Favorite boss fights

[Windows i7]

Great boss fights can make a good game great. I don't necessarily mean difficult bosses, just ones that were fun to kill for one reason or another. Some of mine:

- Most Chrono Trigger bosses, especially ones where you have to kill multiple parts.
- The queen from Red Faction Armageddon.
- Most of the bosses in Fairy Fencer F: Advent Dark Force... especially the ones you can't actually beat on the first playthrough. You get a massive reward for defeating one of these optional-win type bosses.
- Cyber Demon from Doom 2016. This one gave me some issues initially but once I figured out what I had to do to beat it, it was a really fun fight.
- Bowser from Super Mario 64. The boss was simple but not entirely without challenge. I especially enjoyed the final boss.

 

[Matseb2611]

Some off the top of my head:

Dark Souls - Ornstein & Smough, Artorias, Manus
Titan Quest - Talos, Dragon Liche, Typhon, Hades
Darkest Dungeon - Unstable Flesh, The Prophet, Swine King
Castlevania games - Gear Steamer (Bloodlines), Gergoth (Dawn of Sorrow), Puppet Master (Dawn of Sorrow), Golem (Lament of Innocence), Balore (Aria of Sorrow), Dracula (Curse of Darkness)
Binding of Isaac - Monstro
Devil May Cry 3 - Agni & Rudra

 

[bgillisp]

Hmmm...did they change how bosses were done in Advent Dark Force? I remember in Fairy Fencer F getting annoyed at the bosses, especially the ones where I was destroying them, but couldn't due to plot armor as they wanted to show their "We can't defeat it, what shall we do?" cutscene. Yet I was destroying it quite nicely thank you very much?

As for me...most Gold Box final bosses, because those battles were over in about 5 minutes one way or the other. None of this let's fight for 3 hours then you die due to bad RNG garbage many games do for their final boss as they feel the boss isn't epic enough unless it takes you longer to kill than it takes to watch Titanic (the movie). Nope, there most battles you knew if you were going to win or lose within 1 - 3 rounds, based on what tactics you used. And, even if the RNG hated you on one attempt, you could be trying again within a few minutes.

 

[Windows i7]

Hmmm...did they change how bosses were done in Advent Dark Force? I remember in Fairy Fencer F getting annoyed at the bosses, especially the ones where I was destroying them, but couldn't due to plot armor as they wanted to show their "We can't defeat it, what shall we do?" cutscene. Yet I was destroying it quite nicely thank you very much?

The plot armor in ADF has it so that some of the bosses can have their health fully depleted with a certain amount of turns. If you succeed in doing so, you get a nice reward for it and the plot cutscene is different. The teasing of maybe being able to get OP enough to do this is what drove me to level everyone to 999, and then going through and beating those bosses. It was quite fun.

Also, once you level up enough, you can play on hard to get better items to become even more OP. The game mechanics are nice and exploitable.

 

[bgillisp]

@Windows i7 : But from the viewpoint of a player who doesn't know that, it still looks like bad boss design.

 

[JtheDuelist]

Marduk in the Wii version of Bakugan Battle Brawlers due to his AI being almost akin to a live rival player.
Gogmazios in MH4U, where time was your actual enemy in the face off.
Guardian Dragon, Avalon Drake (relic version) in Puzzle and Dragons Z, the god of the difficulty spikes.
Odin in YuGiOh 5D's Duel Transer, whose deck was the inspiration for my real life YuGiOh deck.

 

[TheoAllen]

I'm bad at remembering boss battles, most of time it just come and go. However my fave boss battles are always the one that mimic your character skills. So you need to know yourself about your own moveset to counter it.

Some on top of my heads are :
Prototype 2 - Alex Mercer (last boss) His skill is very identical with main character which made me thinking "hey, he can use that move too?"
Kingdom of Amalur : Reckoning - Last boss. The boss keep sending a clone of your character that has very identical with your own moveset, but the difference is that the clones may use different weapons.

I was thinking of using these boss idea for my game, must be fun

 

[Canini]

Here are a few just off the top of my head:

Banjo-Kazooie. Gruntilda
Probably my favorite boss battle of all time. Amazing music and uses all the skills thought throught the game mixed with a genuinely funny antagonist makes for an awesome bout.

Lechuck´s Revenge. Lechuck
A surprisingly scary chase ends off this humorous pirate adventure. Nice callback to the voodoo doll recipe at the start of the game leads to a real surreal ending.

Arkham City. Mr Freeze.
How amazing are bosses that actually learn from their mistake and take precausions to avoid them? The answer is very. It helps that the voice actor gives him some real gravity.

Rayman. Space Mama
A very fun design coupled with a hard battle (almost being a bullet hell platformer at times). Space Mama attacks on first a viking themed stage and then a space one and may be the younger me´s first confrontation with meta elements.

Kingdom Hearts 2. Hades.
Hades has the only believable reaction to a cheesy "Everybody Laughs" ending. It helps that James Woods still voice him. The battle is fun as well with Hercules as a guest fighter that is actually useful in battle.

Half-Life. Nihilanth.
Such a great grotesque design of intimidating size. Say what you will about Xen but this is a great finale to the game. I totally buy him as a leader of an alien race, something I do not do with the Combine from the sequel.

Final Fantasy 9. Necron.
I do not care one iota that he is a giant space flea from nowhere (to use tvtropes terminology) this is an amazing fight with great and spooky music and a fitting thematic ending to the game. Choosing your party members freely is a great plus.

Trauma Center. Pempti
Is a disease a boss? When it takes three days of research and three operations to cure I´d say it does. This one is great for its sense of urgency and genuin body-horror in its symptoms.

Sonic Colors. Egg wisp.
Finally Dr Eggman comes back as a proper antagonist with a larger version of a machine he attacked with previously. There is a real sense of speed and triumph when Sonic powers up and the theme kicks in.

Ocarina of Time. Phantom Ganon.
Ganondorf may attack in the same way later in the game but I think the gimmick with riding through paintings is cooler. Helps that the Forest Temple has such a spooky vibe.

Crash Bandicoot Warped. Dingodile.
A pretty tricky boss demanding quick reflexes but can be cheesed with a later power-up. Amazing music and voicework makes this guy really fun to fight.

Portrait of Ruin. Legion.
This recurring boss from Castlevania really approuches cosmic horror territory when it dwells in a black hole surrounded by a WW2-torn city and merged with a circus.

 

[Amarok]

A few from me:

Advance wars, Sturm: before to the first black hole appareance advance wars seemed to be all sunshine and rainbows, it was war but no hard feelings, lets be friends! then this strangely creepy tune sounds for the first time, and this unknow army with a black color scheme led by a bizarre looking robot appears out of nonwhere and starts to massacre your army by raining meteors on you. And it takes the combined effort of 3 armies to finally take it down.

Nier Automata,

Spoiler: SPOILER

the ending credits

: The weirdest boss ive ever seen, also the most emotional moment in gaming history for me personally, the tears on my eyes provided an additional layer of difficulty.

Suikoden 2, Luca Blight: possibly the most memorable boss fight in any turn based jrpg for me, the dude is so horribly tough you need first to separate him from his army, then kill his personal guard, then assault him with 3 full parties of characters and finally duel him to the death with the main character. Its an amazing fight because its realistic, even the "good guys" will have to resort to less noble tactics in order to win over a superior foe.

 

[MrZalgo]

Heck the reason why I love video games so much is boss fights. I always document the boss fights I encounter in gaming so that I could judge them later after beating them. Here are a couple favs of mine.

Dark Souls III: The Ringed City final boss Slave Knight Gael was such a hectic, but fair fight with a great setpiece that actually can damage you if you do nothing. That and coupled with the amazing theme song, the large and almost hauntingly beautiful arena, and the fluid animations (him performing a midair repeating crossbow attack was so cool to look at) made him a classic in my opinion.

Xenoblade Chronicles: Disciple Dickson and good ol' Zanza are great bosses with great music, good mechanics with it, symbolic boss design (Specifically Zanza) and the whole mechanic of fighting to see the future was a simple yet cinematic way to make the fight unique. Plus Zanza's end was quite satisfying.

Suikoden 2: Luca Blight was a very realistic fight in how even an army of party members still have to use dirty tactics in order to take on a bigger foe. That and its fair difficulty made it rather memorable for the game.

Kingdom Hearts 2: Xemnas with his beautiful music, fast-paced battle, his ultimate attack, and the guy himself being such a good villain made him fairly memorable on my list.

 

[flashbax]

Can not remember the name, but the last boss in FF x-2 was amazing looking, not the best fight in any game by far, but I remember visually it stands out in my mind.

 

[TheMutantSpaceDancer]

Well, some of my favorite boss fights include,
Water Raith - Pikmin 2
Mr Sax - Rayman
Final Boss - Plok!
Broodal Walker - Mario Odyssey
Lord Belch - Earthbound

 

[Martin_Arcainess]

Any boss fight that is hard, challenging and endgame like! I really like the bosses that you can't just go in and twop and then claim victory.

Also, for a side note, I hate HP sponge boss's as in HATE. A boss.....with a s**t ton of HP doesn't make it a challenge. It just makes it drags on for ages and the worse crime is when he does the same thing's over and over again. Nothing new once you hit HP thresholds.

 

[MrZalgo]

Any boss fight that is hard, challenging and endgame like! I really like the bosses that you can't just go in and twop and then claim victory.

Also, for a side note, I hate HP sponge boss's as in HATE. A boss.....with a s**t ton of HP doesn't make it a challenge. It just makes it drags on for ages and the worse crime is when he does the same thing's over and over again. Nothing new once you hit HP thresholds.

Their are some exceptions to the whole hp sponge deal. Gael in Dark Souls 3 may have a ton of hitpoints, but the fact that they are split into three completely different phases and the whole fight is extremely hectic, coupled with his not so great resistances, it's a pretty fair fight. (Especially since the main game bosses tend to have way too little hit points to really be considered bosses.)

 

[Martin_Arcainess]

Their are some exceptions to the whole hp sponge deal. Gael in Dark Souls 3 may have a ton of hitpoints, but the fact that they are split into three completely different phases and the whole fight is extremely hectic, coupled with his not so great resistances, it's a pretty fair fight. (Especially since the main game bosses tend to have way too little hit points to really be considered bosses.)

Those type of boss's are fine. Its thisr same old mecs for 1hour + that gets me

 

[CoGDork]

Ganon from Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. The intro to the fight, the music, the lightning strikes illuminating a massive demonic beast... under any other circumstances, this would be a scary thing to fight, intimidating and tense. But with all of that buildup and everything, the only thing I could think was "Let's dance, mofo. I'm finishing this here and now!"

 

[Kitsune_Tatsuki]

Big Sister from Bioshock...challenging but still fun at the same time.