[General Discussion] Favorite Boss Fights

Talking about Final Fantasy 10 made me think of the one fight that pretty much jaded me completely, the fight with Seymour on Mt. Gagazet. I actually stooped to levelling up my characters because I couldn't find any way to beat him. No amount of shuffling and self-buffing could keep me alive through his attacks, even using Tidus' haste spells, and trying to tank with the Aeons just got them instakilled.

Then I found out that the best method was to just level every single Aeon up to their Overdrive before the fight and using them all in succession in a sort of crack suicide squad, a tactic that pretty much makes a mockery of the game and retrospectively made me feel silly for actually doing work to beat Yunalesca.

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Originally Posted by CelticWhisper

The Vol Opt fight in Phantasy Star Online was an insane battle. Really the first one in the game to be that intense. The dragon and the sewer monster weren't all that crazed, and while they made okay bosses they weren't anything like Seven Force in intensity.

Then Vol Opt comes along, hitting you with missiles, trapping you in rocks, and bringing the entire damn room down around you, and you're like "WTF VISTA BETA SUX." And then you remember that the don't run Windows in Ragol, and something else was causing their computer to go HAL on you, but still.

I'd like the second this. As well as add that the music for that fight was pretty sweet. It was energetic without being extremely overpowering, and really kept up the beat with the fight.

Spoiler:

If you ever beat the GCN version on Very Hard, Ultimate mode redoes each level with different enemies and different bosses. The boss for the forest mode on ultimate is an ice version of the fire dragon for the other 3 difficulty settings, and is really a pretty sweet and difficult fight. Be sure to bring some scape dolls

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The magma spider thing from DMC is something I recall as a great fight. You had to make sure it hit the glass floor, and it ended with the thing being impaled by a honking great statue. Great stuff.

Psycho Mantis from MGS. The whole shift controller port idea was awesome! Also that he could mention savegames from the memory card. "I see you like adventure games..." Sniper Wolf comes close in intensity.

The Minotaur in God of War, just before getting to Pandora's Box. The bemani sequences was great, and the combination of raw button smashing, quick reflex bemani and the gory end was excellent. More of that, please!

I was speaking idiomatically.

Culex from SM:RPG Was fun just because it was way out there and strange...but was really really fun none the less.

I also liked fighting the Mana Beast...it took me a while to figure out what the hell I was doing but it was a crazy fight.

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The Twin praying mantis robots (bugs?) from Jet Force Gemini was killer good fun. The shitty part was using Lupus, who was, at the time, very very poor in comparison to my obvious best player: Juno. I had but 15 rockets, a plasma rifle and my pistol to kill them both (my machine gun was empty). Pity I couldn't just fry it with the machine gun.

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Final Hazard (Sonic Adventure 2): The only reason is that he's so damn easy compared to the insane Bio-Lizard battle beforehand.

Nelo Angleo (Devil May Cry): The first PS2 battle that really tried my skill and showed me how badass DMC can be.

Diablo (Diablo 2): Because he has such great drops! That and the fact it's easy to find others to do all the dirty work for you.

Metal Sonic (Sonic CD): A boss battle that requires speed, as opposed to general ass kicking (actually most Sonic games emphasize tactics over skill). Plus Metal Sonic is one of the coolest of Sonic's enimies, making Shadow look lame in comparison.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

The final fight with the Aparoid Queen in Star Fox Assault, on Gold Medal Survival Mode. That is without question the most intense boss fight I've had in a long time. And it had intense orchestrated music, to boot. I don't think I've ever cheered louder than that time, when I won.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Fighting the Mana Beast in Secret of Mana without the use of the Mana Magic (which to this day, I still refuse to use) makes for one of the greatest bosses of all time!.

Also, I would like to make a mention of the final battle against Lord Blazer at the end of Wild ARMS 2 that everyone has neglected to mention.

Spoiler:

Everything that went on during that battle was everything that a final fight in a RPG should be! Great music, nice climax to the story and the main character being cheared on by everyone that he had met (and loss) during the course of the game. All of it was enough to bring tears to your eyes(it did me!).

Final Fantasy VII had N.O.T.H.I.N.G on Wild ARMS 2's end battle.

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Originally Posted by Viperas

Ares from God of War. The last part of the battle when its almost like a tug-of-war for health. Always loved that part.

Lucifer from SMT: Nocturne. Didn't realize that I was going to have to fight him and ended up having to level for a LONG time to be able to finaly kill him. But that made the victory all the sweeter.

The End from MGS 3. I don't think there is anything I can say that hasn't been said before.

Kirie from Fatal Frame. I thought that she would 1-hit kill me if she touched me so I was overly paranoid during that one.

Lastly, I can't remember the guys name but the boss from Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver where you had to lead him allllll the way back and eventually burn him with a furnace. Took me forever to figure that one out.

Dumah. "My once-proud brother would have burned with shame to have me find him there, bleeding like a stuck pig."

All of the boss fights in the LoK series were quite inventive and necessitated some clever trickery on the player's part to beat them. Particularly Zephon and Rahab. That was, of course, to go along with the best VO dialogue EVER.

Sarmoti: THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU. You have confirmed what I have been saying to people for AGES. FF7's last battle had a pushover enemy and a song that immediately stops being cool the instant you find out how horrendous the lyrics really are. WA2I had everything a gamer could ever dream of in the final confrontation of a game. For that matter, "Battle With Lord Blazer," in spite of being significantly shorter (goddamn you Michiko Naruke, but we love you anyway), mopped the floor with "One Winged Angel." There is truly a lot to be said for using a recurring melodic theme and, well...amping it up on crystal meth for the climax of the game.

DarkLink: I've actually beaten Episode 1 on Ultimate Mode. Olga Flow is kicking me around on Very Hard, and I'm basically harvesting Scape Dolls to make it through the battle. I really don't look forward to fighting that bastard on Ultimate. Oh, while I'm on the topic, Elsydeon ("ELYSION") and/or Dark Flow: HOW U GET? T____T

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Let me second the Mecha-Minotaur from God of War. That was one tough, challenging and rewarding to beat piece of meat.

From the MGS Series, Snake Eater probably had the best boss fights.
Of course "The Boss" is the best of those, for just being so... Minimalistic and schmalzy overdrawn at the same time. Minimalistic in that now you just fight a "normal" human, after smashing apart the usual mutant suspects and their mechanical counterparts. Schmalzy for the whole setup. And the music. For some reason, when the music set in, it always broke my concentration... *_*

Shadow of the Collossus had nothing BUT boss fights. The Bird. The Crab. The Barbarian. Total insanity.

Metroid Prime gets bonus points for extra "whoa".

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I would have to say that my favorite boss battle has been the Dragon God from Chrono Cross. Big, imposing, deadly and the best damn music ever for a boss battle. Close runners up are Zeromus and the last boss from Mystic Quest.

I was speaking idiomatically.

I will have to add a couple more to the list.

As part of my Super Cosplay War Ultra obsession, Zenka is easily one of the most and frustrating bosses in fighting game lore. Even if she is fan-made, she's pretty lethal!

Her trademark move is a super in which she'll slice the whole screen in front of her, which will instantly lop off 50%-90% of your lifebar. What's worse, is that you have be in mid-dash or have a move with very long invincibility to avoid it (eg. waste a super bar). For Zenka, it only takes one super, so she can do this four times in a row if she wished:

Spoiler:

If you can't escape, you take massive damage as she cleaves you in half. For girls. it's a mere slice in half, but against guy characters it's a censored comedic strip:

Spoiler:

She also has another move in which she'll send out her giant sword to whirl around the whole screen, which is inescapable. You'll have to take a lot of damage, or take insane chip damage. It's basically this X 45 or so hits (the sword spins around really fast:

Spoiler:

The super secret final boss which is the 2nd fight after Zenka, is also my favourite boss fight, because he's obviously more lethal. No need for his fancy 56 hit "tiger combo" super, or the giant snake laser, because he has a move that breaks the ground and instantly covers the entire screen with a giant rock, which he can abuse ad nauseum.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

God of War - Hydra
Impressive action and sound, and for the very first level too!

Metroid Prime 2 - Quadraxis
A massive spider-like creature which requires full utilisation of Samus' arsenal to defeat

Zelda OoT - Ganon
A colossal finale, facing off with the ultimate evil

Shadow of the Colossus - 15th colossus
This is the King Kong of the colossi. Some crazy stunts required to defeat it, including jumping off a bridge from an insane height!

Soul Calibur 3 - Night Terror
A winged nightmare, remiscent of Tekken's True Ogre and Jinpachi cheapness. Amazing looking and packs a wallop on the warped arena

Castlevania CoD - Dracula
The latest version of the battle against Vlad Tepes, with possibly the best boss battle music ever

more later

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Originally Posted by Torte

Castlevania CoD - Dracula
The latest version of the battle against Vlad Tepes

Except that game came out 5 years ago and has had at least 5 sequels.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Curse of Darkness?

I think you're getting confused, buddy.

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Heh, gotta love this topic, a stretch of games both new and old.

Super Metroid's best fight to me was with Phantoon. He's the only one close to mother brain in creepiness, that and his design was cool as well.

I second the giant robot fight in Sonic 3 & K. I also second Greedy.

Speaking of Sonic and Giant Robots, Sonic Rush had EXCELLENT final and extra bosses, something I found the equally awesome Advance 3 to be lacking. The whole having to hang on to the flailing limbs, the awesome music, and the fact that you have to survive his attacks unscathed later on to convince him to pull the attack you need him to do to jump on him.

The Extra boss is Doomsday Zone in everything but name (and an extra character)

Castlevania DS had some very awesome bosses. Most notable was your fight with Death (complete with his servants cameoing all throughout the crappy mine you waded through), mainly because he's the most versatile boss in the game. He has more attacks than any of the other bosses in the game.

Not too much later from death you wade through the creepy abyss and then you encounter Abaddon. With his conductor wand and suit and those damn locusts that can just RAPE your HP if you don't counter/dodge them correctly, he screams dark comedy. I can seriously imagine him being voiced by Tom Kenny in some Castlevania anime dub just for some laughs. Quite simply he has the best design of any boss in the game.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by JasonTerminator

Curse of Darkness?

I think you're getting confused, buddy.

Ahahaha I thought it stood for Circle of Darkness since I forgot the game I meant was called Circle of the Moon. I'm a moron, nevermind.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

OK I just recalled some more..

Prince of Persia T2T - Minotaur Bros. & Final Vizier
2 really cool fights requiring some use of your speed-killing reaction skills to defeat

Yoshi's Story - Bowser
A really creative way to do a boss fight, in a way that only a Yoshi could achieve

MGS 3 - The End
A fresh way to a boss fight, requiring some 'real-life' strategy to beat..

MGS 2 - The Harrier
The whole scenario was just great. Lots of excitement and action here

Wario Blast - Final bomber-mech
Nifty final battle in which you'll have to employ a myriad of abilities to somehow bomb thru its impenetrable armour

Trauma Center - Kyriaki
A bit off.. but I really enjoyed tacking these critters, altho my hands end up real shaky after the rapid-fire work needed to work with them esp at higher levels

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Wow, most of mine have already been mentioned. Agni & Rudra is definitely up there because of the convo before and the sweet tag-team action they pull and how much it pumps you up during the course of the fight. That and trying to clash with their swords to get them to drop it.

The final fight with Vergil is one of the best I've played, since he really goes apeshit (or at least, moreso than the first two times you face him). Recently I added Sephiroth (KH2) to that list, considering the massive amounts of rape he delivers.

Haven't gotten around to doing the 49th round of the Hades Paradox cup that has you facing Tifa/Cloud/Yuffie/Leon all at once. Sure sounds like a boss battle to me.

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Allow me to nominate something from the import scene; Berserk for the PS2 has some fantastic boss fights, full of excellent fanservice if you're a fan of the series. Each battle makes like KH2/GoW/RE4 and has preset sequences during the battle if you push the right button in time, resulting in some excellent re-enactmens of the famous battles from the series. The highlight though is against Zodd. The sword clashing and countering is a real adrenaline rush, especially if you take him on in 100-Animal Murder mode, where he gets a boost in power and speed (but the reward, including a sweet cutscene, is well worth it).

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Oh man. Zakat. Great first post <3.

DMC3: I agree with Agni and Rudra and Vergil3. Probably my favorite DMC3 bosses. Well, Beowulf is pretty cool too.

Let's see, what else: The final battle of Final Fantasy IV stands out amongst all of my gaming years. Partly because everything leading up to it was just so EPIC, and partly because the fight itself was amazing. I won't say any more about it so as not to spoil it, but the last couple hours of that game hold a very special place in my heart.

FELIPE NO

"Laugh and grow fat."

My favorite boss fight has to be fighting Fatman in Metal Gear: Sons of Liberty. Chasing a fat man on wheels while disarming C4s is just something you don't see in every videogame. It was fun and frustrating at the same time since I had trouble knocking him off his rollerblades the first time...plus, I had no idea where the last C4 was. Things got a lot easier with the SOCOM.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

I have a couple of fights (Possible Heavy Duty Spoilers):

1. The G-Elements (Human) (Xenogears)
When you fight them without your gears, they are an absolute joke (Except Dominia. *Shudder*)!

2. The G-Elements (Combined Gear Form) (Xenogears)
I thought I was done for when I first fought their combined gear form (I was using Fei, Emeralda, & Maria*), until I used System Id & WIPED THEM OUT! HAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!!!

*-You read right. I. Used. Maria!

Jam it back in, in the dark.

From off the top of my head, I would say the 16th colossus, Malus, from Shadow of the Colossus. The music, atmosphere, and the sheer power of the firebolts were enough to scare the shit out of me. It was definitely different from other boss battles, primarily because it felt nearly hopeless to fight against such a beast.

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Without a doubt I have never had so much fun fighting a boss until I came across the Goemon Impact Giant Robot Boss Battles of the N64 Goemon games. You start off terrorizing the countryside and doing as much damage to the landscape as possible to build up strength, then when your opponent robot comes in you wail on him with a hailfire of kicks, punches, nose bullets, (and if you manage to pull it off) a gigantic laserbeam that bursts from your chest and annihilates the opponent onto the other side of the screen as the sky turns black.

They can get very hard and somewhat intense as the games progress, but that right there is some good and seriously funny shit. XD

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