Ten Bosses.txt

Top Ten Boss Battles #10 Olrox Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - PSX https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOiTxTnAFzo Though not the hardest fight in the game by far, or the coolest looking, this one definitely lingered the best in my mind. From the cordial way he invites you to sit across from him, to the fact that he's possibly the only other Vampire Lord in the Castle in this game, the fight just sticks out. Add to that the fact when you think he's beat, phase two starts up, and is strategically the exact opposite of the first part. Just barely made it past Legion from the same game being on the list. #9 Ghost Train Final Fantasy 6 - SNES https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57S0q4lUsTY Treking through a train of the damned... Eagerly awaiting what kind of spooky boss is at the end... Will it be a ghostly conductor? A zombie engineer? Nah man, that's elementary... You get to fight the train itself!! What made this fight something of an RPG legend was the ability (sadly not shown in the video) to suplex the train, forever becoming immortalized via video game memes a good decade after its release. #8 Artorius of the Abyss Dark Souls - PS3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctW277Kpcv0 An epic encounter with a man referred to in passing throughout the game for his legendary prowess. The classic bait-and switch of presenting an enemy before the TRUE boss dispatches it... The fact that he schools your ass even though he has very blatantly lost the use of one arm. All these tropes are common, but only this one puts them all together so well. #7 Old King Allant Demons' Souls - PS3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qn3st_j21I4 Compositionally the pre-cursor to Artorius, this pre-endgame boss takes you to the limits in a way that you havent encountered yet so far. Giant demon enemies and dragons larger than the area you can walk on took center stage... until this unassuming, regal swordsman pushes the game's difficulty to 11. Several tries later you curse your lack of skills, after all, his pattern is SO blatant... But you just can't get it right. Until you do, and proceed to feel like the biggest badass on the block. #6 The End Metal Gear Solid 3 - PS2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YQKNpt-Idw Re-defining what a boss battle could be, this open-field sniper duel took everything from the MGS Sniper Wolf battle and turned it up a notch. No video out there will properly convey the "Wait and see", "Slow and steady" nature of this battle against a looming, invisible reaper. The fact that you could, in classic Kojima style, set your PS2 clock ahead and win via The End dying of old age? Incredible.

#5 Jetstream Sam Metal Gear Rising - PS4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3WXV3bzR4s The fact that this game is pretty much ALL about the epic boss battles made me limit myself to what I considered the best. Metal Gear Rising made no attempts at pretention or obfuscation. It was a game about dueling cyborg swordsman manically slicing things 10,000 times and kicking the pieces. And it delivered. From the timed boss music that looped perfectly until just the right time to go into overdrive for the finale, to the awesome mechanic of aimed sword slices and perfect-timing parries, everything clicked marvelously. Aiding to the rule of cool is the post-battle revelation that the guy who just pushed you to the limits was 100% Un-augmented, while you were cranked up to maximum overdrive via cybernetics? Excellent. #4 Magus Chrono Trigger - SNES https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQtv2KEGvsw The lead up to this one still gives me goosebumps. The epic 16-bit music and ambience... The battle that pushes you to either manic patience or strategic brilliance... Or the fact that you learn afterwards that this not only WASN'T the end boss; it was barely the HALFWAY mark of the game. So many factors pushed this into the top 5. Icing on the cake is further down the line when the boss becomes a PLAYABLE CHARACTER. Chrono Trigger was unmistakeably ahead of the rest. #3 Psycho Mantis Metal Gear Solid - PSX https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWsFYSn7Gtg Mother of all mind-fucks. The sudden twist into the surreal gives you goosebumps; the following 4th wall shattering leaves you enthralled. The gimmicks that Mantis pulls off are unheard of - reading your memory card and commenting on what kind of games you have played, making assumptions based on how you've played the game so far... READING YOUR CONTROLLER'S INPUT, thus forcing you to change controller ports to win. All this and a delightful slew of other telekinetic chicanery makes this boss prime top three material. #2 Luca Blight Suikoden II - PSX https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdNNRBp28O0 #1 Grigori Dragon's Dogma - PS3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPFJO28x3AI