10 Best Soulsborne Boss Themes, Ranked

Soundtracks are a fundamental element of video games, especially given their ability to express feelings.

Whether they are happiness, sadness, melancholy, rage, tension, or magnificence, musical themes are key to the player’s experience.

Many titles’ excellence is because of their soundtracks, and among them, we could include FromSoftware games, whose great sound presence has guaranteed magical and unparalleled moments.

After all these years, we have experienced a sea of ​​sensations worthy of the finest orchestras through their tunes. Therefore, celebrate with me the music of these glorious creations through this ranked list of the ten best Soulsborne boss themes.

10 Old King Allant

A Real Song For A False King

Although it’s often overlooked, Demon’s Souls is the blueprint of the Soulsborne formula, and this is reflected in its music as well.

As a result, the epic yet melancholic nature of FromSoftware’s soundtracks began in Boletaria, with Old King Allant as its greatest exponent.

The title’s final boss features the best theme in the entire game, especially for its ability to raise the intensity of the combat to levels that its limited gameplay can’t achieve.

Unlike the developer’s more recent projects, they previously relied much more on songs to convey feelings of tension and glory, which gave them even more prominence and weight within the boss fights.

9 Soul of Cinder

A Heavenly Remix

Throughout the adventure, Dark Souls 3 emits a conclusive aura, aiming to establish that Lothric is the final destination of this long journey.

For this reason, FromSoftware connected many points between the third installment and its predecessors, including characters, areas, bosses, and songs.

Thus, Soul of Cinder is the ultimate expression of Dark Souls 3‘s intention. From gameplay to sound, the fight is a tribute to the series, with its second phase being the pinnacle of nostalgia through a soundtrack that makes it all unforgettable.

Since there is no person who has played the game and doesn’t feel goosebumps just thinking about Yuka Kitamura’s theme, I think Soul of Cinder accomplished its goal flawlessly.

8 Aldia, Scholar of the First Sin

A Lie Will Remain A Lie

Despite the valid criticisms you can make regarding Dark Souls 2, I can’t help but put them aside when I think about how the final stretch makes you feel.

Aldia, Scholar of the First Sin, while a mechanically deplorable boss, is magnificent in narrative and audiovisual terms. Together with its theme, the fight brilliantly conveys the feelings of guilt, frustration, and struggle against an inexplicable and unbearable cycle.

However, to achieve this, it relies on its music entirely, which gives depth to the sad, unwanted, and complex event that is taking place while it plays.

It may only be a tree on fire, but what Aldia, Scholar of the First Sin achieves beyond gameplay is one of the reasons why I most admire Dark Souls 2.

7 Godskin Apostles

A Spectacle of Another Kind

I’ve always felt Elden Ring’s Godskin race was wasted in terms of gameplay due to the high number of times they appear throughout the adventure.

However, it’s because of their constant appearances I’ve truly appreciated Godskin Apostles, a soundtrack that’s as majestic as it is creepy.

As a series of specimens known for taking down gods and wearing their skins, the accompanying theme conveys how it feels to face such terrifying but divine entities perfectly.

I still lament it’s a fight that has been recycled so many times, but I think it’s a good sacrifice to pay to hear Godskin Apostles and discover a little more about the history behind them.

6 The Promised Consort

An Era That Comes To An End

Speaking of replaying a boss numerous times, I lost count of how many attempts it took me to beat Promised Consort Radahn, and I’m still not sure if I liked the conclusion of Shadow of the Erdtree that much.

However, I am sure the soundtrack is a majestic representation of what’s at stake during combat. The Promised Consort excellently embodies the notion of two beings of incalculable power facing off to see who will determine the order of things.

At the gates of godhood and facing the most powerful demigods of The Lands Between, the song conveys as much or more than the combat itself, including its beautiful transition into the second phase where Miquella takes center stage.

It’s a shame I fought Radahn when he was more of a laser show and low frames than a final boss, but at least I became fond of its OST during the process.

5 Slave Knight Gael

The Trilogy’s Immaculate Finale

The end of Dark Souls 3 is also the end of the entire trilogy, and I don’t think there was a more idyllic way to wrap it all up than through Slave Knight Gael.

As one of the most memorable bosses in Soulsborne history, its fight represents millennia of in-game mythology and years of community passion.

If you add a soundtrack that gains momentum as the fight unfolds, with Gael growing more powerful and the player struggling to keep up, it’s easy to feel an unprecedented sense of glory.

An empty glory, of course, as we are only two nobodies fighting at the end of time and civilization, with no one to bear witness to it but their swords and a soundtrack to rejoice in their majesty.

4 The Final Battle

A Legacy of Wonderful Years

Even though people don’t like Elden Ring‘s final fight all that much, I have to admit it’s probably one of my favorites.

The duality of Radagon and Elden Beast as the campaign’s final bosses feels both pertinent and epic, especially thanks to The Final Battle theme.

After 100 hours of gameplay, hearing the same song that made me fall in love with Elden Ring from the beginning felt like a monumental closure.

Between the combat, the aesthetics, and the soundtrack, especially when you’re facing the Greater Will’s vessel, it’s one of my standout moments in the whole game.

It brings together all of FromSoftware’s years of experience and channels them into one heavenly encounter that people don’t often give the credit it deserves.

3 Ludwig, The Accursed

From Bestiality to Divinity

Ludwig, The Accursed is probably the most representative theme in all of Bloodborne, so I’m sure you’ll find it odd it’s in fourth place.

Certainly, Nobuyoshi Suzuki’s composition is one of the most stunning and immersive of all FromSoftware’s creations, and it has all the credentials to be considered the best of the Soulsborne games.

Its changes and evolution are an incredible exposition of Ludwig’s fight, who goes from being an untamed beast to a graceful swordsman while the sound also rises in intensity.

The music acknowledges the magnificence of the dispute and of those who carry it out, leading to a memorable climax whose voices and instruments are unforgettable for anyone who has the delight of perceiving them.

It’s the definition of perfection, as will be the following entries. Thus, from here on, all the positions can be interchanged, so we could talk about Ludwig, The Accursed as number one without any problem.

2 Gehrman, The First Hunter

A Perfect Final Encounter

Facing Gehrman, The First Hunter in Bloodborne is one of those moments that exemplifies why video games are art.

With the white flowers mourning the deaths of the hundreds of hunters whose tombstones show Gehrman’s meticulous work and the moon stalking closely for its next prey, it’s a fight full of deep symbolism.

However, the soundtrack is what turns a seeming dispute about power into a fight to save your fellow hunter from cosmic enslavement.

The sadness of two colleagues trying to prevent the perpetuation of a tragic cycle is manifested through a melancholic melody that changes the moment’s aura completely.

It’s a perfect encounter in every sense, especially because of the exquisite song’s contrast with the aggressiveness of the visceral attacks and bullets.

1 Gwyn, Lord of Cinder

The Most Iconic Tragedy

If there is a soundtrack that represents every last detail of FromSoftware’s creations, it’s Gwyn, Lord of Cinder from Dark Souls.

It isn’t only the most recognized song from Soulsborne games, but also one of the most significant, since its quality transcends the mere sound.

Although it’s beautiful and iconic like few others in the video game industry, details such as being only played with white piano keys to represent Gwyn’s fear of darkness are what put it on another level.

Gwyn, Lord of Cinder is the undead curse, Lordran, and the Dark Souls experience. Its notes symbolize the entire cosmos hidden in FromSoftware’s masterpiece in just three and a half minutes, and that’s something only geniuses can do.