally passes me off... and I've played through a few times
it sure doesnt help that whenever you kick the bucket you need to run through the entire area again, lol
Ancient*
Pisses*
Lol how tf is Blue Smelter Demon so high that runback can suck a fat one
19 or so good, decent, or okay bosses out of 41. Ds2 should get a modern-day bluepoint remake.
only 33% of bosses in ds1 are good.
@@Ghorda9 Oh I didn't mean it that way.
Ruin Sentinels is WAY too high, but other than that, I agree with most of the placements. My top ten would be:
1. Fume Knight
2. Ivory King
3. Sinh
4. Velstadt
5. Looking Glass Knight
6. The Pursuer
7. Allone (So low down because the boss run is the worst in the entire series)
8. Lost Sinner
9. Blue Smelter Demon
10. Duke's Dear Freja
The ruin sentinels are just really funny to us for some reason, it's sort of an inside joke thing at this point. I do genuinely like em tho that aside
@@Cytonox Yeah, alright, I just do not enjoy multi-fights nine times out of ten, especially when it's just two or more of the same exact enemy.
The Dark Souls series has just stockholmed me into enjoying stupid bullshit half the time I think lol. Most gank fights are lazy and kinda dumb but I just embrace it now
@@Cytonox Huh, maybe I should try that.
The worst runs are Nito, Dirty Colossus and Ludd and Zallen. Alonne doesn't come even close.
dark souls 2 is so good.. The best in the triology IMO
It’s my favorite in the series it may not have better gameplay than 3 but the vibe hits different and I like how the lore here is separate than 1 and 3
The BEST LMAO . Yeah, if you like tired shitty games, yeah, sure
Demon of song can also shoot out water bombs at random when at range.
How to make weak boss look stronger ?
Add normal enemies or make twins.
24:58 Wait??? you can remove the pison from the Boss arena
Clearly Giant Lord was the best. Why else would some of us have fought him so many times?
This message paid for with souls provided by Giant Lord for best DS2 boss PAC.
The old iron king fight was my favourite
yeah people hate on it for no reason lol, I like it also
>executioner's chariot at 39
Bruh
Tard move
Royal Rat Vanguard is absolute kino shut up
Going straight in who is the we your talking about also is that the democracy?
we as in the two of us
I didn't light the windmill haha I tried to break it by hitting it these inconsistencies are dumb imo sometimes
but the boss fight is still easy if you just use the life stones instead of estus
They really dropped the ball with most of these bosses especially most if not all of the multi bosses.
I killed the pursuer using the balistas and just spammed shoot twice haha
Fun fact: Aldia dont dies after being defeat.
Looking Glass Knight is a detractor
DS2 was the only Dark Souls where I was like... "Is this just a bad game?" And yes, yes it is. Saying this as a huge DS fan who has finished every game (except DS2) numerous times. It is so heavily flawed and it is honestly frustrating to see the fanboys defending it so much even over its GLARING issues that are present in every. single. location.
There are just weird contrarians for everything now, especially on the internet. If something is almost universally loved, there are people who go out of their way to give their opinion that it sucks and vice versa.
@@jarlwhiterun7478 I can agree with that for sure
I don't think including the runup is fair. It's about the boss, not the level.
that's a valid point, but from our perspective if making it back to a fight is obnoxious it makes the fight inherently less enjoyable because you're forced to go through poorly designed arenas and such instead of just being right outside the fog gate
Is it bad that I actually kinda enjoyed bed of chaos???
only one i REALLY disagree with is dark lurker. he has to be one of the worst bosses for me in the entire series. the clones can go on opposite sides of the arena and make it impossible to keep track of both of them in one camera angle and the explosion projectile feels very finicky to dodge
i agree with the explosion for sure the AoE is fucked up
darklurker was the only boss in the game i raged to bwcuase of the stupid runback and another overdone dual bossfight. i could not agree less with that placement on this list lol
check out out soulsborne ranking, we changed our tune about him
im trying to avoid spoilers on most other souls games right now, but its great to hear that opinion changed. i had a feeling i couldnt be the only one that suffered to them
Bed of chaos isn’t a good boss, but there are plenty a bosses worse, like this list’s last.
Sounds like Swagkages voice!
Если ты используешь этот меч, то любой босс становится кошмаром
I personally think every non dlc boss in this game is a pushover. All of them
Now do it including the boss run back's
NOP ! Lud and Zallen, Gargoyles and even the 3 guys or chariot are way better boss than some other, mostly for optionnal boss
The most important boss regard to the lore, the quest... are just crappy to fight...
Old Iron King ? Aldia ? Ancient Dragon (optionnal but important in the story)? Nashandra ? these boss are complete joke
Dragonrider ? 80% of trash mobs have better moves
Gardian dragon ? trash mob 5 minutes later
skeleton lords ? arena with trash mob
missed a funeral for this 😎 #cytonoxgang
they'd understand
great!
I have a sweet spot in my heart for the gank squad, though I will admit the poor design
Rat vanguard is kill based