Current Events > Who are some of the worst, most infuriating boss fights?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Dark Force in Phantasy Star II. That thing where he makes your characters attack each other is way overpowered.

Drakengard 3 Route D final boss

Going from an action game to a rhythm game is bad enough, but that camera and the very last note were maddening.

Malenia in Elden Ring, waterfowl dance + healing is just such a ridiculous design choice lol

Radiance in Hollow Knight.

The final boss in Yakuza 4. Surrounded by goons and he's armed with a pistol to hit you from range. Really brought down my experience of an otherwise good game.

Nova_Castings posted...

Drakengard 3 Route D final boss

Going from an action game to a rhythm game is bad enough, but that camera and the very last note were maddening.

Don't forget random frame drops which don't actually effect the timing required despite altering the visuals.

This one gets my vote too.

The Mysterious Figure in Birth by Sleep was utter nonsense. I've fought some crazy hard bosses before, including several that I would still call harder than this one, but there's a special place in the bad boss fight Hall of Fame for a boss with instakill rapid tap mechanics in the middle of the fight with no little mini cutscene to prepare for them or anything. That on top of just generally being absurd anyway. I dodge rolled more in that one fight than in the rest of the series combined, I think.

How about the jetpack guy from streets of rage , fucking hate that guy

joe_stalin518 posted...

How about the jetpack guy from streets of rage , fucking hate that guy

From sr2? Just played it the other day lol. Other than 1 slam he didn't do much to us. We just trapped him in the corner and beat him. For me, it's death and Dracula from the early castlevanias.

Limiter off Indelecio from Star Ocean 2

General Knoxx in The Secret Armory of General Knoxx DLC for Borderlands on a new game+ is a bulletsponge like no other.

A shot that does not hit his head does almost no damage at all, he is immune to elemental damage, and troopers regularly spawn into the arena to harass and distract you. To reduce his health bar to just to 50% can take several minutes. But that's not the worst of it. Some of the summoned troopers are medics who will deploy healing stations that can refill his health bar in seconds. These healing stations are also quite resilient to damage, too.

AnsestralRecall posted...

Limiter off Indelecio from Star Ocean 2

I can't imagine. I had a hard enough time with the normal version.

I forget exactly what level I first went into that dungeon at. Somewhere around 20 or 30. But when I finally defeated that fool, I was level 110. That thing he does where he drums the ground with that summon or whatever (it's been a long time, lol) was just crazy overpowered. When I was finally strong enough to survive it, he would do it twice in a row. So I finally just cheated by using that armor that makes you take zero damage from attacks but drains your health constantly. It was the only way, lol.

SauI_Goodman posted...

From sr2? Just played it the other day lol. Other than 1 slam he didn't do much to us. We just trapped him in the corner and beat him. For me, it's death and Dracula from the early castlevanias.

Look we both know they're harder bosses but he was the 1st to pop in my head , if you want an actual pain in the ass boss there's lots to choose from like the optional boss in DDS for ps2 , optional bosses in final fantasy XII and XIV (before it was nerfed)

*hell I hate fighting the last boss in legend of dragoon and his 5 forms cause it takes like 40-50mins (love the game other than him)

The bosses at the very beginning of disc 2 in Baten kaitos 2. It was a huge difficulty jump, and you can not grind before it, so you are stuck there forever.

I think there is a moment like that in the first game as well.

Also, not a boss fight, but the battle in FFT where you have to save Rafa, but she just sometimes runs into enemy fire on the very first turn.

Sonic 2s Death Egg Robot still haunts me to this day. Very difficult to learn where to safely hit it due to the lack of rings, and getting hit means redoing the tedious (but not particularly difficult) Silver Sonic fight every time. And trying to do it with Knuckles and his shorter jump is even worse. It takes something like 16 hits, and it just takes forever.

A more modern example for me is Deltarune Chapter 3s secret boss. That asshole took me forever to just git gud enough to avoid enough damage to just barely last to the end. I had to go back and get some optional equipment Id missed just to barely make it tolerable. Apparently one of the bosss attacks got slightly nerfed in a recent patch, so maybe its gotten better, but idk.

that owl fucker from Sekiro.

it made me give up...

This son of a bitch
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/c/c51fd24f.jpg

The Fire Giant in Elden Ring, just a trash slog of a fight.

The Pain in Metal Gear Solid Delta without grenades.

Slowly climb up the rock. "Tommy gun!". Dive back into the water. Hide for a bit. Slowly climb back up. "Grenade!" while you're in the middle of the climbing animation. Too close to shoot it so you dive back into the water. Swim to the other side. Slowly climb up the rock. "Tommy gun!"

Djinn Storm from Dullahan is the single most obnoxious anything from any boss in any game. The strategy is literally avoid it by having as many dead party members as possible.

Tyranthraxus posted...

Djinn Storm from Dullahan is the single most obnoxious anything from any boss in any game. The strategy is literally avoid it by having as many dead party members as possible.

I didn't really have anything in mind when I clicked this topic but this might be my answer too now that you've reminded me.

For those not in the know, it's a jrpg boss with a super move that forcibly class-changes all your characters back to their base class temporarily, which means not just a massive drop in stats but all your skills/attacks change

kirbymuncher posted...

I didn't really have anything in mind when I clicked this topic but this might be my answer too now that you've reminded me.

For those not in the know, it's a jrpg boss with a super move that forcibly class-changes all your characters back to their base class temporarily, which means not just a massive drop in stats but all your skills/attacks change

There's also no way to cure it except time. You have to wait NINE turns to fully recover.

kirbymuncher posted...

I didn't really have anything in mind when I clicked this topic but this might be my answer too now that you've reminded me.

For those not in the know, it's a jrpg boss with a super move that forcibly class-changes all your characters back to their base class temporarily, which means not just a massive drop in stats but all your skills/attacks change

Tyranthraxus posted...

There's also no way to cure it except time. You have to wait NINE turns to fully recover.

That sounds awful.

St0rmFury posted...

Radiance in Hollow Knight.

Meh... if you can get the essence necessary to fight Radiance, it shouldn't be that bad. Took me 4 attempts in my last run before Silksong. Absolute Radiance is another story, though I'm not good enough to even get to that one.

ReturnOfDevsman posted...

That sounds awful.

In defense of Djinni Storm, it's the only real check the game has for a fully kitted party, and only two bosses can use it. You're completely OP otherwise.

The Wiegraf 1 on 1 when you're unprepared.

BlueAnnihilator posted...

In defense of Djinni Storm, it's the only real check the game has for a fully kitted party, and only two bosses can use it. You're completely OP otherwise.

It's not so bad when used by the other boss but Dullahan spams that shit

Surprised we made it this far without mentioning the Bed of Chaos from Dark Souls. Absolutely infuriating for first time players and even after.

LightSnake posted...

Surprised we made it this far without mentioning the Bed of Chaos from Dark Souls. Absolutely infuriating for first time players and even after.

This is a good one too. The only boss in the entire franchise that I will just pull up a video to cheese my way through for any playthrough, doing the bow strategy and minimal jumps. Not even really a boss fight honestly

I stopped playing Metroid Dread because of Z-57. Even on Rookie Mode (the biggest lie of a name) it does like 2 energy tanks of damage with one hit. I made it to the second phase once and that was only after using Amiibos to refill my energy (which can only be done once per day). I'm effectively stuck in the game because it's a point that you can't even explore anywhere to try and get more energy tanks because everything is frozen. I really hope the next 2D Metroid game is a little more forgiving than this one because honestly this is the only one in the entire series that I've had this much problems with.

OniLink5000 posted...

The Wiegraf 1 on 1 when you're unprepared.

Yah I wonder if they'll do anything with it in the remake version

Night Terror from Soul Calibur 3 was an absolute bastard.

HighSeraph posted...

Yah I wonder if they'll do anything with it in the remake version

They won't and that fight + the riovanes rooftop is going to have a whole new generation of people who need to git gud

tbf the riovanes rooftop is bullshit.

Tyranthraxus posted...

They won't and that fight + the riovanes rooftop is going to have a whole new generation of people who need to git gud

tbf the riovanes rooftop is bullshit.

They might improve Rafa's AI at least so she doesn't just immediately kill herself lol

OniLink5000 posted...

Wie

This. Playing the game blind with minimal save space on a card make this fight bs.

darkknight109 posted...

Night Terror from Soul Calibur 3 was an absolute bastard.

As bad as he is, The General from Kaiser Knuckle is far, far, FAR worse.

Even top level FG players like Justin Wong can't beat the guy. The only time I've seen it done is by a Twitch streamer called LordBBH, and it requires a certain character with a very particular strat that must be executed flawlessly.

Tyranthraxus posted...

They won't and that fight + the riovanes rooftop is going to have a whole new generation of people who need to git gud

tbf the riovanes rooftop is bullshit.

The roof top fight is probably the worst designed in the entire game, you can lose before you even get a turn

The entire mission of a quiet exit from mgs5 was insufferable without bringing the right gear.

darkknight109 posted...

Night Terror from Soul Calibur 3 was an absolute bastard.

I damn near had a conniption the first time I ringed him out, only for him to fly back onto the stage.

He is easily the cheapest boss of any Namco fighter

One of the worst, too?

Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance. The Black Knight.

You go through a very difficult area, to the boss fight with the Black Knight. Except you only get two characters, one being your main but the other being his potentially underleveled sister. Oh, and actually beating him (not just surviving) is literally down to an ability activating with like a 40 percent chance.

And if ya lose, no checkpoint.

Melc Crystal from Grandia 3.

Tyranthraxus posted...

Djinn Storm from Dullahan is the single most obnoxious anything from any boss in any game. The strategy is literally avoid it by having as many dead party members as possible.

Its real telling that the best way to beat dullahan is to throw strategy out the window, set all your djinni on stand by and just blast him with your best summons and hope you are strong enough to get rid of those last few bits of health.

McmadnessV3 posted...

Its real telling that the best way to beat dullahan is to throw strategy out the window, set all your djinni on stand by and just blast him with your best summons and hope you are strong enough to get rid of those last few bits of health.

I summon rushed him in TLA but did it the normal way in DD and it was super hard.

Octopath Traveler's final bonus boss is pretty bad. Partly cuz it's such an enormous leap in difficulty over everything else in the game and it has a unique format to it. Having to refight eight lesser bosses every time you fail doesn't help.

ReturnOfDevsman posted...

The Mysterious Figure in Birth by Sleep was utter nonsense. I've fought some crazy hard bosses before, including several that I would still call harder than this one, but there's a special place in the bad boss fight Hall of Fame for a boss with instakill rapid tap mechanics in the middle of the fight with no little mini cutscene to prepare for them or anything. That on top of just generally being absurd anyway. I dodge rolled more in that one fight than in the rest of the series combined, I think.

Yeah this was some dog shit design. Just dodge rolling for ten straight minutes waiting for it to use the one move that leaves it open enough for the one command in the game that's safe to use against it. Every attack will one-shot you unless you have the abilities that prevent one-shots, in which case one of its moves will one-shot you anyway.

Aries
Solidus on harder difficulties

Tyranthraxus posted...

I summon rushed him in TLA but did it the normal way in DD and it was super hard.

I never did fight him in DD since I missed a bunch of djinni.

I don't think it's a contender, given the horror stories ITT, but IMO the final boss of part 2 of Labyrinth of Galleria the Discordance gets an honorable mention.

The boss has 9 parts which wake up gradually as the fight goes on, in a game where facing multiple foes is much more dangerous than single foes.

So, better kill these things quickly.

But each of the 9 parts has a different pattern of resistances to the game's 6 damage types, with 8 parts being completely immune to half the damage types, and the ninth part being immune to everything.

Q: How to deal with these immunities?

A: Look it up online, basically -- there are a handful of special weapons that punch through this boss's immunity, and there are also special magic spells that can be found to strip the immunity.

But there is nothing in-game that points to these weapons that isn't incredibly obtuse, there is similarly nothing in-game that leads to those important debuff spells, and both spells and weapons are locked to varying degrees behind insignificant looking and often onerous fetch quests.

IMO this all could have been made to work reasonably well with a decent level of in-game guidance -- it is a final boss, after all.

I can't name anything specific but any rpg super boss that requires you to completely reorganize your party in a way that is largely counter-intuitive to anything else is always horseshit.

Micolash from Bloodborne. He isnt hard at all but any boss in general that runs away from you or teleports to the opposite side of a large arena annoys the hell out of me. And he is just the first that comes to mind.

For annoying in a way that causes difficulty id echo Mysterious Figure from BBS yeah.

The final boss of Luigi's Mansion 3 is so janky with broken mechanics. It's so poorly developed that it almost made me hate the game.