Elden Ring Creator Reveals His Favorite Bosses

Elden Ring's multitude of bosses provide different levels of challenges for players based on playstyle, sheer dumb luck, and other factors, but each boss in the game is probably a favorite fight for someone out there. For Elden Ring creator Hidetaka Miyazaki himself, he's got three bosses in mind that stand out as his favorites: Starscourge Radahn, Godrick the Grafted, and Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy. Miyazaki shared some context for at least one of these bosses being his favorite while also providing an interesting anecdote about the setup around the boss.

The Elden Ring creator's comments about his favorite bosses were shared in an interview within Xbox Wire Japan. One of the questions asked of Miyazaki questioned him about which bosses in Elden Ring stood out as his favorites. Aligning with many Elden Ring players in his decision, he said Radahn was his No. 1 boss.

"He is fascinating as a character, and I like the situation of the Radahn festival," Miyazaki said via a DeepL translation.

Miyazaki went on to talk about not just the boss but the Radahn Festival players must "participate" in to fight the boss. This festival made the boss fight not just a random encounter where a creature drops down to obstruct your path but instead made it an organized, hyped-up fight where people from around the Lands Between gathered to take on Radahn.

Miyazaki said he wanted there to be a "literal sense of festival and exuberance, as well as a sadness" surrounding the festival. He added that the idea was laughed at when it was first pitched.

Beyond Radahn, he said his runner-ups would have to be Godrick and Rykard. Godrick proved to be quite difficult to both FromSoftware newcomers and veterans while Rykard was a particularly gnarly two-part boss which first required players to beat the God-Devouring Serpent before its true form was revealed.

It's not surprising that Radahn is a favorite of many given his thematic appeal, so it's similarly unsurprising that Miyazaki would favor the boss, too. Bosses in FromSoftware games are typically solo experiences save for any NPC or player summons you enlist, but even then, help is typically scarce. The idea of having multiple unlimited summons to create a ragtag group of warriors rushing one monstrous being was a completely new one to FromSoftware. Even if the cinematic flair faded after the first or second death, the appeal of Radahn remains apparent.

Miyazaki has said before what his favorite boss was throughout all of his games. He didn't mention Radahn usurping that spot in the Xbox Wire post, so perhaps his Demon's Souls creation is still his favorite overall.