Least favorite boss fights

[Interdimensional Observer]

1 hour ago, Magus of Memery said:

Final Fantsy III - Cloud of Darkness

Ah, I forgot about this!

And you forgot to mention that to get to the CoD, you must climb the entire Crystal Tower and kill the boss atop it. And then you get sent to the darkness realm, where after a scripted loss to the CoD, you have to kill four more bosses in another dungeon, with random encounters of course. Only then do you get to fight the CoD, which as a silver lining IS only one phase.

All of this, and you die to the CoD, you have to repeat everything from the tower climb and forward. You can't save in dungeons in FFIII, not the DS version at least.

[Shadow Mir]

16 hours ago, DragonFlames said:

I just thought of another one

Mistral (Nights of Azure) - One of the bonus bosses you have to defeat to get the true ending of the game. This fight is one of the hardest in the entire game, second only to Christophorus (another bonus boss and my favourite character from Nights of Azure and the sequel).
Why don't I like Mistral? Because this thing can use a nearly unblockable A.O.E. move that kills your Servans (little monsters that help you in battle and are absolutely CRUCIAL to keep around, since the Alraune type Servan is one of only two ways you can heal in this game) in one or two hits even at max level. She also spawns snake mooks from pots dotted around the arena, so you have to destroy them, else you'll be ganged up on by poisonous worms. Here's the kicker, though: The pots actually respawn after a time.

Oh my god. That sounds like - and probably is - a huge pain in the ass.

Anyway, another fight that came to mind:

[MAJOR TALES OF VESPERIA SPOILERS]

 

Estellise - You fight her twice; the first fight isn't too hard thanks to her having rather low HP for that point in the game, but right after the first fight ends, you have to fight her again, this time with Yuri alone AND without a chance to heal in between, and that's the troubling part. She has the irritating tendency to break out of your combos and attack you while you're still recovering from your attack lag, which could easily be the death of you. She's also capable of healing herself, of course. As if that weren't enough, her over limit burst, unlike other human bosses, has a spinning effect as opposed to knocking you away, - better hope she doesn't think to use her burst arte immediately if she catches you out when entering Over Limit! And here's the kicker: For those of you that are thinking to do all secret missions, she's one of two that needs you to use an item, and the item needed for her secret mission is missable.

11 hours ago, BrightBow said:

I find it strange seeing the Black Knight mentioned so often. I mean, yeah, sure the luck thing is not great. I just find it strange that someone would pick him over Ashnard. You don't actually have to defeat the Black Knight, so you can just go with whatever outcome you get. Ashnard on the other hand is obligatory. So if Ike got sufficiently stat screwed, then you're just stuck there.

I can't comprehend how they were smart enough to allow you to escape from the Black Knight battle in case Ike couldn't possible win, but then two maps later they force you to use him to beat an even stronger boss. If Ike couldn't survive against the Black Knight, he won't be able to take on Ashnard either.

The luck-based nature of the fight is one thing, but there's also the fact that healers spawn a couple turns in for no other reason than screw you. And it doesn't help that Ena's garbage, especially in comparison to Nasir.

Edited May 4, 2019 by Shadow Mir

[Anacybele]

For me, definitely the Imprisoned from Zelda: Skyward Sword. As much as I love this game (it's my favorite Zelda), that boss fight is the most annoying stupid shit ever. Though not so much because of the fight itself, but mostly because you fight it not just once, but THREE times. Yeah. And it's more annoying each time.

[Lightcosmo]

52 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

For me, definitely the Imprisoned from Zelda: Skyward Sword. As much as I love this game (it's my favorite Zelda), that boss fight is the most annoying stupid shit ever. Though not so much because of the fight itself, but mostly because you fight it not just once, but THREE times. Yeah. And it's more annoying each time.

I can agree with this, running up and down the slope especially got irritating. It's not really hard, mostly tedious.

[Shadow Mir]

1 hour ago, Anacybele said:

For me, definitely the Imprisoned from Zelda: Skyward Sword. As much as I love this game (it's my favorite Zelda), that boss fight is the most annoying stupid shit ever. Though not so much because of the fight itself, but mostly because you fight it not just once, but THREE times. Yeah. And it's more annoying each time.

A fair assessment. In rounds two and three, I find it to be too much trouble to break the toes when I'm being repulsed by shockwaves, so I just go "screw it" and aim to get above it and jump on its head.

[Anacybele]

2 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

A fair assessment. In rounds two and three, I find it to be too much trouble to break the toes when I'm being repulsed by shockwaves, so I just go "screw it" and aim to get above it and jump on its head.

Wait, it's possible to win without taking out the toes?

[Shadow Mir]

2 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

Wait, it's possible to win without taking out the toes?

Yep. It's possible to just jump on its head. However, I do believe that if you try that, it can shake you off if you don't use the Groosenator to stun it beforehand.

Edited May 3, 2019 by Shadow Mir

[Anacybele]

2 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

Yep. It's possible to just jump on its head. However, I do believe that if you try that, it can shake you off if you don't use the Groosenator to stun it beforehand.

Okay, I see. I had no idea. xP

[Armagon]

Debated on putting these here since they're optional Superbosses but fuck it, they're still annoying.

Every Superboss in Xenoblade Chronicles except Final Marcus: This is more of a result of the game's mechanics rather than the bosses themselves. Essentially, Xenoblade 1 has this shitty level penalty mechanic where if you're lower than the enemy, you'll get nerfs to your accuracy, etc. All Superbosses except Final Marcus are above the maximum level cap (99) with the highest one being the Avalanche Abassy, being at Lv.120. So in order to stand a chance against these Superbosses, you'll need to grind for equipement. What you'll mainly be needing is accuracy buff gems and Spike Defense gems (the latter is arguably more important than the former because Spike damage is basically passive counterattacks/debuffs that happen automatically whenever you attack certain enemies or are simply within their range, sometimes under certain conditions, and it's dumb and i hate it and why hasn't Monolith Soft gotten rid of it yet). Keep in mind that these gems only give you a standing chance. The fights are still pretty dumb though (and some of the items needed to forge the Replica Monado are locked behind these Superbosses). The Ancient Daedala and the Avalanche Abassy also have their own issues. The former has a 360 sight radius meaning it's impossible to get a sneak attack hit and the latter has an insta-kill Spike which is exactly why you need the Spike Defense gems (or the Divine Protection(?) Gems which just negate insta-death but i don't remember where you get those.

Every Superboss in Torna ~ The Golden Country: Unlike Xenoblade 1's Superbosses, Torna's Superbosses don't have the whole level penalty mechanic (they dropped that after Xenoblade 1 because they knew how bad of a mechanic it was). And Torna's Superbosses are actually way more manageable than Xenoblade 1's Superbosses, especially since none of them are above the level cap. However, the problem lies with their Elemental Awakening. This is something every Unique Monster can do in Torna, so it's not just limited to Superbosses. However, these are Superbosses, so they're automatically tougher to beat. The thing with Elemental Awakening is that it directly discourages one aspect of the battle system: Blade Specials. Unlike in Xenoblade 2, doing a Blade Special in Torna automatically puts an Elemental Orb on an enemy as opposed to putting on after a Blade Combo has been completed (these Orbs are crucial for Chain Attacks as they determine how long the Chain Attack lasts). The problem is that the Superbosses have a randomized chance of activating Elemental Awakening whenever an Orb gets placed on them. Elemental Awakening increases all of an enemy's stats. It also stacks with Enraged, the classic "enemy's at half health, now the real fight begins" mechanic seen in a lot of games. You put these two things together and the Superbosses can very easily wipe out your whole party. The only way to get rid of Elemental Awakening is by destroying all the Orbs in via Chain Attack but that's kinda hard to do when you're constantly using your Party Gauge to revive fallen party members.....or waiting for them to revive you. Elemental Awakening also exists in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 but only in the Challenge Mode missions and you have Shulk to negate it's effects anyway (which effectively means Elemental Awakening is a DLC exclusive mechanic).

Edited May 3, 2019 by Armagon

[Lightcosmo]

3 hours ago, Armagon said:

Debated on putting these here since they're optional Superbosses but fuck it, they're still annoying.

Every Superboss in Xenoblade Chronicles except Final Marcus: This is more of a result of the game's mechanics rather than the bosses themselves. Essentially, Xenoblade 1 has this shitty level penalty mechanic where if you're lower than the enemy, you'll get nerfs to your accuracy, etc. All Superbosses except Final Marcus are above the maximum level cap (99) with the highest one being the Avalanche Abassy, being at Lv.120. So in order to stand a chance against these Superbosses, you'll need to grind for equipement. What you'll mainly be needing is accuracy buff gems and Spike Defense gems (the latter is arguably more important than the former because Spike damage is basically passive counterattacks/debuffs that happen automatically whenever you attack certain enemies or are simply within their range, sometimes under certain conditions, and it's dumb and i hate it and why hasn't Monolith Soft gotten rid of it yet). Keep in mind that these gems only give you a standing chance. The fights are still pretty dumb though (and some of the items needed to forge the Replica Monado are locked behind these Superbosses). The Ancient Daedala and the Avalanche Abassy also have their own issues. The former has a 360 sight radius meaning it's impossible to get a sneak attack hit and the latter has an insta-kill Spike which is exactly why you need the Spike Defense gems (or the Divine Protection(?) Gems which just negate insta-death but i don't remember where you get those.

Every Superboss in Torna ~ The Golden Country: Unlike Xenoblade 1's Superbosses, Torna's Superbosses don't have the whole level penalty mechanic (they dropped that after Xenoblade 1 because they knew how bad of a mechanic it was). And Torna's Superbosses are actually way more manageable than Xenoblade 1's Superbosses, especially since none of them are above the level cap. However, the problem lies with their Elemental Awakening. This is something every Unique Monster can do in Torna, so it's not just limited to Superbosses. However, these are Superbosses, so they're automatically tougher to beat. The thing with Elemental Awakening is that it directly discourages one aspect of the battle system: Blade Specials. Unlike in Xenoblade 2, doing a Blade Special in Torna automatically puts an Elemental Orb on an enemy as opposed to putting on after a Blade Combo has been completed (these Orbs are crucial for Chain Attacks as they determine how long the Chain Attack lasts). The problem is that the Superbosses have a randomized chance of activating Elemental Awakening whenever an Orb gets placed on them. Elemental Awakening increases all of an enemy's stats. It also stacks with Enraged, the classic "enemy's at half health, now the real fight begins" mechanic seen in a lot of games. You put these two things together and the Superbosses can very easily wipe out your whole party. The only way to get rid of Elemental Awakening is by destroying all the Orbs in via Chain Attack but that's kinda hard to do when you're constantly using your Party Gauge to revive fallen party members.....or waiting for them to revive you. Elemental Awakening also exists in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 but only in the Challenge Mode missions and you have Shulk to negate it's effects anyway (which effectively means Elemental Awakening is a DLC exclusive mechanic).

I agree with this issue as well, it might be like that so there is a level expectation of sorts, to let you know that's where you should be. Not that I like it either, it's absurd to punish you for that, really. Does it go for the enemies as well?

Hmm I don't remember having that issue in Torna, I thought they were much better done than 2,s original bosses.

[NinjaMonkey]

10 hours ago, BrightBow said:

I find it strange seeing the Black Knight mentioned so often. I mean, yeah, sure the luck thing is not great. I just find it strange that someone would pick him over Ashnard.

I've never lost against or had any trouble with Ashnard, that's why. Also, Ashnard doesn't have any worthwhile offensive skills (unlike the Black Knight, who can Luna Ike to death pretty quickly if the RNG goes his way - which I've had happen to me on more than one occasion).

10 hours ago, BrightBow said:

You don't actually have to defeat the Black Knight, so you can just go with whatever outcome you get.

I want Nasir, that's why. Mainly due to the fact that Ena is absolute rubbish.

Edited May 4, 2019 by NinjaMonkey

[Armagon]

2 hours ago, lightcosmo said:

Hmm I don't remember having that issue in Torna, I thought they were much better done than 2,s original bosses

Xenoblade 2's Superbosses are probably the fairest in the Xenoblade series. Xenoblade 1's Superbosses had the bullshit level penalties, Xenoblade X's Superbosses really wanted you to spend hours upon hours grinding Augments (and the only reason i haven't mentioned it is because i haven't actually played X), and Torna's Superbosses have Elemental Awakening stacking with Enrage. Meanwhile, Xenoblade 2's Superbosses pretty much just required you to be at max level and well equipped.

[NSSKG151]

Demise from LoZ: Skyward Sword. Don't really hate him, just really found his boss battle really disappointing. For someone who is suppose to be the origin of all of Hyrule's trouble I expected him to have a pretty tough boss fight. Instead he goes down in less than three minutes if you know what you are doing, even on hard mode. Ghirahim and even the Imprisoned are much harder boss fights than Demise.

Kusumi-no-Okami from Persona 4 Golden. The boss version of a certain character I already didn't like. Also forces you use break skills on the Persona of both yours and yours allies since the boss reflects all attacks otherwise.

Launch Octopus from Megaman X1. Both his stage and the boss himself are difficult and the weapon he is suppose to be weak to isn't that good to use on him since he spits out crap to block it.

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

Speaking of disappointing bosses I find Veld from Thracia 776 a very underwhelming final boss for a very challenging and creatively designed Fire Emblem game otherwise. The final map has a very interesting gimmick with lots of scary enemies, but Veld himself brings nothing on the table except for stoning people. He was easily one rounded by one single unit. 

[Shadow Mir]

Charge Man from Mega Man 5. The weapon he's weak against is rather awkward to use, and if you miss, you have to wait a good while to fire again. There's also the matter of him becoming invincible when he charges at you.

Blade Man from Mega Man 10. He's weak to one of the most awkward weapons in the entire series, considering that you have to hit him with the explosion, not the bomb itself. This is even worse than it sounds since he never stays still for very long. And it doesn't help that said weapon doesn't have a lot of ammo.

Sylph from Tales of Eternia. Guess what his weakness is, and why it's practically useless against him? Also, he has rather durable backup, as if his spells and arrow shots weren't enough of a pain.

Edited May 4, 2019 by Shadow Mir

[Shrimpica]

6 hours ago, Rosalina said:

Speaking of disappointing bosses I find Veld from Thracia 776 a very underwhelming final boss for a very challenging and creatively designed Fire Emblem game otherwise. The final map has a very interesting gimmick with lots of scary enemies, but Veld himself brings nothing on the table except for stoning people. He was easily one rounded by one single unit. 

To be fair, the only final bosses in Fire Emblem that are worthy to be called Final Bosses are Ashera and Anankos!Takumi. The rest are just overglorified stat-boosted units

[Lightcosmo]

9 hours ago, Armagon said:

Xenoblade 2's Superbosses are probably the fairest in the Xenoblade series. Xenoblade 1's Superbosses had the bullshit level penalties, Xenoblade X's Superbosses really wanted you to spend hours upon hours grinding Augments (and the only reason i haven't mentioned it is because i haven't actually played X), and Torna's Superbosses have Elemental Awakening stacking with Enrage. Meanwhile, Xenoblade 2's Superbosses pretty much just required you to be at max level and well equipped.

The lvl 130 superboss who's name I can't remember, was actually a nice change of pace in Xenoblade 2. Ophion? That was a pretty simple and straight-forward fight, which I thought was a little disappointing for this all - awesome artifice. I can't say that Xenoblade 2's boss fights really put me on the edge of my seat most of the time. In Torna, I can remember the thing in the desert giving me some problems, but nothing unfair to deal with. But it's a superboss, it's not supposed to be that easy.  I can't argue that Xenoblade 1's boss fights aren't annoying to deal with without things like night vision and such, though. As far as Xenoblade X goes, yeah, the grinding was awful. After all, I did it, twice in fact and I didn't enjoy it one bit.

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

55 minutes ago, Shrimperor said:

To be fair, the only final bosses in Fire Emblem that are worthy to be called Final Bosses are Ashera and Anankos!Takumi. The rest are just overglorified stat-boosted units

In FE5 I just had different expectations for the complexity this game offered before. 

But yes, very most of the final bosses in Fire Emblem are not remarkable in terms of challenge except for the Tellius's ones and Anakos (yes no joke, but from the gameplay aspect only). 

[Armagon]

2 hours ago, lightcosmo said:

In Torna, I can remember the thing in the desert giving me some problems, but nothing unfair to deal with. But it's a superboss, it's not supposed to be that easy.

It's not supposed to easy but it's also not supposed to discourage one of the main gameplay mechanics.....which is exactly what Elemental Awakening does. There's no pattern to it, you do a Blade Special and bam! Elemental Awakening. It would've been fine if at least, Elemental Awakening only triggers if you don't do a unique Blade Combo. That way, there's actually a reason to do a Unique Blade combo.

 

[redlight]

In recent memory, Melt and Shiki from CCC collaboration event in FGO. Melt is bulky AND is constantly buffing her attack. Shiki has a short cooldown special attack that has a chance to kill a party member. She could also charge it faster. Needed to have taunts for that. And that tank might just die instantly from the death debuff. And once you break her first bar of health she changes into a different form that has a AoE special attack with a slightly longer CD than her previous one, but can inflict death on your party. Less than the single target's chance, but now she uses a buff that boosts damage, pierces any kind of damage negating buff like invincibility/avoid AND decreases death resist chance for party members. That's enough to kill an entire row of your party most of the time with her buff active.

Edited May 4, 2019 by redlight

[Armagon]

Fuck, i can't believe i forgot this one

Hades' Heart (Kid Icarus: Uprising): OHHHHHHH BOY, this boss. Very fast, always ramming into you, the layout of the boss room is ass so you can hardly attack it without going in front of the boss.......which results in it ramming into you multiple times (because if it misses, it comes back for round 2, 3 and 4). One day, i'll complete Ch.23 on the highest difficulty.

[Shadow Mir]

10 hours ago, Rosalina said:

Speaking of disappointing bosses I find Veld from Thracia 776 a very underwhelming final boss for a very challenging and creatively designed Fire Emblem game otherwise. The final map has a very interesting gimmick with lots of scary enemies, but Veld himself brings nothing on the table except for stoning people. He was easily one rounded by one single unit. 

In fairness, he's only human, as opposed to the majority of FE final bosses being dragons, gods or demons. The other human final bosses were either possessed by dragons (Julius, Takumi) or have access to godlike power (Ashnard).

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

48 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

In fairness, he's only human, as opposed to the majority of FE final bosses being dragons, gods or demons. The other human final bosses were either possessed by dragons (Julius, Takumi) or have access to godlike power (Ashnard).

Yeah, but none of the dragon bosses offer much except maybe for Medeus II for healing himself by eating his servants. 

The only dragon which really fulfills the role of an all mighty dragon, Deghinsea, is not even a final boss. 

In general the role of dragons in Fire Emblem is underwhelming for the most part. They are bland and not even too mighty. This is why I do not really care for them except in the Tellius series because they play a very important role in the story. 

Edited May 4, 2019 by Rosalina

[Shrimpica]

11 minutes ago, Rosalina said:

This is why I do not really care for them except in the Tellius series because they play a very important role in the story. 

Same here. Tellius games are the only FE games where Dragons are not just gone-mad Overgrown Lizards and where their existence doesn't ruin the Story *cough*Fe4*cough*

[Lightcosmo]

4 hours ago, Armagon said:

It's not supposed to easy but it's also not supposed to discourage one of the main gameplay mechanics.....which is exactly what Elemental Awakening does. There's no pattern to it, you do a Blade Special and bam! Elemental Awakening. It would've been fine if at least, Elemental Awakening only triggers if you don't do a unique Blade Combo. That way, there's actually a reason to do a Unique Blade combo.

 

I suppose so. Still, I dont think awful. I wouldn't say that's it's them trying to just punish you for using blade combos, rather trying to make you try something else for a change and not rely so much on easy chain attack wins.

Edited May 4, 2019 by lightcosmo