What are some of the most amazing boss fights in video games? (Potential spoilers)

[Astro Bot | 99]

Similar to my other thread about amazing levels

Resident Evil 4 was a game full of tense, cinematic moments and this was one of my favorites:

Sticking with the horror theme, a memorable one from Shinobi III:

South Park: The Fractured But Whole is a turn based strategy RPG. However, here the game introduces a real time element for the first time, something which makes this along with some later battles a lot more interesting. Everyone remembers this part for the music too:

This is probably the hardest boss fight in The Messenger. What's interesting is that as the battle goes on, the weather effects, music, and the battle itself increase in intensity, causing anxiety in the player and increasing the chances of them making a mistake

The SNES version of Turtles in Time takes one of the most interesting moves in the game as well as the SNES's Mode 7 effects to deliver a creative boss fight that I don't believe was in the arcade version. The fight is more interesting on hard difficulty too as the enemies because slightly harder to attack and throw:

 

Edited July 10 by Astro Bot

[RH | 5,246]

I won't say these are the most epic boss fights but I just want to say that anyone who believes that beating Sephiroth in FF VII is beating the game, hasn't really beaten the game.  You gotta pump them stats up and take out those Ruby/Emerald weapons for a real end-game battle.

That said, I appreciated that pivot.  Defeating Sephiroth was rather simple if you enjoyed grinding that game.  Normally, an easy boss at the end wouldn't be satisfying but off-setting the end game difficulty to optional enemies made it so that you could get the story-closure you'd want and then had the optional reason to grind and beef up your party and materia.

[Webhead123 | 758]

8 hours ago, Astro Bot said:

The SNES version of Turtles in Time takes one of the most interesting moves in the game as well as the SNES's Mode 7 effects to deliver a creative boss fight that I don't believe was in the arcade version. The fight is more interesting on hard difficulty too as the enemies because slightly harder to attack and throw:

Yes, this is one of the first boss fights I think of when this topic comes up. The set up of this fight was indeed unique to the SNES port because the player had no control over throwing enemies in the arcade version, so it wouldn't have worked. It's such a fun and clever use of the Mode 7 mechanism and makes for a very memorable fight.

I also tend to like multi-stage boss fights. I think the Stage 3 boss in Contra III is a classic one.

Recently, Huntdown had a few cool boss fights but the final fight with Shogun was definitely the best.

And can't forget the Culex fight in Super Mario RPG. For a game that was otherwise fairly easy, this was the first real time the game made you sweat against a boss.

 

Edited July 10 by Webhead123

[Reed Rothchild | 9,971]

(I have not watched these specific videos, and cannot vouch for anything in them, as I'm at work)

edit: and why not keep going?

 

 

[CT | 185]

Another vote for The Messenger, but for the DLC boss.

Many of the Shadow of Collossus bosses, not one stands out at the moment but great stuff overall.

God of War also stands out for sure

Mike Tyson in Punch Out

 

 

[DarkTone | 1,017]

Psycho Mantis and Tronkeda. 

[DefaultGen | 5,727]

Shout out to the kids of the world with Sans, I really love this fight

The end of MGS4

 

Those are heavy on storytelling. I like old games a lot but mechanically boss fight are an area I don’t think NES and Playstation games usually compete in compared to cool ass modern From Software boss fights.

[Astro Bot | 99]

22 hours ago, RH said:

I won't say these are the most epic boss fights but I just want to say that anyone who believes that beating Sephiroth in FF VII is beating the game, hasn't really beaten the game.  You gotta pump them stats up and take out those Ruby/Emerald weapons for a real end-game battle.

That said, I appreciated that pivot.  Defeating Sephiroth was rather simple if you enjoyed grinding that game.  Normally, an easy boss at the end wouldn't be satisfying but off-setting the end game difficulty to optional enemies made it so that you could get the story-closure you'd want and then had the optional reason to grind and beef up your party and materia.

Yeah, the optional fights in the Final Fantasy games are memorable. I have quite a few that I remember:

Fighting the strongest enemies is where the beauty of Final Fantasy XIII's brilliant combat system really shines. It takes a good strategy and set up to not just beat the stronger enemies, but do it with the best battle ranking

Everyone who REALLY beat FF XII remembers this monstrosity and how long it took the average player to beat it the first time:

This fight from FF XV was EPIC:

 

[Astro Bot | 99]

The coolest thing in Starlink: Battle for Atlas (and where it feels most like a Starfox game) are the epic Dreadnaught battles:

Some of the coolest things in Valiant Hearts: The Great War are the music themed sections:

Every boss fight in Shinobi is awesome for one simple reason, the tate system. It's not just about beating the bosses, it's about doing it in style. A player with enough skill can turn Shinobi into One Punch Man: The Game:

Going from one cool ninja to another...The Messenger is a speed runner friendly game, but you don't have to BE a speed runner to play it...until you get to this part. The Messenger must outdo a dark version of himself in a series of races. It looks easy watching someone do it on youtube, but a lot of players failed at this part numerous times particularly when going for the Star Messenger achievement that requires you to not lose a single one of the races. Things get really wild at 1:30

 

Edited July 12 by Astro Bot

[NostalgicMachine | 334]

• Throwing foot soldiers at the screen via mode-7 in Turtles in Time
• Kefka in FF III/VI
• Ganondorf/Ganon in OoT

I'm sure I'll think of more later.

[Hammerfestus | 4,110]

suikoden ii - luca blight:

Final Fantasy VII - the first boss that was the end of the demo too:

 

Legend of Zelda - Ganon: 

 

Mortal Kombat - Goro:

 

[GPX | 1,416]

I had spent a lot of time and coins on these arcade games and these particular bosses stood out in my recollection:

Shinobi boss 1 - really depicts the scene of a badass ninja up against a badass villain.

 

Shinobi boss 3 - one of my favorite bosses of all time. Huge, creative, and satisfying to defeat. Basically a bunch of Buddha statues scrolling to the left and if you don’t destroy them all in time, it will squash you against an electric wall.

The most satisfying boss to defeat, and one that had cost me a lot of dollars - friggin’ M. Bison!

[JamesRobot | 6,049]

First time fighting Granfalloon in Symphony of the Night was really impressive.

[mbd39 | 2,106]

Colossus of Rhodes in God of War 2, and he's only the first boss.

 

[Sumez | 3,170]

On 7/28/2024 at 5:16 AM, GPX said:

Shinobi boss 3 - one of my favorite bosses of all time. Huge, creative, and satisfying to defeat. Basically a bunch of Buddha statues scrolling to the left and if you don’t destroy them all in time, it will squash you against an electric wall.

Are... are you sure you're in the right thread?

[GPX | 1,416]

On 7/30/2024 at 3:08 PM, Sumez said:

Are... are you sure you're in the right thread?

I’ve seen my fair share of boss fights over the decades, but the ones I highlighted are some of my personal favorite ones. I think they were also memorable for me because I spent a lot of coins on them, and the achievement therefore felt more satisfying.

[Hammerfestus | 4,110]

 

[Sumez | 3,170]

On 8/1/2024 at 6:48 AM, GPX said:

I’ve seen my fair share of boss fights over the decades, but the ones I highlighted are some of my personal favorite ones. I think they were also memorable for me because I spent a lot of coins on them, and the achievement therefore felt more satisfying.

It's just the first time I have seen that particular boss fight mentioned as anything other than the absolute worst part of the game  

[Astro Bot | 99]

I like the team work here, one of the best things about the Sly series. Here we see Sly helping out Bentley. Plus, using the traps is a fun mechanic that reminds me of the Tecmo Deception series. 

Mischief Makers has some of the greatest boss fights of all time

 

[Link | 2,887]

Stallord in the desert in Zelda Twilight Princess. The spinner is pretty useless outside of that dungeon, but damned if that fight isn't fun as fuck!

[Andy_Bogomil | 866]