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Best Boss Fights

Discussion in 'Entertainment and Technology' started by RawringSnake, Oct 17, 2015.

  1. RawringSnake

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    [​IMG]

    If there is one thing I love about games is a good ole boss fight. Granted, if they are broken or poorly designed they can really get on your nerves (looking at you DE:HR...), but if they get it right? Ho boy, those are usually the pure-gameplay moments that stick with you the most.

    Some of them we love because they force you to put into practice everything you have learned up until that point in order to beat the boss.

    Some of them we love because they take the mechanics we have gotten used to and turn them on their heads, tasking you to approach the fight in a different yet-not-entirely-unfamiliar way; adapt-or-die style.

    Some of them we love because everything has been building up to this culminating point in the story and the stakes are higher than ever. You can't afford to lose! (Narratively speaking).

    Others we love because of the sheer scale and/or humongous scope of the fight/boss. We are talking games here, so, of course, part of you knows there has to be a way your punny avatar will be able to beat this thing. And yet, another part of you, one more primal , is quietly thinking in awe "May whichever-in-game-God have mercy on my pathetic soul."

    And for tons of other reasons, I certainly can't be the only one that loves a good boss fight. Sooooo, EC, which ones have stuck out to you and why?
     
    #1 RawringSnake, Oct 17, 2015
    Last edited: Oct 17, 2015
  2. Serperior

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    Scarecrow in Arkham Asylum
     
  3. Lazuri

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    A couple of boss fights immediately springs to mind.

    The first one is the boss fight against Liquid Ocelot in Metal Gear Solid 4.
    All of Solid Snake's hardships and missions and the one's of his father culminates in this battle against his brother on top of Outer Haven. The battle is essentially pointless as Snake has already won the war, but it needs to be done. The presentation is flawless and nostalgia is off the charts as the two old men duke it out once and for all.
    [YOUTUBE]?v=Ub-6sKfGSmw[/YOUTUBE]

    The battle against Grigori the Dragon in Dragon's Dogma.
    You are faced with a choice; kill your beloved to gain immortality and power or stand up against this seemingly invincible dragon and give up all of the power he promises you to let your beloved live. The scale of the fight is just epic and it's helped along by Grigori's constant monologuing as he flies overhead and the great soundtrack.
    [YOUTUBE]?v=XXuZF-fF2-g[/YOUTUBE]

    But the greatest boss fight I have ever experienced is the fight against the final form of Yami in Okami. You have defeated all his minions and you thought you had defeated him too, but he sprung back to life and drained you of your power. You are a god and people no longer believe in you--you are too weak to face him. Then a voice suddenly reaches you, the voice of your old companion that you had to leave behind to fight Yami and return to your home. He has traveled the land as your emissary and through his paintings revealed your true divine form and suddenly all the people that you had helped throughout your journey realize that you weren't just a white wolf--you were a god and you had answered their prayers for help and now it is you who need their help. With their faith in the gods restored, you return to your full ancient power of awesome magnitude and you fight Yami one on one for the final time in the ultimate battle of light versus darkness.
    Skip to about 20:54 into the video
    [YOUTUBE]Z8MIwVmGGXQ[/YOUTUBE]
     
  4. DreamerBoy17

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    DJ Octavio, the final boss from Splatoon. It's such a glorious boss battle, extremely challenging and just epic by all means. One of my personal favorites.
     
  5. Berru

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    I haven't seen many boss battles, but my favourite one must be in that Final Fantasy game where Sephiroth summons a giant comet-meteor thing to smash the earth, and you see it flying through the solar system with epic music in the background.
     
  6. GeeLee

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    [​IMG]

    [/thread]

    Honourable mentions go to Sif and Artorias for their back stories.
     
  7. RawringSnake

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    Let's get one the classics out of the way:

    [​IMG]

    MASTER COCKBLOCKER READY FOR TROUBLEEEE! IT'S GAAAAAAARY (AGAIN!)​

    Holy cow was this guy annoying, in all the right ways. This is how you do antagonists, and I must admit I was genuinely shocked and kinda angry that he managed to become the champion BEFORE ME. I was like whuuuuuuuut, bitch didn't I whoop your sorry ass at the beginning of the Victory Road? You here for more of that? 'Cuz I just so happen to be carrying this can full of WHOOP ASS. I loved to hate this guy. Only thing that could have made that finale better was if I had to beat Prof. Oak afterwards, but I guess three fake-outs in a row would have been overkill?
     
    #7 RawringSnake, Oct 17, 2015
    Last edited: Oct 17, 2015
  8. Hiems

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    Empress - House of the Dead 4
    Izanami no Okami - Persona 4
    Inferno - Soul Calibur
    Chaos - Final Fantasy Dissidia
    Phantom - Kingdom Hearts
     
  9. CandyKing

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    The best and hardest boss ever is cramming for final exams while stressing about not knowing half of this stuff and failing.
     
  10. redneck

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    I would have to say any of the bosses from Deus Ex Human Revolution deserve a mention here, but if I had to pick just one it would be Barrett. Whether you are playing the game by sneaking around using stealth or running through guns blazing and dropping enemies like it's going out of style, you will suddenly get the fight of your life when you get to this beast. He is a FRIGGIN TANK!! He eats bullets like candy, charges straight at you doing massive damage, and if he loses track of you he tosses infinite grenades around on a search pattern until he either kills you or flushes you back out into the open where he can punish you some more. All the boss fights are tough but I picked him because he is the first boss and there is no way to prepare your character to fight him in time. You can prepare for the other bosses to make them somewhat easier, but Barrett owns you early in the game.
     
  11. zigazigah

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    Well I just got done replaying Dragon Age: Origins and for those of you who don't remember what the Archdemon fight is like, it goes something like this:

    Me, a fool: "Wow haha this is not so bad"
    Archdemon: *gets to half health, screams, waves upon waves of darkspawn swarm out of two doors on each side of the arena while she AoEs my party*
    Me: *dies, humiliated*
     
  12. Jellal

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    Favorite boss of the last 5 years: Mettaton EX (Undertale)
    [​IMG]
    It comes at just the right point in the game, after you've fought Mettaton enough times to be utterly sick of him, and you're so close to the end of your goal. Then Mettaton shows up one more time for a final life-or-death scrape where it seems like you can finally finish him for good by "lowering his defenses." But as it turns out, lowering his defenses reveals his true form, Mettaton EX which is balls to the walls crazy. It's Mettaton's entire psycho TV star personality condensed into one uncomfortably glamorous poser of a villain. You have to dodge his fabulous legs, shoot down armies of miniature Mettatons, deal with hails of bombs that counter your attacks if you aim carelessly, and answer an impromptu essay during the battle, all while fighting to raise the ratings for his show because the fight's also televised. It's super duper fun, it brings the intensity with a super-attack that comes at you stronger every time it's used, and god is it satisfying to snap off Mettaton's limbs and cut this smarmy jerk down to size. Definitely my favorite boss that I've battled in a LONG time.

    And the fight music is freakin' sweet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHL_Bk60F_4
     
  13. RawringSnake

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    SURELY you played the Director's Cut of DE: Human Revolution, right? Because I played the original and my god. By far the worst boss fights I have ever had the displeasure of playing. They were just flat out broken. I kid you not, I only managed to get through each and every one of them by exploiting bugs. Those were the only feasible ways to beat 'em because the battles were that broken, and I wasn't even looking for the bugs! But I died soooo many times I eventually stumbled upon bugs that would allow me to cheat my way through in all of them, which in on itself should tell you just how broken and poorly designed they were. It was such a shame because the rest of the game was so good, and the villains were pretty interesting antagonists too. They deserved better. I deserved better.

    Anyway, the way you talk about the fights tho it appears not only did Eidos Montreal correct the issue, but they also made them enjoyable enough to become some of your favorites. That's as good of an endorsement as I'm ever gonna get! I do own the Director's Cut but I'm saving it to play closer to the release date of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (terrible subtitle). Apparently the original boss fights were the one aspect of the vanilla game Eidos outsourced to another company, and they came and fixed the mess by designing the fights themselves for the Director's Cut. I trust they learned their lesson and will not outsource vital parts of Mankind Divided, or at the very least will set higher standards for who they hire for the job.

    Micro-managing the actions of all my party was pure hell during that fight. I don't think I ever chugged as many potions in the whole game as I did during that fight. It was great!

    -------------------------------------------

    And now for another entry (one I referenced on the first post):

    [​IMG]

    Gotta give it to Wind Waker for having my favorite showdown against Ganondorf.​

    What I really like about this fight it's that it cuts down to the very basics. It's just a sword fight. That's it. No flashiness, no summoning minions or turning into a gigantic beast, no colorful array of magical beams or huge explosions going on; just a three-way duel (a truel if you will) to the death between the embodiments of the Triforce while what's left of Hyrule is washed away to oblivion around you. I don't know, but there is something I find so inherently epic about the final fight being the core gameplay element stripped to it's very essence for your final test of strength.

    This is also the most humane Ganondorf has ever been at any point in any Zelda game. The first time we ever come close to understanding the root of his nefarious ambitions. Certainly the most vulnerable he has ever allowed himself to be seen. And the sad thing is, he already lost. His plot has been thwarted, your wished has been fulfilled. Hyrule is no more, and with it you have also taken Ganondorf's purpose. He has no place in the future you have set into motion, and this fight is just the dying struggle of an old man that can't let go of the past. His last rebellion against decadence, and I think you can tell Zelda and Link are just indulging him out of a sense of honor rather than a real need to put him down. He is not a threat anymore, but he deserves this much. This is them paying their respects to the world of yore, before starting anew from a blank slate. So come forth, and meet us in full force.

    Sidenote: Sword fights are just cool as fuck, period.
     
    #13 RawringSnake, Oct 18, 2015
    Last edited: Oct 18, 2015
  14. zigazigah

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    "Truel" made me snort haha. What a great boss fight though, I really need to replay Wind Waker because I only ever played it once a long time ago :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:
     
  15. Nikky DoUrden

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    Why not the *real* final boss ?
    That was so mind blowing, never seen an implementation of a boss fight like that.
    I kept wanting to give up but .... had to stay *DETERMINED* :thumbsup:
     
  16. Jellal

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    I haven't gotten to him yet. I'm saving my second playthrough for later
     
  17. redneck

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    @RawringSnake

    I didn't have the director's cut. I admit there are bugs in the boss fights (for example Barrett grabs you when he shouldn't be able to). However I loved the fights because they were hard and you actually feel a sense of accomplishment for beating them. There are 2 ways to beat Barrett: first save ammo for the stun gun then immediately stun him. He stays stunned long enough to reload and do it again. About a dozen shots or so and he will die. It's cheap and easy.
    The other way is to save ammo in a powerful weapon (I prefer the revolver) as soon as the fight starts run and hide somewhere away from the explosive barrels and fire extinguishers. When he chases you stay ducked and move around the corners so he can't see you. When he starts his search pattern run across the arena and take another hiding spot. Hit him in the head with a couple rounds (again love the revolver for this). He will chase you again. Play ring around the Rosie some more til he starts searching again. Return to your original hiding spot. Shoot him in the head a couple times again. Just keep doing this and he will eventually drop. No glitch needed.

    The boss with the computer in the room (the female who disappears) if you have the mod that makes you immune to electricity all you have to do is hide from her assault then destroy one of the computers on the wall. About three computers and she is down.

    The boss fight where your screen is fouled up. Take the big turret with you. And have the mods that make you immune to gas and electricity. Drop the turret by the door and hide at one end of the inside ring. He will eventually throw two grenades (one will be explosive and one will alternate between gas and EMP). When he throws them run until the frag grenade explodes then come back while the other grenade that you are immune to is still going. Even though the messed up visor his cloak is imperfect enough you can see him to give him a couple head shots. He will run away but eventually return to throw more grenades. If ever he has his cloak off and runs past the turret it will hit him a couple times for you.

    Even with these tactics (which nullify the glitches) they are tough bosses but that is why I like them
     
  18. kageshiro

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    While technically more of an "encounter" than a boss fight, he was still one of the most memorable and engaging villains in the game. As I was a huge fan of Dino Andrade's Scarecrow voice I was disappointed when I found out he wouldn't be reprising the role in Arkham Knight, instead being replaced by John Noble who also did an excellent job, but ultimately felt like too drastic of a change for me to see both versions as the same character.


    [​IMG]


    One of my favorite boss fights ever is Death from the castlevania series. Several different versions of the battle appear in many of the games, but my favorite is either the original from Castlevania on the NES, or the one from Castlevania Symphony of the Night on the PS1. In the 1st Castlevania game Death is just a hell of a boss fight, demanding perfect timing and space management from the player, and it's preceeded by my favorite stage in the game, with 1 of the most kickass OST in all of Castlevania, Heart of Fire.

    In symphony of the night the Death battle takes place in the murky catacombs deep within the bowls of Dracula's Castle. The thing I love about this battle is the wonderfully creepy atmosphere it has, when you're crawling through those desolate, crumbling corridors, knowing Death himself is lurking somewhere in the darkness. It even has this absolutely bleak and haunting Piano soundtrack which echoes softly in the shadows while you shit yourself in terror.
     
  19. Celatus

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    Fighting the lycan boss in The Order 1886 was very intense and satisfying
     
  20. Argentwing

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    That against Sovereign in Mass Effect. Not really a "boss fight" per se as you're on foot and he's a kilometer-tall immortal metal monster, but it was one of the craziest end sequences I've ever seen in a game. There wasn't a glimmer of a doubt about that final run being the climax of the game.