The Easiest Final Boss Ever

[Kitten Champion]

Emerald's champ, Wallace is worse.
Pure Water-type trainer in a game where you will have a counter because of Team Aqua and all the water roads.
Diantha at least has some diversity in her line up.

That runs into the question of overall game difficulty though. I mean, Diantha is technically powerful relative to the difficulty curve of her game, but it just so happens that X/Y's curve is so lenient as to be barely perceptible. Diantha exists in a setting where she's a monster just for having six Pokemon of adequate level and each having four whole moves learned, plus a Mega Evolution.

Point being, if the last boss isn't conspicuously weaker than any of the preceding enemies then I think you might have undue expectations for the game as a whole. It be would weird and kind of poor game design to suddenly be confronted by a massive spike in difficulty at the very, very end.

[LibraryOgre]

Vulpes isn't genocidal! He left Oliver Swanick alive!

You know the only people he *breaths heavily* lashes to crosses are *sweats profusely* degenerates who keep *collapses onto feinting couch* misbehaving...

....ok, I think we need to have a long talk about the importance of "consent".

[PopeLinus1]

....ok, I think we need to have a long talk about the importance of "consent".

Hey, the amount of consent in our relationship is suiting me just fine.

[Thrawn4]

It was designed to be an RPG for children, after all. Though, a Kirby game is also one of your mentions, and those are among the easiest in all of gaming by design, so...

Hey, I really had to earn my happy ending! And then there was also the hard mode! (Of course, I was 9 at the time...)

For me, it was Lufia - Rise of the Sinistrals.
I could have beaten them in single combat.
Of course, I was really bad at solving riddles, so everytime I encountered one I went grinding to pass away the time. At the end, most of my characters were at max level.

[Psyren]

Both Diablo and Malthael from Diablo 3 are dead easy by the time you reach them. Even if you crank the difficulty all the way up, by the time you're able to play at all on that difficulty you should have the gear you need to body every boss up to and including them. Due to the way difficulty and scaling works, the random bosses you get at the end of a greater rift are far harder than any of the story bosses.

[Bohandas]

Both Diablo and Malthael from Diablo 3 are dead easy by the time you reach them. Even if you crank the difficulty all the way up, by the time you're able to play at all on that difficulty you should have the gear you need to body every boss up to and including them. Due to the way difficulty and scaling works, the random bosses you get at the end of a greater rift are far harder than any of the story bosses.

Speaking of the Diablo series, the first boss in Diablo 2, while appropriately powered for that point in the game is nonetheless grossly underpowered for what the story makes her out to be. She's supposed to be the number five fiend in hell butnall of Mephisto's throwaway mooks are more deadly than she is (and all of Baal's mooks are more deadly than Mephisto)

[MCerberus]

Does the infamous "Marauder Shields" count? It was the actual last enemy of Mass Effect 3.
Wow that game had act 3 problems.

[Rynjin]

Both Diablo and Malthael from Diablo 3 are dead easy by the time you reach them. Even if you crank the difficulty all the way up, by the time you're able to play at all on that difficulty you should have the gear you need to body every boss up to and including them. Due to the way difficulty and scaling works, the random bosses you get at the end of a greater rift are far harder than any of the story bosses.

I don't quite agree. If you fight either boss, and especially Malthael, before you're fully geared on a relatively hard difficulty they're quite a challenge. The issue is playing Seasonal, since the set bonuses automatically make you about T6 ready, and the exponential difficulty increases between each Torment level can make the fights literally impossible for someone who is only geared for T6, so you're either stomping them in 2 seconds flat on T6 or completely floundering on T7-8. And then you get full geared and they're chumps even on T12...but are still threatening on like T15.

Modular difficulties make judging boss power hard IMO.

[Squark]

Gebel from Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night if you get the bad ending. Poor guy has no clue how to fight you if you use invert- And in order to get the truly bad ending (In which the protagonist gets possessed), you have to have gotten the invert power.

Granted using invert also makes it much easier to hit the thing that continues the game, but I'd say Gebel technically counts as a final boss still, right.

[Bartmanhomer]

Also, I remember playing Super Mario World-beating Bowser as the final boss was very easy.

[Psyren]

I don't quite agree. If you fight either boss, and especially Malthael, before you're fully geared on a relatively hard difficulty they're quite a challenge. The issue is playing Seasonal, since the set bonuses automatically make you about T6 ready, and the exponential difficulty increases between each Torment level can make the fights literally impossible for someone who is only geared for T6, so you're either stomping them in 2 seconds flat on T6 or completely floundering on T7-8. And then you get full geared and they're chumps even on T12...but are still threatening on like T15.

Modular difficulties make judging boss power hard IMO.

I agree with your last statement, but my point around the modular difficulty is that it's almost binary - either you can handle regular monsters/elites on that difficulty, in which case the boss won't be a big deal either - or you can't, in which case the boss will stomp you too. There is almost no range in which, like a typical boss fight in a video game, the regular monsters and champions can be defeated but the boss is noticeably more challenging.

The one exception to that I can think of is Adria, who is tuned a few steps above the difficulty you fight her on and can give you a notable challenge - but she's not a final boss.

Speaking of the Diablo series, the first boss in Diablo 2, while appropriately powered for that point in the game is nonetheless grossly underpowered for what the story makes her out to be. She's supposed to be the number five fiend in hell butnall of Mephisto's throwaway mooks are more deadly than she is (and all of Baal's mooks are more deadly than Mephisto)

This can be justified narratively in that the various Evils gain more power the longer they're out and about, and that power bleeds over to their minions. So as Mephisto gains power in Travincal, so too do the Zakarumites he has conscripted etc. Andariel comparatively is out for much less time, on top of whatever gulf exists between the Lessers and Primes natively.

[Random Sanity]

Also, I remember playing Super Mario World-beating Bowser as the final boss was very easy.

Super Mario 3's Bowser fight was easier - you literally hurdle a few fireballs and wait for him to kill himself.


The last boss of the Dawn of War 2 base game is a total walkover. Sure, it's a jacked-up Hive Tyrant with the stats to pose a threat to any one of your squads. Problem is, you've got six squads plus an OP guest character. Select-all, attack-move, and if you're quick enough you'll get off a few abilities before the big bug goes splat.

[Blackhawk748]

Super Mario 3's Bowser fight was easier - you literally hurdle a few fireballs and wait for him to kill himself.


The last boss of the Dawn of War 2 base game is a total walkover. Sure, it's a jacked-up Hive Tyrant with the stats to pose a threat to any one of your squads. Problem is, you've got six squads plus an OP guest character. Select-all, attack-move, and if you're quick enough you'll get off a few abilities before the big bug goes splat.

They made up for that in the Chaos DLC. Good lord he has so much HP

[McNum]

Hm, trying to think of an example where it's the boss, not the game, that's easy... ah, okay: Gannon, from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Once you know what to do, he's one of the easiest bosses in the game: stun him with a light arrow, circle around back to do as much damage to his tail as you can before the stun wears off, rinse/repeat until you win. Which is basically the same thing you do against the very first boss in the game, just using light arrows instead of the slingshot and needing to walk around him to his tail rather than getting to attack from the front. The only potential problem is that you might run out of magic, and that's not an issue if you just packed green or blue potions.

I've been messing with the Ganon fight, just to see what works, and it's hilariously much easier than that.

Two words: "Deku Nuts"

As soon as the first phase starts and you're without a sword, ser a Deku Nut to one of your items. Run at the giant pig man, and just before you collide, roll. You'll roll between his legs and he's stuck in his attack animation. Target the tail, throw a Deku Nut. This deals damage.

One you get the Master Sword back, use that instead, but Deku Nuts of all things can damage Ganon. Light Arrows as you said, cannot. They just stun him. But why waste the magic when rolling under him works?

[Zevox]

I've been messing with the Ganon fight, just to see what works, and it's hilariously much easier than that.

Two words: "Deku Nuts"

As soon as the first phase starts and you're without a sword, ser a Deku Nut to one of your items. Run at the giant pig man, and just before you collide, roll. You'll roll between his legs and he's stuck in his attack animation. Target the tail, throw a Deku Nut. This deals damage.

One you get the Master Sword back, use that instead, but Deku Nuts of all things can damage Ganon. Light Arrows as you said, cannot. They just stun him. But why waste the magic when rolling under him works?

If memory serves, the no-magic method that is most obvious is to use the hookshot. This causes a small reaction from him where he shakes his head in annoyance at the strike, during which you can also roll under him and get a quick swing (with Biggorn's Sword, ideally, if you have that - if not, the Megaton Hammer can work, but is kind of slow if you're not using the Light Arrows for a proper stun).

It has been quite a while since I last played the game though, so I might be misremembering some detail or another of that.

[Gnoman]

Dracula in Castlevania: Symphony of The Night is a ludicrously easy boss even by the standards of an extremely easy game. Even if you aren't using the really broken combos, he goes down so fast I'm not even sure what his attacks are.

[mythmonster2]

I wonder if anyone else here has played this, but Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest on the SNES. The final boss is normally a decent threat, not super dangerous, but not a pushover. But, there is one spell that will kill him in one hit, and it's Cure. Your basic healing spell. I still remember the day me and my brother were just screwing around and realized "Oh, hey, you can cast Cure on the enemy, isn't that weird?" The two of us were absolutely flabbergasted when we saw an insane damage number pop up. I think technically you still had to hit a few times, since he has phases, but the damage stayed between them so a single hit would bring him to his next phase.

[Destro_Yersul]

If memory serves, the no-magic method that is most obvious is to use the hookshot. This causes a small reaction from him where he shakes his head in annoyance at the strike, during which you can also roll under him and get a quick swing (with Biggorn's Sword, ideally, if you have that - if not, the Megaton Hammer can work, but is kind of slow if you're not using the Light Arrows for a proper stun).

It has been quite a while since I last played the game though, so I might be misremembering some detail or another of that.

You can actually kill him with just the hookshot, but it takes a really long time

[Bartmanhomer]

I wonder if anyone else here has played this, but Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest on the SNES. The final boss is normally a decent threat, not super dangerous, but not a pushover. But, there is one spell that will kill him in one hit, and it's Cure. Your basic healing spell. I still remember the day me and my brother were just screwing around and realized "Oh, hey, you can cast Cure on the enemy, isn't that weird?" The two of us were absolutely flabbergasted when we saw an insane damage number pop up. I think technically you still had to hit a few times, since he has phases, but the damage stayed between them so a single hit would bring him to his next phase.

That's funny. LOL!

[Zevox]

Dracula in Castlevania: Symphony of The Night is a ludicrously easy boss even by the standards of an extremely easy game. Even if you aren't using the really broken combos, he goes down so fast I'm not even sure what his attacks are.

Eh, that probably depends heavily on what level you are. I vaguely recall him being tougher than I anticipated. Only played the game once, a good year and a half ago now, so I don't recall the details enough to say more than that, but still.

One that I definitely recall being pretty easy, at least by comparison to the rest of the game, is the Dracula fight from Castlevania: Rondo of Blood. That game and its boss fights are brutally difficult up until Dracula, but then he himself is pretty straightforward by comparison. Once you get the timing down on a jump attack that both smacks his head and destroys his fireballs when he fires them, his first form can easily be beaten without taking any damage at all, and his second form just isn't that tough. Still took multiple tries to beat, sure, so he's far from the easiest final boss ever, but he's just so much easier than basically everything else in that game.

[Forum Explorer]

Easiest Final boss for me was in X-Com Enemy Within. I got to the temple ship, sent in a mind controlled minion to spawn the final room. And then my sniper killed the Uber Ethereal in one turn with double shot. Que ending cinematic.

[Gnoman]

Eh, that probably depends heavily on what level you are. I vaguely recall him being tougher than I anticipated. Only played the game once, a good year and a half ago now, so I don't recall the details enough to say more than that, but still.

One that I definitely recall being pretty easy, at least by comparison to the rest of the game, is the Dracula fight from Castlevania: Rondo of Blood. That game and its boss fights are brutally difficult up until Dracula, but then he himself is pretty straightforward by comparison. Once you get the timing down on a jump attack that both smacks his head and destroys his fireballs when he fires them, his first form can easily be beaten without taking any damage at all, and his second form just isn't that tough. Still took multiple tries to beat, sure, so he's far from the easiest final boss ever, but he's just so much easier than basically everything else in that game.

Perhaps, but if you get anywhere close to 200% map completion, or even 150% (which would be 100% and 75% of the map in a normal game, SOTN does this to hide the twist), you'll have fought much tougher bosses (that are easily trivialized, but actually challenging if you don't use the broken bits).

[OracleofWuffing]

Is it cheating to call the final level of The Adventures of Lolo a boss? No real tricks to that one.

I wonder if anyone else here has played this, but Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest on the SNES. The final boss is normally a decent threat, not super dangerous, but not a pushover. But, there is one spell that will kill him in one hit, and it's Cure. Your basic healing spell. I still remember the day me and my brother were just screwing around and realized "Oh, hey, you can cast Cure on the enemy, isn't that weird?" The two of us were absolutely flabbergasted when we saw an insane damage number pop up. I think technically you still had to hit a few times, since he has phases, but the damage stayed between them so a single hit would bring him to his next phase.

Yeah, the Dark King has such a high maximum HP that Cure will overflow past 65,536 and the game thinks Cure is supposed to damage him. But, if your partner casts Cure, their Magic stat is so high that it wipes out all the damage from the integer overflow, and goes back into healing him.

[LibraryOgre]

Mass Effect 3.

You can defeat all the Reapers by walking.

[Fearan]

Third vote for "Marauder Shields", Mass effect 3

[Razgriez]

Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor. For a game that is in general, a very nicely done Lord of the Rings game with an excellent "What If" storyline, this game literally managed to kill my desire to play any more of it, including any of its DLCs, simply by how it handled the last boss. Why?

Spoiler: How not to present your final boss....

Show

The final boss, is none other than Sauron. Yes, Evil Incarnate of Middle-Earth. And your fight against him consist of him suddenly showing up, and...a few QTE button presses that aren't even a challenge to complete, and less than 3 minutes latter, "YOU ARE WINNER"!

This of course, just as Talion has basically had it spelt out for him that the Wraith/Celebrimbor hasn't been fully honest about his story and.... LETS GO FORGE ANOTHER RING OF POWER! WOO! The End (And nothing bad ever happened after that cliff hanger!)

[Dire_Flumph]

Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor. For a game that is in general, a very nicely done Lord of the Rings game with an excellent "What If" storyline, this game literally managed to kill my desire to play any more of it, including any of its DLCs, simply by how it handled the last boss. Why?

Spoiler: How not to present your final boss....

Show

The final boss, is none other than Sauron. Yes, Evil Incarnate of Middle-Earth. And your fight against him consist of him suddenly showing up, and...a few QTE button presses that aren't even a challenge to complete, and less than 3 minutes latter, "YOU ARE WINNER"!

This of course, just as Talion has basically had it spelt out for him that the Wraith/Celebrimbor hasn't been fully honest about his story and.... LETS GO FORGE ANOTHER RING OF POWER! WOO! The End (And nothing bad ever happened after that cliff hanger!)

It was done even sillier before

Spoiler: The ending of Lord of the Rings: The Third Age

Show

After following in the footsteps of the Fellowship and fighting very similar battles to the movies, you get through the battle of Minas Tirith, then suddenly, you're on top of Barad-dur, fighting Sauron in his Big Red Eye form. No explanation how you got there, no real justification for how you're managing to fight a giant flaming eye, you beat the game, and it ends. Roll credits.

Tremble at his illogical glory!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJpiw-PoO80

[Kantaki]

Tiamat in Final Fantasy I.
The first fight.
Weakness to an insta-kill move for the win.

[tyckspoon]

Tiamat in Final Fantasy I.
The first fight.
Weakness to an insta-kill move for the win.

While a neat trick (and potentially useful for speed runners and other kinds of challenge runs that might otherwise struggle with the boss) it's worth noting that being susceptible to the instant kill and being easy to kill with it aren't the same - IIRC Tiamat only has like a 5% chance of actually having the status stick and kill her. If you're not save-scumming or doing RNG manipulations you would probably get through the fight faster normally rather than trying to force the one-shot.

[Kantaki]

While a neat trick (and potentially useful for speed runners and other kinds of challenge runs that might otherwise struggle with the boss) it's worth noting that being susceptible to the instant kill and being easy to kill with it aren't the same - IIRC Tiamat only has like a 5% chance of actually having the status stick and kill her. If you're not save-scumming or doing RNG manipulations you would probably get through the fight faster normally rather than trying to force the one-shot.

I mean, it has been a while since I played- and the Dawn of Souls remake for GBA, that had both I and II in it, at that -but I remember using that "trick" to basically finish that fight on the first turn*.
Or at least close enough that I remember it as a pretty reliable strategy.

*Not because of some speed run nonsense, just because it was friggin hilarious to murder one of the Big Bad Fiends in one move.

Of course that didn't work nearly as well the second time around.
Or would that be first time? The whole time-loop thing is kinda confusing.