10 Most MADDENING Bosses In SoulsBorne Games
2. Isshin, The Sword Saint (Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice)
Pray permit a lapse into personal indulgence:
A while back, I wrote a list on the 10 Best Skill-Check Bosses In Gaming History. In the subsequent YouTube video, most of the comments demanded to know why Sekiro's Genichiro Ashina didn't make the list. Put simply, the one-two punch of the Demon of Hatred and Sword Saint Isshin effectively obliterated all my memories of FromSoftware's ninja-em-up, replacing them with only seething rage at the time spent fighting these two colossal bastards - with the vast majority of my loathing being directed at the latter.
Sword Saint Isshin is brutal. An unforgivingly demanding sadist who demands a near-mythical mastery of the game's combat system, Sekiro's final boss is a relentlessly harsh task-master who delights in making you feel small, worthless, and thoroughly demoralized over your own ability. He is essentially JK Simmon's sadistic teacher from Whiplash in video game form.
Sadly, there's no happy ending here. Even after beating him, the energy and time spent on overcoming Sekiro's biggest challenge will leave you drained of all potential for happiness at the result- instead, you will only feel smouldering anger at having had so much of your time wasted. Sword Saint Isshin represents the nadir of the "git gud" ideology espoused by FromSoftware's most zealous fans, and it's hard to see how the developers could create a more singularly aggravating boss figh-
Here Comes A New Challenger!
Warning - the next entry contains spoilers for Shadow of the Erdtree's final boss.