Owl Father on the first try

[Lews Therin Telamon]

I was expecting a challenge since I heard he was the hardest boss in the game, but I beat him on my first try, right after my 26 practice deaths.

[I-Chi]

I've been thinking about my Owl (Father) fight. I rank it highest, a 'better' fight than Isshin. I wonder if it's due to the environment: it's more constrained / less open than the grassland. If I fight Isshin at the Hidden Temple, would it feel more difficult?

[SohCahToa]

oh wow I didn't think he was hard at all. I figure by the time you fight Owl, you've already gotten all the skills and muscle memory together for deflecting and dodging at the right time that it's actually pretty fun to deflect and keep up the pressure.

For me, Genichiro at the top of the castle was always the hardest, because that's the fight you spend the most amount of time learning in. To deathblow him twice and then learn how to lightning reversal on the fly was the hardest.

also the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ terror mini-bosses like Headless and Shichimen. Piece of cake if you have the tools and consumables, but if you go into it like a moron, you get terror'd in 10 seconds flat. I left Headless and Shichimen until just prior to Divine Dragon because their mechanics were so frustrating.

[✨Nutkun7993✨]

It has the best boss theme in game for me though.

[Pckables]

Just beat Father Owl for the first time (NG+2 Charmless), and I felt that regular Owl was actually much harder.

To be fair, it was a long time since I last fought Owl, so I died a good 10+ times to regular Owl relearning all his attacks.
But Father Owl removes the attacks that were the most annoying (Anti-Heal Bomb, Poison Throw, Repetitive Shuriken Throws), and adds in some super slow, extremely telegraphed attacks (Thrust, Slow Slam, Fire Owl Sweep).
Ended up beating Father Owl on attempt 4 or 5.

I found that the best strategy against both was to follow him every time he jumped away. If you walk (not sprint) after him when he jumps away and swing so you hit him just with the tip of your sword, it usually lands. Sprinting or getting too close lets him block it.
Owl is easily staggered and will typically stop attacking if hit first, so moderate aggression works well on him.
Lastly, using the large i-frame window on the forward-dodge (side and back dodges have much smaller windows) lets you get better openings on Owl's bigger attacks.

Was definitely one of the more fun fights though.

[Jevmen]

i find owl father easier that owl great shinobi.
because you can Mikiri counter owl father, owl shinobi instead is the only humanoid boss with no trusting attacks

[alt]

They had us in the first half I'm not gonna lie.