I don’t play favourites, really.

Whenever I try I’ll second-guess everything I choose and put something else in the spot instead.

Favourite game soundtrack? Gothic 3’s Vista Point is beautiful…but it’s just one track and surely the entirety of the Bloodborne DLC outweighs it? Then again, for everything the Bloodborne soundtrack does right, it’s only a few tracks. So, something like Lost Judgement that makes sure the huge experience is dripping with atmosphere, tension, hype and unwavering belief might end up my favourite…

This back-and-forth goes on until I give up and make a top 10, and even then I feel bad for every single game I think of but don’t give a place to.

One Boss to Rule Them All

Imagine my surprise then when, upon replaying Shadow of the Erdtree for the first time since release (That’s the Elden Ring DLC, by the by), I settled firmly on a favourite ever FromSoftware boss…

Midra, Lord of the Frenzied Flame

It’s hard to know where to begin with Midra. I could talk about how his introduction begins as far back as the first steps into Darklight Catacombs, through to Torrent abandoning you in The Abyss and the fearful crawl to the Manse. The Manse itself is small but intricate, an area I actually enjoy replaying, rather than resorting to rushing through.

It’s not that other FromSoft bosses don’t have beautifully thematic build-ups, but Midra manages the build up and payoff with aplomb in a way others don’t, for me.

As I was fighting him again, and again, I had the thought “This might be my favourite ever FromSoft boss”. I didn’t really dwell on it because in the hype of the moment it’s easy to justify any of them as my favourite, but it was a few attempts later that I had the burning shell of a man on 1 hit to go that a different thought entered my head:

“Damn, I won’t get to fight him again“

Not “Let’s finish this and move on“

Not “Finally, give me my 400k runes ya bastard“

Just a tinge of regret that the next time I hit him, it’s over. Naturally, the distraction of that thought made me throw the attempt and I died regardless, which I was fine with all things considered. I went back to the boss fog and walked in with a feeling I’d never had before. I walked in to fight my favourite ever boss.

I’ve gone over the moment I realised Midra was my favourite, but there’s more to it than just not wanting the fight to be over. There’s so many ways that, usually, I’d be weighing up other bosses from the series and saying “Well this one is better in this way, this other one in another” but for Midra he was winning all of those playoffs…

A Balanced Moveset With Meaningful Exploits

First off, the moveset. What a boss does and how you learn them are vital parts to enjoying any FromSoftware boss, and Midra is no exception. Elden Ring on the whole has more option available to boss bosses and players. There’s jumping, countless ashes of war, guard counters, new statuses and consumables, and a much earlier introduction of mixed follow-ups and roll-catches.

• A follow-up is when a boss can follow certain attacks or combos with another. This provides players an insight into what the boss will do next, so long as you learn which combos follow which. You still have to weigh up your timings and judge if you can get away committing if the boss decides not to follow-up, but the basic mechanic exists all the way back to Margit.

• A mixed follow-up is when a Boss can follow certain attacks or combos with one of multiple others. This means you’re having to be aware not just that a boss might attack again, but that it could be either option A or option B, both of which have different attack and defence opportunities.

• Roll-catches are attacks that follow the previous with such timing that they hit you after your last dodge roll but before your next. You can avoid being caught by delaying your roll, rolling the right direction or using unconventional movement like Ashes of War or jumping in some cases.

Many bosses in Elden Ring use these types of attacks, but Midra’s are the most routinely interesting to react to. After his phase change he will bomb the arena with frenzied flame (Which can be jumped over, incidentally) and can follow that up with a direct frenzy laser. If he does, you need 3 dodges in a row to avoid it. If he doesn’t, you want to be sprinting at the old codger to get some free damage while he stands up from the dive bomb.

Midra’s moveset is full of these decision and reaction moments, but none of them feel obnoxious. It’s not like missing Messmer’s grab or needing to input the Konami Code to dodge Malenia’s Waterfowl Dance – Midra is more about flow, timing and consistency than one-shots or “Oh god this attack” moments.

Jumps, Dodges, Circles and Sprints

Midra is relatively human-sized (Compared to fights against enemies like Bayle) and for all his frenzy is still a human body wielding a sword. This makes it clearer which attacks you can dodge, jump, circle-around or sprint away from. The fact his moveset encourages using all the defensive quirks Elden Ring presents is one reason he’s my favourite. Jumping over a floor of frenzied flame to land a heavy jump attack on him is satisfying in a way jumping over an Erdtree Avatar’s slam just isn’t.

Being able to jump over Midra’s phase-change dive bomb is a nice touch too, and finding that out can completely change your strats in the opening moments of the phase.

He has a move that sees the frenzied flame (where his head used to be) lift the frail body up in the air, as he swings down at you from above. There’s 6 attacks in the combo (2 sets of 3) but you only have to dodge twice if you dodge the right direction and side-step in-between. Midra rewards precise positioning, but doesn’t punish the player for avoiding the attacks “normally” with repeated dodges.

Turn That S@!t Up

My man Midra has some divine music courtesy of Shoi Miyazawa. In some ways it’s classic “latin chorus boss music” but it has a sweeping, drawn-out tone that is emblematic of the years of torture Midra has endured. The music rises to the occasion, alluding to the slow and fearful tones of the flame of frenzy and the abyssal woods while also giving the Lord of the Frenzied Flame the fanfare he deserves.

It’s one of the only tracks in the series that comes close to Ludwig, Holy Blade and Lawrence, First Vicar from Bloodbourne. Soul of Cinder has the advantage of being the culmination of 3 games of story – Midra is secreted away, optional, and still stands his ground in terms of the power and emotion of the OST.

Dangerous Mechanics Without Becoming Gimmicks

Being the Lord of the Frenzied Flame, Midra naturally applies Madness with many of his attacks. Mostly these are the laser-like projectiles and flaming flor-based AoE, which can be dodged and jumped respectively. Some “status bosses” like Mytha and Nashandra from Dark Souls 2, the Death Blight Dancing Beast from Elden Ring and Deacons of the Deep in Dark Souls 3 rely on a fast status build that applies for the rest of the fight, or a status that is an instant kill once applied.

Midra is less obnoxious, with Madness being a slower build-up than the above examples and not being a one-shot. You’ll take a whole lotta damage, but it isn’t guaranteed lethal. This allows for some margin of error, but more importantly means that not all your deaths will be to madness. Midra will wreck you with a cheeky follow-up or a sudden laserbeam just as often as by building status on you.

Likewise, Midra’s grab is less inherently terrifying than Messmer’s or Malenia’s. While they can all one-shot you with their grabs, Midra has a wind-up animation of leaping up into the air, making it unmissable. It’s not Malenia’s subtle sword-stance switch or Messmer’s burning hand that takes 0.5 seconds longer than you think it should.

A Goofy Ahh Introduction Every Attempt

Midra begins every attempt as the frail, tortured form before he removes the device imprisoning the frenzied flame within him. Seeing him like this every time, an enemy with 2 attacks who dies in 3 hits, makes repeating the fight less tedious. It isn’t 100% all the time, it doesn’t ask you to bash your head against the wall right away.

This first “phase”(If it really deserves to be called that) gives you time to decompress and get ready to go again. Not to mention I was saying “The depths of your foolishness!” in unison with the sad old guy every run, which was fun.

The fact that this dialogue plays every time you enter the arena, rather than when you die, also makes a huge difference to the dynamic. Hearing “…in the embrace of Messsssmers flame” every time you die to Messmer is grating, but walking in on “The depths of your foolishness” is just funny. It’s such a palette cleanser for the upcoming fight.

Further supporting that point, hearing “CURSE YOU, BAYLE” at the start of every attempt at Bayle far outweighs hearing “I am Malenia, blade of Miquella” at the end of every attempt of Malenia. Starting dialogue is just so much more engaging to me than ending dialogue.

“May Chaos Take the World”

Midra has stolen my heart in no small measure. I always loved the set-up of Abyssal Woods, with Torrent refusing to appear and some experimental “stealth” sections precluded by some of the most terror-soaked notes in any From title – but having replayed the DLC and fought Midra himself I never realised quite how much he stands out.

Of course fighting Bayle is amazing, because of Igon.

Of course Ludwig, The Accursed and Holy Blade still has some of the best videogame music ever.

Of course Isshin from Sekiro is the true peak “Final boss” design, forcing players to use all their acquired knowledge and skills in an epic final clash.

But, for the first time, my favourite has an answer for all of those. I don’t immediately feel bad for choosing Midra over those examples, because I love his story and character (Like Igon) and I love his music (Like Ludwig’s) and I love his moveset and variety (Like Isshin).

I don’t play favourites, really.

My favourite FromSoftware boss? Midra, Lord of the Frenzied Flame.