Most Frustrating BOSS Enemies In Games!

[RedDeadFred]

I've ranted about this boss many times, so I'll just quote one of my previous ones. There are probably others that have been more frustrating, but this was the first one I ever versed that gave me serious issues.

The Marionette from Shining Force. It took me a lot of tries to beat this guy. He probably handed me more defeats than anything else in the rest of the game combined.

He has Freeze level 3! This would be okay if we were in say... Act 6-7 of the game but no, we're at the beginning of Act 2. Freeze 3 has a longer range than anything you've encountered thus far and is powerful enough to one-shot a lot of your party members. It can also hit up to 5 party members at once (that should never happen though unless you clump your troops up a lot).

He also has crazy high agility for that point in the game so he's going to dodge probably 25% of the attacks you throw at him. The icing on the horrifyingly deadly cake is that he regenerates HP every turn. This is normal for bosses later in the game, but this is the first time you encounter it.

The only thing that makes this fight manageable is that his minions aren't too strong and if your characters are decently leveled, you should be able to surround him and pummel him (as long as you don't get too many of your attacks dodged or have him blow up too many of your people too early in the fight).

Anyway, I don't have problems with the guy anymore (I've played through the game 8 or 9 times), but on my first playthrough.... I retried the battle so many times over several days that he started showing up in my dreams. I was literally dreaming that I had defeated him only to wake up and be disappointed. Didn't help that he looks kind of terrifying.

 

[Nazulu]

1) Bloat (Binding of Isaac)
Dude's basically un-attackable from 3 out of 4 directions and there's no guarantee that the 4th direction will even be an option if he's near the top and/or spawning creep, so he takes ages to kill if you don't have Ludovico or Ipecac. The green version that shoots bombs is even worse because the explosions push the eyes around and makes them hard to predict.

I literally came into this thread just to say this bastard. Allow me to add that the acid he drops is 3 times bigger than normal, sometimes taking up half the room, and he spawned up 10 maggots with me once, when usually there is a limit to how many enemies a boss can spawn, most bosses only spawning 3 to 4. Bloody ridiculous.

I think I forgot about this game out of pure mental anguish. Bloat was bad but honestly, had a way harder time with:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3czZubOZ7s

I remember when I first ran into him it drove me nuts, actually started yelling. I don't find him as bad as Bloat, UNLESS you have low moving speed. I can beat him easier now but what the hell were they thinking when they made this guy!?

 

[Ikasury]

Lurker (evil flame demon thing) from Demon's Souls... what a dick... WHAT. A. DICK!! i lost so many souls trying to off this dude, learning his pattern, dodging, getting him down... then out of flipping nowhere BOOM!! 'You are Dead' *twitches*

as for SMT series, as yes, they love their 'other' bosses a lot... none tops the Demi-Fiend from Digital Devil Saga... just... OP... if you have ANY of the repels/resistances/nulls... he auto-kills your team... if you don't kill off his demons in the right order... he kills your team... if you aren't maxed level with max stats, HA! good luck, he'll flick you and you die... once he gets down to half life, if you DO NOT KILL HIM IMEDIATELY (AT HALF LIFE!!) his ***** fairy will FULLY HEAL HIM!! its repeatable!! his Arahibaki REPELS EVERYTHING!! and the ONLY way to survive is PURE GODDAMN LUCK!! REQUIRING!! that one freakin' skill that makes no damn sense 'Null Sleep' as it DOES NOT stop sleep status, IT MAKES YOU DODGE EVERYTHING WHILE ASLEEP!! to beat this guy you have to PRAY Cielo gets knocked out with sleep, have that, dodge-dodge-dodge-wake-up, hope he gets the turn, use Samarecarm to revive the others, they bring him back to life, smack-smack-smack-kill-that-damn-fairy!! continue praying and repeat!! ._.

... kill this guy, you deserve a chocolate cake...

and all it gets you is the Asura ring at the beginning of the second game which gives +10 to all stats... no sure its worth it, but its very cathartic once you kill him!! LEAST YOU KNOW THE DEMIFIEND CERTAINLY WAS A BADASS AFTER NOCTURNE!! JERK!!

and just for snark: Deus (fleshy-form) from Xenogears... not necessarily a 'hard' boss but certainly annoying... more so since fighting him i had about an 80 percent chance of the game disc freezing, having to reset, and START OVER FROM THE BEGINING OF MERVAVAH!! YOU ASS!!

 

[Diddy_Mao]

Augustine: inFamous Second Son.
This game based itself entirely on the idea of absorbing a wide variety of powers to be used in taking down the big bad.

Playing as a Hero I focused more on my Neon and Smoke skills since they had more non letbal takedowns.

Imagine my annoyance when the game forced me to use the Video power set during the end boss fights. A skill I hadn't looked twice at.

Just seems lime overall bad design to make a game and story that revolves around swapping power sets and skills and then tunnel you into just one of them at the climax.

 

[Nazulu]

One boss I actually hate because it ensured that I would never beat the game is the final boss from Bio Metal, an asshole with loads of hp, all his attacks are random (sometimes even inescapable), and the worst part is if you die to it even once, your attack damage is almost cut in half! Do I win? - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACfQP8DQGoA

Prehistoric Turtlesaurus from Turtles in Time on the SNES was the most difficult boss in the game. I don't mind difficult bosses, but there were times where he would just block and spin, hardly leaving any openings, and he hits faster than usual, so much more that he can make combos taking away more than half your health. He should've been the last boss.

I hate the final boss in Shadow of the Colossus since making something tedious and a pain in the ass is not why I play games. So if I ever play it again, I won't be seeing the ending.

 

[SoreWristed]

Augustine: inFamous Second Son.
This game based itself entirely on the idea of absorbing a wide variety of powers to be used in taking down the big bad.

Playing as a Hero I focused more on my Neon and Smoke skills since they had more non letbal takedowns.

Imagine my annoyance when the game forced me to use the Video power set during the end boss fights. A skill I hadn't looked twice at.

Just seems lime overall bad design to make a game and story that revolves around swapping power sets and skills and then tunnel you into just one of them at the climax.

Had the same frustrations here. I was really disappointed not being able to use neon on both encounters with her."but i don't wanna use smoke, waah". That being said, i don't feel she was a difficult boss, i wiped once or twice, but she telegraphs her attacks quite openly and you have lots of room in both fights to avoid her. They just lengthened her sequence by giving you the powers you need only after she's allowed to swipe at you for some time.

Video does come into game very late, or better said, there was very little game after you acquire video. And the part that just says, Use Zis and only Zis power!, means a shortcut being taken from the design team. They had the idea that you were going to smash through the glass using video and designed it like that, basically avoiding the open gameplay from the entire game you just played.

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

Binding of Isaac has a handful. The Haunt for being pretty demanding of a first-floor boss, Teratoma/Fistula for filling nearly the entire screen with contact enemies, It Lives for spawning actual bosses in the middle of a fight and being a bullethell enemy, The Bloat because fuck The Bloat, The Lamb for the four-way Brimstone beams that spin around the room and reverse with no warning, The Cage for being a complete bulletsponge.

Worst I have to say is The Adversary. He fills the list of annoying and cheap boss tactics. This includes:

-Moments of invulnerability
-Spawning annoying enemies
-Brimstone
-Moving Brimstone
-Homing shots
-Moving Brimstone with homing shots
-Arenas with environmental hazards
-Attacks with a large AoE
-Lots of health
-Not affected by creep
-Not telegraphing an attack that can instantly damage you that is pure luck to dodge because it homes onto you, holy shit please tell me how this is meant to be a fair and challenging boss attack

The only thing The Adversary is missing is splitting up into more enemies when it dies and having multiple stages.

Oh, and at the end of a run, when you run into a room with two simultaneous Adversaries? If they both decide to do their unfair, untelegraphed homing Brimstone beam, then you're guarenteed to take damage unless you kill one of them instantly. And if you play as The Lost, who cannot get hit once by this undodgeable attack? You die, replay the 25+ minute run again and hope you get luckier.

 

[The Random Critic]

Lurker (evil flame demon thing) from Demon's Souls... what a dick... WHAT. A. DICK!! i lost so many souls trying to off this dude, learning his pattern, dodging, getting him down... then out of flipping nowhere BOOM!! 'You are Dead' *twitches*

When his health gets low he will just spam that explosive attack like no tomorrow, I find that kiting him with pillars or just getting as aggressive to be fairly effective. He's actually one of the best bosses in the souls game, imo at least, since his moves are extremly unpredictable. (And those flames, it's pretty)

Maneater is way worse, though he does have a more definite pattern.

The earlier monster hunter games, while I haven't played them, I have heard horror stories.

 

[Javetts Eall Raksha]

if i had to choose one, it would be Benetnasch from devil survivor 2. every Septentriones was just BS. so when i came to fight the 7th and supposed last one. i was prepared to lose at least once, then this piece of crap proceeded to de-summon all none humans and has immunity to humans. so you defend the only thing that allows you to keep your demons and beat him and the other demons. then he split into 4 pieces... then i realized 1 of the 4 had the same abilities, but the other 3 were each a combination of 2 of the last 6 Septentriones! i was so done! such BS! he was so HARD!

 

[Starbird]

OT:
Fighting Game Bosses... in particular mother f***ing Shao Khan from MK9, where they decided "HEY, lets have a boss do cancels that NO PLAYER should able to do, have damage NO PLAYER should be able to have, and have his AI occasionally spam an unblockable projectile that will stop a game about PUNCHING PEOPLE an impossibility!"

True Fighting game bosses are some of the worst not just because of their difficulty (Classic SNK) but because if you play single player you have to fight them so damn often yeah sure I suppose you could quit at the boss but really most people want to do a complete run.

Shao Khan in MK9 is a pain and cheap as hell but you can also cheap him out fairly easily some characters are more effective than others but yeah if you attempt to fight him like you would another player you will lose because he flat out cheats.

The two bosses that have frustrated me the most in fighters recently (semi recently) are Alpha from DOA4 and Seth from SF4 not because they are the hardest bosses ever (although they have plenty of BS stuff they can and will do to you) but because I hate their design just silver nude featureless kasumi clone and nude silverish bald guy with a ying yang ball in his gut. It really frustrates me losing to characters I hate.

Think these two are the only ones that have made me turn the comp off to calm down in the last 10 years or so.

If you want to talk fighting game bosses...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXIzacmq1ys Zero and Igniz from KOF 2001. Have never, ever beaten this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b79H411KuaI Onslaught from Marvel vs Capcom. His first phase is manageable. His second stage...you either need to be ultra cheesy or you don't even have a chance.

 

[Maximum Bert]

*snip*
If you want to talk fighting game bosses...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXIzacmq1ys Zero and Igniz from KOF 2001. Have never, ever beaten this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b79H411KuaI Onslaught from Marvel vs Capcom. His first phase is manageable. His second stage...you either need to be ultra cheesy or you don't even have a chance.

Nah not really but there are very few I like actually fighting against I have played a fair few but not those you posted mainly because I never got into SNK very much until XIII as I just did not like the sprites of older games much and tbh Marvel Vs Capcom was something that never appealed to me except for the second because it had Psylocke in but at this time I was burned out on 2D fighters so missed a lot of good stuff (also never bought origins on PSN or Xbox live as I had to big a backlog).

I think its enough to say I hate almost all of them and wish games would get rid of them tbf, which some actually have at least for the arcade modes. The ones I mentioned arent actually the hardest they are fairly easy as fighting game bosses go actually its just they are the ones that frustrated me the most because as I said I hate their boring designs.

The hardest collection of bosses I have ever fought would probably be Persona 4 Arenas score attack mode that is frikkin ridiculous never made it past Chie with her potential one hit KO bs and certainly 1 combo KO ability which apparently lots of others have as well Elizabeth in particular looks ridiculous even with the pause abuse glitch it looks insane you get hit you die basically.

I also know apparently SNK have had some ridiculous BS bosses I only remember playing Geese in Fatal Fury and never beat him although to be fair I was not exactly that old or experienced at the time. Only other one I have had personal experience with is the red dood in KOFXIII (forget his name) and he was bad enough....damn I wanna start up KOFXIII again now....but dont want to face that guy.

 

[WouldYouKindly]

Optional bosses count right? Pretty much any Final Fantasy, any Cactaur or Tonberry boss monster. Unless you know exactly what you're doing, they'll get you every time. Stumble across them when you're just a kid and they'll stomp your face in so hard your teeth end up embedded in the wall behind you.

 

[username sucks]

I played Destiny recently, and I did a dungeon on the moon called "The Summoning Pits", and I have never played a game with a more boring and bullet-spongy boss. The final boss in the dungeon is this giant Hive Ogre that shoots lasers out of its eyes or something similar, and if you are outside of one of two locations, this guy will shoot you down within seconds. So what you need to do, is sit in this really cramped location, just shooting out of a door and killing random adds that run in, and shoot a turret that spawns inside. It took about 10 minutes, but it felt like it took hours. He wasn't even difficult, it was just boring. Made me never want to do that strike ever again, and I am just scared that I will land on that specific strike if I queue for a random one.

It's a strike boss. All strike bosses have ridiculously high health and damage like that. Also, on that particular strike, staying in that room you described is pretty much the worst possible thing to do besides running up and punching him.

OT: Marie in Skullgirls. I have played through both Dark Souls and can honestly say that Marie is worse than any boss in either of those games.

Fighting anyone else, you learn how to combo, how and when to do specials and supers, how and when to play defensively, Etc.. But when you get to Marie, you can throw ALL of what you learned right out the window, because she's an enemy that can't be hit stunned at all, attacks with almost no indicator of how she attacks (especially final form, where she gives no indicator at all. You just suddenly have skulls appear and you take a crapton of damage) , and enough damage to almost kill you with chip damage even if you block every hit.

I get that she's the Skullgirl and is supposed to be very powerful, but she seriously does not belong in that game.

 

[omega 616]

At the moment, every boss in revengence!

I played the game on hard at a friends and got to Jetstream Sam killing all the bosses, including body double of mistral and monsoon in one go ... even did Sundowner fight the cheese way without knowing. Now I own the game, I will be buggered if I can parry!

Don't get me wrong, I know how to parry ... push the analogue stick in the direction the red glint comes from and hit light attack, which I do but half the time the attack still lands.

I'm thinking it's my controller, it's not a case of "maybe I did get it wrong, maybe I didn't but I'm so good that it is the controllers fault" it is very much me being absolutely certain I am putting in the right command but it failing me. Like when Sam does his 4 hit combo, I am pushing the stick right at him and hitting light attack ... I will block the first, third and forth or first and fourth or any combo for that matter, might block them all or none.

Biggest bull shit was yesterday, he had a tiny chunk of life, I had a tiny chunk of life, this was my 20th attempt, he back flips over a rock, I do the command to parry ... Raiden attacks the rock! I panic, hit the parry again, ANOTHER SLASH AT THE ROCK! Sam obliterates the rock and me along with it! I go to bed ....

 

[Rayce Archer]

Jaquiuo's many forms from the end of Ninja Gaiden. And if you get a game over, it kicks you back to the PREVIOUS STAGE.

Orochi, who aside from the other bullshit SNK fighter bosses get, also has campkill lightning.

Speaking of that, Felden in Galaxy Fight. Really ALL of Galaxy Fight.

 

[Someone Depressing]

The Capra Demon in Dark Souls. It's, like, the third (optionally the fourth, I think) boss that you can think if you're doing things in the intended order (Asylum>Shrine>Burg>Parish>Burg>Depths ect) and.. yep, for a level 19 Thief with rosy cheeks who feels really proud of himself for killing like a billion god damn dogs and tight-wearing zombie ninnies, that fight was like an ice cream sundae, but instead of delicious dairy products it's a glass full of shit and sadness, and the game is all like, "oh, you want to get to this slightly more pleasant shit and sadness and then work up to actual ice cream? too fucking bad, oh look all of your Stamina just got drained and now his dogs are murdering you".

Worst boss in the game, when you take into consideration when you fight him. Most of the game's bosses work more like Zelda bosses, or puzzle game bosses. The RPG elements just make numbers higher and simply lower, or shave a few seconds off the fight. But with the Capra Demon, it's all motherfucking numbers, and while the fight is supposed to make you embrace the game's mechanics, it didn't do that for me.

HATE. HATE. HATE HATE. HATE. HATE HATE HATE.

 

[MiskWisk]

Well, since my original ones have been said, I'll just leave this guy.

I have heard from a couple of friends that he has been massively nerfed with recent updates, but original Nomad from Runescape had me raging like no other (bar a couple that have already been mentioned).

 

[crazygameguy4ever]

that's easy... the final boss in MGS Revengence.. the third boss in Star Ocean the Last Hope International, the final boss battle against Obito and the tailed beasts in Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 and.. um .let's see... the Mr. Freeze boss battle in Batman Arkham City if you play on a hard difficulty. he adapts incredinly fast like he's a member of the Borg or something

 

[Starbird]

the final boss battle against Obito and the tailed beasts in Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm 3

Silly question - but why? I *love* UNS series and while the fight was long, once I figured out that the standard O combo is generally better than abilities for the most part and just to range attack spam the bug boss to death, it's pretty much a one shot for me now every playthrough.

Mizukage and Kabuto's Sage Form can suck a gigantic willy however.