LogFAQs > #951415997

62 - Ancient Dragon (DS2)
Speaking in purely mechanical terms, the Ancient Dragon might be one of the most poorly done fights this side of Bed of Chaos. This big boy has three zillion health and if you stay under him does precisely nothing except stomp and occasionally fly up to breathe fire straight down in a way that necessitates you sprinting like a manic or starting all over. He's not hard, just time-consuming. However, as this list factors in all aspects of a boss fight, I gotta give credit where it's due -- the spectacle of his sheer enormity is quite something, and going up to take a few swings at him and get the party started always feels wildly suicidal. I also adore the breadcrumb trail of lore that connects you from the Ashen Mist Heart to checking out the actual Ancient Dragon, leading to you figuring out the one you've spoken to is a fraud and, in fact, a construct of Aldia's. That's really cool. Too bad the fight sucks.

61 - Nashandra (DS2)
Somewhat similarly to the above, the concept of Nashandra is really cool. The daughters of Manus, shards of his being, embodied and seeking kings to seduce and lands to bring to the darkness. She's a cool character and it's a great idea, and the more you dig into the lore (especially through the DLC and SotFS), you really feel for Vendrick and the sense of dread he must have felt to go to the lengths he did, locking himself away being countless safeguards to prevent his own "beloved" from reaching him. Unfortunately, again, like the above, the fight sucks. Take out her little curse totems and then just hump her leg until she dies. A very flat encounter, especially for a final boss.

60 - The Lost Sinner (DS2)
The cutscene for this boss is one of the more unnerving in Dark Souls 2. Watching this writhing, masked figure in a straightjacket spring to life as a bug wriggles into its eye socket is just plain unnerving, and the ambiance of the room itself is quite effective. It's not bad as a fight, either -- not terribly difficult, but she hits pretty hard and is pretty athletic. She's a bit like a much, MUCH easier Artorias, and while there's not a ton to write home about, she's among the better bosses in the base game of DS2... which is admittedly not saying very much, unfortunately.

59 - Bell Gargoyles (DS1)
While I've said that I don't particularly care for "and then there's TWO of them!" fights, that is subverted a bit when the whole essence of the fight in the first place is that there's two of them. The Bell Gargoyles give you just enough time to get a read on the first's moveset when the second joins the fray, putting you on your heels and giving you two big enemies to worry about for the first time in the trilogy. For this reason, these guardians of the first Bell of Awakening are a bit of a wall for many newcomers, and they end up pretty memorable.

58 - Throne Defender & Throne Watcher (DS2)
Of the three-boss finale in DS2, I would argue these two actually put up the most fight. They aren't radically difficult, and they lack anything that really makes them stand out, but having the two of them to navigate around leads to a bit of an Ornstein & Smough situation, just a considerably less interesting one. Still, it's a decent little challenge to not get greedy and only take what they give you while also staying aggressive enough that they don't get a chance to revive before you take them both out. This prevents you from just focusing on one unless you can really put a full-court press on the second in a hurry.

57 - Ancient Wyvern (DS3)
Yeah, it's a gimmick fight, and I understand that some people would have it considerably lower than this, but hey, I like the gimmick! Seeing this guy fly in through the sunny blue sky is a hell of an entrance, and navigating the obstacle course while weighing how many of the man-serpents you need to deal with or run past is a fun little twist on a Souls fight. Plunging from above and carving into its skull is a cool execution, and while the encounter is all flash and little substance, I find it to be a fun, easy spectacle setpiece that fits well before the grueling area and devastating true boss fight ahead.

56 - Looking Glass Knight (DS2)
Welcome back to Dark Souls 2, home of cool ideas that don't quite land. I really like how the Looking Glass Knight summons in a mirror image to contend with through his badass-looking shield, but for how central of an idea that seems to be for this boss, only doing it once feels like a weird choice. It also would've been cool if it was actually a mirror image of the player character, instead of just some default guy. Still, the Knight himself has a solid moveset and fighting him out in the rain is one of the more visually striking encounters in Dark Souls 2, a game that veers pretty wildly between being gorgeous and being downright ugly.

55 - Vendrick (DS2)
I have similar sentiments for Vendrick as I do for Nashandra, as this is another fight with some really, REALLY cool lore (Vendrick's story is one of my favorites in the trilogy, in fact), and getting past Velstadt to find this huge, naked, shambling husk of a man as the piano plinks that dissonant chord is one of the most iconic moments of DS2. Vendrick is a sad fight, a creepy fight, and when you realize you need the Souls of a Giant to weaken him, a clever fight as well -- to an extent. Sadly, his moveset is boring as hell and it makes for dull combat.

54 - Aldia, Scholar of the First Sin (DS2)
Way back at launch, I played base DS2, and my sentiments towards Nashandra were the same then as they are now. So, imagine my joy when I heard they put in a new final boss! Having never experienced the DS2 DLC or DS3 DLC was a big factor in deciding to do this playthrough of the trilogy at all, and I loved talking to Aldia every time he popped up. His flaming, deformed head is a menacing design, and his dialogue is fantastic. He added so much insight to the storyline of DS2 and sheds light on a lot of things when it comes to the cycle and the curse as well. I love Aldia... the character. So... why is this fight so lame? He's got 3-4 moves that are extremely easy to dodge and lets you wail on him for 5-10 seconds after every single one. It baffles me, especially considering some of the quality bosses we got in the DLC. This might somehow be a more boring fight than Nashandra, but Aldia is so damn cool as a character that it elevates him a bit.

53 - Asylum Demon (DS1)
The OG! The first boss you encounter in the trilogy wastes no time leaving an impression, crashing down from above and scaring the pants off of any newbie. I simply adore how they have you try a few attacks on immobile hollows, and then promptly drop this guy on your head. It is so perfectly cruel, and so perfectly Dark Souls. Realizing you need to escape the room, continue the Asylum, and then loop back around to do a plunging attack on him from above is a great idea that teaches you immediately that you need to think outside the box and use your environment to your advantage, and his punishing but slow-paced moveset gets you in the flow of things really well. The Asylum Demon is a nearly perfect tutorial boss for Dark Souls as a trilogy, and the only thing stopping him from going higher is just that -- he's a tutorial boss and when it comes down to it he doesn't have that much going on in his moveset. But man, what an iconic enemy.

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-Shred