I think Slave Knight Gael is one of the few times I've beaten a boss and then wanted to fight him again immediately, like every time I play I just feel sad that it's over.
The best boss of the game, the best of the DS series, one of the best of Fromsoft's games, and one of the best in gaming. It's just so fucking perfect, and the presentation/music/lore makes it even better.
I clicked on this video thinking it had 261k Views - it had 261. And it took me quite a while to notice. Did not feel like a video made by a small youtuber, it's pretty professional and high quality. I also appreciate you uploading one long video instead of multiple parts - though the algorithm probably doesn't appreciate it as much... Hope you get more views soon man.
I cracked up so hard when I heard that you had the same experience with Halflight as me. - > Die a few times - > Get annoyed - > Great sword spam - > Win What a disaster on SL1 :D
In defense of Halflights boss fight you have to remember it was designed around being a covenant, as an avid spear of the church if i didnt have the painting guardians to help me i would be significantly disadvantaged since the boss is expected to be fought with multiple summons to even the playing field. When i get summoned against a 4man squad of typically overleveled phantoms who are insanely tanky having the guardian to heal me makes it more fair, and it also forces me to have to try and keep it alive while not shooting myself in the foot by running into a death trap. I think overall the spears are a well balanced fight at normal level, yes at sl1 and solo its hellish but when its encountered in the way fromsoft anticipated its much better
11:40 lil correction, in demons souls you can fight Penetrator with Biorr's help(without summon him) if you rescue him before, pretty much like siegward
My boss ranking in SL1: 25| Ancient Wyvern 24| Halflight, Spear of the Church 23| Champion's Gravetender & Gravetender Greatwolf 22| High Lord Wolnir 21| Deacons of the Deep 20| Curse-Rotted Greatwood 19| Yhorm the Giant 18| Crystal Sage 17| Oceiros, the Consumed King 16| Old Demon King 15| Aldrich, Devourer of Gods 14| Demon Prince (Toughest boss in the run) 13| Vordt of the Boreal Valley 12| Dragonslayer Armour 11| Champion Gundyr 10| Pontiff Sulyvahn 9| Iudex Gundyr 8| Abyss Watchers 7| Twin Princes 6| Nameless King 5| Dancer of the Boreal Valley 4| Soul of Cinder 3| Darkeater Midir 2| Sister Friede 1| Slave Knight Gael
How the f has this video only 17k views?? I was fully emerged the whole almost 50 minutes. Awesome commentary and great quality. I really enjoyed myself thank you ❤❤
one thing i will always say for people who dont like crystal sadge... throwing knives! the clones all have 1 HP and you can instantly take out most of them from range no mater your build
Resorted to using those on miracles-only, because my only offensive tool at the time was Lightning Spear. It didn't fire off fast enough to warrant wasting the FP, and I was likely to eat two or more hits from behind while casting, so I just said "screw it; the knives don't do damage."
38:25 That is not the laser attack people talk about. The one people talk about is a phase 2 exclusive move where the boss backs away to do numerous laser breath swipes. But even then it can be entirely ignored if you move up to the boss' side. Unless you were talking about the phase 2 move and just accidentally used footage of this normal move he can do in both phases.
For me, I could never get a fight where pontiff and the ghost stayed in sync, ended up just doing my best to tank hits and kill the ghost because it would just be a million swords flying at my face, no chance to attack
I agree with Gael being one of my favorite things in videogames, full stop. It's just absolutely perfect, completely exhilarating to the point that after killing him, I kept watching reaction videos of other people fighting him. One of my favourite parts about him is how if you panic and run too far from him, he drops a fucking summon sign at your feet and summons himself there to kick your ass. I've played through this game like 4 times, and I'm going to have to try an SL1 (or at least sub-40 if I want to use other weapons) run thanks to this.
I like the lore implications of the ashen one linking the flame at level 1. the whole reason they are an ashen one in the first place is because they didnt have enough power, ie souls/levels to be fit as fuel for the first flame, so its implied when they did try to link the flame for the first time, they got consumed by it for not being strong enough and now its happening again
Tbh, the Halflight NPC isn't meant to be fought at SL1, and is much more enjoyable as a PvP fight. Source: I did a SL1 Broken Sword/"ZeroLenny" run of DS3, all bosses
Yeah that's completely fair but I would still prefer if it were optional since it offers a very different type of enjoyment than the rest of the bosses. It's a cool idea though
@@oceatwo Fair enough, I enjoy it as I can almost always get a good PvP fight out of it, and I understand that the PvP/PvE vs NPC's isn't for everyone. However, I would say it shouldn't be optional BECAUSE it's different, and it gives you a good taste of what PvP is like, just like the Old Monk fight it's based off of. I do agree, however, that the Halflight at SL1 is a major pain. Just wanted to throw in my two cents, found the video to be very enjoyable, keep it up.
I did this at level 1 too and it’s one of my biggest accomplishments. I also struggled with SoC so much. Hardest boss for me by far then it was Twin Princes. Thankfully Gael took me 2, could’ve took 1 but I got greedy and did Midir in 1 try :0
planning to do a sl1 run myself, i started off with elden ring and have like 400 hours in it now, but after finishing ds3 recently, it has my favourite bosses ever. Good video!
Hot take: I don't really like Midir. Just not a fan of dragon fights in general. EDIT: I beat him a week ago and he's my second favorite fight in the whole game
I have a couple fo videos in my channel showing battles with initial stuff. It's a similar challenge and I agree with your insights on most of the bosses here, you earned a new sub. Midir is a footsies battle, Gael is one of the best boss fights in any game ever (especially in low level runs). Great video and content.
Kind of reminds me of how after I beat Sekiro, I thought playing it again on Charmless would be a nightmare that I would not enjoy. After I mustered the courage and did it on Charmless, I realized it was a nightmare but one that I thoroughly enjoyed. Now I can't go back to playing not Charmless, the base game just doesn't feel right.
Deacons of the deep actually become difficult when you do a fists-only/no-weapon run, because of their curse attack. So you have to maximize your dps to kill them quickly and in my run I therefore beat the Abyss Watchers and Wolnir first before I tried them again.
So I’m currently paying DS3 on SL1 with a twist… I’m playing slow and casually. Meaning I’m fighting almost all basic enemies. This was a terrible idea as some parts I was stuck for hours and some basic enemies just one shot me. I’m also collecting all white pick ups, just to add more frustration as some are guarded by enemies I haven’t fought in years. Some items I’ve even forgotten that was even there. For one example in Blight Town 2.0 (Farren Keep) there’s 3 big tree enemies guarding one item, now I usually Run past and ignore not only this item but also those enemies on all my runs. I spent 2 hours killing them 3 as I forgot what they actually do and almost all attacks one shot you and they attack quite slow right to end of there attacks where there speed felt unfair. I ended up using Pyromancy on them as they really was a pain to kill! The item that I couldn’t remember exactly what it was turns out to be a Poison Pine… I never felt so mad 😂 The Catacombs has to be my most unfavourite area so far as I’ve died the most and only just recently beaten it because some parts are just borderline difficult, not to mention the NPC invader who health was a tank and back stabbing him was a chore because his attacks do like a 180 auto lock on to you! I fought the demon king last night with a level 6 fire Broadsword and that took me 3 hours to kill. He felt like a final boss, his hit boxes was so unfair and rolling became worthless as he hit me on most of them! Not looking forward to other areas now as I’m about to continue it. Bosses don’t worry me at this point it’s the basic enemies!
What makes champ unique mechanically is his speed and aggression, he's so aggressive that he can pretty much chain his combos endlessly but with a delay that allow you to hit him in the middle of his attacks, he leaves normal openings of course but usually that's how phase 2 plays out and it's so much different than any other boss in the game, he can read your inputs too in that phase but it's actually fair here unlike say the godskins from elden ring because you can dodge it with precise enough timing
I swear, what is everyones problem with the godskins reading your inputs? If you're not standing in their face, just a little further away, the fireball they throw will always miss you.
@@shacuras8201 It is pretty weird that so many people are fixated on this supposed input reading now even though its literaly always been in souls games
@@ddmacc I've never been a fan of input reading so I'm not gonna excuse the other Souls games for this either (Gwyn doing a quick poke whenever you tried to heal), they were just less obvious and less egregious about it. Seeing a Crucible Knight or Godskin cancel an attack in order to punish you frame 1 not only feels cheap, but instantly looks off. Gundyr has a heal punish, but he usually transitions from a sprint into the punish itself, and you can dodge it with precise timing. ER's variant of this is much more artificial in comparison which makes it worse.
@@shacuras8201 because the godskin noble likes to punish with its instant belly attack and the apostle likes to spam backstep+ always initiate attacks on neutral.
@@dvdivine1962 sure, the bosses have some unfair parts, especially the second phase bellyflop of the noble. But the problem there isn't input reading. The bellyflop is just unreactable
Great video man! I totally agree with gael being one of the greatest things in video games. I did an sl1 run about a year ago and I still think about it often, I loved every minute of it and I think it was more enjoyable doing sl1 than it was to play the game for the first time. Absolutely brilliant
Midir usually hops backwards before using the laser so "stay near him" isn't exactly a solution I would argue that they intended for players to avoid it at range because they do so much to try to stop you from getting behind him and that once you do, the attack is a complete joke whereas dodging it at range feels amazing, if a little overkill
This was my first Fromsoft game, so it’s interesting to learn what people more knowledgeable about the games have to say. This level one run reminds me of my beginner play through. On my first play through I really had no idea what I was doing, so I just used a raw gem broadsword or something like all the way until the dancer fight. I had trouble with some of the earlier bosses like Deacons and Vordt and thought I genuinely wouldn’t make it past Abyss Watchers, but eventually I defeated Soul of Cinder, Nameless King, and even both DLCs and loved it. Also it’s nice to know I’m not the only one who despised the Old Demon King fight; I went back to fight him after the twin princes.
about oceiros being the only boss who talks to you during the fight in souls borne doesnt morgott speak to you without a cutscene during phase 2 transition
its not easy so dont give up. i remember dancer took me 4 hours. Also there is nothing wrong with an sl2-9 run where you use a different weapon because you kinda get locked into using the straight sword in all sl1 runs.
Absolutely i had so much fun with my sl1 playthrough but the dancer and dragon slayer gave me the most trouble i played bloodborne for the first time and found out the dragon slayer was like a bloodborne boss and that helped me. I loved the vid
Pro tip for Oceiros: carry a medium shield with 100% physical block. Even if the charge attack has a zero-frame startup, the worst that'll happen is your guard breaks. Oceiros has an animation at the end of it where he turns and roars (more like wheezes tbh), which gives you plenty of time to recover. It's a great way to make the BS move not so terrible! You should also have the Dragonslayer Axe, Knight Ring, and Milkring at this point, so Raw infusion + Gold Pine Resin on that bad boy will _light him UP_ !
I think the gravetender having the dogs is meant to be foreshadowing. Sort of a clever nod to what’s coming. It doesn’t make the fight better but perhaps makes the experience better in terms of theme. And the big guy reminds me of sif which is never a bad thing.
Drew the same conclusion on Old Demon King during a modded run with Blades of Ashina. The afflicted class trades estus for consecutive hits granting brief Hp and Fp regen but youre super vulnerable to anything fire and man. I thought he was meh normally but he was absolutely infuriating when all his shit essentially was a oneshot.
Dude the soul of cinder was a wild one for me, the frist time I fiought him sl it took over 5 hours to beat him, literally over half of the play time on my first run. The second time I fought him sl1 I beat him first try lol, it kinda pissed me off because fighting him is so much fun. Thankfully gael took me over 6 hours...
The Demon Prince is the one particular fight that I really really hate. The first phase can be trivialized by rolling behind the aggressive demon which is pretty uninteresting while the second phase is the repeat of the first phase but with an oneshot attack. The attack itself is not too bad to dodge but the boss' tendency to back itself up against the wall mean that attack will 9/10 times fuck up your camera which in turn make the death feel so cheap
With Sister Friede I remember leaving my sign to help people with her while using my tank build on my last day of psn (haven't renewed it for years now) If I remember correctly I was full havel armour & shield & I was using items to get her attention. Once we got to phase 3 I got her attention and managed to tank the first blackflame attack but ran out of stamina before the host & the other summons just whaled on her
For the record, the reason the Spear of the Church gets NPC guardians to assist them is because they do not get access to Estus. Unless they bring healing miracles, they have no way to heal the damage you do to them. Meanwhile a host is bringing up to 15 Estus and a potentially embered HP bar. The intrigue of the fight is the imbalance of resources and experience
I should try a SL1 playthrough for DS3. I personally find Oceiros to be the 2nd hardest fight behind Friede, he always managed to get me at least once. I remember he one-shot me at 40 vigor with a ground slam attack once. My top 5 hardest for DS3: 1: Friede (large gap) 2: Oceiros 3: Soul of Cinder 4: Demon Prince (large gap) 5: Nameless King
3:10 "It doesn't feel like a Dark Souls boss since it's so gimmick based." :Bed of Chaos existing. Nah though. Level 1 runs go to show how incredibly balanced the two Lothric Castle bosses actually are. Dragonslayer Armour is probably the most knight versus knight duel in the game, and probably tied with Alonne for the series, at least his first phase. And Lorian is just really good, and it might be just me, but I eventually started to just know where he would teleport in an instant. Great fights.
the one thing so far that I don't get is you saying that Aldrich is only hard because of his arrow attack, this can be tough especially if you don't have the luxury of stamina but he has some absolutely devastating magic missile attacks that got me a ton of times. Particularly deadly are his little tracking ones that hit you after a delay, they seem lightweight but will really whittle down your health.
So basically for nearly everything "It's better because the boss is already good and you see more of it" not... the most complete reasoning, the super low stamina and HP that you get on a hyper agressive game like 3 makes it an absolute chore from the midgame, I quit my SL1 finally at, Princes.
Dragonslayer Armour took me 23 tries because I kept getting hit by his stupid shield bash attack. I was looking forward to you talking about Soul of Cinder. It took me 230 tries, and was a great fight. I also ran away from his pyromancy form because I was afraid of getting parried. I guess I need to go back and fight Nameless King, Midir, and Gael. If I do, I’m using the map editor to move Midir’s bonfire. I am not making that run-back 300 times.
It was the same for me on the king of storms. Definitely a skill issue and made me question why people don’t balance lock on and lock off. Like so many people try to brute force lock on and never turn it off. I accidentally beat ds1 with no lock on until my second play through. Because I never encountered a game with lock on before that one.
Tbf lock on is potentially a self-nerf in ds1. If I'm not mistaken, you can't go directly into a sideways sprint when locked on- the game just "forces" you to roll, which messed up all my learned strafing habits. I was stuck on bell gargoyles for like 2 hours, and the moment I realized the issue with lock-on I tried fighting them without it and I beat them the *second* try after. That ended up being the last straw as I did not want to contend with decade old jank
Took me more to kill Soul of Cinder than the whole journey to reach him. And after a number of SL1 runs i still think he is the third hardest boss in the whole game: 3) SoC 2) Demon Princes 1) Sister Friede (by a fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuckiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin' long shot, at least to me)
@oceaTwo I have had two attempts at gael so far. The second one took me forty minutes, and I barely got him past half. Interesting run, but you have to be ready for some brutal endurance battles. It's more about being able to keep your focus for a long time than just dodge and counter. Also, on a side note screw half light worst boss so far. The heal is so damn fast, and the painting dude can just pull it out anytime after half health, and you have to kill him twice while halflight is spamming other projectiles. Like crystal sage but so much worse.
I prefer dancer to have the big spike, it allows the fight to be more intense as it would be too much to be that difficult for the entire fight. Lowering the difficulty of the second phase would take out the magic I think.
i need to do ds3 sl1 because some bosses like lorian and soul of cinder i didn't have a full experience, because i killed them at my first try, like lothric reviving his brother i didn't see it, i killed him before he could do that and soul of cinder i don't remember him switching weapons until second phase
I did a kinda level 1 run(?) Picked the wrong class but yeah And let me say: yhorm deserves to be faced 1v1 without the stormruler it's so much more interesting it's a more of a endurance fight
I noticed you had slightly more health and stamina right after Pontiff but before getting the Prisoner's Chain and thus being able to withstand hits from Dancer who would normally oneshot you when getting hit while being without armor. Is it a buff spell, Ring of Favor or what?
When you said ocerias is the only boss to speak during the fight in a souls game did you mean in the dark souls triolgy or in every souls borne game because morgott speaks in elden ring
@@KhrolloxoIf the super HD graphics aren't life or death for you, there's the PS3 version. Used PS3s in reliable condition run about $100, and the game disc can be snapped up for $15 on average.
I don't agree much with the Twin Princes tho'... There's some jank there, specially when entering the arena having Lorian instantly TP towards you doing one of two moves which comes with quite different timings and you don't know until they hit you and in SL1 those hit hard... I had to resort to hugging the Fog Wall as soon as I enter the arena in order from him to TP in place and after that aproach him normally... Also he kinda TP's too much imho 😅 best way was to stick to his back both in phase 1 and 2.
DS3 is without a shred of doubt better at lvl1. Only bullshit thing is oceiros charge but that's fine if you block it. Midir can be less frustrating when using tears of denial which will allow you to tank one hit.
I remember watching Demodcracy's SL 1 live on Twitch a few years ago and his reaction upon discovering Soul of Cinder can heal himself was so funny and many viewers were also discovering that fact
Need to think about your script setup more, especially with longer videos people are more likely to listen to it rather than just watch. So you need to make it punchy and clear with each intro of a new boss. Otherwise great video
loved the video but it felt like most of your reviews on bosses that had 2 phases was that the 2 phases are too different. Isnt that the whole point of a phase 2 these strong opponents get beaten down bad like of course there gonna power up and change. like you said it about dancer and i just dont understand how that is a complaint, also dancers phases arent even that different just more agro.
Being SL1 really reveals what a boss is like at the core. A single unfair move can ruin an otherwise good boss that way. But forcing you to engage with the moveset can also show you how great a boss really is. That is what happens for most bosses in Ds3, in other games like Elden Ring however...
Elden Ring's bosses have much much more mechanical depth than the bosses of DS3, i think most bosses in Elden Ring are improved by a RL1, especially Godfrey/Hoarax Loux, a masterpiece of a fight that is extremely fair, engaging and it lasts enough so that you can enjoy it without making it end too quickly. I think most bosses in DS3 also benefit from a SL1 run, but others like the Demon Prince are simply a slog because of how long and repetitive the fight can feel.
@@crow1460 the problem with some of the late game elden ring bosses is they fill way overtuned for example phase two malenia it's either going to be a cakewalk or hell since the rate at she uses waterfowl dance is much more random then phase not to say that effects all the late game bosses mohg and like you said Godfrey are S+ tier bosses And you had a problem with demon prince? He was one of the better ds3 level 1 bosses imo maybe it's just a me thing
@@Jetstreamsamdidnothingwrong About Demon Prince, i like the fight but I don't love it. Phase 1 is well designed, but the demons on their own are just sooo tanky. It's battle of attrition but not a fun one like Sister Friede, Gael or Midir. The two demons have a pretty limited moveset, and paired with how tanky they are, the fight just feels so unbearably long, especially when you consider what comes after. Also, sometimes both demons are active and they overlap their attacks so you're forced to run around the arena for minutes. It's the longest fights in the game, with a total of 21.000 hps. I don't think these many hps were necessary.
@@crow1460 1 year later but for me it's the right amount of hp, every boss in DS3 DLC have a good amount of hp, for me the reason why DS3 SL1 is better than a normal run is not because you can't take a lot of hit it's because boss in a normal run die too fast, they don't have enough HP/you do too much damage, most people don't know how much moveset soul of cinder have because they obliterate him phase one, the scaling in DS3 was right compared to elden ring imo, they just needed to make the boss HP a lot higher so that even if you can take a lot of hit without dying you would still need to take the less hit possible because you wouldn't last until the end because it's long
I 1000% agree that the greatest thing about sl1 is its ability to give you a true review of if a boss is good or not due to jank/broken attacks
oceiros frame 1 charge rely hits different at SL1
@@guntherhess227 even on regular playthroughs on higher ng+ levels it's ridiculous.
The runebear in ER has a similar attack too.
@@guntherhess227 idk i can consistently dodge it.
@@guntherhess227 Bandit Knife Quickstep laughs at it though.
Unless you are a crazy fuck who Dancer sequence breaks at SL1.
@@tyranidswarmlord9722 hey its SL1 why not do dancer early
You know a boss is really well done if it only takes skill and patience to beat them and not an insane amount of leveling.
basically Sekiro bosses
You need to do this for every other game now. Your commentary really gives every boss justice.
Maybe if enough people like this one. I'm glad you enjoyed it tho :)
I think Slave Knight Gael is one of the few times I've beaten a boss and then wanted to fight him again immediately, like every time I play I just feel sad that it's over.
The best boss of the game, the best of the DS series, one of the best of Fromsoft's games, and one of the best in gaming. It's just so fucking perfect, and the presentation/music/lore makes it even better.
Yup. Despite being ecstatic about finally getting over him on sl1 after hours of strenuous attempts, I still glance back and want more..
I clicked on this video thinking it had 261k Views - it had 261. And it took me quite a while to notice.
Did not feel like a video made by a small youtuber, it's pretty professional and high quality.
I also appreciate you uploading one long video instead of multiple parts - though the algorithm probably doesn't appreciate it as much...
Hope you get more views soon man.
Thanks. I hope more people get tricked and deceived and have to subject themselves to me bitching about halflight
I cracked up so hard when I heard that you had the same experience with Halflight as me.
- > Die a few times
- > Get annoyed
- > Great sword spam
- > Win
What a disaster on SL1 :D
It is the WORST sorry u had to go through that
I cheesed him with Storyteller staff at SL1.
I just don't want to give him the dignity of a proper fight lmao.
In demon’s souls, there’s that guy you free from the prison who joins you to fight the penetrator, so this isn’t the only instance 🙂
Fact!
Praising Gael is so satisfying to hear, I love this boss , he is the best in the DS trilogy.
In defense of Halflights boss fight you have to remember it was designed around being a covenant, as an avid spear of the church if i didnt have the painting guardians to help me i would be significantly disadvantaged since the boss is expected to be fought with multiple summons to even the playing field. When i get summoned against a 4man squad of typically overleveled phantoms who are insanely tanky having the guardian to heal me makes it more fair, and it also forces me to have to try and keep it alive while not shooting myself in the foot by running into a death trap. I think overall the spears are a well balanced fight at normal level, yes at sl1 and solo its hellish but when its encountered in the way fromsoft anticipated its much better
Your girlfriend is a redhead named Anna? Truly a Fire Emblem moment.
11:40 lil correction, in demons souls you can fight Penetrator with Biorr's help(without summon him) if you rescue him before, pretty much like siegward
11:40 *Sad Biorr of the Twin Fang Noises*
My boss ranking in SL1:
25| Ancient Wyvern
24| Halflight, Spear of the Church
23| Champion's Gravetender & Gravetender Greatwolf
22| High Lord Wolnir
21| Deacons of the Deep
20| Curse-Rotted Greatwood
19| Yhorm the Giant
18| Crystal Sage
17| Oceiros, the Consumed King
16| Old Demon King
15| Aldrich, Devourer of Gods
14| Demon Prince (Toughest boss in the run)
13| Vordt of the Boreal Valley
12| Dragonslayer Armour
11| Champion Gundyr
10| Pontiff Sulyvahn
9| Iudex Gundyr
8| Abyss Watchers
7| Twin Princes
6| Nameless King
5| Dancer of the Boreal Valley
4| Soul of Cinder
3| Darkeater Midir
2| Sister Friede
1| Slave Knight Gael
Wow, incredible video, love the message and editing, and was not expecting the views/subs on this channel, keep it up!!
Thanks man
How the f has this video only 17k views?? I was fully emerged the whole almost 50 minutes. Awesome commentary and great quality. I really enjoyed myself thank you ❤❤
one thing i will always say for people who dont like crystal sadge... throwing knives! the clones all have 1 HP and you can instantly take out most of them from range no mater your build
Resorted to using those on miracles-only, because my only offensive tool at the time was Lightning Spear. It didn't fire off fast enough to warrant wasting the FP, and I was likely to eat two or more hits from behind while casting, so I just said "screw it; the knives don't do damage."
38:25 That is not the laser attack people talk about. The one people talk about is a phase 2 exclusive move where the boss backs away to do numerous laser breath swipes. But even then it can be entirely ignored if you move up to the boss' side. Unless you were talking about the phase 2 move and just accidentally used footage of this normal move he can do in both phases.
im very glad to see your growth, these are videos are so extremely well made, every ounce of exposure you get is deserved
For me, I could never get a fight where pontiff and the ghost stayed in sync, ended up just doing my best to tank hits and kill the ghost because it would just be a million swords flying at my face, no chance to attack
21:00 that transition tho
dayum
I agree with Gael being one of my favorite things in videogames, full stop. It's just absolutely perfect, completely exhilarating to the point that after killing him, I kept watching reaction videos of other people fighting him. One of my favourite parts about him is how if you panic and run too far from him, he drops a fucking summon sign at your feet and summons himself there to kick your ass. I've played through this game like 4 times, and I'm going to have to try an SL1 (or at least sub-40 if I want to use other weapons) run thanks to this.
I like the lore implications of the ashen one linking the flame at level 1. the whole reason they are an ashen one in the first place is because they didnt have enough power, ie souls/levels to be fit as fuel for the first flame, so its implied when they did try to link the flame for the first time, they got consumed by it for not being strong enough and now its happening again
I just want to comment to help the algorytm even if I'm a bit late, great video man!
Man, this is a great video, deserves more views!
Tbh, the Halflight NPC isn't meant to be fought at SL1, and is much more enjoyable as a PvP fight.
Source: I did a SL1 Broken Sword/"ZeroLenny" run of DS3, all bosses
Yeah that's completely fair but I would still prefer if it were optional since it offers a very different type of enjoyment than the rest of the bosses. It's a cool idea though
@@oceatwo Fair enough, I enjoy it as I can almost always get a good PvP fight out of it, and I understand that the PvP/PvE vs NPC's isn't for everyone. However, I would say it shouldn't be optional BECAUSE it's different, and it gives you a good taste of what PvP is like, just like the Old Monk fight it's based off of. I do agree, however, that the Halflight at SL1 is a major pain.
Just wanted to throw in my two cents, found the video to be very enjoyable, keep it up.
I did this at level 1 too and it’s one of my biggest accomplishments. I also struggled with SoC so much. Hardest boss for me by far then it was Twin Princes. Thankfully Gael took me 2, could’ve took 1 but I got greedy and did Midir in 1 try :0
Discovered your channel,like, 3 days ago. Nice vid, nice channel, nice content producer, with no bs. Hands down 10 out of 10
planning to do a sl1 run myself, i started off with elden ring and have like 400 hours in it now, but after finishing ds3 recently, it has my favourite bosses ever. Good video!
Your video deserves 100 times more views. Incredibly well written and edited, not to mention the immense effort of doing SL1 run itself.
Hot take: I don't really like Midir. Just not a fan of dragon fights in general.
EDIT: I beat him a week ago and he's my second favorite fight in the whole game
What actually fighting midir does to a man😂😂
I have a couple fo videos in my channel showing battles with initial stuff. It's a similar challenge and I agree with your insights on most of the bosses here, you earned a new sub. Midir is a footsies battle, Gael is one of the best boss fights in any game ever (especially in low level runs). Great video and content.
Kind of reminds me of how after I beat Sekiro, I thought playing it again on Charmless would be a nightmare that I would not enjoy.
After I mustered the courage and did it on Charmless, I realized it was a nightmare but one that I thoroughly enjoyed. Now I can't go back to playing not Charmless, the base game just doesn't feel right.
Great video!
Thanks :)
Deacons of the deep actually become difficult when you do a fists-only/no-weapon run, because of their curse attack. So you have to maximize your dps to kill them quickly and in my run I therefore beat the Abyss Watchers and Wolnir first before I tried them again.
So I’m currently paying DS3 on SL1 with a twist… I’m playing slow and casually. Meaning I’m fighting almost all basic enemies. This was a terrible idea as some parts I was stuck for hours and some basic enemies just one shot me. I’m also collecting all white pick ups, just to add more frustration as some are guarded by enemies I haven’t fought in years. Some items I’ve even forgotten that was even there. For one example in Blight Town 2.0 (Farren Keep) there’s 3 big tree enemies guarding one item, now I usually Run past and ignore not only this item but also those enemies on all my runs. I spent 2 hours killing them 3 as I forgot what they actually do and almost all attacks one shot you and they attack quite slow right to end of there attacks where there speed felt unfair. I ended up using Pyromancy on them as they really was a pain to kill! The item that I couldn’t remember exactly what it was turns out to be a Poison Pine… I never felt so mad 😂 The Catacombs has to be my most unfavourite area so far as I’ve died the most and only just recently beaten it because some parts are just borderline difficult, not to mention the NPC invader who health was a tank and back stabbing him was a chore because his attacks do like a 180 auto lock on to you!
I fought the demon king last night with a level 6 fire Broadsword and that took me 3 hours to kill. He felt like a final boss, his hit boxes was so unfair and rolling became worthless as he hit me on most of them! Not looking forward to other areas now as I’m about to continue it.
Bosses don’t worry me at this point it’s the basic enemies!
I have beaten all from soft and DS3 in evry build and every way possible. LvL1/BL4 were the most satisfying no doubt. Great vid mate. thanks.
This honestly gives me the motivation to even think about attempting a sl1 playthrough
What makes champ unique mechanically is his speed and aggression, he's so aggressive that he can pretty much chain his combos endlessly but with a delay that allow you to hit him in the middle of his attacks, he leaves normal openings of course but usually that's how phase 2 plays out and it's so much different than any other boss in the game, he can read your inputs too in that phase but it's actually fair here unlike say the godskins from elden ring because you can dodge it with precise enough timing
I swear, what is everyones problem with the godskins reading your inputs? If you're not standing in their face, just a little further away, the fireball they throw will always miss you.
@@shacuras8201
It is pretty weird that so many people are fixated on this supposed input reading now even though its literaly always been in souls games
@@ddmacc I've never been a fan of input reading so I'm not gonna excuse the other Souls games for this either (Gwyn doing a quick poke whenever you tried to heal), they were just less obvious and less egregious about it. Seeing a Crucible Knight or Godskin cancel an attack in order to punish you frame 1 not only feels cheap, but instantly looks off. Gundyr has a heal punish, but he usually transitions from a sprint into the punish itself, and you can dodge it with precise timing. ER's variant of this is much more artificial in comparison which makes it worse.
@@shacuras8201 because the godskin noble likes to punish with its instant belly attack and the apostle likes to spam backstep+ always initiate attacks on neutral.
@@dvdivine1962 sure, the bosses have some unfair parts, especially the second phase bellyflop of the noble. But the problem there isn't input reading. The bellyflop is just unreactable
By your commentary on the Greatwood boss, I'm guessing you havent played Demon Souls
Is that correct?
Great video man! I totally agree with gael being one of the greatest things in video games. I did an sl1 run about a year ago and I still think about it often, I loved every minute of it and I think it was more enjoyable doing sl1 than it was to play the game for the first time. Absolutely brilliant
Midir usually hops backwards before using the laser so "stay near him" isn't exactly a solution
I would argue that they intended for players to avoid it at range because they do so much to try to stop you from getting behind him and that once you do, the attack is a complete joke whereas dodging it at range feels amazing, if a little overkill
This was my first Fromsoft game, so it’s interesting to learn what people more knowledgeable about the games have to say. This level one run reminds me of my beginner play through. On my first play through I really had no idea what I was doing, so I just used a raw gem broadsword or something like all the way until the dancer fight. I had trouble with some of the earlier bosses like Deacons and Vordt and thought I genuinely wouldn’t make it past Abyss Watchers, but eventually I defeated Soul of Cinder, Nameless King, and even both DLCs and loved it. Also it’s nice to know I’m not the only one who despised the Old Demon King fight; I went back to fight him after the twin princes.
"So that you srent nust dodging endlessly"
Bro, im still dodging Friede's third phase to this day.
11:40 biorr cam help you with penetrator in demons souls
about oceiros being the only boss who talks to you during the fight in souls borne doesnt morgott speak to you without a cutscene during phase 2 transition
I remember how utterly busted King Oceiros and Crystal Sage were on Sl1. I wonder what other people struggled with.
Crystal Sage isn't that bad, in phase 2 break the crystals that come up from the ground and it reduces the number of fake sages that pop up.
Wow alright. A SL1 run in one of the games has been itching for a long while now but you've convinced me to do DS3.
its not easy so dont give up. i remember dancer took me 4 hours. Also there is nothing wrong with an sl2-9 run where you use a different weapon because you kinda get locked into using the straight sword in all sl1 runs.
Absolutely i had so much fun with my sl1 playthrough but the dancer and dragon slayer gave me the most trouble i played bloodborne for the first time and found out the dragon slayer was like a bloodborne boss and that helped me. I loved the vid
Pro tip for Oceiros: carry a medium shield with 100% physical block. Even if the charge attack has a zero-frame startup, the worst that'll happen is your guard breaks. Oceiros has an animation at the end of it where he turns and roars (more like wheezes tbh), which gives you plenty of time to recover. It's a great way to make the BS move not so terrible!
You should also have the Dragonslayer Axe, Knight Ring, and Milkring at this point, so Raw infusion + Gold Pine Resin on that bad boy will _light him UP_ !
the music in this video is really good
I think the gravetender having the dogs is meant to be foreshadowing. Sort of a clever nod to what’s coming. It doesn’t make the fight better but perhaps makes the experience better in terms of theme. And the big guy reminds me of sif which is never a bad thing.
The dragonslayer axe and waiting for the bow on Halflight trivializes the fight
Drew the same conclusion on Old Demon King during a modded run with Blades of Ashina. The afflicted class trades estus for consecutive hits granting brief Hp and Fp regen but youre super vulnerable to anything fire and man. I thought he was meh normally but he was absolutely infuriating when all his shit essentially was a oneshot.
Dude the soul of cinder was a wild one for me, the frist time I fiought him sl it took over 5 hours to beat him, literally over half of the play time on my first run. The second time I fought him sl1 I beat him first try lol, it kinda pissed me off because fighting him is so much fun. Thankfully gael took me over 6 hours...
“It doesn’t feel like a dark souls boss because it’s so gimmick based” *flashbacks to bed of chaos*
one thing u might like to know is that in the nameless king fight, you can just turn away from that sword spear AOE attack and it will never hit you
The Demon Prince is the one particular fight that I really really hate. The first phase can be trivialized by rolling behind the aggressive demon which is pretty uninteresting while the second phase is the repeat of the first phase but with an oneshot attack. The attack itself is not too bad to dodge but the boss' tendency to back itself up against the wall mean that attack will 9/10 times fuck up your camera which in turn make the death feel so cheap
With Sister Friede I remember leaving my sign to help people with her while using my tank build on my last day of psn (haven't renewed it for years now)
If I remember correctly I was full havel armour & shield & I was using items to get her attention. Once we got to phase 3 I got her attention and managed to tank the first blackflame attack but ran out of stamina before the host & the other summons just whaled on her
Great video! Subbed. You're gonna hate me, but I did Soul of Cinder on my first try. Gael was the hardest for me though.
In Nameless 1 phase camera is often garbage, it doesn't matter because it easily can be memorized. Still badly executed part of great boss
exactly my feeling after finishing the game demon dou is the best dou fight in dark souls
For the record, the reason the Spear of the Church gets NPC guardians to assist them is because they do not get access to Estus. Unless they bring healing miracles, they have no way to heal the damage you do to them. Meanwhile a host is bringing up to 15 Estus and a potentially embered HP bar. The intrigue of the fight is the imbalance of resources and experience
I should try a SL1 playthrough for DS3. I personally find Oceiros to be the 2nd hardest fight behind Friede, he always managed to get me at least once. I remember he one-shot me at 40 vigor with a ground slam attack once.
My top 5 hardest for DS3:
1: Friede
(large gap)
2: Oceiros
3: Soul of Cinder
4: Demon Prince
(large gap)
5: Nameless King
omg what a cool overlap, we hate and love the same bosses lol
27:44 I've never seen him before do magic attacks even at my soul level 1 run. Holy shit I played this game for thousands of hours
11:40 in fact, that also happens in Demon Souls with the Penetrator fight, the guy just enters and DESTROYS the boss by himself xd
3:10 "It doesn't feel like a Dark Souls boss since it's so gimmick based."
:Bed of Chaos existing.
Nah though. Level 1 runs go to show how incredibly balanced the two Lothric Castle bosses actually are. Dragonslayer Armour is probably the most knight versus knight duel in the game, and probably tied with Alonne for the series, at least his first phase. And Lorian is just really good, and it might be just me, but I eventually started to just know where he would teleport in an instant. Great fights.
Aldrich took best boi gwyndolin away, and on sl1 he took me 5 hours! I will never forgive him!
4:00 you can use throwing knives against the fake sages in phase 2. Makes the fight a bit better
the one thing so far that I don't get is you saying that Aldrich is only hard because of his arrow attack, this can be tough especially if you don't have the luxury of stamina but he has some absolutely devastating magic missile attacks that got me a ton of times. Particularly deadly are his little tracking ones that hit you after a delay, they seem lightweight but will really whittle down your health.
This video needs to blow up
Wait, Pontiff’s desync is rare? I swear all of my fights with him include it in some way
So basically for nearly everything "It's better because the boss is already good and you see more of it" not... the most complete reasoning, the super low stamina and HP that you get on a hyper agressive game like 3 makes it an absolute chore from the midgame, I quit my SL1 finally at, Princes.
Dragonslayer Armour took me 23 tries because I kept getting hit by his stupid shield bash attack.
I was looking forward to you talking about Soul of Cinder. It took me 230 tries, and was a great fight. I also ran away from his pyromancy form because I was afraid of getting parried. I guess I need to go back and fight Nameless King, Midir, and Gael. If I do, I’m using the map editor to move Midir’s bonfire. I am not making that run-back 300 times.
It was the same for me on the king of storms. Definitely a skill issue and made me question why people don’t balance lock on and lock off. Like so many people try to brute force lock on and never turn it off. I accidentally beat ds1 with no lock on until my second play through. Because I never encountered a game with lock on before that one.
Tbf lock on is potentially a self-nerf in ds1. If I'm not mistaken, you can't go directly into a sideways sprint when locked on- the game just "forces" you to roll, which messed up all my learned strafing habits. I was stuck on bell gargoyles for like 2 hours, and the moment I realized the issue with lock-on I tried fighting them without it and I beat them the *second* try after. That ended up being the last straw as I did not want to contend with decade old jank
Sister freid at sl1 made me quit my playthrough, but I got to try again
If u really need to beat her just learn Ur backstab openings and play really passive. Good luck
Can always go with Bandit Knife Quickstep.
Lets you equalize the speed difference, and pops like a balloon with bleed.
it's kind of funny how you say that oceiros speaking during the fight was the best part, since that was added very late into his development lmao
Took me more to kill Soul of Cinder than the whole journey to reach him. And after a number of SL1 runs i still think he is the third hardest boss in the whole game:
3) SoC
2) Demon Princes
1) Sister Friede (by a fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuckiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin' long shot, at least to me)
I have beaten almost every boss fist only. Yhorm's few attacks are extremely apparent when the fight takes half an hour
Is that a run worth doing. I was considering it for a while but couldn't decide between fist or broken straight sword
@oceaTwo I have had two attempts at gael so far. The second one took me forty minutes, and I barely got him past half. Interesting run, but you have to be ready for some brutal endurance battles. It's more about being able to keep your focus for a long time than just dodge and counter.
Also, on a side note screw half light worst boss so far. The heal is so damn fast, and the painting dude can just pull it out anytime after half health, and you have to kill him twice while halflight is spamming other projectiles. Like crystal sage but so much worse.
21:10 Soul of Cinder kicks my butt to this day. I just can't beat him with my sl1 character. The second hardest was Oceiros. :/
I prefer dancer to have the big spike, it allows the fight to be more intense as it would be too much to be that difficult for the entire fight. Lowering the difficulty of the second phase would take out the magic I think.
"I played as my girlfriend because I wanted to see her die a lot alot"
--lmao this man
What I don't like about sl1 is that you just don't have much weapons which can be boring
i need to do ds3 sl1 because some bosses like lorian and soul of cinder i didn't have a full experience, because i killed them at my first try, like lothric reviving his brother i didn't see it, i killed him before he could do that and soul of cinder i don't remember him switching weapons until second phase
Greqt video mate. Subbed
I did a kinda level 1 run(?) Picked the wrong class but yeah
And let me say: yhorm deserves to be faced 1v1 without the stormruler it's so much more interesting it's a more of a endurance fight
I noticed you had slightly more health and stamina right after Pontiff but before getting the Prisoner's Chain and thus being able to withstand hits from Dancer who would normally oneshot you when getting hit while being without armor. Is it a buff spell, Ring of Favor or what?
I don't remember but if I had to guess it was probably ring of favour
@@oceatwo Damn, I can imagine fighting the two Pontiff pit bulls would have been a nightmare on Level 1
When you said ocerias is the only boss to speak during the fight in a souls game did you mean in the dark souls triolgy or in every souls borne game because morgott speaks in elden ring
Micolash speaks during the fight in Bloodborne too!
@@michaelhunts7853 i totally forgot about micilash lol
Back in Demons, there's also Maiden Astraea and King Allant that talk as well. Allant basically does nothing but talk lol
@@184Switch I’ve yet to play demon souls cause I don’t have a ps5 lol
@@KhrolloxoIf the super HD graphics aren't life or death for you, there's the PS3 version. Used PS3s in reliable condition run about $100, and the game disc can be snapped up for $15 on average.
11:40 Demon's Souls would like to have a word with you ;)
7:45 ngl my guy that's more of a skill issue
Curse rotted greatwood is infuriating
I don't agree much with the Twin Princes tho'... There's some jank there, specially when entering the arena having Lorian instantly TP towards you doing one of two moves which comes with quite different timings and you don't know until they hit you and in SL1 those hit hard... I had to resort to hugging the Fog Wall as soon as I enter the arena in order from him to TP in place and after that aproach him normally... Also he kinda TP's too much imho 😅 best way was to stick to his back both in phase 1 and 2.
DS3 is without a shred of doubt better at lvl1. Only bullshit thing is oceiros charge but that's fine if you block it. Midir can be less frustrating when using tears of denial which will allow you to tank one hit.
You don't have to summon Biorr for the Penetrator fight.
I remember watching Demodcracy's SL 1 live on Twitch a few years ago and his reaction upon discovering Soul of Cinder can heal himself was so funny and many viewers were also discovering that fact
Pontiff unsyncing with his clone isnt a glith they desync all of the time and its normal
Need to think about your script setup more, especially with longer videos people are more likely to listen to it rather than just watch. So you need to make it punchy and clear with each intro of a new boss. Otherwise great video
loved the video but it felt like most of your reviews on bosses that had 2 phases was that the 2 phases are too different. Isnt that the whole point of a phase 2 these strong opponents get beaten down bad like of course there gonna power up and change. like you said it about dancer and i just dont understand how that is a complaint, also dancers phases arent even that different just more agro.
Being SL1 really reveals what a boss is like at the core. A single unfair move can ruin an otherwise good boss that way. But forcing you to engage with the moveset can also show you how great a boss really is. That is what happens for most bosses in Ds3, in other games like Elden Ring however...
Elden Ring's bosses have much much more mechanical depth than the bosses of DS3, i think most bosses in Elden Ring are improved by a RL1, especially Godfrey/Hoarax Loux, a masterpiece of a fight that is extremely fair, engaging and it lasts enough so that you can enjoy it without making it end too quickly.
I think most bosses in DS3 also benefit from a SL1 run, but others like the Demon Prince are simply a slog because of how long and repetitive the fight can feel.
@@crow1460 the problem with some of the late game elden ring bosses is they fill way overtuned for example phase two malenia it's either going to be a cakewalk or hell since the rate at she uses waterfowl dance is much more random then phase not to say that effects all the late game bosses mohg and like you said Godfrey are S+ tier bosses
And you had a problem with demon prince? He was one of the better ds3 level 1 bosses imo maybe it's just a me thing
@@Jetstreamsamdidnothingwrong About Demon Prince, i like the fight but I don't love it.
Phase 1 is well designed, but the demons on their own are just sooo tanky.
It's battle of attrition but not a fun one like Sister Friede, Gael or Midir.
The two demons have a pretty limited moveset, and paired with how tanky they are, the fight just feels so unbearably long, especially when you consider what comes after.
Also, sometimes both demons are active and they overlap their attacks so you're forced to run around the arena for minutes.
It's the longest fights in the game, with a total of 21.000 hps. I don't think these many hps were necessary.
@@crow1460 fair
@@crow1460 1 year later but for me it's the right amount of hp, every boss in DS3 DLC have a good amount of hp, for me the reason why DS3 SL1 is better than a normal run is not because you can't take a lot of hit it's because boss in a normal run die too fast, they don't have enough HP/you do too much damage, most people don't know how much moveset soul of cinder have because they obliterate him phase one, the scaling in DS3 was right compared to elden ring imo, they just needed to make the boss HP a lot higher so that even if you can take a lot of hit without dying you would still need to take the less hit possible because you wouldn't last until the end because it's long
strange. i first tried SOC on sl1 but struggled on twin princes