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.
Dr Markui has definitely left an impression on me. If you managed to max out his confidant before November 18th, 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.
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.
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.
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.
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