When you think about it, theSoulsborneseries frequently presents some of the strongest, most powerful foes in any game franchise. And if we accept that the canon of each game is that we succeed in completing it, thus defeating each of these godly terrors, then the series’s roster of heroes is among the strongest in gaming.
But of course, that begs the question: of all these powerful, undead heroes, who is themostpowerful? Who stands atop this pantheon of godslayers? Well, that’s the question I’m here to answer. I’ve pawed through the accomplishments of each, weighed their heroic feats, and have landed on a list that I think makes a pretty strong case for who the strongest hero among the Souls games truly is.
Demon’s Souls
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From PlayStation Studios and Bluepoint Games comes a remake of the PlayStation classic, Demon’s Souls. Entirely rebuilt from the ground up and masterfully enhanced, this remake introduces the horrors of a fog-laden, dark fantasy land to a whole new generation of gamers. Those who’ve faced its trials and tribulations before, can once again challenge the darkness in stunning visual quality with incredible performance.In his quest for power, the 12th King of Boletaria, King Allant channeled the ancient Soul Arts, awakening a demon from the dawn of time itself, The Old One. With the summoning of The Old One, a colorless fog swept across the land, unleashing nightmarish creatures that hungered for human souls. Those whose souls were stripped from them, lost their minds – left only with the desire to attack the sane that remained.Now, Boletaria is cut off from the outside world, and the knights who dare penetrate the deep fog to free the land from its plight, are never seen again. As a lone warrior who has braved the baneful fog, you must face the hardest of challenges to earn the title “Slayer of Demons” and send The Old One back to its slumber.
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The Demon Slayeris the dude who formally got the ball rolling. It would be unfair to say that they didn’t accomplish great feats of strength. They did kill multiple giants, demons, and dragons. Theyalsomanaged to bring about the end of the world. So, you know, that’s a pretty massive accomplishment, but they do so by defeating a demon crafted in King Allant’s image, which feels like one of the least powerful final bosses in the series.
The true Allant is now fused with the great one.
The Demon Slayer’s biggest kills, canonically, are likely the Storm King and Dragon God. One of whom he kills using a magic sword that was seemingly placed near the boss’s arena to give him every advantage, and the other, they kill by using the massive ballistas that were positioned around the arena. So, it feels like a lot of their success is a combination of luck and craftiness, not strength.
Dark Souls 2
Dark Souls 2 follows the player character, an Undead human cursed to become a Hollow, as they attempt to reverse this impending doom. Like previous FromSoftware titles, it thrives on its difficulty and gothic fantasy world.
One of the primary aspects that’s going to enter into this debate is who the heroes fight and how strong they are canonically (from the glimpses of the canon we get). Unfortunately for the Bearer Of The Curse, Dark Souls 2’s bosses are largely filled withpowerful heroes and a dragon or two.
While the Bearer of the Curse deserves a lot of credit for having moxie, seeing as they are the only real self-starter of the bunch, the game very clearly humanizes this stalwart soul, and that works against them in this list. At the end of the day, the Bearer of the Curse is most similar to the Demon Slayer, and thus, it makes sense to place them alongside their Demon’s Souls counterpart.
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
Bringing classic FromSoftware gameplay to feudal Japan, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice sees a lone shinobi, Wolf, seek revenge. You must take on formidable bosses along the way, using all your skills to survive and conquer.
For all intents and purposes, Sekiro is a talented fighter with a spicy bag of tricks. He does have the ability to resurrect, but that’s sort of true of all the protagonists in the Soulsborne games. When it comes to feats of strength, his biggest accomplishment is likely slaying the Divine Dragon, but slaying dragons just isn’t that special when you’re discussing this group.
As unfair as it may seem, Sekiro just didn’t kill enough gods. His greatest accomplishment is killing an old man. He does have the Immortal Blade on his side, but without seeing him utilize it against a cadre of gods and such, it is impossible to say that it would truly give him an edge. Sorry, Wolf, your game is great, and you’re a badass, butyour resume iscomparativelylimited.
There are two things that we can say with absolute certainty about Dark Souls’s Chosen Undead…
When all is said and done, they fight an impressively powerful roster ofmythical monsters, great heroes, and demigod-adjacent foes. Additionally, we get to see them return as a godly, immortal figure in the third game. So, their immense power is canon.
The reason they are in the middle of the list is because of the immense power of the rest of the characters present. They are most certainly not lacking in strength. A large strike against them is that the Chosen Undead fights another protagonist from this list andloses.
Dark Souls 3
Rounding out the popular trilogy by FromSoftware, Dark Souls 3 sees you build your playstyle and take on enemies in brutal combat. You’ll traverse the Kingdom of Lothric, linking the fire by defeating grand bosses and reaching one of four possible endings.
Not only does The Ashen One put an end to the whole mess that is the world of Dark Souls. They work their way througha series of godly enemiesand overcome some of the greatest challenges as a direct result. However, like all Dark Souls heroes, it is worth noting that many of them appear to be past their prime.
As I mentioned in the Chosen Undead entry, one of the biggest accomplishments that puts The Ashen One on top is that they fight the Soul of Cinder: the god-like remnant of every Dark Souls hero that came before them. Not only do they defeat the Soul of Cinder, but they then absorb their power. I think there is an argument that they could have been placed at the top of this list, in all honesty.
Elden Ring
With worldbuilding from Game of Thrones scribe George R.R. Martin and developed by FromSoftware, Elden Ring is a masterpiece in what has become known as the ‘Soulslike’ genre of action role-playing games.
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When it comes to the rogue’s gallery that the other protagonists work through, the relative powers of each feel vague and poorly defined. Certain foes certainly dip into the godlike category, and a few are marked unambiguously as such, but they pale in comparison tothe murderer’s row of legendsthat The Tarnished slays.
One by one, The Tarnished kills the most powerful beings in the Elden Ring world. Many of whom areexplicitlydemigods. By the end of the game, the Tarnished themselves gain their own godhood of sorts, as they are destined to become an Elden Lord of some sort or another. They work through the most powerful foes, they battle more of them, and they clearly make a very strong argument for being at the top of this list.
Bloodborne
Bloodborne is a PlayStation 4-exclusive title developed by Dark Souls and Elden Ring creator FromSoftware, and launched in 2015. A critically acclaimed action role-playing game, you must traverse the city of Yharnam seeking a cure for a mysterious illness.
The Tarnished worked their way through a horde of demigods, but the Hunter pushes past that, traverses otherworldly dimensions, andbecomes a straight god-slayer.The Hunter’s night ends by defeating the Moon Presence, an otherworldly, eldritch great one plucked straight out of a Lovecraft story.
Like many of the other heroes on this list, the Hunter is also able to ascend into godhood. However, while the others all appear to act as gatekeepers of one sort or another, the Hunter is completely reborn. Their fate is to become a great old one. The full implications of this are never explicitly outlined, but it certainly appears as though they are untethered from other figures, and their power may be about as close to limitless as one can be.
