Bosses that you JUST. CAN'T. BEAT.

[Knight Captain Kerr]

I don't know if you'd count it as a "boss", you probably wouldn't but the torture sequence in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. I can't do it, I can't hammer the button quick enough. I gave up, had to stop playing the game. I've also never been able to beat the torture sequence in Metal Gear Solid on anything higher than easy.

 

[Saltyk]

So I'm feeling kinda salty right now

I'm not sure if I should be insulted or not...

Anyway, I can think of a few really annoying enemies.

The Final Boss of Lunar: Silver Star Story on the PS1 was just bloody insanely hard. Every turn he could attack twice and most of his spells hit the entire group and did so much damage you would have to heal every turn and may not even be able to fully heal with your healer's group heal spell. He had one skill that instantly killed one party member. Another that drained HP from the whole party basically undoing one turn of damage. Oh, and physical attacks only do 1 DAMAGE, so you have to hit him with magic and special attacks, but he has so much HP that you will run out of MP on every character before you can kill him, probably multiple times, so you better have plenty of MP restoring items. By the way, this game has a very limited inventory system and character's have to equip items to carry into battle. I only beat this guy once and I saved immediately afterward. Happy I did, as the game has a cheap game over that I didn't see coming.
[sub]From what I've read the PSP remake is even worse.[/sub]

Breath of Fire 3 had two rarely encountered random enemies that were actually harder than the final boss. The Beserker started off confused, but had insane physical attack power and a ridiculous attack that hit the whole party. And there was a Mage type that restored 500 Hp at the end of every turn. They didn't have as much HP as the Final Boss, but since all their attacks were borderline One Hit KO due to sheer power. I don't think I ever actually managed to beat them.

 

[Daniel Janhagen]

Mike Tyson in Punch Out!! on the NES. I know he can be beaten, but I just can't seem to get through his lightning quick punch phase.

 

[CrazyCapnMorgan]

So I'm feeling kinda salty right now

I'm not sure if I should be insulted or not...

Anyway, I can think of a few really annoying enemies.

The Final Boss of Lunar: Silver Star Story on the PS1 was just bloody insanely hard. Every turn he could attack twice and most of his spells hit the entire group and did so much damage you would have to heal every turn and may not even be able to fully heal with your healer's group heal spell. He had one skill that instantly killed one party member. Another that drained HP from the whole party basically undoing one turn of damage. Oh, and physical attacks only do 1 DAMAGE, so you have to hit him with magic and special attacks, but he has so much HP that you will run out of MP on every character before you can kill him, probably multiple times, so you better have plenty of MP restoring items. By the way, this game has a very limited inventory system and character's have to equip items to carry into battle. I only beat this guy once and I saved immediately afterward. Happy I did, as the game has a cheap game over that I didn't see coming.
[sub]From what I've read the PSP remake is even worse.[/sub]

Breath of Fire 3 had two rarely encountered random enemies that were actually harder than the final boss. The Beserker started off confused, but had insane physical attack power and a ridiculous attack that hit the whole party. And there was a Mage type that restored 500 Hp at the end of every turn. They didn't have as much HP as the Final Boss, but since all their attacks were borderline One Hit KO due to sheer power. I don't think I ever actually managed to beat them.

Beaten all LUNAR versions. The thing is, if you grind out more levels than what the game anticipates you being at the time you reach it, it becomes comically easy. As for Breath of Fire 3...

The Berserker has an ability called Fire Whip. As the name implies, it is Fire based attack and, thus, can be absorbed if you have Fire Rings or such equipment on. Garr naturally takes little to no damage from Fire attacks, so he is a given for this particular fight, not to mention his high HP and DEF stats, which come in handy for Berserker's normal attacks. As the Berserker has no natural way of healing himself, the fight is simple: hit hard and weather Berserker's onslaught! If you're lucky, you can absorb his Fire attacks while dodging and mitigating his physical attacks. Meanwhile, my team of Rei, Garr and Ryu used Shadowwarp, Myrmidon's Aura and Super Combo respectively. Use Wisdom Fruits & AP fish when needed, as Berserker is quite beefy himself.

The Archmage, OTOH, has a myriad of elemental attacks and non-elemental spells, as well. The best way to approach this defensively is to have armor and accessories that mitigate as many elements as possible. Even then, his Mind Sword and Mind Ball techniques will one shot anyone that isn't in a dragon accession. Not to mention he heals for 1500 every turn. The best way to beat him? Hit him harder than he hits you, and faster. In my case, I had Ryu use an Hourglass to freeze time for 3 turns. His first turn had him change into Myrmidon, and every turn after that - Aura. When I was high enough level and Rei had a high enough SPD stat, I got to use Aura twice before he could heal. I realize Hourglasses are extremely rare in game, but if you are lucky enough, you can have the one faerie make a copy of the Hourglass. Archmage has around 5k HP if I recall, but it's getting past his OP attacks and hitting him harder and faster than he can heal that'll win you this fight.

And for both fights, remember that Soul Gems are highly recommended; for the Archmage, I'd say an absolute requirement.

 

[rednose1]

I don't know if he counts or not, but Baal in the Disgaea series. He's the biggest "extra" boss (not required for game completion) and he's purposely built to be the most insane boss ever (the lead character even comments on his ridiculous stats).

I can have a party full of characters that are each capable of 1 shotting every other boss in the game, best of every item, and Baal will still run roughshod over my crew. My hat goes off to the people capable of grinding out the levels required to beat him, I just can't do it.

 

[Scarecrow1001]

The Metal Head (completely forgotten his name) from Jak 2. That whole game was horribly hard. But that last fight... damn.

 

[Cavouku]

I'm honestly a little surprised no one brought this up earlier: Musclefoot from Starfox Adventures.

I think my game was glitched or something, because I couldn't beat him with a TURBO CONTROLLER!

For anyone unfamiliar: there's a point in Starfox Adventures where you wind up in a dinosaur village and have to do a couple tests, one being a test of strength where you have to mash A on the gamecube controller to shove "Musclefoot" into a poit (via some double-ended paddle contraption).

I never got past that. I swear to God. Turbo Controller.

 

[Wasted]

For me it would Terra from Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix. I have tried to beat him on and off for a few years and I never got close.

Spoiler

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

Not many of those. I generally enjoy challenging bosses, but an impossible one can of course halt my progress permanently if I'm not fond enough of the game to persevere.

Such as Mydia in Chapter 8 Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings. You have fought her several times before now and each time she has been difficult, usually possessing multiple powerful summons and a new Class V Esper (most powerful type). This time, she has all of that plus a new attack that covers a screen-sized area around her, looking like a series of gray geysers erupting.

It kills you. No damage, no status ailments. It just kills everything near her, no questions asked (there is no protection against instant death in this game). No attack has greater range than that, and no one can get close enough to do significant damage before she uses it again, at least not while she's protected by an infinitely regenerating army of Espers. I've been able to get her down to about half HP with a suicide charge with all of my Quickenings (Limit Breaks) ready, but then my army just evaporates when she uses that attack.

I suppose I should have expected nothing less from the creators of Vagrant Story, but that was the final nail for me. There's probably some out-of-the-box way of countering it like with FFX's Yunalesca/Megadeath, but I was too annoyed to bother looking for one.

 

[PurpleLeafRave]

The 5 Arthrosaurus statues in Lost Odyssey that come to life and attack Numara. They're constantly moving while you're fighting them, they do ridiculous amounts of damage and if any of them reach the city then it's game over. I rage quit so many times before giving up completely and watching the end of the game. I was close anyway.

I completed DS1 on NG+, Ornstein and Smough on the first playthrough and The Four Kings on the second playthrough gave me A LOT of trouble, but I managed them. I fully expect to find some bullshit bosses in DS2.

 

[scorptatious]

People will probably laugh at me for that, but:

The goat boss in Dark Souls... I didn't have any problems with the game until that enemy appeared. Either he or his dogs kill me before I even have the slightest chance to reach the stairs behind him.
That boss made me quit Dark Souls...

Capra Demon?

Nah, there's no shame in having trouble with that guy. That boss is notorious among Dark Souls players. It took me several tries to beat him.

 

[Halla Burrica]

Title Defense Bald Bull from Punch Out Wii. I love the game, but god damn Bald Bull is a motherf#cker!!! Just the regular Bald Bull was no slouch, but the Title Defense version is insane. You HAVE to hit him with a Star Punch if you want him to go down, if you try to knock him down with a regular punch he just shrugs it off and goes back to the fight with a little HP regained. He's not giving out Star Punches as freebies, either, they can be tricky to get. And you have to hit him just right with the Star Punch, or he won't go down. If he has as much as a millimeter of health left he won't die.
And it's not easier with some of his ridiculously fast or tricky punches and the goddamned Bull Charge, which can knock you out instantly if you don't counter at just the right time or dodge. I've been trying to take that #@¤/%&"& for hours, but he still won't go down.

 

[Glongpre]

EDIT: Also Ninja Gaiden, not the retuned version Black but the original... Alma, that *****. It made me break 4 controllers and gave me a series of serious fucking migraines. I finally just decided to break the damn disc.

In the original Ninja Gaiden...couldn't you just spam flying swallow on all the bosses? I remember reading that they changed that in Black because it made the game too easy.

The bosses I haven't beaten were in Final Fantasy 1 on the gameboy. It was the two hardest bosses in the extra water area, they were shinryu and omega, I think. They were both too much for me.

 

[anthony87]

The online version of the Ur-Dragon from Dragons Dogma is one that I've never killed and probably will never kill. Sure I've "beaten" it in the sense that I fought it long enough for it to fly away and have my damage added to the total but I've never gotten a killing blow.

Considering how much damn health the thing has nowadays I just gave up trying.

 

[mooncalf]

FTL, the f#@king flagship.

This, I have a screenshot of that bastard bristling with NINE active drones in what feels like an absolute brick wall of "screw you." where I can't imagine the kind of massively overpowered ship I'd need to have a chance against something that can block everything and meanwhile scupper you in about three rounds.

 

[Quazimofo]

People will probably laugh at me for that, but:

The goat boss in Dark Souls... I didn't have any problems with the game until that enemy appeared. Either he or his dogs kill me before I even have the slightest chance to reach the stairs behind him.
That boss made me quit Dark Souls...

Capra Demon?

Nah, there's no shame in having trouble with that guy. That boss is notorious among Dark Souls players. It took me several tries to beat him.

Yeah, it's the arena that makes it a massive pain in the arse. You get a matter of moments until either the dog hits your or the demon does with his 2 handed "you need a +10 shield and 30 endurance to tank this (hyperbole)" attack. Even going back to fight him after using the master key to skip right to blighttown and beat most of the rest of the game is a pain if you don't dodge in time right off the bat. If you farm up and get a weapon that can 1-hit the dogs though (ideally with some reach too, like a greatsword or halberd) he's not nearly as bad since he telegraphs his attacks with plenty of time to dodge.


As for me, Monsoon from Metal Gear Rising just pissed me off to no end. Then I realized the left joystick on my controller was the reason I couldn't block reliably (years of heavy usage will get it stuck forward eventually) so I just switched to the one I actually could block with and beat him in one go.
Fuck that guy. He's got sweet boss music though.

 

[Ml33tninja]

Ancient Dragon from Dark Souls 2. Cheap ass piece of wank he one shots me.

Dark souls 2 again, Ancient dragon, probably only gave this boss about five tries before deciding its a waste of time and poorly designed boss, this is no Ornstein and Smough were its hard as hell but you knew what went wrong every time you die. This was just at some point the boss gets bored flies up and one hit kills you with fire.

... Yep. I support both these claims 100%.

I made a thread not along ago about comparing the Ancient Dragon to Kalameet from DS 1's DLC. The Ancient Dragon is just broken, in every way possible. Apart from his KO moves... the whole situation is poorly designed. Like how you're fighting on a circular platform where it's kind of easy to fall off the edge. Then he has that bullcrap move where he flies up and shoots fire onto the platform.. covering 3/4ths of it.

When you try to chase his tail.. he sometimes lands to close towards the edge and will be much harder to escape when he's doing his air strike. Otherwise, he's really dull to fight along with the fact the music stops playing when you run to far from him in battle.

I managed to actually beat him. Yes. It was the dumbest tactic i've ever used too... after dying 28 to 50x and finally wanting to just kill the darn dragon regardless of being hollow or what.

I thought it was all about building up fire resistance. Had gyrm shield +10 which blocks 100% fire, wore the flame quartz ring +2, 50 vitality along with wearing the Black Dragon's Armor. I followed tips about following his tail, baiting him for his forward fire breath, or just summoning faith people to spam spells. Nothing worked. The dragon kept killing me with either his air strike or just some cheap bullcrap by having my guy fall off the ledge because I couldn't hold out in blocking all the flames.

The key is really simple, but painfully stupid .... attack his toe. Just attack, wait for a bit until he does his curb stomp... run towards his other toe while he's doing the curb stomp and attack. Once you do 2-3 hits, wait until he does his curb stomp with THAT foot and while he does it... run to the other foot. Rinse and repeat.

So in short... attack each foot until he does a foot stomp. Once he does, go for his other toe. Make sure to wait so his reaction kicks in to curb stomp you. I've done this and managed to make him curb stomp 15x before he lifted off once to do the air strike. By then I just finished him off after he landed. I felt extremely relieved about the Ancient Dragon dying, but dread with how dumb it was fighting the boss. So broken I swear.

@TheKasp: I wonder if I explained the tactic you were going to use in my spoiler bar. However, it's sad to see how it's still very unfair if not painfully boring to fight the Ancient Dragon. 5 steps backwards in comparison with the Black Dragon Kalameet.

OT: Well it used to be the Ancient Dragon ... not anymore.

It also was the Darklurker...

Seeing how it can not only spam some powerful spells at you- but also can clone itself and do all that but with a twin now. Especially using a melee character was a NIGHTMARE fighting the Darklurker. Thankfully, I got the boss to spam it's magic sword swing mostly and kept it from cloning. I defeated it without the boss splitting into a clone so I cherished the fact I survived the bullcrap. So all of DS 2 bosses were killed including King Vindrict.

So not sure which boss gives me a hard time. The only enemies that I despise with a passion is the Drakekeepers. They may not be bosses, but by god i'd rather fight a horde of Amana Priestesses, Ogres, Cursed Frogs, and Bell Keeper invaders altogether then face another Drakekeeper. Their massive attacks that eats away your shield's strength, infinite stamina, and no delay time is just the cheapest. I swear they can spam their attacks for the longest time without ever stopping so unless you can move around them or outlast their spams somehow... you die. For sure.

I loathe them. They are also (ironically) guarding the Ancient Dragon who is also broken. Screw the Dragon Shrine.

I have to disagree I do not find him broken at all. Like Kalameet mistake = death accept it (he is a DRAGON! many enemies in the soul games can kill you in a good 4 to 5 hits at best) I died all for sure but it was about the same amount of times when I was fighting Kalameet. And I just do not see the problem with Drakekeepers but then again I have different ways to handle them too. I guess we play differently

 

[Scarim Coral]

Two bosses come to my mind-

Olga Flow (after normal mode) from Phantasy Star Online Episode 2. That boss was insane even when it was already tought beaten the first form! Now only does he got alot of AOE attacks but he spawn to snake like snake which are also hard to beat!

Dullahan from Golden Sun 2. He only hard to beat cos of his "Djinn Storm" move that reset all of you Djinn in standby mode meaning messing up your summons attack and your stats (putting them in their lowest form).

There also Meta Ridley and the Emperor Ing but I couldn't beat them cos I didn't get all of the ammo and enerfy storage.

 

[Ml33tninja]

So I'm feeling kinda salty right now

I'm not sure if I should be insulted or not...

Anyway, I can think of a few really annoying enemies.

The Final Boss of Lunar: Silver Star Story on the PS1 was just bloody insanely hard. Every turn he could attack twice and most of his spells hit the entire group and did so much damage you would have to heal every turn and may not even be able to fully heal with your healer's group heal spell. He had one skill that instantly killed one party member. Another that drained HP from the whole party basically undoing one turn of damage. Oh, and physical attacks only do 1 DAMAGE, so you have to hit him with magic and special attacks, but he has so much HP that you will run out of MP on every character before you can kill him, probably multiple times, so you better have plenty of MP restoring items. By the way, this game has a very limited inventory system and character's have to equip items to carry into battle. I only beat this guy once and I saved immediately afterward. Happy I did, as the game has a cheap game over that I didn't see coming.
[sub]From what I've read the PSP remake is even worse.[/sub]

Breath of Fire 3 had two rarely encountered random enemies that were actually harder than the final boss. The Beserker started off confused, but had insane physical attack power and a ridiculous attack that hit the whole party. And there was a Mage type that restored 500 Hp at the end of every turn. They didn't have as much HP as the Final Boss, but since all their attacks were borderline One Hit KO due to sheer power. I don't think I ever actually managed to beat them.

If you are talking about the last boss in Lunar then I found that fight so much fun. In that age of gaming the boss for me has to the last boss of Star Ocean 2. That guy could throw you heavy punishment. And that is BEFORE his second form. Manage to win ONLY once.