Hardest first boss in a game

[Fox12]

Iudex Gundyr and Asylum Demon are chumps compared to Father Gascoigne. The only thing Iudex has going for him is the weird abyssal transformation which is kind of unexpected for a first boss. I suppose you can quibble about whether Father G or Cleric Beast is technically the first boss in Bloodborne, but Cleric is optional so I give the nod to Father.

I was about to say this. I can't imagine how hard he was for people who had never played a Souls game before. Asylum demon is easy when you fight him properly, and ludux's bark is harsher then his bite. He's intimidating to look at, but actually pretty tame. Father Gascoigne is probably one of the tougher bosses in the game, especially when he transforms.

 

[Hawki]

Sonic 2...

Sonic 2? You mean where Robotnik drives a car back and forth? How on Mobius could that be-

on the Game Gear.

Oh. THAT game.

(Still, isn't it not so much the boss that kills you but the bombs that keep coming your way?)

 

[Smithnikov_v1legacy]

Does the Drassen counterattack in Jagged Alliance 2 1.13 count?

I would count it, definitely. How hard did your jaw drop?

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Father Gascoigne!

Holy hell this guy was tough for a first boss! Like wow, I knew BloodBorne was tough but way to crank it up to 11 at the end of the first level! I was hoping that giant pig was the fist boss, but nope. Crazy werewolf hunter before you even reach lvl 11. Woof.

Took me like 5 attempts to kill him. Thank fuck for physic engines that mean gravestones can't be broken, Fr. Gas can't attack past them, AI buggers up so he never runs around them, but my attacks still go through.

 

[Zaltys]

Prince of Persia: Warrior Within.

I... never could beat the tutorial boss. Eventually concluded that it's not my kind of game.

 

[Veylon]

I'm going to go with Aztec Falcon in Megaman Zero. I supposed he's technically the second boss, as there's an easy dies-in-one-hit gimme one at the end of the introductory level, but he's he's the first boss at the end of an actual mission as well as being the first one with a name.

This is a game in which your primary weapon is a sword and the guy fills the area with unblockable bullets from odd angles and jumps all over the place at high speed. Should you decide to opt for the pea shooter secondary weapon, he also has a shield to block your shots about half the time and is moving vertically most of the rest. Oh, and there's also a time limit that'll almost certainly run out if you fight cautiously.

It's true that Megaman Zero isn't strictly linear and you could go to other missions first or wimp out of his altogether (this game is structured very oddly), but if you do what you're told as you're told to do it, he's the first villain you'll be thrown at.

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

Toriel in Undertale.

Not for the raw execution of commands, mind you, but it's still harsh.

And the game won't let you forget it.

 

[American Fox]

Dysentery from Oregon Trail.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Diablo I: The Butcher

I can sort of understand why this bastard made an impression on young 'uns who first played the game back in '97, but as an adult, this boss is more a point of contention. In that "ah, fresh meat!" is memorable, but it's basically a jump scare, and you're practically guaranteed to die the first time because once you initiate the fight, there's little you can do to avoid it. So, how do you beat the Butcher? By dying, learning from your mistake, grinding, then do it again, stay in one place, and keep clicking. Part of why I like the D3 Butcher more in that there's far more strategy to it (i.e. you actually need to move).

So, yes, he is worth a mention of "hardest first boss," but for all the wrong reasons.

There was strategy to be used on the Butcher. I always played a warrior as a kid, so I made sure to pump enough points into dex that I could use a bow, then be careful to leave a door unblocked next to some grating. Once the rest of the floor was cleared out I would open his chamber and run like heck to safety and just take pot shots at him through the bars until he was dead.

 

[beyondbrainmatter]

Does the Drassen counterattack in Jagged Alliance 2 1.13 count?

I would count it, definitely. How hard did your jaw drop?

Yeah, it's ridiculous. What's even worse is the turn progression. Then engine obviously isn't meant to handle large scale assaults like that.

 

[MysticSlayer]

For me, it would probably be the Swamp Troll from Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. Now, I've certainly faced harder first bosses, but those I can think of now can either be exploited to make easy (including grinding) or aren't fair by any standard (normally benefitting from bad design).

As for the Swamp Troll: It isn't really a boss that should continuously give players trouble, though new players might struggle at first. However, I had just come from Dark Souls,[footnote]For those wondering, I beat the Asylum Demon my first time and without getting hit, so I wouldn't consider him a challenge.[/footnote] which moves at a considerably slower, more methodical pace than Castlevania, and I hadn't yet gotten used to the speed enough to handle a boss yet, which made the Swamp Troll harder than it probably should have been.

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

Since others have also appointed Gascoigne, and he is the first mandatory boss in Bloodborne, he definitely qualifies. Once you know how to parry him and know to just chuck molotovs at his final form he becomes much easier, but for both Souls veterans and newcomers he must have made some controllers snap. The fight is insanely fast compared to Souls and with turtling behind a shield not being an option Souls players really need a period to readjust. For newcomers he must be even tougher, seeing how fast he moves, how hard he hits and the fact that no enemy until that point has forced the player to dodge past the enemy, rather than away from them. The only points of comparison from Souls at that point (seeing as Dark Souls 3 basically turned the boss fights in to cartwheel Olympics competitions) were maybe the Capra Demon and Gwyn in the sense that they forced the player to prioritise dodging and parrying respectively instead of strafing and blocking. And they were an optional and the final boss to boot, not the first boss you have to beat to further the game.

Iudex Gundyr is definitely the toughest of the first boss encounters in Souls (unless we count Vanguard in the Demon's Souls tutorial), but learning his telegraphing isn't that hard, and it's usually easy to get out of the way. The tricks up his sleeve are the initial intimidation factor of his transformation, and that some of his attacks have baitingly long windups, making some of them a bit hard to dodge with the right timing. My friend who's never played Dark Souls, and is a wussy nervous wreck when playing anything more intense than Final Fantasy beat him on his 5th try.

 

[Spacewolf]

The YKK from Monster Hunter 1 probably killed me more than any other boss in the game.

 

[Dalisclock]

Gonna go with the Vanguard from Demons Souls, since it's nearly impossible to beat him on the first try(and you only get one try). Of course, if you do beat him, you're killed anyway because you must be dead for your soul to be bound to the nexus.

Honorable Mention to the Pursuer from Dark Souls 2. He's not technically the first boss, but the first time you meet him is kind of a surprise by climbing onto the wrong rooftop, outside his boss arena no less and you're likely too weak to do anything but die horribly. Even better, the game subtly warns/baits you by having the roof be full of "Dead" hollows with items ready for the taking....and then the crow shows up on the horizon.

 

[Blitsie]

Prince of Persia: Warrior Within.

I... never could beat the tutorial boss. Eventually concluded that it's not my kind of game.

Can't blame you haha I remember always just barely beating her when I played the game as a kid. Both her and her chick time friend were surprisingly tricky to battle, I can't remember if it was blocking or deflecting but damn did you have to time whatever the defense action was perfectly to not get wrecked by them.

Anyway, another mention for Father Gascoigne here! Its just that up until that fight you can easily reach a point where you're just destroying everything in your path, especially if you defeated the cleric beast before him, resulting in you walking with all the confidence in the world into this fight and promptly having it relentlessly shattered as he absolutely steamrolls you without batting an eye. Its even more jarring when things are so much easier again after this fight.

All in all I like to think this fight is basically the deciding factor on whether or not you will love Bloodborne, as it perfectly encompasses everything the game is about, and what's waiting for you after defeating him. I bet its also the point where lots of players dropped the game because he really is just one ruthless sonuvabitch to face.

 

[darkcalling]

So I started playing Lost Odyssey again after picking it up while it was free a few weeks ago and I promptly hit a brick wall. The first boss. Not the big war machine that you fight during the big opening battle. I consider that part of the tutorial basically. I mean Grilgan, the giant griffon-like thing that you fight in the Ipsilon mountains. That thing is ridiculous. only three attacks. a "weak" claw swipe that takes off around a quarter of Kaim's health, Poison Claw which does at least as much damage plus inflicting poison status, and Down Burst, a large flap of his wings that hits the entire party for around half their health.

I remember grinding my way past it before and I guess I'll have to now as well but that's ridiculous.

Anyone else ever felt that a first boss was kinda overpowered?

IIRC, Lost Odyssey's second boss is even worse considering it can spawn enemies as well as inflict tons of damage and status effects.

I remember. I had almost beaten the game before my 360 controller broke. Moved on to the one and only recently picked it back up.