Many of the bosses in Demon's Souls still stand as some of the most interesting encounters against larger than life enemies in the FromSoftware catalog. However, one boss stands out as an experience that even the Demon's Souls remake couldn't improve, due in large part to the attempt to mix Soulslike combat with platforming puzzles.
This particular boss would be the Dragon God, a creature that acts as a bit of a mascot for Demon's Souls, even if the fight itself is otherwise underwhelming. The Dragon God is also a specific type of puzzle boss that FromSoftware has continued to try perfecting, although the concept might be better left out of future titles.
Waiting for the Dragon God To Beat Itself
To break down the fight against the Dragon God, the first phase of this encounter involves running through the boss' lair as pieces of the set are destroyed to give the player access from section to section. These eventually lead to large ballista that can then be used to not only shoot through the Dragon God, but also eventually pin him to the ground. This all culminates in a "fight" that only requires the player to run up and attack the Dragon God's chin horn while falling back periodically to avoid the boss' breath attacks. It's a far cry from how FromSoftware's dragon bosses have evolved since Demon's Souls.
The worst part is the first phase, which acts more like a stealth segment in a title that doesn't have the type of hiding or silent moving gameplay of later games like Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. Most of this phase involves sitting behind pillars and waiting for the Dragon God to either look away or knock over the obstacles stopping the player from killing it. This all has the look and feel of FromSoftware's spectacle boss fights without any of the moment to moment intrigue of the better versions of this type of encounter.
On a first playthrough, the puzzle of waiting around before breaking down obstacles can be tricky to figure out, but is never as rewarding as beating more combat heavy bosses. However, on a New Game plus run or any other subsequent playthrough, getting through the Dragon God is more of a chore than anything else. Considering that Demon's Souls' incredibly tough Flamelurker comes before this one, it's especially underwhelming to see act as the final boss of the second area. Worse still is the way that this puzzle boss has evolved into the world of Dark Souls.
The Unfortunate Legacy of the Dragon God
It isn't uncommon for FromSoftware to take some concepts from older games, even using cut content to build bosses in Elden Ring and other titles. In this case, the Dragon God has been taken from Demon's Souls and transplanted in ways into other games later on in the Soulsborne franchise. The most notable example of this comes from the Bed of Chaos, one of the most maligned encounters from the entire FromSoftware catalog.
Similar to the Dragon God, taking on the Bed of Chaos requires the player to head to either side of the arena in order to activate two objects that opens up the final fight in the center. The concept of patiently waiting for the boss to attack is also still there, with the Bed of Chaos spamming attacks that won't just do damage, but can also throw the player down a massive hole. To top the whole fight off, the player is then expected to jump to the final phase of the fight, in a game notorious for having finicky platforming. Altogether, it's a rework of a boss fight that was already one of Demon's Souls' most criticized features that unfortunately makes the whole experience worse.
To be fair to the concept, however, not every use of these puzzle bosses with an emphasis on patiently traversing the arena before attacking at the last second has been a failure. The Great Serpent from Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice does manage to use the game's new stealth features to make this idea of an arena-sized boss fight work. That being said, as good as this fight is for Sekiro, Dark Souls 3's Ancient Wyvern is further proof that any game without these stealth mechanics doesn't need a level-crossing puzzle boss.
Demon's Souls is available now for PS3 and PS5.