It's basically a bloodborne boss except you have no iframes and die in two hits. Enjoy. Guardian Ape was an example of an big animal like boss done correctly, this is just a mess

**** this boss id rather fight ds2 gank squad

Just remember the FromSoft rule on big bosses! If it’s big, then it’s too big to be enjoyable!!

If your struggling with this fight. Do a run without hitting him and just purely dodging. Will help you figure out when you can actually afford to hit him. My favourite opening was his slash down the front i just kept running to the right and then charged at him when i saw it coming down get like a minimum of 6 solid hits in. Gotta keep cool and just dodge his **** till you know you can afford to hit him. If you try to force it he will punish you. I also preffered to suzaku umbrella his jump slam instead jumping away and grappling back. GL guys.

One decent strategy is to dodge attacks by running. Try to get behind him and hit away. It feels more consistant than sidestepping, and gives better windows to attack than if you were blocking. The only attack that truly gives me trouble is when he throws fire at you. Maybe bring the umbrella. The 4 hit "double whip swipe, stomp, and whip again" attack sucks too, but it can be managed. In general though, running away from dangerous attacks can work well. It's also good against Gaurdian Ape and Sword Saint Isshin

This fight would have been good at two phases. I really hate when positioning thats entirely not your fault gets you one shot by a stupid unblockable. Everyone keeps on calling this a dark souls boss, but dark souls bosses don't have unblockable bulls*** combined with two hit kills at end game vitality. It's luck if you make it to the end without the terrain, the camera, or stunlock killing you.

Just treat this guy as a dark souls boss, bait attacks and dodge/weave and you’ll be fine. His attacks have alot of punishment spots, although the only one that’s absolute ******* is the fire throw. You can “deflect” them but you still take damage and some burn status as well PLUS there’s no tell on the second wind up if he decides to do another one.

I'm not trying to look cool or anything but I don't find this boss to be that hard. Sure I died a lot on my first playthrough but now I feel lime all its normal attacks can be dodged by strafing right and punishing anyway good luck skeleton to all the people fighting him

for 3rd phase do this:
//pop yasharikus sugar (dont worry about the hp loss), make sure you have enough emblems on you to use malcontent 3 times. When the 3rd phase begins use malcontent and go wild on him, when the effect starts to wear off use it again, repeat for the 3rd time, at this point you should have grinded his posture to like 75%. Best part is that after all that whacking at his knees he staggers again which lets you finish him off. Its literally free phase 3 as long as you have enough emblems.

In terms of foreshadowing (in lore), pretty sure the sculptor at one point says something akin to "You'll be the one to kill me", no?
I believe I'd given him all the different sake and finished progress towards the best and second best ending, right before the transition to the night and the finale.