Top 10 Final Bosses!!

by SaikyoBro on Apr 7th, 2013

Final bosses are awesome! Regardless of what anyone says, I don’t think I’ll ever change my mind that a good boss fight is the best way to end a game. But what makes a really good one? A lot of things, but the main thing for me is atmosphere. A boss fight that makes you walk away thinking “wow, that was an awesome game” or “that game ended so well.” Here is my list of final bosses that gave me that feeling moreso than any others! …and spoilers are going to be all over the place, so watch out.

Okay, this miiiiiiiight be a stretch considering you don’t actually fight him or anything, but Manfred von Karma is just as evil as any other villain on this list. You hear stories about him very early on in the game: a God among prosecutors, never having lost a case in 40 years. He’ll supposedly do anything it takes to get a guilty verdict. He’s the man who taught Miles Edgeworth, your fiercest rival, everything he knows. When the final case of the first Ace Attorney game throws you into a position that requires you to not only defend your rival Edgeworth in a seemingly impossible case, but also butt heads with the legendary von Karma himself, things certainly don’t look easy. His power in the courts is made clear in mere seconds, as he’s able to bully even the judge around. His rumored dirty tricks are shown first hand, as he even goes as far as to tase you and steal your evidence! However, the conclusion to this case is one of the most satisfying endings to a game I can remember: you not only prove Edgeworth innocent of this crime and another that’s been haunting him for 15 years…you prove Manfred von Karma himself guilty of it! Not only do you ruin his 40 year win-streak, but you get him found guilty of murder as well. Though von Karma certainly isn’t my favorite prosecutor from the series, he’s certainly the best final-boss material among the prosecutors from the final cases. Justice for All and Trials and Tribulations pit you against Edgeworth and Godot in their final cases, which are certainly still awesome, but neither of the two make for the awesome encounter with the legendary von Karma. He is something completely new and a true challenge to Phoenix Wright, seeing as he’s only experienced 3 cases and 2 prosecutors, both of which are nothing compared to Mr. von Karma. In short, the game hypes von Karma up as a legend from fairly early on, and from the moment you’re in the same room as him he immediately makes it clear that the tales you’ve heard of him are to be taken seriously. A perfect example of how to make this kind of boss.

So you’ve finally payed off your huge debt in Pikmin 2! Congratulations, you’re ready to go home! So you get in the ship, you begin flying, and you realize…you forgot Louie. It’s too late to turn around, and you arrive back without your partner. Your company’s president is distraught to hear this and insists you go back to find him. He can’t just send you alone though…so he accompanies you! That’s right, the postgame content of Pikmin 2 replaces Louie with the president, which is actually pretty funny. You access the last area of the game complete with its own caves and treasures (most of them being obnoxious to get to). So you find the “Dream Den”, with a really big number of floors (14, if I remember correctly) and the toughest enemy types in the game. And of course, Louie is at the very bottom. After working through the huge cave and likely losing a big chunk of your Pikmin, you find him! Louie is just sitting there on top of a huge pile of junk. You go to get him and OH MY GOD GIANT SPIDER. The pile of junk Louie was sitting on was actually just the arsenal of the Titan Dweevil, the final boss of Pikmin 2. If you aren’t familiar with Pikmin, then you basically have 5 types. Each one has an immunity to a particular effect, either fire, lightning, water, or poison (then there’s the purple type, whose distinctive feature is its strength and weight). The other Pikmin are all insanely weak to these elements and you have to do your best to keep them away from them the entire game. So the final boss is a giant spider that has weapons it can switch between that will completely obliterate all but one type of your army. And that…that’s really bad. Keep in mind you’ve probably lost a good amount of Pikmin just getting to the boss itself. This is one of few games with a boss that you’re unaware exists until the very end, making it actually a big shock to see 4 huge legs sprout out of the ground covered in weapons. You have to be really smart with your use of Pikmin to make sure they aren’t instantly electrocuted to death, drowned, poisoned, or burnt to a crisp. You can keep a good eye on them when you don’t have many, but with a bigger army it’s hard to keep track of all of them at all times like you need to with this boss. But with a smaller army, it takes absolutely forever to take the weapons off of this thing and save Louie. Playing smart and managing your resources are key to beating this boss, with your reward being…well, the incompetent man who got you into this mess in the first place, Louie. The fight is still very fun and challenging and a really appropriate ending to your adventure.

Why do I love this fight so much? Because it’s set up so, so well. This is a game where Bowser is an actual threat, something we haven’t seen since…well, probably this game. He’s not for comic relief, he’s not embarrassingly easy to beat, this is how Bowser should be. In Paper Mario he hasn’t just kidnapped the princess, but literally carried her castle up from the ground and into space. He’s stolen the Star Rod, which is used to grant everyone’s wishes. With it he grants his own selfish wishes, namely making himself invincible. You see this during the scripted battle at the beginning of the game where Bowser uses it to beat Mario and send him flying from the castle, with his survival being possible only due to the Star Spirits aiding him. Through the game you have to rescue the Star Spirits, which join together and give Mario a move called the Star Beam. This move’s only use is to remove Bowser’s invincibility for the end of the game. So you get to the final boss, you expect it to be easy since you have a move that robs him of his strongest technique, and…it fails. Through his assistant Kammy Koopa’s magic, Bowser is made so strong that combined with the Star Rod he is literally unable to be hurt. The fight fades away to a scripted fight with Peach and her star friend Twink against Kammy Koopa, where Peach discovers that through her wishes she makes Twink more powerful. Twink joins the other 7 Star Spirits and they make a new move, the Peach Beam, which removes Bowser’s invincibility. So NOW you expect the fight to be easy, but…still no! With his Star Rod invincibility out of the question, Bowser still has 99 HP and can deal ridiculous damage, disable your partner, and heal himself. If you’re familiar with how combat works in the first Paper Mario, you know that any of these things on their own are awful, and together they make the fight more than challenging. So what makes this fight so cool? Well, lots of things. The deal with the Star Beam and it’s eventual becoming the Peach Beam is actually really cool. Seeing your most valuable move in your fight against him do nothing is genuinely shocking the first time you fight him and seeing the scripted battle with Peach increase the move’s power is a big relief and motivates you to continue the fight. It’s got awesome music in the background and it’s in the middle of space on a floating platform, which make for an awesome encounter. The fight itself is a challenge and you really have to use your brain for it. It’s a fight that does a good job of making the player feel powerful while still providing a challenging and fun fight, which is by no means easy.

Specter is just an awesome character in terms of…well, everything. His design, his voice (well, in the more recent games…), his powers, his theme, everything about him makes him absolutely too cool. So once you’ve finally caught enough of his monkey minions to reach the Peak Point Matrix and take him on in a fight, you know you’re in for an awesome fight. After a fun introductory cutscene (made more fun by the PS1 Ape Escape’s hysterically bad voice acting), the fight begins. Specter is hovering in a chair firing shockwaves and teleporting around, your only way of damaging being your slingshot (which actually causes his chair to explode every time you hit it). I like this fight because you have to use your monkey-catching tools in fun and different ways in order to weaken Specter to the point where you can catch him. You’re not just trying to catch up to him or stun him so you can get him in your net, you’re trying to actually damage him. After you’ve hit him with your slingshot enough times, his chair is destroyed and he falls to the ground. But you can’t just run up and catch him! He’s still firing at you, but now protected by a barrier and running around for his life. You have to destroy his shield several times and finally catch him in the net (which is shown from 3 shots) to finally capture the leader of the pipo monkeys and end the game. So what makes the fight so special? Well, I really like the way it’s setup. The whole game is about finding monkeys and catching them in your net, which is also the goal of this boss fight. However, he’s not running or hiding, he’s fighting you head-on with all the technology at his disposal in an arena in space. It looks cool, the music is awesome, the character you’re fighting is cool, and finally catching him in your net and seeing it from 3 angles is beyond satisfying. Great boss.

This is my favorite kind of boss battle I think: the kind where you feel perfectly even with the enemy. Not someone you feel way stronger than, not someone that feels way stronger than you. Someone that’s truly your equal. A lot of games aren’t very original about it though; Shadow Mario! Dark Link! Evil Ryu! However, in Devil May Cry 3, it’s a lot deeper than that. Vergil, while similar in physical appearance and power to Dante, is completely his own character, and despite having many of the same powers as Dante, he uses them in completely different ways. The boss battles are arguably the best part of DMC3. Why? Because all the bosses have their own original personalities and they’re all challenging yet fun fights. Cerberus, Gigapede, Geryon, Beowulf, and Arkham are all great examples of how well done these boss fights are. However, Vergil is definitely my favorite. While he’s miniscule in size compared to the others I mentioned just now, he’s easily the most challenging. You encounter him 3 times and he improves each time, just as Dante does: he gets access to his Devil Trigger, projectiles, new weapons, and new moves every time you battle him and it feels like he grows just as you do. It’s such a thrill to fight someone with such similar powers and weapons to yours and try to find a good strategy to counter your brother. Which style works best? Which gun? It’s just a very exciting boss fight in general and Vergil is an awesome character.

This…this may well be the hardest boss I’ve ever beaten. If you’re not familiar with it, Prinny: Can I Really be the Hero? is a game where you’re given an army of 1,000 Prinnies (exploding, penguin-like demon creatures, which are actually humans reincarnated and forced to work off their sins) and sent to retrieve all the ingredients of the ultra dessert. While 1,000 sounds like plenty to deal with, the problem is THIS IS ONE OF THE HARDEST GAMES EVER MADE.  Losing every single one of your Prinnies is completely possible at any moment and I’m sad to say that I know this from experience. You only have two ways of attack; slashing your sword in the air or in the ground, as well as a butt bounce attack that stuns most enemies but won’t damage them. The boss fights are one of the biggest parts of the game, and you fight one toward the end of every level. They’re usually loaded with a huge amount of health, attacks that take some serious control and prediction to avoid, and ridiculously awesome music. So you’re finally at the final boss, Sir Sweet! He’s…just some fat pig with a crown and a scepter that has an ice cream cone at the end. You see the guy is a psycho trying to make a dessert out of your Prinny friends, so you fight him. He’s pretty tough in his own right, but you can tell he goes down way too quickly to really be the final boss. So of course, he has a second form! The ice cream cone on his scepter turns into a red ball of energy, he grows demon wings, and claims nothing is sweeter than sin itself, taking you to the stage of the real final boss fight! Unlike most of the other fights that are in a huge room and give you room to experiment and find the best strategy, you’re on a super small platform in the center of a red abyss, with Sir Sweet flying around and firing projectiles at you non-stop. They look easy enough to dodge, but the Prinny is a very delicate creature and can only take 4 hits before dying (or a single hit on the harder difficulty). You have to have reflexes quick enough to dodge before he sends the attack out and mash that square button like nobody’s business to stand a chance in this fight. But as you walk away with a broken spirit and blistered thumbs, you can’t help but come back and try again. This is totally one of the most addicting games I’ve ever played. And when the music cuts off, the screen cuts to white, and you see your Prinny’s silhouette deliver a final slash to the silhouette of Sir Sweet? It’s seriously one of the most satisfying feelings in the world. With ridiculously high challenge, awesome music, and a satisfying conclusion, Prinny: Can I Really be the Hero? has one of the best final bosses there is. Never doubt a Prinny, dood.

The final boss of the first Crash game was epic. You’re standing on a platform with Dr. Cortex firing at you with his castle burning in the background with awesome music playing. The second Crash game’s final boss however, was complete trash. Could Naughty Dog redeem itself with the third game? Yes, yes they could. This fight isn’t exactly challenging, but it’s set up in such a completely awesome way that there’s no way I could deny it a place on this list. You’re in the center of a gigantic time machine that’s about to collapse on itself, which happens to take the appearance of a lab within an ancient temple. Not only does it look cool, but it sounds awesome, with a more energetic remix of the awesome boss theme used in the first game. The fight itself is simple enough, Cortex flying around and shooting at you as he did in the first game, but there’s a twist. It’s not just you fighting Cortex, the two masks, Aku Aku and Uka Uka (which are basically gods in the Crash universe) are fighting as well. So while you’re dealing with Cortex, you have to be careful to avoid the lasers, explosions, and collisions of your mask and Cortex’s. The only problem with this fight is that it’s a little too easy and a little too short, but everything about it is great and it’s an amazing way to end the Crash trilogy on PS1.

Now this, THIS is where it gets really close. This was the first final boss I ever defeated, or at least the first one I remember. And I’m lucky I can say that, because this is truly an awesome way to start. So basically, the premise of the whole game of Banjo-Kazooie is climbing to the top of Grunty’s tower and saving your sister, which I’m sure all of you guys already know. But it’s not just the fact that you’re finally where you’ve been trying to get for the whole game, you absolutely HATE Grunty by this point. Her rude comments and obnoxious game shows have gone on far enough and you’re ready to tear her limb from limb! But it’s not just a desire to get to this point and desire to beat the final boss, the atmosphere is awesome. The top of a tower in a dark sky with an awesome song playing in the background certainly sets the stage for a final battle. But what sets this apart from other fights is that it makes you use almost every one of your abilities and put them to good use. It’s not a single pattern you need to master, you have to adapt and be clever with your whole arsenal as Grunty changes up her pattern as well. It’s not the hardest boss fight but it’s by no means easy. Once you finally have Grunty down to her last legs and you’re ready to beat her, she puts up a barrier that you have no way to break. So what happens? Your jinjo friends show up to help you! It’s not that simple though, as you’ll need to free them by shooting eggs into their statue. At the same time you have to watch for Grunty who’s firing at you from the sky, so it gets really chaotic. And at the end, of course, the part with the Jinjonator…just, amazing. One of the most satisfying ways to finish a boss and one of my fondest memories with gaming. If you had asked me for a long time what THE definitive boss battle was, I’d say Gruntilda from Banjo-Kazooie. But several years later, she’s just THIS close to the top. What could possibly beat her? Well…

This is such a great fight for so many reasons. Like, ohhhhhhh my gosh, this is so great. So you fight a huge metal gear, then…well, the man piloting it gets out and punches you in the face. And like…dude, I honestly don’t want to spoil this because it’s so great on so many levels. What did other boss fights do right? They had amazing music, they made you hate the character you’re fighting, they’re fought in awesome locations, and fighting them made you feel like a badass. Senator Armstrong doesn’t just do this, but he practically defines how you should do it. Like the Titan Dweevil, you aren’t aware this character exists until you fight him. But unlike the Titan Dweevil, you really, REALLY get to know him. His ideals, his motivations, everything becomes so clear to you in just a few cutscenes. And these cutscenes do an amazing job of making you feel defeated and making things look hopeless. Throughout the entire game Raiden feels untouchable, he feels like one of the most powerful characters there is, playing as him is a blast. And fighting Armstrong in the beginning is the first time Raiden really feels vulnerable. Your attacks do barely any damage and your healthbar goes down very quickly. The cutscenes make this even more clear, to the point where you’re thinking “wow, this is going to be a ridiculously hard fight.” And it is. It’s really, really hard. But fighting him feels so, so satisfying. Using the Zandatsu cutting mechanic to precisely tear through the things he’s throwing at you is incredibly cool, and taking off that .1% of health he has left is beyond awesome. He’s introduced in a way that’s funny, sure, but it also makes the character look like a huge badass. The fight against him itself is a huge adrenaline rush and beating him is totally worth it, even if it is really, really hard. As Armstrong himself said, “don’t f*ck with THIS senator.” An awesome fight that really knows how a game like Rising needed to end.

Oh dear. Ohhhh dear, THIS is how you do a boss fight. Kefka is made the most despicable character possible. At the beginning of the game he’s a goofy clown with some murderous intent, but without the means to do much. But halfway through the game, he does it. He literally takes over the world. Your party of 14 members is split up and you have to get them back one at a time (unless you decide it’s more trouble than it’s worth…*cough* LOCKE *cough*). Once you get to Kefka himself, you see that he’s basically become God. He is the entire source of magic left in the world. You take 3 parties of 4 into Kefka’s tower and after solving some obnoxious puzzles and fighting through the hardest enemy types in the game over and over, you make it to Kefka himself. There are 4 phases of the fight, 3 of them before you fight Kefka himself. The whole time, what’s (in my opinion) the greatest final boss theme ever composed is playing in the background and you’re rising up to the different phases of the fight, each of them more disturbing than the last. You finally make it to the top of the tower, and Kefka descends in his new God form. “Life… Dreams… Hope… Where do they come from? And where do they go…? Such meaningless things… I’ll destroy them all!” The fight isn’t very challenging if you come in prepared, but you’re still more than likely going to lose a few party members in the process. What makes this fight so great is…well, what isn’t great about this fight? Kefka is one of the most hatable final boss characters in video game history, the process of getting to him gets more and more intense, and the fight itself is like being in heaven against God. The amazing music, the awesome quotes, and Kefka’s delightful evil laugh all come together to build an awesome fight. It’s not too long, it’s not too short. It’s not too hard, it’s not too easy. Everything just becomes so intense and magical when you’re in this fight, and beating him and watching him literally crumble before you is great. Kefka is a final boss that I can not thing of a single way to improve, and is absolutely the right way to end a game of Final Fantasy 6’s caliber. Kefka’s an awesome character, an awesome villain, and makes for an awesome final boss battle.

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