Bloodborne’s Lady Maria is Proof that Humanoid Bosses Can Be as Compelling as Giant Monsters
The boss design in Bloodborne is easily one of the game's strongest features, with the hunter forced to face off against gigantic and horrific beasts in order to make it to the end of the night. However, the encounter against Lady Maria stands out among FromSoftware's spectacle heavy bosses thanks to the tight combat and intimate distance of the fight.
More than seven years later, Lady Maria from the Old Hunters DLC still stands as the template for some of FromSoftware's best boss battles. Even more recent games from the developer appear to have drawn from this Bloodborne boss design in order to deliver some intense encounters like Sister Friede in Dark Souls 3 and even Radagon in Elden Ring.
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The fight against Lady Maria starts off impressively, with one of the few moments where the player has to fight against another hunter that has many of the same abilities as the player. Between using the dual-wielding form of Bloodborne's infamous Rakuyo, as well as swapping out occasionally for an Evelyne pistol, Maria mostly fights on the same level as the player. However, this dynamic quickly changes when enough damage is dealt and Lady Maria makes the strikingly cinematic transition into her second form by impaling herself with her own weapon.
From here, the fight starts to completely turn against the player, with Lady Maria gaining additional range thanks to her own blood now flinging off the Rakuyo with every attack. This continues even further into the third form, which not only adds waves of blood to her attacks, but also a delayed flame that can catch players during moments that had previously been openings to punish. It's a natural evolution that uses the FromSoftware formula in one
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