This article is pure easy self-indulgence riding off the coattails of my emotional support re-play of Bloodborne, revisiting my most beloved bloody world of Yharnam for the first time in five years. Bloodborne is perhaps my favorite game of all time when I am truly pressed to pick a favorite. I purchased a PS4 solely for the purpose of playing this game after having fallen in love with the Souls games and hopelessly lusted over the prospect of this game perfectly in line with my aesthetic and narrative sensibilities from afar. The console and game ended up being my high school graduation gift for myself. I fondly remember receiving the console and game the morning of my graduation trip and fighting Gascoigne for the first time in a hotel room with my grandparents and being shouted at to shut the game off when he unleashed bestial shrieks in his final transformation. After I 100%-d the game in 2019, I got my first ever tattoo in the form of the vileblood corruption rune on the dead center of my chest, just below my collar. The rune is displayed prominently in nearly every outfit I wear and I draw it often in self-portraits as a consequence. It’s not nearly as recognizable as the iconic hunter’s rune, but that just makes the few who do recognize it light up with all the more kindred enthusiasm. I plan to, one day, cosplay my darling Lady Maria when I can afford proper materials to authentically recreate her attire/weapon and I feel like braving the risks of overheating. While other dazzling games might arise and dominate my heart for a time, Bloodborne remains everlastingly in my feelings as the closest possible game to perfection.
A note on my playstyle which heavily influences my ranking: I play primarily with the Saw Cleaver as it’s by far my favorite weapon in the game and I am loath to change out weapons to something acquired later in the game after investing so many upgrade resources into it. I am moderately adept with parrying timing, though I often fail to use this strategy as I forget it exists. This list will also not include the chalice dungeon bosses with exception of Yharnam, Pthumerian Queen. Secondly, this list is also completely non-serious and in no way intended to be an exhaustive ranking/discussion of each boss. This is, again, pure self-indulgence for my own benefit! I may in the future rank the bosses of other Souls games should the desire arise.
24. Laurence, The First Vicar
WRETCHED PARTIAL RESKIN! ABYSMAL RUN BACK! I had a worse time with this fight than I did with the most reviled defiled chalice amygdala. This last placement is out of pure bitterness that has eclipsed my ability to see any of this fight’s virtues. I will never again allow myself to suffer the pain that is this fight, I would sooner endure all of the chalice dungeons or even some of the most reviled bosses in other souls games before I willingly take on this optional boss for so little gain. In fact, this was the only boss I skipped on my recent replay because I value self-care. I swear that some people only regard this boss fondly because either they had a tremendously easier time with him or they mistake difficulty with fun. There is nothing remotely fun about the bullshit difficulty of Laurence. I will only concede that the music is amazing, but that’s par for the course of Bloodborne music.
23. Micolash, Host of the Nightmare
I would not hate Micolash’s fight as much as I do if his second phase Call Beyond attack didn’t so effectively one shot me without that one DLC shield, especially in NG+ cycles. It saddens me to rank this fight so low when Micolash is such a fun cage-wearing little guy with his pathetic howling and irritating run. Alas, this appreciation is entirely independent of what we get in game as I think much more fondly of Micolash the further I am away from actually chasing him in his fight. I couldn’t complain too much though because the hilarity of this man paved the way for the perfection that was Micolash’s introduction trailer in Lilith Walther’s Bloodborne Kart project (which has since been executed by Sony, RIP). In a lot of ways though, compared to the gimmick bosses of other games, we lucked out that this was the joke we were landed with in Bloodborne. If you manage to slay him on your first attempt, the fight feels like a fun little disorienting diversion as you chase this man down nightmare corridors until you can confront him. Provided also that you don’t chase him too well and cause him to never turn down the path leading to the room where he actually fights you. He has pitifully few attacks numbering three in total, two of which are incredibly annoying with high damage potential. It’s a shame that this fight couldn’t have taken place earlier in the game for justified thematic reasons as not only would it make the entire affair less frustrating if he dealt earlier game damage, it would also serve to strengthen the lead up to the end of the game. As much as I enjoy Mergo’s Wet Nurse personally, the game is oft-criticized for having two unchallenging bosses leading up to its finale at the end of an area riddled with brutally terrifying enemies.
22. Rom, The Vacuous Spider
For the longest time, I was an avid Rom defender. Who would dare disparage a struggling single mother fighting you in the most sublime of all boss arenas with one of the best cutscenes in the game at its end, marking a dramatic shift in the game’s atmosphere. But if you have a less than ideal weapon moveset for multiple enemies this fight is nothing short of miserable as you run the risk of getting one shot either by torrents of spiders or a tricky to track spell coming out of Old Gods know where. All that being said, I failed to realize how good we had it fighting her in the stunning original arena below Byrgenweth’s lake until I faced her again in the utter bullshit arena that was the chalice dungeon boss room. I have no desire to spend time repeatedly facing Rom and there’s pitifully little that one can do to even the odds if you keep getting one shot by her spells. Summoning NPCs will only land them with the same fate as they are not only incompetent at dodging massive spells in the second and third rounds, they also get too caught up with spider slaying.
21. Celestial Emissary
A perplexing boss fight that at least has the virtue of having minimal bullshit that would render it loathsome. It feels like more than anything a waste of time. I enjoyed these little freaks more as strange enemies that you would encounter in small groups or on their lonesome throughout the game, especially the ones you encounter in the Forbidden Woods even before the cosmic horror twist when the blood moon descends. This fight almost makes me feel guilty for thrashing these guys in the beautiful lumenflower-filled arena while I can think of nothing else on subsequent playthroughs but how eager I am to fight Ebrietas afterwards. My first fight though had this added dread of anticipating some terrifying twist to make this fight all the more horrifying than it appears after enduring the terror of the Upper Cathedral Ward only for the twist to be a supersized little guy. Imagine my disappointment.
20. Witches of Hemwick
Now this might seem abnormally high to some for such a nothing fight, but I like it for its silly factor and lack of frustration. By far the least annoying of the minor gimmick fights scattered throughout the souls games. I’ve never had any trouble with the witches personally and have never heard of anyone else struggling with them which is more than can be said for the likes of Micolash and Rom, other notoriously disliked fights in the game. It must be said though that the witches are in fact reskins of enemies that do appear elsewhere in the game and their Mad One summons appear throughout Hemwick Charnel Lane if you have a certain level of insight and pose more challenge there. Hilariously, if you enter the fight and leave to return with zero insight they won’t even summon the Mad Ones thus trivializing an already incredibly easy fight that may only trip up the newest player caught entirely unaware. There’s just not much else to say about these inoffensive witches I so often forget are even in this game.
19. Darkbeast Paarl
A freakish design undercut by the sheer camera hell experience that is fighting this beast. In subsequent playthroughs, I will almost always resort to summoning in order to make as quick work of this beast as possible so as to limit the risk of a headache or wait until much later in the game. There’s nothing I want more when entering this fight than for it to be over as soon as possible, I simply derive no enjoyment apart from lamenting that I cannot properly relish his design. I, again, enjoy this electrified canine beast so much that I’ve hung a terrible charcoal drawing I’ve done of him near my bed and left it up long after I accidentally mangled it by brushing it with my foot one too many times. I really don’t have much else to say apart from personal gripes, most of the finer details of the fight that could have been mention are always reliably purged from my memory with how little fun I’m having.
18. Living Failures
A marginally better version of the Celestial Emissary faced in a striking arena with sunflowers at its center, the Living Failures are an underwhelming experience that still has the potential to kill you in frustrating ways if you misjudge the direction of their meteors attack. I doubt I would be as harsh on them if they also weren’t sandwiched between the best bosses in the entire game and stand as the sole weak link in an otherwise virtually flawless DLC.
17. The One Reborn
This is a fight that I loathe to have to repeatedly attempt. It’s fine in small doses, but having to repeatedly make the trek up the stairs to kill all the bell maidens before facing the boss gets incredibly tiring. Not to mention the boss is repulsive in a not so fun way. I’m a body horror guy, but this isn’t doing it for me. The acid spew attack has sent me spiraling into rages before due to its staggering potential and difficulty to dodge in short order. It also eviscerates NPC summons who don’t know how to respond other than to run right through it. I’m not one who is overly reliant on summons by any means, but on subsequent playthroughs I enjoy using them on fights I am not overly fond of for the joy of illusory cooperation.
15. Shadows of Yharnam
A genuinely enjoyable gank fight with genuinely eerie combatants well balanced against one another. Yes, it’s unfortunate that the fight ends up diminishing in retrospect when you encounter the shadows as enemies in the very late game often in numbers greater than the three shadows you encounter in this boss fight, but they still have compelling movesets to face in this graveyard arena. My only true complaint is the snake nonsense towards the end where you get blasted by ground snakes out of nowhere and have to fight with the camera even more than before. They remind me of another fight I am quite fond of (but not for mechanical reasons): The Skeleton Lords of Dark Souls II. They’re just quite silly fun to me. The Shadows, on the other hand, earn more genuine respect though any time I truly struggle on this trio I get saltier than warranted.
14. Blood Starved Beast
Design-wise, the beast is nothing to write home about, but the experience of the fight is nothing short of exhilarating with the speed and frenetic energy of this poisonous abomination. The vast arena is fantastically intimidating and provides ample room to kite the beast around pillars in order to gain some semblance of control. I love to tackle this fight as early in the game as possible before trying all that hard to prioritize gathering upgrade materials available to me at this stage of the game in order to heighten the tension of the challenge. I end up thinking about this fight a great deal more than I realize until I’m traversing Old Yharnam in pursuit of it when the excitement really begins to mount. The fact that this beast isn’t ranked any higher on this listing for all the praise I have to sing is just a testament to the quality of the bosses in this game.
13. Amygdala
Swallowing all of my personal distaste born of having to face the Defiled Chalice version of this boss that nearly made me quit my platinum trophy quest, Amygdala is an amusing romp I would be remiss without the chance to fight after seeing these creatures clinging to the cathedrals across Yharnam. Provided the arena is spacious enough, they are not nearly as severe camera nightmares as some other boss offenders and lock-on is less necessary in this fight anyways. Still, I despise the jumping attack which has high potential to unavoidably one shot you even in a wider arena due to how hard they are to track. For all my complaints, it truly is the design that carries these Great Ones to their assigned ranking as I love how uncanny they look with their many tendrils and limbs. Spider-like monsters, provided they are distant enough from actual spiders (not that I’m afraid of them), are always a surefire favorite for yours truly. Watching them move or just simply exist is hair-raising in the most delightful of ways.
12. Moon Presence
A wicked visual design that ultimately leads to an underwhelming fight difficulty-wise, especially after the wonderfully balanced duel with Gehrman whom I, on my latest playthrough, already found too easy coming immediately off the coattails of an Orphan of Kos victory. Like other bosses who suffer this same fate, Moon Presence could have been salvaged with a health buff or even (a controversial take) require that Gehrman be defeated beforehand on each attempt. Of all the great ones, the Moon Presence is just plain underwhelming to fight. Its spectacular design (both visually and auditorily) is severely undercut by its lack of aggression and inability to properly follow up more devastating moves such as the attack that reduces you to a single HP. The boss stands idly by whilst recovering allowing for the hunter to recover too much of that health without consequence. I would have preferred if there was a variable recovery time after using this attack or when the short recovery period ended, it would attack aggressively with little windup.
11. Yharnam, Pthumerian Queen
The only chalice dungeon exclusive boss included on this list for her iconic design value, though I loathe to go through all the effort required to face her (Defiled Chalice wants me dead IRL). Her design and moveset (yay blood spikes!!) is plain neat even to a total tokophobe such as myself. Lore-wise I find the Pthumerians as a whole a rather interesting subject as shrouded in mystery as they are. While Yharnam isn’t a sufficiently worthy treat to battle at the end of the slog of chalice dungeons required to reach the Great Pthumeru Ihyll Chalice (six dungeons at minimum, but likely seven including the infamous Defiled Chalice), she makes sense. The music that plays during the fight is the same as during Martyr Logarius’ fight, the track entitled “Queen of the Vilebloods” which thematically suits another blood-affiliated queen. As to if there is any lore-related link, I cannot confidently say without regurgitating any fan speculations beyond making the connection of visual similarities between the pale Pthumerians and Cainhurst nobles.
10. Cleric Beast
One of two potential first bosses a hunter will face, I have a soft spot for this screeching monstrosity that lingers fondly in my heart. There’s something about the very introduction of the fight where the Cleric Beast leaps onto the bridge with a screech and the infectious music begins to blast that strokes my heart strings. While I’ve never had a particularly hard time with this boss, even on my first playthrough, I enjoy the beast as an introduction to the game that sets the tone of the more bestial encounters (including the common tragedy of camera hell in the narrow arena). There’s something special about flinging molotov cocktails as the beast screams that feels like the true start of the night of the hunt.
9. Ebrietas, Daughter of the Cosmos
A veritable treat to face after the joke of the Celestial Emissary at the end of one of the most frustrating areas in the game stuffed with foul brainsuckers. Ebrietas, in all her Cthulhu-esque glory, is a sublime sight of grotesque beauty in my monster-loving opinion (one that I admit might be partly biased due to her being addressed in feminine terms). My primary complaint about her fight is that it’s off the beaten path and not a required fight in place of one of the other weaker late game bosses. Her size strikes the fine balance between imposingly large and overwhelming screen real-estate. Her moveset is likewise balanced so that you never feel like you have to fight the camera to see what’s going on instead adding challenge in fairer ways such as the aggressive intensity of her attacks. The sound design is also phenomenal with shrill ringing noises interspersed with the slap of alien tentacles set to an angelic background music. Listening to the track independent of the fight it almost doesn’t sound right without the eerie, discordant ringing.
8. Vicar Amelia
Another personal favorite design on the boss roster that I’ve drawn multiple times, but I do not advise searching for reference images without safe search on for the sheer amount of fetish art that you’d expect for this dog woman unless you fancy that breed of content. Amelia is a well-balanced challenge to close out the first chunk of the game before the hunter embarks upon the journey towards Byrgenwerth for the true thematic turning point. Confronted inside the beautiful grand cathedral which will late be the scene of the most agonizing NPC hunter fight in the entire game, you witness the violent transformation of Amelia through her distorted shadow punctuated by a splash of blood across one of the statues before being show piecemeal glimpses of her new bestial visage. You can’t help but feel pity for the poor woman having seen her so grotesquely transformed in an instant made worse only by her frantic wailing over the course of the fight that sounds almost as if she were pleading with you to leave her alone as she continues to clutch the gilded pendant she was cradling during her transformation to her chest. Amelia is also notable as one of the few large beast boss fights that doesn’t produce an absolute nightmare dance with your camera as there is more than enough space for the battle and her movements are not nearly as erratic as some other fights. This, unfortunately, comes at the cost of some difficulty that could have elevated her to a challenge relative to Gascoigne for new hunters.
7. Martyr Logarius
Logarius went unappreciated by me for the longest time because of how quick of a thrashing I delivered unto him my first time through the game which was in turn obliterated from my memory the second I met and fell in love with Annalise, Queen of the Vilebloods afterwards. Despite the pains of the long run back, the worst of the base game, he’s an exhilarating little challenge to fight in a highly cinematic arena. Logarius has one of the most heart-racing subtle power escalations as he picks up new attacks and more aggressive strategies over the course of the fight. His magic skull magic attacks are visually unique and unexpected compared to the previous types of magic encountered thus far. As interestingly laid out as the rooftop arena you fight him in is, I never found it all that visually compelling as I am not nearly as taken with snowy landscapes in games as others are who often praise these kinds of visuals. This is entirely a petty personal preference born of a deep-rooted hatred for a snowy planet from an MMO that I am forbidden from naming lest it sink its teeth in me again. I suspect in future playthroughs I’ll only grow fonder of fighting this old man and he might rise in my personal rankings.
6. Gehrman, The First Hunter
A superior old man fought in a stunning arena and a bone-chilling introductory dialogue. The line delivery of “Tonight, Gehrman joins the hunt…” is permanently etched in my brain’s gaming earworm library. Tragically, this fight is weakened in my experience by the existence of the DLC which much be completed before slaying the final bosses that plunge you into NG+ immediately afterwards (though technically I suppose you can defeat Gehrman beforehand if you consumed the umbilical cords required to fight the Moon Presence and fail your first attempt/Hunter’s Mark out). I cannot complain too much about the DLC’s grand difficulty trivializing the fight by virtue of the value that is added when comparing the moveset of Lady Maria’s fight with Gehrman where you can trace a lineage of technique passed between master to student. The music is, perhaps, my favorite of all the base game boss OSTs and would be my favorite were it not, of course, for the existence of Lady Maria’s theme. I’m a total sucker for scythe weapons and Gehrman wields his beautifully without falling into the plentiful edgy design pitfalls that scythe-wielders are often subject to. I fully consider Gehrman to be the true final boss of Bloodborne and he is more than worthy of that role.
5. Ludwig, The Holy Blade
I am not as enamored with this fight as most who often laud the fight as the best the game has to offer, but I can’t deny its virtues. The soundtrack is one of the best in the game and the thematic value of the second phase transition cutscene where Ludwig regains his humanity is stellar. I am just not all that fond of fights where you have such a narrow range of opportunity to heal making the fight an almost too quick frenzy to get hits in with no opportunity to breathe, even in the second phase which superficially functions more duel-like. As a consequence, the fight feels so terribly short and since I beat him on my first try in my first playthrough of the DLC, it left little impact on me afterwards. Only upon revisiting the game and struggling against him more was I able to appreciate the fight more, but these battles were also abbreviated in nature leaving me wanting. For all my complaints and suffering under the weight of my immense skill, this still is one of the greatest fights in the game against a formidable foe. He poses the perfect capstone challenge to my personal favorite area in the game, the Hunter’s Nightmare, and more than lives up to the expectations established by his lore significance. It’s a real shame that I’ve never gotten around to making a build for the Holy Moonlight Sword. One day!
4. Father Gascoigne
By far the best of the first bosses in all of the Souls-adjacent games I’ve played, serving as an excellent gatekeeper and test of player understanding of the aggressive Yharnam hunting ways. I love how well-balanced this early fight in a way that still teaches you what to expect from future encounters in Bloodborne. If you can fell Gascoigne, you have the necessary skills and capability to tackle nearly every other foe in the game. I fondly recall my initial struggles with this boss when I wasn’t nearly as adept at this style of game and lamented being locked to such a narrow slice of the early game (as immaculately designed as it is). But never at any point did I become frustrated or succumb to despair over any perceived unfairness. Overcoming this first major challenge was beyond gratifying, bestowing me with a victorious thrill that tapped into the feeling the blood-drunk hunters of Yharnam must have sullied themselves with.
3. Mergo’s Wet Nurse
A, perhaps, unpopular opinion given how easy the fight is for most at this point in the game, but nothing can compare to the eerie atmosphere of this fight set to the haunting music box tune. Confessedly, the only thing this fight is missing is a higher health pool to make the entire affair last longer. The Wet Nurse has one of, if not my actual, favorite designs in all of these games to the point that I have a framed print of this boss sitting on my entertainment center. I will always be a fan of reaper-esque designs and you can count me a sucker for it if it includes any amount of feathers. There’s something about the vacant hood shrouding an unseen face, monstrous gnarled hands grasping countless curved blades, and the strands of decorative jewelry draped all over her cloak. The blade slash sound effects are so deliciously loud, standing out against the minimalistic eerie music box tune. I could gush endlessly about my love of this design, animatedly pointing at specific details until whomever I’m speaking with is looking desperately for the exit. I have long-planned that if I was to get another Bloodborne-related tattoo it would have to be of this boss or otherwise heavily reference her design.
2. Orphan of Kos
Fun fact, I actually wrote an essay about this boss for my games narratives class! I no longer have the project, but it was a highlight of my undergraduate coursework even though I had to finish it in a mad dash after misunderstanding the submission deadline. In my initial playthrough of the DLC for my 100% run, I had the extraordinary stroke of luck of slaying this wailing newborn on my second attempt (technically third as during my “second attempt” I had to let myself get killed immediately because I forgot I was running late for the aforementioned games narratives class). On my most recent playthrough, I had no such luck and feared that my opinion on this boss would sour over the trials ahead. Imagine my relief when my love of the boss only intensified. Even when I had a painful near win spoiled by sheer mistimed greed when I would have been able to end him even with a weak firearm shot! The Orphan is a masterful test of all the skills accrued over one’s playthrough at a conscious and muscle memory level. For only about half of the fight would I run through memorized strategies and patterns in response to his moves, the rest of the time I would allow “instincts” to take control, embodying my hunter as much as humanly possible (especially in the second phase). No matter how many times I faced the miserable Great One, I never felt as if the fight was bullshit or unfair. With exception, perhaps, of the one thrown blood orb move that I can never seem to consistently dodge without taking damage. When I finally bested him after about 13 attempts my second time through, I was shaking with combined relief and gnawing disappointment that the fight was all over until my next run through the DLC.
1. Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower
Lady Maria easily takes the #1 slot because I’m not a misogynist and I support women’s rights to kill me. In my most recent playthrough of the game, seven fights ended with her with a single hit of health left and half of these attempts ended with me entirely out of blood vials. I couldn’t be mad. I was shaking with the exhilaration of the hunt. There’s nothing I love more than a fight that brings you to the dregs of your healing supply as you struggle to overcome your foe. It’s a much more satisfying experience than an abrupt end to a fight at the hand of a brutally bullshit combo that outright obliterates you. Lady Maria gives you adequate healing space while still being aggressive enough to whittle down your health bar and punish you appropriately if you fail to dodge her own elegant combos. Not to mention the GORGEOUS music which has to be my favorite track in the entire game. I know Ludwig’s theme takes the cake for most hunters, but being able to enjoy the musical highs unadulterated by bestial wailing is vital to me. The only complaint I have about this fight is a wish that Lady Maria said something when she kills me just to hear her voice again (in my defense, I’m incredibly gay for her). She and the Doll are the only Souls/Souls-adjacent humanoid characters I have framed prints of on my wall other than Ranni of Elden Ring fame. Every time Lady Maria slaughters me I look up at the framed melancholic portrait of her above my entertainment center where she cradles a wilting sunflower and sigh wistfully.