An Over-Analysis of FROM Software Boss Design: Dark Souls III 

"you HAVE to fight gundyr!" let me introduce you to black firebombs

Funny that you mention Siegward doesn’t respawn ‘because he isn’t an ashen one’ …because he actually is. After the first fight with the demon he says “we unkindled must put our duties first.” And yes, unkindled and ‘ashen ones’ are the same thing.

Jerma, trying to remember the name of the ds3 tutorial boss: " what is his name again? Jumex Bunger?"

Beating champion Gundyr melee only no items no block no parry is still one of the coolest gaming experiences I’ve had

What's cool about the "I'm on fire now" phase 2, are the bosses are becoming Embered. Like you can with an Ember. Which means more for the Lords of Cinder, since they succeeded in linking the flame the state seems to be more than a health boost.

Oh boy oh boy, a new DS3 essay video to obsess over and fall asleep to? Yes.

Wolnir is my Crystal Sage. Sometimes he’s easy, other times his RNG breaks bad and spams skeleton summons and forward charges until I’m pinned against the wall with 3-5 carthus greatsword knights. Also the greatwolf does have a second phase, where its eyes go red, its wind dash gains a third pass, and he gets more aggressive. Also pretty sure it doesn’t do its frost breath attack until then.

The thing I appreciate the most about your analysis is how you are very willing to talk about when bosses under perform in feeling fun to fight. How minor frustrations in design can lead to the overall experience being subpar. A lot of discussion surrounding the boss fights of this series has way too many people being blase about how certain attacks/collision can be annoying to play around and simply not enjoyable. Just saying oh it's a "skill issue", because too many people in the community are living vicariously through no-hit and other challenge runners despite being an average joe amongst the playerbase. I don't like using video analysis to sort of self-validate thoughts I have but yours constantly hits opinions I also share so it's hard not to. :U

Soul of cinder was truly a different experience the fight felt so personal like the game was talking to you, the player, for all the time you spent with it. Speaking to you about all your struggles. letting fight yourself, the you from all thoose years since the first game came out. And then when gywns theme hits and he shifts its something akin to the past its like over coming your own triumph in a way that lets you move on from it. The struggle is over.

my fav ds3 memory is dodging the pontiff clone to parry the real one for a riposte win

RU-vid algorithm please bless this man!

just a note on yhorm: his arms and head take much more damage and cause him to stagger during his stagger you do thousands of damage to his head this makes his fight much more bearable and engaging as you try to line up opportunities to hit his hand

Mild take but DS3 was the peak of the series

you're quickly becoming one of my favorite channels to watch, really hope to see you grow soon! this series is golden

I agree with you on the timing of Lorian's teleports. First time I went up against him, I had nothing but Artorias' gear and high hopes. Got vibe-checked a couple hundred times. Then, I realized that his attacks are perfectly in time with the Macarena, and it took five attempts because I also timed all my moves with the Macarena. Funniest thing ever, I tell you.

Tbh I stumbled upon your bloodborne video and then suddenly was wondering wish he had a ds3 video so I could watch that too and here it is

Oh holy shit man these vids are SO GOOD i'm so hyped for yet another lets goooo

Just came to say, I absolutely adore your boss analysis, I've practically binged the entire set. I just love how you've taken the time to think about each boss in a deeper way and your clarification of your preferences helps a lot, I feel like there are a lot of fights I've grown to appreciate far more, whether I liked them a lot or not. I am very curious about the opinions you hold for the future games from here, but I can wait patiently for such fantastic content!

Jumping to the latest video to say WOW I so enjoyed your boss breakdowns, and agree with many of them. Keep up the amazing work, it's great to see new names in the Souls yt community.

Loving the thoughtful, entertaining analysis-making me want to replay these for the 30th time

Finally a relatable take on the crystal sage! I still have nightmares because of a INT only run I did while playing with keyboard and mouse. The sage was one of the most frustrating fights in the whole series!

Finally, a fellow Old Demon King appreciator

Was waiting for this vid man!! As usual you knocked it out of the park.

I've been watching all these souls game boss analysis videos, they've been great. I was happy to see you comment on the ds3 protagonist getting into a lot of fights because they try to touch something, it is pretty funny. One of my earliest souls memories is someone describing them as "Ashen One, Toucher of Things"

You changed my mind about Aldrich, and that's a tall order. Thank you my friend. Fantastic video.

These videos are great, I hope you get more recognition!

Your character's face, lord have mercy

god, I love this game! finally got time to watch this, and you didn't disappoint so glad i could find someone to agree on the crystal sage

This is a solid analysis and your channel is definitely underrated

I love your energy and passion, wishing you many more subs

Another Vordt Greathammer enjoyer! Kudos I gotta say, you are the first person besides me claiming CrystalSage is a difficult boss. Even after couple tens of full playthroughs I'm still usually losing once or twice against him on any NG+0 run. Amazing video as always, thanks a million for that!

What a fantastic video. Very happy I found this channel. Especially when I saw you have a AP of the single best ttrpg system out today, P2e

Rarely do I ever watch 1hr+ videos but this was a great watch!

Dragonslayer Armour catching people off guard with the fake stagger before Lies of P did it 😮

I just got into this video series a day ago, this is just perfect for me!

Great video, great series and I’m hoping you do analysis on bosses in series outside of Soulsborne! I do wish you would put up timestamps for each boss to make finding specific ones much easier, but that aside I loved this!

Anyone complaining about Ariandel being a short dlc must not have been factoring in the amount of time they spent on Sister Friede.

I remember thinking DS3 is Bandai being greedy and wanting something magical to happen. And yet I've grinded until platinum, and in retrospect it has several wonderful boss designs and a great conclusion to Dark Souls series. Great analysis on Bloodborne, glad you've continued.

Quality content and a list I almost completely agree with. Good stuff!

Oh boy, been waiting for this one

One interesting thing about the Abyss Watchers is that if you lure the two nearby Darkwraiths toward the arena the boss will try to attack them through the fog wall, I once had a Darkwraith glitch into the arena and briefly help with the fight. Apparently their AI is built to recognize and prioritize eachother as enemies

fun lore facts, the demon prince fight takes place in ds1 firelink shrine. Midir takes place in the "rise of the lords" in the ds1 custscene when all the would be gods claim their lord souls and rise into existance. Some opinions on the bosses you said were bad, halflight... his damage i am pretty sure is BEYOND what a player can do with frayed blade.. the dark dmg on it is minor and the bleed does not matter cause i have never died to the bleed from him EVER on any build. It's always his katana laser that offs me if not his r1 SPAM. Now of the bosses i have EVER done without being hit are judge and champion gundyr,gael,cinder,dragonslayer armour,old demon king,aldrich,dancer cause.. bleed or magic build super EZ,wolnir,lothric,nameless. Every other boss has hit me at least once on every build and every run nearly. One last fun fact, cinder can PARRY you, i think its in his pyro phase. Anyway, i am loving these dissection vids on these games so souls or not i hope to see more from you.

1:27:18 one of my favourite little details there is that the soul of cinder looks directly at the player as it dies.

These vids are fire you deserve more subscribers

My favorite concept from Dark Souls III was without a doubt in the second DLC where another player is the boss, it was so cool to be the boss and fight other players trying to progress

fantastic video like the rest! but I must say I was very surprised the Nameless King got 0 mention of his story, it's one of the highlights of the whole game for me. I can forgive new players for glancing over the nameless King's identity if they haven't dug into the lore, but if you're familiar with the first game it should at least be familiar. but no mention at all? I find that a bit confusing, that alone easily makes it an S rank fight. but hey your list! and I'm enjoying it a lot.

found you from your bloodborne video, staying for everything else

I love this game so much. Big agree with you on Yhorm. On my last playthrough I killed the dancer as 2nd boss and your STILL get teleported after the 3rd lord. Thankfully, I didn't do Yhorm last so I got to finish Siegward's quest properly

DS3 has the best boss design and mechanics in the entire series. Easily, by far.

I've probably beaten this game 40 times. One of my all time favorites

I am playing DS3 for the first time ever right now, and also fought the Abyss Watchers 3rd. I just went straight! Then they were the next ones in my way.

One thing i think would be interesting is so to look at the unique bosses added by the Convergence Mod. It's very interesting how the mod changes boss locations are straight up makes new bosses to make up for the games flaws.

Damn, you have (so far, surely that'll change)

roughly 300 hour in DS3 and I'm only just now learning Deacons has an instant kill move that allegedly adds urgency to the end of the fight. I've never died to them, not even on my SL1 run

Amazing vid! Really agree with most bosses. Surprised me with the sage take tho. My strategy to cheese the sage's 2nd fase, is throwing any type of projectile to the copies (throwing knives for example). If I'm not wrong they insta die with any hit, making it only a few spells coming at you.

I'm glad you share my excitement about the bisses in the game, but that's to be expected. And if Midir is THE dragon fight for you in gaming, then check out Dragon's Dogma for Grigori. Haven't gotten to him yet on the sequel so I can only speak for the first game, trust me, you'll love it.

1.5 hour analysis of a fromsoft game? you spoil us. great vid

I love dark souls 3, probably my favorite game of all time. The lore, the call backs to the original (even if everyone writes them off as fan service.) the bosses. I love bloodborne and elden ring but DS3 is what got me really hooked on the series.

What saves Iudex Gundyr's second phase for me is that the first phase teaches you that when you roll you really are impervious to any attack, so for phase 2 all you have to do is dodge. Don't overthink it

18:50 I missed the Sages at first on my first playthrough, so I got all the way to the bridge to Irithyll before doing them. The Abyss Watchers quickly became my favorite boss, and I was a little disappointed on subsequent playthroughs with how easy they became after doing the Cathedral first.

On my first play through, I was so frustrated with Midir that I wound up cheesing him with mist. I just couldn't figure out what I was supposed to do, or when I was supposed to do it. It wasn't until my third playthrough (I skipped him on my second) that it finally clicked for me; Midir doesn't have moves, he has _strings._ There are exceptions like various breath attacks, but most of Midir's attacks throughout the fight link into each other in a set sequence. He has multiple sequences, but those sequences never change, and they all end with a pronounced period of vulnerability where his head is within reach. You can tell from his first claw swipe or bite what his next six or seven attacks will be, always coming with the exact same rhythm and ending with a nice long pause where his head is defenseless and very within reach. And once I understood this, Midir went from my least favorite boss, one I was so frustrated with I almost deleted the game out of pure spite, to my favorite boss, one I looked forward to on every playthrough, a battle I knew like a dance with an old friend. I'll always remember him for that

Soul of Cinder is 100% my favorite fight ever thematically the idea of not only fighting yourself but everyone else and all the previous bosses in one I like that the fight is so straightforward it feels so personal and poetic

Hell yes, so excited for your ds3 takes

I remember playing Darksouls 3 for the first time when I was a kid and it took about 2 days to bet Gundyr. I felt unbeatable when I finally beat him😂

Ancient Wyvern is cool. It’s a spectacle encounter. If it didn’t have a boss health bar, people would probably see it for what it is: an epic interactive cutscene.

I’m so hyped for this vid

Would you consider making an analysis of the Convergence mod bosses for DS3?

Great video and analysis! Can’t wait for the ELDEN RING VIDEO let’s goooooo

Great video! Looking forward to the elden ring one eventually

Champion gundyr became over time my favorite boss from the base game, he dosen't look like anything special at first especially on regular new game where you can sometimes cut the fight short but on higher cycles he starts to really shine The 2 main things that sets him apart from the other fights are pacing and style His more physical and almost wrestling like moves are really unexpected from a knight type boss, the shoulder bashes and kicks also mean you have to keep consistent eye on his left hand and leg because he can combo these moves with any number of other moves which helps make him more dynamic and less predictable The pacing of the fight is what really elevates it tho because while other fights give you clear windows of attack gundyr can combo chain his attacks almost endlessly which gives the illusion that he never stops attacking sometimes however here's the trick, he chain those combos with a slight delay which allows you to punish him mid combo which if mastered will make the fight incredibly fast paced, this combined with his wrestling style creates the most fun dance for me in the game outside some dlc bosses I also want to highlight his ultra high tracking charge attack because I think it's really brilliant how many ways there to counter this one attack, if you're close the best way is to roll the initial roar and circle around him, if you're in a medium range the best way is to dodge into him in particular timing then dodge into him again to avoid the follow up (hardest and fanciest dodge in the game imo) or if you're far away you space out the initial charge by walking backwards then dodging into him for the follow up, I highlight this because this move is either over looked or harshly criticized for how unfair it might seem on the surface

I had so much trouble with the sages that I developed my own strategy, I just stocked up on throwing knives since I noticed the clones all died in a hit so I could now take them all out at a distance quickly with an item. I the spent days helping people beat them because I had struggled for so long.

Oh! So for crystal sage, he’s a guy! The one in Lothric Archives is the female one (she has visible hair while the farron one is bald), they’re like a brother-sister duo that serves the undead legion, and are possibly the reason why Seath is omitted from the trial of the legion (the flame extinguishing we do, behind the bowls (which are meant to symbolize the lord vessel) are depictions of Nito, Izalith, and the Four Kings) as Seath is like; the sorcerer’s God And their crystal ball is actually a big prism stone!

Not that it would change anything, but did you know the cursewood has a rare attack where it stands up , walks a few steps toward you then falls and tries to face plant on you lol its great with massive intimidation and comedy.

i like these videos coz i agree with most of the rankings but each list has at least 1 ranking that makes me physically shake with anger which is kinda fun, gd stuff bud

I'm somewhat surprised about Aldrich. I agree with everything except not mentioning the way his second phase bow attack is kind of a mess. It's a great concept, objectively, but the fact he can do it repeatedly and without any clear trigger makes it go from what could be the ultimate "get off me" punish to a flatly oppressive and annoying "stop fighting for 10 seconds" spam. It detracts from my enjoyment to the point I think it takes him from an A, maybe S tier boss to a C or low B.

Crystal Sage drove me insane until I figured out that Throwing Knives delete the clones in seconds from basically anywhere in the arena, and they're hella cheap. Also, I recently finished my first DS3 SL1 run and Halflight was definitely the hardest, ended up cheesing him with a crossbow.

Was looking forward to this vid since Ds3 is my fave of the series, will there be an Elden ring video?👀

One thing you didn't mention in the Halflight fight is that the host can summon too. Which makes the fight extremely unbalanced, but the other way around. They have one player available to focus on each enemy, and when the painting guardians are down, it becomes a 3v1. If the team is well prepared and came with a balanced setup including one mage, there's very little you can do as Halflight. In normal invasions the invader has the other enemies and element of surprise to help them. In this fight, you just get ganked as the painting guardian is usually dead by the time you spawn.

I wish they dynamically adjust the camera distance farther away based on the boss size.

Having to play DS games sound like shoving hot needles under your fingernails so I really enjoy these well-made videos that give us the good parts. Thanks!

I played DS3 for the first time in the last year. I previously played DS1 & 2 as well as Bloodborne and I think I’m pretty decent at souls games. Crystal Sage was the only boss that made me quit and come back the next day. It’s pretty validating to hear you call it difficult because I felt so silly getting stuck on him.

Ey, love the videos! Could you do 60fps if possible for the next? Binge watched all today but watching was kinda painful at low bitrate 720p. Thanks! Amazing videos tho, really good points

Dark souls 3 has some of the only bosses I want to fight over again, not because of complexity (even though that is a case for a lot of them), but purely because of style and atmosphere of them. When I first fought the dancer, I won on my second try and I was kinda let down because of how hard everyone said it was but I was so entertained by just the feel of the boss.

18:34 Your wife is right; because the scenario you described for fighting it early as being unlikely is exactly what I did on my first playthrough 😅 granted i had played other souls games, so while it did seem like a difficulty spike it wasn’t TOO bad for me. EDIT: also didn’t even realise about Wolnir’s mist mechanic, since he went down so fast…

If YT were a Stock Exchange, I’d be dumping money into your channel right now. I look forward to watching your subscriber count skyrocket.

34:41 I could swear that doesn’t happen. I strongly remember being able to talk with him and he says bye. The moment he tells you bye then the cutscene comes in.

Would you do a vid on the best fromsoft boss designs across soulsborne and sekiro?

Finally the best game in the series and the one that made me fall in love with the genre. Nothing compares to the way this game teaches you and wants you to beat it. From dying to Iudex many times to beating Gael on my first try. Im not trying to flex, all im saying is that when you accept that (almost) everything this game throws at you is fair and manageable, you are able to beat it no matter what it expects from you (Maybe not Midir because he made me his bitch for a few days, but I kept going and learned his every move which lead to finally beating him). I honestly think that this game is a masterpiece and has the best roster of fights in the series.

Found the camera of king of the storm not so bad. If you stay a decent distance close but periodically locking on and off.

I think Ds1 is the best for lore and atmosphere. Ds3 is also fantastic. Ds2 exists and is a video game.

Id also like to aknowledge how amazing the OST of DS3 Is. I know most people hate the CRG and there are some legitimate criticisms there. But that boss music is PERFECT and some peak Dark Souls in terms of atmosphere. I submit Crystal Sage as another kinda flawed boss with outstandingly creepy music

What I find funny with the demon prince is that I've seen people confidently say "this attack is easier to avoid than the other" for both attack which makes me think it's really a matter of preference. which is pretty neat

For around 1:08:00 actually there is one fight in elden ring that actually did the demon prince's first phase almost 1:1 imo. The twin gargoyles. One stands back and spews poison at you and the other attacks head on. Though with twin gargoyles they actually have the poison deal actual damage and stack poison.

great breakdown as usual just missing an S rank for midir's soundtrack alone (can't wait for sekiro)

I always assumed Vordt's behind weakness was an intensional choice by fromsoft to help players understand how much of a role positioning played. Iudex can be defeated easily by only standing in front of him, rolling his glave (and standing far enough to avoid punches), but tail hugging is a tried and true strategy in dark souls that will continue to play a role even against bosses and enemies that do have moves that respond to it.

"attacks come later than you accept" I'd say starting in 3 - that particular "trick" gets used a lot even outside the Dancer boss fight, though she is the best example of it. The unconventional attack timings feel like a natural part of her entire design, the dance motif, the more ethereal, somber music, etc. But now From Soft slaps that design quirk on more than half of the things you fight just to try to catch you off guard.

Yes, indeed. It is called RU-vid , where aspiring video essayists and 14 year old basement dwellers converge. In venturing north, the youtubers discover the truth of the old words: "The quality fades and the viewers go without dopamine." When the well of content is threatened, the notification bell tolls, unearthing the old Lords of dark souls RU-vid from their graves...Vaatividya, Saint of lore... twitch’s live-streaming Legion... And the reclusive lord of the backlogs, Lemon the challenge runner... Only, in truth... the Lords will abandon their videos... And the Akasharose will rise. Nameless, less 1000 sub RU-vidr, unfit even to be cinder. And so it is, that I am subscribing! May your view count rise evermore!

FINALLY, SOMEONE WHO PRONOUNCES “SIEGWARD” CORRECTLY

ROYAL RAT VANGUARD SHOUT OUT!!! WE UP RAT GANG!

FINALLLY I THOUGHT I WAS TAKING CRAZY PILLS. Crystal Sage is one of the hardest bosses in this game for me, prob usually cause I'm low damage and hp but still.