My Top Boss Battles

 Top Boss Battles

Throughout the video games we play, we encounter boss battles. Some of which are easy, others are hard or are anti climatic. Then there are these ones that gives us an impression whenever the boss fight is epic, well written or brilliantly executed and these are the bosses that fits that bill for me. Note that they are in no particular order and I may list more than one boss from the same franchise. Be warned as they’ll contain major spoilers.

Wally – Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire

Pokemon does have a lot of awesome battles including Gym Leaders, Enemy team Leaders, Elite Four and Champions including Steven, Cynthia, Diantha and Leon (the first three have among the best Champion themes). But here’s one of them who stood out for me; Wally in the Hoenn remakes who you this time encounter just outside Victory Road just before you reached to the Elite Four. When you do battle him, he has one of the best battle theme music and a Gallade that he Mega Evolves. This shows how far he has come from a sickly boy to a badass who have made it this far from his journey from Petalburg City, making him one of my top rivals.

Hop – Pokemon Sword and Shield

Hop is one of the many characters who have a divisive reception among fans but for me, he happens to be one of my top rivals. He started off as a dream to follow his brother Leon’s footsteps who then have to go through the frustration of constantly losing which makes him feel doubted for his dream and capabilities as a trainer, something that even I can relate to that times (least when playing solo for my Pokemon battles and Fire Emblem Heroes Aether Raid battles). But the way he tries his best to have the courage to move forward while trying to handle his frustrations makes me want to root for him, right all the way to the postgame when you last have a battle with him which helps him to re-evaluate his dreams to become a Pokemon Professor. His theme music when you battle him in the Champion Cup (one of my best Sword and Shield music) really highlights his character on how he’s able to push forwards regardless of his defeats. His Campion Cup challenger battle also have a strong team under his belt including his G-Max Corviknight and the legendary Pokemon (which can give you trouble if you’re not careful).

Pyoro – Wario Ware Get it Together!

Even Wario Ware have a boss battle and not including those boss micro games. It’s found at the end of the story after growing a beanstalk which leads to it. You get to use all the playable characters, to fight Pyoro each time which I find is an awesome concept, serving as a test to use everything you have learned about controlling all the characters to beat one giant boss which truly puts the Wario Ware crew together. It rewards you having Pyoro to join your team.

Galeen and Dharkon – Super Smash Bros Ultimate

The two fiends who try to recreate the universe with their own images at the expense of the fighters is the ultimate battle of light and dark. The build up with their epic theme music in the background as you work your way up to put an end to their treachery in the final world, taking out the puppet fighters and other bosses you fought really adds the thrill, striving you to balance out the light and dark while stopping their fight. Master Hand and Crazy Hand even gets to join you, controlling them for the first time. All leads up to the ultimate confrontation against the two deities with the twist that you have to defeat them both evenly as taking out one or the other will result the bad endings. It all makes it rewarding when you manage to take out both of them, getting everything back.

  Takuto Markui + Azathnoth – Persona 5 Royal

Dr Markui has definitely left an impression on me. If you managed to max out his confidant before November 18^th, you’ll get an all new bonus semester after you defeat the main villain Yaldabaoth where you clash in with Markui who uses his cognition to change the world where no one can life with their pain and sorrows making him the Palace Ruler for the new palace. What makes it tragic is that unlike most other Palace Rulers, Markui have some good intentions and only wishes for a better world, making it a clash between ideas rather than good vs evil along with the tragic back story that made Markui deluded with his ideas. I’m all for happiness but even I know that it won’t be the same without learning and growing from your past mishaps which would make you a better, stronger person along with removing all the good things that you would have gained from these tragedies. This makes it one of the most heart breaking confrontations as you fight someone who you have bonded with who is a nice guy and is not completely wrong but you have no other choice to fight him to take back your reality but still an awesome boss battle itself, helps with ‘Throw of your mask’ playing in the background which refers to Markui’s point of view and ‘I believe’ as the build up as you walk up the stairs to face him. His Persona Azathnoth can be a tough one with its strong attacks which I’ve struggled with at first until I’ve used my strongest Persona Horas to buff my team’s status and dodge attacks (something that I often do for boss battles). After defeating his evolved Persona Adam Kadmon, he is able to realise the the errors of his ways and learns to face life head on. Kudos to Atlus for coming up with one of the best well written Anti Villains. 

Shadow Selves – Persona 4 Golden

With Persona in mind, the Shadow Selves is an interesting yet well thought out case (with the exception of Mitsuo Kubo). The Shadow Selves represents darker sides of your friends (who have been kidnapped) who reveals sides of your friends that they’ve been hiding with their refusal to believe in it prompts their shadows to attack them. After the battle, it’s when the corresponding character gets to comes into terms with a part of themselves that they didn’t want to accept with the shadow becoming their Persona that they get to fight with including Kanji to accept his sexuality and Natoto to be accepted as a girl working with the police. I find it a good, inspiring way to help the characters to develop for the better as they learn to face their darker sides and embrace it. 

Junko Enoshima – Danganronpa/Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair

The Ultimate Despair and the one who started the killing game and The Tragedy, you get to confront her during the final chapter, learning all the atrocities she have caused throughout that even her entertaining nature can’t hide. But it becomes satisfying as Makoto encourages his friends not to give into despair and vote for hope as you fire hope bullets all to stand up to Junko, giving her a taste of her own despair. This makes it the ultimate battle of hope and despair which Makoto earning his title of Ultimate Hope.

The Alter ego version of Junko in the sequel is also worth a mention with Hajime and the rest of her unwilling pawns were able to make their own choices for their future in order to rebel against her, stopping her plan to upload her Al version onto the comatose students that would have spread despair everywhere.

 Team Danganronpa and audience – Dangaronpa V3 Killing Harmony

A controversial choice but believe it or not, I’m one of the minorities who is fine on how the final chapter of Danganronpa V3 turned out (with Shuichi and the others are revealed to be fictional characters for a fictional Danganronpa show) with a clever deconstruction on toxic fandoms and I myself have zero tolerance on toxic fandoms, having more empathy on the characters who have to go through a brutal killing game, losing their friends just for the fandom’s own benefit. I find it catharsis on the way the characters stand up to Team Danganronpa and the Toxic fandom from Keebo revealing himself as The Ultimate Hope Robot (becoming the main character of that chapter by extension), Shuichi and the other survivors making their own choices, failing each minigames on purpose and Shuichi standing up to Keebo hijacked by the audience in one huge Argument Armament. This shows that fiction can help to inspire the world.

Marduk – God Eater 2 Rage Burst

In general, God Eater have a lot of awesome bosses including facing Dyaus Pita to advenge Lindow in the first God Eater game and Ra in God Eater 3 when you are able to take on Ash-born Argami with each of them having awesome soundtrack playing in the background including No Way Back and Nemesis respectively. But here’s one that stood out for me; Marduk in God Eater 2 Rage Burst, the Psion Argami. As you face it after going through a chain of missions, you finally get to face the Argami who took down your friend Romeo Leoni with it’s theme song Wings of Tomorrow adding the extra excitement of avenging your fellow God Eater. It wasn’t an easy ride but all of it certainly makes it rewarding.

Duma – Fire Emblem Echoes Shadows of Valentia

Fire Emblem is no shortage of excellent boss battles but I’ll pick Duma from the Fire Emblem Gaiden remake for one of the best final boss soundtrack Twilight of the Gods. Getting to Duma can be tough with a lot of enemies getting in the way but it makes it rewarding when you finally reach to him, using Alm to deliver the final blow with his Falchion. The characters saying their pre-liners, calling out Duma’s atrocities also helps to build up the hype too.

The Darker Lord – Miitopia

Even a comedic Mii RPG game have some awesome boss fights and that includes the mastermind who controls the Dark Lord (using him to steal Mii’s faces) and the Sage; The Darker Lord. This boss fight is divided into three phrases where you have to split your team to handle two of his hands. Afterwards, he steals your team’s faces which are used for his attacks, leaving the four remaining Miis including yourself to take on The Darker Lord himself while having an awesome boss battle music by the standards of a Mii game.  You are then given a choice to either break the cruise which will kill him or to save him which will restore his original self that he casted away after resenting himself for being ignored. I always go for the save him option each time (which is required to unlock the Tower of Dread and Tower of Despair) but either way, peace will be restored for all of Miitopia with all of the faces returning.

 Arkham (Mutated Form) – Devil May Cry 3

Devil May Cry 3 do have a couple of awesome boss battles but what makes Arkham on this list is that he’s the mastermind of the events of Devil May Cry 3 and you get to fight him in a mutated form with Dante’s brother Vergil on your side. The battle was tough but that didn’t stop it from being an awesome boss battle with its epic music and during the climax of the battle when the two Brothers giving him a stylish beat down with their combined shots from Ebony and Ivory. It also makes it satisfying to witness Arkham’s villainous breakdown and Lady, the daughter that he’s been using for his own benefit to deliver him the justice he deserves.

Matt Engarde - Ace Attorney Justice for All

Ace Attorney has a lot of excellent antagonists which makes it satisfying to bring them down, exposing their crimes including Dahlia Hawthorn as a manipulative monster in Trials and Tribution, Ga’ran as you prove that her rights for the royal throne is a fraud in Spirit of Justice and Mael Stronghart for that spectacular breakdown. But here’s one that had an impression on me from the second game; Matt Engarde. You find out that he is guilty of his crime hiring an assassin Shelly de Killer to murder his rival Juan Corrida yet he blackmails Phoenix Wright to defend him for his trial or else Maya will be killed by the said assassin, leaving Phoenix Wright a difficult choice to defend him to save Maya or to let him get scout free while getting Adrian Andrews, a poor innocent bystander convicted. But all is well when you find out that Matt was planning to blackmail Shelly by recording the murder, someone who doesn’t handle this reveal very well as he values trust. This makes it satisfying to watch the monstrous sociopath break down as Shelly breaks the contract and plans to kill him for breaking his trust. You are then given a choice of to declare him guilty or not guilty. Either way, he is screwed. That goes to show that not trusting others will come back to bite you hard.

Asriel Dreemurr – Undertale (True Pacifist Path)

As Flowely absorbs all the monsters including your friends and becomes his final form, you are seemingly all alone...yet you are filled with determination to save all of your friends, getting them all back by reminding them all the times you spend together with them. Even if you dealt a lot of damage along the way, you cannot die as your soul regenerates as said by the game’s message ‘But it refused’, even when Asriel fires his huge laser beam that actually hardly does a scratch which eventually leads you to save him. This boss battle is an ultimate combination of heart warming and awesome, filled with hope and determination, making the True Pacifist Path the equally ultimate path with its background music to emphasize. 

Masked Man/Claus – Mother 3

One of the most tragic boss battles listed. Throughout Mother 3, you have been clashing in with the Masked Man who is revealed to be Lucas’ twin brother who have been missing and became Porky’s servant. The last battle against the Masked Man is more like an endurance battle, handling his attacks and healing until Claus regain his memories with help from his Mother, leading to his sacrifice. Definitely one of the most heart wrenching boss battles but nevertheless makes it rememberable.

 Giygas – Earthbound

On the subject of the Mother series, Giygas is certainly infamous for being one of the most darkest and disturbing boss battles with Giygas becoming a mindless abomination along with many other dark concepts. Fighting him is seemingly impossible, if not terrifying until Paula reaches out to everyone in the game to pray including yourself which weakens him, showing that the power of love truly prevails but not before giving you some scares.

Faye – Finding Paradise 

A rather unconventional choice this one. As Dr Neil and Dr Eva explores Colin’s memories, you find out that Faye who is supposed to be Colin’s childhood friend is actually an imaginary friend who have helped him to get through life and fights to prevent Dr Neil from altering his memory. It’s more of a parody boss battle with various refers to retro games including Final Fantasy with a rather awesome boss music in the background and Dr Neil actually putting up a good fight yet it did lead to an emotional conclusion with Dr Neil learning that Colin have let go of Faye when he became an adult yet allowing her to live on through his terminal to reunite with Colin one last time while rewriting his memory where he never asked for Sigmund Corp’s services. All of this earns Faye’s spot on the list.

Giant Eggman Robo – Sonic 3 & Knuckles/Sonic and Knuckles

No boss list would be complete without a Sonic The Hedgehog boss and this one serve as the final boss of Death Egg Zone fits the bill as you reach near the end of the climax of Sonic 3 and Knuckles, fighting for the Master Emerald and settling the score with Dr Eggman. It starts off with three phasing with the first one starts off with the Giant Eggman Robo itself where you have to jump onto the fingers while avoiding getting hit by them. Then you move onto phase 2 where you have to run from the laser beam fired from the noise and hit the Master Emerald which is the source of the attack. Then the last phase involves chasing after Eggman while running away from the falling platforms behind you.  It’s far from an easy ride with you starting off with no rings (barring the ones carried on from Death Egg Zone Act 2), meaning that one mistake will cost you but it all makes a thrilling boss battle. It doesn’t end there as if you have managed to collect all the Chaos Emeralds or Hyper Emeralds, then you get to play as Super Sonic or Hyper Sonic, chasing Dr Eggman in The Doomsday Zone for a rewarding, climatic showdown.

Honourable Mentions

Tabuu – Super Smash Brother Brawl – The mastermind of Subspace Emissary, as epic as it was.

Porky – Mother 3 – You can’t help but to enjoy this love to hate boss battle

Sakaki - Dot Hack GU - It's satisfying to take him down with your friends by your side  

Bowser – Super Mario Odyssey – The boss fight was awesome itself but the most memberable part was when you actually get to control Bowser as you process him, making your way out!

So there are many boss battles that we find awesome in so many ways and I hope to play more video games where I find many more inspiring boss battles for years to come. 

 

My top hardest boss battles

For many video games, there are boss battles that we must fight in order to progress through the game. Some of which that we are able to beat with ease. Then there’s this particular boss which suddenly becomes a road block for our game. The boss fight that becomes so hard to defeat that well remembered for becoming source of our frustration, becoming the trope ‘That one boss’ .  We either rage quit, look up a guide, beat them by luck or trying over and over again until we finally defeat them.  Here’s my list on the boss battles from the video games I’ve been finding hard from mid game bosses, final bosses and optional bosses. Note that they are in no particular order. Be warned that they may contain some spoilers.

Zygarde Complete – Pokemon Sword and Shield Crown Tundra

Generally, I personally find Gym Leaders, Elite Four and Champions (and other mayor battles) not too difficult as I use walkthroughs or sources on the internet including Serebii Net to look up on their teams and plan ahead on the best teams to use including using type advantage or strategies to counter their teams.

Zygarde Complete which you can fight in Dynamax Adventures is however a monster. It starts as Zygarde 50% form who is not as hard but once it reach half of its HP, this is where it gets hard as it activates its ability Power Construct which becomes Zygarde Complete. In this form, it HP increases to an enormous amount, backed with a high Attack stat to hit hard with powerful moves and huge defensives to handle hits. Its moves that it have includes Max Wyrmwind which lowers’ your Pokemon’s attack stats, Land’s Wrath which bypasses Flying type and Pokemon with the ability Levitate’s immunity to Ground type moves and Thousand Arrows which can wipe out your entire team.

This makes it troublesome to deal with, especially if your team have become worn down by this point. Ice types are its mayor weakness but there’s only a few good ice types available in Dynamax Adventures, not helping that they don’t have the defensives  to resist any of its STAB moves and not even Fairy types are safe from its wrath. If you happen to plan to catch Zygarde Complete in Dynamax Adventures, be prepared to lose a couple of times.

Fallen Takumi – Fire Emblem Heroes

 A lot of bosses in Fire Emblem Heroes including Grand Hero battles, Legendary or Mythic heroes do tend to be hard, especially if they have reinforcements which make it difficult to keep up. It doesn’t help that you’ll automatically lose the battle if one of your units gets KOed. One of the Grand Hero Battle who I remembered that I find the hardest is Fallen Takumi.

What made this Grand Hero Battle so hard is the layout of the map which makes you surrounded by enemies that can chip away your unit’s heath, making them more exposed to a KO which as mentioned above, makes this map irksome to deal with the number of reinforcements that can wear you down. As for Fallen Takumi, he is a pain to deal who can also inflict some chip damage on the third turn along with the Panic status to units who are in the vertical range with his prf weapon Skadi. To make things worse, there are two of them (which mirrors his boss battle in his home game Fire Emblem Fates on the Conquest path).

Thankfully, I’ve been finding most Grand Hero Battles (and some other themed battles) easier with premium units including Reinhardt, Brave Ike, Brave Dmitri, Duo Lyn, Duo Hector, Duo Epharim, Reginn and Peony but I still remembered taking several days to beat Fallen Takumi.

Ganon – Super Smash Bros Ultimate

Out of the bosses in Super Smash Bros Ultimate, I find Ganon the trickiest. The reason being is because his only weak point is his tail which can be difficult to reach because you find yourself being in front of Ganon, forcing yourself to dodge him attacking in front of you until you get behind himself which is harder for characters with poor mobility. When you do enough damage to his tail however, he becomes stunned for a short of time for you to do more damage to him including his head although you might have taken a lot of damage from his strong attacks, if not lose a few stock while trying to aim for his tail.

Shadow Okumara – Persona 5 Royal

What makes this boss battle so tricky is that he uses his robots to do the fighting within a 30 minute time limit. You are required to defeat them in two turns or else he’ll rearrange them at full health which if you don’t expose their weakness, he’ll stall a lot of time. To make things more hectic, his robots have many ways to stall you including inflicting hunger status to weaken your team or Rakunda to boost their defence. I personally get panicky when dealing with the time limit and have to restart this boss battle a few times because of it.  Shadow Okumara himself however is a sad joke who only have one HP so he can fall to any hit.

There are a few other Persona 5 Royal boss battles that I find tricky including Wakaba Isshiki as the Sphinx and Maruki & Azathoth with their troublesome moves but the time limit and the stalling combined is what makes Shadow Okumara on this list. This Family Guy video below best describes his palace and boss battle below.

Balmung from Claire’s Memory Data – God Eater 3

A lot of God Eater bosses do tend to get rough, especially the large size ones (including the Vajra related ones) with their powerful, ruthless moves. But there is one that stands out is the Balmung that you face one on one with Claire in her last Memory Bank mission. Balmungs are always tough to fight against but what makes this one difficult is due to the mechanics involving going into the Traversing the Past based missions where you are limited to only use the corresponding character. I find that using a full team helps to increase my potential and only using one other character have definitely made the battle harder. Fighting the Balmung is a lot different too as normally, you can get to break an Aragami’s bonds to do more damage to them but it doesn’t seem to occur in this particular story mode, making it difficult to tell if you are doing a lot of damage to the Balmung or not. It caused a lot of defeats and a narrow victory for me to finally beat it with Claire on my side.

Nevan – Devil May Cry 3

A lot of Devil May Cry 3 bosses are thrilling in their own ways with Agni and Rudra and Cerberus are entertaining. Even if Arkham and Vergil are hard, the fact that these boss battles are awesome makes up for it. Nevan however is a complete misery even on the lowest difficulty. It’s because she fights defensively including using a bat shield which you have to take out first before dealing significant damage to her, draining your health, firing her electrical attacks from a far distance that deals a huge amount of damage and hiding into the shadows for her to ambush you. All of this combined makes it tedious to face her. You can imagine my horror when I get to face her again in Lost Soul Nirvana (which is thankfully optional).

Terrako – Hyrule Warriors Age of Calamity

Terrako is your cute, Guardian full of personality but near the end of the chapter, he becomes corrupted so you have to face him which I’ve found a nightmare. He maybe small but his fast movements are difficult to avoid, quickly catching up to you and dealing a lot of damage. Much like the Balmung battle above, you are limited to only use Link which I find it more frustrating to fight against without having any team mates that could have an advantage against him. The Bright Ganons were wakeup call boss battles, causing me to have some change of strategy but I didn’t find them as fiendish as Terrako.

Traveller Hub bosses– Miitopia  

Even a fun, Mii RPG game have a couple of fiendish boss battles and no, I’m not talking about the Fiends that OHKOs your Mii (but they are just a pain to face with), I’m referring to some of the bosses that you randomly encounter for a Traveller Hub mission. While some are not too hard, there are others that are tough to face including Red Orochi, Red Dragon, Angry Queens, Cerberus and Generals. They have heavy hitting moves that deals a large amount of damage to your Miis, especially if they attack twice in a row which I find overpowered. You have to do huge amount to these bosses while hoping that your AI controlled teams will pick the right options to do a lot of damage or hinder them before they wipe out your whole team.

Trace – Metroid Prime Hunters

Most of the rival hunters are tough in their own ways. Trace stands out with his fast speed, disappearing and sucker punching you and fighting from a distance. While he doesn’t handle too many hits, he can deal a lot of damage before you have a chance to react. What doesn’t help that you first fight him just when you have to escape Arcterra before the time runs out after you fight the Slench v2 (which wasn’t as hard but was far from an easy ride itself) so he picks a really bad timing to fight him to add the extra frustration.

Barrier Trio – Mother 3

Don’t be fooled by their silly, campy appearance as they have powerful PK moves including every elemental attacks, have huge defensives and are immune to status aliments. They also have an immunity to all but for one PK element while they strike a Barrier Pose during the start of the battle which you have to scout which one with Boney’s Sniff ability and when their HP gets low, they’ll concentrate as their cue to use their PK Starstorm which can wipe out your team. Fighting the Barrier Trio will requires some strategy to beat them including regular healing or reviving, using defensive skills to sponge their hits including PSI Shield and PSI Counter and dishing out strong attacks of your own. There’s a reason why their battle theme is known as Strong One.

 Asgore Dreemurr – Undertale (Neutral – Pacifist Run)

I was happy to take the Pacifist path (starting with the Neutral – Pacifist run), sparring all monsters and lovable characters. The only catch is this battle with Asgore who destroys the Mercy button, giving you no choice but to fight him. Because you don’t level up defeating the monsters on the said path, you are weaker so you’ll take great damage from his attack pattern that is tricky to dodge and takes longer to weaken him. Even so, I still find it worth sparing Asgore once I’ve managed to overcome this boss battle, least before Flowey gets to kill him.

Major Burrows – Super Mario Galaxy

This huge scary looking boss is tough as he looks. The main problem is his speed when getting away from him, ground pounding next to him to unearth him, and attacking him when he’s dazed before he gets back into the ground which makes it rather painstaking.

Krampus – Trivia Tricks

Trivia Tricks is a fun quiz based game that I’ve helped my friends to develop last year by coming up with questions. That said, not even Trivia Trick is exempt from having difficult bosses as you have to team up with others to win against the boss. Krampus is one of the first one during the Christmas event as a seasonal update who deducts your points during Chance Rounds which are randomly set so there’s no way of telling if you’ll lose a lot of points or not which can be especially fatal if you have a bad round with questions that you find difficult. While never bosses were added including Negative functioning similarly to him, Krampus still gives a first impression on what Trivia Tricks bosses are like to this day.

Honourable mentions

Nemesis – Project X Zone 2 – In Chapter 16: Thicker than water, he constantly heals his HP which took me a while for him to go down.

Jedah – Fire Emblem Echoes Shadows of Valentia – He is technically unbeatable which stops me from putting on the list but was still a pain to fight (even for the second time fighting him who gets in the way of Duma).

Lock Keepers – Persona 5 Strikers – Most of these are a pain to fight.

So in almost any game we play, we are bond to have a frustrating time with that one boss but our determination and persistence (along with some help from walkthroughs and other sources) shall always overcome them or at least what makes them well remembered.