Dark Souls: Top 8 Boss Fights

4. Four Kings

...ancient rulers of New Londo who fell to Dark... - Dark Souls

If this list had been compiled purely based off of difficulty, the Four Kings would most likely top the list. It's not the hardest fight in your first playthrough, but subsequent fights in New Game + get continuously harder. The reason for that being the continuous reappearance of the boss throughout the battle. You see, the Four Kings boss fight is a fight against time. At first, only one form of the Four Kings appears. Over time, more forms will appear until a maximum of four are on screen. If you don't kill each form quickly, you'll be faced will four pretty damn powerful foes. Heck, even one form is already punishing enough. The forms will continuously appear over time too, so even if you defeat one or two forms, if you don't finish the other forms quickly, more will come. Meaning you might have to face six or seven forms overall. Each King is similar in appearance, and as such have similar attack patterns, all of which are powerful. Their main weapon has a long range and attacks both horizontally and vertically. Their magic attacks have either an AoE range or have a homing ability that lasts quite a while. And each form is strong too. You have to judge every single attack well and you can't dilly-dally in effort, as the longer you wait, the more forms will appear. Fighting one is already a pain, but two? three? FOUR? A mighty struggle. Since every New Game + increases the strength and HP of the bosses, each subsequent playthrough is harder. And it takes longer to defeat each form, not good when you're in a fight against time. It doesn't help that the fight is a bit of a surprise. You fall into the Abyss maybe expecting a whole new area to explore, only to be planted straight into a boss fight. Then you have to permanently allocate one ring slot to wear a ring that allows you to walk around in the Abyss in the first place, slightly hindering your optimal setup. The Abyss itself is a bit freaky, a dark and black area with nothing in sight, giving no clue as to your surroundings or as to where each King form will appear. Facing the Four Kings is a daunting task indeed. The one crumb of comfort is that sometimes only one form will chase you at a time. So a divide and conquer strategy can work, but it's not guaranteed.