Your favorite boss fight(s)

[Kato]

Since in another thread the problem of designing good boss fights came up, I thought I'd make this to gather examples of good bosses, across various games and WHY they are so good.
Since I'm always having a hard time picking favorites and tend to be less critical anyway I won't start with my examples.

I'm also more thinking about mechanics wise good fights, not such made good for story reasons, e.g. because you finally get to take revenge for your loved ones or other emotional venting. But of course you can contribute those as well.

[DataNinja]

One that comes to mind is the Dark Bowser fight from Bowser's Inside Story. Discounting the narrative significance, it feels good mechanically, taking advantage of the skills that you've built up throughout the game so far. If your countering skills, and ability to read telegraphs, are low, then you'll have a problem. The attacks that are used are varied enough throughout the fight that you'll be kept on your toes, but there's nothing that's truly unfair. And there's enough HP in the boss that knowledge of your special attacks is needed to be able to deal enough damage - but no one specific attack is necessary. It's one fight I'm happy to play again and again, because it's a test of skill every tiem.

Another, though I've admittedly only watched this one and need to rely on secondhand accounts, is the Snatcher fight from a Hat in Time. It's a boss that requires you to have quick reflexes and be observant, but it rewards skill by having relatively few hits. If you're good at the game, it will go by relatively quickly - compounded by the other good game decision in that game where every phase of a boss heals you up to full HP. This lets them actually shorten any phase you've actually beaten, helping you get back to the part that you died on, so you're not frustrated by taking forever on parts you know you can do.

[Marillion]

The "Social Boss Fights" from Deus Ex: Human Revolution were much more satisfying than the actual boss fights. You were given just enough information on your opponent's psychology to...Well, see for yourself. Mid-game spoilers (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdtGrddKqKI)

The Metal Gear Solid series has some very fun boss fights. Psycho Mantis especially was incredible, he used your controller's input against you and you had to either switch controller ports or be very very very good (and patient.) Honorary mentions: Vamp in MGS2, who was incredibly fast and could paralyze you by pinning your shadow; The End in MGS3, an engaging and intense sniper battle across 3 maps that could entirely be bypassed by not playing the game for 2 weeks and allowing him to die of old age; and the long-overdue giant mech fight in MGS4.

[Knaight]

Flaagra: Metroid Prime has solid boss fights in general, but this one has a particularly fun structure. You've got a hostile plant creature in an atrium with a number of big mirrors. There's four phases to the fight, corresponding to the number of mirrors active, and in each you need to keep the creature at bay while knocking the mirrors out of alignment and dodging their attacks. Flaagra tries to knock the mirrors back down, but every time they're gone you get one solid bombing attack, exactly four of which ends the boss.

Mantis Lords: Hollow Knight also tends towards solid boss fights, but this one stands out. It's a fast, close quarters knife fight, and just when you have it handled they drop a second one on you, really raising the tempo for the finale. It's one in a series of fast fights against characters with a similar fighting style to you, all of which are good fights, of which this is probably the best.

The 39th Slayer: DROD: Journey to Rooted Hold is an excellent puzzle game themed around dungeon clearing. You play Beethro Budkin, dungeon exterminator and dude with an oversized sword. Mechanically you hang out in one tile, your sword in an adjacent tile, and you make a number of small moves where you either move one tile or rotate your sword 45 degrees. Through this game the 39th slayer is a persistent enemy, who will never position themselves where you can strike them with a sword, who crops up in various rooms and follows you around trying to shank you. There's a lot of cases where you're escaping by the skin of your teeth when things go well, and he is a persistent thorn in your side. Still, you'll have figured out both the behavior of the slayer and some effective tactics to earn distance, which helps for the final boss fight - where you manuever through a maze of volatile bombs that you can easily blow to smithereens with you in it with the slightest wrong move, do careful maneuvering around the slayer in the middle of this maze after the fuse is lit, then maneuvering to the one safe square in the entire room while avoiding the slayer and racing the fuse. It's probably the best boss fight I've seen in any game.

Alkonost & Danopth Defense: Another puzzle game, Spacechem this time. I couldn't pick just one fight here, but there's two relatively early that stand out. One involves the automated manufacture of methane with a controlled splitting between pipes, and filling storage containers to blow up an out of control mining robot. It's a glorified timer which requires a bit of finesse, but it works. The other is notable mostly because it's a really fun synthesis puzzle, in which you make synthetic ruby crystals as one use laser lenses while also developing a fuel,

[Kitten Champion]

Shadow of the Colossus.

Granted, that's the entirety of the game in terms of antagonists, but that speaks to how good they were that anyone cared about Shadow of the Colossus to begin with.

Why? Because it does everything a good boss fight should.

It builds up the fights with having you transverse the map to find them, the atmosphere changes when Colossi appears and it becomes an Event to experience. In SotC's case it creatively uses negative space to define its subjects, but there are all sorts of ways for games to distinguish the regular gameplay from the boss fight in terms of visuals, music, and level design. It also has a... well, you want to see what the next Colossi are like. There designs are each quite unique while being built on a similar aesthetic, and there's something compelling about revealing the face of your next adversary and what unique characteristics they have that's enjoyable in and of itself.

The second thing it does is tests your mastery of the game's mechanics. In Shadow of the Colossus you have all the mechanics you need from beginning to end, but you have to recognize that. The beginning Colossus for instance, before you can engage it you need to discover its lair with your magic sword's guidance mechanic and learn how to climb up a rock face -- which are also the instrumental skills for that fight, to define the weak-spot and climb up his body to strike it. Each successive Colossi has a method of defeating it which is partly informed by your previous experiences. By beating Colossi you feel as if you've developed as a player and are better at the game than you began as.

The third quality is rewarding observation. Colossi in general can't be brute-forced, your bow & arrow and sword are ineffective in the traditional action-game sense with no amount of filling them with arrows or flailing your sword at their near-impervious bodies that will take them down. Studying their movement patterns and behaviours, analyzing their form for specific cues, and looking around you for what the game has placed in your immediate environment -- combined with common sense and some trial and error and you'll solve each puzzle.

A Boss battle should be the summation of your experience in the game as an interactive medium in terms of mechanics and what the game has taught you about playing it over however long, and decidedly distinct from mundane aspects of the game in terms of how it frame its self. You want to remember it and for the challenge it provides be reasonable to what the game can expects from you, breezing through it or feeling helpless is going to sour the whole game.

[Bohandas]

Hedrack in Atari's Temple of Elemental Evil, because cheap tricks where the game cheats are kept to a minimum. The only thing of this nature that happens is when all his defeated m8nions get reanimated as zombies halfway through. And even this at least gets an explanation

[Brother Oni]

All three stages of the Wyzen fight in Asura's Wrath, from big guy, to colossus then planet size entity. While the mechanics are simplistic, they are very cinematic and in time with the onscreen action (for example, you rotate the right stick to root Asura's right leg, then do the same for the left leg, then hammer B to punch Wyzen's finger to pieces).

In terms of boss mechanics, the dialogue 'boss battles' in Alpha Protocol are the most unique I've encountered - I've not played the Deus Ex series with Adam Jensen, so can't comment on how similar they are to the Social Boss fights that Marillion mentions.

[Talion]

I wouldn't say necessarily that it's a 'favorite' but I recently fought the final boss for the 2nd story arc of Runefactory 4, which was divided into about 5 stages, the last 2 of which you are bolstered by 'the power of friendship'. In this case, it multiplied almost all of my stats by about 13. First time I've ever seen friendship do that. In most games I've played it doesn't do anything or is only good for a full restore of HP, Mana, and status ailments at the start of a battle phase.

[Cespenar]

Mantis Lords: Hollow Knight also tends towards solid boss fights, but this one stands out. It's a fast, close quarters knife fight, and just when you have it handled they drop a second one on you, really raising the tempo for the finale. It's one in a series of fast fights against characters with a similar fighting style to you, all of which are good fights, of which this is probably the best.

Oh, yeah, the Mantis Lords are one of the cooler battles in that game. Also one of my favorites is Hornet. Like Mantis Lords, it's a rather clean boss fight. There are little to no screen covering attacks, just speed and precision.

[Avilan the Grey]

I usually don't like classical boss fights at all.

There are a few exceptions though:
The first ogre battle in Dragon Age: Origins is the only one that comes to mind right now.

[Dienekes]

A lot from the Dark Souls series.

Champion Gundyr, Nameless King, Slave Knight Gael, Friede, Knight Artorias, Ornstein and Smough, Kalameet, and Sir Alonne are the ones that stand out for now.

I love the challenge, I love setting and music of each fight. I enjoy that each fight is a weird mix of patience, observation, and wild reaction in a way I don't think any other game really replicates.

The best ones each feel like duels and challenges against great opponents. They last for the exact correct length where you don't feel like you're winning through paper cuts, and you have to be focused the entire time because any moment can be a death sentence.

Moving past them.

Ganondorf in Twilight Princess. Not particularly difficult, but just exciting the entire time. Multiple phases that see you duking it out against the monster form, his human form, and even while possessing Zelda. Each of the faces was a unique challenge that was just completely cinematic.

Phalanx from Shadows of the Colossus.

[Lector87]

Too many from the Souls series to lovingly detail them all, but if I had to choose one, it would be Alonne. His stage is beautiful. His style is dignified. His lore is properly noble and tragic. And mechanically, I think it's the best example from the series of a pure mano-a-mano, skill-vs-skill duel against a worthy opponent. Definitely one of the most white-knuckled wins I've ever had. My only complaint is with the tedious run-up past his minions on your way to his room, but that's a problem throughout the series, and at least in DKS2 if you kill the goons enough times they stop re-spawning.

The final boss from the original Fallout had a really great Talking the Monster to Death (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TalkingTheMonsterToDeath) option. Ditto Planescape: Torment. The GLaDOS dialogue from the final confrontation in Portal is amazingly hilarious.

[The Hellbug]

I've got a couple and some thoughts on them:

1) Now, I know Shadow of the Colossus has been mentioned already here, but there's one in particular I'd like to draw special attention to, and that's Colossus number 13, the flying snake one. Now, as was mentioned before, the fights with the Colossi all have the same basic rhythm (find weak spot, use environment/pattern to access weak spot/ stab weak spot) though they, for the most part, manage to be pretty fresh each time (with one or two exceptions). Colossus 13, though, is memorable for me because I saw it and immediately knew what I had to do (which is something I had kind of been waiting to do on one of these bosses for most of the game), and it's as rad as possible, and the execution is awesome.

2) The Edge from Furi. This one's notable because, up until this point in the game basically all of the bosses have had some sort of bullet-hell dodge section to their rotation, but the Edge is just fast and brutal (while still using the same mechanics you've seen up until this point)--an excellent fight for right near the end of the game.

3) I like basically every boss fight in Crypt of the Necrodancer, but a couple in particular stand out as being super awesome. First of all, King Konga is great because of the way he messes with the conceit of the game (you can only move to the rhythm, but since he's conga themed, the music skips every eighth beat and no one can act on it--you are penalized if you try to do so; of course, the fact that the music in the boss room itself is noticeably silent for that beat helps keep you in the rhythm). Second, I love Deep Blues because fighting against an animated chess set whose pieces move in accordance with how they actually do in chess is pretty awesome. Finally, Dead Ringer is an excellent example of a boss that just takes the game's core concepts (spacing and strategically moving to attack your enemies while not being harmed yourself and keeping with the beat) and cranks it up to 11 by threatening you from every angle and then challenging you to use the bosses own pattern to get him to defeat himself (his name is also probably the punniest of all the boss names, and I'll admit that makes me smile, too).

[Ebon_Drake]

Mr Freeze in Batman: Arkham City is the one that stands out for me as superb on a mechanical level. I expect it's familiar to most people here, but I'll gush about it anyway. Firstly it's a predator fight, i.e. where Batman has to sneak around and silently take down his enemies like that cool bit in the docks in Batman Begins. The predator encounters are already a highlight of the Arkham games as you methodically clear a room full of gun-toting mooks without being seen and spread fear amongst them while doing so. In this case though, rather than being a flunky boss against a bunch of easily-scared mooks it's just a straight one-on-one fight against Mr Freeze. He's absolutely relentless in hunting Batman down and his armoured suit is too much for the Bat to take on head-on, so you have to avoid a direct confrontation and gradually wear Freeze down with various stealth takedowns.

What makes it so great is that Freeze constantly adapts to your attacks by upgrading his suit, changing his tactics or messing around with the arena (e.g freezing up the air vent grates so you can't attack him from them again). You can never use the same takedown against him twice, which means you can't fall into the complacent gaming of just repeatedly using the same old three takedowns that you use for every encounter and instead have to fully know Batman's repertoire of attacks to be able to beat him. The mechanics also work well to sell Freeze as a character, making him seem extremely smart as he figures out each way Batman has attacked him and finds a way to counteract it on the fly. Heck, I almost wanted him to win because of how hard he was trying!

If I remember rightly, you need to perform six takedowns to beat him in the regular game which isn't too frustrating. However, in New Game+ his difficulty is ramped up to instead require 12 different takedowns, which is essentially every one you have and includes a couple that you only have a limited number of chances to pull off (such as blowing up a weak wall onto him or smashing through a window). Freeze can also jam your Detective Vision mode if you use it too much (in NG+ meaning "at all"), which means you mostly have to rely on regular sight against him. The New Game+ version is a bit divisive due to the difficulty, but I personally loved it as the ultimate predator encounter where you have to use every trick in the book to be able to succeed.

While it's not a very well regarded game overall, the Deathstroke fight in Arkham Origins is probably the next-best boss fight in the series. It's essentially comparable to the Freeze fight as an "ultimate skill test," except for the series's straight strike-counter-strike combat system instead of for predator takedowns. As I recall, you have to wait until the exact moment to counter Deathstroke's attacks because if you press the counter button too early then he'll punish you by then countering your counter. Again, the New Game+ version again ramps up the difficulty - in this case by removing the head's up cues for countering attacks so you have to rely on reading his actual body motions to judge the precise moment when you need to counter him. One mark against it though is that it comes very early in the game, so it can be frustrating if you've not yet mastered the combat system and/or can't quite get to grips with what it wants you to do.

[Hunter Noventa]

For some reason, what comes to mind tome is the battle with Luca Blight in Suikoden II. Not because of the mechanics of it (it's no different from any battle, except you fight him three times in a row with three different parties which is both neat and kind of a pain). No it's the narrative. This man is a literal monster, a man who take on entire squadrons of soldiers by himself without breaking a sweat. You've spent the entire game up until now seeing what he's capable of, running away from him and trying to build up an army of your own to counter him. Then in the dead of night, as he's moving to attack your castle, you ambush him and his escort, fight a running series of battles to drive him to the right spot for am ambush. You dump tons of magic onto him in the actual fights, dozens of arrows in the cutscenes, and then it all ends in a duel (Suikoden had a fun rock-paper-scissors duel system) between him and the main character. You finally finish him off...and that's not even the end of the game.

[Knaight]

I'd also add the Nuclear Throne, from Nuclear Throne. There's several solid fights in that game, and it's established itself as a bullet hell twin stick shooter quite well by the time you reach the end (though I use a mouse). The boss is a culmination of that, a massive throne/spider mech with a whole bunch of hard to evade attacks that you can deliberately provoke to try and get a leg up, while throwing damage down screen. It's intense, it's usually a loss, and as the final boss of a roguelike it really works.

Then there's the small matter of Baiten Kaitos, in general. The combat system in that is actually really fun (which is weird, as it's a turn based RPG and those tend to have garbage combat), and it's against the bosses that this tends to come out most, both because of the beautiful art design coming across most there and because those fights are actually long enough for some interesting deck cycling. It's a bit tricky to pick exactly which boss fights are best, but both 3 vs. 3 fights are up there, as is the boss which would be a total spoiler to name.

[The Hellbug]

The Nuclear Throne example actually reminded me of another kind of boss I like: the final boss of any sort of Roguelike (in the more classic sense). Roguelikes are almost always have a curve of getting greedy to increase your power (either through inventory or abilities or any other sort of whatsit) and then a phase of trying to maintain that power for as long as possible--it ends up being a sort of increase-resources-until-you-need-to-spend-them-to-survive kind of gameplay, right? Well, that goes out the window with the final boss, where you just...throw...everything. I'm especially fond of the 'dump your inventory on them and hope that works' kind of thing you get in stuff like Nethack--it does a good job of being climactic for me.

[Zevox]

Hm, wow, need to think on this one...

Two that come to mind quickly as among my favorite action game fights are the Dante vs Vergil fights in Devil May Cry 3 and the Bayonetta vs Balder fights in Bayonetta 2 - particularly the final fight in the former case and the first in the latter. Excellent examples of boss fights where the boss is an equal of your player character, possessing very similar abilities to yours and challenging you in a way that the other bosses of the games simply don't. Those fights wind up feeling very satisfying and highly skill-based as a result. Nero vs Dante in DMC4 comes in a close second to those in this area, too, though if memory serves there's certain elements to it that feel more frustrating than in either of the above, as does Raiden vs Jet Stream Sam in Metal Gear Rising, which is also excellent but somehow never quite gets as exciting as those two.

In the boss style more typical of those games though, where you're fighting enemies that just overpower you with incredible size, strength, or both, Metal Gear Rising comes out way on top with the Metal Gear boss fight right at the start of the game and the Senator Armstrong fight that serves as the game's finale. Though all of the game's boss fights are great, those two just stand out as the best and most satisfying - particularly with the musical cues in each. I swear half of the reason I love that game's boss music so much is the way the lyrics kick in (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RypphRK14t8&t=4m21s) at particularly perfectly timed (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RypphRK14t8&t=2m2s) moments during the fights. The Metal Gear fight serves as your introduction to many of the game's core mechanics, so it's not too hard, but at the same time it captures what makes the game so exciting excellently, and the feeling of ripping apart this giant robot with nothing but a sword and cyborg strength is great. Meanwhile the Senator Armstrong fight, as the finale of the game, is just extremely challenging, requiring the use of every one of the game's combat systems on higher difficulties.

Since the Batman: Arkham games were brought up, I'll second Mr. Freeze, which is definitely a highlight of that series, and add Ra's Al Ghul from Arkham City, which I feel is the best example of the more conventional boss fights of those games. A great mix of group fighting of copies of the boss and parts where you fight a single, large enemy throwing big attacks at you keeps it fresh throughout.

I'm trying to think of examples from RPGs, which I've played so many of over time, but having a hard time of it. Partially I think it's because since getting into action games, RPG bosses just feel lesser by comparison, since instead of tests of skill they're largely slogs where you wear down the boss' massive hp while enduring its powerful attacks with your own healing abilities. I guess I can say that as that goes, one that sticks out in my memory as feeling particularly satisfying to beat was the Lord of the Dragovians, the bonus post-game boss from Dragon Quest 8. You had to fight him multiple times, and each time he took on a Dragon form more powerful than the last, culminating in one final marathon fight where you had to take on all of his forms in succession without a break in between them. That was rough, but I actually felt accomplished when I won - and genuinely surprised, since I spent the last form-and-half thinking I'd run too low on resources to finish.

[Eldan]

Oh, yeah, the Mantis Lords are one of the cooler battles in that game. Also one of my favorites is Hornet. Like Mantis Lords, it's a rather clean boss fight. There are little to no screen covering attacks, just speed and precision.

I'd also like to name the Hollow Knight, from Hollow Knight. It's not as clean and rather too easy for when it comes up in the game, but it is just very well done, I think. And emotional, too, with how the Knight acts.

[Cespenar]

3) I like basically every boss fight in Crypt of the Necrodancer, but a couple in particular stand out as being super awesome. First of all, King Konga is great because of the way he messes with the conceit of the game (you can only move to the rhythm, but since he's conga themed, the music skips every eighth beat and no one can act on it--you are penalized if you try to do so; of course, the fact that the music in the boss room itself is noticeably silent for that beat helps keep you in the rhythm). Second, I love Deep Blues because fighting against an animated chess set whose pieces move in accordance with how they actually do in chess is pretty awesome. Finally, Dead Ringer is an excellent example of a boss that just takes the game's core concepts (spacing and strategically moving to attack your enemies while not being harmed yourself and keeping with the beat) and cranks it up to 11 by threatening you from every angle and then challenging you to use the bosses own pattern to get him to defeat himself (his name is also probably the punniest of all the boss names, and I'll admit that makes me smile, too).

I agree with this wholeheartedly. Between its all-around brilliance, the game also does the "gimmick boss" thing pretty well. I think the Necrodancer himself should be one of its best examples too. Throwing a 2-player curveball like that as an endgame boss, really a cool move.

Also, have you checked the mundane creature names in the credits as well? All of them are musical puns. :smallbiggrin:

@Nuclear Throne: I think I actually like the Big Dog fight the best. It balances a small serving of bullet hell with some possible covers and a smattering of circumstantial enemies/traps/etc. It can sometimes be too easy, but I think it's the most "bossy" boss in the game.

Also, screw Lil' Hunter.

@Dark Souls: I think I like the Nameless King (2nd form) best, because of how well he telegraphs his attacks, and again, how "cleaner" he is with his attacks compared to the other bosses in the same game.

[Spore]

Ornstein and Smough. The fight emphasises what I like about Dark Souls. Cooperative boss battles. You have some obvious options (kill one first), you can summon a friend or Solaire, the Meatshield to it. The whole area and build up is glorious (I mean it is the first level that has actual warm feeling sunlight) and the dark reality afterwards (if you look behind the illusion) is stronger.

Undertale's boss fights are cool too. People will mention Sans because of the difficulty and music, PhotoshopFlowey because of the bizarre images or even Asriel and Asgore. But me? I love Mettaton. Both forms. So either the quiz show (Would you smooch a ghost?), the opera (what a fake out), the news report (the dog is a bomb!) or the actual boss fight (DID YOU. JUST FLIP. MY SWITCH?)

[Hunter Noventa]

In the boss style more typical of those games though, where you're fighting enemies that just overpower you with incredible size, strength, or both, Metal Gear Rising comes out way on top with the Metal Gear boss fight right at the start of the game and the Senator Armstrong fight that serves as the game's finale. Though all of the game's boss fights are great, those two just stand out as the best and most satisfying - particularly with the musical cues in each. I swear half of the reason I love that game's boss music so much is the way the lyrics kick in (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RypphRK14t8&t=4m21s) at particularly perfectly timed (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RypphRK14t8&t=2m2s) moments during the fights. The Metal Gear fight serves as your introduction to many of the game's core mechanics, so it's not too hard, but at the same time it captures what makes the game so exciting excellently, and the feeling of ripping apart this giant robot with nothing but a sword and cyborg strength is great. Meanwhile the Senator Armstrong fight, as the finale of the game, is just extremely challenging, requiring the use of every one of the game's combat systems on higher difficulties.

Oh man, speaking of timing music to boss battles, FFXIV does this in a couple of places. The most notable being the fight against Bahamut, who literally destoryed the previous version of the game in a cinematic set to an operatic score. You find out he's regenerating, go to beat him up, and do so to the same operatic score, but every one of his attacks is perfectly timed to the music and it's amazing.

[houlio]

I loved many of the bosses in Chronotrigger. You often had to experiment to find out how each boss fights coupled with the real-time turn meters kept up the pace and tension of many boss battles.

The battles against the siege mech, the bug queen, and the monolith (forget the proper names) in Helldivers is also a ton of fun. They require good preparation and teamwork as well as being super hectic.

Fighting the Patriarch in Killing Floor has always been a ton of fun, even when the game gets a little janky and he kills you in his little intro cinematic.

[Eurus]

Oh man, speaking of timing music to boss battles, FFXIV does this in a couple of places. The most notable being the fight against Bahamut, who literally destoryed the previous version of the game in a cinematic set to an operatic score. You find out he's regenerating, go to beat him up, and do so to the same operatic score, but every one of his attacks is perfectly timed to the music and it's amazing.

You know... I think Shiva is still my favorite FFXIV fight, aesthetically, just for that first Diamond Dust moment when the music changes. It's glorious.

[Hunter Noventa]

You know... I think Shiva is still my favorite FFXIV fight, aesthetically, just for that first Diamond Dust moment when the music changes. It's glorious.

Yeah Shiva is done very well too, so is Thordan really. There was even an article (http://pedrothedagger.blogspot.com/2016/03/raid-boss-dissection-ffxiv-thordan.html) written by one of the WoW designers about how great Thordan Extreme is in terms of design.

[deuterio12]

Super Smash Brother's Master Hand, plus later on Crazy Hand. I love it how the game just throws the normal rules out the window and the final boss can't be thrown out and instead has an actual HP value. All their attacks are based on classic gestures, and then there's the significance, is it some eldritch horror or just the hand of somebody playing with their Nintendo toys? Even the stage itself, the Final Destination, stands out for not having any special features, just a plain floating platform traveling at light speed through the cosmos. Plus how each iteration of the game, the hand(s) start familiar but then suddenly pull new tricks.

Touhou, basically all of them. From the pre-battle smack-talk to the beautiful patterns, several of which demand thinking outside the box, to the music, I love it all even I suck at winning them.

Gary Oak/Blue from the original pokemon. Not the battle per se, but more the setup, you just defeated the mighty elite four when suddenly nope, your rival is again one step ahead of you, and now you'll finally have the chance to wipe the smug smile off his face. You defeated the pokemon mafia, beat the 8 gym leaders, walked the victory road, but now it is personal.

Majora's Mask from the game with the same name, more due to the fact that before the final battle starts you get to bribe the boss's four main lackeys to abandon him, and then Majora's Mask goes "So lonely... Let's play good and bad guys... You will be the bad guy." and hands you the Fierce Deity mask.

Kinda of an obscure indie title, but Iji has the heroine needing to single-handedly turn back an alien invasion, and the game supports the chance of a non-lethal route, in which case if you manage to don't kill anybody you can have several bosses backstabbed by either rivals or their own minions.

[Ignimortis]

Most DMC 3 and 4 boss battles:
Cerberus, Nevan, and all Vergil fights for 3. They're all incredibly designed with some tricks to them - Cerberus has his heads, which signal what he's gonna do next, Nevan's tells are mostly voice-based, and Vergil is just a test of your mechanical raw skill at dodging and punishing at the right time, reading his moves and not getting too greedy. Plus Vergil is just so damn cool!
All the greater demon bossfights as Nero. While only Credo is actually as well designed from mechanics standpoint as 3's bosses were, just getting off that DT Buster move is incredibly satisfying on every single one.
Dante merits a separate mention, because, well, he gets tougher every time you play - because he's actually using weapons and moves you got in the last difficulty! Also, Dante rides the line between an unbeatable instant reactions boss and a challenging one, which makes him extremely fun to fight. Shame you have to go through a mission to do it again.

FF XIV:


Thordan, especially the EX version. An absolute nightmare to clear, but the design! The style! THE MUSIC (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Czw1XDkjTuY)! You and seven others fight against the Knights of the Round, the infamous summon from FF VII - at least, their FF XIV version. And it's absolutely personal, if you care about the story. This is the best climax the Heavensward 3.0 questline could have.
DRK's job quests at 50 and 70. Yes, those are not "true" boss battles, but the buildup towards them is incredible, and again OST (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQ8yAEkUUgI) seals the deal. DRG's level 50 quest is also grand, as well.
Honorable mentions: Alexander T8 and T12, Coil T9 and T12-13, Shinryu EX, Omega T4 and T8. Basically, if it's the last boss in a raid duty segment, it's gonna be awesome.



Other Final Fantasies:
Any Final Fantasy last boss. They have those down to an art (FF X notwithstanding, but you can call Jecht the real last boss). But, also - Kuja from IX, Seifer from VIII (the last time, and if you have Odin...), and the opera sequence from VI.

Dark Souls I and II:
Ornstein and Smough, Fries and Burger, Pikachu and Snorlax...you know the drill. The high point of DS I, in my opinion - most of my playthroughs actually ended after I beat them, because the four lords are less interesting to fight, or I pick up the Broken Pendant to go and face...
Artorias the Abysswalker - unpredictable, fast, damaging. Sometimes he doesn't leave enough openings to stab him more than once, sometimes he falls flat on his face, but when he doesn't, he's really fun.
Skeleton Lords - despite them being easy, it's an interesting concept and one of the few ganky fights done well.
Executioner's Chariot - another fun concept with surprising depth.
Sir Alonne - of course. Probably the best "dude in armor" fight in DS II, contested only by...
Fume Knight - I'm not doing this fight again. He's hard. Like, really hard.

[ImperatorV]

Touhou, basically all of them. From the pre-battle smack-talk to the beautiful patterns, several of which demand thinking outside the box, to the music, I love it all even I suck at winning them.

I was just about to mention this... In particular, Yuyuko from Perfect Cherry Blossom stands out to me. Partly cause PCB is the only Touhou game where I've reached the final boss :smalltongue: but mainly because the way the fight is structured - you move up and down the path surrounded by cherry trees, and it really gives the feel that one combatant or the other is being forced back. Then, when you finally manage to beat her last spellcard and she dies... A few moments later the screen goes dark, the music changes, and Yuyuko's blacked out silhouette appears onscreen for her final attack, Reflowering: Resurrection Butterfly. Oh, and you can't damage her during this attack, just wait for her to run out of energy and die again, upon which the music turns triumphant and all the bullets on the screen explode in slow motion into cherry blossom petals. It really gives off the feel of accomplishment, like you just did something amazing - which you did, you beat a Touhou game.

Confession: I've never actually beaten Yuyuko. Just seen the ending of the fight on youtube when I'm looking up how to beat her. Someday...

[deuterio12]

I was just about to mention this... In particular, Yuyuko from Perfect Cherry Blossom stands out to me. Partly cause PCB is the only Touhou game where I've reached the final boss :smalltongue: but mainly because the way the fight is structured - you move up and down the path surrounded by cherry trees, and it really gives the feel that one combatant or the other is being forced back. Then, when you finally manage to beat her last spellcard and she dies... A few moments later the screen goes dark, the music changes, and Yuyuko's blacked out silhouette appears onscreen for her final attack, Reflowering: Resurrection Butterfly. Oh, and you can't damage her during this attack, just wait for her to run out of energy and die again, upon which the music turns triumphant and all the bullets on the screen explode in slow motion into cherry blossom petals. It really gives off the feel of accomplishment, like you just did something amazing - which you did, you beat a Touhou game.

Confession: I've never actually beaten Yuyuko. Just seen the ending of the fight on youtube when I'm looking up how to beat her. Someday...
Seeing the games in youtube is nice, but the experience of actually beating them yourself is quite unique. You must understand the pattern. You must become one with the pattern. (I've only managed to beat like what, Mountain of Faith*, Perfect Cherry Blossom, Phantasmagoria of Flower view counts I guess, oh the Cirno spin-off is still a bullet hell, Subterranean animism, hmm not too shabby now that I think about it). Let's not talk about the Ex stages too much, although I actually managed to reach Subterranean Animism's Ex's last spellcard.

It however takes a lot of practice, and sadly in recent years I don't have the time to properly play the most recent titles, even if I hear Zun made them easier.

Fun fact: The moment when Reflowering: Resurection Butterfly ends, the last stray bullets can still kill you before they turn into cherry blossom petals (and then turn into cherry petals before you get the game over).

Which they did to me as when the triumphant music starts I would lose my focus. Every. Single. Time. I managed to reach that far. And I would have no more lifes left, leaving me staring at a grey screen filled with cherry petals as if Yuyuko was mocking me.

I never managed to overcome that flaw, so I had to simply reach that part with one last life so I would die along Yuyuko only to respawn and get the credits.

*By abusing a fun bug where Marisa B (aka laser Marisa, aka best Marisa)'s unfocused shot deals absurdly ridiculous damage, allowing her to melt through most spellcards before the bullets can even reach the bottom of the screen, and even then Kanako's tough as a mountain and demanded quite a lot of retries to bring her down, and Suwako's even tougher.

[theMycon]

Gygax, from Earthbound. By the time you fight him, he's an almighty idiot that only remembers hating you.

He's stage 3 of a staggered chain of boss battles, so you're likely exhausted going in. Your attacks don't do anything. Your magic won't hurt him. You cannot grasp the form of his attacks- there's just a flash of a color, similar to powers you've seen before, and damage to some numbers of your party.


Eventually, you'll try to pray. It's a special command of your damage caster, and usually has a random minor useful effect.

Your prayers reach your parents, who think of you and pray for your safety and Gyagas's defenses become unstable. You can hurt him, but if you keep praying, your prayers will reach everyone you've helped throughout your journey, doing more and more damage as he becomes more and more insane. When he's gone mad and going on an all out blitz to destroy you, you run out of people to pray to, and your prayers are absorbed by the darkness. Eventually, though, if you keep trying, they pray directly to you, the player (or the name you gave when someone called on your 90's cellphone to ask), and you keep on praying until this god is shattered by your will.