Boss Battles: Which is your favorite of all time?

I can't really think of one. Despite being quite different from the boss fights mentioned here, the final four bosses of Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn are my favorite battles.
-Zelgius/The Black Knight: Despite being impossible to lose, the clip going into the fight, and the death sequence are very good. And the Black Knight has an epic battle theme.
-Dhegensia (or something like that...): HOLY CRAP I'M SCREWED!!! Nothing says that more than a large Black Dragon that can kill everyone you have in one or two shots, and is very hard to kill. The death sequence was also pretty good.
-Lehran/Sephiran: See Zelgius, but slightly harder, and without the clip leading to it.
-Ashera: This took forever. At the time, I was using Ike to attack at the start of every turn. Needless to say, it took a while to win this one. Also, it felt good to finally finish that game.


With more conventional boss fights, anything from Twilight Princess, Ocarina of Time, and the final few bosses in Four Sword adventure.
 
This thread is a good read, but seriously only one mention of Giygas?



So at the time I was getting ready to move and I had about a week left with my SNES, so I grab my bro and sis and say "We're going to beat this thing!" The cartridge always had a way of corrupting and causing me to lose interest, but we all swore we wouldn't remove the game. So we're playing, get up to Summers in 4 days I believe, then my sister kicks the system by accident...memory erased. Much raging later we start over and run through the game. Probably 15 hours of nonstop play between us. Figure out all the puzzles that trumped us before and everything. Turn to robots, go after Pokey, etc. This stretch is HARD. We made the mistake of not really preparing item-wise (though it was hard to in this game), and the enemies burned through our PP like it was nobodies business. But eventually we make it all the way to the cave.

We go into the cave and its pulsing iirc. It was weird and freaky, wasn't really sure what was going on. We find Pokey and he explains Giygas. The fight ensues and we're already wore the hell out from fighting our way here. Luckily we're strong enough to get through with tolerable amounts of HP/PP. Then the whole thing shakes ridiculously and the fight with Giygas' true form begins. This guy is insane: he's consistently shifting form on the screen, and before every attack he calls out to Ness in sick manners. I was awestruck (believe I was 12/13), but my brother was pretty scared. The fight progresses and knocks out Paula, Jeff, and Poo. Ness is still standing with tons of HP, but very little PP. We set it to auto-fight and watch it unfold. Literally an hour later and probably a million HP dealt to Giygas later, I die :( But we work up the determination and make our way back there. Final form fight goes a bit better before Jeff and Poo go down. Paula has very little HP. I decide to pray in hopes of reviving Poo/Jeff because I had few other options. Suddenly a cutscene takes place and somebody is seen praying for the characters' safety; flash back to the fight and Giygas takes insignificant damage. But the way the screen flashed you just knew it actually hurt him. Pray a few more times with damage continuously growing, until eventually it tell YOU to pray (earlier in the game it asks you to input your name for this reason alone). The final damage is dealt. Ridiculously amazing fight.


I really enjoyed the Final Boss of Phantasy Star Online Episode 1. Dark Falz was a tough mofo, but the real surprise and fear is when you play on hard and discover he has a third form! He constantly goes back and forth between vulnerable and invulnerable states, has a light attack that cannot be dodged (and I only survived with like 17 HP from the attack if I was fully healed), and when he's low on HP he sort of bonds with you, and any damage you deal to him is dealt back equally. The struggle between hurting him and healing yourself continuously was tasking, but I eventually took him down. Olga Flow (final boss of Episode 2) wasn't near as difficult or fun, but the the backstory of the boss made it pretty awesome in itself.

Del Lago and the knife fight with Jack Krauser from Resident Evil 4 were pretty boss. Del Lago was a random surprise and nonstop suspense until the end; even after you beat him you have to struggle to cut the rope before he pulls you under. The fight with Krauser is just an interactive cutscene but it was the first time I'd ever encountered one and it kept you on your toes rather than idly lulling through the scene, not to mention how badass it was. Another notable enemy was Super Salazar on the Waterworld Mercenary map. Not much is scarier than an 8-9 foot mofo swinging around a double bladed chainsaw like it's a kendo stick.. Nothing from Resident Evil 5 is memorable :(

I liked the battle in Final Fantasy 4 right after Cecil becomes a Paladin and fights with his former Dark Knight form. The idea of beating one's darker half is pretty generic by now I'm sure but it was good nonetheless.

I still have not beaten the final boss in F-Zero GX.


It just occurred to me how weak the idea of boss battles seems to be in modern games.
 
I can't really think of one. Despite being quite different from the boss fights mentioned here, the final four bosses of Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn are my favorite battles.
-Zelgius/The Black Knight: Despite being impossible to lose, the clip going into the fight, and the death sequence are very good. And the Black Knight has an epic battle theme.
-Dhegensia (or something like that...): HOLY CRAP I'M SCREWED!!! Nothing says that more than a large Black Dragon that can kill everyone you have in one or two shots, and is very hard to kill. The death sequence was also pretty good.
-Lehran/Sephiran: See Zelgius, but slightly harder, and without the clip leading to it.
-Ashera: This took forever. At the time, I was using Ike to attack at the start of every turn. Needless to say, it took a while to win this one. Also, it felt good to finally finish that game.


With more conventional boss fights, anything from Twilight Princess, Ocarina of Time, and the final few bosses in Four Sword adventure.
Mostly agreed, but the last two FE bosses need to be taken off. Zelgius s epic and Dheg is actually hard (GOLDOA WILL NOT MOVE), but Sephiran and Ashera are fails. They're both insanely easy (unless your Heron gets massacred by an AOE attack) and are totally empty of emotion. Even the Ashera fight feels like a bad excuse for a final battle. IS is capable of making good final battles (FE7 for instance) so it's not like they can't.
 

Acklow

I am always tired. Don't bother me.
The final boss in Mario and Luigi:Partners in Time. You first have to fight the Evil Princess, then her Sister, THEN AGAIN the Evil Sister Mega Form. All without any recovery, and it kills your fingers when you pull off the Bros Item combinations. Toughest boss I have ever faced.
I somewhat agree. I think the Shroom Princesses were alot easier than facing Cackletta in Superstar Saga. You just get lots of money, buy tons of Mix Flowers and drop the bomb on them. As long as the bros. share alot of atk power, you are almost always hit the Shroom Sisters for 500+ damage. Cackletta is much harder because you face her once as "Bowletta", then you have to face her a second time and at 1 HP PLUS she gets to attack first, so unless you are good at dodging or your speed is very, very high, then you are not going to do too well.
 
Solid Snake vs. Liquid Ocelot (MGS4)

I cried tears. Manly tears. It was really nice to see such dedication to a final boss fight. The controls completely changed to fit the battle. It worked so flawlessly.

Basically once Ocelot says "You're pretty good."
(If you played all the games in the series)
You'll say "FUCK I'LL MISS YOU, YOU ASSHOLE. I MISS YOU. D:"
 
^^Quoted for the truth.

Jak 2 Final Boss was sick. Really hard to beat for sure. Especially if you don't get it the first time through.

Jak 3 Boss was fun but fairly easy. Just use Supernova and the Peacemaker and Light Form to heal yourself for the entirety of the battle.

The Bowser battle in Paper Mario 64 was fantastic (the final battle music is just badass enough for it to sound good enough for Bowser too). Kind of hard unless you have lots of BP and have lots of FP for Power Jump.

The Shadow Queen in the Thousand Year Door was long, but really really easy. Same with Bonetail at the very bottom (I think the pit itself was harder than Bonetail...).

Sephiroth in KH:2 was tough.

The hardest boss in my opinion though, is Mysterious Figure in KH:BBS. The guy is just too tough to beat.

And like everyone else has been saying, one of my most favorite bosses is King K. Rool of DK64. DK64 is an example of a quality platformer. Too bad there aren't as many of those kind of games anymore.



I somewhat agree. I think the Shroom Princesses were alot easier than facing Cackletta in Superstar Saga. You just get lots of money, buy tons of Mix Flowers and drop the bomb on them. As long as the bros. share alot of atk power, you are almost always hit the Shroom Sisters for 500+ damage. Cackletta is much harder because you face her once as "Bowletta", then you have to face her a second time and at 1 HP PLUS she gets to attack first, so unless you are good at dodging or your speed is very, very high, then you are not going to do too well.
Bowletta is truly pathetic. Cackletta is no pushover though. And the Shroob Princesses can be hard if you aren't high-leveled enough/don't have enough Mix Flowers. And in Bowser's Inside Story, Bowser X is impossible.
 
Maiden Astraea (Demon's Souls) is the only really great recent one I can think of. It's pretty emotional thanks to the dialogue/music and there are several different viable ways to fight her.
 

lmitchell0012

Wi-Fi Blacklisted
Definitely Sephiroth in Kingdom Hearts 2. I mean, OMG, just WOW. You really need to know what you're doing if you want to survive even 5 seconds against this guy. But, once you know what you're doing, it turns into a pretty epic fight.
 
This thread was a nice read. Anyway, I haven't beaten very many video games, but my favorite boss battles were:
Riku/Ansem/Xemnas in Kingdon Hearts. I found this incredibly difficult (at least at the time) and extremely satisfying to finally beat. I remember I used some sort of stalling strategy and the battle took over an hour. Demyx from Kingdom Hearts 2 was similar, but I thought he was more "frustratingly" difficult rather than "legitimately" difficult.

K. Rool in Donkey Kong 64: Most unique boss fight I have ever done, I really like how they incorporated all the characters into it.
 
Shades/Kitaniji (human form) in TWEWY, the summoning Wizzrobe from the Wind Temple in Zelda: Wind Waker, Ganon in that game and A Link to the Past, Bowser in Super Mario World for nostalgia points...Red in the original G/S/C but not the remakes, Champion Blue in R/B/Y, and ah, definitely "the second battle at the Tower of Salvation" from Tales of Symphonia, vagueness because of spoiler sensitivity, but if you actually try to beat the boss it's basically the hardest one in the whole game because the game acts like it's in overdrive the whole time and you're allowed to lose the fight and have the story proceed, which just makes it even cooler if you actually win. I've done it once and it was a very proud moment for Lloyd and friends. Oh, and Yunalesca in FFX. These are a few of my favorite things...
 

Fabbles

LN_Slayer
is a Contributor Alumnus
Fire Emblem Path of Radiance, Ike vs Black Knight is a classic. Pretty much depends on whether Aether or Luna activates more. Perfectly executed I would say.

Also Berserk Ashnard was a pretty good fight, actually took some good maneuvering. Not a complete letdown like most endgame bosses for Fire Emblem (see: Fire Emblem 5).

Not an official boss fight, but Fire Emblem 4: Genealogy of the Holy War vs Ishtar, the final time you fight her. If not for Sety and Holsety, she would pretty much destroy.

I also greatly enjoyed the Andross fight from Starfox64.
 

BIG loven

Not so little anymore
The final boss in the first Devil May Cry(forgot his name) would have to be my favorite.

Pretty much all the bosses in resident evil 4 are up there too
 

Athenodoros

Official Smogon Know-It-All
I don't get why we haven't had mention of Tabuu, the final boss of the SSBB One-player game. He is the most unbalanced player I have ever seen, due mainly due to his move where he just sits in the middle of the stage, invincible, and everything dies. Immediately. Took me ages to beat that thing.
 

awww, fuck

Culex was an awesome optional boss in an awesome game. Obviously, because the game was created by Square, Final Fantasy had a huge impact on it, so much so that the game was essentially a Mario-Final Fantasy crossover. The feel and intensity of the battle were awesome, and the fight itself was flat out difficult unless you were overleveled.

I just beat Radiant Dawn recently, and I really felt that the bosses were more annoying than difficult. Seeing as many of them could kill your characters in one hit if you made a single mistake, as long as you were overly cautious you would end up OK. Except for Ashera, who can just kill one of your characters at any range -__-

Tabuu was only difficult as a boss when you had to fight him on Boss Battles mode, because you were forced to dodge his "undodgeable attack". In my opinion, he reminded me of Marx from Kirby Super Star, in both attacks and the way they fly/teleport around the stage. On the topic, Marx was an incredible final boss in the original game =)
 
Miracle Matter from Kirby 64 was a favorite of mine, in large part because it was one of the few boss battles in a Kirby game that you couldn't cheese your way through. You need to use a variety of powers to damage him, so a lot of your time is spent sucking things in and spitting or throwing them right back. In other words, you actually play as Kirby instead of role-playing a swordsman or firebreather for the entire fight.
 
I was sure I posted in this thread, hmm guess forgot to click post or whatever.

Anyway, it's hard to choose indeed. Many awesome fights (some I can't even remember their name lol).

One of the memorable ones for me was Nemesis in Resident Evil 3, badass in so many levels.
 

Toothache

Let the music play!
is a Community Leader Alumnus
I like challenging boss fights, but there are some fun ones that appeal to me as well.

Ramirez in Skies of Arcadia is one of the more memorable fights, the game is long and sets up towards an epic encounter. Lots of things about that game are memorable, especially the ship battles, but the final bosses are the real icing on the cake.

Lu Bu in the Dynasty Warriors series. In each incarnation, he is hard, no question. Perhaps the most memorable encounter is in DW3:XL, where if you face him on his special battle on Chi Bi on the hardest difficulty, you face an even more souped up battle than normal against Lu Bu and all his troops wearing silvery armour, all set to some epic music.

Fighting games throw forward a lot of memorable (and often cheap) bosses, but the two that stick out in my mind are the superbosses in Capcom vs SNK 2 - Shin Akuma and Ultimate Rugal. Both of them can and will destroy you quickly, so they are really fun challenges.

The Guy from I Wanna Be The Guy.

Just for laughs, the Great Mighty Poo from Conker's Bad Fur Day.

Penance from FFX. As RPG superbosses go, this is the most memorable for me. One wrong move and you've had it, and there's a lot to remember in this fight.
 
The Shadow Queen from Paper Mario: TTYD

Zero Two from Kirby 64

Titan Dweevil and Man-at-Legs from Pikmin 2

Final Chaos from Sonic Adventure

Darkrai from Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: EOS

Zant from LoZ: TP

Wizeman from NiGHTS into Dreams

I'll add more later...
 
Well, for hardest boss, mewtwo in pokemon puzzle league is insanely difficult!

But for the best, gotta be ultima weapon in ff6. He always has this special, beautiful way of killing every person on your team. Which reminds me that I need to find that...
 

jrrrrrrr

wubwubwub
is a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Top Contributor Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnus
It's been said before in this thread, but The End from MGS3: Snake Eater is the best boss fight I've ever played. It's a 40-minute long sniper battle in a dense forest. The camouflage, reflections, sounds, even the movement of the brush was perfect down to every little detail.
 

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