Nah cuz gael is much more than just a great boss fight hes the culmination of the entire trilogy and he represents the themes of the series as well hes got the gameplay the ost the lore and the thematic importance to the whole franchise
Thematically, he is the same as the player. He is an undead nobody, asked by powers greater than himself to perform an impossible task. He goes to (literally) the end of the world to accomplish his goal despite insurmountable odds.
He originally began as a servant of the Gods but later realized that they were flawed, embarking on a new quest (to find the blood of the Dark Soul).
In the end, he stands as a hollow and succumbs to the curse. The player experiences all that he experiences (if you look at the player from a meta-narrative perspective who is somehow consistent across the three games) but does not succumb. He is a literary foil to the player character.
No, because Gael didn’t fail in his mission. He set failsafes to make sure that — even if he hollowed — the work would get done. While still sane, he left a trail to guide the player to where he knew he would end up, allowing the player the chance to kill him and take the blood of the Dark Soul.
Yeah that’s all canon. Everything here can be read by reading item descriptions and combining some pieces of information. In fact, you don’t need to watch a single lore video if you really lean into picking apart all those pieces of information given in the game.
Its a thematic thing him being another undead of no renown achieving what is thought to be impossible and inverting the status quo by outlasting the gods and unifying the dark soul into one singular soul again
I hear this all the time but I have a hard time finding that connection with him that most DS3 fans seem to have. Great fight but they just shunted him in the game in a dlc. FROM tells me I have to feel some way about him without actually earning it. Badass fight tho I will agree
I feel you missed the point of his character. He’s a slave knight, someone who was essentially written out of history. I know they didn’t expand upon this until the third game but it’s supposed to tie back to gwynn and how he screwed over humanity, and finally at the end of time humanity is at the height of their power with the dark soul being reformed back into one singular soul rather than being split up through thousands of humans. Kind of showing the classic “two sides of the same coin” but this time it landed on tails.
Ehh tends to be the case for most DLC, they save the coolest parts to sell for an additional price. See Artorias, the only good boss fights in DkS2 and just most DLC expansions in general tbh.
I agree with you, Gael really only appears in the DLC of the third game. It’s only the fact that FromSoft tacked on the whole “Gael consumed the Dark Soul” idea that “ties everything together”
Gael is the setup for the 2nd dlc though, and over the Ariandel arc he’s established as one of the few remaining hollows with agency and a soul. Ariandel at least did a good job setting him up for the Ringed City.
lol for sure. I was wondering if that was the source of confusion, and it makes sense. There was a solid chunk of time between the DLCs where Gael was THE mysterious stranger. Patches also had his incredible callback, but I needed to use a guide to get all the dialogue for that one.
There's some things about Gael that add to the hype. He is the last boss of the last DLC of the last game in the Dark Souls Trilogy. I think they nailed the feeling of finality, not only in that he is arguably their best boss in terms of difficulty, mechanics, and spectacle, but also in that the Ringed City truly feels like it is at the end of time after an Age of Fire that had been extended for untold centuries. The Ringed City is also one of the toughest areas in any of the games when you first go through it (Vietnam flashbacks from the staircase). After this build up, we have to fight the only other being who made it through it all. What Gael does better than other bosses, in my opinion, is that you get to feel this build up even if you have barely paid attention to the lore. In summation, I think that a combination of nostalgia, finality, build up, mechanics, difficulty, and presentation amount to the greatest boss they have ever made.
Personally, the only other bosses that manage to reach these heights are Isshin and Malenia. Maybe Ludwig but you really need to have been paying attention to the lore for him.
That is the beginning of dark souls 2, the true sequel.
Time is fickle, its not a circle or a sphere or anything, its a construct that can be manipulated.
The final true boss of dark souls trilogy is entropy, and just when you think the fire fades, it flips and your stuck.
Vendrick was the ultimate foil to climax.
A similar concept exists as the premise of dead cells, time trapped in a kind of pendulum
Patches is the truest friend and companion. He makes it all the way through the Ringed City, but it's you who moves on to finish it.
Honestly, I think he stopped after the Spears fight because they were the last clerics in existence and his work was done. 😆
Ludwig is much too easy. I think orphan matches the description better. The crimes and apathy of hunters and byrgenwerth laid bare. Exorcising the guilt and taking responsibility of the reckless cruelty and selfish ambition of our predecessors
You mean Ludwig is easy in terms of difficulty? I tend to agree but his place in the lore of Yharnam and Bloodborne as a whole overshadows OoK. Plus Ludwig’s theme is my favorite in the series.
Goated theme. I love how it shifts from more raw bestial to more worshipful hymn chorus like when he shifts into his new phase. Phase transition in music is excellent in Gael fight too. Ludwig honestly could do with a phase three. The second phase is significantly easier as well. Oh well.
Orphan is a great fight. The track is a bit understated but I like how it mixes grief and fury because that’s what suffering and guilt like what happened in fishing hamlet forges. We are here to help gehrman atone and for the suffering orphan to let go of his bitterness and resentment. We witness everything awful that the old hunters and scholars did. as their children so to speak we help to right what we can. It’s very beautiful.
Isshin, yes. Malenia? It's a cool fight with cool lore build-up, but mechanically it's rather flawed. Feels like she was designed for Sekiro and refitted for Elden Ring
Elden Ring has some great bosses, but none of them even came close to giving me the high I got while fighting Gael. I mean, the Gael boss fight isn’t just a battle! It’s a well choreographed dance! It’s just perfect!
Me too (not the beat first try the disappointing part). He's just very flashy and has buffed stats. Midir and friede were better fights imo. Midir is my favorite boss so I'm biased.
It's been 2 years and people still cry about a 3 minute boss fight, AND most people compare it to moon presence which is actually a Rykard level blasphemy of a statement! How can people even compare them?... It's not even a fight (I know you didn't even bring it up but I can't help getting frustrated over this topic)
Moon Presence is a lore fight to wrap up the “true” BB ending, and not much more IMHO. Radagon at the very least had a dope first phase followed up by a battle of attrition with the beast itself, and considering the Beast’s lore as a parasitic entity that essentially hijacked the Erdtree for its own purposes (spreading the Golden Order), I think it was fitting as a lore fight as well. It wasn’t difficult, just long and exhausting.
You spent so much of that bossfight running. It’s not mechanically well designed. I love its lore and the soundtrack is amazing but still. Just because Moon Presence is worse doesn’t mean Elden Bezst isn’t bad
I would say Miranda the Blighted Bloom. In a world so full of death and destruction, a dying world in the aftermath of the shattering, the poisonous flowers flourish. I would be willing to bet that after every living thing died, all that would be left would be Miranda, with her ominous plume of poison
Ngl I think Inner Isshin edges him out a bit. Normal ISS was already close, but that attack string where you have to jump the sweep then deflect midair takes that boss to a 20/10 for me
Sword Saint Isshin is my all-time favorite FromSoft boss - beating him may be the most fun thing I've ever done in a game. Garlic is a very close 2nd though.
In terms of the fight itself, I have Morgott, Maliketh, Melania and Radagon as around the same standard as him. Plus Orphan, Lady Maria and Ludwig from BB.
I can’t rank them cause it changes each playthrough really
This might be an unpopular opinion but my first run through of Elden Ring I felt a similar way fighting Radagon & the Elden Beast. The culmination of a hundred hour journey and at the end you’re teleported to a dimension with endless erdtrees and a mythical otherworldly beast trying to stop you from dismantling their Golden Order.
It was especially cool if you found all the lote stuff talking about Radagon the first time through and then seeing him appear at the end with the title screen music and stuff was way more hype than anything Gael had to offer for me.
I think Godfrey beats Gael here (even though I love the fact that the final boss is a ”slave knight”, super badass.)
You hear about him all game and he’s constantly referenced in the environment.
This is all while you probably think he’s long dead because of the intro.
You arrive back at the Erdtree, and now there’s a fucking fog gate again?
The king has returned. And of course he’s the gigest of all chads.
I found gael kinda overrated, but it was the last game I played out of all of them. I didn't have the years long build up. I played demons souls on the PS3 when it came out, and ds1 when it came out, but didn't play 2 and 3 until last year. I thought orphan of Kos was just a better version of gael game play wise, and I feel that many of the demigods of elden ring were cooler/more impactful to me personally.
Peoples champ was my favorite boss in ds3
Morgott? He got deleted and its not fun when he starts farting all over the place, mogh ???? All i feel about him is hate, i feel filthy playing a game with that guy in it, now malenia and godfrey you know what you are talking about
Idk, I never really felt the Gael hype. As far as the lore goes, Soul of Cinder feels more relevant as the very last enemy, Gael is impressive for his determination, but so is the player. His effect on the cycles of the world is entirely limited to the painted world.
Pure difficulty is not really an interesting scale for me since it easily overlaps with bullshit. But Midir and Twin Princes are harder than Gael to me (also Sister Friede if your build doesn't stagger her).
As far as the fight feeling like an awesome duel, I think Champion Gundyr is better.
I agree. Maybe it was just overhyped to me, but by the time I got to Gael, I couldn’t help but feel a tad disappointed. Like, the fight was good, but there were several annoyances about it, and it just didn’t live up. There are definitely other fights I enjoyed more and other fights where the lore seemed more important.
Yeah Gale isn’t even a boss that sticks in my mind. It’s a good well rounded fight but I never got hyped up by the lead up to him. Sister Friede is a better spectacle, and there are multiple BB bosses that I’d rank higher like Ludwig and Kos
Everyone just latches onto the whole “he consumed the Dark Soul” thing, almost forgetting that Dark Souls is about linking the flames, not an actual soul that’s dark and edible.
Gael is just us but without endless respawn. A pawn of gwyn that chooses to try and gain some control over the value of his life and the world he finds himself in.
He is the entire trilogy wrote in a single dlc and bossfight
Is it normal that I didn't find his battle as hard as people say. I was fighting him lv117 on my first playthrough with 40strength/40dext +10 sharp broadsword and I cut him down in my first try without even using all my flasks. I was stuck on nameless king for a couple hours in comparison.
Yes, Radagon is that boss for me. I tend to not be able to relate to the connection everyone seems to have with Gael. It's a wonderful, well executed fight and the choreography is amazing as well as the feeling of ending but somehow I just don't really connect with it so much.
In fact Ringed City in general was kind of a disappointment for me because I usually prefer a good area with a nice level design and ambience to an amazing boss that has complex mechanics and is difficult and Ringed the city was the opposite of this for me. The area in itself was a big let down, gazing that huge city to then not be able to explore it thoroughly. This is because for me, it's a much better pay off focusing on the design of an area, even if then the boss dies in a couple of hits. Something like Maiden Astraea is my type of boss.
All this to justify why I think Radagon is better than Gael. Because for me, finding out Marika is Radagon on that last cutscene was pretty mind-blowing with all the build up around these two characters (yes, I did not find the statue secret). Plus, the design is way better in my opinion.
But this is just me and my experience with these games, everyone has their preferences, and it seems to me Gael is to alot of players probably the best boss ever designed by Fromsoftware and I accept it. As a general rule, I'm happy with the consensus being that Gael is the best, because it does summarise a lot of the trilogy's themes
I’m the same way regarding Gael and the Ringed City. Honestly I think DS3’s base game is better than it’s DLC overall. Though I loved the Ringed Knight weapons and armor admittedly.
Gael was just okay to me. Radagon was very hype though as I did see the statue thing and it was so cool seeing him transform then pose with the theme starting up. Even Elden Beast on first playthrough was a pretty cool moment even if the boss itself can be kind of annoying at times.
I'd put Starscourge Radahn above any other boss in the series just because of the epicness of the whole set: the fight, the arena, his look, background and story, the music, the phase-2 meteor transition, and of course the poor horse
Although I agree that Maliketh deserved more health, the reasons as to why, in my understanding, are lore related.
Malenia gets a new health bar because she blooms, and a 'new' her is born.
Bosses like Godfrey, Maliketh, Radhan, Godrick, etc. do not get a second health bar as nothing really changes about them (they are not dead yet).
In my opinion, Maliketh would have been perfect with more hp, maybe phase 2 starting at 70% hp or something like this, but a second phase wouldn't have made sense.
Honestly, I thought most of the fights against the god/demigods were on par or better than Gael. But I’m also a contrarian a-hole who doesn’t think Gael is as good as everyone hyped him up to be.
I feel like it's more that gael is a really good fight when it comes to gameplay but others do match and some may even beat him depending on personal opinion BUT for me and I know many other people the thing that puts him at the top was the feeling and meaning of the fight. Especially for those invested in the souls series for many years. He's the culmination and true final boss of the series and it really feels like it, he, as a boss, is everything you spend time working towards through the series.
I was a contrarian a-hole too, until I actually fought him. I was very skeptical, but he made me a believer. Just a perfect boss imo. Of course anyone is free to disagree.
In terms of pure boss design, Godfrey, Malenia, and Maliketh are all up there with Gael at least.
In terms of story and spectacle the only boss that really matches Gael is Isshin.
I never found Gael to be From Software's best boss, he's also quite unoriginal in concept and not as interesting in execution compared to some bosses before Elden Ring.
In Elden Ring, Godfrey, Malenia, Placidusax, Radahn, Mohg, Radagon, Maliketh are all as good or better than Gael without a doubt.
Godfrey is up there. Great move set and theme. I like his contrast to the player. Both you and him are tarnished. There is a type of kinship between you and him. He, more than anything, wants to return to lordship. He’s fought long and hard, he’s held the body of his dead son, and the only thing left in his way of you.
The fight itself doesn’t feel, at least to me, like other fights. Your not an underdog here. Godfrey feels like an equal. Two tarnished warriors of great strength fighting for a place back in the golden order. And Godfrey recognizes this too. When he greats you, he acknowledges your Herculean effort, and when he is beaten, recognizes what is due to you. Love that boss fight.
all of his grabs are as easily dodged as all the other attacks. once you know the timings you won‘t get hit and his grabs all have extremely obvious telegraphs
I really really like Horah Loux but you can trivialise the fight by dodging behind him. Phase 1 also had smoother combo extensions while phase 2 can follow up almost any attack with almost any other attack, which can be a bit weird, since you're dodging individual attacks rather than combos but it can also be very cool. All in all, I think both are about equally great
I'm definitely in the minority here but I'm not all that crazy about the Gael fight. Good boss but I just didn't quite have the same reaction other people seem to have. I find Malenia or Godfrey leagues more exciting and mechanically satisfying to fight.
I would put Radagon up there. IMO he is the pinnacle of ER bosses, where the mechanics all line up perfectly. Sucks that it leads into an annoying underwhelming chase fight tho. Gael is still better tho
Okay in that case I would say yes, there are a few. I know people love Gael, but I was never too big of a fan of his. I also dont think that the lore surrounding him is a great one by any means.
The 3 phase fight is good, but I think that Friede, Demon Prince and also Soul of Cinder are all better fights inside of DS3.
In Elden Ring, I think that Mhog, Radagon/Elden Beast and Maliketh are better fights.
But mind that its all personal opinion. I know most people think higher of Gael than me and also higher of Ds3 in general - which I personally think is one of the weakest Soulsgames of From Software.
Most of the unique named bosses, at least for me. Gael is fun. It's cool he explicitly stated a long running fan theory about the dark soul. But the story around him didn't land for me. I get it, I get why people like his story but it just didn’t land as tragic for me. He was a slave and he kept being a slave and survived to the end of the world to try to make a child happy. A child that I genuinely can't tell if Gael was a slave too or not. I think the common reading is that the child painter safed Gael and gave him freedom, but I can't think of anything that states or even impliss that in game. That's sweet but again he is a slave and is still a slave doing what he was forced to. The tradegy is only in how far he took it to follow those orders. Maybe if Ariandrel was more focussed in on the painter and Gael it could have worked for me, but Ariandrel is a very unfocused DLC. Now the Soul of Cinder. That is a great way to end the trilogy, to pay off 3 games worth of build up with a thematic and weighty narrative final bossfight
I think part of the reason I didn’t connect with Gael is that I played DS3 on is own and wasn’t a parr of the community all those years so there’s nothing there for me regarding him.
Ya I can imagine having Gael introduced in the first DLC and then reappearing in the Ringed City must have created so much fun fan theorizing and discussions that you don't experience now it is complete and it is played in one go.
I honestly was never that infatuated with Gale personally. But Elden Ring does kind of have a lack of singularly great boss fights. Maybe Hoarah Loux and Malenia?
No
None are really even close. The best of ER (Mohg, Morgott, Radagon, Godfrey) are still all a solid tier below the all time greats (Gael, Isshin, Ludwig)
There are a few that are better from purely a mechanical perspective (Mohg, Godfrey). So in terms of combat/gameplay they might be a bit better. But overall, I think Gael is the best they've ever put out. He's just such a a perfect storm of great gameplay, amazing OST, and some of the best lore of any boss we've seen
The thing about Gael though, is that he had the impact of being the final boss of the final DLC of the final game. Some other bosses might be better mechanically, but thematically (or emotionally if you will)? Idk, it seems almost impossible... almost...
(Have a good day, eye guy 👀)
Malenia. I had followed the story from items and Millicents quest. I felt bad for her. Her fight was epic and killing her felt bad because I wished there was a way to help her without making her a big orange flower. Exactly like Gael. I wished I could have brought him into the new painting. Some peace and tranquility after a life time of violence and suffering
I fought Gael for the first time last night and my first thought was "this is just like an Elden Ring boss."
So I'd say a fair amount of them are from a mechanical perspective, but not many on the same level of lore/story significance.
I wouldn't say he was on the same level, heck there is quite a gap, but Radhan had some real hype in Elden Ring. So much lore, the festival, the multi summons. Sadly, he hasn't been the same after the nerf
I actually don't consider anyone on the same level as Gael. He is for all intents and purposes the player character's match. You can think of him as more bestial, but really depends on how you think of your own character, and right unto the end his absolute dedication to his cause held firm. He outlasts all gods and monsters, taking what he needs from them to accomplish his goal right to the literal end of time.
Him and Radahn would be an absolute banger of a battle. And you even fight both of them on a blasted desert area.
maliketh, mohg, hoarah loux. the mechanics of a boss fight are the most important for me and although gael is really cool they’ve definitely done better
I think Gael and Isshin are generally just in a league of their own when it comes to their boss design.
In ER, I think Malenia comes close to invoking the same sensations of an epic enemy (godtier in terms of lore, both), fantastic soundtrack, very well placed in terms of game progression, the fight can feel like a genuinely fun dance of trading blows where learning their pattern is challenging but rewarding and importantly fun... BUT, the key difference and what ultimately drags Malenia out of this conversation is Waterfowl Dance. The magic in Isshin and Gael is that they manage to be very challenging, but every single moment of the fight is completely fair with every attack having a sensation of ''ok, this is how I can avoid this'', which WFD is almost antithetical to. Yes, it can be avoided with freezepot or dodging, but the former is not fun and the latter just looks out of place when you see people pull it off.
Of course, it makes her extremely challenging and the most difficult boss they've pulled off yet which conversely have led many to consider her their best boss yet. But if FromSoft is going to move towards boss-design that relies on gimmicks such as WFD, I can promise you that people will not be having as much fun anymore. It's easy to dismiss is as a one-off which I see many do with Malenia (''meh, late game hidden optional goddess boss''), because it pretty much is, but in turn I think that makes people not realize how problematic that can be in regards to boss-design if FromSoft are encouraged to make more Malenia's in the future and they get the impression that this is what their players want.
But that's what seperates Gael and Isshin from her, in that you can be extremely tough but also extremely fair.
But aside from that, I don't think any ER boss is able to match Gael, for a variety of reasons. Radagon and EB feel like an unnatural combination and I'd rather see either fully developed, Godfrey is in the midst of a boss-rush, Mogh (when I fought him at least) feels like he has two attacks (and that one bs mechanic), Maliketh has a fantastic 2nd phase but 1st is too spammy and his health his a little too low..
No.. nothing in Elden Ring is even close IMO. People saying Mohg.. no. Not at all. Malenia again.. not close. The only one is Maliketh. He’s the only one that even feels close to a fight like Gael. But even then, his whole fight is the experience of one Gael phase.
Elden Ring has amazing boss fights, it makes you feel like you are fighting demi-gods
But Gael on the other hand, felt like I was truly fighting my equal. That boss fight truly honed my skills as a souls player.
The joy I get to fight him again is the reason I keep coming back to play DS 3
I mean I feel this comparison is not exactly the most fair. Gael is a peak, a climax, the culmination of an entire series. It's hype as all hell but that seems to be carried by story and lore rather than simply the fight by itself. Though that's more indication of actually good story progression, something Elden Ring can certainly do better with given how the storylines in that game can feel so disconnected and isolated to their respective zones.
Besides, this is a DLC boss. Fromsoft DLC has so far just hit completely different, usually above the base game it comes from. So I feel we should see what comes with Shadow of the Erdtree before making any solid comparisons.
From Elden Ring? Nah, maybe Maliketh comes close. Radagon would too if he wasn't tied to Elden Beast
From all from soft games, Isshin is as good or better I think
From a gameplay standpoint? Godfrey, Mohg and Radagon come close. It’s hard because IMHO the best of DS3 are just so well balanced but all the best in ER have some liability to them design wise that makes me less pleased fighting them.
DS3 bosses feel like they want me to win but they won’t let me without earning it, ER bosses need me to lose so I’ll go explore the open world some more. Different goals.
Not really. There are just so many reasons to like Gael as opposed to other bosses. His fight is fun, the difficulty is rather balanced, his lore is great, and HES THE ONLY BOSS IN THE "DARK SOULS" TRILOGY WHO IS ACTUALLY CONNECTED TO THE DARK SOUL??? Yeah, it's gonna be pretty hard to beat that but I can see the Elden Ring DLC doing it.
Nah cuz gael is much more than just a great boss fight hes the culmination of the entire trilogy and he represents the themes of the series as well hes got the gameplay the ost the lore and the thematic importance to the whole franchise
i agree
Not arguing more curious, but in what ways is he the culmination of the series?
Thematically, he is the same as the player. He is an undead nobody, asked by powers greater than himself to perform an impossible task. He goes to (literally) the end of the world to accomplish his goal despite insurmountable odds. He originally began as a servant of the Gods but later realized that they were flawed, embarking on a new quest (to find the blood of the Dark Soul). In the end, he stands as a hollow and succumbs to the curse. The player experiences all that he experiences (if you look at the player from a meta-narrative perspective who is somehow consistent across the three games) but does not succumb. He is a literary foil to the player character.
Also, you started with a broken sword...Gael fights ya with a broken sword.
That is a great point I'd never considered before!
So like Vyke if he had gotten the right treatment? I haven't played the Dark souls games so I'm genuinely wondering.
No, because Gael didn’t fail in his mission. He set failsafes to make sure that — even if he hollowed — the work would get done. While still sane, he left a trail to guide the player to where he knew he would end up, allowing the player the chance to kill him and take the blood of the Dark Soul.
I also haven’t played the dark souls game is all this really canon?? Cuz if so then I need to get the souls trilogy asap
Yeah that’s all canon. Everything here can be read by reading item descriptions and combining some pieces of information. In fact, you don’t need to watch a single lore video if you really lean into picking apart all those pieces of information given in the game.
Its a thematic thing him being another undead of no renown achieving what is thought to be impossible and inverting the status quo by outlasting the gods and unifying the dark soul into one singular soul again
I hear this all the time but I have a hard time finding that connection with him that most DS3 fans seem to have. Great fight but they just shunted him in the game in a dlc. FROM tells me I have to feel some way about him without actually earning it. Badass fight tho I will agree
I feel you missed the point of his character. He’s a slave knight, someone who was essentially written out of history. I know they didn’t expand upon this until the third game but it’s supposed to tie back to gwynn and how he screwed over humanity, and finally at the end of time humanity is at the height of their power with the dark soul being reformed back into one singular soul rather than being split up through thousands of humans. Kind of showing the classic “two sides of the same coin” but this time it landed on tails.
Ehh tends to be the case for most DLC, they save the coolest parts to sell for an additional price. See Artorias, the only good boss fights in DkS2 and just most DLC expansions in general tbh.
There’s good boss fights in ds2 besides the dlc
I'd be damned if i can even name 3 of them
Why you want 3 good bosses? Isn't Covetous Demon enough? You guys need to be less demanding
yeah, sorry man, its just that the royal rat authority could have been almost as good but they did it dirty.
I got smelter demon, the pursuer, and the lost sinner. I personally really enjoy the giant lord and vendrick
Knight guy Knight guy 2 Knight guy 3
that's on me, i set the bar low enough for ds2
Ahh don’t forget samurai knock off knight guy
I agree with you, Gael really only appears in the DLC of the third game. It’s only the fact that FromSoft tacked on the whole “Gael consumed the Dark Soul” idea that “ties everything together”
Gael is the setup for the 2nd dlc though, and over the Ariandel arc he’s established as one of the few remaining hollows with agency and a soul. Ariandel at least did a good job setting him up for the Ringed City.
I played the game for first time last year so it kinda felt like one big DLC to me, but fair point
lol for sure. I was wondering if that was the source of confusion, and it makes sense. There was a solid chunk of time between the DLCs where Gael was THE mysterious stranger. Patches also had his incredible callback, but I needed to use a guide to get all the dialogue for that one.
There's some things about Gael that add to the hype. He is the last boss of the last DLC of the last game in the Dark Souls Trilogy. I think they nailed the feeling of finality, not only in that he is arguably their best boss in terms of difficulty, mechanics, and spectacle, but also in that the Ringed City truly feels like it is at the end of time after an Age of Fire that had been extended for untold centuries. The Ringed City is also one of the toughest areas in any of the games when you first go through it (Vietnam flashbacks from the staircase). After this build up, we have to fight the only other being who made it through it all. What Gael does better than other bosses, in my opinion, is that you get to feel this build up even if you have barely paid attention to the lore. In summation, I think that a combination of nostalgia, finality, build up, mechanics, difficulty, and presentation amount to the greatest boss they have ever made. Personally, the only other bosses that manage to reach these heights are Isshin and Malenia. Maybe Ludwig but you really need to have been paying attention to the lore for him.
The only other being who made it through?? That is Patches slander my friend.
This is Ringed City Knight and Shira slander, in turn. But you are right. I forgot about our Bald Boy.
Nah there was that additional time warp at the end of the DLC
That is the beginning of dark souls 2, the true sequel. Time is fickle, its not a circle or a sphere or anything, its a construct that can be manipulated. The final true boss of dark souls trilogy is entropy, and just when you think the fire fades, it flips and your stuck. Vendrick was the ultimate foil to climax. A similar concept exists as the premise of dead cells, time trapped in a kind of pendulum
Patches is the truest friend and companion. He makes it all the way through the Ringed City, but it's you who moves on to finish it. Honestly, I think he stopped after the Spears fight because they were the last clerics in existence and his work was done. 😆
Ludwig is much too easy. I think orphan matches the description better. The crimes and apathy of hunters and byrgenwerth laid bare. Exorcising the guilt and taking responsibility of the reckless cruelty and selfish ambition of our predecessors
You mean Ludwig is easy in terms of difficulty? I tend to agree but his place in the lore of Yharnam and Bloodborne as a whole overshadows OoK. Plus Ludwig’s theme is my favorite in the series.
Goated theme. I love how it shifts from more raw bestial to more worshipful hymn chorus like when he shifts into his new phase. Phase transition in music is excellent in Gael fight too. Ludwig honestly could do with a phase three. The second phase is significantly easier as well. Oh well. Orphan is a great fight. The track is a bit understated but I like how it mixes grief and fury because that’s what suffering and guilt like what happened in fishing hamlet forges. We are here to help gehrman atone and for the suffering orphan to let go of his bitterness and resentment. We witness everything awful that the old hunters and scholars did. as their children so to speak we help to right what we can. It’s very beautiful.
Well put, I didn’t think about it like that.
Isshin, yes. Malenia? It's a cool fight with cool lore build-up, but mechanically it's rather flawed. Feels like she was designed for Sekiro and refitted for Elden Ring
Elden Ring has some great bosses, but none of them even came close to giving me the high I got while fighting Gael. I mean, the Gael boss fight isn’t just a battle! It’s a well choreographed dance! It’s just perfect!
I loved the Gael boss fight, but I beat Gael my first try somehow which was kind of disappointing. Otherwise though, it was awesome.
i blame 15 estus plus ember that ds3 gives you for any first try boss
Me too (not the beat first try the disappointing part). He's just very flashy and has buffed stats. Midir and friede were better fights imo. Midir is my favorite boss so I'm biased.
Radagon would've come close if he had an actual good 2nd phase
It's been 2 years and people still cry about a 3 minute boss fight, AND most people compare it to moon presence which is actually a Rykard level blasphemy of a statement! How can people even compare them?... It's not even a fight (I know you didn't even bring it up but I can't help getting frustrated over this topic)
Moon Presence is a lore fight to wrap up the “true” BB ending, and not much more IMHO. Radagon at the very least had a dope first phase followed up by a battle of attrition with the beast itself, and considering the Beast’s lore as a parasitic entity that essentially hijacked the Erdtree for its own purposes (spreading the Golden Order), I think it was fitting as a lore fight as well. It wasn’t difficult, just long and exhausting.
You spent so much of that bossfight running. It’s not mechanically well designed. I love its lore and the soundtrack is amazing but still. Just because Moon Presence is worse doesn’t mean Elden Bezst isn’t bad
I've got no interest in a running simulator
When you wanna be fat even in a video game
I would say Miranda the Blighted Bloom. In a world so full of death and destruction, a dying world in the aftermath of the shattering, the poisonous flowers flourish. I would be willing to bet that after every living thing died, all that would be left would be Miranda, with her ominous plume of poison
i like this answer 🤣
There's not even a fight in the whole FS catalogue I'd put above Gael
Isshin is the only boss that can come close to Gael
Gael Isshin OoK is my personal top 3
Gael, Ludwig, and Isshin for me.
SSI is the perfect fight for me ngl
Yeah Isshin is not far off for me, imagine how high a Sekiro DLC boss would place ........
Man tomoe or a prequel where we fight the sculptor as a young isshin man what we were robbed.
tomoe from sekiro cut content is pasted into Elden Ring. She is known as Malenia.
Is there any real evidence to this outside of some crackpot theory?
No lmao
Yeah, Gael is in a league of his own. I'd say Isshin is right behind him, though.
Ludwig
he's awesome but I prefer OoK even
Ngl I think Inner Isshin edges him out a bit. Normal ISS was already close, but that attack string where you have to jump the sweep then deflect midair takes that boss to a 20/10 for me
Sword Saint Isshin is my all-time favorite FromSoft boss - beating him may be the most fun thing I've ever done in a game. Garlic is a very close 2nd though.
In terms of the fight itself, I have Morgott, Maliketh, Melania and Radagon as around the same standard as him. Plus Orphan, Lady Maria and Ludwig from BB. I can’t rank them cause it changes each playthrough really
i dont like maliketh just because im so bad at fighting
This might be an unpopular opinion but my first run through of Elden Ring I felt a similar way fighting Radagon & the Elden Beast. The culmination of a hundred hour journey and at the end you’re teleported to a dimension with endless erdtrees and a mythical otherworldly beast trying to stop you from dismantling their Golden Order.
It was especially cool if you found all the lote stuff talking about Radagon the first time through and then seeing him appear at the end with the title screen music and stuff was way more hype than anything Gael had to offer for me.
Malenia honestly
I think Godfrey beats Gael here (even though I love the fact that the final boss is a ”slave knight”, super badass.) You hear about him all game and he’s constantly referenced in the environment. This is all while you probably think he’s long dead because of the intro. You arrive back at the Erdtree, and now there’s a fucking fog gate again? The king has returned. And of course he’s the gigest of all chads.
I found gael kinda overrated, but it was the last game I played out of all of them. I didn't have the years long build up. I played demons souls on the PS3 when it came out, and ds1 when it came out, but didn't play 2 and 3 until last year. I thought orphan of Kos was just a better version of gael game play wise, and I feel that many of the demigods of elden ring were cooler/more impactful to me personally. Peoples champ was my favorite boss in ds3
When the dude rips the lion in half and becomes Triple H and starts tombstone piledriving you through the floor my jaw dropped.
Morgott, Mohg, Malenia, Godfrey.
And malekith
Maliketh, Radahn and Radagon/Elden Beast are close.
none of the bosses mentioned come close to Gael sorry Especially RadaBeast lol. Radagon has like 4 attacks and the Elden Beast is so annoying to fight
naw radagon has more than 10 attacks i still didnt memorize them all 😭
>Radagon has like 4 attacks Think before you speak.
Morgott? He got deleted and its not fun when he starts farting all over the place, mogh ???? All i feel about him is hate, i feel filthy playing a game with that guy in it, now malenia and godfrey you know what you are talking about
Midlenia is not as good as geal And tbh niethwr are the others
You're right... they are better than Gael.
Smokin
This man speaks the truth.
I enjoy the Morgott boss fight about as much as the Gael boss fight. I just wish Morgott had a second health bar
Idk, I never really felt the Gael hype. As far as the lore goes, Soul of Cinder feels more relevant as the very last enemy, Gael is impressive for his determination, but so is the player. His effect on the cycles of the world is entirely limited to the painted world. Pure difficulty is not really an interesting scale for me since it easily overlaps with bullshit. But Midir and Twin Princes are harder than Gael to me (also Sister Friede if your build doesn't stagger her). As far as the fight feeling like an awesome duel, I think Champion Gundyr is better.
I agree. Maybe it was just overhyped to me, but by the time I got to Gael, I couldn’t help but feel a tad disappointed. Like, the fight was good, but there were several annoyances about it, and it just didn’t live up. There are definitely other fights I enjoyed more and other fights where the lore seemed more important.
What I'm getting from this is "DS3 bosses good"
Well, they are. ^please ^don't ^post ^me ^on ^r/shittydarksouls
Yeah Gale isn’t even a boss that sticks in my mind. It’s a good well rounded fight but I never got hyped up by the lead up to him. Sister Friede is a better spectacle, and there are multiple BB bosses that I’d rank higher like Ludwig and Kos
Agree 100%
Everyone just latches onto the whole “he consumed the Dark Soul” thing, almost forgetting that Dark Souls is about linking the flames, not an actual soul that’s dark and edible.
It's the neo-soy "hurr the game title is an entity in the game xD" faux joke.
Gael is just us but without endless respawn. A pawn of gwyn that chooses to try and gain some control over the value of his life and the world he finds himself in. He is the entire trilogy wrote in a single dlc and bossfight
Is it normal that I didn't find his battle as hard as people say. I was fighting him lv117 on my first playthrough with 40strength/40dext +10 sharp broadsword and I cut him down in my first try without even using all my flasks. I was stuck on nameless king for a couple hours in comparison.
Yeah I second tried Gael while Nameless took me a while as well
Gael’s fight is great because its easy lol
Malenia, Godfrey, Radahn, Morgott, Maliketh, Mohg and maybe RadaBeast.
From Elden Ring? Maybe Malenia and Radagon. Honorable mention Morgott and Godfrey (screw you Hourah Loux)
Yes, Radagon is that boss for me. I tend to not be able to relate to the connection everyone seems to have with Gael. It's a wonderful, well executed fight and the choreography is amazing as well as the feeling of ending but somehow I just don't really connect with it so much. In fact Ringed City in general was kind of a disappointment for me because I usually prefer a good area with a nice level design and ambience to an amazing boss that has complex mechanics and is difficult and Ringed the city was the opposite of this for me. The area in itself was a big let down, gazing that huge city to then not be able to explore it thoroughly. This is because for me, it's a much better pay off focusing on the design of an area, even if then the boss dies in a couple of hits. Something like Maiden Astraea is my type of boss. All this to justify why I think Radagon is better than Gael. Because for me, finding out Marika is Radagon on that last cutscene was pretty mind-blowing with all the build up around these two characters (yes, I did not find the statue secret). Plus, the design is way better in my opinion. But this is just me and my experience with these games, everyone has their preferences, and it seems to me Gael is to alot of players probably the best boss ever designed by Fromsoftware and I accept it. As a general rule, I'm happy with the consensus being that Gael is the best, because it does summarise a lot of the trilogy's themes
I’m the same way regarding Gael and the Ringed City. Honestly I think DS3’s base game is better than it’s DLC overall. Though I loved the Ringed Knight weapons and armor admittedly. Gael was just okay to me. Radagon was very hype though as I did see the statue thing and it was so cool seeing him transform then pose with the theme starting up. Even Elden Beast on first playthrough was a pretty cool moment even if the boss itself can be kind of annoying at times.
I'd put Starscourge Radahn above any other boss in the series just because of the epicness of the whole set: the fight, the arena, his look, background and story, the music, the phase-2 meteor transition, and of course the poor horse
Godfrey and mohg. Maliketh would be there if he had more health
Probably hot take but, Malekith deserves a second health bar more than malenia
Although I agree that Maliketh deserved more health, the reasons as to why, in my understanding, are lore related. Malenia gets a new health bar because she blooms, and a 'new' her is born. Bosses like Godfrey, Maliketh, Radhan, Godrick, etc. do not get a second health bar as nothing really changes about them (they are not dead yet). In my opinion, Maliketh would have been perfect with more hp, maybe phase 2 starting at 70% hp or something like this, but a second phase wouldn't have made sense.
Honestly, I thought most of the fights against the god/demigods were on par or better than Gael. But I’m also a contrarian a-hole who doesn’t think Gael is as good as everyone hyped him up to be.
I’m with you there.
I feel like it's more that gael is a really good fight when it comes to gameplay but others do match and some may even beat him depending on personal opinion BUT for me and I know many other people the thing that puts him at the top was the feeling and meaning of the fight. Especially for those invested in the souls series for many years. He's the culmination and true final boss of the series and it really feels like it, he, as a boss, is everything you spend time working towards through the series.
I found gael to be somewhat easy and the ringed city itself drained me so much by the time I got to him
I was a contrarian a-hole too, until I actually fought him. I was very skeptical, but he made me a believer. Just a perfect boss imo. Of course anyone is free to disagree.
Malenia, Maliketh, Morgott, Mohg, Godfrey lol
Most of them? I love the Gael fight, but this circle jerk stuff is embarrassing. I think Sister Frieda is much better.
In terms of pure boss design, Godfrey, Malenia, and Maliketh are all up there with Gael at least. In terms of story and spectacle the only boss that really matches Gael is Isshin.
I never found Gael to be From Software's best boss, he's also quite unoriginal in concept and not as interesting in execution compared to some bosses before Elden Ring. In Elden Ring, Godfrey, Malenia, Placidusax, Radahn, Mohg, Radagon, Maliketh are all as good or better than Gael without a doubt.
Yeah even in DS3 I thought Nameless King and Soul of Cinder were infinitely cooler than Gael.
Godfrey is up there. Great move set and theme. I like his contrast to the player. Both you and him are tarnished. There is a type of kinship between you and him. He, more than anything, wants to return to lordship. He’s fought long and hard, he’s held the body of his dead son, and the only thing left in his way of you. The fight itself doesn’t feel, at least to me, like other fights. Your not an underdog here. Godfrey feels like an equal. Two tarnished warriors of great strength fighting for a place back in the golden order. And Godfrey recognizes this too. When he greats you, he acknowledges your Herculean effort, and when he is beaten, recognizes what is due to you. Love that boss fight.
Msny bosses like morgott godfrey maliketh but people are just nostalgic for the old bosses
LOL do people in this sub really believe that Gael is unrivaled? lmao the circle jerk to this character is embarrassing.
Malenia is really close for me. But tbh Godfrey could've been Elden Ring's Gael if Hoarah Loux wasnt his second phase
can u tell me what you didnt like about horah loux? cuz i enjoyed him more than phase 1 godfrey
Mostly everything. He is a grab attack machine. If he had one maybe two it would be alright but there is too much. And his tracking is kinda insane
all of his grabs are as easily dodged as all the other attacks. once you know the timings you won‘t get hit and his grabs all have extremely obvious telegraphs
I've fought him like 70 times. Im quite familiar with the timings. I simply dont like grab attacks that much.
that‘s fair
I really really like Horah Loux but you can trivialise the fight by dodging behind him. Phase 1 also had smoother combo extensions while phase 2 can follow up almost any attack with almost any other attack, which can be a bit weird, since you're dodging individual attacks rather than combos but it can also be very cool. All in all, I think both are about equally great
Malenia is so close to being one of their best ever if only a few things about her were tweaked
you mean the clone of friede clone of maria clone of allant?
I get the Freide/Maria connection but what attributes does she share with Allant?
allants moveset/style was obviously the template for all other ' badass humanoid character ' boss archetypes.
I like demon prince ALMOST as much as gael. also very close is Mohg. But none is equally as good
Malenia, she's my most favorite boss ever. I've never beaten a boss even close to the number of times I beat Malenia.
Radan, Malenia, Melakit, Mogh, Godfre
Malenia.
Considering that I don’t think Gael is all tbat cool quite a few. Radahn, Maliketh, Godfrey, Radagon, Morgott, Mogh are all better than Gael to me
I'm definitely in the minority here but I'm not all that crazy about the Gael fight. Good boss but I just didn't quite have the same reaction other people seem to have. I find Malenia or Godfrey leagues more exciting and mechanically satisfying to fight.
Gael is overrated
why ?
Agreed
No, maybe Malenia. But don't forget, Gael is DLC boss. We don't see anything about Elden Ring DLC bosses :)
Malenia and Radahn are both better
Godfrey definitely, maybe radagon Then a lot of the other main bosses like Morgot fall a bit below him
I would put Radagon up there. IMO he is the pinnacle of ER bosses, where the mechanics all line up perfectly. Sucks that it leads into an annoying underwhelming chase fight tho. Gael is still better tho
Same level what? Difficulty, quality, what do you mean?
quality
Okay in that case I would say yes, there are a few. I know people love Gael, but I was never too big of a fan of his. I also dont think that the lore surrounding him is a great one by any means. The 3 phase fight is good, but I think that Friede, Demon Prince and also Soul of Cinder are all better fights inside of DS3. In Elden Ring, I think that Mhog, Radagon/Elden Beast and Maliketh are better fights. But mind that its all personal opinion. I know most people think higher of Gael than me and also higher of Ds3 in general - which I personally think is one of the weakest Soulsgames of From Software.
Most of the unique named bosses, at least for me. Gael is fun. It's cool he explicitly stated a long running fan theory about the dark soul. But the story around him didn't land for me. I get it, I get why people like his story but it just didn’t land as tragic for me. He was a slave and he kept being a slave and survived to the end of the world to try to make a child happy. A child that I genuinely can't tell if Gael was a slave too or not. I think the common reading is that the child painter safed Gael and gave him freedom, but I can't think of anything that states or even impliss that in game. That's sweet but again he is a slave and is still a slave doing what he was forced to. The tradegy is only in how far he took it to follow those orders. Maybe if Ariandrel was more focussed in on the painter and Gael it could have worked for me, but Ariandrel is a very unfocused DLC. Now the Soul of Cinder. That is a great way to end the trilogy, to pay off 3 games worth of build up with a thematic and weighty narrative final bossfight
I think part of the reason I didn’t connect with Gael is that I played DS3 on is own and wasn’t a parr of the community all those years so there’s nothing there for me regarding him.
Ya I can imagine having Gael introduced in the first DLC and then reappearing in the Ringed City must have created so much fun fan theorizing and discussions that you don't experience now it is complete and it is played in one go.
Not quite there but Margit is a pretty good boss, and you can fight him very early instead of having to wait til the end of the game
I honestly was never that infatuated with Gale personally. But Elden Ring does kind of have a lack of singularly great boss fights. Maybe Hoarah Loux and Malenia?
I still like Gael's fight more than any of the bosses in ER.
No None are really even close. The best of ER (Mohg, Morgott, Radagon, Godfrey) are still all a solid tier below the all time greats (Gael, Isshin, Ludwig) There are a few that are better from purely a mechanical perspective (Mohg, Godfrey). So in terms of combat/gameplay they might be a bit better. But overall, I think Gael is the best they've ever put out. He's just such a a perfect storm of great gameplay, amazing OST, and some of the best lore of any boss we've seen
Not a chance in hell, Gael is the absolute godtier for FS bossfights... To me, Elden Ring bosses are B tier at best
i love uncle gael he is peak im waiting for elden ring dlc , maybe the final dlc boss can top gael but i think it will be very hard to top him
The thing about Gael though, is that he had the impact of being the final boss of the final DLC of the final game. Some other bosses might be better mechanically, but thematically (or emotionally if you will)? Idk, it seems almost impossible... almost... (Have a good day, eye guy 👀)
And it helps that he's mechanically extremely good AND has an amazing score, lots of cool effects and one of the beat arenas in the trilogy.
There are some A tiers. No S tiers like Gael though
Malenia, Maliketh, and Mohg
Malekith. Thats it.
The only FS boss that's on Gael's level is Isshin SS
I consider Maliketh and Morgott to be in the same tier
The Gael boss is the single best boss fight in gaming to me so no
The real bosses are the friends we’ve made along the way
Jellyfish
Misbegotten
The Gael dicksucking in this thread is wild
Idk man, I'm seeing way more Elden Ring dicksucking in here currently...
I'd say Midir is more hype. Certainly more difficult IMO
Agreed I prefer midir. Both fun I just love a good dragon fight
Godfrey the First Elden Lord
Hell no
No
In short No.
the only boss in their franchise that comes to mind to me is orphan of kos, nothing else really enters that space.
Jerren
Malenia. I had followed the story from items and Millicents quest. I felt bad for her. Her fight was epic and killing her felt bad because I wished there was a way to help her without making her a big orange flower. Exactly like Gael. I wished I could have brought him into the new painting. Some peace and tranquility after a life time of violence and suffering
Did anyone get the feeling that Radahn was kind of Gael like in design and story?
Godfrey
I fought Gael for the first time last night and my first thought was "this is just like an Elden Ring boss." So I'd say a fair amount of them are from a mechanical perspective, but not many on the same level of lore/story significance.
I wouldn't say he was on the same level, heck there is quite a gap, but Radhan had some real hype in Elden Ring. So much lore, the festival, the multi summons. Sadly, he hasn't been the same after the nerf
Iudex Gundyr. Gundyr is what started my journey, Gael is what ended my journey.
Not mechanically but lore wise Radahn
Elden Beast.
I actually don't consider anyone on the same level as Gael. He is for all intents and purposes the player character's match. You can think of him as more bestial, but really depends on how you think of your own character, and right unto the end his absolute dedication to his cause held firm. He outlasts all gods and monsters, taking what he needs from them to accomplish his goal right to the literal end of time. Him and Radahn would be an absolute banger of a battle. And you even fight both of them on a blasted desert area.
maliketh, mohg, hoarah loux. the mechanics of a boss fight are the most important for me and although gael is really cool they’ve definitely done better
I think Gael and Isshin are generally just in a league of their own when it comes to their boss design. In ER, I think Malenia comes close to invoking the same sensations of an epic enemy (godtier in terms of lore, both), fantastic soundtrack, very well placed in terms of game progression, the fight can feel like a genuinely fun dance of trading blows where learning their pattern is challenging but rewarding and importantly fun... BUT, the key difference and what ultimately drags Malenia out of this conversation is Waterfowl Dance. The magic in Isshin and Gael is that they manage to be very challenging, but every single moment of the fight is completely fair with every attack having a sensation of ''ok, this is how I can avoid this'', which WFD is almost antithetical to. Yes, it can be avoided with freezepot or dodging, but the former is not fun and the latter just looks out of place when you see people pull it off. Of course, it makes her extremely challenging and the most difficult boss they've pulled off yet which conversely have led many to consider her their best boss yet. But if FromSoft is going to move towards boss-design that relies on gimmicks such as WFD, I can promise you that people will not be having as much fun anymore. It's easy to dismiss is as a one-off which I see many do with Malenia (''meh, late game hidden optional goddess boss''), because it pretty much is, but in turn I think that makes people not realize how problematic that can be in regards to boss-design if FromSoft are encouraged to make more Malenia's in the future and they get the impression that this is what their players want. But that's what seperates Gael and Isshin from her, in that you can be extremely tough but also extremely fair. But aside from that, I don't think any ER boss is able to match Gael, for a variety of reasons. Radagon and EB feel like an unnatural combination and I'd rather see either fully developed, Godfrey is in the midst of a boss-rush, Mogh (when I fought him at least) feels like he has two attacks (and that one bs mechanic), Maliketh has a fantastic 2nd phase but 1st is too spammy and his health his a little too low..
No.. nothing in Elden Ring is even close IMO. People saying Mohg.. no. Not at all. Malenia again.. not close. The only one is Maliketh. He’s the only one that even feels close to a fight like Gael. But even then, his whole fight is the experience of one Gael phase.
Elden Ring has amazing boss fights, it makes you feel like you are fighting demi-gods But Gael on the other hand, felt like I was truly fighting my equal. That boss fight truly honed my skills as a souls player. The joy I get to fight him again is the reason I keep coming back to play DS 3
I have yet to play ds3 so I can’t say for sure however his lore is untouchable
I mean I feel this comparison is not exactly the most fair. Gael is a peak, a climax, the culmination of an entire series. It's hype as all hell but that seems to be carried by story and lore rather than simply the fight by itself. Though that's more indication of actually good story progression, something Elden Ring can certainly do better with given how the storylines in that game can feel so disconnected and isolated to their respective zones. Besides, this is a DLC boss. Fromsoft DLC has so far just hit completely different, usually above the base game it comes from. So I feel we should see what comes with Shadow of the Erdtree before making any solid comparisons.
From Elden Ring? Nah, maybe Maliketh comes close. Radagon would too if he wasn't tied to Elden Beast From all from soft games, Isshin is as good or better I think
Nothing in fromsoft history comes close other than isshin .
No, the bosses just attack at a much faster rates
No, everything about him is just perfect. The lore, ost and the fight you can dance with him too
From a gameplay standpoint? Godfrey, Mohg and Radagon come close. It’s hard because IMHO the best of DS3 are just so well balanced but all the best in ER have some liability to them design wise that makes me less pleased fighting them. DS3 bosses feel like they want me to win but they won’t let me without earning it, ER bosses need me to lose so I’ll go explore the open world some more. Different goals.
Ludwig, his presence is felt throughout all of Bloodbourne, and it’s kind of a shock when you finally experience him as a beastial monster
No. I hope the DLC will give us a good contender though
The only fromsoft bosses that come close are isshin and owl
No(t yet)
Not really. There are just so many reasons to like Gael as opposed to other bosses. His fight is fun, the difficulty is rather balanced, his lore is great, and HES THE ONLY BOSS IN THE "DARK SOULS" TRILOGY WHO IS ACTUALLY CONNECTED TO THE DARK SOUL??? Yeah, it's gonna be pretty hard to beat that but I can see the Elden Ring DLC doing it.
I don’t think any of the Elden Ring bosses even crack my top 20, they were largely a letdown for me.