Satisfyingly Difficult Boss Fights

[Harlemura]

Those dinosaur thingies from Final Fantasy XIII. Took me a while to work out a good strategy for beating them, but once I found it, I went to take down the buggers for the heck of it.
Well, a strategy that wasn't "Attack it until everyone's dead except Snow, then use his Eidolon and cross my fingers".

 

[redisforever]

How come nobody mentioned Shadow of the Colossus?
That game was 16 boss fights that usually ended with your hand in pain from gripping the controller so hard.

 

[Gigaguy64]

Doom Dragon in Golden Sun 2 was oh so satisfyingly hard.

 

[Armored Prayer]

Most of the bosses in Ninja Gaiden.(xbox) They were challenging without being cheap, and they made me think by reading their attack patterns and when they are most vulnerable.

 

[hurfdurp]

Last night my sister and I just finished the Mole boss in DK: Returns. That was pretty satisfyingly difficult, along with the rest of the game so far. They certainly didn't water it down too much, I don't think my young nephew has a chance.

 

[warm slurm]

Most bosses in Bayonetta.

 

[pyrosaw]

Any boss beaten in the Donkey Kong Country games.

 

[Thedutchjelle]

The first time you meet Gades in the old SNES RPG Lufia 2 : Rise of the Sinistral.
You're scripted to lose it, so if you die you get a little cutscene and get resurrected. If you however managed to drag on the fight and keep in the fight, you can actually beat him. He has idiotic amounts of HP and attacks that can kill half of your party, but once you seem him go down it's an awesome moment. Not even the final boss is that hard. You get one of the most imba items in the game from it as well.

 

[deth2munkies]

The first time you meet Gades in the old SNES RPG Lufia 2 : Rise of the Sinistral.
You're scripted to lose it, so if you die you get a little cutscene and get resurrected. If you however managed to drag on the fight and keep in the fight, you can actually beat him. He has idiotic amounts of HP and attacks that can kill half of your party, but once you seem him go down it's an awesome moment. Not even the final boss is that hard. You get one of the most imba items in the game from it as well.

I remember restarting my game over and over trying to win that fight and I eventually did it without realizing it was a "supposed to lose" fight. So awesome.

I must admit, there are very few bosses in single player games that make me feel this way anymore because it seems like everyone has run out of ideas. MMOs seem to invoke this feeling in me a lot more, and with getting a free copy of Cata, I'm re-discovering this feeling because nobody really has any idea how to do any of the bosses yet, so it's intensely satisfying to figure stuff out with a group of people then eventually succeed.

 

[baddude1337]

Androsses "true" form in Lylat Wars. I wasn't very old at the time so it was hard as hell to me.

 

[Sp3ratus]

Almost every boss from Demon's Souls. They were all challenging, rewarded being creative, were able to be defeated in any number of ways provided you had the skill to figure them out, and somehow the developers still had enough time and resources left over to put some really creative twists to some of them.

Except for Maneater... those guys can go to hell...

Haha, my thoughts exactly. I was going in here to write Demon's Souls as well, but reading your post I definitely agree with Maneater. The most annoying thing about that boss is not even the boss itself, but the fact that

Spoiler

you had to fight them on that long narrow walkway. I swear, the most deaths I had was going over the side, trying to dodge an incoming attack from one of those two.

What I usually did was wait for someone I could summon or just cheesing it out and

Spoiler

firing arrows and killing the first

and then enter and fight the second alone.

 

[Edager6882]

The Tower Knight, Flamelurker, and King Allant from Demon's Souls are some of the toughest and satisfying boss fights I have ever played.

Demon's Souls is a game where you have to check your emotion at the door. Throughout a level and the corresponding boss fight you can not ever let your anger or fear cloud your mind. But once the boss is dead all that pent up emotion comes flooding in.

 

[The Night Shade]

Liquid im MGS on Extreme and Castlevania 4 Dracula

 

[Sixcess]

Sephiroth's One Winged Angel form in FF7.

I had played through the game in under a week. It was my first RPG so I was really badly set up and I was absolutely trampled. I don't think I got a single hit in, just spent all my time panicking, healing and throwing around phoenix downs lik confetti. It was so bad I decided to go back and play the game again, start to finish, and take my time. 3 weeks later I faced off against him again and, though it was a tough fight, I defeated him on the first attempt.

And I'd enjoyed the game a lot more second time around. Perfect end to a perfect month of gaming.

 

[Rusty Bucket]

Most of the bosses in Ninja Gaiden.(xbox) They were challenging without being cheap, and they made me think by reading their attack patterns and when they are most vulnerable.

Without being cheap?! We did play the same game didn't we? The first boss is a huge guy who wields room clearing nunchucks with laser precision? And then the second boss is a guy on a demon horse thing, who charges up and down the narrow bridge you fight him on, giving you a split second window to attack while teleporting, firebomb throwing ninjas infinitely respawn? I never got past him, especially since his attacks knock off about a fifth of your health bar.

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

Missions 21 and 26 of Advance Wars: Days of Ruin.

Initially I found 26 to be unfairly hard (and I've met many here who agree with me on that) but while it's become more manageable every time I play it, it will never be considered 'Easy'. You really do have to plan ahead since just making stuff that counters whatever Caulder makes won't cut it when half your stuff gets annihilated by mortars. My most recent self-imposed challenge is attempting a Rout (destroying all enemy units instead of satisfying the victory condition), but as anyone who's played the final mission will tell you, it's an uphill battle. 21 is fun in that way too since you can always try and win faster than last time.

 

[Davidmcawesome]

Devil may cry, nelo angelo rounds 1 and 2