While Elden Ring is an exceptional game, there are inconsistencies. These are the worst bosses in Elden Ring. In this list, there will be optional bosses and main bosses alike.
Ulcerated Tree Spirit
In various dungeons and other areas, Ulcerated Tree Spirits lie underground. You will know something’s wrong when the ground shakes. This grotesque thing’s design is great, appearance-wise. It manages to strike fear into the player’s heart and overwhelm them. But the greatest flaw about some of the Ulcerated Tree Spirits is how their boss arenas are really small. This boss’s attacks must be dodged effectively and shields can’t protect you from them. But when you fight one of these things in a small arena, the fight gets very frustrating and downright annoying. This is also one of the most reused bosses, making it a real pain to fight them regularly.
Godskin Duo
Before encountering them at a late-game location, you will have fought the Godskin bosses if you were an explorer. Those boss fights (where we only face one of them at a time) are admittedly pretty great. The boss’s music is dramatic and beautiful. It’s a challenge to dodge their moves but it makes for a satisfying win when you overcome them. But at the aforementioned late-game area, you’re put to the test against both a Godskin Apostle and a Godskin Noble. And like in the previous entry, the worst thing here is the arena we fight them in. It’s cluttered and doesn’t allow you to freely dodge. It’s a frustrating fight.
Fire Giant
The Fire Giant is very impressive in terms of design and lore. And the arena where you fight him is huge, and you can freely move around. You must understand that this is not a downright terrible fight. There’s fun to be had fighting him. Now let me explain the inconsistencies of this fight. Because of his massive size, the range and the area covered by his attacks are huge. This means that you may take hits even if you dodged. Another thing is how he’s liable to glitch out in certain parts of this heavy arena. Now, winning without a fight is not fun, right? But sometimes the Fire Giant falls from relatively shallow heights because he wanders around too far and dies.
Full-Grown Fallingstar Beast
Like other entries on this list, this optional boss is very interesting, lore-wise and design-wise. And the arena is good, and it’s enjoyable to fight him when you study his moveset. The flaw with this fight is the creature’s immense health pool and how resistant to status effects he is. Brute force is the only way to surpass him for a melee player. While it’s really fun fighting him at first, noticing how hard it is to get his health down makes this fight boring halfway through.
Malenia, Blade of Miquella
Malenia is a very interesting character and many fans love her despite her condition and the absurdity of the boss fight. This could’ve been one of the greatest fights in the game. Her ruthlessness or how she has two health bars are not the problems here.
Her attacks are graceful and fun to dodge, but even the lightest attack does an insane amount of damage. It’s really not cool when she can kill you with two light attacks or her most powerful attack. And her special attack (Waterfowl Dance) is nigh impossible to dodge, but it really suits her character. If the Waterfowl Dance had only toned down on its combos (and increased the damage, if necessary), it would’ve been wonderful.
The worst thing, in my opinion, about the fight is how she regains health every single time she lands a hit on you. That makes it counterproductive to use a shield to guard against her Waterfowl Dance. I for one am really disappointed in this fight because this had the potential to be one of the best fights in the history of FromSoftware games.
Sir Gideon Ofnir, The All-Knowing
The All-Knowing is such a great title for a character. And you’d expect fighting him would be terribly difficult but also delightful at the same time. But what we get is a fight that’s generic in many ways. There is no unique boss theme and his attacks are very easy to dodge. This is a terribly easy boss fight and that’s why it’s bad.
FromSoft should’ve put more attention to this character and made him a memorable boss. For example, a unique boss track and unique attacks would’ve been wonderful. Imagine if he used an attack that was exclusive to another enemy, or used a really rare and unique spell. He is the All-Knowing after all. Hopefully, a future patch will buff him. This is an instance of wasted potential.
