Soulslikes are usually known for being tough games; even the cutesy Another Crab’s Treasure can be rather grueling. While tites like 2023’s Lords of the Fallen is one notable exception, a lot of this challenge often comes out in the form of boss fights where players are usually asked to topple massive malformed dragons or skilled swordsmen. And even though famed developer FromSoftware is the undisputed ruler of the genre thanks to its history and consistency, it isn’t the only team to put tricky bosses in its games. Most other Soulslikes have brutal boss fights that can either be a wonderful synthesis of a game’s strengths or a frustrating culmination of its flaws that are further magnified by the high difficulty.
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Here are three of the toughest Soulslike boss fights from games that weren’t developed by Elden Ring studio FromSoftware.
3) Commander Honglan (Wuchang: Fallen Feathers)
Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is a competent Soulslike in many respects. Its twisty level design allows for exploration. Foes aren’t pushovers and make players pay attention. But some of its bosses point out a few of its weaker aspects and illustrate how Wuchang is still inferior to the upper tier of Soulslikes. And Commander Honglan is the most glaring example of this discrepancy.
It seems like a fairly standard fight from the jump, but it quickly becomes clear how cheap she can be. Honglan is incredibly aggressive and offers players an insultingly small window to counterattack, which leads to an overly defensive fight that moves away from what the game does well. Her relentless speed can hit players even if they dodged the first part of her barrage and also make it entirely too difficult hit her with certain weapon classes, forcing many to respec just to have a chance.
While there are a handful of tough fights in the game, Honglan sticks out for how sharply it makes the difficulty curve rise, taking what could be a decent battle and overtuning it to the point where it’s a slog. Post-launch updates that have sped up the healing and getup animations have helped, but they haven’t addressed every issue with this boss. At the end of the day, unfair or not, it still quite tough.
2) Toyotomi Ilideyori and Nine-Tailed Fox (Nioh)
Soulslike expansions usually hide the toughest fights that are truly for the sickos who have stuck around, as shown in Bloodborne’s The Old Hunters DLC and its notorious Orphan of Kos duel. Nioh has something similar with its third and final expansion, Bloodshed’s End. The “Everlasting Duty” sub-mission puts two bosses in one room, Toyotomi Ilideyori and Nine-Tailed Fox, which makes for one hell of a tough battle.
Both are baddies pulled from other stages, and, while hard, neither are egregious challenges on their own. But that completely changes when they are paired up. Nine-Tailed Fox’s physical size as well as the size of its attacks can take up a decent portion of the screen, leaving little room to dodge or even see Toyotomi’s strikes. Focusing on one can open players up to the other, and this makes an obscenely tough dance that’s almost impossible to overcome without looking up cheesy methods. The high level of this side quest only makes this battle even tougher, as grinding in later stages to gain an advantage isn’t as much of an option.
Many methods online have players stretching the mechanics to their limits by respeccing in hyper-specific ways to use specific abilities to gain the upper hand. Going at this with just a sword and a dream is not feasible for most people. The first two Nioh games are incredibly challenging, so it is telling that this is probably the hardest fight in the whole series.
1) Laxasia the Complete (Lies of P)
Lies of P is one of best — if not the best — Soulslikes, full stop. It’s also one of the harder ones but one that doesn’t bend the needle too far. Laxasia the Complete, though, tests that upper limit and is one extremely arduous battle right near the end of the game.
Laxasia bends the rules a little in the beginning by having a big shield on her back, nullifying much the damage players can do to her while counterattacking. She also can punish overly confident players, as her repeated underhand swipes can make quick work on those with poor parry timing. The same applies to her overhead slams and heavily delayed ground swipe. When combined with the electrical shocks that can follow a big slash, it can be hard to juggle all of these variables and time each parry needed for survival.
This first section is a challenge but is a breeze compared to the second phase. The lightning strikes she summons and tosses at the player from a distance must be perfectly parried or dodged in order to counter her blazing fast dive, which can be tricky to do if the player also has to fight the camera. A wide variety of more standard swipes and slashes make her hard to predict, meaning players always have to react quickly. Players can’t even rest when staggering her, because she flips the script and goes on the offensive once fully stunned, a surprise that will undoubtedly catch everyone at least the first time. King of Puppets might have been harder to fight at one time, but Neowiz nerfed him shortly after launch. Laxasia, however, hasn’t been touched, making it the hardest — and potentially the most rewarding — fight in the entire game.
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