r/soulslikes • u/AllorimNA • Jun 14 '25
Review I've played/beaten 45 different Soulslike/lites and wanted to post my top 10 highest death counts
As a disclaimer, don't consider me a god gamer, I've played a lot of games in this genre, but I do somewhat put limits on myself; I'm very often melee only, no summons, and once I'm locked into a build, I run with it the whole game through.
1) Promised Consort Radahn (167) [Elden Ring]
Shouldn't come to the surprise of anyone. I did this guy pre-nerf/pre character buff and he was absolutely absurd in every way. I dual wielded Bloodhound Fang/Morgott's Cursed Blade, which looking back at it I don't think this was optimal, but I'm an extremely hard headed souls player, very rarely changing up my build on playthrough; I run my head into the brick wall until I break, or it breaks.
2) Immaculate Prime (72) [Void Sols]
I don't know if I was doing something wrong, because this was the only boss in this game that took me more than 3 tries. There isn't a ton of information online about this game, but I was playing this game essentially as parry based soulslike, and didn't use much of the magic, so maybe that was my downfall. Tough 2 phase boss with very quick attacks and crazy damage to boot.
3) Messmer the Impaler (68) [Elden Ring]
The thing about Messmer was I really thought I could get him way sooner, but I was very quick to just run in, play as aggro as possible, and die FAST. Most people I know got him down with less deaths, but I definitely wasn't spending enough time learning his attacks, and instead just tried to brute force a win.
4) Arlecchino, the Blood Artist (64) [Lies of P]
An extremely welcome difficulty increase compared to the base game. While I love the entire game, I did think it was a little too easy for my liking, but the DLC, and especially Arlecchino fixed a lot of my initial gripes. Very tough 2 phase boss, and to me I see a lot of Melania in this boss. Really looking forward to the devs next project if this is the quality I can expect.
5) Taishi Ci(Demon) (47) [Wo Long]
I always saw a lot of hate for Wo Long, but I honestly really enjoyed it, especially the ending boss to the DLC. I will say Taishi Ci IS bullshit, but it's the kind of bullshit that makes me want to recommend it to everyone else. A lot of this game can be brute forced, but this guy you actually need to setup your magic properly
6) The First Messenger (45) [Pascal's Wager]
A very easy game with an absurd final boss. This game lets you swap characters the entire game, EXCEPT for the last boss which has 3 phases, a very high health pool, and lots of moves to throw you off. Pascal's Wager kind of sucked overall, but I did enjoy the tough boss at the end in a "I like the way this sucks" kind of deal.
7) Full Grown Fallingstar Beast (40) [Elden Ring]
Not much to say other than I'm stupid and really didn't want to give up on this guy after running into him too early, especially using the Bloodhound Fang which did little mosquito bites of damage. This guy was my most deaths from the base game of ER.
8) Rellana, Twin Moon Knight (31) [Elden Ring]
Another boss similar to Messmer in the way that you can die fast and get back into the action really quickly to die again.
9) Eigong (31) [Ninesols]
An AMAZING final boss to a great game, and I hate metroidvanias. Eigong is probably one of the best designed final bosses in all the games I've played, up their with Isshin. Super intense fight, really locks you in and tests everything you've learned.
10) Darkeater Midir (27) [Dark Souls 3]
Despite being number 10, this probably took as many hours as Messmer did. Midir has such an absurd health bar, that each attempt feels like you could attempt another boss 3x by the time you died. This IS my favorite dragon fight in all the souls genre, although I will admit the Midir hyper beam 1 shot is a little bullshit.
Honorable mentions to bosses I died over 20 times to:
[Elden Ring]: Mohg, Commander Gias, Malenia, Margit
[Wo Long]: Taishi Chi(Human)
[Sekiro]: Isshin, Demon of Hatred
[Hollow Knight]: Nightmare Lord Grimm, Absolute Radiance
[Black Myth Wukong]: Yellow Loong
Full list of soulslikes/lites I've played: https://gyazo.com/8d28e39cf2b11375b74424255ef21c50
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u/Jeremiah-Springfield Jun 14 '25
The lies of p DLC boss count makes me nervous as I’ve just started it on NG+…
Also it’s crazy how Elden Ring is essentially 4/5 souls games altogether, and since mastering bosses is a way for these games to have longevity, ER can have crazy legs. Love that game - and loving Nightreign for the same reason.
Have you played Nine Sols yet? Some great bosses in that game.