Yo, fellow Tarnished and Shinobi! Let's talk about something that's been on my mind ever since I finally 100%'d Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree DLC back in 2025. We all know FromSoftware are the undisputed kings of the "git gud" genre, crafting worlds that feel like intricate, pain-stricken clockwork. But when it comes to one specific mythical creature—the dragon—their approach has been as varied as a Mimic Tear's wardrobe. Looking back from our 2026 vantage point, it's clear that the journey from the skyboxes of the Lands Between to the celestial realm of Fountainhead Palace tells a fascinating story about boss design philosophy.

Remember that first encounter with Flying Dragon Agheel in Limgrave? Man, that felt like being a tiny ant staring up at a flying, fire-breathing mountain range. The ground shook, the screen filled with scale and flame, and my heart rate spiked like I'd just chugged ten Estus Flasks. It was a genuine "holy grail" moment in gaming, a rite of passage. But here's the thing... that mountain range started to look familiar after a while.

Elden Ring, for all its colossal ambition, ended up treating its dragons a bit like a fast-food chain treats its menu. Sure, you've got the Spicy Magma Wyrm, the Frostbitten Borealis, and the Holy-Infused Ancient Dragon, but at their core, they're often serving up the same combo meal of tail swipes, breath attacks, and stomps, just with different elemental sauces. After facing down over a dozen of them across the base game and DLC, some of those epic battles began to feel as repetitive as farming Silver Pickled Fowl Foots in Caelid. You'd see a dragon silhouette on the horizon and think, "Ah, time to dodge-roll the same sequence for the fifteenth time."

But let's not sell them short! FromSoft absolutely nailed it with the headline acts:

• Dragonlord Placidusax: Fighting this two-headed, lightning-wielding relic from the Age of Dragons was like trying to survive inside a thunderstorm that had personally decided to hate you. The phase transition where he disappears and then dive-bombs from a storm cloud? Chef's kiss.

• Bayle the Dread (Shadow of the Erdtree): This 2024/2025 addition was FromSoft saying, "You thought we were done?" A chaotic, fast-paced brawl that felt less like fighting a dragon and more like trying to outmaneuver a sentient, fire-spewing earthquake.

• Lichdragon Fortissax: A somber duel in the heart of a deathbed dream, blending decay and lightning in a way that was visually stunning and narratively poignant.

These fights showed what the team is capable of when they go all-in on a unique concept for a dragon. They're the gourmet, five-course meals in a sea of dragon-shaped snacks.

Now, let's rewind the clock and cross the genre divide to Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. This game took a completely opposite approach. One dragon. One chance. One unforgettable spectacle.

The Divine Dragon fight isn't really a test of your reflexes in the traditional Soulsborne sense. It's a ceremony. You ascend to Fountainhead Palace, a place that feels less like a video game level and more like a watercolor painting that decided to become real. The arena is vast, serene, and utterly alien. When the Divine Dragon emerges, it's not with a roar of aggression, but with the silent, imposing grace of a god passing judgment. Wielding that massive, impossible blue sword, it felt more like a force of nature than a mere enemy.

The mechanics are pure poetry: avoiding sweeping attacks that feel like the wind itself is trying to cut you, riding gusts of wind into the sky, and deflecting lightning back at its head. It was less of a battle and more of a ritualized dance. Sure, it's not the hardest fight, but its impact is monumental. It captures the awe of a dragon, something that can get lost when you're fighting your tenth variation in a muddy field. Fighting the Divine Dragon was like performing a delicate tea ceremony in the eye of a hurricane—surreal, beautiful, and uniquely demanding in its own way.

So, what's the blueprint for the perfect FromSoftware dragon in their next game (come on, we all know it's in development!)?

We need a hybrid, a glorious chimera of design philosophies. Imagine this:

1. The Scale & Spectacle of Sekiro: The fight needs to feel important. The arena should be a character in itself, a place that tells a story before a single health bar appears. The dragon's entrance should drop your jaw, not just your frame rate.

2. The Mechanical Depth & Challenge of Elden Ring's Best: Take the relentless, multi-phase intensity of Bayle the Dread or the strategic positioning required for Placidusax. The fight needs to be a true test of skill, not just a visual set-piece.

3. Uniqueness is Key: No more palette-swapped breath attacks. Give us a dragon that manipulates time, one that fights in a fragmented dreamscape, or one whose very presence warps the landscape and the rules of combat.

In the end, Sekiro's Divine Dragon remains a high-water mark for sheer artistic vision in a boss fight, a singular, majestic sonnet in a genre often filled with brutal heavy metal. Elden Ring, meanwhile, gave us the dragon-fighting playground, complete with both forgetgettable mini-bosses and some of the most mechanically thrilling draconic duels ever coded. The future, as always with FromSoftware, is blindingly bright. I just hope that when we see that next great wyrm rise on the horizon, it feels as fresh and terrifying as that very first encounter in Limgrave—but stays in our memories as uniquely as the god we met in the clouds.

What about you? Which dragon fight lives rent-free in your head? The serene spectacle of the Divine Dragon, or the chaotic, pulse-pounding fury of Bayle? Let me know in the comments! And remember, hesitation is defeat... unless you're fighting a dragon, then hesitation is probably just common sense.

🔥 TL;DR for my fellow masochists:

Game	Dragon Philosophy	Peak Example	Vibe
Elden Ring	Quantity with Quality Peaks	Dragonlord Placidusax / Bayle the Dread	"OH GOD IT'S EVERYWHERE! (But sometimes in a good way)"
Sekiro	Quality over Everything	The Divine Dragon	"A spiritual ballet with a very large, very sharp sword"
The Future	The Perfect Hybrid	???	"Please, Miyazaki-san, we are ready to be hurt again (in a beautiful, unique way)."