The most extreme resurrection in a boss you've seen

[Myria]

May not apply, exactly, since he doesn't start out a bad guy or boss, but I'd nominate Prince Rurik from Guild Wars: Prophecies.

Prince Rurik is the son of King Adelbern and heir to the throne of Ascalon. Dad makes some bad decisions during the Charr Invasion, gets killed for his trouble, Ascalon and her people are basically decimated. Prince Rurik (along with your heroic party) leads the surviving Ascalonians out of the devastation and across mountains through dwarven territory. He gets killed holding off some bad dwarves while you lead the people on and that's basically it for Rurik -- or so you think.

Much, much later, very nearly at the end of the game, he unexpectedly pops up when the big bad (a Lich) resurrects him (why and how said lich ever found the body, since it's presumably buried under tons of ice and snow on some mountains far, far away, who knows) and forces his rotting corpse to defend said lich against you.

It's a half campy, half WTF? moment. By that point the story -- such as it is, telling a coherent story has never been Anet's strong suit -- has taken several left turns and Rurik,the Ascalonian refugees, and all that has long since stopped being relevant. Still, it's quite memorable and, at least the first time through, not an easy fight.

 

[FalloutJack]

You THINK you've beaten Sephiroth, but then you're treated to a latin-chorus Holy Shit, all of a sudden! This is perhaps the most iconic example of the situation, especially since he STILL wasn't dead, after the fact, and may still not be even now. So, for my money, especially for being my first video game RPG, I vote Final Fantasy 7.

Final Fantasy was nowhere near the first RPG. In fact it is almost a decade to late for that accolade.

I said it was MY first, meaningful specifically to me.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

Saren from Mass Effect is the first to come to my mind. When you beat him at the climactic showdown in the Citadel Tower, he falls forty feet and gets impaled by a huge glass shard. Shepard even sends a squadmate down to shoot his corpse in the head to make sure he's dead, and then he still gets revived as a cyber zombie.

For me, I had built up enough points in Paragon (and you can do this as a Renegade too) to skip that last fight with Saren. Shepard talks Saren down, it temporarily helps Saren break through the indoctrination. Just long enough to apologize and shoot himself in the head. He still falls and he's still dead as dead can be.

 

[Dalisclock]

Saren from Mass Effect is the first to come to my mind. When you beat him at the climactic showdown in the Citadel Tower, he falls forty feet and gets impaled by a huge glass shard. Shepard even sends a squadmate down to shoot his corpse in the head to make sure he's dead, and then he still gets revived as a cyber zombie.

For me, I had built up enough points in Paragon (and you can do this as a Renegade too) to skip that last fight with Saren. Shepard talks Saren down, it temporarily helps Saren break through the indoctrination. Just long enough to apologize and shoot himself in the head. He still falls and he's still dead as dead can be.

Except then he's ressurected as a robo-zombie beast monster.

 

[JohnnyDelRay]

There are so many in the Resident Evil series it'd be hard to pick one. They range from coming back to hunt you again and again,

Spoiler

Mr. X and Nemesis,

coming back with horrendous mutations, (almost all human bosses) and coming back from seemingly final death for one last strike,

Spoiler

Wesker

and combinations of all of them.

Spoiler

Simmons

That's just a handful of the obvious examples though, and part of what make the RE formula which I love so dearly.

[Edited for punctuation marks and grammar]

 

[CaitSeith]

From William Birkin Resident Evil 2. You kill him several times along the game; but every time he revives and comes back bigger, uglier and meaner. At the end of the game, he's an abomination that fills up a whole train wagon.

 

[Programmed_For_Damage]

Gill in Third Strike.

Especially if you managed to beat him round 1 without his super stocked, then you go for the kill in round 2 and are all excited, but then...RESURRECTION!
And you are just standing there like what?! You serious! You throw a jump kick but you get pushed back..and he has full health again.

Dammit, you beat me to it. So frustratingly cheap! You'd have his energy down to bee's dick width and then bang - denied!

 

[Glongpre]

Gill in Third Strike.

Especially if you managed to beat him round 1 without his super stocked, then you go for the kill in round 2 and are all excited, but then...RESURRECTION!
And you are just standing there like what?! You serious! You throw a jump kick but you get pushed back..and he has full health again.

Dammit, you beat me to it. So frustratingly cheap! You'd have his energy down to bee's dick width and then bang - denied!

Gill is actually a pretty good boss. He challenges you enough that you need to have the mechanics of the system down, to stand a good chance of winning (ie. parrying, combos, and hit confirming). However, yeah, resurrection is a ridiculously powerful super.

 

[Catnip1024]

Does Deadly Premonition count? Because that is one seriously screwed up ending.

Spoiler

 

[barbzilla]

You THINK you've beaten Sephiroth, but then you're treated to a latin-chorus Holy Shit, all of a sudden! This is perhaps the most iconic example of the situation, especially since he STILL wasn't dead, after the fact, and may still not be even now. So, for my money, especially for being my first video game RPG, I vote Final Fantasy 7.

Final Fantasy was nowhere near the first RPG. In fact it is almost a decade to late for that accolade.

I said it was MY first, meaningful specifically to me.

Hey, sorry the post that was blank was supposed to be an apology for misreading your post originally. I'm guessing my internet (or the forum) bugged out right as I posted it and I failed to notice it, and now I have my first moderator action against me on the site ever... :-( Guess I'll never get the NEO badge now.