Originally Posted by Lord Golbez
Yes, props to mentioning The End!
Hmm, not sure I can come up w/ a listed 10, but I can do a sort of hybrid list of answering the games w/ best bosses and specific bosses that stood out and put them in order... Ehh, I can probably do a top 10, but there may be some games repeated.
Hyper Light Drifter - Masterfully designed boss fights, imo. They were extremely hard, but I NEVER felt cheated or as if they were unfair. I think this was one of the few action games whenever I died on a boss, I never got angry (yeah, I rage at times...). The bosses were all sorta "same-y" (dodge/reflect stuff, dash in and attack, dash out, rinse and repeat), but man, they were all a great, fair, and fun challenge.
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice - the only soulslike game I ever beat, or even cared to beat really (Nioh is close, tho). I'm not a fan of soulslike games. I hate stamina management, corpse running, and the save/respawn systems. Sekiro doesn't have the former 2 and is the only reason I bothered to play it. Now I'm glad I did, b/c it's a Top 15 all-time game for me. It was one of two games ever that I ever felt compelled to play again or play NG+ (the other being Mark of the Ninja). I only wanted to play NG+, so I can keep fighting the bosses that I had become addicted to. Some bosses did feel cheap for whatever design or hurtbox/hitbox reason, but overall, they were pretty great as a whole. Sadly the Guardian Ape was spoiled for me, or else I think it would definitely resonate w/ me more had I experienced it unspoiled. Also, after beating Sekiro, I felt a calm about myself...that my days as a rage gamer were over. ...then I played ScourgeBringer. And Cyber Shadow...
Final Fantasy VII - Emerald Weapon, Ruby Weapon, Sephiroth...all of these are still vivid memories in my mind.
Metal Gear Solid series - as stated above...The End was just incredible. Not just an all-time boss fight for me, but an all-time gaming experience. Psycho Mantis, Vulcan Raven (for just being cool), The Sorrow, Sniper Wolf, Crying Wolf...the MGS series is loaded w/ memorable boss fights. It's funny, MGS2 is hands-down my favorite MGS, but I also acknowledge it easily has the least interesting and memorable boss encounters.
Shadow of the Colossus - pretty self-explanatory. The encounters were solid mechanically (tho I remember hating that lightning boss in the colosseum), but the actual sense of scope and scale, made it just so epic.
World of Warcraft - too many to list or even remember, tbh. And so many whose names I forgot. I was a dedicated raider from the end of vanilla through WotLK. I did some raids in MoP and Legion, but just casually, LFR stuff. But even those were great. I was the ball-runner on G'huun and just that is incredibly fun (dps had to have 2 ppl each on the left and right platforms rotating picking up a ball and throwing it in some some biological receptor thing). I never learned the full boss fight itself, just mastered my role of running a ball back and forth lol. I wish I got to truly experience Yogg-Saron. When Ulduar was new, I only got to the 3rd to last boss. A buddy and I tried to 2-man Yogg when Ulduar was like 3 expansions old, and we still couldn't down him lol. I could probably put 5+ WoW bosses on a Top 10 list across all games, but I'll try to be as discerning as possible. And also, honestly, these experiences ARE a bit skewed, since they are co-op, and essentially influenced by the people you play with. But I'm still trying to be objective, as if I was playing w/ a raid of silent AI teammates lol. Oh and the WoD raid bosses...i didn't do those til I outleveled them just for mog runs, but I can tell, plenty of them were unique as heck.
Doom (2016) and Doom Eternal - a lot of the boss fights themselves are decently memorable, but what stood out to me was the build up or the scope of some of the encounters. Truly badass and epic.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Divine Beasts and Lynels. 'nuff said. Or is it...*hint hint*
Okay, my Top 10. I will add, this weighs mostly the encounter, but also does weigh secondary/tertiary things like the buildup, story flavor, even music, etc. - sort of the "whole" experience.
Honorable Mention: FEAR - Paxton Fettel (SPOILER)not really a boss FIGHT, but...play the game!
10. Razorgore the Untamed (WoW)
9. Sniper Wolf (MGS)
8. Hysteria (Sundered)
7. Flaahgra (Metroid Prime)
6. Naydra (BotW)
5. Paragons of the Klaxxi (WoW:MoP)
4. Emerald Weapon (FF7)
3. The End (MGS3)
2. Folding Screen Monkeys (Sekiro)
1. Mantis Lords (Hollow Knight)
Wow, I'm actually surprised I came up w/ so much diversity. I thought it'd just all be FF and MGS and Sekiro bosses lol.
Thanks for this fun thread.
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