History ThatOneBoss / DarkSouls

* The Twin Princes. In the first phase, Lorian (the big one) charges you with minimally telegraphed attacks. However, he teleports, courtesy of Lothric (the small one), and gives you a barrage of {{Sword Beam}}s of both light and fire. After the painful one-on-one with the first Prince, Lothric comes to the rescue ''and revives Lorian'' (that being said, he has less health with after each revival). Here comes the second phase, aka the most painful experience of RNG. There are at some points where they teleport less, or [[TeleportSpam teleport incessantly to the absolute extreme]]. While the attacks are pretty much the same, though Lothric's magic intervenes with the battle, the worst aspect of the second phase is the fact that if you kill Lorian first, Lothric revives him, ''again!!''. The design of the boss's hitboxes makes it sure that there is at least one bloody revive from the Princes. Good luck maintaining your estus till the end!

* Sister Friede's first two stages aren't too difficult to deal with, it's the third and final stage of her fight that becomes a true challenge. She pulls out a second scythe, and her attacks are now imbued with black flames, greatly increasing her damage output (by the endgame, each hit from her will likely take out one Estus-worth of health). She's also ''far'' more aggressive than in her previous stages, attacking and covering ground quickly, leaving little time to heal and even less room for error.

* [[WolfpackBoss The Four Kings]]. The battle is essentially a damage race to kill each King as quickly as possible before the others spawn while surviving/avoiding their highly damaging magic-based attacks, which is easier said than done because of their HitboxDissonance, and the arena – a pitch-black, infinite, entirely featureless void with absolutely nothing to provide a frame of reference – is extremely disorienting. It gets worse in NewGamePlus since the Kings get a considerable health boost making it that much harder to kill them quickly. Oh, and just to make the fight even harder, the Four Kings do ''no physical damage at all''. It's all magic damage in varying flavors, so that 100% physical block shield that's carried you through the entire game now becomes a ''lot'' less effective.

* Despite being a mere Dark Spirit and not technically a boss, Armorer Dennis in HD ''Scholar of The First Sin'' is ''excessively'' rage-inducing. He's basically a high-level sorcerer player with Sorceries like the standard issue Soul Spear, the fifty-mile-wide, roll-or-else Soul Greatsword and [[ThatOneAttack Soul Vortex]], a storm of block-penetrating perma-stunning energy roughly the width of the area he's encountered. He's not even a SquishyWizard as he has a high-stability shield and ''way'' more HP than any Dark Spirit of his level should have. Oh, and [[EarlyBirdBoss you first find the bastard in the Forest of Fallen Giants]]. It's arguable you're not "meant" to fight him straight up, as despite his strengths he is vulnerable to both guard breaking (which, as he blocks a lot, can knock him down for a riposte) or you can [[PuzzleBoss use an otherwise obscure item that happens to spawn fairly often next to him]] to defeat him without even needing to take a swing.

* Despite being a mere Dark Spirit and not technically a boss, Armorer Dennis in HD ''Scholar of The First Sin'' is ''excessively'' rage-inducing. He's basically a high-level sorcerer player with Sorceries like the standard issue Soul Spear, the fifty-mile-wide, roll-or-else Soul Greatsword and [[ThatOneAttack Soul Vortex]], a storm of block-penetrating perma-stunning energy roughly the width of the area he's encountered. He's not even a SquishyWizard as he has a high-stability shield and ''way'' more HP than any Dark Spirit of his level should have. Oh, and [[EarlyBirdBoss you first find the bastard in the Forest of Fallen Giants]].

** It's telling that the BonusBoss encounter for the ''Crown of the Iron King'' DLC is ''another'' Smelter Demon — this time dealing magic damage thanks to its blue flames.

* If you have any intent on going through the Untended Graves for one of the three endings, you have to get through the BeefGate with extra beef that is known as the Champion Gundyr, who TookALevelInBadass from the WarmUpBoss that was the game's tutorial boss, Iudex Gundyr. He manages to prove such a huge threat to the player by hitting ''way'' harder than he before (to the point he can outright ''one-shot'' you if you're sufficiently underleveled or just lacking in HP), his combos being far longer and far more aggressive overall, and keeping you constantly on your toes by virtue of having several fake-outs and false moves to punish you with. The saving graces to having to fight this monstrosity are twofold: for one, he thankfully ''doesn't'' have the corrupted Abyss form the Iudex Gundyr fought you with, but he still TurnsRed and busts out even ''more'' aggressive combos that'll likely catch you by surprise and send you to a quick death. The second saving grace and in a weird subversion of a BonusBoss, is that he's completely skippable... but if you intend on getting the [[spoiler:[[EndOfAnAge End of Fire Ending]]]], he's flat-out ''mandatory'' to beat the game, as an item you need to get for that ending is kept beyond him, with no way around. Either way, he still counts by virtue of getting in the way of you beating the game, and if you're expecting an easy boss fight like the Iudex Gundyr, expect a total CurbStompBattle with ''you'' at the receiving end.

For the troublesome bosses in ''VideoGame/{{Bloodborne}}'', ''VideoGame/SekiroShadowsDieTwice,'' and ''VideoGame/EldenRing'', visit [[ThatOneBoss/{{Bloodborne}} this page]], [[ThatOneBoss/SekiroShadowsDieTwice this page]], and [[ThatOneBoss/EldenRing this page]] respectfully. Difficult bosses for ''VideoGame/DemonsSouls'' can be found under its respective YMMV tab.

* The Bed of Chaos. If there was one endgame boss that is absolutely hated by players just for how mind-boggingly frustrating the strategy to defeat it is, it's this monster. It's also despised for being full of FakeDifficulty in a game that usually avoids the trope, primarily because you can't actually damage it with your weapons in order to kill it – you have to run to and destroy three weak points, avoiding virtually-unpredictable and difficult-to-dodge attacks that instakill you by sweeping you into a bottomless pit. They become increasingly difficult to reach with the chaos that piles up throughout the boss fight (read: tree arms swinging around wildly, crumbling floor, fire scythes digging their way to you, and straight-up Firestorm pyromancies). The '''single shred of mercy''' this fight has in it is that the weak points don't regenerate if you die, meaning you don't have to start the entire fight from the beginning when you inevitably plummet to your doom. How annoying is this fight? [[WordOfGod Miyazaki at one point]] [[https://www.giantbomb.com/forums/dark-souls-6255/dark-souls-design-works-translation-npcs-and-monst-576001/ stated]] that the Bed of Chaos was his [[OldShame greatest regret]].