# Best and Worst Boss Fights? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [October 4, 2008, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-boss-fights/466457 "2008-10-04T16:38:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Hoopy\_Frood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hoopy_frood/32/8452_2.png) [@Hoopy\_Frood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hoopy_Frood)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2008, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-boss-fights/466457/21 "2008-10-06T15:48:13Z")
Worst: Yiazmat in Final Fantasy XII. Ridiculously annoying and long fight. It wasn’t that it was even particularly difficult once you figure out how to beat him, just extremely tedious. He has 50,000,000 hit points. Has unstoppable instant death attacks. Can hit your entire party with a wind attack that does 6000+ hit points of damage even with air resistant armor (i.e. the light armor “Windbreaker”) quickly equipped (and does something like 9999 damage to everyone if you don’t have that armor). Each melee attack does something along the lines of 3000+ each and he chains them. And he can also employ a stone breath attack that gives you 10 seconds to prevent a character from turning to stone. I heard one person defeated him in 4 hours. Kudos to them. It took me somewhere between 6 and 8. Yes, that long of a boss fight. And unfortunately, you just can’t set your gambits and walk away. You have to manually do some things. Fortunately, you can run away from the fight and save (though, when you run he really breaks out the instant kill ranged attack, so you will probably lose your primary three right there, but you should be able to have at least one of your six still alive by the time you get to the save crystal). The only disadvantage to saving is that he restores all his buffs, but unlike when you run from Omega to heal up a bit, he doesn’t start healing himself (the only redeeming thing about this boss fight). No fight in any game should take longer than an hour using even a halfway decent strategy. There’s nothing wrong with making the strategy hard to figure out, but once it is, the fight should be fairly quick. And the rewards for defeating him are lame. So you get the best sword in the game (from a speed, power, and chaining perspective–the Zodiac spear is the most powerful, but it’s slow and rarely chains). Big deal. You’re high enough level at this point that you could wipe the floor with the final storyline boss using the weakest weapons in the game. You also get a little bit of more sidequest story filled in, but the whole experience is anticlimactic after this fight. Bad design all around. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2008, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-boss-fights/466457/22 "2008-10-06T23:43:26Z")
SNES: _Axelay_, level… 8, I think: [giant fire monster thingy in a lake of lava](http://www.eightecs.com/infinitegamemusic/images/axelay-burning.gif). The game itself wasn’t very good- horrible collision detection, way too hard- but if you got to level 8, it was all worth it. At the time, it was the most amazing graphical… thing I’d ever seen, and it wasn’t close. I know he looks pretty shitty in that image, but trust me, he was _awesome_. _Starfox_, Space Armada level: the fight itself wasn’t very cool. You flew around in a giant [del]blender[/del] asteroid crusher and tried to blow it up from the inside. The whole idea of the battle, though - flying around in a giant mothership-type-thing - was awesome - it was the _Star Wars_ Death Star trench battle ten years before you actually got to play the Death Star trench battle in a game that did it justice. I was a huge fan of the Mother Brain-spider-thingy at the end of _Metroid Prime_, too. Oh, and Frank Horrigan in _Fallout 2_. ---
**Author:** ![Pollux\_Oil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/858c86/32.png) [@Pollux\_Oil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pollux_Oil)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-boss-fights/466457/23 "2008-10-07T04:54:53Z")
> [@Hoopy\_Frood](#): > > Worst: Yiazmat in Final Fantasy XII. > > Ridiculously annoying and long fight. It wasn’t that it was even particularly difficult once you figure out how to beat him, just extremely tedious. > > He has 50,000,000 hit points. Has unstoppable instant death attacks. Can hit your entire party with a wind attack that does 6000+ hit points of damage even with air resistant armor (i.e. the light armor “Windbreaker”) quickly equipped (and does something like 9999 damage to everyone if you don’t have that armor). > > Each melee attack does something along the lines of 3000+ each and he chains them. > > And he can also employ a stone breath attack that gives you 10 seconds to prevent a character from turning to stone. > > I heard one person defeated him in 4 hours. Kudos to them. It took me somewhere between 6 and 8. Yes, that long of a boss fight. And unfortunately, you just can’t set your gambits and walk away. You have to manually do some things. Fortunately, you can run away from the fight and save (though, when you run he really breaks out the instant kill ranged attack, so you will probably lose your primary three right there, but you should be able to have at least one of your six still alive by the time you get to the save crystal). The only disadvantage to saving is that he restores all his buffs, but unlike when you run from Omega to heal up a bit, he doesn’t start healing himself (the only redeeming thing about this boss fight). > > No fight in any game should take longer than an hour using even a halfway decent strategy. There’s nothing wrong with making the strategy hard to figure out, but once it is, the fight should be fairly quick. > > And the rewards for defeating him are lame. So you get the best sword in the game (from a speed, power, and chaining perspective–the Zodiac spear is the most powerful, but it’s slow and rarely chains). Big deal. You’re high enough level at this point that you could wipe the floor with the final storyline boss using the weakest weapons in the game. > > You also get a little bit of more sidequest story filled in, but the whole experience is anticlimactic after this fight. > > Bad design all around. I don’t remember this in Final Fantasy XII. Was this a side boss? This actually sounds worse than the Hell Dragon, or is it the same thing? ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-boss-fights/466457/24 "2008-10-07T06:17:04Z")
> [@BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed](#): > > [You’re](http://www.emulator-zone.com/doc.php/arcade/mame.html) [welcome](http://www.rom-world.com/file.php?id=30687). > > And yeah, I could never even get close to the last boss either. I was always better at Shinobi anyway. After seeing the INCREDIBLY lame ending to _Rolling Thunder_, I no longer wish to win it. But thanks, at least I know it’s out there, even if I have no idea how to play with emus. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-boss-fights/466457/25 "2008-10-07T06:24:44Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > Oh, God, Rolling Thunder was frakking impossible. > > You got to the final boss? Then you, my dear friend, are a better gamer than me. I found the last level(set of levels) to be nearly impossible. > > By the way, they did release it on some Namco collections for the PS2. > > Here’s the ending, if you care. > > [Rolling Thunder ending](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64Cx9zVNSFI) Go toward the end to see the actual lame ending. > > Now, if only I could find a video of the ending of the PC Might and Magic I: Secret of the Inner Sanctum, a game I never finished in 1987. Man, that takes me back. I spent entirely too much money in arcades back in the day. Yeah, I got to the final boss…but I didn’t know that all I had to do was shoot him continuously. :smack: Now I can rest easier. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-boss-fights/466457/26 "2008-10-07T06:40:45Z")
> [@Pollux\_Oil](#): > > I don’t remember this in Final Fantasy XII. Was this a side boss? He’s optional - one of the three biggest optional bosses - Yazmat, Zodiark, and Omega Mark XII. After you’ve hunted every single Mark, and defeated the Hell Wyrm, Montblanc offers the final hunt - Yazmat. Yazmat’s the longest fight of the three - I’ve gotten multiple days spent just on fighting him - but nowhere near as hard as the other two - who also have ridiculously minor rewards. (I haven’t beaten any of them, but I can stand up to Yazmat until I get bored of it - Zodiark and Omega wipe me as soon as I enter their areas, unless I’m optimally equipped.) ---
**Author:** ![DarRRva](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/53a042/32.png) [@DarRRva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DarRRva)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-boss-fights/466457/27 "2008-10-07T08:09:30Z")
**Loved:** Ganondorf, from _Ocarina Of Time._ Actually, pretty much all of the bosses in Ocarina are aweome. GLaDOS from _Portal._ I love her crazy dialogue as you run around trying to kill her. Robotnik was always fun. Lance Vance, from _Grand Theft Auto Vice City_ I must have spent about 3 days trying to kill this traitorous bastard. Bloody hard, but damn rewarding. **Hated:** Trevelyan, from _Goldeneye._ Best game ever with just the most boring final fight in the history of the world. Take pot shots at him till you both end up down a ladder and shoot him a few times. Snore. Nihilanth, from _Half Life._ Again, great game, boring, repetitive end fight. I’m sure there are a bunch more, but they escape me ---
**Author:** ![Peanut\_Gallery](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/838e76/32.png) [@Peanut\_Gallery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peanut_Gallery)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 10:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-boss-fights/466457/28 "2008-10-07T10:03:03Z")
I didn’t see any rules excluding WoW … and I know I risk sidetracking your thread by bringing it into the mix (sorry!), But… [C’Thun](http://www.wowwiki.com/C%27Thun) WoW is \*\*\*big \*\*\*on boss fights. They did a pretty good job on all of the End Bosses, but C’Thun was the best I got to see. (I never got all the way through Naxxramas or Sunwell). ---
**Author:** ![Orbifold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/779978/32.png) [@Orbifold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orbifold)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-boss-fights/466457/29 "2008-10-07T12:16:24Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > **The Vizier from Sands of Time** : This guy basically hides behind a curtain and has you fight clones of himself. They are all weak and vulnerable to the most basic attacks. > > After you defeat his clones, you hit him once and it is game over. > > Easiest and Lamest Boss. > [@CrazyChop](#): > > Knights of the Old Republic II: Way too easy… …I didn’t find either of those bosses all that easy [looks ashamed]. I think I used all the sand in the dagger to finish the boss fight in Sands of Time and all my medikits to finish the boss fight in KOTOR II. (The final boss KOTOR II was way easier than Darth Sion though, that’s for darned sure.) I’ve been playing through the second Buffy the Vampire Slayer game for the XBox recently, and man that has some awful boss fights. The fight with Adam in particular was just dumb. Then again, the whole game is pretty mediocre, so there’s that. Jade Empire, as I recall, had a boss fight where the boss was either invunerable to weapons to invunerable to fists, and he could switch between the two options whenever he wanted. That, I thought, was rather cheap. Then the big fight with Death’s Hand, who had been built up as this huge terrifying force for most of the game, boiled down to “oh look, I have a fighting style which Death’s Hand is _completely helpless against_, isn’t that handy?” The final boss fight made up for it slightly…using Jade Golem style against two elephant demons and two bull demons simultaneously was pretty cool…but still. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-boss-fights/466457/30 "2008-10-07T13:10:37Z")
> [@Orbifold](#): > > …I didn’t find either of those bosses all that easy [looks ashamed]. I think I used all the sand in the dagger to finish the boss fight in Sands of Time and all my medikits to finish the boss fight in KOTOR II. > > (The final boss KOTOR II was way easier than Darth Sion though, that’s for darned sure.) Darth Traya was a little trickier than Sion if you were a light side character. If you were dark, you could just run away from her and use the area lightning attack (Force Storm, I think) on the floating lightsabers- then go back and splatter Traya in all of ten seconds. Sion looked like he was difficult (because he kept replenishing his health), but once you figured how much health you have to knock off to trigger the next cutscene, he wasn’t that bad. I thought the Darth Malak fight in KOTOR I was much harder (and much cooler- if you were a dark side character you could drain the lives of the prisoners in the kolto tanks just like he did). ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-boss-fights/466457/31 "2008-10-07T14:13:56Z")
Worst: For me, it was definitely the boss in LOTR: The Third Age. The whole game has a weird turn-based system. It all depended on your speed. So, you have six chars and you can rotate them in or out of battle. If you happened to have your three chars with the lowest speed, _your turn would never come_. They’d hit you and hit you and hit you. On the second playthrough I was hip to this, and trained my speed up really high. I made it through the entire game, only to get wiped out by the boss because his speed was insane, and he would get 5 or 6 turns to my ONE. I mean, one character would go, then the fucking boss would hit me 5 or 6 times in a row. I didn’t have a chance. I am still pissed about it, honestly. I didn’t have time to heal or anything, and I threw down the controller in disgust when I was soundly defeated. Gah. I think I need to buy a Gameshark so I can beat that. I’ll come back with a best when I think of one. But fighting isn’t really my reason for playing, so I might notice them as much. I did soundly enjoy beating the piss out of Seymour in FF X, though. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-boss-fights/466457/32 "2008-10-07T15:12:09Z")
The best boss fight for me so far has been the fight against, appropriately, “the boss”, in Metal Gear 3 snake eater. It’s a timed challenge, with hand to hand combat skills, various secrets (the albino snake, the frog in the branches), but most of all, it excelled in the atmosphere. They really pulled it all together for this ending sequence. The music was really top of the line, the scenery was beautiful. I played it so many times, just to experience it all again, and every time it played out differently. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-boss-fights/466457/33 "2008-10-07T15:22:25Z")
> [@DarRRva](#): > > Ganondorf, from _Ocarina Of Time._ Actually, pretty much all of the bosses in Ocarina are aweome. Best. Boss Fight. Ever. I also really enjoyed the fight against the Great Lich in **Secret of Mana** and the battle against the Dragonlord in the first **Dragon Warrior** game. ---
**Author:** ![Pollux\_Oil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/858c86/32.png) [@Pollux\_Oil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pollux_Oil)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-boss-fights/466457/34 "2008-10-07T15:32:09Z")
> [@Tengu](#): > > After you’ve hunted every single Mark, and defeated the Hell Wyrm, Montblanc offers the final hunt - Yazmat. Holy crap. You have to beat the Hell Wyrm to get to Yazmat? Goodness me. I put almost 90 hours into FFXII but I didn’t have the patience to even level up enough to be able to kill the Hell Wyrm. Eeeeeesh. > [@Isamu](#): > > The best boss fight for me so far has been the fight against, appropriately, “the boss”, in Metal Gear 3 snake eater. It’s a timed challenge, with hand to hand combat skills, various secrets (the albino snake, the frog in the branches), but most of all, it excelled in the atmosphere. They really pulled it all together for this ending sequence. The music was really top of the line, the scenery was beautiful. I played it so many times, just to experience it all again, and every time it played out differently. That actually reminds me, while not technically a boss, the chase sequence in Metal Gear Solid 3 is awesometastic and one of my favorite video game moments ever. ---
**Author:** ![Hoopy\_Frood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hoopy_frood/32/8452_2.png) [@Hoopy\_Frood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hoopy_Frood)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-boss-fights/466457/35 "2008-10-07T15:36:55Z")
> [@Isamu](#): > > The best boss fight for me so far has been the fight against, appropriately, “the boss”, in Metal Gear 3 snake eater. It’s a timed challenge, with hand to hand combat skills, various secrets (the albino snake, the frog in the branches), but most of all, it excelled in the atmosphere. They really pulled it all together for this ending sequence. The music was really top of the line, the scenery was beautiful. I played it so many times, just to experience it all again, and every time it played out differently. I just ran around until I could be concealed, and then popped up and sniped her when she came into my sights, and then ran around again and repeated the process, IIRC. But yeah, it was a neat fight on the whole. It was challenging, but not frustrating and had a nice serene ambience surrounding a teacher and pupil who out of necessity have to kill each other though neither is particularly happy about the the whole thing. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-boss-fights/466457/36 "2008-10-07T15:42:18Z")
> [@Pollux\_Oil](#): > > Holy crap. You have to beat the Hell Wyrm to get to Yazmat? Goodness me. Yazzy’s like the Hell Wyrm on roids. He’s not just a pre-requisite, he’s practise, too. ---
**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-boss-fights/466457/37 "2008-10-07T17:24:24Z")
I’m still thinking of the best and worst boss fights I’ve played, but I definitely know the most pointless: all of the “boss fights” in Guitar Hero III. Why are there boss fights in a music game? For the love of rock, why?!? And for rock’s sake, why make those boss fights required to unlock songs? ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-boss-fights/466457/38 "2008-10-07T17:55:32Z")
> [@Duke](#): > > I’m still thinking of the best and worst boss fights I’ve played, but I definitely know the most pointless: all of the “boss fights” in Guitar Hero III. Why are there boss fights in a music game? For the love of rock, why?!? And for rock’s sake, why make those boss fights required to unlock songs? They were actually my favorite part of the game, although I hope they make the “items” at bit better in GH4. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2008, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-boss-fights/466457/39 "2008-10-08T01:51:01Z")
> [@Pollux\_Oil](#): > > That actually reminds me, while not technically a boss, the chase sequence in Metal Gear Solid 3 is awesometastic and one of my favorite video game moments ever. Oh yeah, that was fun. Did you shoot all the frogs on the way too? I did but it took me a few hours. That one by the side of the airport runway. :smack: sheesh. You’re in a sidecar at high speed trying to shoot a frog in the grass with a sniper rifle. Aside: MGS 4 is being delivered tonight! Slap my ass and call me happy. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2008, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-boss-fights/466457/40 "2008-10-08T02:30:16Z")
> [@DarRRva](#): > > GLaDOS from _Portal._ I love her crazy dialogue as you run around trying to kill her. Ah yes–this one was fantastic! Daniel [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-boss-fights/466457.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-boss-fights/466457.md?page=3)