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.
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.
@@blackbloom8552 it would probably be unnecessarily complex to sort out. You just assume that everyone either goes hollow or moves away after you kill them
@@Timebomb_19 Also, in DS3 some Firelink NPCs do respawn out of necessity (you can't live without Andre, for instance). Needless to say, they aren't very happy with you when they come back.
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.
I didn't learn to parry until I was well into my second or third run. Perhaps ironic because my first character was a sword and shield. I got good at blocking but always found parry attempts too risky to be worth it. Especially when I learned I could stancebreak when two handing weapons on my second character. I like how multiple approaches are viable, you can absolutely beat the game without using any parry equipment
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
You know what's really ridiculous though? When those challenge runners happen to not think one of these games is perfect, they too get attacked with the same nonsense. There's a guy, I think his name is Nasu (apologies if I spelled that wrong), but he did the first level 1 no-hit run of Elden Ring, and because he had to learn all the bosses to such an extreme degree, he then did a review of them afterwards. Overall, he wasn't that impressed with a lot of them (I won't go through his criticisms here, but I think they were definitely accurate and have been echoed by others), and the FromSoft playerbase attacked him saying "skill issue" and "mad because bad" etc etc. They literally have no other defense and proper discussion with them is impossible.
@tWanderingBard Yeah, and it's really a shame. The souls series are a great discussion topic because of how subtly in depth these games are. But the marketing for it has done irreparable damage to the sub-culture surrounding this game. Not to say that the sub-culture itself also isn't at fault for perpetuating a lot of nonsense. You'd think, the guy who learned these bosses to a degree to be able to fight them flawlessly would have the best outlook on reviewing them in detail. But here we are. People are way too obsessed with the funny phrase.
@@TheLastWanderingBard Just because he did a RL1 run doesn’t mean he’s automatically correct. I did one too and I found a lot of his criticisms to be straight up wrong. I hate the get gud argument, but he doesn’t even understand some of these bosses on a fundamental level, like the beast clergyman and Maliketh fight.
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.
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.
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
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"
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!
my friend you totally missed what actually happened in the oceiros fight. you didn't kill the baby, and the animation was off screen during your footage. Oceiros blames the baby for him losing the fight and he goes BERSERK, flinging himself across the battlefield and slamming the baby against the ground over and over. That moment still haunts me after all these years.
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.
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!
@@TheAkasharose personally i'd say 1:BB 2:DaS2 3:DaS3 4:ER 5:DaS1 (first half and dlcs carry it, of course) 6:Sekiro 7:Ds2 SoTFS havent played DeS yet
I think Sulyvan and the second phase of Abyss Watchers are my favorite Souls bosses I've ever gotten to fight. Theres something so cool and satisfying about a nice speedy one on one battle with a flashy firey enemy. 😌
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!
Timestamps are actually limited to 1000 Subscribers - so I'm actually really close to being able to do that! And 100% - I'm already planning on doing Hollow Knight & Death's Door, and I want to finish Lies of P and make a Vid on that soon!
@@TheAkasharosewelp, looks like; as of the time of this message posting, you are a good 70 subs passed your requirement for timestamps! Congrats and can’t wait to see your content moving forward! 🤘🏾
@@CyckOne I just finished Dark Souls - I'm hoping to have the other timestamps up by this weekend and post further videos with them up and active as we go now!
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!
My favorite part of Champion Gundyr is how effectively the game frames it as a fair fight against someone who genuinely deserves to be called a champion. Gundyr in this form fights *exactly* like a skilled halberd user in PVP, constantly using his weapon and body in conjunction to deny the player any control over the fight, and the counter is also exactly the same as fighting a halberd user - learn the timing of his attacks and constantly stay in his face, punishing him for every second he's not able to punish you. Deny him the ability to constantly out-space, and learn when to strafe and when (and how) to dodge. It ties together especially well because it only becomes an unfair fight (weighted against the player) if the player tries to leverage the advantages they traditionally have over bosses - the ability to disengage and heal. You get the feeling that Gundyr is keenly aware that you can heal and he cannot, and that his choice of weapon is related to this. Halberds in PVP are jaw droppingly good at chase-downs and heal-punishing, and Gundyr's moveset is custom tuned to let him take even more advantage of this than a player. If you do not bait and space him perfectly, you essentially cannot heal without him doing more damage than you healed back. And so, the only right way to fight him ends up being to fight him on his own terms, to beat him at his own game - spacing and punishing just as aggressively, and genuinely understanding the moveset your opponent is throwing out. It feels like a duel against someone who doesn't feel like letting you win, and I love it. Or you could just parry him, I guess
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.
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
@@DionPanday that is a stupid logic lmao. But no I didn't know that a precursor of the Souls series did that concept earlier, and it doesn't matter because my point is that I loved that in the game, not that Dark Souls 3 invented the concept. Wheter or not Dark Souls 3 invented it is irrelevant for my enjoying of that part, and I'm not a Souls Series historian to need to know everything about the series and what led to it, I'm just someone who enjoys the games and have more to do with my life than knowing everything about it
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!
This video is good, but I wish you went MORE in depth. I want analysis of individual moves, lore tie-ins, any everything else. As is stands, I wouldn't call this "Over-Analysis", just "Analysis".
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.
Really graet video! Agree with your wife that you should do abyss watchers as soon as possible. Did it on my first play through and have done it most of the times since. The times i have done crystal sage and deacons first it felt weird as if it is a stalling period between actually ariving in the undead village and having a tough battle with a fellow swordsman, and doing them after abyss watchers and wolnir feels more like a true victory. My first run i tried the crystal sage before the abyss watcher, dying 3 times and giving up. When i came back after my lesson in souls i got from the watchers, it felt victorious. The crystal sage does not ever give me gratification from skill due to its randomness, but it does from out leveling it and saying: "you are beneath me" Additionally I wanted to mention that I am grateful of your words about aldritch. Ive heard people say that it is hollow fanservice and am always frusted by that mentality of "referencing the old game if bad". I felt aldritch evolved their idea, fits great in the world and its theme of holding on to ideas causing the idea to mutate and degrade, and was a fun fight on its own
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.
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.
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.
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
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 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
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
There will! I'm editing a Sekiro video right now, and just finished scripting a Demon's Souls. After I hit both of those, I'll dive into the beast that is Elden Ring!
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
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.
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…
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
the only thing I wish was done differently with Pontiff is his soul transpositions. I firmly believe his weapons should've been a paired set with a unique moveset, like the dancer's twinblades. The way Pontiff moves is extremely unique and it'd be very fun to have a weapon that emulated it. Plus, powerstancing a greatsword with an ultra greatsword is way too cool to not let players mess with. It'd be like if the abyss watcher's soul transpositions were the greatsword and the dagger separately with no unique moveset. I want to BE him, I want the fuckers I invade to feel like the Pontiff himself has come to fuck them up, and the completely standard moveset greatsword and ultra greatsword are just underwhelming for that
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.
The Demon Prince has a very tragic story, he was trying to rekindle the flame of chaos, just like us with the first flame, when you kill him, that explosion that gave life to demons, it's all gone
New to the souls series. 3 was my first and I beat it about a week ago. THANK. GOD. Somebody understands my hatred for Crystal Sage. As the second in game boss I did, I had trouble with that second phase and it’s clones. It took me about 40 tries. I hate everything about it. Even now, on NG+3, it’s a cakewalk, but a chore. most of my experiences with bosses were that they were challenging and frustrating at times sure, but after every fight, I looked back on it and realised I’d had fun. However with sage, there was nothing but.. thank god that’s over.
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.
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 really disagree strongly withyour take on the dancer. When she came out of the sky with this appearance of a slender flowy character and the name of 'dancer', I was expecting the fight to be like a dance: constant back and forth of attacks and dodges with short but clear windows, long slashes and hopefully some back and forth spin-strafing. Instead the dancer had incredibly long timeframes of inactivaty where she just walks without doing anything, to then suddenly perform a slow grab, weirdly quick slam or erratic multi-swipes. She really couldve benefited from more slower spin slashes, shorter inactivity windows and some spacing movement (where she steps back and forward or moves sideways before attacking).
Even now that I'm good enough to occasionally no-hit her, It feels more like a positional game where I try to get on 'the wrong' side of her and try to wait out some of her attacks rather than an engaging dance.
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
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
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.
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.
"you HAVE to fight gundyr!"
let me introduce you to black firebombs
Quick boss fight and an early chunk heck yeah
@@EinSilverRoseearly chunk?
@@KittensLeftFoot black firebomb trades for a chunk with the crows in the central hub
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.
always felt weird that souls games dont have npc respawn despite them canonically being able to do so in most of their games.
@@blackbloom8552 it would probably be unnecessarily complex to sort out. You just assume that everyone either goes hollow or moves away after you kill them
@@Timebomb_19 Also, in DS3 some Firelink NPCs do respawn out of necessity (you can't live without Andre, for instance). Needless to say, they aren't very happy with you when they come back.
we know solaire had his own world, so i presume NPCs respawn back in their own worlds just like the player does when summoned.
Jerma, trying to remember the name of the ds3 tutorial boss: " what is his name again? Jumex Bunger?"
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.
I can see Wolnir's RNG getting wild.
And rewatching my footage... I never put together anything changed. I just thought his damage got boosted!
Beating champion Gundyr melee only no items no block no parry is still one of the coolest gaming experiences I’ve had
I didn't learn to parry until I was well into my second or third run. Perhaps ironic because my first character was a sword and shield. I got good at blocking but always found parry attempts too risky to be worth it. Especially when I learned I could stancebreak when two handing weapons on my second character. I like how multiple approaches are viable, you can absolutely beat the game without using any parry equipment
Good work
I've beat all souls bosses but I'm still terrible at the game, I just never give up
@@heatrayzvideo3007 thanks
@@heatrayzvideo3007 brute forcing is a legitimate strategy
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
You know what's really ridiculous though? When those challenge runners happen to not think one of these games is perfect, they too get attacked with the same nonsense. There's a guy, I think his name is Nasu (apologies if I spelled that wrong), but he did the first level 1 no-hit run of Elden Ring, and because he had to learn all the bosses to such an extreme degree, he then did a review of them afterwards. Overall, he wasn't that impressed with a lot of them (I won't go through his criticisms here, but I think they were definitely accurate and have been echoed by others), and the FromSoft playerbase attacked him saying "skill issue" and "mad because bad" etc etc. They literally have no other defense and proper discussion with them is impossible.
@tWanderingBard Yeah, and it's really a shame. The souls series are a great discussion topic because of how subtly in depth these games are. But the marketing for it has done irreparable damage to the sub-culture surrounding this game. Not to say that the sub-culture itself also isn't at fault for perpetuating a lot of nonsense.
You'd think, the guy who learned these bosses to a degree to be able to fight them flawlessly would have the best outlook on reviewing them in detail. But here we are. People are way too obsessed with the funny phrase.
@@TheLastWanderingBard Just because he did a RL1 run doesn’t mean he’s automatically correct. I did one too and I found a lot of his criticisms to be straight up wrong. I hate the get gud argument, but he doesn’t even understand some of these bosses on a fundamental level, like the beast clergyman and Maliketh fight.
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.
You changed my mind about Aldrich, and that's a tall order. Thank you my friend. Fantastic video.
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.
Oh boy oh boy, a new DS3 essay video to obsess over and fall asleep to? Yes.
Literally about to play this as I go to sleep lol
I’ve slept hundreds of times to people yapping about souls
Oh holy shit man these vids are SO GOOD i'm so hyped for yet another lets goooo
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
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"
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!
my friend you totally missed what actually happened in the oceiros fight. you didn't kill the baby, and the animation was off screen during your footage. Oceiros blames the baby for him losing the fight and he goes BERSERK, flinging himself across the battlefield and slamming the baby against the ground over and over. That moment still haunts me after all these years.
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.
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!
Loving the thoughtful, entertaining analysis-making me want to replay these for the 30th time
Mild take but DS3 was the peak of the series
Homestly I'd put it right behind bloodborne and sekiro
For me it's between DS3 and Sekiro - they're by far my favorite complete packages.
The series as in the trilogy?
@@TheAkasharose personally i'd say
1:BB
2:DaS2
3:DaS3
4:ER
5:DaS1 (first half and dlcs carry it, of course)
6:Sekiro
7:Ds2 SoTFS
havent played DeS yet
@@carlossssssss5492 yeh, Sekiro is my favourite from game period
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
UA-cam algorithm please bless this man!
Yeah I appreciate when people add new thoughts but sometimes it's like they're reading off a card of "opinions" that everyone thinks already
Yes bless him, but Don't bless him so hard that we have to listen to more VPN sponsors or raid shadow legends sponsorships god forbid.
These videos are great, I hope you get more recognition!
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
I think Sulyvan and the second phase of Abyss Watchers are my favorite Souls bosses I've ever gotten to fight. Theres something so cool and satisfying about a nice speedy one on one battle with a flashy firey enemy. 😌
Was waiting for this vid man!! As usual you knocked it out of the park.
This is a solid analysis and your channel is definitely underrated
Finally, a fellow Old Demon King appreciator
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!
Timestamps are actually limited to 1000 Subscribers - so I'm actually really close to being able to do that!
And 100% - I'm already planning on doing Hollow Knight & Death's Door, and I want to finish Lies of P and make a Vid on that soon!
@@TheAkasharosewelp, looks like; as of the time of this message posting, you are a good 70 subs passed your requirement for timestamps! Congrats and can’t wait to see your content moving forward! 🤘🏾
@@CyckOne I just finished Dark Souls - I'm hoping to have the other timestamps up by this weekend and post further videos with them up and active as we go now!
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
I've probably beaten this game 40 times. One of my all time favorites
my fav ds3 memory is dodging the pontiff clone to parry the real one for a riposte win
That must've looked so cool!
i woulda bussed
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!
I love your energy and passion, wishing you many more subs
My favorite part of Champion Gundyr is how effectively the game frames it as a fair fight against someone who genuinely deserves to be called a champion. Gundyr in this form fights *exactly* like a skilled halberd user in PVP, constantly using his weapon and body in conjunction to deny the player any control over the fight, and the counter is also exactly the same as fighting a halberd user - learn the timing of his attacks and constantly stay in his face, punishing him for every second he's not able to punish you. Deny him the ability to constantly out-space, and learn when to strafe and when (and how) to dodge.
It ties together especially well because it only becomes an unfair fight (weighted against the player) if the player tries to leverage the advantages they traditionally have over bosses - the ability to disengage and heal. You get the feeling that Gundyr is keenly aware that you can heal and he cannot, and that his choice of weapon is related to this. Halberds in PVP are jaw droppingly good at chase-downs and heal-punishing, and Gundyr's moveset is custom tuned to let him take even more advantage of this than a player. If you do not bait and space him perfectly, you essentially cannot heal without him doing more damage than you healed back. And so, the only right way to fight him ends up being to fight him on his own terms, to beat him at his own game - spacing and punishing just as aggressively, and genuinely understanding the moveset your opponent is throwing out. It feels like a duel against someone who doesn't feel like letting you win, and I love it.
Or you could just parry him, I guess
Your character's face, lord have mercy
Great video. DS3 was my first FromSoftware game and it’s still one of my all time favs
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.
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
You do know this happened before right?
@@DionPanday uuh no? Should I?
@@MessedUpSystem yes it was litteraly what put souls games on the map
@@DionPanday that is a stupid logic lmao. But no I didn't know that a precursor of the Souls series did that concept earlier, and it doesn't matter because my point is that I loved that in the game, not that Dark Souls 3 invented the concept. Wheter or not Dark Souls 3 invented it is irrelevant for my enjoying of that part, and I'm not a Souls Series historian to need to know everything about the series and what led to it, I'm just someone who enjoys the games and have more to do with my life than knowing everything about it
@@MessedUpSystem then why are you even here if you have better things to do?
Dragonslayer Armour catching people off guard with the fake stagger before Lies of P did it 😮
Damn, you have (so far, surely that'll change)
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!
This video is good, but I wish you went MORE in depth. I want analysis of individual moves, lore tie-ins, any everything else. As is stands, I wouldn't call this "Over-Analysis", just "Analysis".
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.
Even with the second phase, Crystal Sage is an absolute pushover
thanks for putting the boss music its my fav out of all souls games
Really graet video! Agree with your wife that you should do abyss watchers as soon as possible. Did it on my first play through and have done it most of the times since. The times i have done crystal sage and deacons first it felt weird as if it is a stalling period between actually ariving in the undead village and having a tough battle with a fellow swordsman, and doing them after abyss watchers and wolnir feels more like a true victory. My first run i tried the crystal sage before the abyss watcher, dying 3 times and giving up. When i came back after my lesson in souls i got from the watchers, it felt victorious. The crystal sage does not ever give me gratification from skill due to its randomness, but it does from out leveling it and saying: "you are beneath me"
Additionally I wanted to mention that I am grateful of your words about aldritch. Ive heard people say that it is hollow fanservice and am always frusted by that mentality of "referencing the old game if bad". I felt aldritch evolved their idea, fits great in the world and its theme of holding on to ideas causing the idea to mutate and degrade, and was a fun fight on its own
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.
"the deacons feel...hollow" i saw what you did there
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.
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.
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
Oh boy, been waiting for this one
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!
found you from your bloodborne video, staying for everything else
samesies
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
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
gow can you have only 6k abos. your vids are so awesome, i love this art of yours
Was looking forward to this vid since Ds3 is my fave of the series, will there be an Elden ring video?👀
There will! I'm editing a Sekiro video right now, and just finished scripting a Demon's Souls. After I hit both of those, I'll dive into the beast that is Elden Ring!
1.5 hour analysis of a fromsoft game?
you spoil us.
great vid
Great video and analysis! Can’t wait for the ELDEN RING VIDEO let’s goooooo
DS3 has the best boss design and mechanics in the entire series. Easily, by far.
Would you consider making an analysis of the Convergence mod bosses for DS3?
Rarely do I ever watch 1hr+ videos but this was a great watch!
I beat Pontiff Sulyvahn without parrying and it felt like I had just run 5 miles once it was finally over
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
The only run I ran into it with was Pyromancy only. They have a ton of fire resistance, and it caught me really off-guard.
I just got into this video series a day ago, this is just perfect for me!
1:27:18 one of my favourite little details there is that the soul of cinder looks directly at the player as it dies.
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.
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…
These vids are fire you deserve more subscribers
Quality content and a list I almost completely agree with. Good stuff!
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
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.
Would you do a vid on the best fromsoft boss designs across soulsborne and sekiro?
Fun fact if you’re colour blind like me the crystal stage fight is just a gamble
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.
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.
Hell yes, so excited for your ds3 takes
Crystal sage is about positioning . It requires some knowledge but is perfectly fair and in my opinion pretty fun to do
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.
the only thing I wish was done differently with Pontiff is his soul transpositions. I firmly believe his weapons should've been a paired set with a unique moveset, like the dancer's twinblades. The way Pontiff moves is extremely unique and it'd be very fun to have a weapon that emulated it. Plus, powerstancing a greatsword with an ultra greatsword is way too cool to not let players mess with. It'd be like if the abyss watcher's soul transpositions were the greatsword and the dagger separately with no unique moveset. I want to BE him, I want the fuckers I invade to feel like the Pontiff himself has come to fuck them up, and the completely standard moveset greatsword and ultra greatsword are just underwhelming for that
FINALLY, SOMEONE WHO PRONOUNCES “SIEGWARD” CORRECTLY
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.
I wish they dynamically adjust the camera distance farther away based on the boss size.
The Demon Prince has a very tragic story, he was trying to rekindle the flame of chaos, just like us with the first flame, when you kill him, that explosion that gave life to demons, it's all gone
I think Ds1 is the best for lore and atmosphere. Ds3 is also fantastic. Ds2 exists and is a video game.
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😂
New to the souls series. 3 was my first and I beat it about a week ago. THANK. GOD. Somebody understands my hatred for Crystal Sage. As the second in game boss I did, I had trouble with that second phase and it’s clones. It took me about 40 tries. I hate everything about it. Even now, on NG+3, it’s a cakewalk, but a chore. most of my experiences with bosses were that they were challenging and frustrating at times sure, but after every fight, I looked back on it and realised I’d had fun. However with sage, there was nothing but.. thank god that’s over.
17:25 is the most beautiful hitbox I've ever seen
Dark Souls 3 is basically hitbox porn simulator. I've never gotten through a run without something incredible.
omg i never noticed that old demon king's theme could basically fit right into DS1 and it wouldn't sound out of place at all
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.
Profaned Greatsword was my best counter. Halflight is just a nightmare at that low level point.
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.
Great video! Looking forward to the elden ring one eventually
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.
I really disagree strongly withyour take on the dancer. When she came out of the sky with this appearance of a slender flowy character and the name of 'dancer', I was expecting the fight to be like a dance: constant back and forth of attacks and dodges with short but clear windows, long slashes and hopefully some back and forth spin-strafing. Instead the dancer had incredibly long timeframes of inactivaty where she just walks without doing anything, to then suddenly perform a slow grab, weirdly quick slam or erratic multi-swipes. She really couldve benefited from more slower spin slashes, shorter inactivity windows and some spacing movement (where she steps back and forward or moves sideways before attacking).
Even now that I'm good enough to occasionally no-hit her, It feels more like a positional game where I try to get on 'the wrong' side of her and try to wait out some of her attacks rather than an engaging dance.
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
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
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.