Hot take: Elden Ring has way better bosses than Dark Souls 3

TLDR:

Most of the DS3 bosses are like C tier or below for me (Iudex, Vordt, Greatwood, Sage, Deacons, Wolnir, Yhorm, Aldrich, Dancer, Champion Gundyr, arguably Oceiros, Ancient Wyvern, Gravetender, Halflight) and too many are either poorly done gimmick fights or boring 1v1 melee duels that people seem to love for whatever reason. I also don't overhype bosses like Gael or Friede nearly as much as others do (I think Gael is S tier but far from the best boss in the game, let alone all of gaming)

Whereas Elden Ring I found to be pretty consistently great with it's major bosses (there are some exceptions but they are really few), having plenty of spectacle, attack variety, really sick designs and overall better than DS3's boss lineup, with only a few DS3 bosses able to hold up against ER's (most of which are Ringed City DLC bosses)

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Yes. You read the title right. I actually think Elden Ring has far better bosses than Dark Souls 3

I've heard so many people praise DS3 to hell and back, especially for it's boss quality, and I just can't take it anymore. After playing both games, I'm 100% convinced that ER had way better bosses than DS3. Most of the time ER bosses are criticized for their "delayed attacks" for instance, yet I don't think this is really the case at all. I think the vast majority of the bosses in ER are extremely fair unless you're just fighting them wrong (i.e Morgott or Beast Clergyman), with a few exceptions (Margit, Maliketh, Malenia, Mohg, maybe Radagon)

Also, keep in mind that Elden Ring isn't my first souls game. Many people say that the ones who praise ER over DS3 or other, earlier FromSoft titles are those who began with ER as their first souls game, but that isn't me. I actually played not just DS3 but also DS1 before Elden Ring, yet I can see it clear as day, Elden Ring is by far not just superior in boss quality but as an overall game too (though I won't get into those specifics today)

Now, I know that most people here in Reddit have low attention spans for such huge posts like this one, so that's why I included the TLDR at the top. If you've made it here and have interest on learning my more specific thoughts on the DS3 bosses, you can do so, but be aware it might take a little while to read through it:

Iudex - Feels more like a miniboss than an actual boss. Ok first phase but 2nd phase is only cool the first time, everytime after it's a pushover. Asylum Demon and Margit are way better. C tier

Vordt - Better than Iudex but not by much. It's too easy to get under him and attack him during frost breath and the arena could be bigger. I would've prefered if it had a gimmick of breaking his armor first by pushing something onto him, then having the current fight. B- or C+ Tier

Greatwood - Gimmick boss. I didn't really mind it that much at first, but admittedly the first phase with the enemy summons is bad and 2nd phase has a lot of waiting around to be able to hit it. G for Gimmick tier because I can't really compare gimmick bosses to the other bosses here

Crystal Sage - Straightup bad boss. 1st phase is boring and 2nd phase is cool conceptually but getting hit from offscreen isn't fun. D Tier

Deacons - Cool atmosphere, concept and design but other than that it's extremely easy once you know the gimmick. G for Gimmick tier, but I think it's better than Greatwood

Abyss Watchers - 1 of 3 S tier bosses in the base game. Amazing lore, presentation, cutscenes, atmosphere. Great boss overall

Wolnir - Cool the first time but in reality the coolness comes from his design and atmosphere, other than that it's pretty shallow and boring. G for Gimmick but I think Wolnir > Deacons and Greatwood still

Pontiff - One of the better bosses even though I usually don't like "1v1 melee fights" but his 2nd Phase sorta makes up for it. A tier

Yhorm - It's pretty meh. Attack variety is mid and it's just too easy and over far too quickly. G for Gimmick tier, Wolnir > Deacons >= Yhorm >= Greatwood

Aldrich - Crystal Sage 2.0 basically. Like, really, these bosses are more similar than you think. It has an insulting arena too because O&S is so much better than whatever this is supposed to be. C Tier because it has better magic spells than Sage and no annoying 2nd Phase

Dancer - Hot take but not very good. Boring 1v1 melee fight that brings nothing new to the table unlike Pontiff. 2nd phase feels kinda broken because there are very few windows to attack and the combos r too long. C Tier

Old Demon King - Has some cool attacks but boring design and way too slow. B- Tier

Oceiros - Phase 1 is pretty bad, Phase 2 slightly better but similar to Vordt, way too cheesable by staying behind him. B- Tier

Champion Gundyr - Godfrey but boring. C Tier and I'm not even kidding

Dragonslayer Armor - Genuinely great 1v1 melee duel, maybe it's because he uses a less conventional weapon and a shield so his moveset is more unique & less predictable. A Tier

Twin Princes - I've gone back and forth on this one a lot but ultimately it's pretty great. I just wish Lorian changed melee moveset in Phase 2. A Tier

Ancient Wyvern - Just... no. F Tier but at least the plunging animation is cool ig

Nameless King - 2nd of 3 S tier bosses in base game. Great first phase with the dragon (The camera isn't that bad) and pretty good 1v1 melee duel in 2nd Phase with cool attacks to make it stand out. Also very cool arena. S Tier

Soul of Cinder - 3rd of 3 S tier bosses in base game. Basically peak boss design and by far my favorite boss in the entire game, including DLC bosses which is saying a lot. Amazing attack variety overall, and really cool callback & redemption for the Gwyn fight from DS1 (which I consider to be a bad boss)

Overall, 2 D/F tier bosses, 5 C tier bosses, 4 Gimmick bosses (which would translate to C/B tier probably because of uniqueness), 2 B tier bosses, 3 A tier bosses and 3 S tier bosses

Now, I'm not saying DS3 has horrible bosses or anything, and I'm sure a lot of people will say "Oh, but generally games aren't 100% peak bosses" and I somewhat agree with that, but the thing is people here praise DS3 to hell and back for it's boss quality as if it did have 100% peak bosses when that's clearly not the case, or at least it isn't for me.

If you're wondering, for DLCs my boss ranking is:

Gravetender - F Tier Worst boss in the game by far

Friede - I don't really like her first or 3rd phase, but her 2nd phase is pretty good. A- Tier

Halflight - F Tier

Demon Prince - S Tier my 2nd fav boss in the game

Midir - S Tier 3rd fav

Gael - S Tier 4th/5th fav (potentially below Nameless King, but it's still a really great fight, just not the best boss in all of gaming like some say)

Again, some may say it just has the best Soulsborne boss quality. Now, I haven't played all of Soulsborne at all, but from what I've seen, DS2 has mid bosses overall, Demon's Souls is filled to the brim with gimmick fights and I've heard a lot of mid boss complaints for Bloodborne, but ofc take this with a grain of salt because I haven't played either of these 3 games. I did play DS1 though, and yeah DS3 probably has better bosses than DS1....

... However, then I played Elden Ring. Oh my god, the bosses in this game are so good. Godrick, Rennala(Phase 2), Radahn, Rykard, Regal Ancestor, Astel, Fortissax, Mohg, Morgott, Placidusax, Godfrey, Radabeast are all either A or S tier bosses imo. Even some of the ones that I'd consider B tier like Margit, Maliketh, Malenia, Godskin Noble and Valiant Gargoyles(YES) are still pretty good bosses and are better than the majority of DS3 bosses.

I'm only starting Shadow of the Erdtree right now, but thus far I fought the first 2 bosses and I'm starting to feel like they detered away from the course of main ER bosses back to the DS3 formula because so many people complained about ER's bosses being bad. I.e Rellana is way closer in quality to your average DS3 boss than it is to your average ER base game boss, which is a massive shame for me.

Now, I could go into detail about what I like and dislike about these bosses, but I think the post is getting too long already for the average Reddit attention span so I'll end it here. I will respond to comments if anyone wants to know my deeper thoughts on some of these bosses, but I just feel like they are MUCH better than most of DS3's bosses (the only ones that live up to most ER major bosses for me are Soul of Cinder, Demon Prince, Midir, Nameless King, Gael and Abyss Watchers, in that order).

Then again, it might seem like I made a huge argument against DS3 bosses but no true arguments in favor of ER's, and that's technically true but please understand that last time I made a post this long nobody read it and they just went like "Who did you write this for?" or something like that. I can and will respond with reasoning for the ER bosses at request.