I want a challenge from boss battles in current games.

[RedHighwind07]

I can't help but notice that over the last 5 or 6 years, the quality of boss fights in gaming have become pretty poor. I went back the other day and played Metal Gear Solid 1 again for the first time in 6 years, and I was relishing the boss fights, each with their own little trick to winning and the characterization of said bosses. Having just watched the Zero Punctuation review of the new Deus Ex, I have to agree with Yahtzee in saying that boss fights should be "final exam" of sorts and that the bosses should have some coherent motivations and characterization or whatever. But getting back on topic, I can't think of a single game in the last 5 years that's actually had an awesome boss fight (the equivalent of The Boss in MGS3 or Safer Sephiroth in FFVII). I've never played the game so it may not be true, but I have heard that Uncharted's final boss is a wave of regular enemies and then a QTE or something. So, can anyone suggest to me a game that has decent or challenging boss fights?

 

[GenericPCUser]

Mount and Blade: Warband.

Start game, max difficulty, realism mode. Every fight is a boss battle, every loss is soul crushing.

 

[kouriichi]

Dead Island has some pretty decent "boss battles".

While there arnt Dedicated boss battles with all destroying beings or anything, there are extremely powerful zombies, backed up by walkers and infected.

Dead Island is a relatively tough game. After the first half dozen missions, it starts to get a bit difficult if your not at the top of your game.

 

[RedHighwind07]

Mount and Blade: Warband.

Start game, max difficulty, realism mode. Every fight is a boss battle, every loss is soul crushing.

I've never heard of that before. Is it easy to find and is it on PC?

 

[GenericPCUser]

Mount and Blade: Warband.

Start game, max difficulty, realism mode. Every fight is a boss battle, every loss is soul crushing.

I've never heard of that before. Is it easy to find and is it on PC?

Steam or Desura have it, though Warband is the expansion of the original game and is much better than vanilla.

Oh, and Desura hosts a plethora of mods for the game too.

 

[RedHighwind07]

alright cheers mate

 

[mysecondlife]

I have heard that Uncharted's final boss is a wave of regular enemies and then a QTE or something. So, can anyone suggest to me a game that has decent or challenging boss fights?

well to be fair, the final boss has semi-automatic shot-gun that can kill you from long range along with wave of regular enemies. I found it pretty fun.

 

[Jasper Jeffs]

The first Lost Planet (or LP: Colonies) has good boss fights, they're quite difficult on extreme difficulty too or in time trials mode where your matched against bosses one after the other. It has that "fuck you" arcade mentality where you never really win and instead just see how far you can go before failing. I'm not sure about LP2, I haven't played it.

Other than that, World of Warcraft heroic raids, which are basically huge ass epic boss fights. I hold the opinion that the majority of WoW's PvE content is fairly easy, the only exception are heroic raids. Heroic raids will fuck you up.

 

[RedHighwind07]

Monster Hunter.

Hands-down, the best game for boss battles. This isn't just a fanboy speaking here, it's the shared opinion of an overwhelming majority of the players who've played the series.

Yeah I've got a mate who just got Monster Hunter on PSP and he thinks it's the greatest thing to come out on PSP

 

[Jennacide]

Fallout: New Vegas. No, really. Especially Old World Blues and the giant mechascorp.

Anyway, sounds like what you're after is gimmick based bosses. Which I'll agree you see less of these days instead of old fashion damage sponges that have made a resurgance. Demon's Souls is a good place to start. Also, I rather like the boss of Dawn of War 2: Chaos Rising, but the whole game is strategic, so it's hard to say that's fair.

 

[BytByte]

Compared to the rest of the game, the boss battles in Eternal Sonata can take you by surprise on how hard they are. Of course, I fought them with no grinding so that could make a difference. Also, most JRPGs have secret optional bosses that smack you around just cause, so there's that.

 

[RedHighwind07]

Compared to the rest of the game, the boss battles in Eternal Sonata can take you by surprise on how hard they are. Of course, I fought them with no grinding so that could make a difference. Also, most JRPGs have secret optional bosses that smack you around just cause, so there's that.

Yeah I do like the JRPG boss battles, but I have a problem with the massive grind you have to do before you can beat, say, Emerald Weapon or Penance. As much as I didn't like the game, FFXIII's boss fights were well worked as you could only progress so far in each part of the storyline. That way the boss fights were always a bit challenging, but nothing that couldn't be beaten after 2-3 tries.

 

[RedHighwind07]

Fallout: New Vegas. No, really. Especially Old World Blues and the giant mechascorp.

So there are some hard side quests on New Vegas? I never really got that far in, I kind of completed the main storyline with NCR and Legion then just left it. At least I already own that game, so that's something.

 

[Jennacide]

Fallout: New Vegas. No, really. Especially Old World Blues and the giant mechascorp.

So there are some hard side quests on New Vegas? I never really got that far in, I kind of completed the main storyline with NCR and Legion then just left it. At least I already own that game, so that's something.

Some yes. The legendaries are just kinda around, you'll need to find them. The DLC is where a lot of the real challenge is, especially Dead Money and Old World Blues.

Yeah I do like the JRPG boss battles, but I have a problem with the massive grind you have to do before you can beat, say, Emerald Weapon or Penance. As much as I didn't like the game, FFXIII's boss fights were well worked as you could only progress so far in each part of the storyline. That way the boss fights were always a bit challenging, but nothing that couldn't be beaten after 2-3 tries.

>emerald weapon
>grinding
Teehee. You're doing it wrong.

Anyway, if you like JRPGs, Final Fantasy 12's hunts are almost uniformly gimmick/mechanic/strategy based fights. No real grinding required for any of them, just murder whatever gets in your way and you'll always be enough level to fight Hunts that are your rough rank. (Don't expect to do a VI if you're struggling with II's still) Additionally, I HIGHLY recommend the Zodiac Job System version, though it requires import or piracy, and some mucking with ISOs to get into English. But is well worth doing if you have the means.

 

[Saltyk]

For some reason I can't help, but think of Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete. I swear I lost to every boss in that game at least once. When I got to the final boss, I had a lvl 50 party and could fight him for a good hour and finally lose. To be fair, I'd lose because I ran out of MP. I swear that game had some of the most difficult bosses of any game I ever played.

More recently, I remember Dragon Age: Origin had some difficult bosses like the Brood Mother and the Ancient Dragon. Though, even non mythical beings could be challenging. Also, God of War 3 bosses could be difficult, especially on higher difficulties.

The problem is that there is a difference between challenging bosses and just plain cheap bosses. Instant kills, attacks you can't see, or attacks that are effectively stun locks are just cheap. Also, throwing you into a boss fight, but not putting you in a somewhat safe position is pretty garbage.

 

[Aprilgold]

3 words.
Super Meat Boy.
Every level is a boss, and each boss is god, ENJOY IT AS IT ROCKS YOUR BALLS AROUND IN YOUR TROUSERS!

1 more word.
Terraria.
Its has a total of, as far as I remember, 5 bosses, each are harder then the last, ENJOY!

Fallout: New Vegas. No, really. Especially Old World Blues and the giant mechascorp.

So there are some hard side quests on New Vegas? I never really got that far in, I kind of completed the main storyline with NCR and Legion then just left it. At least I already own that game, so that's something.

Side quests are the point to Western RPGs, their about exploring the world and getting every last thing you want. I personally have the PC version, allowing for mod support.

 

[JohnnyDelRay]

Funny theme going. It seems, and I'll agree, that Japanese games in general have the hardest boss fights. Although Resident Evil maybe dropped a bit in standard lately. Ninja games, and even Dead Rising bosses were very difficult (for me). But look what most people have listed, including your MGS1. All Japanese!

I'll add another: Vanquish. Which is still somewhat easy compared to Ninja Gaiden 2. And don't forget Devil May Cry.