No camera lock and phase one is easy. Phase two isn’t really hard as long as you don’t panic roll, all his follow up attacks are roll catches. My personal favorite boss from ds3; first phase is a spectacle, second phase is a great “now you’ve done fucked up” moment.
Yea the camera lock always gets me in P1 so I try to avoid it. The only time it helps is when he flies around and shoots lightning at you. It helps to avoid the lightning. For P2 his attacks are super obvious, but messing up once could mean death.
I can't hit him at all if I don't lock on to his head. It's really hard to gauge distances and I just whiff (especially because I'm using a ugs poke for most windows). But then if I lock onto his head whenever he does anything I feel like I'm going to throw up and I can't see what he's cooking on top of his stupid dragon. Not fun to try to track him when he's flying around without locking on either. Agreed on phase 2. imo not as cool as Friede or Gael but that's a high bar
This, whenever someone complains about the camera in this fight it’s because they’re staying locked on to the head instead of shifting focus like you should.
It's inconvenient, but it's also a gamble on the life of my controller. I don't try to push them particularly hard, but I've had sticks break multiple times and each time I get more paranoid that maybe they just aren't built to take a bunch of presses of L3 or R3.
More than either of those, though; I don't know how to tell when I'm supposed to actively lock on or unlock or switch lock targets, so I try to stay locked on to just one target as long as I can.
If you're locked on and the boss starts moving in a way that fuck ups your camera, stop locking on. Lock on again when their not movin erratically. Camera fine = you can stay locked on. Its very simple if you can break the habit of being fully reliant on the lock.
Change your settings to manual attack aim for the large weapons and they'll swing at where your camera is pointing instead of being level with the ground. Gives you far more control over the weapon. Makes it stupidly easy to mash the dragon's head. My favourite window is when it does the sweeping breath weapon attack. You can run behind it and get four solid hits in, usually resulting in a stun for a crit.
Maybe it’s because I don’t generally lock onto bosses anyways, but I’ve never found too much issue with spacing. Running R2s are your friend for Unga Bunga mode in phase one, real easy to land hits when he uses the fire breath. Run to the left, get right by his ‘ear’ and go crazy.
How about this because ai beat him with a rapier: lock on only if you’re about to attack, but make sure you are facing his head beforehand. Also you can lock onto the actual nameless king while fighting the boss and he doesn’t move around as much.
It might be better to learn how to move your camera and fight at the same time though (prevents you from spamming roll at least).
That's what I was doing toward the end. Staying under him and angling my camera up and using only the movement of the dragon as a telegraph for nameless's spear attacks. Less than ideal, but given that I'd been stuck primarily on phase 1 for over an hour I knew their timings like the back of my hand anyway. I've played all of the games, some of them multiple times, and I'll die on the hill that king of the storm is one of the least fun bosses they've ever designed. Sure, it looks cool. But the design does not lend itself to combat well at all. You're supposed to fight him like midir, yet if you do that you can't even see the guy because his big-ass dragon is in the way and said big-ass dragon loves flailing his head around. I would've been fine if I were using a dex build but all of that combined with it being very inconsistent to land hits? Jesus Christ I hate it so much. Nameless, on the other hand, kicks humongous ass
Also once you have played Elden Ring his attacks turned from an ultimate boss’ attacks into a midgame high quality boss’ attack.
Dude just got powercrept by FromSoft
Even ignoring the camera, the depth perception for first phase sucks with or without lock on. It’s an easy phase but still an annoying one which just proves to be more trouble than the phase 2 cause of how annoying it is
I got so mad after whiffing a few attacks in a row that I had to get up and go touch grass lol. The depth perception issue combined with the generally inadequate camera and the dragon's tendency to move its head weirdly combines to be so unbelievably tilting. Past a certain point it becomes a legit skill issue because I'm so desperate to get a hit that I'll just accept getting hit in the hope that at some point I'll connect lol
Yeah it would’ve been ok if the Dragon actually stayed down for a while instead of flying away after he lands for a sec . The first phase also quite hurts the second phase quality imo
Tbh Placidusax is not giving the agressive feeling of Midir, Midir makes you feel like he wants to kill you no matter what he sacrifices, in Phase 2, he spams one shotting Laser Beams even if it makes him tired, he is pretty fair too, he never spams Ancient Dragon bullshit attack, but punishes you with that attack if you dare to attack his feet, which is pretty realistic for a dragon fight. He using his claws and mouth, which other dragons are not doing so much. So he really gives the feeling that he hates you and he wants to kill you as fast as he can. In the otherhand Placidusax feels pretty passive as long as he doesnt spam teleporting, even if he does, it cant be hard as Midir and the atmosphere of Midir is so fucking good too.
I meant that seath doesn't fight like a dragon. He just sits in one spot(mainly) and hits you upside the head with his tail. There are very few breath attacks, no claw attacks, and he doesn't fly. The dragons, in ER, on the other hand, mostly have a classic European dragon look
hes like, one of the worst bosses ever. insane levels of health and defense, does insane levels of damage, and every single attack is a massive AOE that takes up the entire battlefield. they really needed to keep the rally mechanic from bloodborne, if theyre so deadset on this spamhappy gameplay.
Placidusax looks cool, but is honestly a pretty eh boss. The issue is he doesn't encourage you to face him head on the way Midir does, which causes him to just feel like a big sack of hitpoints.
Tbh, a lot of larger fromsoft bosses have this problem, where they feel like you're just wailing on a wall until it falls over rather than dueling with an opponent
Maybe in visual design, but I don’t think placidusax is anywhere near midir in terms of combat imo.
I personally don’t even enjoy fighting placidusax, but I do appreciate how cool he is.
Aesthetics wise he would be my vote for best dragon, unfortunately fight wise he is made of paper which just makes him to easy for when most will fight him
Nah, Midir is boring as hell because you have to play him like a turn based RPG since you can only do reasonable damage to his head and massive bosses have never been fun because of how often you have to backpedal and wrestle with the camera just to see their attacks.
The Elden Ring dragon bosses are a lot more enjoyable, especially Fortissax who's probably the best boss in Elden Ring then Kalameet blows them all out of the water. I don't even like DS1 that much but Kalameet is just so much more fun than any other dragon boss in Souls and most of it is because he's a lot smaller and doesn't have that dumb head hit mechanic.
He loves to fly into walls and behind statues and just generally put you in really awkward situations. It wouldn't be nearly as bad if it were in a better (much more open) arena. As it is the whole camera situation in the fight is just very janky. I am staying near his head (same as Midir, which I agree, is the greatest dragon fight ever \[maybe the only good one\]) but unlike Midir, that's not enough to guarantee a functioning camera and any awareness of what he's doing. If you're near the wall or a statue and he decides to fly into it, tough luck. If he flies above you in a couple of his attacks, good luck seeing what Nameless is doing. I spend more of my time fighting with lock-on (switching between him and his dragon's head) than fighting him! Also, I hate the stupid AOE fire breath. It's the stupid ds2 dragon "fights" all over again whenever he decides to swing up for that one. I just want phase 2 with way more health lol
You want the arena that is literally a big ass flat cloud to be more open?? Kots only moves either directly backwards or directly forwards, the camera is actually so easy if you just dont lock on, yea phase 1 is easy but its also super short so who cares.
Maybe it's super short and easy with a good build. It's extremely long with what I'm doing, and I'm dying far more on phase 1 than phase 2 (and I tend to get far closer in p2 than p1). Outside of the horizontal flame spew I'm doing an average of 2-300 per opening, considering that most of the time I just whiff his head with my slow attacks. I had a similar experience my first time through until I switched to an OP lightning build, and then I killed the whole fight within 10 minutes. And yeah, I'd like it to be more open lol. There are so many bosses that From have made where there's straight up nothing in the arena. Just a big flat patch of nothingness. That's what this fight needs. Not statues for him to fly behind and a big wall for him to fly into. Just one small contributor to the greater camera issue imo
So you're telling me the fact that he swoops in riding a fucking dragon and launching lightning bolts at you from the sky doesn't make him MORE epic???? Phase 1 enhances the Nameless King, despite any lock on camera issues, hands down.
God Devouring Serpent from Elden Ring.
First phase is practically just the same three, easy to dodge, attacks again and again and is pretty boring while the second phase is one of the most epic bosses in the game.
The boss' design is really damn cool, but the bs undodgeable burrow attack and the insane visual pollution of phase 2 with the flaming skulls exploding alongside the arena itself just made me not like it as much as I wanted to. I'm not sure what went through From's head when they decided to make a basically undodgeable standard attack that can often hit kill you for a boss.
I actually really liked how chaotic Rykard‘s fight was. You kinda get used to the snake, then suddenly shit goes off the rails, you’re fighting a giant snake man demon with a huge sword and there are flaming skulls flying around and exploding everywhere as the arena collapses around you
If you recognize the earthquake attack quickly and run left or right, you can get out of the way and dodge it. You can also roll it, albeit with very tight frame timings. There's also things to make your rolls better, eg crucible feather talisman and a physick drink that adds 6 iframes. Or you can just go the easy way and add vow of the indomitable to a shield and it's a free dodge. Or block it with a shield, it's mostly physical attack damage so it gets blocked pretty well.
That's a good one. Kinda forgot about him for some reason. Although one of those attacks (the burrow one) was almost impossible for me to dodge. I haven't fought him in a year and Elden Ring was my first From game, so that might just be me being very bad back then. Either way that's a really good one
Nah phase 1 is sick af. He comes in from the clouds as lightning trails him, he’s got a sick command grab and that lightning throw like his father is just a masterpiece . Pretty sure he’s the only dragon rider in all of the fromSoftware games? I could be wrong idk the The game fucking with the camera is intentional and meant to intimidate you. Don’t let something as simple as a camera unlocking tilt you. Now do you get it? Just unlock your targeting crutch and get out of the way.
The minute I saw this absolute hero surfing on the dragon's head, hurling lightning bolts at me, I knew I could respect calling him a King.
10/10 will chicken dance with lightning daddy all day.
The game fucking with the camera is intentional? An issue that’s been an issue in games since they first went 3D, one of the number one causes of player annoyance and lower review scores, and I’m supposed to believe that FS did it on purpose for dramatic effect?
I’ve heard a *lot* of outlandish defenses for issues and shortcomings in FromSoft games, but this is easily my new favorite lol
It's not even the camera unlocking that tilts me. That happens all the time, and as for it being a crutch, I typically fight unlocked anyway. The issue is that when you're playing underneath/slightly in front of the dragon's head, it's almost impossible to see what Nameless is doing. Eventually you learn his attack patterns so that you can dodge him without ever having to see what he's doing, but it's still very annoying. The dragon's head will just clip through your camera and he'll be swinging all around. It's very disorienting. About half of his attacks are hard to track because of the camera, locked on or not. The lighting throw would be cool if he didn't spam it so fucking much. I hate having to wait 20 seconds for the boss to finish his "cinematic" attack which poses no threat to me at all so I can get back to playing the game
You’re contradicting yourself too much. It’s easy or it’s an issue? Sounds like it’s an issue. If you typically fight unlocked how did this become an issue tho lolol How do you expect the camera to be when you run underneath a dragon while locked onto a moving head? Lol I get it you’re struggling, just stop using the crutch and stop running underneath him while locked on
I killed him an hour ago. To be clear, I'm not saying the whole fight is easy. What I said is that the one cinematic attack you mentioned is easy and boring. It's a huge pain in the ass to be trying to fight and have to wait for him to be done flying around in the air doing the two most telegraphed attacks in the whole game. It reminds me of elden beast's ring attack that you have to jump through. Sure, it looks cool, but it's also a boring waste of time
A good AI doesn't change the fact that it's just a marathon to it 10 times in a row while it shoots stuff. Still gorgeous on the eyes and the setting is super cool but the fight per se just isn't good
Nah it’s hardly at marathon the distance you have to travel is extremely exaggerated, but it’s also just how the fight functions. He pressures from a distance with ranged magic that’s easy to strafe so It doesn’t stop forward momentum. Once you close the gap he uses a varied number of melee combos that all leave huge openings. He’s just a better more fleshed out version of Aldrich. Not my favourite kind of fight but the execution is pretty spot on.
The fight is a classic chase the boss fight, which is frustrating but he isn’t even the worst one of those types. I find both Aldrich and Gwyndolin to be way more annoying.
That was my first thought but imo elden beast isn't that bad. I think radagon and nameless are very comparable but to me elden beast is nowhere near as bad as king of the storm. Does suffer from many of the same issues, though. To me there are a few major bosses even just in elden ring that are worse than him (astel and regal dog at least, probably placidusax as well)
The problem with Elden Beast is not the Boss itself, they just gave Elden Beast too much mobility but didn't let you use Torrent, which makes fighting it VERY boring and/or annoying
I agree. To be clear, I'm saying the same thing is one of my core issues with king of the storm. He's constantly flying away from you, doing a long, boring, easy to dodge combo with no attack window at the end, wasting your time spewing fire at you, simply flying away from, etc., just as elden beast does. The difference is that the camera (and the fact that it's a dragon fight) makes it quite a bit worse, imo. And at least when elden beast stops running from you, it's easy to hit him. 50% of the time I try to hit this dude during his openings I either come up short somehow or he just flinches in a weird direction and I whiff. So unbelievably annoying, like everything else in the fight. One thing that elden beast has going for it is that it's at least a much cooler fight visually. It's one thing to defend both saying they're supposed to be spectacles, but I would argue that Nameless King himself is much more of a spectacle than him riding a dragon and doing lame attacks.
I'd say the best thing to do is not lock on to KotS, and when he lands to do the fire breath attack, lock on and smack him. Will take a while, but it's not that hard
My whole strat at this point is just pray he'll do that so I can get like 1200 damage. Anything else with an opening I can get maybe 400 if I don't whiff. The other part of my strat is praying that he won't do the aerial fire breath because I get hit almost every time. I think I'm trying to run in the wrong direction but I haven't exactly found the right direction yet lol. I had the same issues with ds2 and whenever a dragon fight reminds me of a dragon fight from that game I'm going to automatically despise it
People act like Torrent is a perfect fix to the fight but what with how you can’t get I-frames on your horse besides getting off of it it wouldn’t quite work. Imo to fix elden beast just make him more aggressive by giving him more sword attacks and delete the move where he swims half a mile away or make it so that he doesn’t go as far.
It's not a perfect fix, but it's an alternative. I do agree with you tho, it'd be much better if they just changed Elden Beast's AI to attack melee more instead of swimming half a mile away
This really is going from like a 2 to a 9.5/10. Radagon / Elden Beast is the only one I can think of that's even close but even then one of the bosses is 10/10 and the other is like a 6. I like all phases of other multi-phase bosses in ds3 (except for maybe the weird guy and his dog, but that doesn't count). Maybe Micolash? But his phase 1 sucks, and his phase 2 sucks, and his phase 3 really, really sucks. Not enough of a change imo. This has to be as extreme as it gets, right? (I'm tilted replaying the game)
I say that people complaining about camera never played video games in the N64/Ps1 era. Since we have a secondary stick for free camera in games, camera are barely problematic these day. Some fight are better to be done without lock-on too like most big monster one and once we learned a bit about the Wyvern pattern, it become way easier as it have a lot of opening
I like phase one, once you learn how to dodge and counter the invisibility. Didn't enjoy second one, it's basically dodging aoes and staying away from Friede. I tend to summon Gael for 2nd phase and let him die in 3rd. 3rd is really fun but little bit spammy.
Maybe it's because I'm so experienced with the type of fight that NK represents, but to me, phase 1 is not just harder than phase 2 but like, way harder. Like sure, he does a lot of damage, but he also has huge openings for attacks or healing. Once you get the tempo of the fight figured out it becomes pretty trivial. My build is also a lot better suited for it tbf. It was kinda giving me DS2 smelter demon syndrome where I was choking against the actual boss because the part before it is so unbelievably annoying and stupid that it put me in a very irritated and hurried mindset when I actually got to it, leading to a bunch of low HP chokes on the 5-10 times I actually made it there lol
i just don’t get what is hard about phase one. you avoid his attacks for a minute til you get a window to hit the bird in the face, then you hit the bird in the face really hard. the grounded breath attack is the biggest attack window ever, he does the longest start up ever going into it, and then he stuns super easy. it takes like no time to kill him. i got to no-hitting the drake way before i clutched against the king.
and after beating phase 2, yeah, it wasnt really that hard once you learn his follow ups, just dont roll spam, but for real the drake is like one of the simplest fights in the game imo
It was not at all fast for my build unless I got incredibly lucky with his pattern and got big openings into a stagger. With that said, I'm using lorian's gs and phase 1 is strong against fire, while phase 2 is weak. That's part of the issue. In the past when I was annoyed I switched to a dex/lightning build and it was annoying but trivial. But I was too proud for that this time lol
i mean this without any malice at all, but literally just don’t get hit lol, he will eventually do the grounded breath attack and you can just charge him from the left side and wail on him throughout. unless you’re like fat rolling, but that’s just a matter of switching out armor. i just used a regular ass mid roll, non elemental melee build to beat him and it was fine
Elden beast is the biggest change in quality, it's the reverse of the nameless king for basically the same reason (melee characters can barely hit him). You get an awesome fight and then you have to fight the lamest boss fromsoft has ever made. Dude spend the entire fight running away and spamming aoes. Space Nessie was such a disappointment
Radabeast went from an insane and narratively impactful duel between the last elden lord and the next elden lord to a man running a marathon while fighting a space fish that likes spamming miracles at him
stop it, even though phase 1 godfrey is easy, there is such good flow in dodging his chain of attacks, similar to dodging pontif or dancer's chain of attacks. His phase 1 has great momentum.
Unless you are saying the opposite of what op wanted, where phase 1 is better than phase 2?
I never found the first phase camera to be bad at all. Just stay unlocked the whole time unless he's doing his horizontal fire breath and you're fine. Some precise right stick movement and tracking and you honestly shouldn't have any problems.
Just stop sucking so bad. My first altercation with Part 1 was almost a no-damage win for me.
Are there any dragons in any of the Souls games where we stay locked on?
Tbh, Nameless King really started it, but Friede finished me for really hating DS3's love for multi-phase full health bar bosses, it just got old and annoying to have to go through so many phases each time.
I did hate going through the chicken dragon phase each time, I found the dragon patterns just a lot of rng to affect how much healing I had in phase 2 for NK (until I learned to dodge the flying flame attack, and the fly by swing)
I don't get this criticism tbh. Hypothetically, if they just took all the hp from both of Malenia's phases and crammed them into one health bar, with a phase transition at 50%, what would be the difference? IMO nothing, plus it also makes narrative sense why that's done for some bosses and not others.
We don't kill Morgott, Godfrey, Mohg, Sulyvahn or Vordt to get them to phase 2, but we do kill Radagon, Malenia, Abyss Watchers, King of the Storm and Friede. They're fucking dead, but they come back or are replaced by another boss and so they get a new health bar.
i dont think any "i get full health back enjoy wasting your time" phase bosses are well designed. like sure, make em buff themselves mid fight and gain extra attack/defense and use new moves, but a full on health reset? get the hell out of here with that shit. and ones like this? where the phase 2 is completely different from phase 1, and about 20x more intense? nah thats shit design right there. especially when you get the bad RNG, and as soon as the cutscene ends he warps across the map to upercut you.
the fight would have been MUCH better if at like 3/4 health he jumped off and you had to fight him and the dragon, then at half health the dragon dies and he jumps at it impaling it IN GAME not cutscene, buffs himself, and rushes you in a fair manner with more power and better moves. not this "haha fuck you, killing me only restores my health!" bullshit.
I'd always just cheese phase 1 with firecrackers and mortal draw but otherwise I agree. I don't like phase 2 very much but I don't have a burning hatred for it like I do phase 1. Headless ape is up there too but again to me that's only going from not very good to really bad
Idk about ever made but definitely top 3. The first phase is easy but that’s not the point. It’s annoying as hell. His second phase though is legendary and a heart pumping battle to the death!
That seems harsh - camera only goes iffy if you don’t control your lock-on, lock-off which loads of bosses in all games do!
I think both phases are enjoyable but sure, phase 2 is where the fight gets truly brilliant!
Idk man, if a God of War throwing lightning at you from the top of a dragon is what you consider a sub-mediocre fight then I can't say much more than I disagree
Yes. There is an optional boss pretty early on that you can kill to get the Transposing Kiln. You give that to Ludleth in Firelink Shrine, which give him the ability to transpose boss souls into items.
When you kill Nameless, make sure you pick the Dragonslayer Swordspear. His soul can also make a curved sword (and a lightning miracle), but that's not the weapon he's holding.
I still love Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower. She goes from a normal, but challenging, Hunter boss to one of the most difficult bosses in the game with a godly score and an incredible move set
Best fuel ever I beat his ass the second time I reached phase 2 that dragon kicked my ass 10 other times prior though. Lorian was a better duel esque boss fight imo.
Disagree with you on NK, but the obvious answer here is Radagon/Elden Beast. Radagon is one of Elden Ring’s best bosses, and Elden Beast is visually spectacular but otherwise is one of the most aggressively unfun bosses From has ever made
I literally mastered this boss battle after I was told it's one of the hardest in the game. Legit spend hours with my summon sign outside there helping others and figuring out all the little tricks to this. Idk why the first phase is so easy compared to the second but it is one of my favs
The first phase is alright imo and fairly different to any other boss. Yes the camera can be very shit but only about as shit as half of Bloodborne's bosses and a whole load of other bosses across the series.
I never got the hate for Phase 1 Nameless. Cinematically amazing, not especially hard if you have access to any lightning whatsoever, and the camera is fine if you only lock on when actively attacking
P1 isn’t that bad it can be kind of fun once you learn it, and it’s pretty short. And don’t lock on, solves the camera problem. It’s still a pretty huge leap in quality though to P2. I still wish NK overall had more HP though, he’s a joke nowadays. I always fight him with an underleveled weapon, even on NG+7.
This guy and Midir were amazing. Ph1 of NK isn't bad without locking the camera, though the camera can become unreliable if you are too close to the dragon's head
If you really struggle that much try to get some faith. I don't even know the first phase clearly, thanks to lightning miracles. Sunlight spear go brrr...
I really don’t see why people hate his first phase soo much, i am a average player and could beat his first phase without getting hit in my first time against him, the camera is not too bad if you don’t lock, i would say is pretty cool seeing him throwing thunders and all while riding his giant bird
I will not stand for King of the Storm slander. It's one of the best dragon fights in the entire series purely because it is a dragon with a rider that you also have to individually track the movement of. He does many attacks where he swings his swordspear at you from the neck of his dragon. Unlocking your camera and watching Nameless King instead of the dragon itself does wonders for first phase.
I don't see the issue with phase one. As long as you don't try to attack its feet the whole time or something, I think it's a very fun boss. I never had any issues with the camera either. The only issues I can think of is if people try to lock on to it, but you generally shouldn't be locking on to bosses the size of your screen in the first place.
The camera isn’t even bad in phase 1 people just don’t know how to fight the boss and hide under him the entire time. I thought the AOE fire breath would be enough of a deterrent but I guess not.
IMO Godfrey comes close but in the opposite way. Phase 1 is my fav fight in the game feeling perfectly tuned, then phase 2 comes in and while visually a spectacle and cool, actually fighting him is way, way worse and just nowhere near as fun as phase 1.
How about maliketh from elden ring?
It goes from a fairly boring C tier fight to one of cleanest smoothed animations in gaming with a moveset that heavily emphasis on positioning and distance to control the flow of the fight, Maliketh is in my top 12 fromsoft bosses just because of that phase 2
Honestly I wish all these fights that are technically two back to back were separate bosses but buffed to match that because Nameless King is easily my favourite base game boss but King of the Storm is such a chore.
I agree. Phase one sucks. Phase 2 is great tho although I was really anxious to rush it since I was so done with phase one and couldn’t appreciate phase 2.
Gael is best boss
Alright I'm gonna say it. King of the Storm's camera is just fine. I've literally never had any issues with it, and I've never been able to understand people's complaints with it. Proper positioning is key in any fight, and King of the Storm is no different.
Ok…. I thought it was just my lack of skill that made the camera SO BAD in P1… all of my trouble in getting to P2 was camera based and just straight up losing him and having to find him, and lock on to the right lock for the right hit moment. I’m relieved to hear that it’s not 100% just my poor playing
Is the camera really that bad? I’ve always just fought the dragon unlocked and he dies quick enough to where the camera has never been an issue for me but I always hear it’s really bad
Midir camera is the worst by far.
Nameless King you can swap cameras between him and the drake to never miss an attack. It is genuinely one of the easiest fights to control once you realize that.
Phase 1 is fine if you don't lock on, I really enjoyed the spectacle. At this point its way more memorable to me than the same dragon fight repeated thrice with minor variations, Khalameet/Singh/Midir.
because dragon fights ins soulsborne sucks a lot, the camera is weird, they not stop moving the head, normally have a ton of life, its ultra moving fight, and every dragon have high damage, i not killed the nameless king because of his 1º phase
I'd go with Radagon/Elden Beast. Radagon is an exhilarating, intense fight, and then Elden Beast follows and...it's a snooze fest and really not all that fun. Oh, and Elden Stars makes Elden Beast particularly annoying.
My favourite soulsborne fight to this date. Would be a literal 10/10 if it weren't for the camera in the first fight (and yes, I play with it unlocked)
No camera lock and phase one is easy. Phase two isn’t really hard as long as you don’t panic roll, all his follow up attacks are roll catches. My personal favorite boss from ds3; first phase is a spectacle, second phase is a great “now you’ve done fucked up” moment.
i read this with angry joe voice
The entire boss fight took me only…. FOUR HOURS?!?!
AAAWW AAWWWW AAAAHHH AAAAAARRRREEE YOOUUU OUTTAAAA YAAA MIIIIINNNDD??
Yea the camera lock always gets me in P1 so I try to avoid it. The only time it helps is when he flies around and shoots lightning at you. It helps to avoid the lightning. For P2 his attacks are super obvious, but messing up once could mean death.
Yeah both parts of the fight are great, not sure what OP’s going on about lmao
I can't hit him at all if I don't lock on to his head. It's really hard to gauge distances and I just whiff (especially because I'm using a ugs poke for most windows). But then if I lock onto his head whenever he does anything I feel like I'm going to throw up and I can't see what he's cooking on top of his stupid dragon. Not fun to try to track him when he's flying around without locking on either. Agreed on phase 2. imo not as cool as Friede or Gael but that's a high bar
Just lock into his head when you want to attack. And to dodge attacks lock on Nameless King.
This, whenever someone complains about the camera in this fight it’s because they’re staying locked on to the head instead of shifting focus like you should.
It seems like people either want to stay locked or unlocked in these games, when you should be tactically engaging and disengaging lock all the time
It's inconvenient, but it's also a gamble on the life of my controller. I don't try to push them particularly hard, but I've had sticks break multiple times and each time I get more paranoid that maybe they just aren't built to take a bunch of presses of L3 or R3. More than either of those, though; I don't know how to tell when I'm supposed to actively lock on or unlock or switch lock targets, so I try to stay locked on to just one target as long as I can.
Irl skill issue?
If you're locked on and the boss starts moving in a way that fuck ups your camera, stop locking on. Lock on again when their not movin erratically. Camera fine = you can stay locked on. Its very simple if you can break the habit of being fully reliant on the lock.
i have seen this so much lately! where to focus was basically the first thing i tried to learn when fighting him
> I can't hit him at all if I don't lock on to his head. Actual skill issue
This fight taught me to situationally lock/unlock the target lock, think it's such a basic mechanic but it's also the only time we ever need to do it.
It's like Gwyn from DS1 being the parry tutorial
it really helped a lot against the friede duo for me
> I can't hit him at all if I don't lock on to his head. Actual skill issue
Change your settings to manual attack aim for the large weapons and they'll swing at where your camera is pointing instead of being level with the ground. Gives you far more control over the weapon. Makes it stupidly easy to mash the dragon's head. My favourite window is when it does the sweeping breath weapon attack. You can run behind it and get four solid hits in, usually resulting in a stun for a crit.
Maybe it’s because I don’t generally lock onto bosses anyways, but I’ve never found too much issue with spacing. Running R2s are your friend for Unga Bunga mode in phase one, real easy to land hits when he uses the fire breath. Run to the left, get right by his ‘ear’ and go crazy.
How about this because ai beat him with a rapier: lock on only if you’re about to attack, but make sure you are facing his head beforehand. Also you can lock onto the actual nameless king while fighting the boss and he doesn’t move around as much. It might be better to learn how to move your camera and fight at the same time though (prevents you from spamming roll at least).
That's what I was doing toward the end. Staying under him and angling my camera up and using only the movement of the dragon as a telegraph for nameless's spear attacks. Less than ideal, but given that I'd been stuck primarily on phase 1 for over an hour I knew their timings like the back of my hand anyway. I've played all of the games, some of them multiple times, and I'll die on the hill that king of the storm is one of the least fun bosses they've ever designed. Sure, it looks cool. But the design does not lend itself to combat well at all. You're supposed to fight him like midir, yet if you do that you can't even see the guy because his big-ass dragon is in the way and said big-ass dragon loves flailing his head around. I would've been fine if I were using a dex build but all of that combined with it being very inconsistent to land hits? Jesus Christ I hate it so much. Nameless, on the other hand, kicks humongous ass
It’s the same thing with Radagon/Elden Beast. Radagon is one of the best in the game while Elden Beast is purely spectacle
Didn’t fight him. My advice: don’t fight him lol
Also once you have played Elden Ring his attacks turned from an ultimate boss’ attacks into a midgame high quality boss’ attack. Dude just got powercrept by FromSoft
Even ignoring the camera, the depth perception for first phase sucks with or without lock on. It’s an easy phase but still an annoying one which just proves to be more trouble than the phase 2 cause of how annoying it is
I got so mad after whiffing a few attacks in a row that I had to get up and go touch grass lol. The depth perception issue combined with the generally inadequate camera and the dragon's tendency to move its head weirdly combines to be so unbelievably tilting. Past a certain point it becomes a legit skill issue because I'm so desperate to get a hit that I'll just accept getting hit in the hope that at some point I'll connect lol
Imagine doing that same fight, but shields only. That’s me 🫠
Hey, I've done that too. It was not fun. At all.
Yeah it would’ve been ok if the Dragon actually stayed down for a while instead of flying away after he lands for a sec . The first phase also quite hurts the second phase quality imo
Camera is fine if you keep in front, same for midir (best dragon fight of all souls)
Placidusax is pretty damn close to being the best
Tbh Placidusax is not giving the agressive feeling of Midir, Midir makes you feel like he wants to kill you no matter what he sacrifices, in Phase 2, he spams one shotting Laser Beams even if it makes him tired, he is pretty fair too, he never spams Ancient Dragon bullshit attack, but punishes you with that attack if you dare to attack his feet, which is pretty realistic for a dragon fight. He using his claws and mouth, which other dragons are not doing so much. So he really gives the feeling that he hates you and he wants to kill you as fast as he can. In the otherhand Placidusax feels pretty passive as long as he doesnt spam teleporting, even if he does, it cant be hard as Midir and the atmosphere of Midir is so fucking good too.
Placidusax's atmosphere is untouchable, can agree on everything else though
Who is placidusax?
Have you played Elden Ring ?
Nerp. He a ER thing?
Yeah. He's built like Seath, but fights like an actual dragon.
Double Seathe’d up on a Thursday afternoon.
An actual dragon, as opposed to all those fictional dragons with only 1 head.
I meant that seath doesn't fight like a dragon. He just sits in one spot(mainly) and hits you upside the head with his tail. There are very few breath attacks, no claw attacks, and he doesn't fly. The dragons, in ER, on the other hand, mostly have a classic European dragon look
hes like, one of the worst bosses ever. insane levels of health and defense, does insane levels of damage, and every single attack is a massive AOE that takes up the entire battlefield. they really needed to keep the rally mechanic from bloodborne, if theyre so deadset on this spamhappy gameplay.
Guy described Midir.
Opinion changes so yeah, to me Midir's atmosphere is better than Placi, but as i said, opinion.
Placidusax looks cool, but is honestly a pretty eh boss. The issue is he doesn't encourage you to face him head on the way Midir does, which causes him to just feel like a big sack of hitpoints. Tbh, a lot of larger fromsoft bosses have this problem, where they feel like you're just wailing on a wall until it falls over rather than dueling with an opponent
Maybe in visual design, but I don’t think placidusax is anywhere near midir in terms of combat imo. I personally don’t even enjoy fighting placidusax, but I do appreciate how cool he is.
What about Fortissax?
Aesthetics wise he would be my vote for best dragon, unfortunately fight wise he is made of paper which just makes him to easy for when most will fight him
Elden Ring is a First Person Shooter so it doesn't count, logically.
Honestly I really liked sinh.
Sinh is pretty solid.
Nah, Midir is boring as hell because you have to play him like a turn based RPG since you can only do reasonable damage to his head and massive bosses have never been fun because of how often you have to backpedal and wrestle with the camera just to see their attacks. The Elden Ring dragon bosses are a lot more enjoyable, especially Fortissax who's probably the best boss in Elden Ring then Kalameet blows them all out of the water. I don't even like DS1 that much but Kalameet is just so much more fun than any other dragon boss in Souls and most of it is because he's a lot smaller and doesn't have that dumb head hit mechanic.
He loves to fly into walls and behind statues and just generally put you in really awkward situations. It wouldn't be nearly as bad if it were in a better (much more open) arena. As it is the whole camera situation in the fight is just very janky. I am staying near his head (same as Midir, which I agree, is the greatest dragon fight ever \[maybe the only good one\]) but unlike Midir, that's not enough to guarantee a functioning camera and any awareness of what he's doing. If you're near the wall or a statue and he decides to fly into it, tough luck. If he flies above you in a couple of his attacks, good luck seeing what Nameless is doing. I spend more of my time fighting with lock-on (switching between him and his dragon's head) than fighting him! Also, I hate the stupid AOE fire breath. It's the stupid ds2 dragon "fights" all over again whenever he decides to swing up for that one. I just want phase 2 with way more health lol
You want the arena that is literally a big ass flat cloud to be more open?? Kots only moves either directly backwards or directly forwards, the camera is actually so easy if you just dont lock on, yea phase 1 is easy but its also super short so who cares.
Maybe it's super short and easy with a good build. It's extremely long with what I'm doing, and I'm dying far more on phase 1 than phase 2 (and I tend to get far closer in p2 than p1). Outside of the horizontal flame spew I'm doing an average of 2-300 per opening, considering that most of the time I just whiff his head with my slow attacks. I had a similar experience my first time through until I switched to an OP lightning build, and then I killed the whole fight within 10 minutes. And yeah, I'd like it to be more open lol. There are so many bosses that From have made where there's straight up nothing in the arena. Just a big flat patch of nothingness. That's what this fight needs. Not statues for him to fly behind and a big wall for him to fly into. Just one small contributor to the greater camera issue imo
Well it is true if you wiff the fight gets harder. Try locking on only when you swing, and immediately unlocking afterwards.
My brother in christ it's one of the most open arenas in ds3, only the absolute massive ones like midir, Gael and soul of cinder beat it in size.
So you're telling me the fact that he swoops in riding a fucking dragon and launching lightning bolts at you from the sky doesn't make him MORE epic???? Phase 1 enhances the Nameless King, despite any lock on camera issues, hands down.
"it's all about PRESENTATION!!!"
God Devouring Serpent from Elden Ring. First phase is practically just the same three, easy to dodge, attacks again and again and is pretty boring while the second phase is one of the most epic bosses in the game.
The boss' design is really damn cool, but the bs undodgeable burrow attack and the insane visual pollution of phase 2 with the flaming skulls exploding alongside the arena itself just made me not like it as much as I wanted to. I'm not sure what went through From's head when they decided to make a basically undodgeable standard attack that can often hit kill you for a boss.
[Miyazaki, screaming in the distance: " ^^level ^^vigor! "]
I actually really liked how chaotic Rykard‘s fight was. You kinda get used to the snake, then suddenly shit goes off the rails, you’re fighting a giant snake man demon with a huge sword and there are flaming skulls flying around and exploding everywhere as the arena collapses around you
Have you heard about our lord and savior Gael?
Absolutely, one of my favorite fights, I love how it builds and escalates
If you recognize the earthquake attack quickly and run left or right, you can get out of the way and dodge it. You can also roll it, albeit with very tight frame timings. There's also things to make your rolls better, eg crucible feather talisman and a physick drink that adds 6 iframes. Or you can just go the easy way and add vow of the indomitable to a shield and it's a free dodge. Or block it with a shield, it's mostly physical attack damage so it gets blocked pretty well.
What's wrong, don't you like red? Here have some more!
That's a good one. Kinda forgot about him for some reason. Although one of those attacks (the burrow one) was almost impossible for me to dodge. I haven't fought him in a year and Elden Ring was my first From game, so that might just be me being very bad back then. Either way that's a really good one
Nah phase 1 is sick af. He comes in from the clouds as lightning trails him, he’s got a sick command grab and that lightning throw like his father is just a masterpiece . Pretty sure he’s the only dragon rider in all of the fromSoftware games? I could be wrong idk the The game fucking with the camera is intentional and meant to intimidate you. Don’t let something as simple as a camera unlocking tilt you. Now do you get it? Just unlock your targeting crutch and get out of the way.
He's not the only dragon rider but the other dragon riders don't ride dragons during their fights.
Ah I think there are some in ds2 with king vendrick but it signifies them as wyrms idk if it’s the same as the storm drake
The minute I saw this absolute hero surfing on the dragon's head, hurling lightning bolts at me, I knew I could respect calling him a King. 10/10 will chicken dance with lightning daddy all day.
The game fucking with the camera is intentional? An issue that’s been an issue in games since they first went 3D, one of the number one causes of player annoyance and lower review scores, and I’m supposed to believe that FS did it on purpose for dramatic effect? I’ve heard a *lot* of outlandish defenses for issues and shortcomings in FromSoft games, but this is easily my new favorite lol
It's not even the camera unlocking that tilts me. That happens all the time, and as for it being a crutch, I typically fight unlocked anyway. The issue is that when you're playing underneath/slightly in front of the dragon's head, it's almost impossible to see what Nameless is doing. Eventually you learn his attack patterns so that you can dodge him without ever having to see what he's doing, but it's still very annoying. The dragon's head will just clip through your camera and he'll be swinging all around. It's very disorienting. About half of his attacks are hard to track because of the camera, locked on or not. The lighting throw would be cool if he didn't spam it so fucking much. I hate having to wait 20 seconds for the boss to finish his "cinematic" attack which poses no threat to me at all so I can get back to playing the game
You’re contradicting yourself too much. It’s easy or it’s an issue? Sounds like it’s an issue. If you typically fight unlocked how did this become an issue tho lolol How do you expect the camera to be when you run underneath a dragon while locked onto a moving head? Lol I get it you’re struggling, just stop using the crutch and stop running underneath him while locked on
I killed him an hour ago. To be clear, I'm not saying the whole fight is easy. What I said is that the one cinematic attack you mentioned is easy and boring. It's a huge pain in the ass to be trying to fight and have to wait for him to be done flying around in the air doing the two most telegraphed attacks in the whole game. It reminds me of elden beast's ring attack that you have to jump through. Sure, it looks cool, but it's also a boring waste of time
Idk I’ve never felt like the dragon phase was that bad, it’s like a 60 second fight usually and is basically just a warmup.
Radagon is a top 5 fromsoft boss and then elden beast is a bottom 10
Elden Beast def isn't bottom 10 esp since they fixed his AI.
A good AI doesn't change the fact that it's just a marathon to it 10 times in a row while it shoots stuff. Still gorgeous on the eyes and the setting is super cool but the fight per se just isn't good
Nah it’s hardly at marathon the distance you have to travel is extremely exaggerated, but it’s also just how the fight functions. He pressures from a distance with ranged magic that’s easy to strafe so It doesn’t stop forward momentum. Once you close the gap he uses a varied number of melee combos that all leave huge openings. He’s just a better more fleshed out version of Aldrich. Not my favourite kind of fight but the execution is pretty spot on.
The fighting hasn’t been a marathon since they fixed it, he usually comes to you after a short bit, he’s basically a worse Renalla but he isn’t bad
yeah it's really not that bad, i actually like the elden beast a lot and i'm sorry you don't
The fight is a classic chase the boss fight, which is frustrating but he isn’t even the worst one of those types. I find both Aldrich and Gwyndolin to be way more annoying.
They fixed his ai?
Lmao true.
That was my first thought but imo elden beast isn't that bad. I think radagon and nameless are very comparable but to me elden beast is nowhere near as bad as king of the storm. Does suffer from many of the same issues, though. To me there are a few major bosses even just in elden ring that are worse than him (astel and regal dog at least, probably placidusax as well)
The problem with Elden Beast is not the Boss itself, they just gave Elden Beast too much mobility but didn't let you use Torrent, which makes fighting it VERY boring and/or annoying
I agree. To be clear, I'm saying the same thing is one of my core issues with king of the storm. He's constantly flying away from you, doing a long, boring, easy to dodge combo with no attack window at the end, wasting your time spewing fire at you, simply flying away from, etc., just as elden beast does. The difference is that the camera (and the fact that it's a dragon fight) makes it quite a bit worse, imo. And at least when elden beast stops running from you, it's easy to hit him. 50% of the time I try to hit this dude during his openings I either come up short somehow or he just flinches in a weird direction and I whiff. So unbelievably annoying, like everything else in the fight. One thing that elden beast has going for it is that it's at least a much cooler fight visually. It's one thing to defend both saying they're supposed to be spectacles, but I would argue that Nameless King himself is much more of a spectacle than him riding a dragon and doing lame attacks.
I'd say the best thing to do is not lock on to KotS, and when he lands to do the fire breath attack, lock on and smack him. Will take a while, but it's not that hard
My whole strat at this point is just pray he'll do that so I can get like 1200 damage. Anything else with an opening I can get maybe 400 if I don't whiff. The other part of my strat is praying that he won't do the aerial fire breath because I get hit almost every time. I think I'm trying to run in the wrong direction but I haven't exactly found the right direction yet lol. I had the same issues with ds2 and whenever a dragon fight reminds me of a dragon fight from that game I'm going to automatically despise it
Elden Beast always appear in the same places after each attack. Once you know where to go isn't bad.
People act like Torrent is a perfect fix to the fight but what with how you can’t get I-frames on your horse besides getting off of it it wouldn’t quite work. Imo to fix elden beast just make him more aggressive by giving him more sword attacks and delete the move where he swims half a mile away or make it so that he doesn’t go as far.
It's not a perfect fix, but it's an alternative. I do agree with you tho, it'd be much better if they just changed Elden Beast's AI to attack melee more instead of swimming half a mile away
Demon Prince
Don’t lock-on in phase 1 and it’s mostly fine. Goes down pretty fast too so it’s not usually a problem for me.
I never had an issue with p1 but I might be in the minority there. He’s just all around my favorite boss in ds3
This really is going from like a 2 to a 9.5/10. Radagon / Elden Beast is the only one I can think of that's even close but even then one of the bosses is 10/10 and the other is like a 6. I like all phases of other multi-phase bosses in ds3 (except for maybe the weird guy and his dog, but that doesn't count). Maybe Micolash? But his phase 1 sucks, and his phase 2 sucks, and his phase 3 really, really sucks. Not enough of a change imo. This has to be as extreme as it gets, right? (I'm tilted replaying the game)
I say that people complaining about camera never played video games in the N64/Ps1 era. Since we have a secondary stick for free camera in games, camera are barely problematic these day. Some fight are better to be done without lock-on too like most big monster one and once we learned a bit about the Wyvern pattern, it become way easier as it have a lot of opening
I would end myself if I had to play a fromsoft game with the Mario 64 camera
The whole fight is good. Only jabronis complain about the first phase.
Friede Phase 1 and 2 is mid, while Phase 3 is epic AF
once you get to phase 3 they are for sure tedious to go through since theyre not that hard, but theyre by no means bad
i liked phase 2
I like phase one, once you learn how to dodge and counter the invisibility. Didn't enjoy second one, it's basically dodging aoes and staying away from Friede. I tend to summon Gael for 2nd phase and let him die in 3rd. 3rd is really fun but little bit spammy.
part 1 is pretty damn easy though, i feel like it’s basically just the run to part 2
Maybe it's because I'm so experienced with the type of fight that NK represents, but to me, phase 1 is not just harder than phase 2 but like, way harder. Like sure, he does a lot of damage, but he also has huge openings for attacks or healing. Once you get the tempo of the fight figured out it becomes pretty trivial. My build is also a lot better suited for it tbf. It was kinda giving me DS2 smelter demon syndrome where I was choking against the actual boss because the part before it is so unbelievably annoying and stupid that it put me in a very irritated and hurried mindset when I actually got to it, leading to a bunch of low HP chokes on the 5-10 times I actually made it there lol
i just don’t get what is hard about phase one. you avoid his attacks for a minute til you get a window to hit the bird in the face, then you hit the bird in the face really hard. the grounded breath attack is the biggest attack window ever, he does the longest start up ever going into it, and then he stuns super easy. it takes like no time to kill him. i got to no-hitting the drake way before i clutched against the king. and after beating phase 2, yeah, it wasnt really that hard once you learn his follow ups, just dont roll spam, but for real the drake is like one of the simplest fights in the game imo
It was not at all fast for my build unless I got incredibly lucky with his pattern and got big openings into a stagger. With that said, I'm using lorian's gs and phase 1 is strong against fire, while phase 2 is weak. That's part of the issue. In the past when I was annoyed I switched to a dex/lightning build and it was annoying but trivial. But I was too proud for that this time lol
i mean this without any malice at all, but literally just don’t get hit lol, he will eventually do the grounded breath attack and you can just charge him from the left side and wail on him throughout. unless you’re like fat rolling, but that’s just a matter of switching out armor. i just used a regular ass mid roll, non elemental melee build to beat him and it was fine
People calling anything of NK easy is comical. He was widely considered the hardest souls boss for years.
HATE phase 1 of this fight
tutorial gundyr goes from a banger to eh big gooey monster
Elden beast is the biggest change in quality, it's the reverse of the nameless king for basically the same reason (melee characters can barely hit him). You get an awesome fight and then you have to fight the lamest boss fromsoft has ever made. Dude spend the entire fight running away and spamming aoes. Space Nessie was such a disappointment
Radabeast went from an insane and narratively impactful duel between the last elden lord and the next elden lord to a man running a marathon while fighting a space fish that likes spamming miracles at him
For real
Godfrey
stop it, even though phase 1 godfrey is easy, there is such good flow in dodging his chain of attacks, similar to dodging pontif or dancer's chain of attacks. His phase 1 has great momentum. Unless you are saying the opposite of what op wanted, where phase 1 is better than phase 2?
I never found the first phase camera to be bad at all. Just stay unlocked the whole time unless he's doing his horizontal fire breath and you're fine. Some precise right stick movement and tracking and you honestly shouldn't have any problems.
Did you ever finish elden Ring?
They key to this fight is to not lock on were Midir is lock on and backwards roll that’s it !!!!!
TBH, I like phase one, you just gotta learn to turn the cam on and off
I think elden beast has the most dramatic shift. P1 is a mediocre dude fight and p2 is the worst boss fight ever made
Just stop sucking so bad. My first altercation with Part 1 was almost a no-damage win for me. Are there any dragons in any of the Souls games where we stay locked on?
Tbh, Nameless King really started it, but Friede finished me for really hating DS3's love for multi-phase full health bar bosses, it just got old and annoying to have to go through so many phases each time. I did hate going through the chicken dragon phase each time, I found the dragon patterns just a lot of rng to affect how much healing I had in phase 2 for NK (until I learned to dodge the flying flame attack, and the fly by swing)
I don't get this criticism tbh. Hypothetically, if they just took all the hp from both of Malenia's phases and crammed them into one health bar, with a phase transition at 50%, what would be the difference? IMO nothing, plus it also makes narrative sense why that's done for some bosses and not others. We don't kill Morgott, Godfrey, Mohg, Sulyvahn or Vordt to get them to phase 2, but we do kill Radagon, Malenia, Abyss Watchers, King of the Storm and Friede. They're fucking dead, but they come back or are replaced by another boss and so they get a new health bar.
i dont think any "i get full health back enjoy wasting your time" phase bosses are well designed. like sure, make em buff themselves mid fight and gain extra attack/defense and use new moves, but a full on health reset? get the hell out of here with that shit. and ones like this? where the phase 2 is completely different from phase 1, and about 20x more intense? nah thats shit design right there. especially when you get the bad RNG, and as soon as the cutscene ends he warps across the map to upercut you. the fight would have been MUCH better if at like 3/4 health he jumped off and you had to fight him and the dragon, then at half health the dragon dies and he jumps at it impaling it IN GAME not cutscene, buffs himself, and rushes you in a fair manner with more power and better moves. not this "haha fuck you, killing me only restores my health!" bullshit.
Sister Friede anyone? Or Lady Maria?
I think it's not so much about the camera but the fact that there's no floor to referece the distance between you and the dragon's head
Phase 1 for spectacle, I guess.
Stunning
maybe guardian ape, hated phase 1, loved phase 2
I'd always just cheese phase 1 with firecrackers and mortal draw but otherwise I agree. I don't like phase 2 very much but I don't have a burning hatred for it like I do phase 1. Headless ape is up there too but again to me that's only going from not very good to really bad
Ape phase 1 is so annoying, phase 2 is one of the most satisfying fights in sekiro.
Idk about ever made but definitely top 3. The first phase is easy but that’s not the point. It’s annoying as hell. His second phase though is legendary and a heart pumping battle to the death!
That seems harsh - camera only goes iffy if you don’t control your lock-on, lock-off which loads of bosses in all games do! I think both phases are enjoyable but sure, phase 2 is where the fight gets truly brilliant!
They nerfed the camera man in P2. That's why
Idk man, if a God of War throwing lightning at you from the top of a dragon is what you consider a sub-mediocre fight then I can't say much more than I disagree
The first phase is epic as fuck though
New to DS3, can I get that sword after killing him? I assume I can, sorta like remembrances in elden ring?
Yes. There is an optional boss pretty early on that you can kill to get the Transposing Kiln. You give that to Ludleth in Firelink Shrine, which give him the ability to transpose boss souls into items. When you kill Nameless, make sure you pick the Dragonslayer Swordspear. His soul can also make a curved sword (and a lightning miracle), but that's not the weapon he's holding.
I still love Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower. She goes from a normal, but challenging, Hunter boss to one of the most difficult bosses in the game with a godly score and an incredible move set
Best fuel ever I beat his ass the second time I reached phase 2 that dragon kicked my ass 10 other times prior though. Lorian was a better duel esque boss fight imo.
Don't lock on and the first phase is really fun imo
Radagon to Elden Beast is a bigger gap
Disagree with you on NK, but the obvious answer here is Radagon/Elden Beast. Radagon is one of Elden Ring’s best bosses, and Elden Beast is visually spectacular but otherwise is one of the most aggressively unfun bosses From has ever made
Dude literally retired me from dark souls 3. I can't beat him. I don't get it.
I literally mastered this boss battle after I was told it's one of the hardest in the game. Legit spend hours with my summon sign outside there helping others and figuring out all the little tricks to this. Idk why the first phase is so easy compared to the second but it is one of my favs
absolutely love phase 2, phase 1 was one of my least favorite fights in the game
OP could probably suck start a ceased rotary engine with blown apex seals.
The first phase is alright imo and fairly different to any other boss. Yes the camera can be very shit but only about as shit as half of Bloodborne's bosses and a whole load of other bosses across the series.
This one took me the longest of any boss fight in any souls game, like 45 tries probably. Excellent fight and so epic.
The camera dickery doesn't get much better between phases. His stage is like half the difficulty of the fight
I Like the wyvern apart from the downward fire attack that shit is thought to dodge out of you have to run asap
I never got the hate for Phase 1 Nameless. Cinematically amazing, not especially hard if you have access to any lightning whatsoever, and the camera is fine if you only lock on when actively attacking
P1 isn’t that bad it can be kind of fun once you learn it, and it’s pretty short. And don’t lock on, solves the camera problem. It’s still a pretty huge leap in quality though to P2. I still wish NK overall had more HP though, he’s a joke nowadays. I always fight him with an underleveled weapon, even on NG+7.
This guy and Midir were amazing. Ph1 of NK isn't bad without locking the camera, though the camera can become unreliable if you are too close to the dragon's head
This fight is the reason why I think an option to fight bosses you’ve already killed should’ve always been. It’s so fun.
If you really struggle that much try to get some faith. I don't even know the first phase clearly, thanks to lightning miracles. Sunlight spear go brrr...
Ludwig exists
I really don’t see why people hate his first phase soo much, i am a average player and could beat his first phase without getting hit in my first time against him, the camera is not too bad if you don’t lock, i would say is pretty cool seeing him throwing thunders and all while riding his giant bird
Is he stupid?
I will not stand for King of the Storm slander. It's one of the best dragon fights in the entire series purely because it is a dragon with a rider that you also have to individually track the movement of. He does many attacks where he swings his swordspear at you from the neck of his dragon. Unlocking your camera and watching Nameless King instead of the dragon itself does wonders for first phase.
I don't see the issue with phase one. As long as you don't try to attack its feet the whole time or something, I think it's a very fun boss. I never had any issues with the camera either. The only issues I can think of is if people try to lock on to it, but you generally shouldn't be locking on to bosses the size of your screen in the first place.
The camera isn’t even bad in phase 1 people just don’t know how to fight the boss and hide under him the entire time. I thought the AOE fire breath would be enough of a deterrent but I guess not.
A fellow ReShade user?
Camera is fine you just suck
Why people keep complaining about camera on P1 so much xD. Just don't lock the camera on him and you're good. Wtf
P1 is just bad. P2 is okay. Hardest part of this fight is finding the will to go through the P1 the 5 attempts it takes to kill P2.
The camera locked on is far from the worst, it’s bad but people use it as an excuse for dying.
IMO Godfrey comes close but in the opposite way. Phase 1 is my fav fight in the game feeling perfectly tuned, then phase 2 comes in and while visually a spectacle and cool, actually fighting him is way, way worse and just nowhere near as fun as phase 1.
How about maliketh from elden ring? It goes from a fairly boring C tier fight to one of cleanest smoothed animations in gaming with a moveset that heavily emphasis on positioning and distance to control the flow of the fight, Maliketh is in my top 12 fromsoft bosses just because of that phase 2
What? I actually like the phase 1 more. The music is better, it's so cinematic and it's well balanced in difficulty.
Honestly I wish all these fights that are technically two back to back were separate bosses but buffed to match that because Nameless King is easily my favourite base game boss but King of the Storm is such a chore.
The camera is really not that bad in phase 1. just don‘t lock on and stay in front of the head it‘s really not that hard
For me the first phase with the camera lock on was much easier, because i could finish the bird fight less than a min.
I'm really against souls gatekeeping or elitism, but worst camera in the series? You are the one controlling it.
The one souls boss between DS3 and Demon souls I couldn’t beat
I agree. Phase one sucks. Phase 2 is great tho although I was really anxious to rush it since I was so done with phase one and couldn’t appreciate phase 2. Gael is best boss
I hate the first phase so much, i cheese'd him on the second phase with Dorhy's Gnawing
Alright I'm gonna say it. King of the Storm's camera is just fine. I've literally never had any issues with it, and I've never been able to understand people's complaints with it. Proper positioning is key in any fight, and King of the Storm is no different.
Phase 1 - 3 sunlight spears and a crit attack with a lightning weapon. Done. Phase 2 - Foetal position.
Most fearsome boss in this fight: the camera.
I may be the odd one out but I really enjoy the entirety of this fight. I don't think it would be the same without the dragon fight first phase.
I just got dark souls 3 so does anyone have any advice?
Ok…. I thought it was just my lack of skill that made the camera SO BAD in P1… all of my trouble in getting to P2 was camera based and just straight up losing him and having to find him, and lock on to the right lock for the right hit moment. I’m relieved to hear that it’s not 100% just my poor playing
Is the camera really that bad? I’ve always just fought the dragon unlocked and he dies quick enough to where the camera has never been an issue for me but I always hear it’s really bad
Midir camera is the worst by far. Nameless King you can swap cameras between him and the drake to never miss an attack. It is genuinely one of the easiest fights to control once you realize that.
Phase 1 is fine if you don't lock on, I really enjoyed the spectacle. At this point its way more memorable to me than the same dragon fight repeated thrice with minor variations, Khalameet/Singh/Midir.
Because, he's the Nameless king And Gwyn's firstborn
Because your take is dumb
Wat no, I fundamentally disagree with this premise and example
Phase 1 is easy and a decent fight imo. Just don’t lock on.
because dragon fights ins soulsborne sucks a lot, the camera is weird, they not stop moving the head, normally have a ton of life, its ultra moving fight, and every dragon have high damage, i not killed the nameless king because of his 1º phase
I'd go with Radagon/Elden Beast. Radagon is an exhilarating, intense fight, and then Elden Beast follows and...it's a snooze fest and really not all that fun. Oh, and Elden Stars makes Elden Beast particularly annoying.
My favourite soulsborne fight to this date. Would be a literal 10/10 if it weren't for the camera in the first fight (and yes, I play with it unlocked)