Now, some bosses in the game are tougher than others and that is certainly one area of the game that can be a bit inconsistent is the difficulty of the bosses, as one can be really easy whereas another can be infuriatingly tough! But, I guess this is just Dark Souls for you!
So, I have picked out five of the best bosses in the game and these are bosses I have enjoyed taking and got frustrated at in the process, which is part and parcel as to why its a great game.
And with that said, let's dive in and take a look....
ORNSTEIN AND SMOUGH
Well, this is a rather obvious and popular choice as this dynamic duo from hell will bound to be on most peoples lists and they are notoriously difficult to take on in the game especially as there are two of them as opposed to just one! And to tell them apart, Ornstein is the slim one in the knight armour with the spear whereas Smough is the big fat one with a giant hammer (so you can only guess what he does with that in the battle!).
And the background story or lore behind these two bosses are that they were left behind by Gwyn, Lord of Cinder to guard Anor Londo's cathedral (which is the area you fight them in) with Ornstein being the Captain of the Four Knights of Cinder and he was a famed dragon slayer. Smough on the other hand is an executioner, who apparently takes a little too much pride in his work and as a result he was left out of being made a knight by Gwin.
The fight itself is a brutal battle as you have to try and find a way to manouever your way around them, which is VERY difficult because Ornstein is very fast and uses lightning attacks and Smough, while slower, can quickly bludgeon you to death with his big-ass hammer! This can often lead to many a frustrating moment as you keep being repeatedly killed by these two legendarily difficult bosses. And if you kill one of them, then the surviving one absorbs the power of the other, so if Smough dies, Ornstein can absorb his strength and grow larger in size whereas if Ornstein dies, Smough will absorb his lightning abilities.
You can of course summon another NPC (non-playable character) to help you in the fight, Solaire, who is a phantom knight and he can help you distract one of them, while you take on the other and it helps you end the fight quicker. However if you propose to do this one solo, then you are in for a LONG night!
So, Ornstein and Smough are a very tough duo to beat but they are also two of the most popular bosses and characters in the whole Dark Souls series, so that's reason alone why they are on here.
KNIGHT ARTORIUS
OK so next up is this boss from the DLC, Artorius of the Abyss and think its safe to say that this boss is one of the TOUGHEST in the whole game, period. Artorius, according to the game's lore was one of the knights of Gwyn (Lord of Cinder, i.e. the final boss) who gained the ability to walk the Abyss, so became known as Artorius the Abyss Walker. However, the abyss ended up corrupting Artorius and in the DLC, its up to your playable character to put him out of his misery to keep his honour intact.
This really is one hellishly tough boss battle as Artorius is very aggressive and fast and he has a number of devastating attacks that consists of a series of fast rolls, an aerial attack and also he has the ability to charge up his power to inflict greater damage on your character. So, this boss fight really requires the player to have great timing in order to successfully dodge Artorius's attacks, so you need to have alot of patience and persistence as you will die many times over until you master his move set and how to evade his attacks.
Despite the difficulty level involved in beating Artorius, he's still one of the coolest bosses in the game and you feel rewarded and accomplished when you finally do defeat him and release this tormented fella from his corrupted state.
So, Knight Artorius definitely deserves a place on here as he is mighty tough and a great challenge for any gamer to take on.
THE FOUR KINGS
In the official Dark Souls game, there are believe it or not very few bosses that really present a big challenge but the Four Kings are definitely one of them, because you are fighting...well four of them! So, this makes for a pretty intense boss fight that will really challenge you and get your adrenaline going.
As for the lore behind the Four Kings, they are the wraith knight leaders of the New Londo Ruins who fell to the dark after they were tempted by the ability of life drain (again more corrupted figure heads). However it is actually essential to the game that you defeat the Four Kings because you need their souls in order to access the final area of the game (Kiln of the First Flame) so therein lies the challenge in itself!
The fight itself is a real war of attrition and you need to really try and defeat the kings swiftly as you can because if you don't more of them will join in the fight, making your life hell in trying to win the battle. So ideally you need to destroy them one by one quickly but this can be quite difficult because of the nature of the abyss (all black surrounds you) and depth perception of how you approach the fight can make it tricky to successfully home in on the kings to attack them.
Not only this but the kings have their own potent attacks that include strikes with their massive swords, a grab attack and also a devasting magic attack that can really take a big chunk off your health. So, just imagine two of them or more being thrown into the mix with this scenario in mind and you really have yourself a real long hard slog on your hands.
But again, the Four Kings challenge is part of the appeal of the fight as you feel rewarded to beat them solo because although you can summon a phantom (the Witch Beatrice) to help you fight them, the phantom won't really damage them that much.
So, the Four Kings are definitely one of the best bosses in the game because they are again pretty tough to take and its another fight that is quite tense and suspenseful and that's worth it alone.
GWYN LORD OF CINDER
So up next is the final boss in the game, Gwyn Lord of Cinder, who can present a big challenge but it depends on how you choose to fight him as there is one way to defeat quite easily but I will say more about it in a minute.
As for Gwyn's lore, he was a great warrior and God, who once formerly known as the Lord of Sunlight and he ended the Age of the Ancient, which the lead to him sacrificing himself to link the first flame to begin the Age of Fire. So, its actually up to your playable character to become Gwyn's successor, which means one thing: you will have to fight him...
Gwyn can be a tough boss as I said but it depends on how you choose to do the fight but if you decide to take him head on, you will bound to be killed quite quickly, as his attacks are pretty ferocious and aggressive. Gwyn's flamed sword can inflict massive damage and he also has a grab attack that involves picking you up and this is followed by a big explosion that will take about half your life away. So its best to try and evade his attacks by rolling away from them and if you circle the rocks for cover then it is possible to get in enough strikes to kill him.
However...there is a much easier way to kill him and that involves parrying, which is where you use your shield to deflect your enemy's attack just as their weapon is about to contact with you and this results in a powerful counter-attack where you can stab your enemy and knock them down. This takes off quite a bit of Gwyn's life and if you repeat it successfully, then you can kill him quickly, however this method only works if you are really good at parrying, if not then, Gwyn is still a tough battle.
So, Gwyn Lord of Cinder, is a pretty cool boss and good fight to end the game and it might be disappointing to some that he can be pretty easy to defeat but it all depends how you fight. If you are really good at parrying his attacks, this should be a breeze but if not, you will be in for a hard fight and he is still worth ptting on the list.
MANUS, FATHER OF THE ABYSS
And last but not least is Manus, who is the final boss in the DLC and by heck he can be one tough son of a bitch, as he is mightily aggressive and has a number of brutal attacks, which I will mention in a bit.
As for his lore, Manus, despite his demon-esque appearance, was actually once human but his humanity went amok when he took over the Abyss and he set about to increase his domain and the people of Oolacile (the main area in the DLC) were consumed by the Abyss and turned into monstrous creatures. Manus has also been searching for his precious Broken Pendant, to which your character has one piece and the other is in the hands of the Marvelous Chester, who was also brought there by Manus in order to put the pendant back together.
Manus is by far the most aggressive boss in the whole game, his attacks are absolutely brutal and he can quickly finish you off with them if you don't avoid them and they can be pretty tough to avoid as well! Manus's regular attack involves a hand slam, where he uses his massive right hand to try and hammer you but he has plenty of other attacks that include a deadly six hit combo frenzy attack (which will DEFINITELY wipe you out unless you have alot of health!) a leap attack, dive attack and a horizontal sweep attack. Once, Manus's health drops down a bit, he can also start using dark magic attacks, which can be quite lethal as they can kill you off or greatly reduce your health and its important that you acquire a silver pendant, which can counter these attacks.
Despite all his frenzied, ultra aggressive attacks, Manus can however be taken down with relative ease if you have the right gear, as I found wearing Havel's armour a good way to beat him, as this armour is heavy duty and can withstand a serious pounding and it will allow enough time to survive his attacks and top up your health with Estus and get in your attacks real close. You sould also make sure you have Havel's ring equipped (which allows you to move faster with heavy equipment loads) and the Grass Crest Shield, which will help boost your stamina during the fight, which is a must as you need alot of stamina to defeat him.
You can also summon the phantom of Sif, if you save Sif's spirit from the Humanities that hold him captive and he can help to distract Manus while you can get your attacks in but I found this to be less effective as I usually ended up dead and left Sif to fight on against Manus!
There is also a very easy way to defeat Manus, which involves sniping him with arrows from outside the fog gate (which you have to walk through before you face every boss) and if you use poison arrows then this should kill him with ease. But doing it this was is basically just cheating and takes away from the fun of the fight itself, so I wouldn't recommend doing it.
So, overall, Manus deserves to be on the list because depending on how you take him on, he can be a BIG challenge or he can be quite easy, but because of the frenzied nature of the fight, it is a fun boss battle, which is worth taking on.
SIGN OFF
OK, so that's it for my pick of the five best bosses from the original Dark Souls and they are all challenges in their different ways with some being tougher than others at times but its all down to how you fight them and that's the beauty of the game is than there is always more than one way to take on a boss.
Right, that's it for now and I will be back soon with another post.
So, till the next un, its bye fer now!
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