Your favourite boss in a video game

Wilco86

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Anachronism said:
The 13th Colossus. Nothing else really comes close. Apart from being an awesome dragon-snake thing, you fight it by having your horse gallop at full pelt alongside it, then leaping from the horse's back onto the dragon's wings. It's a rush unlike anything else.

Great choice, but grabbing those wings while jumping from a horse can be a pain in the ass - especially in a hurry in Time Attack Mode. My personal favourite is the third one, Gaius. I just love the first time I saw it raise its sword-arm to the sky and slam it down. (But to be fair, that one was a major ***** in HD remake's Hard Time Attack.)
 

Kotaro

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Feb 3, 2009
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Depends on when you ask me, but right now the answer would have to be the true final boss of Bravely Default.


Ouroboros. The whole game, your little fairy companion Airy has secretly been working for this monster, tricking you into linking all of the alternate worlds together so that he can reach the "Celestial Realm" and wreck shit there. In the true ending path, you fight and defeat Airy in her true form before fighting Ouroboros himself, and this fight is amazing.
The fight itself has several phases, each one working to cement him as this unbelievable threat:
*In the first phase, he appears as a copy of one of your party members, and he uses all the highest-level skills that your characters have access to. It's not all that hard, but still pretty cool.
*In the second phase, you see him in his true form. Each turn, he heals himself completely, since he's, well, immortal. It's scripted, though, and once you deal enough damage, you get a cutscene of one of your allies appearing and sacrificing himself to seal Ouroboros's regeneration.
*In the third phase, his regeneration ability is sealed off, but he's still a really tough fight if you're not prepared.
*In the fourth phase, he decides to make up for the loss of his regeneration by devouring one of the alternate worlds to restore his HP and deal massive damage to the whole party at the same time. He then taunts you, saying that the more you resist, the more worlds that he will destroy.
*The fifth and final phase shows all of the remaining alternate worlds banding together to fight back against Ouroboros's power, leaving you free to fight him without worrying about any more worlds being destroyed. In this stage, he brings out a new technique where he can disable multiple commands on one of your characters, generally leaving them unable to do anything useful except Default (defend).
It's a long fight, but if you go in with intant-kill immunity (like via Safety Rings) and attacks that can deal water damage, it's not especially difficult. What makes it such a spectacular fight is a mix of things: It feels incredibly climactic, with all the cutscenes between the stages of the fight helping to set the stage and make it more awesome. The music that plays is spectacular, being this excellent track that adds more to itself with each subsequent stage of the fight, eventually turning into a medley of the Asterisk boss theme and all four of the main characters' Special themes.
And there's a wonderful little background detail that's very easy to miss, but does make this fight all the more climactic. See that red rift-looking thing in the background of the image at the top of this post? And remember how I said Ouroboros wants to reach and destroy the "Celestial Realm?" Well, later in the fight, that rift there opens and the game uses the 3DS's front-facing camera to insert a picture of the player's face inside that rift, implying that the "Celestial Realm" is Earth. That is kind of awesome.

Bravely Default was a seriously excellent game and I recommend it to everyone who likes jRPGs, especially the classic (pre-VII) Final Fantasy games.

EDIT: Also I just remembered Ganondorf from The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. Another awesome final boss, especially since it really feels like you're a little kid trying to fight a man more than twice your own size.
 

Hero of Lime

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Jun 3, 2013
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Too many to count honestly.

A whole bunch from Zelda games including Ganondorf from Ocarina, Wind Waker, Twilight Princess. Odolwa, Goht, Twinmold and Majora from Majora's Mask. King Bulbin and Fyrus from Twilight Princess. Dark Link in Ocarina of Time and Zelda 2. Ghirahim's final form and Koloktos in Skyward Sword. Molegra from Wind Waker. Yuga and Ganon in A Link Between Worlds. Shadow Hag from Oracle of Ages. Again, too many to list here.

Capturing Legendary Pokemon in Pokemon games. They are some of the most unique boss battles you can have in a game. Instead of trying to kill the monster, you have deal with keeping it conscious while keeping your Pokemon healthy and using different Pokeballs hoping the random number generator goes towards your favor. It can be annoying, but incredibly satisfying once you capture one.

Most Boss fights from the Paper Mario games. Shadow Queen, General Guy, Bonetail, Doopliss, just to name a few.

Fusion and Doom Dragon from Golden Sun, both incredibly difficult, keeping you on your toes.

Sephiroth in Kingdom Hearts 2.

Hades from God of War 3, the setting and song make it pretty awesome.

Titan Dweevil from Pikmin 2, and most of the bosses in Pikmin 3.

So basically, I didn't answer the question, I can't narrow such questions down very well.
 

scorptatious

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May 14, 2009
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Another vote for Shadow of the Colossus. Frankly, I rate pretty much every colossus in that game amongst my favorite bosses in gaming. The imposing feeling they give off, the amazing music, the struggle to stay on top of them and stab their weak points, it's all so so good.

I also really like some of MGS3's boss fights. Particularly, The End, The Fury, Volgin, and The Boss.
krazykidd said:
Nyx from persona 3. Not only does it have the most epic boss music of all time in a videogame, but if you don't overlevel yourself and make yourself overpowered, it's a marathon not a sprint. I don't look at strategy guides, so the first time i went up against him, it was a nail biting experience.

Played through P3P recently and I have to agree. The boss took a long ass time, but damn was it satisfying.
 

sageoftruth

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Jan 29, 2010
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I just finished renting Lollipop Chainsaw, so I'll add, the Dark Purveyors. They really had character and it was a welcome change from the army of dumb cannon fodder I had to fight through to get to them. I'm done with the game, but I'll definitely miss those brief stints with those guys.
 

NoMercy Rider

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May 17, 2013
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Mine is more for nostalgia reasons, but Ugh Zhan III from Serious Sam. Played the game right at release, so I had no hints about the final boss. So there is the epic courtyard battle beforehand, where you are killing hundreds of minions. Then the cutscene comes on and you hear a distant roar, and come face to face with a literal towering giant. In two swift swipes, he literally rips apart the massive courtyard you were just fighting through. Then reading the strategic message that he's the immortal general of the army. Meanwhile I'm thinking how the frick am I supposed to kill him? Then begins the epic battle with armies of minions clammering after you at his feet, looking like small ants. The epic battle is more or less a fight for your life in a prolonged retreat to the great pyramid. All ending with the incredible showdown at the top of the pyramid. Boy, I wish I could relive that very first experience of awe and wonder over again.
 

Pigeon_Grenade

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i always Liked King K Rool from the first Donkey Kong country, mostly cause after all these Years the theme songs still stuck in my head..
 

bbchain

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May 6, 2013
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Barthandelus' first encounter from Final Fantasy XIII was one of the most infuriating battles I've ever suffered through. it was stressful, intimidating, and the Doom time limit made it even more difficult than it already was. And for all these reasons and more I adored that battle. The atmosphere, tension, and soundtrack were perfect in every way and I still go back to that game sometimes just to play that battle again.

Runner up is Kid X-mas from Remember Me. Most memorable battle of any game in the last few years. If there's one thing that game did right it was atmosphere.

Oh and pretty much every boss from Kingdom Hearts 2. Every single one was memorable in their own right.
 

Maximum Bert

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Feb 3, 2013
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Probably Dizzy Devil from Buster Busts Loose on the SNES its not hard at all but damn its fun you have to keep knocking food into his mouth until he falls asleep I used to play the game up until that boss fight do it then reset and do it again luckily he was an early boss.
 

heyjax9

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Jun 16, 2014
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Great Wolf Sif in the first Dark Souls was an thrilling battle and towards the end when he starts to limp the feeling of killing this poor animal starts to drain on you. and for another the final boss of the game, while it was a fairly basic fight. Had the best music played during it.

 

StormDragonZ

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Dec 6, 2013
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The King Dedede battle in Kirby Mass Attack. The first two boss battles is all about dodging properly when necessary and losing a Kirby doesn't really make or break you. In the third boss battle with King De^3, losing a Kirby could significantly ruin the entire victory.
 

COMaestro

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May 24, 2010
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scorptatious said:
I also really like some of MGS3's boss fights. Particularly, The End, The Fury, Volgin, and The Boss.
Ninja'd. I really enjoyed fighting against The End and The Boss in MGS3. Worst part about The Boss fight is the timer so you can't just take your time with it, but it is such a gorgeous setting and really sad when it's over.

I also really enjoyed the boss fights from Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. The Dracolich especially was pretty cool, though very easy.
 

Malty Milk Whistle

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Oct 29, 2011
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Oooh, so hard...
To mention a few, there's got to be Koloktos and Gihrahim from Skyward Sword, almost anything from any Monster Hunter game, but if I had to choose my fave boss from that series...it has to be this guy

His pure size, the fact you get heavy artillery and his magnificent appearance make him the most satisfying hunt in the series, in my opinion.

Alternatively, the 1st colossus from Shadow of the Colossus, purely for the feeling of "This is gonna be good" I got from it.
 

Mike Lemond

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Jan 20, 2014
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Giygas - Earthbound
Icon of Sin - Doom 2
The Final Colossus - Shadow of the Colossus
Bowser - Super Mario World
Most raid bosses - World of Warcraft
 

CelestDaer

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My mind went immediately to Mizz Ruby from Sly Cooper 1. Third (I think?) boss of the game is a rhythm battle out of nowhere? And it's actually kind of catchy? And inspired a musical boss in every subsequent Sly Cooper game? Hell yes!
 

Uriel_Hayabusa

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I love me some boss fights. I don't really have a single favorite so I'll just list some that I adore off the top of my head:

Vergil - Devil May Cry 3
Magus - Chrono Trigger
Omega - Megaman Zero 3
Colossus no. 5 - Shadow of the Colossus
Knight Artorias - Dark Souls
 

Happiness Assassin

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Oct 11, 2012
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In Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen, every boss. All the boss fights are intense and are appropriately difficult (as long as you aren't over-leveled to god status). From the many dragon fights where you stab the heart to the griffin fights where you burn the wings to the hydra fights where you cut off the head and burn the wound shut, Dragon's Dogma has the best bosses around...

Except one...


Death is the biggest ************ in the entire game, bar none. When you first show up on Bitterblack Isle, he is a supposed to lose boss fight, being something that is almost impossible to kill, let alone hurt. And even then if you can lower his absurd amount of health, he runs away. Oh and he has insta-kill scythe that can not be blocked and sends pawns back to the Rift (meaning they can't be revived until a checkpoint). And the kicker is how the only way to effectively deal with him is not only incredibly cheap, but it only really suits ranged characters, something that was avoided by pretty much every boss in the game. And by far the biggest annoyance: he is a fucking kill thief. I can't even count the number of times where I am killing a large boss, he fades in, and kills the boss for me (giving no rewards mind you) and just leaves like a giant hooded douche.

I just don't get how a game where you can see any manner of beasts and think "I am going to enjoy making a necklace out of its carcass" and then you get an enemy like this that is just a pure annoyance to fight.