# Hardest boss fight ever!



## Headphones and Coffee

What boss fight in any game did you find to be one of the hardest you've ever faced.  For me it has to be dark souls 2 to the fume Knight.


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## tdockweiler (Nov 11, 2019)

Surprised there has been no replies to this thread.
For me it has been dancer of the boreal valley in Dark Souls 3.

On my first playthrough it took me maybe 20 tries.
I just could not get her attack patterns down.
Then the camera was kind of frustrating.
During the last phase I had to hide behind pillars during some attacks.
I'm so terrible at fighting her that I usually don't bother until level 70!

On my second playthrough I got her on the first try, but just barely.

It's weird how I can go through nearly every other boss without any major problems.
Even the Pontiff fight is no problem for me. I just have to be very aggressive when I fight him and not focus too much on defense.
I can actually win that fight most times by just spamming the R1 button (and dodging a lot).

The final boss also gave me a lot of problems too.
Took 20 or more tries on the first playthrough. Thought it was impossible at first.
I later found out it's sometimes best to not fight him much during certain phases that give you problems.
The pike phase always gave me problems.

PS it's funny to think how hard Dark Souls 1 was during my first try.
The Gargoyles fight made me fling my controller more than once!

Ornstein and Smough was also a VERY frustrating experience.

These days I really can't stand Dark Souls 1 anymore.
It's too slow paced and the controls are much worse than DS2 and 3.
The level designs are only really good in a few levels.
And who actually likes playing past Anor Londo? Not me!
So many terrible level designs at the end of the game.


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## pikapika

You guys might not take me seriously, but I had trouble with Kingdom Hearts. The final main boss, mystery guy and boss at Colosseum. I still need to beat the two extra bosses.


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## Poganin

Ebrietas in Bloodborne.
But the boss fight that left me the most frustrated and cursing out loud was the final boss in the Xbox 360 Conan. The rage.


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## havenglory

pikapika said:


> You guys might not take me seriously, but I had trouble with Kingdom Hearts. The final main boss, mystery guy and boss at Colosseum. I still need to beat the two extra bosses.


I actually completed all the upgrades and finally beat Sephiroth in the colosseum .
The final boss (main story) became severely outmatched! HAHAHA


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## br3wsk1

Dark Souls 3, The Nameless King by far


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## pikapika

havenglory said:


> I actually completed all the upgrades and finally beat Sephiroth in the colosseum .
> The final boss (main story) became severely outmatched! HAHAHA


nice lol! I really wanted to get the ultimate blade, and up my character, but I decided not to spend the extra 20 hours on the game. I also bought Kingdom hearts 2 and 3, but I haven't play those yet. I will get to it though!


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## Orcworm

The Orphan of Kos in Bloodborne's DLC really took me by surprise since it was so aggressive -  all the more satisfying when I finally managed it though.


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## Playstation

Rogue Legacy remix bosses. Never beat one, never will.


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## Death_Block

I was having trouble with borderlands 3. The bosses are a bullet sponge joke so much it mage me dislike the game. Didn't finish.


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## malocadi

Probably the final boss in Sekiro (won't name names to keep it spoiler free). Had to put the game down for a few weeks after so many attempts. 

I've played and beaten all other soulsborne games but something about this one was really tripping me up.


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## luckysim0n

Demon Souls until sorted out the right gear can't even remember his name


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## IanOD

Difficult to say, but all the From Software bosses mentioned were tough; somehow I beat Orphan of Kos solo on my second try.  Though I'm sure I couldn't do it again!!  Nameless King is the one on the dragon, right?  He drove me CRAZY, I just couldn't beat him, I'd get the dragon and then get annihilated by him.  I did finally get him, but damn was it difficult!!  I absolutely ADORE all From Software games I've played, I recommend them constantly to everyone I know who's into video games.  I need to beat one of the last bosses in Sekiro still, second to last, or third to last technically.  Bloodborne is probably my favorite game by From, because of the gothic horror feel, but the fight mechanics are superb in all their games.  I really enjoy the way you can get back most of your lost health by being aggressive in Bloodborne.  I noticed someone mentioned Borderlands as well; I was never able to solo-beat a few of the bosses in that game, Voracidous, Hyperion, and Master Gee.  I'm sure I'll get each one some day, but they have proven to be impossible for me to beat by myself so far.  I actually bought a PlayStation 3 just so I could play Demon's Souls, and look forward to the boss mentioned above.  I'm glad to see there are quite a few like-minded people here when it comes to video games.  I'm not a huge video game head, until From Software puts out a new game, then I can play insane amounts of time.


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## NA Blur

1.) Murai from Ninja Gaiden Black on Master Ninja

2.)  Tageri  from Ikaruga on Hard Mode


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## LOPO1985

Nintendo DS - Henry Hatsworth in the puzzling adventure - nurse boss

After many hours and few days of tries i have cowardly lett this game and never beat it


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## LouisArmstrong

Sekiro - Owl Father

I beat Isshin the Sword Saint without much hassle but Owl Father took me a week or two...


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## Tex Irie

Jaquio -  Ninja Gaiden I & II (NES)


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## protoss




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## CoryGillmore

The first time I encountered a Lynel in BoTW I was woefully under leveled and under prepared. I went at him for a few hours with only four hearts before I gave up and went off to do other things. When I came back a couple weeks later much more powerful he was a breeze. Mostly because my defense ratings were so much better but I also like to think my skills/reflexes had improved too. 

I'm actually playing through BoTW for the first time right now. Just got a Swtich a couple months ago. What an amazing game and system!


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## Nebula769

It’s either nameless king or slave knight Gael for me


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## KCXT

Dark Lord in Doom: Eternal. Just cheap, cheap, cheap.


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## SilverEars (Aug 4, 2021)

Not boss, but this was really tough. Trying to escape from the Sandworm in the game 'Ori and the Will of the Wisps.'  As for bosses, bosses on 'Octopath Traveler.' I think it has an algorithm to change it's difficulty when you level up.  It takes like upward of 40 min per boss fight, so it's long as hell and when you lose, it's annoying as hell.


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## Death_Block

octopath traveller is such a cute game, I just like looking at things and exploring. The art style was pretty. Now i miss that game lol


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## SilverEars

Death_Block said:


> octopath traveller is such a cute game, I just like looking at things and exploring. The art style was pretty. Now i miss that game lol


Looks can be deceiving.  Look cutes, but battles arn't cute for difficulty.


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## stomaha

UWU from FFXIV...


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## SilverEars

Dread has the best boss fights.  This one took some tries...


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## p1zzap1e

malocadi said:


> Probably the final boss in Sekiro (won't name names to keep it spoiler free). Had to put the game down for a few weeks after so many attempts.
> 
> I've played and beaten all other soulsborne games but something about this one was really tripping me up.


+1. Took me three weeks to beat the last boss. All the other bosses were tough too, but not nearly as hard to take down for me. 

Genishiri was really the first plateu. But when it started to click in that fight it felt like my approach to the game changed. I rememberd my smug smile the last time i faught him, almost taunting him in my mind beacuse i could parry his blows. 

Headless ape was also crazy. God damn the terror. 

Almost worth playing again


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## SilverEars (Nov 3, 2021)

Started playing Sekiro.  It's such a cool game, but difficult! I like the design of the Shinobi.  Seems more realistic than the cliche black costumed ninjas.  Kinda reminds me of Tenchu from the PS1 days (one of the best I've ever played), but much more complex and takes greater skills to master.  I luv the stealth aspect of the game with one hit kills (so satisfying!).

But man is it a cool game!  Sekiro is a bad-ass Shinobi.  Anyway, big fan of Ninja games with good combat mechanics.  Ninja Gaiden was fun as well.

Based on what I read, it is the successor to Tenchu!


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## p1zzap1e

SilverEars said:


> Started playing Sekiro.  It's such a cool game, but difficult! I like the design of the Shinobi.  Seems more realistic than the cliche black costumed ninjas.  Kinda reminds me of Tenchu from the PS1 days (one of the best I've ever played), but much more complex and takes greater skills to master.  I luv the stealth aspect of the game with one hit kills (so satisfying!).
> 
> But man is it a cool game!  Sekiro is a bad-ass Shinobi.  Anyway, big fan of Ninja games with good combat mechanics.  Ninja Gaiden was fun as well.
> 
> Based on what I read, it is the successor to Tenchu!


 Hells yes! Got tenchu 1 on my ps1 when i was i kid. That game, together with metal gear solid 1 and resident evil laid the foundation of my gaming hobby. Its cool that sekiro is the successor, its almost like sekiro is what my mind remembers what tenchu 1 was.


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## named name

Convincing wife that I need this new _________________________ (piece of audio gear that I was / am considering or have already purchased).


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## SilverEars (Nov 4, 2021)

p1zzap1e said:


> Hells yes! Got tenchu 1 on my ps1 when i was i kid. That game, together with metal gear solid 1 and resident evil laid the foundation of my gaming hobby. Its cool that sekiro is the successor, its almost like sekiro is what my mind remembers what tenchu 1 was.


Yeah, PS1 brought out some great ideas that applied 3D.  Tenchu was much easier in comparison.  Sekiro is mostly Tenchu except the bump in difficulty of the bosses to souls like games levels.  I had lot more fun going through Tenchu because it was mainly about stealth kills.  Sekiro's bosses are too difficult IMO.  You have to have very good response time and joystick control skills to master it.  When I see videos of skilled people's playthrough, it looks so bad-ass.  I bet you feel like a bad-ass once you figure out the controls.

A fan Modded Sekiro to look like Rikimaru from Tenchu. 

 I would think Tenchu fans would recognize that Sekiro is essentially Tenchu.  Tenchu is a great franchise that's been treated wrongly.  There are so many cool ideas that they really abused the franchise.  Sekiro did justice to it. 
I think they did the right thing to redesign the protagonist.  Rikimaru is better off in the late 90's.  Sekiro's looks fits right in for today's times with the updated graphics.


named name said:


> Convincing wife that I need this new _________________________ (piece of audio gear that I was / am considering or have already purchased).


Sounds like you know who the real boss is!


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## DenverW

This thread is missing some of the bosses in hollow knight...


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## SilverEars (Nov 14, 2021)

Neverminded, I thought Devine Dragon was the final boss.  He clearly isn't (for the good endings).  I will find out who the real final boss of Sekiro is, and I will struggle. 😢

Edit: Devine Dragon doesn't belong in this thread.  It belongs in, "The most easiest boss ever" thread.  lol


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## SilverEars (Nov 14, 2021)

You can go suck it, Demon of Hatred!  I hate you!!!!!  I'm so close to cheesing it by making it fall of a cliff.

Don't whatch if you don't want to be spoiled of the Demon of Hatred (it shouldn't spoil anybody because it's impossible to beat!), the a-shole from Sekiro.  I like her videos because I know she just dives in and it's all spontaneous. lol.  Her reactions seems real.


Edit: After many many attempts I the Pavlov's dog finally learned to kill it.  It took too many attempts to modify my behavior to kill a Demon.


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## SilverEars (Nov 15, 2021)

malocadi said:


> Probably the final boss in Sekiro (won't name names to keep it spoiler free). Had to put the game down for a few weeks after so many attempts.
> 
> I've played and beaten all other soulsborne games but something about this one was really tripping me up.





p1zzap1e said:


> +1. Took me three weeks to beat the last boss. All the other bosses were tough too, but not nearly as hard to take down for me.
> 
> Genishiri was really the first plateu. But when it started to click in that fight it felt like my approach to the game changed. I rememberd my smug smile the last time i faught him, almost taunting him in my mind beacuse i could parry his blows.
> 
> ...


I finally beat the real final boss, and it was struggle because I did it the conventional deflect and hit method.  This method opens of up for many mistakes and dying.  I died ALOT!!

And then I went through some guides and found this. It amazes me how people can figure out the most efficient way to do stuff given the circumstances.  Sekiro's best tool is the Umbrella.  I luv the Umbrella.  Makes the most challenging fights much bearable.  In this case, it works out really really well.

This is what I luv about Sekiro.  The game opens up for various strategies, and it's interesting to see some creative way people figure it out to make the fight much easier and efficient.

The game messes with your mind sometimes.  Makes you think it's impossible (the developers are really great at doing this), and the real win is when you figure out the easiest way to beat the bosses. I think that is the real skill of the game.  It is the true Shinobi way!!!!

Don't whatch if you don't want to be spoiled of easy way to beat the final boss.


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## SilverEars (Nov 16, 2021)

I beat the Hirata Owl, and I realized that Owl has a narrow strategy to beat it is the reason why I struggled so hard.  It would't give you much opportunities to do enough damage to bring it's posture down.

I seeked a guide regarding using one of the skills at the right moment, and it worked like a charm.  So yes, this game can be really brutal if you don't figure out the specific way to beat the bosses.  You can be dying for hours. lol  So relieved I finally realized how to beat Owl at Hirata Estate.  He is one tough son of a B if you don't know what needs to be done to bring his health down.

I got to say, Owl is the best animated boss that I've seen in this game.  His moves are so cool lookin!  I also like his visual design as well.

So, I've nailed all the 3 hardest bosses in the game.

Don't watch this if you don't want to be spoiled on how to beat Hirata Owl.  I got to say the guy that made this video is the real expert on Sekiro.  He know exactly what to do in all circumstance.


This is what happens if you don't know the strategy to drain Owl's vitality faster. You can easily go on for hours! I'm so surprised she can keep her focus for so long to chip away his vitality so slowly.  Better than I.  I couldn't keep focus for so long without making major mistakes.  With Owl, mistakes cost alot!


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## SilverEars (Nov 17, 2021)

Dark Souls really pissing me off.  The Taurus and Capra Demon boss fight design was just torture. Just infuriating what the director made me endure. I know he did it intentionally, which is pissing me off. How can a game designer be so sadistic?

Dark Souls is really broken game.  Sekiro and Dark Souls are like night and day difference in gameplay design.

Dark Souls is such a bs game.  They hide enemies intentionally to pop out and hurt you?  That is some bs.  It's like they intentionally do whatever they can to really get you.

It's really bad game design.  You just run around to hit them in the back and dodge become invincible?  What?


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## SilverEars (Dec 2, 2021)

Add *Nameless King* from Dark Souls 3. Hands down the hardest boss in the game, and much harder than the actual Final boss! That fight was a headache.  His hits takes massive amount of damage and they decided to delay his attacks to throw you off from the usual timing of dodging.  This is how FromSoft luvs to plays  with us gamers.  They playing with the patterns so that's it takes longer to get into the habbit of it.

Nameless King is equivalent to Genichiro Ashina from Sekiro.  Both teach you how to play.

Biggest mistake from me was attempting to take him down with a slow, heavy ultra greatsword (Lothric Knight Greatsword)!  I found out that ultra greatswords are too slow for certain bosses that are fast like Nameless King.  I switched to Sellword twin blades, and it became a cinch because twin blades have rapid rate of attack, and double damage if attacking with two swords simultaneously.

Sellword twin blades are great with bosses, but I prefer my ultra greatsword for clearing out the enemies in the areas.  I like how effective it is for simple enemies with block and hit HARD! One BIG HIT.  They gone! lol.

It works well for the enemies in the areas because they have much less HP than the bosses.  It's easier to kills them or take big chunk of their health due to this.  Bosses are a little more tricky so fast attacks works better.

Final boss was a joke.  Phase one was kinda annoying, but in phase 2, his health depletes rapidly.  Both really cool bosses to fight.  I had more difficulty with Gwyn from DS1 than the DS3 final boss.  Beat the Soul of Cinder (final boss) with my trusty Lothric Knight Greatsword!  No need for fast weapons for this guy.

Nameless King is so bad-ass how swoops down on top of the dragon and starts the fight on the dragon!!  Coolest boss in the game! He is the real final boss!


Soul of Cinder


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## SilverEars (Dec 3, 2021)

Holy cow! *Sister Friede* was by far the toughest boss on DS3 (if you include the DLC expansion).

The 3rd phase was super tough.  It's like impossible to get a hit in without getting punished after!  With bad luck, you can die from the punishment. lol.

3 f$$king phases!!  I looked into the guides, and all say backstab her, but the backstabbing chances happen very little.  I can't even stay close enough to her to get the backstab because I'm far away healing every minute. lol.

Phase 1 and 3 are just Sister Friede and in phase 2, her father joins.  I can do better with shield and sword when I'm 1 on 1 with her, but phase 2 just takes too long if I don't use Sellsword Twin blades which does damage at a very quick rate.  But, in phase 3, she's a mad woman and goes all out, and I can't handle her attacks without a shield.

I have much respect for the DS3 now.  It's just a different game from Sekiro.  There are tough DS3 bosses as well.  This one felt nearly impossible. I'm so glad she's over with. I see why I see a lot of Youtube fight with shields. The way her attacks are, it's impossible not to hit if you don't have a shield.


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## SilverEars (Dec 5, 2021)

Wow, beat Midir fairly decent number of tries.  I've been hearing he's the most difficult boss in DS3 (including DLC), but to me Sister Friede is much harder (even nameless king was more challenging).  With Midir, you just try to stay infront of him and chizel his massive HP away because you can't be aggressive (you don't get too many hit opportunities, and he will punish you if you are not patient).

Big issue with Midir is high physical damage he does, and you just have to learn the timing of the dodges (it will have some dying to get a feel), and also dodge the fire breathing  and the lasers.  But, must be always close to his head so you can hit his head for double damage compared to his other body parts.  Wolf Knight greatsword is best weapon for Midir.  The weapon does 20% more damage against abysmal bosses like Midir.  It's better to use this weapon compared to ultra great swords because faster swings.  Ultra great swords do more hit damages, but swings are two slow (Midir will clobber you during the slow animation delay), and also Wolf Knight greatsword does 1.5x damage with strength if duel handed. I duel wielded the sword and hit him hard!

I beat a dragon! Yay!  Probably the hardest creature boss in DS series?  Demon of Hatred was much harder in Sekiro (It took too many dyings until it clicked).



I was curious how she did, and she did really well!  3 tries only!  I looked at the youtube guides, and they just throw you all the kinds of different attacks Midir did and tells you to dodge them all.  It seems like Marz's strategy is much simpler and works much better.  You just stay under him right by the head and slash him away, and you don't get hit.  So called Youtube experts don't seem to think outside the box.  Sellsword Twin Blades seems to be superior all the time!!  Now I see why Marz started with those (she did her research).  I thought they looke real dopey, but there was an educated choice I realize now.

It shows you can be aggressive and take him down fast.  I think Midir AI will keep trying to do swipe attack if you stay where she is at, and other attacks don't trigger.  These games may appear to be impossible, but these enemies are still AI, and thus there is always a way to beat them (many ways)!


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## SilverEars (Dec 10, 2021)

Any of yall played DS1 knows how much of a pain in the ass Capra Demon was. This is one of the biggest trolling by video game devs in history. It's fun watching other's reactions though.  Enjoy!


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## SilverEars (Dec 10, 2021)

wrong thread


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## SilverEars (Dec 12, 2021)

Finally a challenging boss in DS2.  Not particularly special or should cause much difficulty with such simple move set, but what makes the fight hard is the DS2 stamina recovery being so slow and he does massive damages (particularly when he imbues flames to his blade) with a massive hp pool that weapons generally chip away the health. So, there's not room for error with this guy.  Dodging has to be perfectly timed to his delayed hit timing and whatch the stamina bar (not being too greedy).


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## SilverEars (Dec 13, 2021)

Not really hard, but cheap boss.  When you lock on to this bozo, the camera angle gets fu-ked, and you can accidently fall in the lava for instant death. Lol.  You know they designed the area around lava so you'd fall and die. They put a hole on the floor so you'd fall in when dodging.  2nd worst trolling next the Capara Demon?

I'm glad I had a huge greatsword that would reach his head easily for high damages.  Using short swords and hitting arms is too sloooowww.  DS2 bosses are so slow and predictable.


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## SilverEars

I didn't know people had this much trouble with these DS2 bosses.  It's quite entertaining to watch if you've experienced it.


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## SilverEars (Dec 20, 2021)

I think the first encounter with Chained Ogre is the hardest boss in Sekiro given couple conditions.  It's the hardest because you have absolutely no health, and he will take you down with one hard grab or body slam.  If you watch this video, you can see his hit box is ridiculous.  While he flies toward you, and you dodge, he will do a 90 degree pivot and still get you (the video shows in slow motion).  I would bet, nobody can really beat him without flame prosthetic.  It's impossible!

The condition for Chained Ogre to be the hardest is the condition of no flame vent prosthetic used.  Flame vent prosthetic makes the fight trivial.

This is another trolling by FromSoft.  They make this boss impossible, and they give you a subtle clue that you need the flame prosthetic.  And who would think that you'd have to go down to Hirata Estate to get it?  Conventionally, games are designed linearly, and this game breaks such rule. Ana is an above avg skilled gamer, and this just proves how affective this trolling is. FromSoft always does this.  They put a roadblock early in the game you have to overcome to know if you are a quitter or not. If somebody is persistent enough to beat this boss, it's most likely they have the drive to beat the game. This roadblock can be overcome in two ways. By persistence in trials to beat the boss, or figure out the solution to make the fight easy (this is the little puzzles FromSoft puts into their games). Early roadblocks are general test FromSoft puts into the game.  It's like a rite of passage.


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## SilverEars (Dec 25, 2021)

*Demon's Souls: Armored Spider*

I had difficulty with this boss, and it's really not easy for sure.  I think it is one of the most difficult boss designs, but it's not the typical boss design you'd see in Dark Souls series.  It's more of classic Japanese game design boss.  Dark Souls usually has oversized bosses like giants, ogres, large knights, or golems, but this  one is so different.  It's not a quick humanoid with a long reaching weapon either.  This is an older boss design by Miyazaki's team from Demon's Souls, and it's brilliant! lol

The avg difficulty of bosses seem more difficult to figure out than Dark Souls series.  In Darks Souls, there's super hard ones and then most are easy.  Demon Souls is about figuring out how the bosses work.  In Dark Souls, you can get away with slashing away and dodging with majority of bosses.  Demon's Souls requires knowledge instead (so far it's like that).


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## SilverEars (Dec 26, 2021)

*Demon's Souls: Flame Lurker*

Even hard than the spider. lol.  It's hard for Dark Souls veterans that's used to dodging inwards to hit from the back.  It's impossible to do with this guy due to his insane frontal smash hit box.  You have to dodge back, and try to get a hit on him on a limited time (very limited if using a short weapon or slow weapon).  I thought my Claymore was too slow until I saw this video of her playing.  She has a fast weapon, but the reach sucks.  It seems like winged spear would have been great with this boss and this world as a whole with the weapon upgraded. If I were to replay this world, I would go with winged spear.

This enemy's movements are similar to the Giant Ape in Sekiro.

This game isn't easier than Dark Souls necessarily.  It's bosses have greater variations for us to figure out how to beat them.  In Dark Souls, it's usually just inward/outward dodge and 2-3 hits, and back off or recover stamina.  Rinse and repeat.  It's not a simple as that in Demon's Souls.  Which is partly why the game is so interesting.


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## SilverEars (Dec 27, 2021)

Bosses are no chumps in this game (if you are not using magic).  Still difficult, and I thought Demon Souls were suppose to be easier than the Dark Souls series.  I guess on the avg it is easier, but also difficult due to huge hit boxes enemies have and dodging requires more precise timing.  Dodging doesn't feel as effective as the Dark Souls games.  Perhaps the i-frames are less? Are there any i-frames at all? Also, there's a bit of a delay before the rolling occurs no matter how much weight is on you.  Which is BS. Delay should be major with fat rolling.

*Demon's Souls: Maneater*

And when we played Dark Souls 1 for the first time we thought facing more than one Gargoyles was crazy.  Try doing it in a narrow passageway.  Easy to fall off because these guys hit hard enough to knock you back.  Beating 1 is hard enough, but a 2nd one showing up makes this tough.  I made it hard on my self by fighting this early with not much of a health pool.  I hit hard though because I put lots of points into strength.  I wish I had the Dragon Bone Smasher to take them out quicker!

I think she went with Claymore with this fight because she realizes the advantage of massive damage with these guys (she usually goes quick DEX weapons that require multiple jabs).  She was able to beat the boss with the defense magic, which seems way too overpowered. She can tank their hits with minimal damage. Magic seems overpowered in this game, and that's the imbalance in this game.  Strict melee run increases the difficulty.  I used no magic, so this boss was no cakewalk.


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## SilverEars (Dec 30, 2021)

*Bloodborne: Vicar Amelia*

First boss I got stuck on until I found out I have to hit a specific body part to stagger her for critical damage. My mistake was to keep attacking on her back (This works in Dark Souls series), but I do minor damage and would take forever. She's quite scary the way the goes all nuts after awhile.  I died very quickly when she does crazy. lol.

This one was an odd one that threw me off because I didn't think about her being open to critical attacks.  I heard typical thud sound, but didn't occur to me that it was the sound of her being stunned for me to hit her with critical attacks for massive  damage.

She's really easy with the knowledge that you aim for her legs to trigger critical hit opportunities. Easy to be stuck without this knowledge. Typical, FromSoft's way of playing with our minds.  They make us think that it's best to stay on the back to attack a giant beast, but it turns out, you break  her legs and when she bring her head down, it's the opportunity to critial hit her.  It takes away almost 1/4  of her health with  critical hit (this is significant because her health pool is massive!).  So obviously, they set it up for critical hits. Their trick worked, I was fearful of hitting her legs from the front and trying to hit her head from the front.


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## SilverEars (Jan 1, 2022)

*Bloodborne: Shadows of Yharnam*

3 bosses in one.  Yes, 3.  Only boss fight I recall that was 3 or more was the Gargoyles from Dark Souls 1, but this one is harder because they obviously move faster than the Gargoyles. Edit: Ruin Sentinels were 3 as well, but they don't gang up on you from the start like the Shadows.

Interestingly, I felt like they are very manageable as long as you step dodge around them.  And take out one at a time.  There are disagreements on the strategy.  Some people feel that the one with highest health pool and quickest movement should be taken out first.  Pesonally, I like to reduce the number of enemies quickly so I take the out the slowest and easiest one (lowest health pool), the fire ball shooter.  Taking out the fireball shooter is like taking out the archer first before the melee enemy.  I won't have to worry about dodging fireballs and trying to take out the others.

It didn't feel as hard is Ornstein and Smough, or the Ruin Sentinels.  My issue with Ornstein and Smough was that Smough had a huge hit box. Ruin Sentinels had long reach with their attacks, and they had the annoying spin attacks that would most likely hit you and take massive damage to finish you off quickly.  In this respect, 3 doesn't mean harder than 2.

I luv the way this guys handles it. Efficient. He comes in with a canon and blasts them and they all get knocked out. lol.  That canon looks like a lot of fun!
Also, what's interesting about the canon hitting all 3 does is that, it reveals who has the lowest health pool. You can see differences in health depleted, and you also know which one is who.


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## SilverEars (Jan 1, 2022)

*Bloodborne: Martyr Logarius*

I wonder if this guy is the hardest boss in the game?  It can depend on what level you are at (I always feel like I'm under leveled because there are enemies that one shots you! It happens so often in Bloodborne that it feels cheap).   So far, the monsters I've faced isn't all that difficult.  This is one of the first humanoid boss I've  faced, and I would admit he was challenging.  This boss feels like a typical final  boss for Dark Souls series. Personally, I like Dark/Demon Souls bosses better.  Bloodborne bosses arn't all that exciting.  I like fighting fast humanoid bosses.

I liked this boss fight.  Challenging, but interesting.  It's hard to get a hit in with this guy.  Long reaching scythe swipes he does if you are distant away, and it's difficult to dodge and heal due to how far this weapon reaches.  And when you get close to him, he has a short sword on his other hand that will strike really fast.  He is just crazy fast.  It's hard to keep up with him.  Similar quick movements like Sister Friede from DS3.  I should learn to parry, it would make this boss much easier.


----------



## SilverEars (Jan 3, 2022)

*Bloodborne: Lawrence the First Vicar*

One try kill!  Supposedly, hardest or 2nd hardest in the game (including DLC)? I'm really getting tired of fighting beasts in this game.  It nothing special.  I really don't like boss fights in this game because the beast fights (Majority are beasts).  And hunter fights are kinda bland as well.  They just move around quick and spam guns and does simple weapon hits every so often. Dark/Demon Souls (and Sekiro) has much more interesting bosses in terms of combat.  Martyr Logarius is the only boss fight I found interesting, and it's basically a Dark/Demon's Souls boss.

Some people say it's the hardest game in the Soul franchise? No, Sekiro is by far the hardest Souls game (And maybe the hardest game there is). Bosses are chumpy (in Bloodborne) compared to other Souls games.  People falsely think Bloodborne is tough because the game would shoot you off to places under leveled, and one shot killing enemies at random spots (with some knowledge, easy to get through).


Maybe I cheated because I used the Whirligig Saw? Heheheh... The boss killer!!!!!  Bosses are so much easier with this weapon!  Better than Ludwig's Holy Blade. I regret not entering DLC early to get this overpowered weapon to carry me through the game.


----------



## SilverEars

*Bloodborne: Lady Maria*

Perhaps she's really the hardest boss?  I don't know if it's possible to beat her without parry.  Even parry timing is difficult with her.  There's a short window.  Also, when she's in 2nd and 3rd phase, she becomes ridiculously fast and dodges quickly.  Not only that, her weapon reach becomes ridiculously long. 

By far the coolest boss I've seen so far.  Finally, an interesting hunter boss.


----------



## alpha80

Street Fighter III series: GILL

It took me over a year until I realized that striking him while he resurrected was the way to go lol


----------



## SilverEars (Jan 3, 2022)

*Bloodborne: The Orphan of Kos*

The most difficult boss so far, and also well designed.  I've not played a boss like this in Souls games so far.  This boss is quite interesting the way it moves.  It's very phycological in the way it screams and the way it attacks.  Very aggressive and scary. lol.

I think it plays with your mind to run away, but the real strategy is sticking close to it and step dodging.  When you make a bit of distance, it has greater chance of hitting you.  This boss looks scary and freaked me out, and it worked in intimidating me.

I would say, my fav boss battle thus far.

I didn't even think about parrying. It seems to be quite effective  (but, difficult to parry).  This guy does it very well.


This fight is really trivial if parry is timed well.  If I were to do another run of this game,  I would play with more style with a saw cleaver and parry everything. That must be the draw of this game, parrying these horrendous enemies that can one shot you.


----------



## SilverEars (Jan 5, 2022)

*Nioh 2: Enenra*

I struggled so hard with this boss.  I haven't stuggled this hard since Sekiro.  I'm a really aggressive player when I play Dark Souls or Bloodborne, but I can't get away with that with Nioh 2.  I have to wait for openings.

This video makes it look so easy.


----------



## RAYC

Good to see lots of FromSoft love here! I really struggled with Manus in DS1 DLC and am ashamed to admit i ended up cheesing him from outside the arena….


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## SilverEars (Jan 10, 2022)

@RAYC Yup, yup.  The very best, and the most funnest games.

Now that I've played the *Dark Souls 1 DLC*, I've played all the bosses, and I find that *Manus* is one of the hardest in the game.

I think DS1 DLC had the best designed bosses.  I enjoyed fighting Knight Artorias, and the Black Dragon Kalameet.

Manus is very progressive boss design for the time.  It's the same monster design that will show  up in bloodborne later on.


I enjoyed battling this guy.  I like the design of this guy.


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## SilverEars (Jan 11, 2022)

How about two of the most annoying boss fights? It has to be from *Dark Souls 2* SOTFS DLC, *Crown of Sunkin King*.  Both fights about luck, and thus, I hated these fights.

It feels like DS1 is much more relaxing and not as annoying.  DS2 gets super annoying.

*Elana, Squalid Queen*
She spawn another or 3 (skeletons) enemies fight with her, and this is not the only difficulty.  She is constantly shooting dark magic at you or even worse, she spawns explosive balls right next to you that will explode and one shot you.  You cannot heal with the explosive ball near you (because you sip the estus flash so damn slow, it explodes before you finish drinking!).  This boss fight is about just getting lucky with her not spawning the 3 skeletons, but a slow moving knight, and just getting lucky that you can heal every so often.


*Sinh, the Slumbering Dragon*
Really annoying because it release gases that rapidly depletes you weapon durability. Once your weapon breaks, you are pretty much dead because the game doesn't pause when you go to menu you to swap out another weapon. Also, it gives you no time to use any items from the menu (heal, reapply lightening buff, or repair weapons).  Maybe the toughest dragon I've faced, but it's mechanics doesn't feel anything sophisticated, but just rapidly hits you when you are trying to heal, and you die.  Same here, it's about getting lucky.


----------



## SilverEars (Jan 11, 2022)

In another *Dark Souls 2 DLC*, you face *Blue Smelter Demon*.  Move set just like the regular Smelter Demon, and just as annoyingly timed attacks.  I'm pretty sure they vary the delay of this guy's attacks on purpose to make it difficult.  In certain instances, he moves less slower, and others, he delays it so that you will dodge too early.  If you get hit by this guy twice, you are dead.  This is why this guy is so tough.  I struggled with this guy, and I can honestly say, this guy is one of the hardest Dark Souls boss.  Just because the pace of the combat is much slower, does't mean easier.  It's harder if the movement are delayed and not sync'd to the player's inputs.


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## SilverEars (Jan 12, 2022)

*Dark Souls 2 Crown of the Old Iron King DLC boss: Fume Knight*

Holy cow! This boss made me think he was impossible to beat.  He wouldn't let me heal.  Weapon rebuff during battle was nearly impossible without dying or getting hit. His 2nd phase, you have to be perfect or you die easily.  DS2 bosses are annoying because it tests you patience because stamina recover is horrible in this game.  I can get  1  hit, and can't  do too much action after. I have to  wait until the stamina bar fills or following next action, I'm guaranteed  to get hit.  No wonder people dislike the mechanics in DS2.

One of the hardest I've ever battled, not due to sophistication, but just annoying DS2 mechanics of slow actions during fights.  It's impossible to back away and heal, you have to time heals precisely.  You stick near the boss (because if you get away, that cost time that  you can spend to heal), and heal right after they finish their combo. That's the only window.  Extremely tedious!

There were so many times I've dropped the  boss's health bar to near zero, and I could not get the last hit.  Usually I spam attack when there's little hp left, but this one can still one shot you, so it's very risky!

I switched weapon from my trusty Greatsword to Great Club (mainly due to low weight, and later on I found out that blunt hits do extra damage on this guy.).  And also, I used light armor (with good flame resistance) to bring down my weight percentage to 43%, and that really helped dodging and stamina recovery.  Being on the weightyy side will work against you (because dodge ability is hella important with this boss).

After this boss fight I immediately leveled up Stamina.  Stamina sucks in DS2.  

DS2 makes to think of how easy it is to heal in Bloodborne (It's instant).  I got killed so many times during the estus flask chugging animations.  It's annoyingly slow.


----------



## SilverEars (Jan 13, 2022)

*AAva the King's Pet from DS2 DLC*

Another annoying boss fight from DS2 because the healing takes forever to recover, and you can watch it moving up while the boss is to attack you.  I've had several attempts I've gotten the boss's health down near 0 and I try playing safe to heal, and healing has so much delay that I  end up dying from an attack.  Not only that, my weapon durability goes to 0, and breaks during a boss fight?!  This is the 2nd DS2 DLC boss I've faced that would cause your weapon's durability to go from full to zero during a boss fight.  I had it's health near 0, and then my weapon breaks.  There is no way I can swap out a weapon if I can't even heal without being one shot'ed.  This should have been first attempt kill.

Several attemps did help me figure out how to deal with it's attacks.  Always dodge diagonally toward it to the left.  When it's about to shoot magic, walk to behind it.



Estus chugging time comparison. Not only is the chugging animation time is bs, also how slow the health regenerates.  Same story with Stamina.  They purposely designed it to slow recovery of any kind because that's the only way they can come up with upping the difficulty I bet.


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## SilverEars (Jan 13, 2022)

The most annoying Souls games enemies (not bosses).  I've recently ran into the most annoying little rat looking things with ice spikes on them called 'Rampart Hedgehogs.'  First time they killed me, I chucked because it looked cute, but man, they are annoying! 

This is the a great list of most annoying Souls games enemies.  #7 on this list is the 'Rampart Hedgehogs.'  These guys are essentially a rehash of 'bonewheel skeletons' from DS1.  So annoying.


----------



## SilverEars (Jan 14, 2022)

*Hollow Knight: Soul Master*

Oh wow.  Long fight.  I got fooled into thinking fight was over after the first phase, and I got a nasty surprise when I put my controller down. lol.  This was one the early boss fights, and I can't imagine much more challenging boss fight will get.  However, I don't feel the same satisfaction I get from beating SoulsBorne game bosses.  The boss attack patterns are heavily telegraphed, and eventually would be figured out.  Not fun for those make mistakes dodging for a good duration (It's quite long).


----------



## SilverEars (Jan 15, 2022)

*Hollow Knight: Elder Hu*

Oh lord!  I thought this boss was impossible, but somehow got through it with only 6 health.  Very unforgiving of wrong dodges.  It goes on forever and ever because you have to hit him 50 times.


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## SilverEars (Jan 16, 2022)

Boss fights becoming easier now.  I thought it  would get harder, but I guess I'm getting  used to not being shown how much health they have and just be patient and take them down in due time with a million hits.

Earlier attempt,  I despised this fight, but now that I'm 1/3 way through the game, it's nuttin.  It's all memorizing their movements after awhile.


----------



## SilverEars

This one was kinda challenging.  Still, beating Hollow Knight bosses don't feel all that rewarding.


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## SilverEars (Jan 16, 2022)

Holy cow!  The worst so far!  I only have 1 upgrade on my nail and that's it!!  I tried to beat it with that, and I struggled so hard.  Hornet 2nd encounter was so damn hard.  I'm scared to the bosses the follow.  What really annoying about this game is that I got this far without upgrades.  You can make the game really difficult because upgrades are not shoved onto to you in this game.

2nd phase with her making those traps makes it worse.  Trying to do 3 things at one time.  Avoid the traps, dodge her, and try to hit her.

My hands are still shaking from trying to focus for so long.  It's almost as bad as Lady Butterfly from Sekiro.

It's raucously long.  She has ridiculous amount of health relative to how much damage I can do (without weapon upgrades).  This is why this battle without upgrades goes on for so long.


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## SilverEars (Jan 18, 2022)

3 bosses that gave me real hard time, and two of them are nightmare bosses.  The nightmare ones are the worst.  I have two I cannot beat yet.

Whatcher knights.  Damn near impossible.  I learned to pogo.


Troupe Master Grimm.  How to dodge the attacks?


Soul Tyrant.  This one was the worst!


----------



## Dranuke

Headphones and Coffee said:


> What boss fight in any game did you find to be one of the hardest you've ever faced.  For me it has to be dark souls 2 to the fume Knight.


To me, there are two boss fights that are memorable to me for being the hardest at that time. 
The first one is the ender dragon in Minecraft, I was morbidly terrified when I first attempted the fight when I was about 9 and failed many times. Last summer I had another go at it and it was a piece of cake. The second hardest fight was actually about a month or two ago. In light of the new Elden Ring video game coming out, I decided to venture into all the dark Souls games and by far the hardest one has been Manus, Father of the Abyss in the DLC for Dark Souls I.  I am currently going through the DLC in DS3, it is possible I've yet to have faced my hardest fight lol.


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## SilverEars (Jan 19, 2022)

Headphones and Coffee said:


> What boss fight in any game did you find to be one of the hardest you've ever faced.  For me it has to be dark souls 2 to the fume Knight.


Yes, fume knight is the hardest boss in DS2, and one of the hardest in the souls series.


Dranuke said:


> To me, there are two boss fights that are memorable to me for being the hardest at that time.
> The first one is the ender dragon in Minecraft, I was morbidly terrified when I first attempted the fight when I was about 9 and failed many times. Last summer I had another go at it and it was a piece of cake. The second hardest fight was actually about a month or two ago. In light of the new Elden Ring video game coming out, I decided to venture into all the dark Souls games and by far the hardest one has been Manus, Father of the Abyss in the DLC for Dark Souls I.  I am currently going through the DLC in DS3, it is possible I've yet to have faced my hardest fight lol.


Wait until the fume knight, but yes Manus is very very tough due to rediculous hit box.  Try flamelurker in Demon's Souls.

Have fun with Freide in DLC of DS3.  Hehe he. (evil laughs.).  After that, if you want greater challenges, play Sekiro.  Boss fights takes hours to condition yourself to beat them.  Sekiro is opposite of other Souls games, the levels are trivial, and bosses can be damn near impossible.  In Soulsborne games, levels are usually tough.

Easiest soulsborne game has to be Bloodborne for me. If you watch newbies play on Youtube, you can see they have easy time when they start learn visceral attacks (parry and backstabs are made really easy in this game, so visceral attacks should be used). Bloodborne's visceral attacks system makes the game trivial.  Bosses are mostly a joke except a rare few.

Ok, so I've run into one of toughest boss in Hollow Knight, and it isn't a boss, but a level!  The platforming through saws in White Palace is impossible!!!!  Worst platforming I've encountered yet.  There is no game that compares (Maybe the hardest Megaman games) the difficulty.  Just when I think I'm done with the saws, they give me more saws! Ughh.


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## SilverEars (Jan 21, 2022)

*Butterfly of Delirium from Code Vein*.  Ridiculously difficult if going solo.  This game was designed to be played with AI, but it felt too easy (playing co-op with AI) and didn't feel like a souls-like without adventuring alone, and I chose the difficult path (much more interesting that way).

This boss was damn near impossible solo!  It took me a while to figure this boss out.  Even though it took a long time, I actually enjoyed figuring it out. It got really addicted to try to beat it, unlike Hollow Knight.  I couldn't stand the bosses in Hollow Knight.  I just found them annoying.  This boss pissed me off initially, but for some reason I got hooked on trying to beat it.

When I beat this boss, it wasn't a feeling of accomplishment, but just relief that I didn't die again, and repeat.

This boss leaves absolutely no room for mistakes because one mistake, this boss will combo kill you quickly.  If not combo kill you, it will poison you to death. Also, healing doesn't help that much in this game.  Gives you very little healing, and the animation is slower than DS2! Hard to find a window to heal when you actually need healing, so you end up dying when you make a mistake! It's ridiculously difficult, and it's only the 2nd boss in the game.


----------



## whitedragem

so many ‘modern games’; I found a few games back in the nineties that really stood out as more than ‘usually difficult’, and whilst as a gamer I could clock ‘ghouls and ghosts’ on one credit, some of these fights I would not want to do again;

Neo Geo- whilst “Magician Lord” was my fave ‘difficult’ game, the hardest boss fight was probably “Nam’75”.
to beat Nam’75, the player needed to be in two player co-op mode, and judiciously use the credits on the final stage. NeoGeo was a ‘home arcade‘ system, that didn’t always give great longevity due to generally allowing players to ‘continue’ as if they were in the arcade, and put in ‘another quarter’, Nam‘75 limited the credits on the final stage. I cannot recollect how much longer it took for me to complete Nam’75 (vs, say, Magician Lord) but likely was exacerbated by NEEDING that second player... (I could ’solo game’ anytime...)

Some of the Turbographx16 (supergraphx) system stuff, was awesome: lots of ‘bullet hell’ shooters.

PS5: Returnal, but just depends on the run, and a little ‘luck of the draw’ for character growth and specilties (random each play). Love rogues; Returnal is an example of gaming perfection for those who like this niche gaming genre...

Killzone Mercenary on PSVita; I seldom ’platinum’ any game (I do not go for trophies at all), but KZMercenary is such a great game.. by the time I’d made the final boss I thought I was ‘good’.
The amount of restarts I needed for this final fight was crazy, and required serious strategies. I didn’t think it was going to be difficult.

PC/Switch; not so much a final fight, perhaps an ‘optional fight’; but in ’Labyrinth of Refrain’ the God of the ancient civilisation, deep underground, was _hours_ of battling. To be fair this game had spikes (in difficulty) all throughout, and one of the game features is ‘buying’ difficulty level changes.
In this regard Etrian Odyssey (Nintendo portables) also had plenty of ‘easy fights’/‘low level battles’ that could hand an experienced gamer their ass on a platter. Made ‘all the more’ insulting cause the enemy might be something as sublime as ‘a ladybug’ (that wipes out a party of four adventurers).

I was a younger gamer, but ‘Sega Genesis/Megadrive’ launch title ‘Revenge of Shinobi’ was decently difficult, with the later ‘Shadow Dancer’ even more so. Don’t remember which one, but one of these games took me ‘a lot of attempts’ to roll the credits...

Never completed ’Dungeon Master’ (amiga/st), whereas ‘Eye of the Beholder’ (PC) was a pushover by comparison.

When I want a warm up game for any competitive online (shooter) gameplay, a round or two of ‘Ziggurat’ is fantastic. Completing it, like Returnal, often comes down to randomised ’luck’.
I feel Ziggurat should be played by more people-especially those who want to be pro/competitive in online matches/‘vs humans’. 

Did anyone complete ‘program the VCR’ and get a 100% completion rate? I am sure I misfired a few times.... (reseting my victorious run count). Boss fights in that ‘game’ include arguments with family members due to mishaps that may actually have wiped their ‘precious data’.

funfact: back in the days of ‘cabled controllers’ (where mid competition gamers might ‘accidentally’ unplug their competitors’ controller) a sega master system ‘two button’ controller, plugged into the ‘typically one button’ (like an Atari joystick) setups of the time... the second button doubled as the ‘other controllers‘ button, so in a game like ‘Double Dragon’ player one could make player two ‘swing the baseball bat’, and keep holding the button down, which would rob the other player of movement, and leave them ‘vulnerable’ to being beaten to a pulp. 
This probably led to more ‘ultimate (boss?) fights’ with extreme difficulty, more so than ‘any other’.


----------



## SilverEars

*Code Vein: Invading Executioner*

Pretty much impossible boss to beat.  I tried it so many times, and I got lucky one time.  I don't think I can beat it consistently.  I had to get the best weapon and skills.  This boss one shots you if you make a mistake.



*Code Vein: Queen's Knight*

This is a very Dark Souls like boss.  I enjoyed this boss fight.  Wasn't too difficult.


----------



## SilverEars (Jan 24, 2022)

*Code Vein: Successor of the Breath*

I really enjoyed this boss fight. More difficult than the Queen's Knight. I think it's a golem.  Pretty cool boss character.

I used a tanky weapon like this guy.  This guy's dodge timing is impeccable.  I think Souls-borne games have much more forgiving dodge timing (except Sekiro).


But, this guy's method was much smarter.  There was a magic that does much better damage than a tanky weapon. Smart picking a light weapon to do some quick melee damage and then shoot the magic for massive damage.  Light weapon gives you time to cast magic after.  Smart thinking!  I would luv to see FromSoft make a Gundam game with same combat system.


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## SilverEars (Jan 24, 2022)

*Bloodborne: Father Gascoigne*

Probably one of the best bosses ever created, and it's a great boss hurdle in Bloodborne.  Probably the most interesting story in the game behind this boss.  And also the setup of the way to beat this boss.

This boss causes the player to learn essential skills of the Bloodborne such as parry and visceral attacks.

I luv watching Bloodborne newbies play for the first time.

I got to say this is the most interesting progression of improvement from a player I've seen yet.  It's so interesting how she improves how to deal with Father Gascoigne.  And the way she defeats him in the end was the smartest method I've seen, and I think it's how FromSoft intended to be the easiest way to defeat him.  She actually figured out their intentions, because from the start of the game, FromSoft leave breadcrumbs of clues on how to beat certain enemies.  Edit: She may have gotten hints from a guide, but the method she used in the end is the most ideal way to beat this boss, and I find it quite interesting (when realizing how it was setup from the beginning).


There's a lot of emotions that are evoked by FromSoft's Souls-Borne series.  Attachments to stuff are caused by evoked emotions.  This is why SoulsBorne has such a huge fan-base.  It's tough to get used to, but that toughness causes the emotions, which causes the bond.


----------



## Brandfuchs

Koss in Bloodborne
It's so damn hard that even till now I wish Bloodborne could be ported to PC so that I can use mods to beat him flat


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## SilverEars (Jan 31, 2022)

*The Surge 2: Little Johnny*

My first real challenge in this game.  It's a quality designed boss.  So far, it seems like The Surge 2 is the best souls-like game out there with it's own flavor that doesn't copy Dark Souls.  It game mechanics makes it distinctive from Dark Souls.


----------



## ryanmatic

I found Sigrun—the Valkyrie queen from God of War—to be very challenging but also _super_ rewarding when I finally won. And looking back at this clip, I'm struck by just how cinematic the combat in that game is.



+1 to pretty much all the Souls bosses @SilverEars mentioned, though I'd also add Snake Eyes Shirafuji from Sekiro to the list. She's not even a "boss" boss, but ugh... something about her attack timing had me stuck for longer than I'd like to admit.


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## SilverEars (Feb 3, 2022)

ryanmatic said:


> I found Sigrun—the Valkyrie queen from God of War—to be very challenging but also _super_ rewarding when I finally won. And looking back at this clip, I'm struck by just how cinematic the combat in that game is.
> 
> 
> 
> +1 to pretty much all the Souls bosses @SilverEars mentioned, though I'd also add Snake Eyes Shirafuji from Sekiro to the list. She's not even a "boss" boss, but ugh... something about her attack timing had me stuck for longer than I'd like to admit.



It's a great looking gaame, but the game mechanics doesn't really leave room for player skills.  It's a lot of button mashing at the right timing.  We all know that SoulsBorne games are much more involving than that.  Sekiro is much more involving  because the complexities of the bosses in their attack patterns.  It takes a long to learn boss patterns in Soulsborne games because they purposely play with your learning habbits  with random unexpected attacks.  Also, they designed bosses with depth so that we can use various strategies to beat them.  That is much better game design than God of War.  God of  War looks good, but not the best with  gameplay design.  I don't recall any of the bosses from the game because it's a typical modern game that is not very memorable.

Snake Eyes  Shhirafuji is very difficult for sure.  It's due  to one move when she pulls you with the gun.  Once I figured out to avoid it,  it made the fight much more manageable.


----------



## ryanmatic

Yeah, GoW is much more prescriptive than Souls games are in that there's one particular thing you're expected to do quickly. I still enjoyed it quite a bit, and found the difficulty to be challenging throughout. By comparison it's always impressive to see people beat bosses in ridiculous and unexpected ways in Souls games.

You're right about Shirafuji. That one's timing was syncopated just enough that it didn't click for me, lol.


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## SilverEars (Feb 3, 2022)

I think Sekiro has the most rooms to various strategies, and you see a lot of how  to beat bosses regarding  Sekiro, and the best players put them out.  I had a real tough time  figuring  out Sekiro bosses.

But, for some reason, I find Dark Souls and Bloodborne more enjoyable gameplay when it comes to combat.  Sekiro honestly does have much depth to combat, but I  just enjoy Dark Souls dodge and hitting  enemies with large weapons like Hammers and Greatswords.  Also, I like the world in Dark/Demon's Souls.  It's just very interesting to explore as a first timer.

She finally figured out how fun the Dragontooth is, and this  is what I mean.  There's a lot of different way to play the game.  You got different  builds/weapons.  There are so many variations, we all have individual preferences in weapon type/style.  Some are fun, some work,  some don't.


----------



## ryanmatic

Yeah, same. Sekiro is a masterpiece but Soulsborne is more fun, for me at least. I love firing up the Small Resonant Bell and helping folks with Orphan/Defiled Amygdala/Lawrence, or placing a summon sign at that central part of The Ringed City and seeing how long we can survive against invaders.


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## SilverEars (Feb 5, 2022)

I don't know why, but it's must be a requirement to make the first boss impossible to beat with the Souls-like games.

*Remnant from the Ashes: Gorefist*

Very very hard.  It's not the boss that's hard,  but the hords of exploding monsters  that you really don't know where they  pop out from swarming you while you are trying to kill the boss.  They will infect  you with  some status effects and  it will reallly mess  you up, while you are trying to  beat the boss with a long reaching weapon that does bleed damage.


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## SilverEars (Feb 8, 2022)

*Remnant from the Ashes: Dream Eater*

Ate my dreams of beating the boss.  Nice boss design.


This guy handles it very nicely, but I didn't have the kind of buffable items he does. Seeing amount of damage he does.  He must have leveled up significantly for this fight.


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## SilverEars (Feb 9, 2022)

*Remnant from the Ashes: Ixillis XV & Ixillis XVI *

Holy cow this boss is difficult.  Pretty original boss design.  You are stuck in a bridge and there's TWO bosses on bosses on both sides.  Crazy!  But, very good boss fight I must say.  This game's boss fights will challenge you (On hard or above).

Man, it's hard to concentrate on so many things at the same time!  That's what makes this game so challenging.


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## SilverEars (Feb 13, 2022)

*Kena: Corrupt Taro*

Holy cow!  Didn't expect this game to have a boss of this level of difficulty.  Game looks really cute, like a children's game. This is no kids game!  With bosses like this, people complain that they didn't expect Dark Souls level of difficulty with the bosses.  I underestimated you, you Mulan lookin princess!

I dunno if I can Git Gud like this guy.  Very good reaction time.


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## SilverEars (Feb 15, 2022)

*Kena: Corrupt  Woodsmith*

Great boss design!  Part of it is heavily telegraphed and easy to figure out, but generally a great design.  With this boss, I've realized this game is just well designed.  Definitely better boss than in any 3D Zelda game I've faced.

So, world bosses are serious business in this game.

It took me awhile to figure out like her, but not as hard as Corrupt Taro fight above.  I think because Taro was a drastic difficulty spike for a first boss, and I didn't have much character skills and not leveled sufficiently for the fight.


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## SilverEars (Feb 16, 2022)

Sekiro, eat your heart out.  There is new game with the hardest difficulty and it's *Kena*. I'm kidding of course, but man was the final boss was very difficult due to many phases you had to get through.  Gave me Sekiro difficulty vibes.

Anybody up for a good fun challenge, give Kena a shot.  It's a fun game for those that was to be challenged with boss fights.

For expert players, Fuzzy Bearbarian is really creative at figuring out strategies for boss fights.  It's interesting to see how he figures out bosses.


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## SilverEars (Feb 18, 2022)

*Ender Lilies: Ulv the Mad Knight*

I found this boss very difficult.

The way this guy plays is very entertaining.  He's using the tools he's given to the max.  I can't play like this (But, I think this is how the designers wants  you to play).  There's too many stuff to think about with my concentration on the boss.  Great  music!


----------



## SilverEars (Feb 19, 2022)

*Ender Lilies: Hoenir keeper of the Abyss*

Another stuggle. Game is getter and  better.


----------



## SilverEars (Feb 19, 2022)

Hardest Dark Souls series NPC invasions?  These NPCs are worse than some bosses.

When I saw Pyromancer Zoey on the title, I knew I would be entertained. lol


Armorer Dennis from DS2 is annoying as well


----------



## SilverEars (Feb 27, 2022)

*Elden Ring: Margit*

When I first came to Margit, I was level 8 with no weapon upgrades.  I was barely doing enough damage.  I died a few times and then decided to explore the vast map to level up, find better weapons, and upgrade the weapons.

I came back at level 28 and tried Uchigatana and realized Margit bleeds. Bleeding takes off massive amount of health once the enemy starts to bleed.  I the Uchigatana to +4, and Obliterated this boss.

This boss's moves are quite difficult when playing for the first time.  It takes time to get used to it's attack timing, and odd combinations it does.  It's movements are unlike previous Souls games.  Great design, but tough unless you level up (the weapon mainly).  Elden Ring has great boss designs.

This game is very generous with stamina (compared to previous Souls titles).  I haven't leveled up stamina at all, and I'm still fine with it.

I think I will focus on two weapons.  Uchigatana for bosses (I got a feeling most bosses going to bleed), and greatswords for regular enemies.  Everybody luvs great weapons because every hit stun locks regular enemies for consecutive hits.  DEX weapons don't stun lock like great weapons.  This is why once you get a greatsword, the game becomes easy mode.  Majority of enemies don't stand a chance because constant stun locking them. And with +50% extra damage, people two hand the weapons due to the stun lock. If you can stun lock easily, shield is not needed, and you are doing much greater damage with two hands.

Samurai is perfect for this boss with a katana that would cause bleeding effects.


----------



## SilverEars (Feb 27, 2022)

*Elden Ring: Godrick *

First try kill!  Uchigatana guys!  It works really really well!  This boss bled too!  Massive bleeding damage and got stunned midway through.


----------



## SilverEars (Feb 27, 2022)

*Elden Ring: Tree Sentinel*

Probably the coolest looking boss with really cool looking movements I've seen so far.  The animation of it fighting on top of a horse is nothing I've ever seen before.  Really amazing looking fighting animations.

She's hardcore for fighting him at the start before leveling up.  The music is great too.  Nice opera sound to set the mood.


----------



## SilverEars (Mar 3, 2022)

*Elden Ring: Elemer of the Briar*

After beating Margit I was progressing through Elden Ring like it's nothing.  I must have gone through couple dozen or so chumpy bosses until I ran into this one that's teaching me how to dodge.  I'm getting Fume Knight vibes, but much cooler movements.  I think the coolest knight I've fought so far.  Great looking move set.

Majority of the bosses either stagger from strike or bleed, but this one does neither.  Which makes him unusually tough in this game.

When I was beating all the chumpy bosses, I thought FromSoft ran out of ideas.  This boss shows that they still got it.  The movement from this boss is quite different than what I've seen from previous games from FromSoft.  Every FromSoft game I can beat every boss with a slow greatsword, but this maybe the first time I would have to switch to a lighter, faster weapon.  This boss punishes really hard if greedy.  This boss is a test of skill like Margit.  Overleveling wouldn't help that much in this fight.



From what I know of FromSoft Soulsborne series, if the boss is hard, parry.  Parry makes any boss much easier.


----------



## SilverEars (Mar 4, 2022)

I think this guy brings  up a good point about how to approach this game if new to FromSoft Soulsborne series.  Margit is a representation of challenges the player will face afterwards, and it makes sense to make that statement at the castle entrance.  Are you ready to be challenged?  The castle will challenge a newbie.

Are  you willing to learn from dying?  Are you willing to face a game that you require learning from past mistakes?  This was pretty much standard back in the early 8-bit and 16-bit days.

Elden Ring gives much more options than DS3 before the Iudex Gundyr fight.  You have a large area  to explore, and learn from less challenging bosses.  This game is more forgiving than previous Soulsborne titles.  It gives a newbie greater alternatives than banging their head against a boss in a linear path.  If stuck, you can explore other areas to level up and upgrade weapons.  Or find better weapons, skills, ashes that makes the fights easier.  It has an inherent easy mode  due to how the open world sets it up.

This game gives much greater options for combat to make the combat easier than previous Soulsborne titles. Some of those weapon skills are really practical in making the game easier. It is the easiest Soulsborne title, and I would expect many more people that are new to Soulsborne to beat the game.  I expect much less to give up on this one.

It's so odd to me the spike in difficulty Sekiro was, and then this one becomes easier souls game (because  Dark Souls series are generally easier than Sekiro, which is really  challening).  I guess maybe they want it  to be more accessible to new players?   They do seem to have improved in presenting necessary combat information to players.  I really do like FromSoft's attitude to game development from the past.  They don't care how accessible to the casual player.   They make games they want to make. And that is the truest attitude when creating something.


I just hope that popularity of Elden Ring really shifts gaming development and gamers to accept challenging games like we did in the past.  I'm really bored with a lot of the story mode games that's out there these days.  It's not real games.


----------



## SilverEars (Mar 5, 2022)

*Elden Ring: Draconic Tree Sentinel*

And I thought the early game Tree Sentinel was challenging!  It won't let me in to Lyndell unless I defeat it.  What  a pain to get the Bloody Wolf set.

Now I'm noticing that the bosses are getting tougher starting from Elemer  of the Briar (previous video).  They are more resistant to stuff and over leveling doesn't help that much.  I know it's going to get even tougher now.  The tougher they get, longer it takes to get used to their move sets.

This boss will kill you if get hit twice without heal, or one shot you if your health is low enough.  And then the lightening attack...  I thought I was under leveled, but no.  I tried all the weapons, and in the end I had to learn it's move set.  I had to learn to dodge  it's attacks  and not get hit twice in a row.

I didn't think I could do it with my Claymore, but later found out I had to keep jumping attack to extend my reach and do massive damages.

I looked at other people's fights with long reach katana, and this guy does bleed.  I guess you can bleed armored enemies with enough hits within a duration of time.

I tried the ultra great swords and great hammers, and it doesn't poise  break easily.  These weapons are  too slow and makes you really vulnerable to multiple hits.  I had to revert to Claymore.

This guy (video below) was smart to use buff on the  2nd phase.  I think dual katanas are fantastic since the hit rate is faster to reach bleed.  I use dual claws as secondary (for enemies with light to no armor), but it doesn't have the reach of the katanas (which is a problem in scenarios like these).  The problem with katanas and claws is that it doesn't poise break the hard shelled enemies.  So, I have a Claymore to switch to for those enemies.  It's easy to take out enemies if using both bleed and poise break weapons.  It's good that there is no universal best in this game, but weapons that works for different type of enemies.


----------



## SilverEars (Mar 6, 2022)

*Elden Ring: General Radahn*

I was over-leveled for this one, but kept dying with my Claymore.  When I switched to my claws, the general went down like a chump.  Bleed is very overprowered for melee in this game.  Dual Uchigatanas will get you through the game easily.  You have to start out as Samurai to get two of them.  Pump DEX and bleed everything!

This boss kinda fooled me.  He looked tanky, so I assumed I should use a weapon that hit hard like Claymore, but it's actually susceptible to bleeding.  Better to bleed to take him out quickly.

You can easily be over-leveled for certain fights in this game.  Especially if you go down to Leyndell beforehand.  I think you're suppose to take him on after getting through the academy.  People keep saying Radahn is difficult, and he would be if you are under-leveled.  It seems to be a one-shoting boss if under-leveled.

Visually, very cool arena where you fight.  Quite a spectacle

He goes down quickly with the dual katanas


----------



## SilverEars

I can't belive they put two Crucible knights as a boss fight.  That's sadistic!

I probably died more to Crucible knights throughout the game than any boss!  Hardest FromSoftware knight's I've ever faced!  The knights are really challenging in this game.  I died to Ordovis so many times...  Two of  them would  be real torture.


----------



## SilverEars

SilverEars said:


> *Elden Ring: General Radahn*
> 
> I was over-leveled for this one, but kept dying with my Claymore.  When I switched to my claws, the general went down like a chump.  Bleed is very overprowered for melee in this game.  Dual Uchigatanas will get you through the game easily.  You have to start out as Samurai to get two of them.  Pump DEX and bleed everything!
> 
> ...



Now I understand why people think Radahn is challending. lol


*Elden Ring: Rykard*

Most epic fight in the game with a special weapon that is given to you at the start.


It's epic like Storm Ruler from Demon's Souls


----------



## SilverEars (Mar 10, 2022)

*Elden Ring: Twin Valiant Gargoyles*

I struggled a bit with this one because I didn't think about Gargoyles being hard shelled and they do not bleed.  So, katanas, bloodhound fang, claws will not work all that well with this one.

These are not the easy pushover gargoyles you find on Dark Souls games.  These guys are giants.  With their skinny legs and quick movements, they are difficult to get a hit in.  Also, their weapon attacks are far reaching, making impossible to get a hit in.  Oh, and 2nd one shows up mid health of the first.  This is Dark Souls 1 gargoyles with ramped up difficulty with harder to hit due to it's fast movement and height.  Oh and the damn poison it spews out.  It can take you out fast.

The best weapon for close combat melee for me was the Claymore with this fight.  Bloodhound Fang does greater damage, but not for hard shelled enemies like knights or Gargoyles.  Weapons that does heavier damage for those types are ones that do strike hits.

For these reasons, I have 3 main weapons I switch between to make all fights easy.  Claymore for hard shelled enemies like the Gargoyles or miners.  Claws for easy to bleed bosses (takes them out ridiculously fast) and sometimes regular enemies.  Bloodhound Fang for tanky enemies that's not hard shelled.  Bloodhound Fang is the most used on regular enemies as it one shots them most of the time.  Claymore for rare bosses that doesn't respond to slash attacks.

I started out with Claymore and tend to use Bloodhound Fang much more often now.  I think colossal weapons are gimped in this game like ultra were in DS1 and 3.  DS2 was fun with ultra weapons.  Greatswords are as far as I go for large weapons in Elden Ring.  Beyond that is too slow to be practical.

It's the mechanics of weapon attack delay is tuned differently for DS1, 3, and Elden Ring compared to DS2 (and perhaps Demon's Souls). Even the move sets are different between those games.  Greatsword in DS2 is the Claymore move set of Elden Ring.  Which is why I use Claymore in Elden Ring and Greatsword in DS2.

Curved greatswords are new to me.  I've never used in previous games, and Bloodhound Fang is op.

Why Claymore works for this fight is because it does strike hits, and the long reach (longest of all greatswords) due to the Gargoyles skinny legs and it's quick movements.  I could barely hit it with my claws.

I'm a pure physical damage guy. I tried Moonveil katana with hight split damage with magic, and it's hit or miss in terms of damage output.  I will say that magic is op in Elden Ring. I think magic build would be fun in this game. If I were to do that, I would do summons as well.  As melee, I don't want to use summons.  However, summons would make the game even easier.

I actually appreciate fights like these because it makes me think about strategies to get through the barrier.  In the process, I learn more about the game. I gain insights about why such situations happen and what do with it in the future similes bosses/enemies.  I've learned the most about gaming from FromSoft games than any modern games that's just boring no challenges.


This is the smart way to go.  Bloody slash weapon art.  Quite  fitting with bloody wolf armor


I guess colossal weapons can work because you can only get few hit in, you make the hits count with colossal weapons that hits really hard.  And colossal are usually like hammers that strike hard.


Something is doing crap ton of damage on the Gargoyle.  Is it Wing of Astel?


Wow, it's the weapon art that does ridiculous amount of damage!  This will kill any boss quickly as possible!  Probably the most op is meteorite however.  There you have it.  There is easy mode in this game. lol


----------



## SilverEars (Mar 11, 2022)

*Elden Ring: Astel, Naturalborn of The Void*

Very cool looking boss.  Kinda annoying due to it's non-existant hit boxes and it getting away from you so much.  Just as annoying as the Gargoyles in this game.


Lot of streamers having trouble with Margit.  50 tries?!  I just think that he encourages you to explore Limsgrave, level up and get a good weapon (also find smithing stones to level up the weapon) that would cause bleed to kill him.  FromSoft usually puts out powerful weapons early in the game if digging around.


----------



## SilverEars (Mar 12, 2022)

*Elden Ring: Full Grown Fallingstar Beast*

Pain in the azz.  Until I realized you stay situated by the edge of the cliff so that it stops at the cliff and I can actually hit it enough times.  If you stay alway from the cliff, it will keep running up to you to ram you and run past you.  You can't hit it if it runs past you, and it will one-shot you every so often.  Massive HP pool and one-shoting is a recipe for a disaster!

HP pool is rediculous.  I thought I had to be level 200 to beat it. lol

It's basically a rock.  So, it doesn't stun or bleed. What a pain...  And it moves like a damn bull.  To bad it's weapon has INT requirement.  I really want to standard/pierce combo weapon that scales with STR.  I just want to stun the crap out of armored or hard shelled enemies.  Pierce is best for that.


----------



## SilverEars (Mar 13, 2022)

*Elden Ring: Commander Niall *

Pain in the azz!!!  First, he summons two tanky knights, and then he has impossible to get near moves.  And then his lightening leg attack one shots anybody even with high vigor!  Jesus!

Since I'm melee quality build, I can take care of the knights easily, but Niall won't let me near him and I can hardly get a hit in.  This seems to be the pattern in this game.  The harder bosses are designed so that we can't get near them without being punished.  FromSoft running out of ideas and have to go cheap.

Anyway, I had to use my claws to bleed him quickly as possible.  Slow weapons suck for this guy (Well, I guess the video below proves otherwise. lol).


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## SilverEars (Mar 13, 2022)

SilverEars said:


> *Elden Ring: Elemer of the Briar*
> 
> After beating Margit I was progressing through Elden Ring like it's nothing.  I must have gone through couple dozen or so chumpy bosses until I ran into this one that's teaching me how to dodge.  I'm getting Fume Knight vibes, but much cooler movements.  I think the coolest knight I've fought so far.  Great looking move set.
> 
> ...



So, there's identical boss that shows up near shacks all over at night, and is called *Bell Bearing Hunter*.  The one that shows up in Caelid is really hard.  This is the boss really struggle with. This the one I can't get past unless I learn to perfectly dodge all attacks.  This is probably one of the best designed boss alongside Margit.


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## SilverEars (Mar 16, 2022)

*Elden Ring: Mohg lord of blood*

Holy hell!  This boss was annoying!  He spews blood fire all over the place, and you can't hardly dodge!

I usually can take out the tougher bosses with a bleed weapon, double claws if  getting  tough with a less armored boss, but this boss's 2nd phase and it's transition is the  the big problem.  First of all.  During the transition to 2nd phase, it will triple bleed you and it will heal itself.  And then in the 2nd phase,  it will be resistant to bleed, which makes minimal damage with the claws.

Since it spews combination of bleed and fire, I had to use Radahn's  armor, which has high robust.  And I had to use bloodhound fang since claws  in 2nd phase is worthless. This combo worked.  His 2nd phase is nearly impossible because he flies everywhere, and spews blood fire all over that you cannot avoid.

Worst fight ever so far!  I can tell he is a tough one since he is a major boss that gives you a  great rune, and gives  you 480k in runes.  Some people say this boss is fair.  When did spewing blood fires everywhere that you cannot walk become fair?!

By the way.  I don't use OP magic since  it's like not like fighting the boss at all.  I don't use summons either.  Mimic tear makes bosses too trivial to be any fun.  Still, using bloodhound fang isn't all that fair either.  I don't like OP magic spells and mimic tear in this game because it causes imbalance of difficulty.  

just by the  fact that this dude is wearing ugly armor, this dude is taking this fight serious


I can tell even Onbal thinks he's hard because he didn't fight him melee 2nd phase.  He just spams magic to deal with it! lol.


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## SilverEars (Mar 18, 2022)

*Elden Ring: Astel, the Stars of Darkness*

The most BS boss in the game.  You can't hardly hit this guy because it's so far above the ground, and it has skinny arms spread out in the open.  It keeps teleporting out, and while it's teleporting, it explodes and does damage to you.  The only way to hit it as melee is to stay close to him, but it keeps dumping magic down on you.  It's a real pain.

Some bosses in this game are more annoying than being challenging in a fair way.


*Elden Ring: some random magic golem hidden on the side of the cliff in Caelid*

This golem is bs.  It has so much health pool, and very high poise.  And it shoots magic.  It takes forever to chip it's health away.  I died many times from the platforming just to get to this golem that gives nothing, but 5k runes.  You would think it would give something special for going through all this crap.  Big troll by FromSoft.


This is what I luv about FromSoft's SoulsBorne type games.  The game puts you in these situations that you have to make survival decisions.  I just luv their dungeon designs.  I really don't care for the open world gimmick in Elden Ring.  Only good times in Elden Rings are the legacy dungeons.  I luv digging around and finding hidden pathways and items.  It would be nice if FromSoft was very clever with puzzles (like some japanese developers from the 90's), but all we get are hidden stuff and illusionary walls.  Some of their puzzles are straight up bs.  Like in, impossible, and found by accident and put up on wiki for the community to share.  But, illusionary wall no different from burning a bush to find a secret stairs in the original Legend of Zelda.  Or invisible walls in Metroid.


And luv the humor arises with players. lol  Big reason why their streams are so popular.


----------



## Voxata

SilverEars said:


> It would be nice if FromSoft was very clever with puzzles (like some japanese developers from the 90's), but all we get are hidden stuff and illusionary walls.  Some of their puzzles are straight up bs.  Like in, impossible, and found by accident and put up on wiki for the community to share.  But, illusionary wall no different from burning a bush to find a secret stairs in the original Legend of Zelda.  Or invisible walls in Metroid.



The puzzles and vague quest details are garbage in this game. I don't need my hand held but at least make it somewhat clear.


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## SilverEars (Mar 18, 2022)

Voxata said:


> The puzzles and vague quest details are garbage in this game. I don't need my hand held but at least make it somewhat clear.


It's more of a secret than puzzles.  It's stuff you'd find in Nintendo Power magazine for nintendo games like Metroid or Zelda if  you grew up in the generation.  I  prefer good thought out puzzles instead.  DS2 crown of the Sunkin King DLC applied some good ones, and I would like to see more of those types.  So, SoulsBorne level design has some Japanese old school video game era traditionalism.  But, also old school pc western rpg vagueness.

FromSoft Dark Souls games reflect western design more so than the typical Japanese games.  I think it's because Miyazaki was into D&D and western RPGs.

This turned out great.  The mix of western and japanese design methods works really well for the overall design of the game.  Most Japanese games tend to be too weeby to be relatable.

I think the grotesque-ness designs are japanese.  I've not played a western game with such imagination for grotesque-ness.  Miyazaki knows how to push our buttons.  Boss and creature designs are Japanese.

I think the Japane influence comes from manga like Berserk.  It's not your typical weeby manga.


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## SilverEars (Mar 19, 2022)

SilverEars said:


> I think this guy brings  up a good point about how to approach this game if new to FromSoft Soulsborne series.  Margit is a representation of challenges the player will face afterwards, and it makes sense to make that statement at the castle entrance.  Are you ready to be challenged?  The castle will challenge a newbie.
> 
> Are  you willing to learn from dying?  Are you willing to face a game that you require learning from past mistakes?  This was pretty much standard back in the early 8-bit and 16-bit days.
> 
> ...



I'm gonna eat my words from this post.  I dislike a lot of the boss designs in Elden Ring.  They made some of the melee fights really difficult in this game.

I respect boss designs that take time to learn how to beat like majority of bosses in Sekiro.  Sekiro is excruciatingly difficult, but fair most times.  DS3 has the best bosses of SoulsBornes with fair fights.

But, Malenia really tipped me off.  Her rapid flurry slash attack and her slash attacks regening her hp is bs.  They could have design this boss better.  Elden Ring really isn't the best of the Souls  games.  I find that open world is gimmicky, and boss designs are unbalanced for solo melee fighters.  I don't like to summon for my fights.  Fun part of Souls games are solo melee challenges.

Mohg, Astel, Gargoyles, and Malenia are just bs fights.

Elden Ring should not be harder than Sekiro for boss fights, and I would say generally not, but Malenia fight seems to be really difficult, and might be more difficult than Sekiro fights. And this difficulty isn't about learning the patterns like in Sekiro.  It's just cheap.  Elden Ring is the most difficult Souls game, not due to real fair challenges, but cheap-ness.  Beginning to mid it's not challending, but  3-4 bosses makes it seem the most difficult.

Previous Souls games I can go through the game no problem with a STR build, but this in this game, some bosses are impossible with a pure STR build. It's because bosses are doing speedy combos in this game. Magic is OP, and  I really don't care for magic in these games, and it was the melee in previous games that mattered.  Katana is OP, and it wasn't like this in previous games.  Why did they OP katana?  And it's just really odd how OP bleed damages are.  The Claymore isn't what it were in previous games.  I just luv'd dominating with big brute weapons in previous games, and in this game, I get beat from quick combos to even get a hit in with a big weapon.



Here it is, triple flurry combo.  This guy figured out the right position to dodge.  This Ongbal, the best best souls player out there.  This guy can non-hit Malenia with triple parry.


----------



## SilverEars (Mar 20, 2022)

*Elden Ring: Godfrey the First Elden Lord*

I like the look of this boss and the move sets.  I just don't like the 2nd phase when he turns into Hoarah Loux.  WDaF?  Is this Zangief from SF2?  That is some silly azz weeb design from FromSoft.  They need to go back to Dark Souls and Bloodborne design sensibilities.  More I get to the end, sillier this game gets.  Feels so weird to fight this guy with dual katanas.  It feels so wrong that katanas are OP in this game.  I found inclusion of samurai class being odd in the fantasy game as well.

Personally, would like to look like Godfrey in this game.  I want that armor and wield a huge broken axe!  I like the barbarian kinda look.  Not to bare like Conan however.

The barbarian king look is cool.  It works.  It's like a legitimate king like Genghis Khan.


----------



## SilverEars (Mar 20, 2022)

*Elden Ring: Radagon of the Gold Order*

First phase is fine.  And then I get a 2nd phase with a totally different boss?!  It's called Elden Beast, and it's got bs moves like Astel.  It spams magic while flying away from you.  That's all it does.  Elden Ring doesn't care if  you are melee.  They don't want us to have a fair chance to beat the game if we play fair.  This game gets worse and worse as you get toward the end.  Just the worst boss designs in the this game.   People complaining about boss designs all over.  Previous games you can beat the bosses without summons.  Why did they design it so atrociously like this?!


----------



## SilverEars (Mar 20, 2022)

SilverEars said:


> *Elden Ring: Radagon of the Gold Order*
> 
> First phase is fine.  And then I get a 2nd phase with a totally different boss?!  It's called Elden Beast, and it's got bs moves like Astel.  It spams magic while flying away from you.  That's all it does.  Elden Ring doesn't care if  you are melee.  They don't want us to have a fair chance to beat the game if we play fair.  This game gets worse and worse as you get toward the end.  Just the worst boss designs in the this game.   People complaining about boss designs all over.  Previous games you can beat the bosses without summons.  Why did they design it so atrociously like this?!



Finally beat this boss, and I had to go full STR.  I just had it, and decided to respec'd all my DEX to STR and power stance.  I was doing 1500 per hit damage, and this helped immensely.  No summon.  No mimic.  I don't know how I can beat the final boss without doing this much damage.

This is what I turned into by the end of the game.  I've become a crucible knight with Colossal hammers.  FromSoft threw a curve ball with the final boss.  The whole time, bosses were susceptible to bleed damage and dual katanas were the weapons of choice, until the final boss that doesn't bleed and takes mainly physical damages.  This is when STR build shines!





This guy does a really good job first phase.  But, he shows how tedious the 2nd phase is when you are being really careful.


If he  can dodge Malenia, he's good.   Not just that, he  can beat her with a greatsword.  That's skills.


----------



## SilverEars (Mar 22, 2022)

Two of the worst bosses among many in Elden Ring.

Asmongold really expresses how painful these bosses are if you are being a chad. This guy is pretty entertaining.  Probably the best streamer for raging. lol



This guy is pretty entertaining.  I see why he has so many followers.


And then you got totally unwatchable, annoying streamers.  I reallly dislike how she talks!  She sounds like scratching metal on metal.


----------



## wowsuchricky

Nameless King in DS3 for sure. Otherwise, has to be Sans from undertale


----------



## CoryGillmore

SilverEars said:


> Finally beat this boss, and I had to go full STR.  I just had it, and decided to respec'd all my DEX to STR and power stance.  I was doing 1500 per hit damage, and this helped immensely.  No summon.  No mimic.  I don't know how I can beat the final boss without doing this much damage.
> 
> This is what I turned into by the end of the game.  I've become a crucible knight with Colossal hammers.  FromSoft threw a curve ball with the final boss.  The whole time, bosses were susceptible to bleed damage and dual katanas were the weapons of choice, until the final boss that doesn't bleed and takes mainly physical damages.  This is when STR build shines!
> 
> ...



God those weapons look so ridiculous. I could never. I'm still using a +10 Claymore myself, waiting till I'm 40 STR so I can use the grafted greatsword. I care more about looks than damage output for sure.


----------



## SilverEars (Mar 26, 2022)

CoryGillmore said:


> God those weapons look so ridiculous. I could never. I'm still using a +10 Claymore myself, waiting till I'm 40 STR so I can use the grafted greatsword. I care more about looks than damage output for sure.


I only do it for the hard hitting boink. lol.  Luv the damage output per hit, but the problem is, I have a long boink animation times that  makes me really vulnerable to quick bosses.

Try the increased  jump attack talisman and powerstance jump attack with the colossal hammers.  Damages are just massive if  you have all  your points in STR.  If you had trouble with crucible knights.  The solution is the power stance colossal hammers. lol.  I obliterated the boss  fight with two crucible knights.

Claymore is my goto for typical FromSoft  games from the past, but not this one.  Katanas work so well in this game, I rarely used my Claymore past early game.  I moved on to dual katanas and Bloodhound Fang.

I recommend upgrading Bloodhound Fang and use that instead.  It just does damage  better and has bleed.  It will take out enemies/bosses quicker than a Claymore in this  game.  If you do the dung eaters quest, you can get a better greatsword than Claymore.  It's length is like a Claymore, but it has bleed damage on top of it.

If you're STR 20+, you can dual hand the grafted greatsword. The STR requirement values are for one handing. I find ultra greatswords too slow for me.  Claymore is the slowest I can go.

Also,  if you are having trouble  with bosses.  Use the Ash of War option, and try different whetstones.  You can try bleed, frost, fire, etc.. No need for grease.

Currently, I'm playing pure sorcery build starting as an astrologer, and some bosses/enemies are tough with a mage.  I'm trying to do a pure glintstone magic run, no melee.



wowsuchricky said:


> Nameless King in DS3 for sure. Otherwise, has to be Sans from undertale


Hardest and the coolest boss for me in DS3.  His delayed timing attacks really threw me off.  Elden Ring is all delayed attacks unfortunately.

My best boss fights were DS3, and DS1 up to Ornstein and Smough.  And of course Sekiro, the best From Soft boss designs that leaves you no choice but to git gud.

Ornstein and Smough is my all time fav boss fight.  It's just so memorable as a new soulsborne player at the time.  It was a huge difficulty spike as a first time souls player.

And the music is so epic!  This is the epitome of Dark Souls for me.  Anor Londo and then fight these guys.  These guys are the real final bosses of the game.


----------



## CoryGillmore

SilverEars said:


> I only do it for the hard hitting boink. lol. Luv the damage output per hit, but the problem is, I have a long boink animation times that makes me really vulnerable to quick bosses.
> 
> Try the increased jump attack talisman and powerstance jump attack with the colossal hammers. Damages are just massive if you have all your points in STR. If you had trouble with crucible knights. The solution is the power stance colossal hammers. lol. I obliterated the boss fight with two crucible knights.
> 
> ...


Yeah I've yet to find a katana. I'm about level 60 at 60 hours in. I just completed the Liurnia castle/boss. Does the katana scale with STR? What's the requirements on the katana's you've found? I'm a pure STR, VIG and END build. I do have the jump attack talisman and I use it along with the charge attack enhance talisman mostly. I'm curious about this dung eater quest sword too....most of the cool weapons I've found require INT or other stuff I'm not putting points into. I do have 16 DEX as I put a few points into it before I really knew where I was going with my build. This has been my first souls game.


----------



## SilverEars (Mar 27, 2022)

CoryGillmore said:


> Yeah I've yet to find a katana. I'm about level 60 at 60 hours in. I just completed the Liurnia castle/boss. Does the katana scale with STR? What's the requirements on the katana's you've found? I'm a pure STR, VIG and END build. I do have the jump attack talisman and I use it along with the charge attack enhance talisman mostly. I'm curious about this dung eater quest sword too....most of the cool weapons I've found require INT or other stuff I'm not putting points into. I do have 16 DEX as I put a few points into it before I really knew where I was going with my build. This has been my first souls game.


You can find Uchigatana in a dungeon in Limsgrave.  I would look it up on google or youtube.

I recommend trying out weapons with  bleed buildup effects.  If you swipe the enemy enough times, they  will bleed and extra damage like a massive damaging critical finish.

Traditionally, katana scaled best with dexterity or half/half STR/DEX.  In Elden Ring, you can change the weapon's scaling type with a whetstone.  You can use a specific whetstone to make it scale with STR.  You do that at the smith or site of grace with the Ash of War option.  Pick a Ashe of War and choose heavy for STR scaling.

You will get plenty of level up points later into the game, so I would just go quality build half/half STR/DEX, so that you can open yourself up for many  weapons including STR and DEX.  Bloodhound Fang for instance scales with DEX, and cannot be modified with whetstone on how it scales.  Because it's a specialized weapon.

Dung Eater quest weapon you can get.  Sword  of Milos. Same moves as Claymore, and with bleed damages.


I think this game really encourages usage of magic and magic weapons.  INT/DEX builds are quite  popular.  Moonveil is a great katana for a INT/DEX build.


----------



## Acuno

SilverEars said:


> I dislike a lot of the boss designs in Elden Ring.  They made some of the melee fights really difficult in this game.


Agreed. Boss fights were a big step down from DS3. Despite there being a ton of boss content in Elden Ring, so much of the difficulty came from cheap design. Insta-kill anime attacks, input reading, huge AOEs, massive opponents with awful camera angles, attack stalling, etc. Plus the extreme boss re-use led to me getting burned out towards the end of the game. That said, the game has the best visual design and world design of any game I've played. Music was fine, I felt DS1/DS3 were more iconic though. I'd still give the game a solid 8/10.

As for the hardest boss in any (Fromsoft) game, probably Sister Friede. It was a long and challenging fight but it never felt unfair and was incredibly satisfying to beat. Similar to Nameless King in that sense.


----------



## SilverEars (Mar 27, 2022)

Acuno said:


> Agreed. Boss fights were a big step down from DS3. Despite there being a ton of boss content in Elden Ring, so much of the difficulty came from cheap design. Insta-kill anime attacks, input reading, huge AOEs, massive opponents with awful camera angles, attack stalling, etc. Plus the extreme boss re-use led to me getting burned out towards the end of the game. That said, the game has the best visual design and world design of any game I've played. Music was fine, I felt DS1/DS3 were more iconic though. I'd still give the game a solid 8/10.
> 
> As for the hardest boss in any (Fromsoft) game, probably Sister Friede. It was a long and challenging fight but it never felt unfair and was incredibly satisfying to beat. Similar to Nameless King in that sense.


Sister Friede is the hardest boss of all Soulsborne games (which excludes Sekiro).  Sekiro is also the game with the most hardest bosses.  Sekiro  is more skill based, and it's time consuming to learn and apply patterns.  I feel Sister Friede is less skills based, and more about luck, which is quite difficult  as  well.  It's due to being 3 phases, and the last one being the real crapshoot. 

You are right that in comparison to some of the bad bosses in Elden Ring, Sister Friede is fair. 

Elden Ring definitely has great visual design.  And it's really fun to explore.  The bosses do ruin the game.  Two of my fav legacy dungeons are Stormveil Castle and Lucaria Academy.  Both are brillient level designs.  I luv finding secrets in them.  I really don't care for most of the open world.  I'm never sure  if I covered all of the open world. 

I notice that game kinda takes a dive after Limsgrave.  I think they spent  lots of time on Limsgrave and then try to finish  up the rest of the game.  The game really takes a dive after Leyndell.

8/10 is the realistic score.  But then, lots of game's scores will scale down as well.  Since From Soft games are so much better than majority of the games out there.


----------



## SilverEars (Mar 31, 2022)

SilverEars said:


> *Elden Ring: Mohg lord of blood*
> 
> Holy hell!  This boss was annoying!  He spews blood fire all over the place, and you can't hardly dodge!
> 
> ...



Such a terrible boss design.  You can see how unreasonable this boss design is.  I really don't get why From Soft would put out such bs design.


----------



## SilverEars

Haligtree legacy dungeon is the boss itself. Toughest legacy dungeon in the game. This area  is great for streamers to put out fun entertainment. lol


We all know Rune Bears are the hardest field enemies  in the game.  Very very scary!


----------



## SilverEars

The title says it all


----------



## SilverEars (Apr 11, 2022)

This was an entertaining Elden Ring stream fight against Radahn.  Marz went hardcore at level 49.  This is before the 1.03 patch nerf, and recommended level was 80 at the time.  I imagine this boss being impossible to no hit. Which means it's a terrible boss design.  It's a mediocre boss design like many in Elden Ring.


----------



## SilverEars (Apr 11, 2022)

Man, I hate these guys!  Absolute worst


----------



## SilverEars (Apr 13, 2022)

*Sekiro: Seven Ashina Spears*

The worst!  I think From Soft purposefully designed it to be annoying as hell.  Some attack will do 80% heath bar damage, and can one-shot you easily.  The attacks patterns are very awkward.  Each hit will do ridiculous amount of posture damage if not parried in perfect timing.  The move set is so awkward to time well.  Classic From Soft's trolling by varying the delay of attacks with a very hard hitting weapon to really get on your nerves (Dark/Demon Souls, Elden Ring knights?!).  This is a boss that doesn't have a big move set to learn, but small move set with timing attacks that are purposely designed to throw you off.

I just realized this guy is equivalent to Dark/Demon's Souls or Elden Ring elite knights, but harder to learn.

Whoever designed this guy purposely delayed it's thrust attacks to throw you off from timing the Mikiri counter effectively.  This guy does two different thrust timings to throw you off.  Only way to beat this guy reliably is to adapt to it's delayed thrust timings to Mikiri counter effectively.

I raged, and I wouldn't be surprised if this boss causes a lot of people to rage.


----------



## SilverEars (Apr 14, 2022)

*Sekiro: Headless*

There's these min-bosses scattered all over in the game, but they are very challenging.  It's a same awkward design that's not a clean design that is simple as learning the pattern to defeat it.  For some reason, From Soft decided to tease you early of this boss so that you'd take the bait, and get punished by this boss.

The move set is weird.  It's very difficult to time the attacks for perfect deflect.  It cause terror build up, and you die once the bar is filled.  It will teleport and kill you from the back if you don't move away quick enough. If you don't attack, the area engulfs with mist that slows your movement. I think this slowing contributes to messing up your parry timing.  All around very awkward fight.

It's terrifying, but also bs design that makes no sense.  I hate it.  From Soft sometimes throws in crap like this into their games.  A real nuisance.   It's rare to find a video of anybody beating this boss earlier on.  I don't get why they placed this boss so early if it's so difficulty to beat with the limited stats early on.  It's just one of those like the Seven Ashina Spears that has me scratching my head.  Given how weird From Soft is, it's not unexpected I guess.


----------



## SilverEars (Apr 16, 2022)

*Sekiro: Great Shinobi Owl*

This is a boss I really struggle with, and I know it will be the same with Owl Father.  The problem with this guy is, trying to get a hit in without getting punished. He punishes you hard if you get hit (Takes like 70% health). Not much opportunities and deflecting Owls hard swings really wrecks your posture bar.  This is why he's so tough.  I struggle harder with this guy than Genichiro because the high posture damage he inflicts.  Only way I can beat him is bait his jump slam, and hit him with Mortal Draw.  Without Mortal Draw I really don't know if I can beat this guy.  Without Mortal Draw you be doing chip damage on him, and it would take forever to beat him.

Her parry timing is pretty precise.  I've seen ONGBAL fight him and I know for a fact that his parry timing is perfect, and the posture meter still fills up.



see how owl's posture bar hardly fill up until getting his health down enough (which is a challenve in itself)


----------



## SilverEars (Apr 16, 2022)

*Sekiro: Lone Shadow Masanaga the Spear-Bearer*

From Soft luvs to put you inside a cramed room with a fast moving ninja to beat the crap outta you!  Lone Shadow Masanaga is the most difficult ninja in the game, and I struggle.



I don't know how this guy takes out it's posture with so little damage?  Most people cannot take this guy down until about 20% health.  Or I should say most people cannot take this guy with posture, but only with health.


----------



## SilverEars (Apr 17, 2022)

*Sekiro: Seven Ashina Spears - Shume Masaji Oniwa with General*

I was wondering if anybody actually fought these two honorably without doing a shinobi stealth kill the general.  And somebody actually beat fighting both.  Fighting both of them together is incredibly difficult.  This is not Ornstein and Smough level. Sekiro's bosses are much more difficult if fighting two of them together due to the bosses being able to deflect your attacks.  This is why there is no real duel bosses (that you can't stealth kill one of them) in this game.


----------



## SilverEars (Apr 18, 2022)

I really like Sekiro for it's boss fights.  I really enjoy fighting the bosses in Sekiro.  It's just way more involving and so much depth to it's combat mechanics that it's very engaging.

My muscle memory recall how to handle *Demon of Hatred*, a top 3 most difficult boss in Sekiro along with Owl Father and Isshin.

I don't know how this guy can do a no-hit with Demon.  It was hard enough for me to beat it with only 1 Gourd left over.


*DS3: Oceiros, the Consumed King*

This boss 2-shots me.  Takes like 80% of my hp with one swipe. Ridiculous.  Thankfully, I am a pyromancer that does 615 hip damage per chaos fireball.  Still, it's unfair that I only do small fraction of damage that Oceiros does to me.  My vigor sucks because as Pyro build, a lot of my points went into INT/FAI.  This is why I got two shotted.  This is how it is for casters.  Pyro builds are difficult to develop quick enough because so many area you invest points in.


----------



## SilverEars (Jun 4, 2022)

*The Ninth Sister*

Not that this boss is difficult, but an actual boss in Jedi Fallen Order I had to figure out how to beat. lol. I'm ashamed to say as a Soulsborne vet, it took me 3 tries to beat this boss. Took me 3 tries to figure out it's move-set.

I'm realizing this game probably designed to take some aspects from Sekiro and Dark Souls.  The enemies have posture meter just like Sekiro!  And the mechanics are parry.  That's where the similarities end.  The controls are real clunky.  Nowhere near as precise as Sekiro.  Sekiro is probably the most precise combat controls I've ever experienced.  If you've been playing button masher action games all your life, you probably have no idea what precise controls is.  It's a type of controls that you actually controls over like in Sekiro, but also very precise in how it responds.  Devil May Cry is an example of a button masher, and you don't take real control over the combat.  All you do is mash button combos.  There is very low degree of options you have during combat, so not much thought involved.   FromSoft games have high degree of combat options that needs to be thought out during combat in comparison.

Jedi Fallen Order's controls responsiveness is worse than the original PS3 Demon's Souls and Dark Souls 1.


----------



## IanOD

Anyone here try Nioh or Nioh 2?  I beat Nioh but never finished all the DLC, Nioh 2 I beat everything except floors 21-30 of the Depths of the Underworld.  The bosses in the higher levels of the depths basically one shot you with a good portion of their moves, so you need to either play perfectly or make a great tank build that still has decent damage.  Nioh has an insane amount of loot, and armor sets, some have weapons as well, give you buffs depending on how many pieces you use, it’s a superb game.  I just got a gaming PC, Alienware R13 with a 3090, though I may return it as I’ve heard a lot of bad stuff about it, the cooling system is nowhere near ideal and hinders performance to the point that a better cooled PC with an i7 and a 3080 performs the same!!  The only reason I may keep it is to build up my credit again after a trip to Cali years ago messed it up BAD.  I got it to play Elden Ring on, and it at least allows me to turn up all the settings to max on my LG C1 with no issues at all.  All of you who like From Software games should def give Nioh and Nioh 2 a try if you haven’t already, they both were remastered for PS5 and PC and look great, but Nioh doesn’t have HDR unfortunately.


----------



## SilverEars (Jun 5, 2022)

IanOD said:


> Anyone here try Nioh or Nioh 2?  I beat Nioh but never finished all the DLC, Nioh 2 I beat everything except floors 21-30 of the Depths of the Underworld.  The bosses in the higher levels of the depths basically one shot you with a good portion of their moves, so you need to either play perfectly or make a great tank build that still has decent damage.  Nioh has an insane amount of loot, and armor sets, some have weapons as well, give you buffs depending on how many pieces you use, it’s a superb game.  I just got a gaming PC, Alienware R13 with a 3090, though I may return it as I’ve heard a lot of bad stuff about it, the cooling system is nowhere near ideal and hinders performance to the point that a better cooled PC with an i7 and a 3080 performs the same!!  The only reason I may keep it is to build up my credit again after a trip to Cali years ago messed it up BAD.  I got it to play Elden Ring on, and it at least allows me to turn up all the settings to max on my LG C1 with no issues at all.  All of you who like From Software games should def give Nioh and Nioh 2 a try if you haven’t already, they both were remastered for PS5 and PC and look great, but Nioh doesn’t have HDR unfortunately.


I tried it, and it is indeed more challenging then FromSoft games, but the difficulty is due to bad enemy optimization. It's a badly balanced game.  I got  through it to the point the bosses got easy, but I got totally bored of the generic level designs.  It become too repetitive after while that I stopped playing.  FromSoft games never get repetitive for me. In fact, they are good for multiple playthrough due to how it's designed. Even if level design of Code Vein isn't anywhere near FromSoft games,  I found it to be superior to Nioh level designs.

Back to bosses

*Gorgara*

I spend way too many attempts on this boss because I  had no idea it had a gimmick.  You have to hit it's head to do reasonable damage, and there's a way to have him stumble and fall and you pounce on his head.  Without this knowledge, it's not easy.



*Taron Malicos*

Finally, a challenging boss.  This felt like a Dark Souls difficulty level boss. It actually feels like a Sekiro style fight. Felt good beating this boss.  Still, the clunky controls isn't helping.


Wow, check this guy out raging.  Crazy.  FromSoft got him good. Real guuud. lol  I think it's kinda dumb to keep 500k of runes?!


----------



## Poganin

SilverEars said:


> *Taron Malicos*
> 
> Finally, a challenging boss. This felt like a Dark Souls difficulty level boss. It actually feels like a Sekiro style fight. Felt good beating this boss. Still, the clunky controls isn't helping.


This was the hardest boss for me to beat in the whole game. I found him completely unpredictable and his long attack chains difficult to parry.


----------



## SilverEars (Jun 5, 2022)

Poganin said:


> This was the hardest boss for me to beat in the whole game. I found him completely unpredictable and his long attack chains difficult to parry.


I think Taron gets difficult in the 2nd phase when he starts doing his combos and harder to get hits in. I had a harder time with *Trilla Suduri*. Given her last name, she has to be Indian! lol, the game is woke. To me, she is the most fun and the toughest boss.  It seems force push is effective against both enemies.  You do it in middle of their attacks and it stuns them.  That's the opportunity to get some hits in.

They seem to have gotten difficulty progression right.  At least for me.  Bosses do get progressively harder besides the bs early ones you face underpowered.


----------



## IanOD

I have over 5,000,000 runes at the moment on my PS5 game lol but that’s because I utilize the save scum technique, so if I lose my runes, I just download my save file, gotta make sure you turn off auto-sync first!!  I haven’t tried the Star Wars game, not a fan of the movies, so I’m not sure I would be interested in the lore at all, if the game play is similar to From games I might enjoy it.  I totally agree with you on the repetitive nature of the level design, I was very annoyed by it in the first one, but the difficulty in the 2nd one kept me interested.  I hate when devs reuse bosses and levels a lot, in some instances it’s ok, like in Elden Ring, since there are still lots of other main bosses to fight, but ideally I would expect to only see bosses/mini-bosses once in any game.  Elden Ring is massive, so I guess they would have probably taken quite a bit longer to release it if they didn’t reuse some of them, and still had the same amount of boss fights.  I was a bit surprised they basically reused Margit, as Morgot but with some new moves and a slightly different weapon.  I’m at the Fire Giant in my PS5 game now, though I stopped playing on that once I got the PC, now I’m anxious to get there and proceed on that.  I’ll have to look through the rest of the posts fully to see if there are any other games that pique my interest.


----------



## SilverEars (Jun 7, 2022)

IanOD said:


> I have over 5,000,000 runes at the moment on my PS5 game lol but that’s because I utilize the save scum technique, so if I lose my runes, I just download my save file, gotta make sure you turn off auto-sync first!!  I haven’t tried the Star Wars game, not a fan of the movies, so I’m not sure I would be interested in the lore at all, if the game play is similar to From games I might enjoy it.  I totally agree with you on the repetitive nature of the level design, I was very annoyed by it in the first one, but the difficulty in the 2nd one kept me interested.  I hate when devs reuse bosses and levels a lot, in some instances it’s ok, like in Elden Ring, since there are still lots of other main bosses to fight, but ideally I would expect to only see bosses/mini-bosses once in any game.  Elden Ring is massive, so I guess they would have probably taken quite a bit longer to release it if they didn’t reuse some of them, and still had the same amount of boss fights.  I was a bit surprised they basically reused Margit, as Morgot but with some new moves and a slightly different weapon.  I’m at the Fire Giant in my PS5 game now, though I stopped playing on that once I got the PC, now I’m anxious to get there and proceed on that.  I’ll have to look through the rest of the posts fully to see if there are any other games that pique my interest.


Yeah, Elden Ring despite the massive size of the game and being the most recent technologically of From Soft games, it is probably my least favorite next to DS2 and Demon's Souls.

My favs are Bloodborne, Sekiro, DS1 and 3.  Elden Ring, DS2, and Demon's Souls don't have the replayability of the others.  I don't think Elden Ring's issue is it's lore.  It seems very rich with lore and it's quite interesting if you look into videos on them.

It feels too inflated as a game.  They lost quality with greater volume of content.  I don't care for the open-world.  From Soft are best at Dungeon designs.  And I agree with you that Elden Ring repeats a lot of stuff.  It could be a lot worse like 'Breath of the Wild' which was totally redundant design.

I felt like save scrumming wasn't so necessary with Elden Ring.  When I first started From Soft games, I needed a crutch.  I started with save scrumming because I was scared. lol.  After awhile I got gud and stopped doing it.  You put some time into theses games, you eventually figure out how to deal with the difficulty.

With Elden Ring I only like specific parts of the World, mainly the dungeons.  I like stormveil, Raya Lucaria, and the Heligtree.  This games loses in replayability due to the open-world.  Open World is just a chore to go through.  There is not much difficulty in the open world, and it's mainly about checking off the boxes.  I don't like games you just check off the boxes.  Too boring.  I want to be challenged and experience the emotions from the random things that occurs from the challenges (in order to experience this, I stopped save scumming).

I don't like the new movies besides the original trilogy.  Jedi Fallen Order is worth trying out. It's a fairly decent souls-like.


----------



## SilverEars (Jun 12, 2022)

lol.  These  games teaches patience.  Worst game for people that easily rage.  I like the one the guy that uninstalls the game. 


The first one is so funny with the cat flinching on the background. lol


----------



## SilverEars

*Blasphemous: Esdras Of The Anointed Legion*

First notable challenge in Blasphemous.  I had to time jump well with this one.  Still, not all that exciting of a fight.  Boss fights hasn't been anything special with Blasphemous.


----------



## SilverEars (Jun 21, 2022)

*Aeterna Noctis: T-900*

Fun, but very challenging.  As challenging as when I first fought the purple ninja in Sekiro and died countless times.  I thought I would never beat this boss like the purple ninja.


----------



## SilverEars (Jun 25, 2022)

Aeterna Noctis just keeps getting impossible.  No wonder there are no guides out there. Everybody just quits the game midway because it's so damn hard!  I luv the game though.  One of the best.  More sadistic than any FromSoft game.


----------



## SilverEars (Jun 26, 2022)

SilverEars said:


> Aeterna Noctis just keeps getting impossible.  No wonder there are no guides out there. Everybody just quits the game midway because it's so damn hard!  I luv the game though.  One of the best.  More sadistic than any FromSoft game.



Finally beat this little b**ch.  Pain in the azz.  I had to get heat seeking arrow gem.  It felt impossible for sure.  This game is not for those rage and give up easily like a little baby.  You dabble in a little Metroid do you?  That don't mean squat!  This one is at a different level.  Nobody likes this or plays this because it's hard.

This is no casual game.  This puzzle was hard. Worse than FromSoft not telling you anything!


Who thought controlling the character upside down was a good idea?


It's addictive though.


----------



## SilverEars (Jul 2, 2022)

*Blossom Tales: Flame Mage*

I thought it was impossible to beat this bullet hell boss, and then read that shield can block the projectiles.  That makes it much easier.  Great boss.  Challenges like these makes the game engaging.


----------



## SilverEars

*Darksiders 3: Flame Warden*

This is the first boss brick I've run into in this, and it's an optional boss. I'm on apocalyptic difficulty so it can one shot me. Supposedly this game is a "Souls-like" and it's not bad of a game as the reviews say.  This game doesn't have shield block or parry I don't believe.  All it has is dodge.  I know it looks like Beyonetta when the main character is dodging, but it's not.  It's just dodge with invincibility frames on it.  This game is mainly about dodge timing just like Souls games, but the animations are just different.


----------



## SilverEars (Jul 4, 2022)

I finally beat the above, but the real nuissance on Apocalypses mode is *Avarice*.  I had to level up quite a bit to be able to beat this guy.  Sigh of relief at the end says it all.  Notice how not greedy his playstyle is.  This is no button mashing game.  In apocalypse mode, you don't have the luxury to stay near the enemy (and mash attacks) or you get 2 shotted.


----------



## SilverEars (Jul 5, 2022)

*Darksiders 3: Lust*

Interestingly, this boss fight was highly telegraphed (I thought it was hard at first until I figured it out), meaning not much randomness to it.  It's easy to get used to it's sword attack timing down for counters. The best counters that worked for this boss is the flame hollow as it seems weak to flame (massive counter damage, and fast attacks).  I found it odd that none of the guide videos point that out.  I can actually make a better guide based on my strategy.  You can easily bait Lust's slide attack that you can easily time for counter attack to do massive damage.  You just have to keep a distance so it's slide attack triggers.

In phase 2, the fight turns into ghetto 'Ornstein and Smough' fight.  The 2nd enemy that joins is really easy to deal with.  It's really nothing compared to Ornstein and Smough, which is one of the hardest boss fights ever.


----------



## SilverEars

*Darksiders 3: Ionos*

I thought previous one was hard, but the final boss of Keeper of the Void DLC is pretty hard.  It has so many variations to  it's moveset you have to get used to.  It's going to take awhile to get used to this one.  In apocalyptic difficulty, if you get hit once by a stomp, you are dead.  This makes it incredibly difficult.


----------



## SilverEars (Jul 10, 2022)

Ionos the DLC boss was ridiculously hard, but I got used to it's move set in the end and finished it off!  Ionos is definately Sekiro difficulty level if playing on Apocalyptic.  If you enjoy Sekiro for the timing defensives, you should give Darksiders 3 a try.  It's very much like Sekiro.  Make sure to play on Apocalyptic difficulty.  Think of timing of dodging in this game like timing parry from Sekiro.  It's very similar.  The more precise your dodge timing, you can follow-up with an arcane counter, which is very satisfying.

However, the final boss of Darksiders 3 was too easy especially after getting  the armor from the DLC.  It's probably easy to do no hit attempt once you figure out the dodge timing.


In the end, I really enjoyed Darksiders 3.  I don't get the reviews scores.  The voice acting is much much better than cheezy jrpgs out there.  The designs are cool.  Controls are fluid, better than Jedi fallen order (which was stiff).  If this game came out after Elden Ring and advertised heavily as Souls-like it would have been much more successful.  I think the issue this game had was that the fans of Darksiders 1 &2 thought 3 was too hard due to being designed as a souls-like.  They should have just made a different title for this one.  Such a great game with bad marketing decisions.

I had fun with the bosses in this game.  One of the better boss designed games out there.


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## Cybex

I'd have to say, even with Elden Ring, one of my most hated/loved bosses was Ludwig the Accursed/Holy Blade. I found him even harder than the Orphan of Kos on account of his wild and unpredictable moveset. Super fun bossfight though and easily one of my most memorable.


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## SilverEars (Jul 19, 2022)

Cybex said:


> I'd have to say, even with Elden Ring, one of my most hated/loved bosses was Ludwig the Accursed/Holy Blade. I found him even harder than the Orphan of Kos on account of his wild and unpredictable moveset. Super fun bossfight though and easily one of my most memorable.


It seems we have differences in what bosses we have difficulty with.  Surprisingly, I beat Ludwig in minor number of attempts (Maybe 1 or 2).  Orphan of Kos.... Oh GOD!...  He seemed impossible at first.

To me, Bloodborne is the easiest of the Souls series.

I generally really despise fighting giants (or large creatures), and thus, most of the bosses in Bloodborne are not memorable.  Micolash sucked too.

My most luv'd boss fights are DS1 and DS3.  Oh, and can't forget Sekiro boss fights.  Amazin!!


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## SilverEars (Aug 2, 2022)

*Pascal's Wager: Guderian the Guardian*

Nuisance of a boss. I really disliked this boss as I couldn't figure out any patterns with this one.  It just goes all out and swinging everywhere and seemed impossible to dodge with the terrible dodge mechanics in this game.  And the other playable character Jerold is a weakling that dies in a couple of hits.

It took me awhile to figure it out because I played it like I would in From Soft games by staying close which is a BAD IDEA.  I eventually figured out that I have to keep a distance and chip it's health a little at a time.  You have to be very patient in this game.

This game came out way before Elden Ring and I would bet Elden Ring got the idea for it's first boss from this game.  The boss behavior is so similar.


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## SilverEars (Aug 2, 2022)

Cybex said:


> I'd have to say, even with Elden Ring, one of my most hated/loved bosses was Ludwig the Accursed/Holy Blade. I found him even harder than the Orphan of Kos on account of his wild and unpredictable moveset. Super fun bossfight though and easily one of my most memorable.


Just looked at the boss fight and it just reminded me of how sexy the boss fights are in From Soft games.  They know how to arouse us. lol

Fire paper on the sword looks so cool.  Now I know why they talk about the stench the hunters gives off.

Another sexy boss fight for me is Sister Freude.  She's also the toughest.  I luv the voice acting.


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## Nago

I haven't played any Souls games so far, so for me it was the Valkyrie Queen in GoW (highest difficulty). Even more so because the rest of the game was fairly easy!


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## SilverEars (Aug 10, 2022)

*Stranger of Paradise FF Origin: Black Knight*

Wow, the boss fights on solo in hard difficulty is rediculously hard!  It's pushing me to my limits.  This game is as difficult as Sekiro and likely even more if you play solo on hard difficulty.  I think the boss designs are cool so far.  Also, the combat  is crazy.

If you thought Dark Souls was too slow, this maybe the one for you.  Like Sekiro, the keeping up the speed with all these different buttons is the difficulty.

It seemed ridiculous at first, but getting deep into it, the combat system is pretty good.  It opens up for highly skilled players.  The parry system and break bar feels like they Team Ninja was influenced by Sekiro.  So, the combat feels super quick.  You definitely don't play this game for the plot, but for the boss battles, which are good.  Level design is very mediocre like Nioh.

Some people are really good at this game.  Souls-likes/Souls-bornes are the new concept resulted from mixing complex fighting mechanics like arcade fighting games with metroidvania level design, and RPG  elements.  This is why the game feels to have so much depth.


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## SilverEars (Aug 12, 2022)

This guy is slick!  The fight looks very cool as a ninja.  it's got to be super satisfying to be playing on that level.  I'm at the boss I have to learn to deflect. Sigh..


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## SilverEars

*Thymesia: Odur*

For a first boss, he's very tough.  What this girl says sums it up! "2 hrs for the first boss!" lol  Thymesia seems to be as challenging as Sekiro.  So, I would recommend for those looking for boss challenges.


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## SilverEars

Thymesia combat is very fun and welll executed.  It's a mix of Bloodborne and Sekiro combat.  It leaves it up to the player to hone their skills.  There is a move like Mikiri counter from Sekiro.


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## SilverEars (Aug 22, 2022)

Not that hard, but man this game is a fun metroidvania.  Fights in metrovania tells me SoulsBorne/Souls-likes games are essentially metroidvania in 3D combat wise.  This game feels like metroid.


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## SilverEars (Aug 31, 2022)

*Code Vein - Successor of the Throat*

I was about to give on this boss solo.  The bosses in this game is nearly impossible solo in this game.  It's made for co-op, and solo is masochistic.  I could not figure out what to do with the wind attacks in the 2nd phase. I had to chip away this one to figure out how I can beat this boss.  Supposedly there's 2 tougher bosses in this game. sigh..

Dodge timing is so damn narrow with a heavy weapon build that does reasonable damage.  There's no special abilities that's helpful in this game.  The skills don't help a whole lot.

I think this guy's method is the best way to beat this boss. Getting into the habit of dodging out and then in makes a whole lot of sense!


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## SilverEars

This boss must be a pain in the azz.  14 hrs!!!  This boss made me give up the game.


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## Deekay896

Still wonder how people manage to perfect those minimal movements in shmup hell games.


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## Fírnen

Funny how just about every post in this forum is about Souls or souls-like bosses, lol. Ima shake it up, I'll contest that Monster Hunter has some of the most difficult boss fights there are (while remaining fair).

Alatreon is the main one that comes to mind, from Monster Hunter: World. Lots of difficult fights in this game, but no other fight quite gave me as much satisfaction to master after getting my butt kicked endless times . Arguably though, the hardest boss in that game is the first fight you get into: fighting the controls lmao. After mastering it I feel there's no combat system more satisfying than Monster Hunter, but goddamn is it a steep learning curve figuring out all the combos on top of learning every monster move-set and the rest of the mechanics.

Honestly there's tons of bosses in that game that are super difficult; just a matter of finding the one that most counters your playstyle lol.


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## SilverEars (Nov 12, 2022)

Fírnen said:


> Funny how just about every post in this forum is about Souls or souls-like bosses, lol. Ima shake it up, I'll contest that Monster Hunter has some of the most difficult boss fights there are (while remaining fair).
> 
> Alatreon is the main one that comes to mind, from Monster Hunter: World. Lots of difficult fights in this game, but no other fight quite gave me as much satisfaction to master after getting my butt kicked endless times . Arguably though, the hardest boss in that game is the first fight you get into: fighting the controls lmao. After mastering it I feel there's no combat system more satisfying than Monster Hunter, but goddamn is it a steep learning curve figuring out all the combos on top of learning every monster move-set and the rest of the mechanics.
> 
> Honestly there's tons of bosses in that game that are super difficult; just a matter of finding the one that most counters your playstyle lol.


It seems what is fair is relative. lol.  They say Souls games are fair, but there are other claims it's too hard.

When I attempted a souls game for the first time was Dark Souls 3, and Iudex Gundyr was impossible to me, but I see a video tutoral on how to beat the boss so easily.  For the life of me, I could not understand Souls combat mechanics at the time.  I'm sure that's is generally the case for people that bang their head playing Souls games.  Dark Souls for example is so unique in the age of relaxing/unchallenging first person shooters what gets people by surprise. They are not used to playing the game to figure out things,  but to hit something and they die fast. lol. They are not used to be challenged to the point to figuring out a game mechanics.  I had to change my mindset to get through Souls game, or they say 'Git Gud.' <and that's what this saying actually means.  Figure it out.

With this said, one boss that I find is truely unfair is Malenia, Blade Of Miquella.  Her regen and ridiculous hit box flurry special move is just downright unfair, and bad boss design.

But, it's fair to these people that can beat the boss. lol  As you can see, it's not impossible as I would see it.  It's all about knowing when to strike.  Which is generally what combat is like in Souls games.  I think I had such a difficult time because I'm so used to being up close to bosses in Souls games, and this one you can't because if you get close, you get hit and she will regen.  I know how I should approach her, but not getting hit is still hard for me. lol.  I was always intrigued with Souls game because they are considered 'hard' and knowing the game is something I've always been interested in.  It's like something is considered 'hard' by people, but it turns out to be a matter of 'knowing' it.


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## SilverEars

I have no excuse after seeing this.


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## BBuzecky

I remember back when I was a kid and all the talk was how tough it was beating Ganon in the original Legend of Zelda.  Well, until you found out just mash the button entering the room lol.


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