GENICHIRO ASHINA
For me, Genichiro takes the top spot for a number of reasons:
First of all, he is the setup-for-failure tutorial boss who is designed to kick the hell out of you before you have had a chance to settle into the game. When you fight him again, you are more prepared but he still has this intimidating presence that makes you hesitate when engaging him. The whole fight has this beautiful rhythm to it and he is a solid skill-check in the early to mid-game. I know that some fights were more spectacular but this sat perfectly with me.
LADY BUTTERFLY
Speaking of rhythm, if Genichiro was a waltz then Lady Butterfly would be a tango. Her battle was a showcase of how the game forces you to dance with death instead of relying on a direct assault. She was my second boss and between her significance in teaching me the game mechanics and her stunning boss arena, she was an instant classic.
GREAT SHINOBI OWL
I loved this fight but I wanted to punch Owl in the face. Repeatedly. I am a keen World of Warcraft player and any debuff that completely blocks healing is a mechanic that a) I hate with a passion and b) I can never avoid for some reason. Nevertheless, I loved this fight and I was surprised to see such a robust character (call him what you will) utilise so many sneaky tactics to win. Great stuff.
DEMON OF HATRED
My god what a fight this was! This was one of the most terrifying bosses in the game to come against and I love/hated every second of fighting him. I was on a constant knife-edge during his phases and it wasn't until I started getting my strategy down that I started to see some dents in his health bar. The only reason that he wasn't higher was that I hated the first hour that I was stuck on him! I felt that I was bashing my head against a brick wall with his various 1-shot mechanics and erratic attack patterns. If you are a Dark Souls veteran then this fight is pure 'Souls': Dodge, dip, duck, dive and dodge.
GUARDIAN APE
How do you royally tick off a giant ape? Easy: jam a sword in its neck and make it unable to die.
All jokes aside, this fight was brilliant and I wish that I did not know about the "twist" beforehand as it was one of the best and most unsettling final phases that I have ever seen in a game. There is something so unnerving about the way that the ape moves during the headless phase and that scream...
For me, the only reason that this is lower down the list is that I did not fully enjoy the fight mechanics as I found his erratic attack patterns a nightmare to try and nail down. He also employs some nasty flurries which were frustrating to defend against if I got caught on a down-swing. I also never thought that I would die by being hit by a lump of faeces the size of a Vauxhall Astra
CORRUPTED MONK
This was a cool fight. I loved the design of the boss and the staggered attack patterns really caused me some issues in my first playthrough. I also enjoyed how the focus shifted to health-bar depletion rather than a posture management fight. The design of the boss was also a big plus for me with some impressive voice acting and sound design throughout the fight. With all this being said, it was good...but not great. This fight was a relief to finish and any boss that garners that reaction from me is not one that I remember too fondly.
GYOUBU MASATAKA ONIWA
I'm not going to say it...
Don't make me...
AS I BREATHE, YOU WILL NOT PASS THIS CASTLE GATE.
Ok fine. If this boss ranking was on entrances alone then Gyoubu would be number 1 for sure. His boss arena and voice acting is 10/10 and the mechanics of the fight are perfect for teaching new players how to effectively use the grappling hook. My biggest gripe in this fight was that once you understood his (limited) moveset, the fight became quite boring and he did not age well on further playthroughs.
DIVINE DRAGON
I am always in two minds about "cinematic" fights and the Divine Dragon was no different. On the plus side, the fight was stunning with some incredible sound design and memorable set-pieces (grabbing that lightning and launching it across the ether into the face of a dragon was memorable to say the least). On the other side, the fight boils down to: Kill some basic enemies, jump around on some trees, dodge the wind, and throw some lightning. It is hard to find too much to criticise when the boss is more of a lore fight but even then, some variation in the phases would have been amazing.
FOLDING SCREEN MONKEYS
The Monkeys have the opposite feel of the Dragon to me; the fight is lacking in visual/aural brilliance but I love the gameplay mechanics of the fight! Learning how to beat the monkeys is clever and I really enjoyed how the strengths of the individual monkeys were exploitable. (I actually feel sorry for the invisible monkey as I accidentally skewered him).
My biggest issue with this fight was the decision to pad out the fight by adding terror-inducing trash enemies that serve no purpose to the fight other than to annoy you while you're trying to solve puzzles. Personally, I would have loved to have seen an "Arkham City - "Mr Freeze" style fight where the monkeys have multiple health-bars and they adapt to your ways of nullifying their strengths. For example, the invisible monkey could have a phase 2 where he stops walking on the ground and you have to watch the tree branches shake to see where he is. Something like that would have made this fight incredible rather than a mediocre speedbump.
OWL(FATHER)
This fight was an absolute slog. I was a big fan of the first Owl fight and I loved the idea of fighting him in his prime but there was something about this fight that did not sit well with me. Maybe it was the re-used boss arena, maybe it was the various 1-shot mechanics or maybe it just was that I simply did not enjoy the fight as much as I felt that I should? This may not seem very analytical but have you ever had that feeling where you can't pinpoint specifics but overall, something is just not that enjoyable? Quiche. This fight is quiche.
TRUE CORRUPTED MONK
HEADLESS APE
This fight is going to be the easiest one to justify here. This was just phase 2 ape plus phase 1 ape, which when added together, gives 3/4 of a boss experience. The lore of the fight is interesting and I love a "gank" boss but this just seemed lazy to me. This boss also suffered from its late-game placement where I coasted through the fight with a few firecrackers and some patience. I will give this fight credit in that the initial shock of the two apes emerging put me into panic mode but apart from that, this fight was disappointing.
EMMA, THE GENTLE BLADE
Why is Emma ranked below the cranially-challenged ape and his bride? Quite frankly, this fight did nothing for me in the grand scope of the game. I was very interested to learn about her sword training but I never viewed Emma as this imposing force to be reckoned with. When Emma finally took up arms against you, I was expecting a 'Lady Maria' style fight with a boss desperately doing everything in their power to stop you. Either that, or a boss that is full of rage at you finally going down the path of "Shura". Any of these would have been amazing but Emma just hovers in the middle and becomes an annoying (and difficult) speedbump to Isshin. (Yes, I know that it would have been hard to implement this with her lore but still...something would have been good!)
Also, what was that? The grab? The one that has a blatant disregard for range and hitboxes? The grab that made me make an angry tea before I ate my controller? Yeah...that one.
ISSHIN ASHINA
This fight was the perfect embodiment of arena-fatigue for me. I had already fought a handful of significant bosses in this area and to come against Isshin in the same place made me sigh with disappointment. I will say that the rush of beating him was something that I immensely enjoyed but I did not find myself looking back fondly on that fight. I think that some extra 'spice' could have been added to the arena or a phase that wasn't just "set fire to everything" could have made things better but who knows!
ISSHIN, THE SWORD SAINT
Now, before anyone thinks that this is an error, let me explain myself:
I loved almost everything about this fight. The boss entrance is spectacular, his lore is brilliant, his moveset is unique, the arena is stunning and the music is stellar. Why is this boss at the bottom then?
The difficulty.
I am not somebody who thinks that difficulty=quality and I have a very distinct cut-off point where a boss's difficulty becomes a chore. Throughout my Soulsborne experience, the only other boss that has had this exact effect on me was "Manus" whos moveset was so frustrating that I found myself hating every second of the fight. I also hate having a boss that has a 'pre-boss' to warm you up. If Genichiro was scaled down to a lore fight then that would have been great but he hit like a truck! There was nothing more frustrating than getting to phase 2 of 3 of Isshin, dying, and then wasting a few gourds/dying to Genichiro due to me wanting to get him out of the way! I understand the "git gud" mentality but I am not a fan of fatiguing a player before they even hit the main fight...every time!
Great write up!
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