Having a death wish is one thing, but having a favourite FromSoftware boss is embracing death itself. Just to clarify, I mean a boss from one of From's games, not the studio employees – I'm sure they're all nice people. Devs from across the PlayStation Studio portfolio revealed which boss fight they think is FromSoftware's best.
First up was the boss himself, FromSoftware president and director Hidetaka Miyazaki. "If we’re talking about a boss that I’m ‘most proud of’ (to use those specific words), it would probably be the Old Monk from Demon’s Souls," he said. "The reason being is there was a lot of pushback against that design and what we were trying to do with it. But it was something I really, really wanted to do. I wanted to get that boss concept into the game, both from a visual design perspective and gameplay perspective, including the multiplayer element."
Insomniac Games Associate Community Manager, Thomas Hart is on the same page as Miyazaki, saying "It differed completely from all the bosses that came before: he was small, and he dodge-rolled everywhere, nearly mirroring how I played. Almost instantly, he would parry, backstab, and kill me. “What crazy A.I.”, I thought."
Tom Clercx, Animator at Nixxes Software went with one of From's goodest boys, Great Grey Wolf Sif from Dark Souls, while Dzan Wong and Duncan Tyrer from Firesprite decided upon the handicap match verses Dragonslayer Ornstein and Executioner Smough. "Ornstein & Smough is the Dark Souls boss fight of Dark Souls: They’re uncompromisingly aggressive; they’re able to land attacks that clip through each other; they force players to repeat everything they learnt in the game, and that’s kind of the point," said Tyrer.
Bloodborne's Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower and Ludwig the Holy Blade also make an appearance thanks to Ivanna Liittschwager of Santa Monica Studio and Keano Raubun of Nixxes Software respectively.
Considered one of the hardest fights in a FromSoftware game, the Guardian Ape in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice gave Naughty Dog's Joe Pettinati an experience he loves to retell. "It’s a big monkey that throws feces at you. At first blush, he feels like a joke boss. But the joke’s on the player after you cut off its head. The victory screen pops up, you start to walk away, and then… he stands back up – a sword in one hand, his decapitated head in the other."