Alright, I'm still playing through the games. I've gone through Demon's; Dark Souls 1 & 2, and am about finished with Bloodborne now. I am on the final guy in the main game, but finishing up the final boss of the DLC, which for me is Orphan of Kos, as I already went back and fought Laurence, The First Vicar. So far, Kos is posing a challenge. I got his health down half way, but he got the best of me, so that means I have to go upgrade a bit more. I also have to go through the Upper Cathedral Wards, which I hear has one of the toughest bosses in the game. As for the DLC, it was actually not that hard other than Ludwig depending on level. I don't think the recommended level, which I believe is 63 or something, is a high enough level at all. I couldn't get half his health down at level 67, and though I beat him on the first go when I went back later, he still posed a good challenge even as I was at level 105. I think I can beat Orphan pretty soon here. Anyways, sorry. That was about bosses for sure, but I was more talking about where I am at now.

As for hardest and easiest bosses in the series so far, which I am putting Bloodborne in this, though there are no bosses in it that I'd say are the hardest yet, are for me, Ceaseless Discharge from the first Dark Souls, and Old Hero from Demon's Souls. They posed the most challenge for me personally, and had me go do many other things before I could get to them again. I also feel like I beat them just before they were about to kill me. They were the ones that no matter what level I was at, as I kept coming back, they were still challenging. From what I understand, Old Hero can become really easy if you pick up a specific ring, and Ceaseless Discharge can be exploited with the stairs, though I never picked that ring up, and that exploit didn't work for me. As for easiest, I think the easiest were probably Pinwheel from the first Dark Souls; Old Monk from Demon's Souls, which I feel may be unfair, since it's supposed to be a PvP battle, but I fought an A.I. and Witch of Hemwick in Bloodborne.

When it comes to my favorite, I'm not really sure. Many of them are great. I liked in Bloodborne, Micolash. He wasn't the funnest to fight, so that disqualifies him in that regard, but I felt he was pretty unique in how you had to chase him, and he had some personality as you went through it. So, what about you? I don't mind if you mention bosses from Dark Souls 3. In fact, I'm interested to know about how hard or how easy they are. Off topic, but you know what I just discovered?... I thought I had only the Upper Cathedral Wards to go, but looks like I have Forsaken Cainhurst Castle as well... Jeez. This means another area, and another boss, which is Martyr Logarius I see. Furthermore, sorry for those that are tired of Souls threads, it's just that I'm still in the middle of getting through them, so they're the games on my mind most right now, and I'd like to discuss it with a new thread, or threads.

I noticed I didn't mention anyone from Dark Souls 2, though there's some worth mentioning. The Ruin Sentinel's gave me some trouble, and were really intense. To me, they were the perfect example of bosses that need good timing to hit. Perhaps it was because I went there right near the end of the game, but I'd also consider Dragonrider as one of the easiest bosses in the series, as well as Prowling Magus and Congregation. I actually hadn't beaten the end bosses of the DLC areas. They'd take quite a bit of grinding, and I wanted to move on to Bloodborne.

Hardest = Laurence, Ludwig, Orphan, Gehrman, Darklurker, Nameless King, Sir Alonne, Kalameet, Sinh, Manus, Gwyn without Parrying, Bed of Chaos, Fume Knight, Smelter, Ivory King

Easiest = Every boss in the Valley of Defilement, Pinwheel, Dragon Rider, Jabba

Best Designed = Darklurker, Vicar Amelia, Maria, Gwyn without Parrying, Gehrman, Artorias, Storm King in Demon's Souls, Kalameet, Mirror Knight, Sir Alonne, Smelter, Lord of Cinder, Ornstein and Smough, Ivory King

Worst Designed = Laurence, Ludwig, Maneater, Ancient Dragon, Bloodletting Beast, Capra Demon, every forgettable boss I can't recall

Flamelurker and False King are sort of the origins of good design in the series so shoutouts to them, but they pale in comparison to their later selves (Flamelurker a top 5 action RPG boss in 2009, now out of the top 10 thanks to more Souls games). Kalameet and Vicar Amelia obliterate all large non humanoid bosses in the series, which generally speaking don't perform as well as their smaller counterparts.

Dragon Shrine's Mace Guy is probably the hardest thing in the series if you scaled him up to boss level and of course Shrine of Amana is by far the hardest area.

@fredchuckdave: Good point, the end boss in Valley of the Defilement wasn't really a boss though. I didn't much care for Flamelurker. All it was about was walking backwards as you'd typically do, and then hit when available. And really? Shrine of Amana the hardest area? I don't that think is the case; it wasn't for me anyways. It was kind of a short, cake walk compared to some other places. Bed of Chaos is my least favorite boss of the series.

@fredchuckdave: I would like to add Cursed Amygdala and Cursed Keeper of the Old Flame in the Chalice Dungeons. Zero room for mistakes. Plus he's got well over 20K and your HP is halved.

Best Designed: Hrm tough choice. I think for me it'll be Old Monk. It might not have worked for everyone but the idea of making another player the area boss was a total mind blown moment for me.

Can't think of an easier boss than the Covetous Demon from DS2. I guess you could say all bosses are an absolute joke in that game if you went with a Hex/Pyromancy build, but you could beat Covetous Demon by walking to the right and punching him with no gear on.

Hardest boss is really subjective obviously, different builds have harder/easier times with different bosses. For some reason, I dunno why, maybe I was under leveled at the time or tilted, but the boss that I died the most on throughout the entire series was the Bloodletting Beast from Bloodborne. I had to go back and farm blood vials after every 2nd attempt so that didn't help. But if I was to pick the hardest boss, trying to be as objective as possible, I'd probably have to go with Orphan of Kos. He is unrelenting like Ludwig the Accursed but faster, harder to predict, has projectiles, and a farther reach with his placenta blade.

Only other bosses I can think of that are close to his level of difficulty are O&S and Laurence.

I've only played Bloodborne and DSIII so I'm probably missing some very, very easy points, but:

• Hardest: Anything in the Defiled Chalice Dungeon. It's a cop-out, but those boss fights are the single hardest hurdle I've overcome in video games. That being said, listening to Brad go at it while I did... I took the dog out in half the time it took him, so I suppose I've got that to feel good about! Honorable mention goes to Nameless King who was a REAL piece of work, but by no means unmanageable. Pontiff Sulyvahn also gets a nod for being my first wall in DSIII. (And yes, I didn't mention Orphan of Kos, but I never got to him. Maybe it was for the best!)
• Easiest: Witches of Hemwick from Bloodborne. The adds barely care about you and you've gotta be a dingus to get hit by the second witch's snare. I mean... I've been hit by the snare before, but... but you know. Runner up is the Deacons of the Deep because those guys are BASICALLY useless apart from that one curse thing and maybe buffeting you around with fire.
• Best: I do really have a soft spot for Father Gascoigne. Ludwig I find interesting from a lore perspective and his phase change is really, really cool. DSIII-wise, I have to mention Nameless King again for this one, because seriously. Dude comes in with a MOUNT, not to mention he's got serious Algol from Soul Calibur vibes. Honorable DSIII mention goes to Iudex Gundyr who was a pretty neat first boss, albeit a complete pushover coming hot off of 100%ing Bloodborne.

It's hard to say really. It's very easy to manufacture challenge in these games. Probably the worst slog I've seen was LobosJR taking on NG+7, Covenant of Champions, Elana in DS2. It took him something like 8 hours of fighting her over and over to win.

Some of my favorites would be Ornstein and Smough (really tough, but I personally like the way it's designed, camera issues notwithstanding), Artorias (for obvious reasons), Gwyn (keep in mind that I didn't parry), Shadows of Yharnam, and both Maria and Gehrman (for being fun challenges that put your skills to the test). So far from DSIII, I really liked the Abyss Watchers fight, which left an awesome impression fairly early on, and the Dancer of the Boreal Valley, the latter of which felt like less annoying and more fun version of the Pontiff.

Hardest in my experience would include Ornstein and Smough, Four Kings, Manus, Ludwig, and the Orphan of Kos. I'll admit, I actually have a bit of a soft spot for the Ludwig fight because the atmosphere of the fight itself along with the music is incredible, but at the same time, I'll fault it for basically making you learn two fights, and you'll have less time to prepare for the second part since you still have the tough first phase. The Orphan of Kos...well, I like it from a lore perspective, but its difficulty actually got really frustrating to me. Maybe it was the constant annoying screaming it would do coupled with its insane attacking range, but something about its difficulty didn't really feel fun to me like some other bosses. From DSIII, Pontiff Sulyvahn has definitely been the hardest for me so far, the Dancer being behind him.

Easiest for me would definitely include obvious choices like the Witches of Hemwick and Pinwheel. I also thought Seath was really easy, especially for a fairly late game boss. Another one from Bloodborne would be the Living Failures, though that one is frustratingly tedious. I'll also throw a mention for the "true" final boss of Bloodborne, though I was way overpowered by that point.

I'd also like to mention some of the bosses that've felt the worst designed to me, which would include: Capra Demon (self-explanatory), Four Kings (I don't like wolfpack bosses, and this one only gets worse because it straight up lies to you: there can be more than four kings), Bed of Chaos (also self-explanatory), and Rom (I don't like wolfpack bosses, but I hate flunky bosses. The difficulty feels fake, and though you can argue that the real boss is the flunkies, that doesn't really make it any better since Rom's attacks are still a pain).

@mordukai: I probably would have said Cursed Watchdog a long time ago but I've played so much more Bloodborne at this point that even Cursed Chalices aren't too big of a hassle most of the time. Of course I'm not exactly the average player given the 400 odd hours of playtime and NG+16, so my perspective on Bloodborne aside from the DLC is probably a bit odd.

Even with 99 Vit and 20/15/10 +% HP Runes Cursed Bloodletting is annoying.

@fredchuckdave: I didn't have too much trouble with Watchdog. Amygdala was my bane. Even regular enemies were a bitch. Their counter damage output is nuts. How's NG+ balanced in Bloodborne. I only really went NG+ in Demon's. I remember around NG+9 Demon's Souls started getting too much.

@mordukai: They did buff Amygdala's AI eventually, which probably made it a bit tougher for you though the ranged weapons/spells in the DLC re-trivialized the fight (as in you can fight at range successfully and Amygdala/Ebrietas both get melted by that, though Ebrietas less so). I've stopped fighting Amygdala normally entirely and Ebrietas just gets like a token attempt here or there, Bow's too tempting for the time save. Also I've killed Amygdala like 35+ times at this point so no need to prove I can beat it again. Of course I did almost beat Amygdala with my Bullets and Blood Vials glitched to 0 on NG+7, but that was just really tedious on the whole, not difficult.

@sinusoidal: I think it's safe to assume he means just on NG. On NG+7 don't think anything even approaches Laurence's difficulty, but the fight is also very poorly designed so it doesn't really matter, of course I've never done the DLC aside from NG+7. Laurence can be cheesed with the bow and dozens of hours of blood gem farming but if you're not doing either of those have fun more or less, with 2300 health half of his attacks will still one shot you. Watched the Elana video and it seems like he just had to rely on RNG not spawning Velstadt? It did seem relatively doable but maybe he only got hit by the 90% damaging attacks instead of the multitude of one hit kills that attempt, not to disparage Lobos of course, Dark Souls II's NG+ DLC scaling is notoriously awful, so despite my affection for the game I don't really have any grand desire to play a single character ad infinitum. Took me 20-25 hours to beat Bloodborne's DLC on NG+7 as a very competent player without broken blood gems. I did randomly get a broken blood gem eventually which makes Ludwig repeatable, Orphan is still extremely difficult of course (I've beaten him on 7 out of 9 runs since then I think) and each of the big three have 35k-50k health. Orphan is borderline fair aside from the HP though so probably the smart choice for hardest.

(not directed at sinusoidal, just a general statement) While I think Artorias is an extremely well designed fight (damn near perfect for a dude in armor) it is "farmable" with any build regardless of the difficulty, and Manus, Kalameet, and Gwyn sans parrying aren't, so in terms of challenge it doesn't match up; commonly hailed as the most difficult in the original for whatever reason though there's a lot of misconceptions and sub optimal decisions that go into the average player's approach to the fight.

In my opinion

Hardest: Smough & Ornstein - Dark Souls. A classic, cool fight, where the game gets a little harder and you really have to start learning when to dodge and when to be aggressive while managing both characters. I still die a lot on this fight.

Easiest: Dragonrider - Dark Souls II. I never died once to this boss, he is really predictable and easy.

Best: Pontiff Sulyvahn - Dark Souls III. I loved this fight a lot, both stages are cool and fun to fight against. The way the shadow acts with the same move as him just a little earlier was a nice touch.

Worst: Afflicted Graverobber, Ancient Soldier Varg & Cerah the Old Explorer - Dark Souls II. I know they were supposed to fought in co-op but still, ugh.

@rafaelfc: Can't help but notice you picked from the Dark Souls games. No Demon's Souls or Bloodborne under your belt, or just didn't care for those games too much?

Hardest: Fume Knight, Ludwig and Orphan of Kos.

Easiest: Pinwheel, Prowling Magus & Congregation and Witch of Hemwick.

Best Design: Knight Atorias, Gherman, Kalameet and Dark Lurker.

Worst Design: Deacons of the Deep, Ancient Wyvern and Micolash, Host of the Nightmare.

For the record, my least favorite souls game is probably 3, but i still think its awesome just like every other game. My favorite is a tie between DS1 and BB.

There's a handful I've never beaten but, from the ones I've taken down:

Hardest: Artorias, Ornstein and Smough, Twin Princes, Smelter Demon.

Easiest: Asylum Demon, Deacons of the Deep, Pinwheel

Best Design: Artorias, Abyss Watchers, Maneaters, Old Monk

Worst Design: Dragonriders, Micolash, Capra Demon, Centipede Demon, Twin Princes

Most enjoyable: Champion Gundyr, Shadows of Yharnam, Velstadt

@sinusoidal: I guess this is more about from a personal perspective, because as mentioned before, it does really come down to build and what have you. Honestly, for me, many of the bosses in the games I've played so far, which is all except three, they were pretty easy, though still intense. I chose enemies I didn't really get that intense feeling with, because they went down in a few hits, and/or did nothing to really hurt me when it came to easiest. When it came to hardest, I looked at it from the perspective of who made me have to leave and come back after a certain amount of time due to not being confident enough in beating them. Bosses I thought I could beat if I really, really tried, and were not simply impossible in the moment.

Hardest: Nameless King, Maneater(s), False King Allant, Gehrman, Chalice Dungeon Rom, Ornstein & Smough, Champion Gundyr, Pontiff Sulyvahn (the latter two with big melee weapons, got really easy with ranged/fast builds)

Easiest: Pretty much the entire boss roster of 2--sans Darklurker and some of the DLC bosses. Especially after having played the much faster Bloodborne and the still significantly faster DSIII I can rush through this game without dying from bosses pretty handily. But it really always felt like the easiest by far until they put out the decent DLC; Pinwheel, Moonlight Butterfly,

Best Design: Vicar Amelia, Artorias, Manus, Kalameet, Storm King, The Dancer, Aldritch, Pontiff Sulyvahn

Worst Design: the uninspired blobs in the Valley of Defilement, the uninspired blob that is The Phalanx, Bed of Chaos, Capra Demon, Dragonrider, Flexile Sentry, Scorpioness Najka, Ancient Dragon

Most enjoyable: Artorias, Kalameet, Ornstein & Smough, Quelaag, The Dancer, Dragonslayer Armour, Vicar Amelia, Pontiff Sulyvahn, Smelter Demon

@mundus6: Same as Shindig. Also, first post with a name from a boss in a Souls game. Nice.

@jesna: Okay, makes sense then. Yeah, still playing Bloodborne too. If you aren't loving the bosses in Bloodborne, I'm not sure the DLC bosses will change that. I don't know though.

@shindig: What is it about Micolash that you thought makes him the worst designed? I loved that he was the only one that you chased, and didn't simply walk around an arena for the most part. He had somewhat of a personality too. He was kind of a snickering character, and I liked that.

@mgalchemist: Yeah, I didn't parry either. Honestly, I rarely parried in the Souls games. With Gwyn, I had to upgrade my strength, and then I used the havel armor and shield. I just walked backwards and to the side as I kind of do with many of the bosses, waited for a time to strike, and beat him. He was kind of easy after I upgraded some.

I guess it's down to preference and the first time I fought him was just ridiculous when he kept moving from mirror to mirror. Plus his one-hit kill.

A couple of key points. I haven't played any DSII DLC, so they are not included. Best or favorite in my case is not just the quality of the combat encounter, but also the thematic, visual and musical elements of the fight. With that said HERE WE GO WALL OF TEXT!

Demon's Souls

• Favorite: False King Allant
• Best: Flamelurker, Tower Knight, Old Hero, Maiden Astraea, Penetrator
• Worst: Dragon God, Adjudicator, Armor Spider, Leechmonger, Storm King
• Hardest: Flamelurker, False King Allant
• Easiest: Adjudicator, Leechmonger, Maiden Astraea, Storm King, Fool's Idol

Dark Souls

• Favorite: Great Grey Wolf Sif
• Best: Kalameet, Quelaag, Ornstein & Smough, Gwyn Lord of Cinder, Knight Artorias, Sif
• Worst: Bed of Chaos, Capra Demon, Four Kings, Pinwheel, Seath the Scaleless, Centipede Demon
• Hardest: Manus, Ornstein & Smough, Kalameet, Gwyn Lord of Cinder
• Easiest: Iron Golem, Pinwheel, Moonlight Butterfly, Gaping Dragon, Asylum Demon

Dark Souls II

• Favorite: Velstadt, The Royal Aegis
• Best: Darklurker, Velstadt, The Pursuer, The Lost Sinner, Freja, Looking Glass Knight
• Worst: Vendrick, Giant Lord, Throne Defenders, Royal Rat Vanguard/Authority, Old Iron King, Smelter Demon, Covetous Demon, Skeleton Lords, Prowling Magus, Executioners Chariot
• Hardest: Darklurker, Ancient Dragon, Smelter Demon, Giant Lord, Vendrick
• Easiest: Covetous Demon, Last Giant, Dragonrider, Flexile Sentry, Skeleton Lords, Old Iron King, Prowling Magus, Old Dragonslayer

Dark Souls III

• Favorite: Pontiff Sulyvahn
• Best: Pontiff Sulyvahn, Soul of Cinder, The Nameless King, Champion Gundyr, Dancer of the Boreal Valley, Aldrich Devourer of Gods, Crystal Sage
• Worst: Curse-rotted Greatwood, Deacons of the Deep, High Lord Wolnir, Ancient Wyvern
• Hardest: Nameless King, Dancer, Oceiros the Consumed King
• Easiest: Deacons of the Deep, Iudex Gundyr, Yhorm the Giant, Soul of Cinder, Vordt of the Boreal Valley

Bloodborne

• Favorite: Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower
• Best: Lady Maria, Father Gascoigne, Darkbeast Paarl, Martyr Logarius, Ebrietas Daughter of the Cosmos, Gehrman the First Hunter, Ludwig, Living Failures, Orphan of Kos
• Worst: Witch of Hemwick, Amygdala, Rom the Vacuous Spider, Laurence the First Vicar, The One Reborn, Celestial Emissary
• Hardest: Ludwig, Orphan of Kos, Ebrietas, Gehrman, Laurence
• Easiest: Witch of Hemwick, Vicar Amelia, Rom, The One Reborn, Celestial Emissary, Micolash, Moon Presence

Overall

• Favorites: Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower
• Best: Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower, Great Grey Wolf Sif, Pontiff Sulyvahn, Knight Artorias, Nameless King, Kalameet
• Worst: Bed of Chaos, Rom, Amygdala, Deacons, Centipede Demon, Throne Defenders, Smelter Demon, Vendrick, Dragon God, Adjudicator
• Hardest: Nameless King, Ludwig, Manus, False King Allant
• Easiest: Pinwheel, Witch of Hemwick, Covetous Demon, Dragonrider, Asylum Demon, Iron Golem, Adjudicator

I've mostly just played the Dark Souls games. Fume Knight is the one guy I could never beat, but it's sort of a dumb experience, because I started over on NG+ and did all the DLCs in NG+1. So every boss in there is just a nightmare, Elana took me aaaaaaages to beat and I never even bothered trying the optional bosses in those DLCs. But Fume Knight... I spent hours trying to beat him, on several occasions, most recently just before Dark Souls 3 was released, and that guy is just impossible.

Easiest boss is Pinwheel. Most forgettable is the spider from Demon's Souls. Most atmospheric is Adjudicator from Demon's Souls. Most Best is Ornstein & Smough. Most worst are the huge puzzle bosses, like Bed of Chaos. Greatest design is the Gaping Dragon.

The slickest one from Dark Souls 3 is probably the Dancer of the Boreal Valley, but Wolnir and the Abysswatchers sure made an impression too. While I stand by that all of the bosses in that game are decent or better, I wish there weren't as many burning swords though. Even apart from the Lords of Cinder there are a couple of bosses that have them.

@ntm: I don't think you meant to reply to me? At least your post seems to have nothing to do with mine.

Fume Knight gave me SO much trouble. Even after I finally beat him I still felt defeated because of how long it took me. According to this article he had a 93% win rate which was the highest of any boss (at the time.)

Hardest I'm not sure, personally I struggled most with Artorias. Didn't play Bloodborne yet though. Easiest you could go Crystal Sage or Leechmonger or of course Pindlewheel but I think on a more objective note it should be Ceaseless Discharge or Dragon God once you know the tricks to beat them both.

My favorite boss is still Old King Allant, his intro, his arena, the way he's tough and difficult to evade but not unfairly relentless like Fume Knight makes it just the perfect fight in my eyes.

Most favorite: Probably Gehrman or Lady Maria from Bloodborne. Both boss fights are superbly-designed, accompanied by great music and take place in cool environments. Also, both characters are fascinating, with the latter being just really wicked.

Least favorite: Rom, the Vacuous Spider was just the worst thing in Bloodborne. I'd rather fight a horde of those Frenzy-inducing monsters. Also, most recently, that first phase of the Nameless King fight.

Hardest: It was probably the Darklurker from Dark Souls 2. Having to use an Effigy every time made the penalty for dying even higher, and the run to the boss was annoying, since you had to fight Havel the asshole every time -- well, at least for the first 15 times or so.

Easiest: I don't know... I remember beating the majority of the bosses in Dark Souls on my first try. The one that stands out to me though was the Capra Demon. I used the Black Knight Sword for him, and he went down in two hits -- technically, three, but I attacked twice.

@sinusoidal: Sorry, yeah, I was going to reply to you actually with what you were saying about difficulty being manufactured, and I guess I accidentally did, but on the incorrect persons post. That said, I do have to agree with you about Elana. I kind of want to discount her though, for me personally, because when I got to her and tried her multiple times, it was to be expected that I may not beat her. I was near the end of the main game, but I just wasn't powerful enough to beat her. For me, there's something about how the DLC bosses are just harder than the other bosses you could currently fight at the time, that I can personally qualify them as the hardest, as if you're powerful enough, as with nearly all bosses, they're not too bad I think.

@militantfreudian: Yeah, I never fought the Dark Lurker, nor the Chariot boss. I'm not sure I'll ever fight Dark Lurker, don't you have to be a certain class or level to fight it? I am going to go back to Dark Souls 2 so I can finish up the DLC bosses, and find the chariot boss. Also really? You must have been well upgraded by the time you got there. Once I found the Black Knight Sword, it's all I used and fully upgraded. I beat the Capra Demon my first try, but he didn't die in two hits. More like... Ten? He was still somewhat intense, mainly because of the small area you had to fight him in.

@bouken: From what I understand, running down the stairs as he uses a few specific attacks, and then running back up to attack makes him a lot easier. I tried that a bunch of times, and it helps, but he was still one of the hardest I fought in the series so far.

@rastopher: Yeah, I heard he was hard. I died three times on him, so I left and did other things; came back, and with one summon, we beat him. I wouldn't say he's one of the hardest. I had a harder time with Elana honestly, or at least she took more times to beat, as I had attempted to beat her more.

@ntm: To fight the Darklurker, you have to be in a certain covenant, the Pilgrims of the Dark. To join, you need to talk to an old man in a wheelchair found in three different locations, I believe. It's not very complicated. As for the Capra Demon, I tried hitting him from above, and the game decided to register my two-handed jumping attack, as both a jumping attack and a plunging attack, and I ended up inflicting 1,001 damage. Then, all it took is one more swing and he died. Also, I lucked out and got a Black Knight Sword from the very first Black Knight you come across in the Undead Burg.

@militantfreudian: Oh, that's funny. And okay. Yeah, I talked to the wheelchair dude once.

DISCLAIMER: I'm planning on returning to this post later to add in copy exploring my thoughts for each of the game's bosses. A lot of these are currently unfinished lists, as well, considering I haven't played Demon Souls, the DLC for Dark Souls II and Bloodborne, or the entirety of Dark Souls III.

Fun topic, though!

DARK SOULS

• Favorite: Knight Artorias
• Hardest: Knight Artorias, Manus, Kalameet, Ornstein and Smough, Capra Demon
• Easiest: Pinwheel, Gaping Dragon
• Best: Knight Artorias, Ornstein and Smough, Kalameet
• Worst: Four Kings, Bed of Chaos, Pinwheel

DARK SOULS 2 (no DLC)

• Favorite: Executioner Chariot, Old Dragonslayer, Demon of Song
• Hardest: Smelter Demon, Ruin Sentinels, Giant Lord
• Easiest: Dragonrider, Skeleton Lords
• Best: Velstadt, The Pursuer, Old Dragonslayer
• Worst: Belfry Gargoyles, Royal Rat Authority, Giant Lord

BLOODBORNE (no DLC)

• Favorite: Father Gascoigne, Mergo's Wet Nurse
• Hardest: Ebrietas, Martyr Logarius, Blood-Starved Beast
• Easiest: The Witch of Hemwick, Celestial Emissary
• Best: Father Gascoigne, Gehrman, Mergo's Wet Nurse
• Worst: Any Big, Fast Beast + Small Space Boss (Cleric Beast, Vicar Amelia, Ebrietas, Amygdala)

DARK SOULS 3 (not finished--I've literally only fought, like, half the game's bosses)

• Favorite: Abyss Watchers
• Hardest: Pontiff Sulyvahn
• Easiest: Deacons of the Deep
• Best: Abyss Watchers,Vordt of the Boreal Valley
• Worst: Curse-Rotted Greatwood, Old Demon King

Favorites of the series would have to be the Fume knight, Sir Alonne, Darklurker, Artorias, Kalameet, and Manus. All of these gave me the most challenge at the time, and I had to fight almost perfectly to win. They were all also interesting lore wise. I really liked the Prince Lothric, Abyss watchers, Gascoigne, and Lady Maria fights as well.

Hardest would be Orphan of Kos and Nameless King cause I havent beaten them yet.

Least favorite is Ebrietas, Rom and especially chalice Rom.

Easiest of the series, pretty much most of the dark souls 2 bosses not including dlc. Dragon rider, the last giant, the old dragon slayer, Pursuer, Sentinels, the gargoyles. I played the crap out of dark souls 2 though so that might be why they seem so easy thinking back. Also pinwheel, deacons of the deep, and giant tree fuck.

I forgot about the Chariot, that thing's pretty fucking cool.

People keep saying Nameless King is hard but I think they're mistaking shitty camera for difficulty. The first phase is just a clusterfuck of trying to figure out where the hell the Dragon's head is in relation to your character. In the second phase, all attacks are very clearly telegraphed, and slow. Even if they do hit you, he has a tendency to either overshoot you completely with a charge attack, or he'll just stand there and let you back up to heal. Not to mention how easily he staggers to any fast hitting weapon.

Hardest for me are probably: Maneater and Flamelurker (assuming you don't cheese them), Darklurker, Sir Alonne, and Ancient Dragon.

Damn. I just beat Ebriatas on my first try. She was extremely easy, most likely because of the summon which distracted her as I used my strong charge attack on her back. I also beat Martyr Logarius on my first try as well. Both of them I would add to some of the easiest bosses list I fought so far. Also, the easiest of them of one just prior to Ebriatas, the Celestial Emissary. It dies in three hits. Now, I just have to beat Orphan of Kos and then the final boss (which is not that moon boss for me). I know I can select not to fight Gehrman, but that wouldn't be fun.

@atomicoldman: It's definitely not the dragon phase people talk about. Yeah the camera is bad, but it's not especially hard. As for phase 2 though, slow and telegraphed is maybe not what I would call him. Sure he is telegraphed, and slow enough to react to. But compared to other bosses? He's pretty fast lol. And I rarely had a chance to back off and heal, the charge tracks heavily and he was very aggressive. I was better off dodging some more and spending a precious moment where I could be attacking to heal up instead.

Well, I just beat Bloodborne. Great game, though I didn't beat Kos. I fought him again, and got his health down to about 45 percent, but lost, so I just gave up unfortunately, and went to the final boss. Gerhman was really easy for me, and didn't have to do much dodging. I just dodged toward him and hit him about ten times and he died. Kos is the hardest boss in the game to me just because of his health. I didn't want to grind anymore though. So, Dark Souls 3 now I guess.

Just from DS1 and 2

Hardest: NG+7 Elana, the summoning aspect make it incredibly difficult in later NG. Second might be Smelter Demon again in later NGs if you are a melee build, because of his chip damage flame buff.

Easiest: Pinwheel and Ceaseless if you cheese him.

Best: Sir Alonne, Sif, O&S

@tobbrobb: Sure he's fast compared to other bosses in DS3, but compared to those across the whole series, that fight might as well be taking place under water. I guess I just don't get it the way other people are. Maybe it's because I've already cut my teeth on ornstein, and his copy fight in DS2, which Nameless King seems to be a bigger, slower version of.

I am very close to the end of DS III, so I can't comment on a few of the end game bosses yet. I just beat Champion Gundyr for reference.

Best: From Bloodborne: Lady Maria, Father Gascoigne, Ludwig, and Gehrman. From DeS: Flamelurker, Tower Knight, Maiden Astraea, and Storm King. From DS 1: O&S, Gwyn, Sif, and Artorias. From DS II: Looking Glass Knight, Old Ivory King, and Fume Knight. From DS III (thus far): Pontiff Sulyvahn, Abyss Watchers, and Dancer of the Boreal Valley.

Hardest: Maneater (DeS), False King Allant (DeS), O&S (DS I), Manus (DS I), Ancient Dragon (DS II), Sir Alonne (DS II), Pontiff Sulyvahn (DS III), Ludwig (Bloodborne), and Orphan of Kos (Bloodborne).

Easiest: Easiest by a mile is The Prowling Magus and the Congregation (DS II). Others: Pinwheel (DS I), Witch of Hemwick (Bloodborne), Celestial Emissary (Bloodborne), Covetous Demon (DS II), Royal Rat Vanguard (DS II), and Crystal Sage (DS III),

Worst: The Dragon God (DeS), and it isn't even close. It feels like a cheat bringing this one up because it was such a failure of a boss in every way, and it's a type of encounter the series (thankfully) never attempted again. The only one nearly as bad is The Prowling Magus and the Congregation (DS II). I hesitate to even call this a "boss." After that: Royal Rat Vanguard (DS II), The Gank Squad (DS II), Covetous Demon (DS II), Old Iron King (DS II), the Royal Rat Authority (DS II), and the Deacons of the Deep (DS III).

Overall Favorite: A tie between Maiden Astraea and Gehrman.

In my mind the hardest is Flamelurker from Demon's Souls, but I don't know how much of that is simply because that was my first Souls game and I was simply unprepared for the fight and unwilling to come back to it later. I remember banging my head against it for a long time, nervously eyeing the clock as the time to leave for my nightshift job was steadily approaching. When I finally did manage to best him it was with sweaty palms and a pounding heart in my chest, hands literally shaking over the controller. Now that I think about it I can't remember the last time I was that engaged in defeating a boss in any game.

He probably isn't even that hard when compared to some of the other BS you have to deal with in the later games. For instance bosses with multiple phases in a Souls game are kind of torture. The closest in difficulty from recent games would have to be the Bloodborne's flaming dog boss in the defiled chalice dungeon. And in that case it wasn't that the boss was especially hard to fight, but that you had so little health that there was very little room for error and literally one wrong move could end you in an instant - incidentally I think that is terrible game design.

As for most fun? I dunno, bosses are a challenge to overcome in order to progress with the game so I never thought of them as "fun" in most games. The Storm King from Demon's Souls was pretty damn awesome though - the moment you figure that sword gimmick out and start obliterating everything around you is so, so satisfying in a game that has been keeping you under it's boot all this time.

Well, yeah.

@inevpatoria: Doesn't change the fact that she was easy really. It was there as an option (though not from the get-go I understand). I was also really powered up by that part, which is why the final boss was almost nothing.

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Currently playing DS3. Good game. It seems like the easiest game so far.

Only played DS1, DS2, DS3 (up to that fucker Champion gundam). I'm always a relative tank, and sans Ps3 never had the dodging lessons from BB.

DS1:

Easiest: Ceaseless discharge (cheese) or Pinwheel

Hardest:O and S

DS2:

Easiest: dragonrider or skeleton lords. Ton of easy bosses.

Hardest: Fume knight. Never beat him gave up. Or main game Smelter.

DS3:

Easiest: iudex gundyr or Dragonslayer armour

Hardest (so far): champion gundyr, as I'm having to learn how to dodge, which is a plus when I revisit Fume Knight

best: false king allant, ornstein and smough, gwyn, artorias, smelter demon, fume knight, gascoigne, gehrman, maria, ludwig, abyss watchers, nameless king, twin princes, soul of cinder

hardiest: ornstein and smough, manus, fume knight, ludwig, orphan of kos, laurence, nameless king, pontiff

easiest: most bosses in DeS, king allant (the "endboss" of DeS), pinwheel, prowling magus, royal rat vanguard, covetous demon, one reborn, mergo's wetnurse, vordt of the boreal valley, wolnir

most underrated: sanctuary guardian, smelter demon, shadows of yharnam, rom the vacuous spider, crystal sage

I'm surprised not that many people thought the Lothric fight was that difficult. The first form is fine, but the second with the combined attacks gets pretty rough. I thought that and the Pontiff fight were by far the most difficult, at least for the build I was running. Nameless King in comparison was fairly easy and predictable to deal with since a lot of his attacks have huge counterattack windows.

Haven't played 2 or Bloodborne, buuuuut:

Hardest: Kalameet's Tail. I'm sure there are others I found harder, but this is the only time I've found myself genuinely frustrated and ready to give up in a Souls game. I'm usually good at walking away and taking a break if I need to, and coming back when I feel ready. Not the case here.

Easiest: Hmmm...I guess Pinwheel is the obvious one, but to be honest, I died to it my first time. The Storm King is probably my actual answer I guess.

Favorites: Allant, Artorias, Dancer of the Boreal Valley, Gwyn (I pretty much never parried in 1, because I just don't understand it, but apparently Gwyn's trivial with parrying), and Prince Lothric.

Man, I really like Dark Souls 3's bosses, especially compared to DS and DS2. Like, a lot of the DS3 fights feel like make-goods for fights I wasn't so into in the other games - Wolnir is the Bed of Chaos but not awful, the Deacons are a way more dynamic Royal Rat Authority, the way you beat the Ancient Wyvern is kinda like the way most people beat Ceaseless Discharge but it doesn't feel like you just broke the game, etc.

I think my favorite across the whole series (I never played Demon's Souls or Bloodborne... or any of the DLCs, now that I think about it) might actually be Champion Gundyr? His setup (and the setup for the whole Untended Graves area) is so goddamn cool, and then he gives you one of the straightest, fairest mano-a-mano fights in the series.

The hardest for me was probably Ornstein and Smough, I don't think I ever beat them without summoning at least Solaire. That said, I'm still sitting in pre-NG+ with the Nameless King still alive, so he might end up taking it in the end. Easiest is Pinwheel.

Hardest is definitely Fume Knight. If that boss door was more than 10 seconds away from that bonfire then I don't think I ever would have beaten him. Runners up: Mhysa the Baneful Queen if you don't burn the windmill, 4 Kings

Worst: Ancient Dragon. Ok, I get it. You one shot me unless I put on all of my fire resist equipment, and then you're so laughably trivial that the hardest part is waiting for you to land. Runners up: Bed of Chaos, The Camera Centipede Demon

Easiest: Covetous Demon. This really shouldn't even count as a boss. I didn't even know it could eat you and take your armor till I saw it do it to Vinny. Runners up: Leechmonger, Pinwheel

Best: Aldritch Devourer of Gods. Nothing made me smile more than seeing Gwyndolin strung up like that. What a cool concept to reuse most of his moves, but make them more menacing in every way. Runners Up: Black Dragon Kalameet, Ornstein and Smough.

I have only play Dark Souls 1, Bloodborne and Dark Souls 3 so here goes.

Hardest - Orphan of Kos, Ludwig and Laurence.

Easiest - Pinwheel

Worst - Bed of Chaos

Best - Artorias, Manus, Ornstein and Smough, Ludwig, Orphan of Kos, Slave Knight Gael, Soul of Cinder, Sister Friede