Best Boss Battles
- Thread starter Lazy
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This one, just the theme alone makes it probably one of the best boss battles ever (Thought the fight itself is also epic):
The best boss battle are ones that get your adrenaline pumping I find. Dark/Demon's Souls offer some of the best. Also checkout Bayonetta, Vanquish and the upcoming Metal Gear Rising. Castlevania Lords of Shadow had some damn good bosses as well. I'm also a big fan of the boss battles in JRPGs but really there is too many to list.
World of Warcraft for all its faults really did have some extremely well designed boss battles. Mind you I can't speak for any content released in the last two years as I stopped playing WOW quite some time ago, but even so I have fond memories of some of those boss fights.
Not counting WOW though... hmmm... oh, I got one! Mr Freeze in Arkham City was great. Not only was he an awesome character but his boss fight was extremely well designed, forcing the player to use all the tricks they'd been learning up till that point to overpower this one chillingly powerful villain.
Not counting WOW though... hmmm... oh, I got one! Mr Freeze in Arkham City was great. Not only was he an awesome character but his boss fight was extremely well designed, forcing the player to use all the tricks they'd been learning up till that point to overpower this one chillingly powerful villain.
There can be no conversation about boss battle's that doesn't include Metal Gear Solid. Each is a very unreal but incredibly complex experience with many tricks and solutions. Examples include
The End (Metal Gear Solid 3), he's a 100+ year old sniper and the best in the business (also he can photosynthesise. It's MGS you just have to roll with it). The actually battle has you hunting him sniper vs sniper through a woods. Both masters of camouflage. He has a parrot which spots for him (and you can shoot it down and eat it), you have thermal goggles, directional sound and can try to track his footprints. Even when you figure out where he's hiding without being spotted first, you've got to try and circle round and flank him. Or you can chase him and whenever he tries to lose you, evade the attempt and run him down until he's out of stamina and can't fight through exhaustion.
Or you can just set your consoles clock a few years ahead and when you next load the save, the game will berate you for letting him die of old age.
In the same game, they have a mexican standoff, a duel, a boss battle which is so emotional I'm not even going to name who you fight.
Or how about Psycho Mantis (MGS1) who you have to
Or there's Octopus MGS4 who is a master of camo and will do everything to trick you, hiding on the ceiling, pretending to be a painting. Etc.
Or there's the final boss fight in MGS4, after all the mechanations of all the games, all the fights and plots and schemes, it comes down to this, just you and your most hated enemy fighting on the roof. As you play through the fight the music, health bars and combat styles change through all the past games in the series, until eventually both men are worn down the UI goes away and you keep on slugging each other, barely able to stand as the game seamlessly becomes the last cutscene.
What makes the MGS franchise amazing is the flexibility of solutions, the creativity and the character and story moments each fight provides (apart from the last boss fight and the fight against Vamp, MGS4 is the weakest at making them story important)
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The other game that must be mentioned is Shadow of the Colossus, which is basically just 16 huge boss fights, with immense scale, each silently conveying a beauty and emotion at the same time as frightening intensity as you scramble up the side of a 40ft monster, clinging with everything you have, until you make it to his head and start stabbing with a tiny dagger and he bucks maddly, trying to shake you off, but you keep stabbing and stabbing and stabbing until he dies.
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Finally, less vital, but Devil May Cry 3 had incredibly boss fights. Challenging and large scale, very hard and exciting, but mostly it had these beautiful one on one duels with your brother that looked like scenes out of the very best Samurai films. Rain tipping down, dodging blow after blow, clashing swords in the rain.
So for me a good boss fight is: A sense of importance, emotion and narrative weight, creativity and scale. All the games mentioned have HD rereleased on the 360 and PS3 I believe
The End (Metal Gear Solid 3), he's a 100+ year old sniper and the best in the business (also he can photosynthesise. It's MGS you just have to roll with it). The actually battle has you hunting him sniper vs sniper through a woods. Both masters of camouflage. He has a parrot which spots for him (and you can shoot it down and eat it), you have thermal goggles, directional sound and can try to track his footprints. Even when you figure out where he's hiding without being spotted first, you've got to try and circle round and flank him. Or you can chase him and whenever he tries to lose you, evade the attempt and run him down until he's out of stamina and can't fight through exhaustion.
Or you can just set your consoles clock a few years ahead and when you next load the save, the game will berate you for letting him die of old age.
In the same game, they have a mexican standoff, a duel, a boss battle which is so emotional I'm not even going to name who you fight.
Or how about Psycho Mantis (MGS1) who you have to
Switch controller ports to defeat
Or there's Octopus MGS4 who is a master of camo and will do everything to trick you, hiding on the ceiling, pretending to be a painting. Etc.
Or there's the final boss fight in MGS4, after all the mechanations of all the games, all the fights and plots and schemes, it comes down to this, just you and your most hated enemy fighting on the roof. As you play through the fight the music, health bars and combat styles change through all the past games in the series, until eventually both men are worn down the UI goes away and you keep on slugging each other, barely able to stand as the game seamlessly becomes the last cutscene.
What makes the MGS franchise amazing is the flexibility of solutions, the creativity and the character and story moments each fight provides (apart from the last boss fight and the fight against Vamp, MGS4 is the weakest at making them story important)
--------------------------------------------
The other game that must be mentioned is Shadow of the Colossus, which is basically just 16 huge boss fights, with immense scale, each silently conveying a beauty and emotion at the same time as frightening intensity as you scramble up the side of a 40ft monster, clinging with everything you have, until you make it to his head and start stabbing with a tiny dagger and he bucks maddly, trying to shake you off, but you keep stabbing and stabbing and stabbing until he dies.
----------------------------------------------------------
Finally, less vital, but Devil May Cry 3 had incredibly boss fights. Challenging and large scale, very hard and exciting, but mostly it had these beautiful one on one duels with your brother that looked like scenes out of the very best Samurai films. Rain tipping down, dodging blow after blow, clashing swords in the rain.
So for me a good boss fight is: A sense of importance, emotion and narrative weight, creativity and scale. All the games mentioned have HD rereleased on the 360 and PS3 I believe
I'm curious about your opinion on Demons'/Dark Souls' bosses. Once you invest yourself, they're really solid boss battles.Lazy said:
As for some good boss battles... Wait.
Where's Shadow of the Colossus? GO PLAY THAT FOOL, AND FIND OUT WHAT A BOSS BATTLE TRULY MEANS.
Cave Story had some awesome bosses as well, but I think it was more the music that made me think so. You want pretty much every boss in that game starting from Monster X if you're up for some good boss battles.
The first boss fight that comes to mind is actually quite a recent one. It's the Guardian boss fight from Darksiders 2. The game was alright, quite liked the first half but then I got kinda bored with it. But in about half the game you fight the Guardian. It's quite an epic boss fight with some amazing music to it! Reminds me a bit of Shadow of the Colossus, and that's never a bad thing! 
And Zelda has many great boss fights as well. So I'm just gonna mention one or else this post would go on and on with just Zelda bosses. That boss is the Arbiters ground boss fight from Twilight Princess, can't quite remember the name of the boss. It was such a fun and fast paced boss fight, using probably my favorite item in Twilight Princess, which was way underused!
And then I'm also gonna mention Evrae from FFX. The first time i played through FFX this was the only boss I had a hard time with and I was so happy when I finally defeated her. She looked pretty cool and you had to use some extra commands with the ship to dodge and attack at the right moments!
And Zelda has many great boss fights as well. So I'm just gonna mention one or else this post would go on and on with just Zelda bosses. That boss is the Arbiters ground boss fight from Twilight Princess, can't quite remember the name of the boss. It was such a fun and fast paced boss fight, using probably my favorite item in Twilight Princess, which was way underused!
And then I'm also gonna mention Evrae from FFX. The first time i played through FFX this was the only boss I had a hard time with and I was so happy when I finally defeated her. She looked pretty cool and you had to use some extra commands with the ship to dodge and attack at the right moments!
Personally, I really enjoyed the boss fights in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. Creative bosses, adrenaline-pumping music, tight controls, boss fights that are tricky without being cheap...what more could you ask for?
Ahh finally I've found someone else who recognises the epicness of the Guardian fight. Kudos to you good sir. Shame the rest of the game was fairly mediocre though.Zefyrix said:The first boss fight that comes to mind is actually quite a recent one. It's the Guardian boss fight from Darksiders 2. The game was alright, quite liked the first half but then I got kinda bored with it. But in about half the game you fight the Guardian. It's quite an epic boss fight with some amazing music to it! Reminds me a bit of Shadow of the Colossus, and that's never a bad thing!
^This right herethesilentman said:
Shadow of the Colossus is pretty much the definition of epic boss battles. The 3rd and 13th are easily the best.
Haha, cheers! It was definitely the highlight of the game! I liked the first half though, it was some nice scenery and music. But then it all got dark and desolate.. I know, what do I expect for a game called "Darksiders"? Oh well.ShinyCharizard said:Ahh finally I've found someone else who recognises the epicness of the Guardian fight. Kudos to you good sir. Shame the rest of the game was fairly mediocre though.Zefyrix said:The first boss fight that comes to mind is actually quite a recent one. It's the Guardian boss fight from Darksiders 2. The game was alright, quite liked the first half but then I got kinda bored with it. But in about half the game you fight the Guardian. It's quite an epic boss fight with some amazing music to it! Reminds me a bit of Shadow of the Colossus, and that's never a bad thing!
Yeah I'm with you on that. The first world was good but the land of the dead was boring, visually ugly and just dragged on forever. Pretty much ruined the rest of the game for me.Zefyrix said:Haha, cheers! It was definitely the highlight of the game! I liked the first half though, it was some nice scenery and music. But then it all got dark and desolate.. I know, what do I expect for a game called "Darksiders"? Oh well.ShinyCharizard said:Ahh finally I've found someone else who recognises the epicness of the Guardian fight. Kudos to you good sir. Shame the rest of the game was fairly mediocre though.Zefyrix said:The first boss fight that comes to mind is actually quite a recent one. It's the Guardian boss fight from Darksiders 2. The game was alright, quite liked the first half but then I got kinda bored with it. But in about half the game you fight the Guardian. It's quite an epic boss fight with some amazing music to it! Reminds me a bit of Shadow of the Colossus, and that's never a bad thing!
All of God of War. I'm not usually into QTEs, but it makes you feel a part of the kicking seven shades of shit out of everything. Especially Cronus, that's pretty awesome.
Darksiders definitely has a few good ones. Especially in it's 'Inventive ways to kill things with portal guns' phase.
Darksiders definitely has a few good ones. Especially in it's 'Inventive ways to kill things with portal guns' phase.
Most recently I really liked the final boss battle in the new DMC. It's Dontay vs Vergul and it's fucking awesome. It's cool how they actually were friends at the start and then come to an impasse and have to fight, rather than DMC3's Vergil who was just a straight villain the whole time.
Not that the old Vergil was bad of course.
The last boss in Persona 4 is AMAZING. Amazing and spoilery so I won't elaborate.
I'll with Bloody Marie from Skullgirls as well. Probably one of the only fighting game bosses that is actually FUN. As well as ball crushingly difficult. UMVC3 breaks new ground by having Galactus being this absolute pushover.
Not that the old Vergil was bad of course.
The last boss in Persona 4 is AMAZING. Amazing and spoilery so I won't elaborate.
I'll with Bloody Marie from Skullgirls as well. Probably one of the only fighting game bosses that is actually FUN. As well as ball crushingly difficult. UMVC3 breaks new ground by having Galactus being this absolute pushover.
This is probably my all time favourite bosses. It's the Great Mighty Poo from Conkers Bad Fur day. While it's mechanics aren't hard to learn and it's not really hard it is awesome just for the song. There are a few couple bosses in the game but this is easily the best one in it.
No More Heroes 1&2 have some really good boss fights, though some of them in 2 (Million Gunman) are just boring filler.
Rogue Galaxy also has a lot of big, exciting bosses, most of which are optional bounty missions. The game is definitely one of my favorite underrated gems.
Rogue Galaxy also has a lot of big, exciting bosses, most of which are optional bounty missions. The game is definitely one of my favorite underrated gems.