The final boss is never the hardest boss, is it?

[The Geek Lord]

(Not search bar approved. I'm kinda lazy like that.)

So, I'm sure we all love video games.[footnote]inb4 someone quotes this and says "no we don't."[/footnote] But one thing you'll notice when you beat a game; "Wow, that was an easy final boss!"

Not all final bosses are easy, but it's very, very rare for them to be the hardest bosses in the game. Even in Tales of the Abyss, which I haven't beaten yet since the final boss sent a nice helping of Judgement right in my face, didn't have the most difficult final boss. The bonus bosses, like the cameo team, were still harder.

Even the Shin Megami Tensei franchise is guilty of this. I saw someone playing Strange Journey on the DS, and they beat the final boss in under three minutes. In a turn-based JRPG. That is known for it's sheer difficulty.

And you know, I've seen the final bosses of Persona 4, and the guy playing it made them look much easier than, say, Shadow Yukiko, which I am currently stuck on. Fucking mini-prince guy and his fucking fear status effect and his fucking criticals.

Just about the only example I can think of where the final boss was the most difficult is the end of the first half of Tales of Legendia, where the final boss killed every single one of my party members in two or three hits. And even then, I'm sure there's plenty of side-quests and the like which I didn't do on account of my own not caring.

So, Escapists, can you think of any games where the final boss was the most difficult thing in the game?

 

[Zacharine]

Baldur's Gate 1 and 2. Sarevok, and the Irenicus with his demon buddies while he is in the Slayer form.

And one could argue Throne Of Bhaal (near-new-god-of-Murder ex-high-pristess of said dead god), as the Watchers Tower was purely optional and the Demigorgon within a piss-poor easy one compared to what the fluff says he ought to be.

Of course, mods can change these, but I'm not sure we ought to count mods here.

 

[SideburnsPuppy]

General Tor of Iji was pretty hard, especially if you fight him in Maximum Charge (second playthrough only). Was Asha harder? Well, the first fight can be won with a single shot from the Nuke, and the second is optional (if you're awesome)...so, yeah, the final boss of Iji is the hardest.

 

[zehydra]

A lot of times I've played games where the final boss was ridiculously easy, but one I can think of where this is not the case is Metroid Prime's final boss.

 

[Sharkosauros]

I never actually found the last bosses to hard (probably because i overtrain) usually optinial bosses tend to be harder imo (penance in FFX... ffs that thing is madness -- 12000000 hp)

 

[Furious Styles]

I found the final boss in dragon age pretty challenging, more challenging than the rest of the game.

 

[teqrevisited]

I'd say Vergil in DMC3.

He blocks most bullets with his sword, teleports behind / above you, is ridiculously fast anyway and has the ability to regenerate health whilst being immune to injury-induced knockbacks.

I found the final battle with him to be the hardest fight in the game, with Beowulf not far behind (Cheap homing feathers of death...).

 

[Prince Regent]

KOTOR I

Malek was easily the toughest bady in that game.

 

[therandombear]

Not the hardest ever, but it's the one on the top off my mind, last boss in Gun, explode on the right times and aim and shoot the dynamites in air on the time before to far away, so kinda falls into the catagory of one of the most annoying ones really.

Also, Fable 2 boss must be the hardest one, ever.

 

[manythings]

God of War 1 and 2. Especially 1 since the fight was you against a guy with none of your powers or weapons and if he hurt you you lost health and he gained it. THAT was fucking fight and a half.

KOTOR I

Malek was easily the toughest bady in that game.

Knight speed and destroy droid were really handy... it did make it kind of ridiculous though you confront Malek and then run away really fast and break his stuff to win.

 

[MikailCaboose]

Well, Paper Mario and its sequel disagree. The final Bowser and the Shadow Queen were quite difficult.

 

[sephiroth1991]

Apart from the optional bosses Final Fantasy Games final bosses are very hard, except the one in FF8 i smoked her ass, although i was lv 60 and my attack was 300 so each hit was 9999.

 

[Ace of Spades]

Dragon Age: Origins. The Archdemon took very little time to dice my entire team to bits repeatedly until I got fed up with it and turned down the difficulty.

 

[AboveUp]

The original Mega Man series.

Okay, in a completely straight fight, Wiley would be a complete push-over. But in most games you face him after going through several stages, each with their own mini-boss at the end. Not only that, but the game is always kind enough to throw in all of the original eight robot masters that you fought during the rest of the game to drain your health and weapon energy before the big fight. Then after that you can try and figure out how to beat Dr Wiley in several different forms.

Did I mention that going game over has you doing Wiley's Castle all over again?

Capcom is really good at making you hate the entire world and everything surrounding it in their games when you finally do get to the end.

 

[Erana]

I hope this doesn't double-post; the site error'd on me.
But yeah, the War of Eustrath. Its one of those strategy tactic games, like FFT or something. But with mechs.
(Called GEARS. Yes, GEARS. And their ultimate forms are called Optimus)

The entire game: so easy, I could do it with one of the lesser units alone. However, if you put in the right dialogue options, you wind up fighting the Doombringer. Aptly named. He kills all of your units, save two (or three, if you focus on one others' HP stat) in his first attack, just to put it in perspective. Other than your two most powerful Mechs (which get that way because of the plot), you can't even do enough damage to get through his shields. When you do hit him, it doesn't do more than 2,000 damage, out of over 12 thousand. And he can heal himself, and he can regenerate his Will, which is vital to using anything above a standard Melee attack (while you only get one point a turn if you do nothing.)
And if either one of your main two mechs die, you lose.

And I wasn't lying about how everything up to this point could be accomplished using just one of the mechs, which in-story, they keep insulting as being useless and weak?
It just isn't fun when people suddenly change the pacing of their game like this.
And you can't even save before it to power up your characters or change equipment. You have to fight the if-you-didn't-do-the-story-right boss and his phases first.

 

[The Geek Lord]

Well, Paper Mario and its sequel disagree. The final Bowser and the Shadow Queen were quite difficult.

Oh, geez, I forgot the Shadow Queen. That boss was just... Ugh.

Apart from the optional bosses Final Fantasy Games final bosses are very hard, except the one in FF8 i smoked her ass, although i was lv 60 and my attack was 300 so each hit was 9999.

I heard in FF7 all you do at Bishieroth's final form is just push the circle button.

 

[Trivun]

Final Fantasy X. In that game, the 'final boss' isn't actually the final boss. Right at the end you face Braska's Final Aeon, in two forms, and no save or healing between them. Those are the true final bosses, but after that there's a set of fights against all the aeons you've collected so far and then the apparent final boss, Yu Yevon. Those fights are impossible to lose though, unless you deliberately lose them by Banishing or Petrifying all your characters then attacking them. Otherwise, you have Auto-Life at all times so each time a character dies they come straight back with full health.

That said, the true Final Boss, Braska's Final Aeon, is actually an extremely tough fight and is definitely the hardest boss of the game, excluding optional bosses like the Weapons or Penance or the Dark Aeons. I could never beat Braska's Final Aeon, until I stumbled on a trick by using Rikku's Mix overdrive (the Trio of 9999 mix specifically) to do 9999 damage each attack, then other overdrives to do multiple attacks per turn (thus defeating him in the space of around three turns). A very cheap trick to pull, but it sure as hell worked ;D.