"That one boss..."

[Komeiji Koishi]

Giacomo (and his crew) in the Baten Kaitos games. You know he's killed you several times. You know that Thrashinggale is a cheap move when you first meet him. You know you would have been screwed if Milly didn't show up.

Super Mario Galaxy. Bouldergeist. 1 HP run. You can cry as you remember this now.

[Shadow Mir]

Gattuso? Yes. Duke Form 3? Naw.

I'm playing ToV right now (beaten it a bunch of times) and the Goliath fight just turned really hard. I had to get Estelle to spam Sharpness on Yuri and Barrier on everyone to not die and break his shield. Never had that problem before.

I nominate... Roid Rage Psycho from Borderlands. I'm playing a new build with Mordecai (Rogue based) and god damn, this guy is hard to kill. Granted, I'm only like level 13 or so.

Uh, why not Duke form 3? Even discounting Brave Vesperia, he can still heal himself, inflict status effects galore, and he's just hard to stagger.

And while I'm at it, there's also Alexei because fuck Brilliant Cataclysm. And just to show how much of a dick move Brilliant Cataclysm is... behold.

Edited September 13, 2012 by Golden Cucco

[Elieson]

I was talking about KH1 Sephiroth.

Don't you just time Ars Arcanum (or id it that other mid-range boomerangy-skill) right, and take advantage of the temporary inmunity that it offers, like everyone else does?

[Rapier]

Yeah, the other bosses are probably slightly harder, but the difference is that since it's so early in the game, you've got almost nothing to rely on. By the time of Aztec Falcon, you've got level 1/2 saber/buster (I find grinding in MMZ1/2 to be ridiculous, I prefer to just let it level naturally), no other weapons, lowest health bar possible, hardly any (if any) cyber elves, no element chips, and no subtanks. By the time of Devil (imo the second hardest boss in MMZ), you've likely got some maxed weapons, a bigger health bar (unless you're a crazy ranked completionist, in which case, you are a robot if you can flawless beat MMZ), likely at least one subtank, and several cyber elves at your disposal.

edit: as for MMZ2's bosses, I can't remember much since MMZ2 was my least favorite and played zero game (in order of 3, 1, 4, 2). Although I remember the phoenix boss being stupidly difficult (along with having one of the coolest attacks ever)

... When I first beat MMZ1, 2 and 3, I didn't know I could make my life bar bigger. However, I used save states to go back to the second the fight started on the first game's case (although Copy X is a ridiculous yet fun boss =P).

About Zero 2's bosses, I find Zero 4's harder. The final boss is weak compared to MMZ4's.

[Shadow Mir]

Don't you just time Ars Arcanum (or id it that other mid-range boomerangy-skill) right, and take advantage of the temporary inmunity that it offers, like everyone else does?

I was trying to tell Esau of Isaac that KH1 Sephiroth was more predictable, but he missed the point entirely...

[BrightBow]

Yeah, the other bosses are probably slightly harder, but the difference is that since it's so early in the game, you've got almost nothing to rely on.

I would say the others are easier. They are usually all wide open and have not time limit. The only thing that Falcon lacks by comparison is that he only has one life bar. With 2 like the others, he would completely outshine them.

And he is definitely harder then Phoenix. Phoenix has an attack pattern that makes him unbeatable the first time. Heck, I couldn't even scratch him the first time. But once you see through it you can beat him with 0 skill. But Falcon is always a pain.

Edited September 13, 2012 by BrightBow

[Constable Reggie]

He was probably really hard for me because I rarely played 2 (thus not much practice against the bosses), and for some reason I always end up with the worst stage with all the lava floors.

edit: @rapier, I agree that Copy X is sooooo fun to fight against (not the final form though, god no god no), imo on par with the second and third forms of Omega. It was pretty cool that they added him back in 3. Same with Phantom, I found him pretty fun to play against too (his mmz1 stage was total bullshit though).

Edited September 14, 2012 by Davinatorman

[Life]

Uh, why not Duke form 3? Even discounting Brave Vesperia, he can still heal himself, inflict status effects galore, and he's just hard to stagger.

And while I'm at it, there's also Alexei because fuck Brilliant Cataclysm. And just to show how much of a dick move Brilliant Cataclysm is... behold.

If you're fighting Duke V3, it's safe to say that you've been doing sidequests and stuff and you're a lot stronger than if you were fighting him regularly.

Duke V3 doesn't really have many tricks up his sleeve that you didn't see in V2. Brave Vesperia is about it (great that your final enemy's MA is all of your MA's put together, kinda cheap). Status moves? Been around since the first fight when he was inflicting Weak and Contamination every 5 seconds. Healing? Around in V2 and maybe even V1 (in fact, it now gives you a chance to stagger him or knock him down with Azure Wolf Strike or something like that since he stops moving). Lotta HP? Well... yeah, so it's more of a grudge match.

Alexei is a pure dick though. Only because of Brilliant Cataclysm. Gattuso and Goliath are still miles harder due to existing long before good skills.

Barbos is pretty difficult due to the circumstances (you're outnumbered 8v4 at the start and Barbos hurts like a bastard) until you take out the Blood Alliance. Dreaded Giant can be slightly difficult due to only having Yuri and Repede for melee (a better team is Yuri/Repede/Karol/Rita but what are you gonna do about it), Pteropus can be a nightmare when he splits and that's about it off the top of my head. Oh and Yeager V1. Not even a real boss fight and I nearly lost it.

[Shadow Mir]

If you're fighting Duke V3, it's safe to say that you've been doing sidequests and stuff and you're a lot stronger than if you were fighting him regularly.

Duke V3 doesn't really have many tricks up his sleeve that you didn't see in V2. Brave Vesperia is about it (great that your final enemy's MA is all of your MA's put together, kinda cheap). Status moves? Been around since the first fight when he was inflicting Weak and Contamination every 5 seconds. Healing? Around in V2 and maybe even V1 (in fact, it now gives you a chance to stagger him or knock him down with Azure Wolf Strike or something like that since he stops moving). Lotta HP? Well... yeah, so it's more of a grudge match.

Alexei is a pure dick though. Only because of Brilliant Cataclysm. Gattuso and Goliath are still miles harder due to existing long before good skills.

Barbos is pretty difficult due to the circumstances (you're outnumbered 8v4 at the start and Barbos hurts like a bastard) until you take out the Blood Alliance. Dreaded Giant can be slightly difficult due to only having Yuri and Repede for melee (a better team is Yuri/Repede/Karol/Rita but what are you gonna do about it), Pteropus can be a nightmare when he splits and that's about it off the top of my head. Oh and Yeager V1. Not even a real boss fight and I nearly lost it.

Uhhh, I don't remember Duke being able to heal in either of his first two forms. Also, Duke form 3 can inflict just about any status effect out there, and he can debuff. And there's still the matter of staggering him...

Agreed on Alexei, Goliath, and Gattuso.

As for Pteropus, I agree; Splash spam is no fun to be on the receiving end of. Barbos.... yeah, the minions are a serious pain, and he can call more unless you get rid of the bridge supports.

And I'd also like to mention Schwann since you're down the only decent healer in the game (one of them, at least) at that point, which means you're likely going to have to keep tabs on your item stock.

Edited September 21, 2012 by Golden Cucco

[Esau of Isaac]

I was trying to tell Esau of Isaac that KH1 Sephiroth was more predictable, but he missed the point entirely...

Hey man get off my balls, they both have similar attacks.

[BrightBow]

I would like to bring up the WaterDragon from Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness.

He is the very first boss fought in the game. Your stuck on a bridge with this guy being in the background so it's very much like a background boss in a 2D game.

What makes this guy such a pain is his ability to shot 3 explosive projectiles in a row at you. They are insanely fast. He shots them to random places and your ability to dodge them is almost nonexistant.

On normal mode, you can take a few hits but on hard they are insanely powerful and almost take half your life. And in hard mode there is only a single small piece of meat to be found until now, so you die in four hits at best.

But wait, there is more. When diving into the water, he likes to take a piece of the bridge with him. He can strike several holes into it that way. It's always fun if you desperately try to dodge an explosion, just to be still caught into it while being right over the pit. You fly high in the air just to fall all the way down into the water, killing you instantly.

Cornell shouldn't have a problem with him since his werewolf form is just that powerful. Reinhardt can take advantage of his achilles heal. He can chop of his arms to stop him in his tracks.

But Carrie is pretty much screwed here. Since her projectiles home in, they automatically fly to the head. Therefore it's almost impossible for her to disarm him. Her projectiles also have the habit to hit other parts of his body other then the head.

In this game, hits that don't hit the weak spot usually only cause paper cut damage. Well, at least it's possible to damage enemies that way but the point is that Carrie is going to die a lot against this guy.

And the next boss is the Giant Skeleton... yeah, he is a complete pushover.

[Scarlet]

@BrightBow: Oh yeah, I remember this guy. Carrie Hard Mode might be the hardest mode in LoD just because of that guy, haha.

Although Cornell's final boss on Hard definitely is a serious competitor.

Quite possibly the only two bosses in the N64 Castlevanias that I actually had to learn the patterns of to beat them.

Speaking of Castlevania, the first boss (the giant skeleton) in the original Castlevania 64 (yes, I played both) also qualifies. On Normal? No problem, you get a roast beef and he deals pretty negligible damage.

But on Hard? Three significant changes:

- You get no roastbeef before the fight, so you can't heal.

- He now summons blue skeletons in addition to the normal ones. The blue ones explode upon contact. Again, not that dangerous on Normal, but on Hard this takes away roughly half your health bar in a single hit.

- And the kicker, getting hit by the boss himself is now an instant kill. Even at full health, getting hit by the bone club or even just getting trampled by him will cause you to die instantly.

In addition to all of this, on Hard, there are only two roast chicken and one roast beef to be found in the entire level (compared to Normal's five and two, respectively), and none of them are anywhere close to the boss fight, meaning that even if you win, you'll have to make it through roughly half the level (and another boss) without being able to heal, keeping any damage you took throughout the fight.

Remember that on Hard, blue skeletons (half your life bar!) appear pretty much everywhere in the level, rather than only in certain spots.

Have fun.

[Shadow Mir]

Speaking of Castlevania, Stella and Loretta in Portrait of Ruin are irritating. Though all that needs to be done is hit with Sanctuary, the problem is that Sanctuary takes forever and a day to get ready to cast.

[Komeiji Koishi]

Technically not a boss, but I'd like to nominate Black Shadow from F-Zero GX, especially during mission 7. For those interested, check the TVTropes article "The computer is a cheating bastard" for a link to an (in)famous (and NSFW due to language) article on Something Awful.

[Rapier]

I forgot about one boss: Infinity Mijinion, from Megaman X6. If you fight him without any special weapon, he sure is a pain. Dodging a lot of clones and their attacks while dealing with the real deal itself is pretty hard. I felt like I was playing Touhou on that stage, because seriously this is absurd. >:

[Shadow Mir]

I forgot about one boss: Infinity Mijinion, from Megaman X6. If you fight him without any special weapon, he sure is a pain. Dodging a lot of clones and their attacks while dealing with the real deal itself is pretty hard. I felt like I was playing Touhou on that stage, because seriously this is absurd. >:

That's probably one boss where using the weakness might actually make things HARDER for you, because a clone pops up if you hit him with his weakness (Guard Shell); otherwise, he only produces clones after losing 1/4 of his life (I think charged buster shots and saber attacks might also trigger clones?).

Edited September 21, 2012 by Golden Cucco

[Rapier]

I'm not sure, I always beat him using the best weapon agaisnt him. I've never tried to beat him with plain buster shots (without charged shots). Also, beating him with the X/Falcon Armors is such a pain. >:

[Nyoro~Eevee]

Riviera the Promised Land can be easy as heck once you can start grinding out those Skill Ups for stats early in Chapter 2, but the PSP version of the Bonus Dungeon is a whole different story. You practically have to treat every battle like a boss battle due to limited item stock, marginally passable stats, and only weapons that you find pre-mastered will give you Over Skill access (meaning no Skill Ups). On top of that, there's also the fact that battles give 1 less TP compared to the main game, meaning you absolutely have to S-rank every single battle, and even then, one wrong choice could even block you from proceed off of even the first screen!

Another case of where the challenge doesn't arise from the boss specifically but from a change to the game mechanics is Eternal Sonata's Mysterious Unison bonus dungeon. Upgrading your Party Level to the maximum Level 6 may seem awesome, with the benefits of Echoes carrying over between battles and maximum Harmony Chains increasing from 3 to 6, allowing to make a full chain of all three battling party members' special attacks. This would be fine and dandy if it weren't for the introduction of moving commands, which shuffles around the functions of your Attack, Guard, and Special buttons randomly when you execute a Harmony Chain. Makes things rough until you get used to it.

As for a specific boss, I'd have to say Tenshi from Touhou 10.5 was annoying when I was a noob who didn't know how to guard or graze...

[Shadow Mir]

Riviera the Promised Land can be easy as heck once you can start grinding out those Skill Ups for stats early in Chapter 2, but the PSP version of the Bonus Dungeon is a whole different story. You practically have to treat every battle like a boss battle due to limited item stock, marginally passable stats, and only weapons that you find pre-mastered will give you Over Skill access (meaning no Skill Ups). On top of that, there's also the fact that battles give 1 less TP compared to the main game, meaning you absolutely have to S-rank every single battle, and even then, one wrong choice could even block you from proceed off of even the first screen!

Well, on the subject of Riviera, chapter 4's bosses can all count as that one boss; the Blue Fool and Red Sage have Max Attacks that can easily devastate a character, especially if the wrong one happens to be targeted, and the Archangel (if you've played Yggdra Union and/or Knights in the Nightmare, you have a good idea as to who she is, but that's neither here nor there) has a Max attack (the dreaded ANGELIC THUNDER) which leaves a mark, especially on Ein and Serene due to elemental weakness and crap MGC scores.

Edited September 22, 2012 by Golden Cucco

[Nyoro~Eevee]

Ah, yes, that's true! I forgot about Ch. 4! Thinking back, I still haven't been able to S-Rank the Fool...

And Archangel (yeah, an obsessed Dept. Heaven fan knows what you mean, even though I've only scratched the surface of Episodes II and IV personally, I've seen most of Yggdra Union through LP's) also has Holy Immunity that negates the normally excellent Disaresta finish. Coupling that with the aforementioned issues for Ein and Serene, and you've got problems... On the flip side, it's fun seeing Lina laugh off Angelic Thunder due to her natural Lightning Res ^w^

Speaking of times when Disaresta is useless, there's the fight where you initially get the Over Skill, namely the Isher fight. Seeing Isher guard an ENTIRE 8-HIT COMBO when one hit would kill him is immensely aggravating. One time I said "Screw it!" and unleashed Fia's Cadenza using the single use Rosier (XGuard property ftw!), then I was slightly irked on later runs when said Rosier was replaced by Longinus due to S-Ranking Seth-Ra on my first try...

Edited September 22, 2012 by Nyoro~Eevee

[Camus The Dark Knight]

C'Thun in World of Warcraft prior to his nerf... none of the mentioned bosses have anything on him. If you mean console games really nothing I can think of currently when I was little I had a lot of trouble with Culex on Mario RPG since I was little and "girls are icky" so I never used the Princess, nor did I know about the lazy shell or really anything else.

[Shadow Mir]

Ah, yes, that's true! I forgot about Ch. 4! Thinking back, I still haven't been able to S-Rank the Fool...

On that note, I tend to have trouble S ranking Isher due to unlucky guards ruining my day.

[Nyoro~Eevee]

Like I said, Rosier turns the Isher fight into a joke, but turning it into Longinus meant that I had to buckle down and actually legitimately win that fight, rofl!

[Shadow Mir]

Like I said, Rosier turns the Isher fight into a joke, but turning it into Longinus meant that I had to buckle down and actually legitimately win that fight, rofl!

I wound up quoting your other post before the edit, so I didn't notice...

And Archangel (yeah, an obsessed Dept. Heaven fan knows what you mean, even though I've only scratched the surface of Episodes II and IV personally, I've seen most of Yggdra Union through LP's) also has Holy Immunity that negates the normally excellent Disaresta finish. Coupling that with the aforementioned issues for Ein and Serene, and you've got problems... On the flip side, it's fun seeing Lina laugh off Angelic Thunder due to her natural Lightning Res ^w^

Speaking of times when Disaresta is useless, there's the fight where you initially get the Over Skill, namely the Isher fight. Seeing Isher guard an ENTIRE 8-HIT COMBO when one hit would kill him is immensely aggravating. One time I said "Screw it!" and unleashed Fia's Cadenza using the single use Rosier (XGuard property ftw!), then I was slightly irked on later runs when said Rosier was replaced by Longinus due to S-Ranking Seth-Ra on my first try...

I see Fia and Lina as best for that fight since Serene's lightning weakness rules her out, and Cierra won't be doing much of anything, especially since that chapter's staff is holy element (which, by the way, Archangel doesn't negate, but her holy resistance is high to the point that it might as well be).

I'd also say Ledah and Malice are battles where bringing Einherjar will do you no good, especially if they're given the chance to awaken (for me that tends to not be that big an issue, though Malice in chapter 7 starts awakened, so yeah).

Edited September 22, 2012 by Golden Cucco

[Irony]

Rigel from Heroes of Ruin- for 1 month.

The superboss (Whose name I can never spell) from Golden Sun: The Lost age and Dark Dawn: Took me 6 months to grind and defeat him- and only then by luck.

Akuro from Okamiden- for a day (THANK YOU YOUTUBE)

That's basically it.