That One Boss 2.0

[Draco]

Doesn't Aztec Falcon have half the health of most bosses in those games, though?

I haven't played MMZ1 yet.

[BrightBow]

Doesn't Aztec Falcon have half the health of most bosses in those games, though?

I haven't played MMZ1 yet.

Yes, he does. He only has one bar. Normal bosses have 2 while the Guardians of X have 3. Edit: Of course, at that point you don't have any charged attacks yet, so it evens out. Unless you grind of course, but you shouldn't have to grind to beat the first boss before the game even properly starts. Besides, finding out how to grind isn't obvious since you can't leave the base until you beat the Falcon.

But putting an endgame style boss against a newcomer and simply reducing his health isn't a good idea anyway. By resorting to this kind of balance, the game basically punishes you for performing better since ignoring counter attacks and just rushing him produces better results then actually trying to dodge.

Edited July 15, 2015 by BrightBow

[Shadow Mir]

Speaking of Mega Man Zero, Phantom. He's rather cheap relative to the other Guardians. You can interrupt most of the other Guaridans' attacks. Not so much with Phantom. The other guardians have an elemental weakness. Phantom's neutral, which means he takes longer to defeat. He'll spam his dash move until you hit him, and will likely get a hit in, especially if you don't score a knockback hit. And that ain't even getting into when he gets low...

[ClevelandSteve]

Holoholobird in Baten Kaitos Origins. Comes at the start of the second disk (so, if you didn't have a backup save on the first disk and are too underleveled to face it, you're pretty much fucked), is able to lay eggs to produce offspring that heal it for a ton of HP (and can do quite a bit of damage on their own), and has a bunch of really nasty attacks (including one that hits your whole party and knocks them over, stalling their turns). BKO is a pretty unforgiving game all around, but this fight is particularly nasty.

Edited July 15, 2015 by ClevelandSteve

[Mikethfc]

Surprised nobody mentioned the aorta boss in Xenoblade, don't want to spoil it with the new 3ds version, but until I got the right set up going (Melia/Shulk/Sharla) that was really tough, and the final boss was even harder

[Gemma]

M. Bison from Street Fighter Alpha 3

I've also always had trouble with Sylph from Tales of Symphonia, many resets were had

[Anacybele]

The only one that immediately comes to mind for me is the Helmasaur King in Zelda: A Link to the Past. That thing took me forever to beat. Still kind of does. -_- That thing can swing its tail across the whole room, making it near impossible to dodge and it swings REALLY fast. AND it does a lot of damage. And on top of that, he also spits fireballs that split into more fireballs.

Edited July 16, 2015 by Anacybele

[Shadow Mir]

Surprised nobody mentioned the aorta boss in Xenoblade, don't want to spoil it with the new 3ds version, but until I got the right set up going (Melia/Shulk/Sharla) that was really tough, and the final boss was even harder

I probably would've, but you beat me to it.

As to how this boss, whose name I won't mention for spoileriffic reasons, is annoying... First off: Her attacks all have nasty status effects accompanying them. Second: She takes next to no physical damage unless you destroy her minions, which might be hard depending on your party setup, because said minions are Nebulae, which hardly take any damage from physical attacks. Oh, and they suicide if you're too slow to kill them. And even if you to kill them, the defense drop only lasts until she calls them back. And did I mention that the battlefield has damaging ether all around? And the part where she loves to force you into it? AND the part where what land you have to fight on is, for the most part, a few narrow strips, aside from the center?

Oh, and while we're talking Xenoblade: Jade Face. Two words: Laser Bullet. It hits like several Mack trucks slamming into everyone, for one, and second, the damage is enough to easily KO anyone not named Heropon or Reyn from full HP. He also summons minions that can hit you with Lock-On, which forces you to attack them while it lasts (which has the side effect of making them that much more annoying to kill, because of how Lock-On works).

Edited July 18, 2015 by Levant Colthearts

[The Geek]

Surprised nobody mentioned the aorta boss in Xenoblade, don't want to spoil it with the new 3ds version, but until I got the right set up going (Melia/Shulk/Sharla) that was really tough, and the final boss was even harder

I was able to pretty easily beat it with my set up of Shulk/Seven/Melia. The constant shouts of "You'll pay for your insolence!" got annoying though.

The Xenoblade story boss that gave me the most trouble was probably the dual boss fight against Vanea and the large Telethia at the end of the High Entia Tomb. That damn Telethia has so. much. HP.

And don't even get me started on the fucking Super Bosses.

[ClevelandSteve]

In my latest Xenoblade playthrough (when the 3DS version came out), the second fight with Jade Face was the only mandatory boss fight that I died in. Granted, I make sure to do all sidequests that don't require going to the final area right before fighting Ms. "You'll pay for your insolence", so I'm usually ridiculously overleveled for that fight (it did give me a ton of trouble on my first playthrough, though, because I didn't do this).

As for optional fights, that spider in the "Battling Brutes" quest with the daze spike is always brutal, if only because it makes it so I have to remove a lot of useful gems to boost my daze resistance. Then there's the Super Bosses. At least the ones where you can't just take the cheap way out and hide behind something while pelting them with Melia's ether attacks. And also Final Marcus is really easy (if he even counts as a Super Boss), as long as a blizzard doesn't start up while fighting him.

Edited July 16, 2015 by ClevelandSteve

[The Geek]

Yeah, Final Marcus is a joke, I can take him out with any team set up.

Telethia in general are a pain to fight in Xenoblade since you're basically required to have either Shulk or Melia in your party at times where you're fighting them. Luckily my preferred party setup has Shulk and Melia both in the active party (I switch the third slot around between Reyn, Dunban, Riki, and Seven; who uses Sharla anyway?)

[The DanMan]

Firstly, Rinzler in KH3D. Before that, the game hadn't been too challenging. Then you're hit up with him. First of all, you can't physically engage him. He 2HKOs you most of the time, in addition to attacking straight out of a flinch. He throws his dual identity discs like boomerangs, meaning you're constantly on the move and evading. And then here's the really great part: he flips the arena upside-down. Complete with inverted controls. How many times I dodged into an attack when I was trying to move away from it I have no idea.

So, how do you beat him? It seems that the developers really wanted you to pay attention to his patterns and have a hit-and-run playstyle, as all the other humanoid bosses in the game are at least moderately similiar. However, there's one issue here: magic is unbelievably broken. If you just dodge around and stock up on single-target spells before the fight, he goes down easily.

And secondly, Gigginox from the 3rd generation of Monster Hunter. It looks moderately similiar to its distant cousin, the Resident Evil reject known as Khezu. While Khezu uses thunder and is, for the most part, slow and tanky, Gigginox is fast and uses poison.

On their own, it's attacks aren't that bad; they're fairly weak, though they have a lot of reach. What makes it challenging is the poison part. Unless you have a certain armor set or spend the resources to gem in poison nullification, you're going to have to bring antidotes.

What makes it particularly annoying is this one attack with a funky hitbox. It gets up on its hind legs for a quick moment and forms a poison cloud underneath it, before preceding to body slam and push the poison out, complete with a lingering hitbox. Here's the thing: if you get hit by the poison spraying it, you take the full brunt of the attack. This is especially annoying when you have a poison immune armor set or gemmed it in.

Plus, it's got quite a bit of defense for that point in the rank. Couple that with the lack of good fire weapons available, and it will take you a long time to kill it.

Edited July 17, 2015 by The DanMan

[Shinehollow]

[spoiler=Superstar Saga]The final,ghost Cackletta battle.Start out at one HP and hope she doesn't do the propeller attack.And,since I was stupid as a kid so I didn't grind nor get the force edge,I could barely get past Bowletta.I also didn't care much for Bros. Attacks,so I didn't have any of the advanced commands.

[Ercdouken]

Fire Leo from Viewtiful Joe is a massive pain in the arse!

[Shadow Mir]

The Xenoblade story boss that gave me the most trouble was probably the dual boss fight against Vanea and the large Telethia at the end of the High Entia Tomb. That damn Telethia has so. much. HP.

Don't you mean Tyrea?

Personally, I didn't have that much trouble with them, due to being somewhat overleveled (you can thank the Defensive Kromars for THAT).

Edited July 18, 2015 by Levant Colthearts

[The Geek]

Don't you mean Tyrea?

Personally, I didn't have that much trouble with them, due to being somewhat overleveled (you can thank the Defensive Kromars for THAT).

All those High Entia have similar sounding names.

[maybe]

I think it took me over a year to get past aztec falcon in mega man zero

why is the hardest part of the game the first (real) boss

Also the Junker from Mario and Luigi 3. I tried so many times to beat that thing but I could never do it. I only beat it recently. Like, a few weeks back recently. I bought this game more than 4 years ago.

Almost any boss from any of the pre-symphony of the night castlevanias. especially dracula from the original. And Death I suppose. All the bosses are tough.

Also Galamoth screw that guy

Probably the most time (actually playing) I've spent on a boss fight, though, is the Shadow Devil from Mega Man X5 (as Zero, he's easy to beat with X)

It's really hard. And has terrifying music.

[Shadow Mir]

All those High Entia have similar sounding names.

Vanea is a Machina.

Anyways... I'm thinking Gazzak in H5 deserves mention, in large part because of how stupidly luck based getting past him is. There's about only one way to kill him that doesn't take forever... and the integral player in this one way to kill him faces a chance of getting critted. The aforementioned Hyman/Reynard has much of the same issue... only one real way to kill that doesn't involve taking forever and/or breaking his weapon.

Edited July 20, 2015 by Levant Colthearts

[The Geek]

Vanea is a Machina.

Oh crap, you're right.

[secondworld]

That goddamn laser room in megaman 2. Because what the action platformer game needed was a puzzle boss that punishes you for playing the way you have for the entire game and forces you to grind the annoying shield enemies every time you die.

Leechgrave from Kingdom Hearts 358/2 days.

Speaking of KH, most of the dream eater bosses in 3D for being annoying in one way or another. Legit ran out of the drop meter multiple times when fighting the mole one.

[Tamarsamar]

That goddamn laser room in megaman 2. Because what the action platformer game needed was a puzzle boss that punishes you for playing the way you have for the entire game and forces you to grind the annoying shield enemies every time you die.

Several of the Wily Castle bosses were annoying like that, not least of which being the final final boss being weak to only damageable by probably exactly the last weapon you'd even try to use against it.

[Shadow Mir]

That goddamn laser room in megaman 2. Because what the action platformer game needed was a puzzle boss that punishes you for playing the way you have for the entire game and forces you to grind the annoying shield enemies every time you die.

That one ain't helped by the fact that the only weapon that can kill it is the same one you pretty much need to take out Dr. WIly in the next level after breaking his window.

[Marquess Odin]

I could never finish Donkey Kong 64. I had the game as a child and back then I didn't even go to the final boss.

Later when I got older (it was like, 3 years ago?) I wanted to play it again for nostalgia and this time I got to face the last boss.

And it was GODDAMN IMPOSSIBLE.

I remember in the end I just rage quit and promised to myself I would never try to finish this game ever again !

[Magical CC]

Duriel in Diablo 2. His cold attack and aura are dirt cheap as they ignore your cold resistant. He hits hard and moves really fast, he also has a charge attack that will stun you if you get hit. And the tight space of where you fight him will ensure that his charge will almost always hit you and you have nowhere to run to except using scroll to tele back to town if things turn sour. And if you die fighting him? Have fun making a long way back to his place and hope that he wont charge you to death before you can collect your corpse. He's the biggest "that one boss" unless you grind a lot. A lot.

[BrightBow]

Come to think of it, Hircine in The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind in the Bloodmoon. I guess he normally isn't that bad, but when I got the add-on, being familiar with the vanilla game, I immediately went to Solstheim, low level be damned. That approach works well enough, but once you progress far enough in the story, you will get warped into Hircine's labyrinth with no way to leave and restock supplies. Taking on the countless werewolves went well enough with what must have been hours of save scumming but Hircine himself was a different story entirely. This guy completely destroyed me in every one of his forms.

Eventually I had some success by using the Ring of Hircine for quick hit and run tactics. However, transforming into a werewolf had it's own share of problems: They cannot access their inventory or cast spells. So there was no effective way to heal myself in the middle of the fight. And the transformation always lasts 8 hours.

Fortunately, it turned out that the werewolf can jump high enough to reach the top of some pillars that allowed me to stay out of Hircine's reach, waiting for the very low HP regeneration of the Werewolf to do it's job before attacking again. Still, this ended up taking ages and countless retries. Also, I plain and simple couldn't even begin to compete with his Strength and Speed forms since their attack speed made it impossible to dodge them. Only his humanoid form left me a chance.

Speaking of assholes in Solstheim, there are also the smugglers. These guys are also fun on low levels. Every single one of then carries a boasted Silver weapons which stuns their victim for 10 second on hit. Even if you choose the Nord legionnaire to back you up during this mission, it's still utterly ridiculous.

Naturally I didn't learn anything from all of this and made it pretty much a tradition to always enter Solstheim at the first opportunity because I just can't resist the Ring of Hircine.

Edited July 22, 2015 by BrightBow