What game do you feel has the best boss fights ever?

[remy5623]

I've got to say the Yakuza series has the best boss fights. Yakuza's battle mechanics just tend to work best when you're fighting one-on-one, and each new boss fight requires you to up your strategy game (unless you're spamming Tiger Drop, which I totally do as soon as I unlock it ). I also really like the way the boss fights are framed by the story. Boss fights frequently mark the end of a chapter, and it's rare that they blindside you with surprise fight. It often feels like the entire chapter is leading up to that single fight, to the extent that sometimes the story will get ridiculously side-tracked just for the sake of the fight. In most games, boss fights feel like they're a consequence of the story's events. But in Yakuza, it can feel like the boss fights themselves are driving the story. While this can result in some bloated storytelling in the game as a whole, it tends to make each fight a lot more meaningful. That plus Kiryu's theatrics always manage to make every boss fight feel like a fight to the death for the fate of the world, even if it's nothing more than a bar brawl.

It'll be tough to narrow it down for my top ten, but I'll try:

10) Kazuma Kiryu (Yakuza 4) - It's really trippy fighting the guy who was the protagonist for the first 3 games, but it makes the stakes feel higher than they actually are. Also, Kiryu's just a really good match for Saejima's fighting style. He manages to counter Saejima's brute strength in a way that not many can.

9) Gigantaur (Final Fantasy XIII) - The animations for this thing are ridiculous, but aside from that it's also a pretty fun fight.

8) Yiazmat (Final Fantasy XII) - Easily the longest I've ever spent fighting a boss, and that's if you don't inclulde all the times I died. How did anyone ever did this on the PS2 without 4x speed I'll never know. But it felt awesome when I was through.

7) Akira Nishikiyama (Yakuza/Yakuza Kiwami) - Not much I can say that Vermachtnis didn't already say, so I'll just quote them:

The final mission is tiring. You, the player, is tired. Kiryu is tired. There's just one loose end. Your ex-blood brother. And he comes in with six health bars. And as you're trading blows it'll flash back and show scenes of them from Zero and Kiwami.

6) Flemeth (Dragon Age: Origins) - She turns into a dragon, which was completely unexpected. She was also the first dragon I ever fought in Dragon Age, so it was a cool milestone. Pretty tough fight, though, I had to leave and level up a bit before I could manage it. But honestly at that point in the game I cared more about Morrigan than I did about fighting the Archdemon, so it was worth it. Of course, she still managed to come back and screw with Morrigan's head in Inquisition . But it gave Morrigan peace of mind for a decade, so that's something .

5) Goro Majima (Yakuza 5, Final Chapter) - This has a similar vibe to the fight with Nishiki in Yakuza Kiwami, but it has even more impact, since you've gotten to know and love/hate Majima over the course of 5 games.

4) Daisaku Kuze (Yakuza 0, Ch. 6) - Again, Vermachtnis said it all:

The second fight is crazy. He charges Kiryu on a motorcycle and hits him with a iron pipe before the fight even begins. And goes on a whole Rocky spiel about how it's not about how hard you hit, but how you get hit and keep standing up. And he hates Kiryu at this point.

3) Bituitus, the Pillager (Final Fantasy XIII) - The deadly combination of Miasma and Bituitus's generally high stats made this one of the more difficult bosses in the game for me, but also one of the most fun.

2) Goro Majima (Yakuza/Yakuza Kiwami, Ch. 11) - Majima pretty much always fights with the same style, but this one's my favorite for a couple of reasons. First, at this point in the series you can still take Majima seriously as a villain. Pretty soon you start to realize he'll never actually hurt Kiryu or Saejima, but here he's still very plausible as a bad guy. Second, during the course of this fight, you end up breaking through the marble floor and falling into the basement. It's a really cool transition in a series that usually sets its boss fights in static arenas.

1) Gol and Maia Acheron (Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy) - A lot of 3D platformers have really bland boss fights, but not so in Jak and Daxter. Defeating Gol and Maia requires mastery of all of the game's Eco powers, making it feel like the perfect culmination of the game's mechanics. It's a pretty satisfying ending to the story, as well. And it features Daxter's only really moment of character development in the entire series, which is pretty impressive.