Artorias is unfair and not fun to fight.

 I know the title makes it seem like I don't like Artorias, which is not necessarily true, but I'll explain.

I love the Souls series. I didn't start playing them until this year when my brother convinced me to try Bloodborne in January. I've sinced played all of the Souls games, but I've only beaten Bloodborne, Dark Souls 1 and Dark Souls 3. Dark Souls 2 infuriates me and I haven't gotten around to beating Demon's Souls yet, so stay tuned on that one. Dark Souls 1 is my favorite game to replay of the Souls games, not including Bloodborne, simply because I enjoy the areas of the game more than the other games. Dark Souls 3 is my favorite to play, but traversing the game to get to the bosses is not super fun, since I don't enjoy most of the areas of the game, especially early on. 

Anyway, that's not my point. What i wanted to talk about today was why I don't like Artorias's boss fight, although I like his character overall. 

Now while reading this, especially if you are a huge fan of Artorias, you'll probably think that I'm a whiny crybaby or that I should "Git Gud" or whatever else you want to say against me. I think that Artorias's boss fight is generally well designed, but there are several issues I have with his fight that you may or may not agree with when you read them. Full disclosure, I know he's perfectly possible since I've beaten him before, so don't say I'm mad cause I can't beat him, since that's clearly untrue.

#1: His hitboxes on several attacks are much bigger than they should be. I'm mostly talking about his jumping stab slam attack he does when you have some distance between you and him and his stupid sword charge attack where he stabs his sword toward you and steps forward a few steps. There have been several fights I've had with Artorias where he will jump in the air and stab the ground, and well before he lands, I will dodge forward and get behind him, and despite the fact I'm standing behind him and no part of him touched me at any point in that animation, I still get hit, and if he's buffed, almost definitely one-shotted. This attack generally isn't a problem to get out of the way of, but there have been several times it hits me when I'm clearly out of the way, which when you watch the footage just looks dumb. Then the bigger problem, that stupid charge stab attack I mentioned. I can swear that despite the fact he's using a sword, his sword must grow some kind of extra extension to the end of it that extends to the side of the sword, since that attack will hit you often even if you dodge to the side as he stabs. Most times I get hit by it, I never touched his sword at all, but I still get nailed, which also could result in a one-shot if he's buffed. This is a problem that also plagues Dark Souls 2, which I will admit is much more present in that game so I won't compare Artorias to anything in that game since he's better designed than most if not all bosses in DS2. 

#2: His buff is unfair. I'm not saying this because his buff hits too hard, since that's the point of buffs, but I think it's unfair that he gets to use the buff so early in the boss fight. This essentially means you have to deal with his buffed attacks for 80% of his fight because that's about how much health he has when he buffs himself. Couple that with his narrow windows for allowing you to heal, and you'll see my problem here. I know this is an early attempt to create "second phases" which became staples of the series later, this one just doesn't feel fair to the player since he hits so hard for so much of the fight, and couple the hitbox issues with that, the issues get compounded. 

#3: He's too fast for DS1. The Sanctuary Guardian also suffers from this a little bit, but Artorias can and will stunlock you with most of his attacks. Plus his most overpowered attack where he swings his sword upward with no warning and backflips backwards will do at least half your healthbar, not to mention it will also knock you over, and before you get up, he'll most likely do his front flipping slam attack to finish you off, so basically, if he catches you with an attack you can't see coming, you're gonna get killed. That's fair isn't it? 

There's a few more nitpicks I could say with Artorias, but I will just leave it here. I love his lore, I love his placement in the DLC, save for the fact I have to kill him every time I want to attempt my favorite DS1 boss, which is Kalameet, and I love most of his fight, but those issues are so glaring that they make my blood boil whenever I play this game. I played it 3rd, so Bloodborne and DS3 spoiled me with the superior speed and movement, and I don't have Artorias nostalgia from playing the game a long time ago, which is probably why a lot of people applaud this fight and call it near flawless all over the place, same with Ornstein and Smough. Overall, good fights, but far from perfect and nowhere near my favorite in the series.