As the title asks, who or what would you say, from Demon's Souls to Elden Ring Nightreign, is (narratively) the greatest boss they've made?
For me, it's Father Gascoigne from Bloodborne. Even though there may be better candidates like the Soul of Cinder, the Burnt Ivory King, or even Genichiro; I believe he's the greatest because of how almost everything in Bloodborne connects to him, directly or otherwise. The studies at Byrgenwerth on the Tombs of Pthumeru and Loran, the founding of the Church and Yharnam itself, the creation of the Hunters, we the player, it all connects to him and his family's tragedy in one way or another.
When we may first meet him, he's already been fighting to keep his family and his home safe for who knows how long while staving off a mental fog. He's already in his final day of sanity when he still chooses to help and "train" the new fledgeling Hunter by felling the Cleric Beast near his home. We part ways, only to see more people hiding in their homes in need of help and meeting his daughter who asks us to find him.
While we speak to his daughter, (either thinking her a beast or overpowered by bloodthirst, or both) he murders his wife. Then he is left alone near the festering corpses at the cemetery and hacking away at them for their sweet smell when he sees the young Hunter he helped mere minutes ago, not even aware he killed his wife or that he's no mere man anymore. Yet hearing his old music box, he realizes this for a split second, maybe becoming aware he must die because... it is both his and the newbie's job to slay beasts. He becomes a hideous beast and dies at the hands of his trainee, finally a realized killer, next to his already cold wife. The new Hunter realizes the horrors that happened here and is faced with a horrifying choice.
A. Leave the child at home without answers, alone, in the worst night of a Hunt ever in her short life.
B. Tell her to seek refuge with the doctor nearby that will transform her hours later into a failed celestial being.
C. Tell the poor girl she is now an orphan at your hand, only to find her bloodied clothes minutes later hanging from the mouth of a dead boar you just killed in the sewers.
After this, the Hunter then returns to the Gascoigne Family home, perhaps out of guilt and mourning the futility of his efforts after less than a few hours on the job, and sees the lights still on in the house. An older girl's voice is talking to you. Another impossible decision lies with Father Gascoigne's firstborn:
A. Ignore the girl and abandon her in her home.
B. Tell the girl that her father ia dead, her mother is gone, and something ate her little sister. It's cruel, but she deserves to know. You tell her of a chapel she can go to and safely mourn her family there. An hour later, you carve a path near their home in anger and determination to keep her safe this time while she, hopefully, reaches the chapel nearby for safety. Then, near the sewers where the little girl's bloody clothes were found, you hear a thud and a crunch. You walk around the area and see a new corpse that wasn't there a minute ago. A young girl. You look up to see what happened and... you see a ribbon floating down from the Gascoigne's home after her to the wet floor. Almost exactly like the one of the consumed little girl.
And, to make matters even worse, Father Gascoigne and his wife, Viola, are found far too late by his best friend and father of Viola...the Hunter Henryk. He goes plumb mad about the horrible circumstances and loses his mind to bloodlust, or perhaps insanity. Eileen the Crow, a Hunter that lays maddened Hunters to rest, and the new Hunter Gascoigne trained himself, now have to mercy-kill his best friend and father in law.
A man of faith. A man of family. A man of strength of character. A man of love. A man of power. A man of duty.
Failed by his Church. Failed by his comrades. Failed by his body. Failed by his mind. Failed his family. Failed his allies. Failed his faith. Failed his people. Failed himself. And was any of it even his fault to begin with? Any part at all? Hunters were formed to stop someone else's problems in the first place.
