DS3 - Hollow Overhaul mod All Bosses NG+ [No Damage] v.3.3.6
A compilation of all the bossfights of the DS3 Hollow overhaul mod version 3.3.6, done in NG+ without taking damage to the bosses. This is a rework mod bringing tons of changes to the game with new items, weapons, Bloodborne hunter combat system and changes in enemies placements and bosses. Overall the atmosphere and experience are cool despite the overboard enemy spam at times, and the artistic aspect of the mod with enemies and bosses reskins is great. The system of Eclipse and Ceremonies is also nice. However, the major flaw of the mod comes down to bosses, as the mod author seem to clearly have no idea what balance means or what boss design is. Most of the "difficulty" of these bosses come from increased speed, giving everything infinite poise, immunity to critical attacks and inflated health bars on top of recovery cancels and projectiles/AoE spam whenever possible, while also giving them health regeneration because...reasons ?
If you enjoy atmospheric gameplay and want a change of experience, this mod is worth a shot, but if you like well designed encounters and bossfights then you should pass your way.
The bosses changed were all clear downgrades from vanilla (even "casual" bosses like Wyvern according to the mod author's own words are made worse, in Wyvern's case replaced by a 250% speed Lothric UGS knight with infinite poise...yey). The HO mod also features both "Midir but harder" and "Gael but harder" mods, notoriously unbalanced "reworks" which turn Midir into a spamfest of fire breaths/lasers and body hitboxes on every single of his attacks. Similar syndrome is forced upon Gael, turning him into a mess of arrows spam, recovery cancels, insta attacks and Owl moves too fast for DS3 rolls system. P3 becomes a shitfest of lightning and dark AoEs that would make most New Year festivals jealous.
As for the "new" bosses introduced by the mod, they mostly come down to sped up versions of enemies with passive poise and often turned into DS2 ganks, which might sometimes be cool on paper but gameplay wise are as engaging as shooting yourself in the foot with a greatarrow. Examples with the Aged Dragonrider, a millwood knight with more tracking, fire AoEs and an uppercut that can summon a dragon breath on you with no windup. The boss would still be fine if it wasn't for the ground fire that erupts around him every 10-15 seconds in phase 2, forcing melee builds to run away and hope the boss doesn't charge or corners you, in which case it's unavoidable damage. Or Forgotten Storm King, a Pontiff reskin who sends wind waves with some of his attacks that can track the player around and randomly glitch out, going under the map or bouncing off walls to come back and hit you 5 to 20 seconds after being sent which is of course unpredictable. Add some animation cancels of his p2 AoE attack to instantly kill you with active hitboxes and various glitches and overlaps...awfully janky boss.
Whereas some ganks were somewhat balanced like Old Hero and Corvian (a faster Yhorm with a blindness mechanic and a reskinned Corvian who can friendly fire each other) and some others are cool concepts but poorly executed (e.g Duo of Void, an interesting chasedown/environemental hazard idea of a boss but with projectiles having a hitbox five time larger than their model, and the Knight being a lazy sped up Lothric UGS enemy with passive poise...again.), some others were made with zero effort by just spamming 3 enemies under steroids in a small area and calling that a boss, like putting 3 Giant serpents men on a tiny bridge, or the Shadows of Lothric, a gank of 3 carthus rogues that periodically gain invisibility and damage resistance while still being as aggressive as normal, including a pyromancer using spells with an instant windup that spawn with active hitboxes at frame 1, making them unreactable. Nice.
Good/okay bosses were fought honorably, unfair and awfully designed ones were cheesed or deleted with magic as they deserved.
00:00 Protector of the Shrine
00:32 Dancer of the Boreal Valley
1:27 Vordt of the Boreal Valley
2:20 Abyss Watchers
4:05 High Lord Wolnir
5:10 Crystal Sage
6:05 Deacons of the Deep
8:24 Curse-rotten Greatwood
10:01 Aged Dragonrider
11:22 Forgotten Storm King
12:57 Aldrich, Devourer of gods.
13:54 Yhorm the Giant
15:45 Oceiros, the Consumed King
17:01 Champion Gundyr
17:56 Iudex Gundyr
18:42 Twin Princes
20:16 Old Demon King
20:57 Forgotten Penetrator
21:36 Nameless King
23:24 Old Hero and Corvian
25:32 Sister Friede
28:03 Demon Princes
31:17 Darkeater Midir
33:05 Spear of the Church
36:18 Slave Knight Gael
37:18 Executionner of Lothric
38:14 Shadows of Lothric
40:15 Beast, Shadow of the Woods
42:05 Tranquil Old Monk
43:50 Phalana the Witch
44:42 Guardian of the Abyss
46:21 Corrupted Oceiros
47:15 Dragonslayer Armour
48:37 Giant Serpents
49:45 Headless Legion Knight
50:49 Guardian of the Old Flame
52:35 Cardinal and Knight of Void
56:12 Dragonslayer of Void
57:12 Mirror Knight
58:24 Soul of Cinder