"Great Video Game Bosses" or "No Mecha-Hitlers Allowed"

[Seil]

Before you ask, yes, there was a Mecha-Hitler. It was in Wolfenstein. Now, I'm replaying Knights Of The Old Republic, and I was thinking about Malak. (Spoilers beyond this point for... everything. Everywhere.) Now, about three quarters through the game, you meet Malak; the end boss. He's a chump. Really.

While he remains that way for the end fight, (though a bit stronger in his ATK stat) he has several people in jars in his lair. Force jars. Whenever he gets low on health, he walks over to one of these jars and drains their life. He's got about twenty jars, and they can only be destroyed by specific force powers that you may or may not have. This makes for a frantic battle with a character who, let's face it, has been painted as a coward and an opportunist the whole game. So it makes sense that he'd give himself this advantage story wise and game play wise makes for a tough boss battle.

It's interesting; a really good boss is someone (or something) that has been painted as bad ass all the way through the game, and can back that up throughout the final battle. Whether it's a dragon laying waste to an army, or an evil person that transforms into some eldritch abomination, or maybe just space aliens... A really good, tense fight against someone (or something) that you saw level a city, an army, your best friend/parents/home village can be very satisfying. There's also the boss' attacks to take into consideration. A great boss isn't filled with cheap attacks that decimate your entire party, light you on fire or disintegrate you.

Up there I said "No Mecha-Hitlers." Why? Because, while cool, (like the Cyber Demon from Doom) they're not really fantastic bosses in terms of story or characterization. They're just tough dudes. Who do I pick? Well, I already mentioned Malak up there, from KOTOR. I guess I'll go with the Arishok from Dragon Age 2, because while you knew you were going to fight him, it was a pretty cool setting what with the Kirkwall nobility cheering you on. For my third boss, I think I'll go with GlaDOS. Yeah, it wasn't really a "fight," per se, but it was still interesting and I think the best you could expect from an FPS puzzle game. (Besides, Portal 1 was way better than Portal 2.)

What's your favorite boss?

What's your favorite boss?[/color]

[Locke cole]

Spoiler warning for any games I mention.

From Tales of The Abyss: Van. As final bosses go, he's pretty great. He's a powerful swordsman and an extremely dangerous mage. He throws around extremely powerful attcks (like this dragons-shaped burst of light) that can probably wipe out your squishier party members in a single shot. But if you're properly prepared for the fight, you can stand up again and again after each attack. I've always believed that some of the best bosses are ones that fight like the player does. And he does, very much so. He's got a ton of the same spells and physical artes that you can learn, he's got several Mystic Artes with set attack ranges for you to try and avoid, and his sword style is very reminiscent of the main character's, because he taught it to him. Also, the story buildup to the fight is very intense. And it's all marked by some of the best final boss music I've seen.

I have two examples from Metal Gear Solid 3:

First is The End. Some people will probably contest me on this, but I find that it's one of the best boss fights I've ever seen. It's a sniper duel with an old man who is considered the father of modern sniping. He's pretty much perfectly camoflauged to the forest you're in, he has insane aim and reaction time, and you start out with no idea where he is. It's a sniper duel in a very real way. It's not some bombastic battle where you go in guns blazing. It's a tense, quiet, nerve-wracking engagement where being exposed is a serious danger. There's not even any music to accompany it, to add to the eerie quietude of the whole thing. And it's actually pretty fair. If you go farting about like an idiot, he'll fill you with enough tranq darts to take down an elephant (Yes, Tranq darts. The guy's the ultimate sniper, but he's trying not to kill you), but you have all the tools you need to find him. You have your own camoflauge, you can search for the sunlight gleaming off of his rifle, and you have a directional microphone to look for his breathing. But perhaps one of my favorite bits is how he can totally sucker you. Like, if you find his sniping position, but you can't get there except by switching maps and moving around, you can sometimes find that he'll no longer be at said spot, and has instead moved around, and aimed his sights directly at his previous spot! There's just something in this fight that I've not seen in many other boss fights. It's tense, it's quiet, it's paranoia-inducing (is he right behind me again?). There are just few things like it out there. Granted, it's kind of an afternoon affair, but I think it's worth it.

On the other hand, the final battle with The Boss, is perhaps the perfect blend of all the tricks you learn in the game itself. I said a few paragraphs up that my favorite kind of boss is one who fights like the player, and The Boss is a perfect example of that. You have three major strengths in the game. Your camoflauge, your guns, and your CQC techniques. The Boss has all three of those things, and better than you do. She's wearing a pure white jumpsuit, and you're fighting in a field of snow-white flowers that are constantly fluttering through the air, reducing visibility, especially if you try to crawl down to hide yourself. Attacking head-on is a dumb idea, because she's got the best gun in the game, and will murder you head-to-head, necessitating a stealthy approach. And attempting CQC without the right timing will have her ruin your gun, smack you to the ground, and break your arms. So, since none of your stuff can truly overpower her, it all comes down to outplaying her. A great boss fight is a true test of your skills. Something that tests everything you've learned over the course of the game. If The End was a distillation of the "stealthing through the jungle" part of the game, The Boss is the ultimate test of every other skill you've acquired. And it is amazingly tense, too. You're on a strict time limit for the fight, but it's not displayed by a clock. Instead, the countdown comes in the form of the game's extremely James Bond-esque main theme. It's an amazing background piece for the fight itself, on top of being a very tense countdown.

[Seil]

Can we just go ahead and say that any boss from Metal Gear Solid is automatically great? Because any boss battle from Metal Gear Solid is automatically great.



Also, while Legendary isn't the best game, every new enemy is like a mini-boss battle.

[mauve]

Dr. Cid from FF12. Sure, he's not the final boss, or even the MAIN boss of the game, but in terms of character I liked him a lot better than Lord Vayne or Venat. I really liked the balance his character had between how civil and dignified he looked and how COMPLETELY NUTS he actually was. He had a decent boss fight towards the end with some actual character development, which was nice. Plus, the little drawing of a genuinely happy-looking Cid holding an infant Balthier at the end made me b'awwww.

Gonna second GLaDOS here. She's such a great character, constantly battering you with passive aggression throughout the entire game(s) while slipping in hints about the storyline without blatantly spelling everything out for you. It gave you a real feeling of satisfaction when you finish the boss fight at the end of the first game. (Because face it, in the second game, NO ONE wins. XD I love Portal 2 to pieces, but really GLaDOS is the only one who gets what she wants in the end, and even that doesn't last if the Multiplayer storyline is to be belived.)

Nightmare II from the original Devil May Cry. GOD DAMMIT I HATED THIS BOSS SO DAMN MUCH UUURRRGHHHH!!!! But somehow it's still on my list! He's (it's?) pretty much the exact opposite of the other bosses on this list because it has zero characterization and zero real place in the story line. It's just sort of dumped in as a reason for Dante to continue after something resembling plot development occurs. But this boss was so challenging, you just HAD to feel great when you finally beat it. Nightmare II had attacks for every range, it had identical moves that produced totally different outcomes, it had a grand total of 1/16th of its entire body that was capable of taking serious damage, and to top it all off you could only make the weak spot appear by repeatedly attacking a stone tablet stuck to the wall of the arena you're trapped in. Oh, and standing still to attack said panel made you a target for a series of razor-sharp homing missiles Nightmare II liked to shoot out at unusual intervals. Have fun with that. But when you finally beat the damn thing, you felt like a badass. And somehow, that made it all worthwhile.

The majority of enemies from Shadow of the Colossus. This game is nothing but boss fights, but most of those fights were amazingly atmospheric and epic-feeling. It did an amazing job of making you feel like you're the epitome of the underdog: You're a scrawny little dude with a bow and a sword, you can't do any major feats of strength aside from cling to a living mountain as it tries to squash you like a bug, and as the game goes on you realize you're totally screwed no matter what you do. MOST of the colossi are beautifully designed and have a degree of emotional weight and.. oddly enough... personality to them. For me, the only exceptions to this were the horse colossus and the one you fought in the geyser field; I rarely ever managed to get them to step in the right place to trigger the next part of the fight and that really took away from my enjoyment of the game. ....damn you, horse colossus.

[Aerozord]

if we are talking best boss as far as narrative,

Would be the one that sticks out most in my mind

From Bioshock, Andrew Ryan. yes he is the easiest boss of all time. You just kill him in a cutscene. But it fits so flawlessly into the narrative, is such a perfect twists, and makes you question the mindlessness in which players listen to NPCs and commenting on the players inability to say no.

To me that surpasses epic confrontations

[Ramary]

Majora's Mask from....well Majora's Mask was pretty awesome since all 3 phases of the fight are so radically different, and had their own remixed version of Majora's theme that was heard though out the game. In a series full of great bosses, this one stands out a lot to me, and not just because it is the final boss in My Favoritist Game Ever.

I second The Boss from MGS3 SO VERY HARD, and everything Locke said was correct, but I will not be doing the fight justice if I did not mention You have to pull the trigger, the game won't do it for you.

Knight Artorias from Dark Souls gets a mention because of just how intensely crazy the fight is, how aggressive and crazy his attacks are, and how you are essentially fighting Guts from Berserk.

Gruntilda from the end of Banjo-Tooie. What other boss has the sheer gall to stop the boss fight to quiz you on things about the game.

Nyx from Persona 3 for being longer then some films and having great dialogue during the fight.

I second Aero's Andrew Ryan pick. Because a man chooses. And also I basically stopped my recently replay it after his "boss fight" cause it only goes down from there.

Meta Ridley from the first Metorid Prime. Aside from he fight itself being awesome, Ridley himself was constantly shown to be flying above you all the time, and you spend the whole game wondering when he is flying gonna attack, then right at the 11th hour after a super long backtracking hunt, he just pops right out of nowhere to fight yea, while wrecking all them artifacts you worked hard to find.

I am giving a special personal pick to Fafnir from Magicka, and not the reason you would expect. For the longest time, Fafnir was a really buggy boss, so many issues poped up during the fight, like falling into invisible pits, or he would just outright be unkillable. My favorite was after he got to 40% or so hp, he would crash the game to desktop in the most efficient and clean way I ever seen in a game, you would blink and BAM desktop, Karesh and I swear that was an intentional attack for a long time. Me and Karesh finally got lucky after a week or so of trying to beat it, and it felt SO DAMN GOOD.

I am sure I will think of more at some point. I will stop here on this point.

NONE OF THESE BOSSES CAN COMPARE TO THE MIGHTY BEASTECTOR

[Flarecobra]

It's not too often that the first boss of a game is among the most fun battles.... but come on, it should be obvious why.

[Toast]

The first real boss from Secret of Evermore, the Thraxx, will always be one of my favourites. His design is really interesting, and the gimmicky mechanic for killing him, though basic, is still pretty challenging. I remember as a kid I could not beat this guy, but I kept trying and trying, putting the game down in disgust for months then starting over. The first time I beat him I did it so easily that I wonder how I had failed so many times before.




The last fight with Wiegraf/Velius from Final Fantasy Tactics. One of the game's most difficult fights, if not the most difficult. It also carries a lot of narrative weight. Up to this point, you've fought Wiegraf several times, and he's always been a tough opponent.

Fighting the undead lich from Guild Wars was also a really awesome boss fight. This guy has led you around by the nose for almost half the game, resurrected your prince and turned him against you, and released the evil and powerful titans on the world. It's incredibly satisfying to wipe the floor with him. Unlike later campaigns where the final mission was just the boss fight, in this particular mission you had to fight your way to the lich through some really tough encounters, which really made it all the more enjoyable.

The Transcendent One from Planescape:Torment, because it isn't a straight up fight, though it could be.

[Amake]

I'll agree The Boss is the boss of all the bosses in all the games, and probably a good part of the reason I've hardly touched any Metal Gear game since. When I beatshotkilledexecuted her I was like "Welp, this is over now."

Not mainly for the reasons mentioned above though. The story is what makes it really heart-wrenching. Maybe her villainy is supposed to be ambiguous and shit, but in my estimation she was the Goddamn hero, and I was not conflicted about fighting her, I wanted to fight her less than any fightable creature in any game I've played. Kids in Fallout 2? Line up the thieving little snot factories and let the bad karma roll in. I'd gladly be spit upon for the rest of my days in Fallout if it meant I could progress in MGS3 without killing The Boss. And fuck you sideways, Hideo, for not only letting the bad guys win but making the player instrumental to their victory.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, let me mention the final boss in Delta Force Land Warrior, whom I beat last year. I couldn't tell you what his name was or why he had to get a bullet in the head, except that he had a mustache and spoke Arabic. But I sneaked that shit good and shot about 150 guys on this rather overpopulated island, and then I crawled through a bunch of tunnels under the island and shot some more dudes at the furthest distance the tunnels would allow, including one with a rocket launcher. Not that there was anything peculiar about him having a rocket launcher, or that I noticed it before he was flying backwards and kicking in the air. But after I shot him and the rest of the dudes in that room they told me the mission was over, and I crawled back to the extraction point and then, instead of preparing for the next mission, I watched some credits.

Protip: The gun that has the same name as the game is grossly imbalanced.

[Ryong]

The Kitsune in Okami. Fuck that was a fun and challenging fight, simply because you fought someone with the same powers you had and that could interrupt your drawings.

Mazaal, a boss from Zelda the Minish Cap that consists of two floating hands and a floating head. Once you shoot some eyes it has in its hands, its head falls to the floor and you have to turn into a minish to get inside it and slash away at its core. I loved the mechanic of changing sizes ( and how different the world becomes ) and really like how it's integrated in the fight, more so than the boss itself. It's not the only boss fight that involves it, but it does it so much better than the other one.

Gyorg Pair, from the same game, was also a fun fight. You're on top of a giant flying manta ray-esque monster with multiple eyes while a smaller one attempts to hit you and you're jumping from one to the other trying to stab their eyes out. While mid-flight.

I couldn't stop going "oh shit this is the coolest" during the Gabranth fight in FF12 but then it turns out I was ridiculously strong and the fight was really easy but it was fun as fuck.

Do big monsters in Monster Hunter count as bosses? Because I thoroughly enjoyed every time I fought a Rathian or a Jinouga( or Zinogre if you're into this weird new translation) or a Nargacuga...Or a Doboruberuku.Duramboros, goddamn seriously?

Originally Posted by Ramary

I am giving a special personal pick to Fafnir from Magicka, and not the reason you would expect. For the longest time, Fafnir was a really buggy boss, so many issues poped up during the fight, like falling into invisible pits, or he would just outright be unkillable. My favorite was after he got to 40% or so hp, he would crash the game to desktop in the most efficient and clean way I ever seen in a game, you would blink and BAM desktop, Karesh and I swear that was an intentional attack for a long time. Me and Karesh finally got lucky after a week or so of trying to beat it, and it felt SO DAMN GOOD.

does this mean Dark Souls' Bed of Chaos is a good boss? Because it essentially goes "fuck your shit, I hope you like getting thrown off pits because you weren't lucky" and "it'd be a shame if you landed directly on top of an insta-kill fire pillar which you have no time to dodge".