10 Best Multi-Phase Video Game Boss Fights Ever

Picking just one multi-phase boss fight from the Dark Souls trilogy is incredibly difficult, but it's tough to argue with the brilliance of the original game's battle against Ornstein and Smough.

This legendary and extremely challenging fight begins with players taking on both the lightning-fast Ornstein and hammer-totting Smough at once, though players will understandably attempt to focus their attacks on one of the duo in order to reduce it to a one-on-one affair.

But FromSoftware naturally anticipated this, and so once either Ornstein or Smough is dealt with, a cutscene will show the surviving boss absorbing their fallen comrade's power, ballooning in size, regaining all their health, and even inheriting some of their pal's abilities to boot.

And so the decidedly trickier second phase begins, where players can easily get one-hit killed if they're unprepared or not paying full attention.

Though some of Dark Souls' multi-phase fights are absolutely infuriating, this one is sufficiently inventive and entertaining enough that you just might not mind getting trounced again and again before finally prevailing.