Worst Boss Fights
This is a list of the worst boss fights I've seen in gaming, and why I think they are bad, for various reasons.
This list will have spoilers for some of the games it mentions.
This list is entirely subjective, and there are likely tons of awful boss rights I haven't seen that could be way worse than any of these, and some that I have that I haven't thought of at the moment. 10 to start, but can grow.
I'd be happy to take recommendations, (or you can defend a boss that'd be fun too) but note that I won't add them unless I experienced them for myself.
One entry per series for now, and for the time being I will be omitting superbosses.
This list will have spoilers for some of the games it mentions.
This list is entirely subjective, and there are likely tons of awful boss rights I haven't seen that could be way worse than any of these, and some that I have that I haven't thought of at the moment. 10 to start, but can grow.
I'd be happy to take recommendations, (or you can defend a boss that'd be fun too) but note that I won't add them unless I experienced them for myself.
One entry per series for now, and for the time being I will be omitting superbosses.
11 Games
Final Foot
The one that inspired this list. Here we are at the end of the long stretch after a hellish ice level. Final Foot bounces around the level like any other foot, but has an absurd amount of health that he will regenerate all of if you let off him for a second. You have to follow him closely mash to the best of your ability to even stand a chance, which good luck doing that with not only the ice physics from the previous two levels, but new to this game the decreased gravity and two boulder hazards in the level.
Your reward is the tease of a sequel that never comes.
The one that inspired this list. Here we are at the end of the long stretch after a hellish ice level. Final Foot bounces around the level like any other foot, but has an absurd amount of health that he will regenerate all of if you let off him for a second. You have to follow him closely mash to the best of your ability to even stand a chance, which good luck doing that with not only the ice physics from the previous two levels, but new to this game the decreased gravity and two boulder hazards in the level.
Your reward is the tease of a sequel that never comes.
Iblis (Sonic)
Yup, it's this one. You must wait patiently for Iblis to slowly make the path forward for you to hit him, do that, slowly bounce back to your original position, then repeat for about 5 minutes. No challenge, nothing but waiting for you to be able to finish the fight.
Most people would say Silver (Sonic) for this game but he's the funny kind of bad that you want to mess around with so I don't count him but you can honorable mention him if you want.
Yup, it's this one. You must wait patiently for Iblis to slowly make the path forward for you to hit him, do that, slowly bounce back to your original position, then repeat for about 5 minutes. No challenge, nothing but waiting for you to be able to finish the fight.
Most people would say Silver (Sonic) for this game but he's the funny kind of bad that you want to mess around with so I don't count him but you can honorable mention him if you want.
Mother Computer
Oh boy Mother Computer. This fight aims to be a recreation of a scene from Persona 3, which is a commendable goal that the game stumbles every step of the way. The boss will not allow itself to die until the recreation script is played out, meaning no matter how good you are at dealing damage you're gonna sit down and be told a story, even on NG+. This fight has three phases, the first can disable your abilities which will happily throw off your strategies, and Synchronicity, which is an unavoidable attack that reduces everyone's HP to the lowest party member's. In order to beat Mother Computer, it has to be "hacked", hitting its weaknesses which you may have everyone use at once or may not have the elements for at any given time, leaving the pacing of the fight entirely to luck. Because you have to hit it for weakness 10 times in a row to proceed to the next phase, which is getting one turn to beat it up, giving you the impression that it's over, before getting up and saying PSYCHE do it all again. You shouldn't have to do it again after that, but it's a chore I won't forget.
Oh boy Mother Computer. This fight aims to be a recreation of a scene from Persona 3, which is a commendable goal that the game stumbles every step of the way. The boss will not allow itself to die until the recreation script is played out, meaning no matter how good you are at dealing damage you're gonna sit down and be told a story, even on NG+. This fight has three phases, the first can disable your abilities which will happily throw off your strategies, and Synchronicity, which is an unavoidable attack that reduces everyone's HP to the lowest party member's. In order to beat Mother Computer, it has to be "hacked", hitting its weaknesses which you may have everyone use at once or may not have the elements for at any given time, leaving the pacing of the fight entirely to luck. Because you have to hit it for weakness 10 times in a row to proceed to the next phase, which is getting one turn to beat it up, giving you the impression that it's over, before getting up and saying PSYCHE do it all again. You shouldn't have to do it again after that, but it's a chore I won't forget.
9th Colossus
This is my hot take boss. You have to rely on not only the horse for this one, but also the AI, hoping to god it will step on one of the geysers to flip itself over. I tried this for a while before ultimately surrendering the game, because it just wouldn't happen no matter what I did. It's slow, it's clunky, you need to pray, and I surrendered.
This is my hot take boss. You have to rely on not only the horse for this one, but also the AI, hoping to god it will step on one of the geysers to flip itself over. I tried this for a while before ultimately surrendering the game, because it just wouldn't happen no matter what I did. It's slow, it's clunky, you need to pray, and I surrendered.
Kyohei Jingu
This scumbag really is the worst: He's guarded by two security guards that are bosses in their own right, and on top of that they all use a guns in a game where bullets will leave you incapacitated and deal a good bit of damage, on top of breaking your flow. Taking out the guards (good luck!) and then Jingu sounds like a plan, but the guards revive over time. They switch their guns for blades, but that doesn't make things much easier as you'll still take damage trying to block a blade. I had a policy of doing Yakuza bosses without items, but this guy made me break it.
Jingu looked to be much easier in the original game, so they decided to make him tougher but overcompensate. At least a great final boss is after this.
This scumbag really is the worst: He's guarded by two security guards that are bosses in their own right, and on top of that they all use a guns in a game where bullets will leave you incapacitated and deal a good bit of damage, on top of breaking your flow. Taking out the guards (good luck!) and then Jingu sounds like a plan, but the guards revive over time. They switch their guns for blades, but that doesn't make things much easier as you'll still take damage trying to block a blade. I had a policy of doing Yakuza bosses without items, but this guy made me break it.
Jingu looked to be much easier in the original game, so they decided to make him tougher but overcompensate. At least a great final boss is after this.
Dr. Lugae
His fight starts with a manzai comedy routine that plays out every single attempt before you can get to the real fight. In the DS remake, he gained a gimmick in Reverse Gas, which makes damaging attacks heal and healing attacks damage. So just wait till his switches and then change your strat, right? Not in a game where there is time between selecting your attacks and executing them, and he can just decide to want to Reverse Gas at anytime, leading to you healing him or damaging your teammates! You think you can just wait for it to go away but that's inviting him to beat you up for free. There are cheese strats, one even exclusive to the DS version (as in, not in modern ports of this remake), but if cheese is recommended to get past your boss, he's just not well designed.
His fight starts with a manzai comedy routine that plays out every single attempt before you can get to the real fight. In the DS remake, he gained a gimmick in Reverse Gas, which makes damaging attacks heal and healing attacks damage. So just wait till his switches and then change your strat, right? Not in a game where there is time between selecting your attacks and executing them, and he can just decide to want to Reverse Gas at anytime, leading to you healing him or damaging your teammates! You think you can just wait for it to go away but that's inviting him to beat you up for free. There are cheese strats, one even exclusive to the DS version (as in, not in modern ports of this remake), but if cheese is recommended to get past your boss, he's just not well designed.
Quercius Alba
You never thought a visual novel could have a damage sponge, but Ace Attorney Investigations sets out to prove you wrong. Once you get past this guy you'll never think of the words Extraterritorial Rights in the same light ever again.
You never thought a visual novel could have a damage sponge, but Ace Attorney Investigations sets out to prove you wrong. Once you get past this guy you'll never think of the words Extraterritorial Rights in the same light ever again.
Ultra Mega Mega Man
The final boss of an already poor game. This guy has a tricky weakspot to hit, that unless you have a surplus of Terrance and Phillip grenades or a super powerful weapon, you are not reliably hitting at a reasonable rate. The only time he won't be looking at you is when he's going to heal, which he will be safe while he's there, so unless you can shoot a button to stop the quick healing in time, you'll have to do it all again.
The final boss of an already poor game. This guy has a tricky weakspot to hit, that unless you have a surplus of Terrance and Phillip grenades or a super powerful weapon, you are not reliably hitting at a reasonable rate. The only time he won't be looking at you is when he's going to heal, which he will be safe while he's there, so unless you can shoot a button to stop the quick healing in time, you'll have to do it all again.
Flukemarm
This game has really good bosses, some the textbook example of boss design. But then there's....Flukemarm. It just sits there and generates annoying enemies. Yup, that's a boss in a video game alright. A textbook example of a dreadfully boring boss that belongs to the worst of the worst.
This game has really good bosses, some the textbook example of boss design. But then there's....Flukemarm. It just sits there and generates annoying enemies. Yup, that's a boss in a video game alright. A textbook example of a dreadfully boring boss that belongs to the worst of the worst.
Doc Robot
The guy who rehashes Mega Man 2 bosses, but his body is bigger. You also have to guess a whole new set of weaknesses based on the MM2 Robot Masters. Did I mention is body is bigger? This makes the Wood and Quick Man variants a lot harder, while most other variants also get a difficulty boost. You fight this guy 8 times in a row, and 0 of them are fun.
The guy who rehashes Mega Man 2 bosses, but his body is bigger. You also have to guess a whole new set of weaknesses based on the MM2 Robot Masters. Did I mention is body is bigger? This makes the Wood and Quick Man variants a lot harder, while most other variants also get a difficulty boost. You fight this guy 8 times in a row, and 0 of them are fun.
Pyribbit EX
Get out of the background so I can kick your ass!
The vast majority of the moveset involves him shooting things at you from the background, all attacks that take very long to do. You having no way to attack the background, have to wait for all of this to play out. Sometimes, he'll come to the foreground...only to return to the background once more! Enjoy waiting!
So Pyribbit is from Kirby Triple Deluxe, why this version of the fight? If you've been playing every Kirby game in order of release, then you'll have already fought him at least 4 times in the same console generation before this point. Psyche, that's only if you're doing the bare minimum and not touching any side content. If you're doing everything, it's more like 8 times before this in the span of 6 years. Kirby does this with a lot of bosses sure, but they tend to mix it up, unlike Pyribbit who's roughly the same background loving guy each and every time. Even worse is a specific mission, to defeat him in 50 seconds. Hope he doesn't hop to the background too quick, and hope your AI party members feel like cooperating! That's even with being Level 50 and using 5 attack boosters!
Pyribbit EX encompasses all the issues a Kirby boss from this era may have: Long background attacks, the 9th time you faced this guy, and a luck based mission for the cherry on top.
Get out of the background so I can kick your ass!
The vast majority of the moveset involves him shooting things at you from the background, all attacks that take very long to do. You having no way to attack the background, have to wait for all of this to play out. Sometimes, he'll come to the foreground...only to return to the background once more! Enjoy waiting!
So Pyribbit is from Kirby Triple Deluxe, why this version of the fight? If you've been playing every Kirby game in order of release, then you'll have already fought him at least 4 times in the same console generation before this point. Psyche, that's only if you're doing the bare minimum and not touching any side content. If you're doing everything, it's more like 8 times before this in the span of 6 years. Kirby does this with a lot of bosses sure, but they tend to mix it up, unlike Pyribbit who's roughly the same background loving guy each and every time. Even worse is a specific mission, to defeat him in 50 seconds. Hope he doesn't hop to the background too quick, and hope your AI party members feel like cooperating! That's even with being Level 50 and using 5 attack boosters!
Pyribbit EX encompasses all the issues a Kirby boss from this era may have: Long background attacks, the 9th time you faced this guy, and a luck based mission for the cherry on top.
Dalaamclouds
1 month ago