Optional bosses

[Zeke63]

I really like them, especially when they offer that extra challenge, like the dojo master in paper mario. Also, I think that optional bosses exist in dark souls so often are hidden or concealed adds much replay value and depth to the game (gwyndolin, priscilla)

 

[Potato Dragon]

Surprised no ones mentioned Dark souls where you only have to beat 13 bosses to win but there are 25 bosses in total (not including dlc) and most of them are really cool. In fact I can't think of a game that has better optional bosses imo.

EDIT: ninja'd

 

[Dark Knifer]

Coincidentally I just finished setting up a kingdom hearts game to fight all the optional bosses. They have good optional, especially septhiroth. Hope to play the final mix boses at some point of both 1 and 2.

 

[Angie7F]

I think they are good.
It helps less avid gamers enjoy the game, but also allows perfectionists to take it that much further.
I also enjoy the second time around like in the Chrono series and also Dodonpachi and Ikaruga.
I have had a better chance at giving the second time around a after I got the games on my android phone.
Now eagerly waiting for more mobile phone releases of the classics!

 

[Tropicaz]

I love them tbh, the very nature of optional means you only go after them if you want a real challenge, to see someone complain that Nemesis from FFX was too hard wouldnt happen, the only people that'd get to him would be into the game enough to take him on.
FF is cracking for these, I loved the Dark Aeons and Monster arena in FFX. Well worth doing IMO.

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

I like 'em. Nothing brings you back down to 'reality' faster than stumbling into a strange looking enemy who proceeds to hand your ass to you just when you think your party can't be beat (this is how I found the original Omega in FFV coincidentally, assuming he was another one of the demons you had to face in the Cleft of Dimensions). However more recently it seems they're made difficult by astronomically high HP values than anything else, which I wouldn't approve of even in a normal boss. Yiazmat would be the example everyone cites, but all the Star Ocean games have optional bosses that boil down to stunlocking your opponent for days of real time to stop them using their best attacks while you slowly chip away their HP. Not my bag.

I enjoy Kingdom Hearts' optionals the best, since they rarely have exhaustive amounts of HP, but rather powerful attacks you must learn to circumvent or be killed in one or two hits. My all-time favourite though isn't an RPG boss at all, but a platformer- the Dark Demon in Demon's Crest, an extremely challenging uber-boss despite the fact that you have unlimited flight in all directions and potentially five full-life refills. I dare say we'll never see another like him.

 

[Exius Xavarus]

Same thing applies to Dullahan in Golden Sun: The Lost Age. Except you get the most powerful summon in the game once you kill Dullahan. The irony in this? By the time you're strong enough to take on Dullahan, the final boss is a mini-boss in comparison.

Technically, there IS a combo that you can pull off to kill Dullahan quickly with even a non-grinded party (using a certain setup will allow you to rapidly chain powerful summons and kill Dullahan extremely quickly) which doesn't work effectively against the Doom Dragon due to the bosses 3-stage nature. But even ignoring that, optional bosses far more powerful than the final boss are kinda a staple of RPG's as they give you an extra challenge on your next play through.

I know that optional bosses are more powerful than final bosses. That's why they're optional. And I'm aware of the summons. You can even cheese him with Lull and Petra. That doesn't make him any less powerful, though. Dullahan is a bit of a dickbag if you're not going into the fight prepared to cheese him with rapid summons and repeated use of debilitating djinn.

 

[MiskWisk]

Kingdom Hearts Sephiroth fights are just brilliant. Even max characters on easy can still get destroyed by him which makes beating him all the more satisfying. The Phantom is also a pretty fun/tough boss as well if you don't figure out his mechanics quickly enough.

FF 12 also had some good ones. Although, I have never bothered with Yiazmat after my initial fight with him because I can't be arsed to fight another boss with a similar amount of health to the god damned Hell wyrm.

 

[Eric the Orange]

Look up the optional boss in Digital Devil summoner. I've played a ton of JRPGs and that one is the hardest. And the only one I've never beat.

 

[DarkSeraphim02]

I've played many an RPG and fought all kinds of bosses, including many optional ones, usually I beat them eventually, such as Yiazmat from FF12, which took me 4 hours because the bugger has about 15 million HP and hits like a freight train on steroids.

Actually Yiazmat has 50 million hp, not 15 million. He also gets a buff later on in the match that reduces the amount of damage you deal, including dropping the damage cap of 9,999 to I believe around 7,999 iirc. Explains a lot, doesn't it?

Captain Nitpick, AWAY! *flies off into the sunset*

Captcha: "nul points"

Dear lord, 50 million? It's been a long time since I fought him, I thought it was 15. I could also swear I had abilities letting me break the HP and damage limits, but I dug out my copy of the game, I never get rid of my old games, and apparantly I don't. Though I must have done some insane prep work because everybodies license grid has been filled completely and I even have the zodiark summon.

Looking back at it now, I have no damn clue how the hell I beat that thing, I couldn't fight him again either, which kinda sucked as I didn't want to replay the entire game just for that.

 

[Auron225]

I usually don't bother with them since the general policy seems to be "make them as difficult as we possibly f*cking can".

I beat them all in Kingdom Hearts 1 & 2 but thats just cause I was once absolutely in love with those games and was aiming for around 100% completion (aside from mini-games, screw them). Birth by Sleep's optional bosses seem to be ridiculously powerful. You can comfortably finish each main story at about level 35-40, but the optional guys can pretty much 1-hit kill you.

The only one worth noting aside from that really is Omega Weapon from FFX. I actually didn't even know about it until I found it by accident. I didn't have a strategy worked out before hand, and for some reason wasn't able to scan at the time (or maybe I didn't deem scan worthy of a turn, I can't remember) but I just remember thinking "This guy just won't give up!"

The next day I googled him and found out he had 999,999 HP. It blew my mind that I actually won without too much of a problem...

The Phantom is also a pretty fun/tough boss as well if you don't figure out his mechanics quickly enough.

Quickly enough?? You make it sound like you could figure it out and STILL beat him the first time you try. Several people I know never figured it out, I managed to on my 2nd or 3rd attempt. Sadly it was when peter and donald were both already DEAD, Sora's timer was at practically nothing, his HP was pitifully low and I was out of items. It was pretty much just a moment necessary for Sora's life to flash before his eyes.

I got him eventually though. Even if you know how to do it, he's still pretty hard!

 

[EHKOS]

Fuck the borderlands invincible crew. Not only do you need a good team, which can be impossible with randoms, but I play the games single player.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

I like them and I think they are great but Omega weapon and any boss in FF VIII was a piece of piss compared to some of the other games so that one was a disappointment.

 

[AgentLampshade]

I recently beat The Reaper in Persona 4 for the first time. Feels satisfying. Also the two superbosses in Final Fantasy VIII were pretty fun to fight (Unless you have 99 Hero Elixers, then it's too easy.)

I love optional bosses, especially when it's a surprise. You've gone through this long dungeon expecting treasure or a powerful sword, then boom. Death in monster form. My favourite is probably Sephiroth from Kingdom Hearts II. First time you go up against him, it's a surprise and if you haven't prepared properly, he will kill you before the battle even starts. He's challenging compared to the rest of the game, but not enough to be unbeatable. The music also helps.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

KH1 Omega'd me once. I didn't know about the optional bosses (no access to Gamefaqs at the time) and I encountered the Aladdin/Agrabah optional boss. I can only say it was what I'd imagine getting my asshole stretched to oblivion would feel like. I got crushed.
In reverse in FF7 I thought Sephiroth would be hard so I power leveled, maxed out every character, materia (E. Skill included) and killed every optional boss.
Went to Sep and demolished him. Quadra magic ftw.

 

[Longstreet]

Never played a FF game (isnt this one of the gaming sins?) But i cant see how you can stand that.

Dont get me wrong, a though boss fight is fun, but damn, 4 hours long. Wouldnt have the patience for that.

 

[halfeclipse]

It's the game telling you that it ain't pulling no punches from here on son.

That's what we call a Wake Up Call Boss. My least favorite type of boss in any game. .-.

Spoiler: Tales of Graces f semi spoilery optional bosses

Gloandrake, Duplewyrm and Forbrawyvern. These three fuckers. Pain in the ass to fight. Especially Forbrawyvern. Go fight that thing and I sincerely hope you know what you're doing. Or that beast will fuck you in the ear as it kicks your mom's ass and effectively begins World War III.

Yiazmat's been mentioned. That thing's beyond ridiculous. So much so that I didn't even bother trying it out.

Deadbeard in Golden Sun is quite a Superboss. Completely optional and I'm not entirely sure he's worth fighting. He's much, much more powerful than the final boss and he can easily wipe the whole party out in just two turns, or even a single turn if you're not careful.

Same thing applies to Dullahan in Golden Sun: The Lost Age. Except you get the most powerful summon in the game once you kill Dullahan. The irony in this? By the time you're strong enough to take on Dullahan, the final boss is a mini-boss in comparison.

I recall deadbeard being stupidly easy to take down? Summon rushes roflstomp him or failing that he uses PP so seal ruins his day.

 

[Lunar Templar]

FF8 was the last FF game I really cared about the optional bosses, mostly cause most of them where worth tracking down and beating, cept Omega, he wasn't really worth it, but did anyway.

Didn't really bother so much with the in 10, messed around with a few, but only the summon related ones.

Then there was SMT: Nocturne .....

The fiends sucked, Beelzebub sucked, Metatron sucked, Lucifer sucked The whole game is pretty much out to kill you, optional boss or not. But least I got the true demon ending on my first run.

 

[Something Evil]

Optional bosses are always good if they provide a variation to tactics/gameplay, or to the way you actually approach the mechanics.

Two good examples are, firstly, the optional bosses in World of Warcraft. Tempest Keep comes to mind. Fighting them usually takes a different strategy than the customary tank-and-spank of most of the others and is often more challenging than the normal run.

Secondly, as to the twisting of the mechanics, Borderlands 2 is a good example, with Vermivorous the Invincible: Fighting Vermi isn't that hard. It's tedious, mildly annoying, and not that much of a challenge since he telegraphs his direct attack and his indirect one takes a long time to actually hit and can be intercepted.
What's tough is actually getting him to spawn in the first place, which is a rather daunting, time consuming, dangerous process. The fight is getting Vermi spawned in the first place, not killing him, whereas most bosses are neatly placed in the world, pre-spawned, and are patiently waiting for the PCs to come along and do that thing they do so well.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

I beat them all in Kingdom Hearts 1 & 2 but thats just cause I was once absolutely in love with those games and was aiming for around 100% completion (aside from mini-games, screw them). Birth by Sleep's optional bosses seem to be ridiculously powerful. You can comfortably finish each main story at about level 35-40, but the optional guys can pretty much 1-hit kill you.

By Poseidon's beard, yes, Vanitas Remnant and the unknown mystery dude (unless you've played Dream Drop Distance) are brutal. I've beaten the former with all three characters, but the latter kicked my ass every time.

The Dream Drop Distance bonus bosses are pretty disappointing though. All except one are just upgraded version of the regular bosses. The one that isn't, Julius, is probably the easiest superboss in the entire series. Maybe it's because I was around lv60 and with the best Keyblade/Dream Eaters in the game when I took him on, but I remember a lot of the normal bosses from KH 1 & 2 being harder.