Favorite final boss?

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Slimy Time said:
On the topic of Soulslike games - Genichiro/Sword Saint Isshin from Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is probably my recent favourite.

You start the game and face off against the unbeatable boss Genichiro. Wrecks your shit with unblockables that you don't know how to avoid and fast combos and cuts your arm off. Then at about the 1/3rd mark of the game, you fight him again where he is this skill gate boss that you have to break through. You spend ages figuring this dickhead out, from his parry combos to unblockables, to when to heal because he pulls his bow out every time you do it. You beat him, and he demonstrates the "lightning return" ability that becomes invaluable later. Beat him, but he escapes.

He then shows up as the final boss, and is a complete joke at this point. He then kills himself to bring back his grandfather in his peak form, the Sword Saint Isshin. Throughout the game you are told how much of a badass this old man is, except he's sick, and he lives up to it completely. He does flying slashes, guard breakers, unblockable 360 degree slashes and so on. You knock off his first health bar, and he pulls out the spear of the guy he killed in the very beginning intro cutscene, completely changing his moveset, including using a rapid fire pistol, in addition to all the flying slash shit from before. Then the weather turns, and he starts using lightning attacks, prompting you to use the lightning reversal against him like you did with Genichiro's first fight. Fight ends with you splitting open his guts, him still standing and accepting the outcome, then asking you to seppuku him by beheading him. The pay off? After that you can use his flying slash attack in NG+. It's also all set in the place where you lost your arm at the beginning of the game, in a Ghermin styled flowered area.

Great final boss. Very enjoyable and a good test of skill.
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You gotta’ respect that a dude named “Sword Saint” will just fucking cap you.
 
Sonic 3 (before "& Knuckles" was a thing).

You just defeated Robotnik's black ball contraption, and now hi-jacked his egg mobile to go sabotage the death egg. But wait, who's that standing on one of the pillars? Knuckles?! GTFO of the way you fucker!! Wait, the Death Egg is active and it's taking off? Oh shit, Knuckles just fell into the water... serves him right!

You land on one of the Death Egg platforms when HOLY SHIT Robotnik now has a long-ass LAZOR machine!

But that's ok, you take care if it no problem. Now it's time to...

... wait, why did the sky get dark all of a sudden?
... what's with that dark music that just started to play?

And then you see it.. BIG. ARMS.

OH MY FUCKING GOD!! This thing has spikes EVERYWHERE!! And he can catch you like a soccer ball and fuck your shit up?! Daaaaaaaaaaaaaamn! He's faster too, now you gotta make sure your aim is precise, all the while listening to that fucking awesome song!! After a tough long battle, you give him the final blow, and then THE DEATH EGG EXPLODES!!

Oh wait, I'm falling in the air now... THATS OK, I WON!!!
 
Magicain.jpg
 
Slimy Time said:
Great memories of The House of The Dead and this boss. The sequels try to capture the magic of the Magician (Emperor, Wheel of Fate, Star, World), but never really did, so they kept throwing him back in each game.
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I remember dual wielding and having a blast as a result. Through some attempts I manged to beat the game without dying and The Magician was the only boss that made me nervous due to how fast and dangerous it is in 2 Player mode.

I think the main reason why the Magician is fondly remembered over the other final bosses is because of how fast and tricky he was to deal with for new players, he's also far more better appearance wise compared to every other final boss. Each final boss after the Magician looked more Alien or otherworldly compared to the Magician's look of being an Genetic Mutant Experiment gone right (and wrong for Curian) and despite only having like three or four lines in the first two games, his actions and attacks in a couple of minutes speaks how much of a different league he is in of the creatures you faced who were mindless or obedient slaves and their only arsenal was wings or weapons where as The Magician uses Pyromancy like a Mage hence the name Magician.

That and his Theme is the most memorable part of the House of the Dead Series Soundtrack so far.
 
Ly Erg said:
I remember dual wielding and having a blast as a result. Through some attempts I manged to beat the game without dying and The Magician was the only boss that made me nervous due to how fast and dangerous it is in 2 Player mode.

I think the main reason why the Magician is fondly remembered over the other final bosses is because of how fast and tricky he was to deal with for new players, he's also far more better appearance wise compared to every other final boss. Each final boss after the Magician looked more Alien or otherworldly compared to the Magician's look of being an Genetic Mutant Experiment gone right (and wrong for Curian) and despite only having like three or four lines in the first two games, his actions and attacks in a couple of minutes speaks how much of a different league he is in of the creatures you faced who were mindless or obedient slaves and their only arsenal was wings or weapons where as The Magician uses Pyromancy like a Mage hence the name Magician.

That and his Theme is the most memorable part of the House of the Dead Series Soundtrack so far. https://youtube.com/watch?v=wkG989nrQAY
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Favourite on rail shooter of mine has always been Time Crisis. Including this guy.
Wd2.png


Wild Dog, he's in every game, not always as the final boss, but later as the 2nd last one. Play the first game, and he's a guy with a Mauser who blows himself up at the end. Comes back in 2 and the 2nd last boss, with a gattling gun arm, and then in each following game comes back with even more wacky augments, a missile launcher, a tractor beam and his own side kick as well - Wild Fang. Each time he blows himself up after losing and always comes back in the following game.

Also love how in those games the first one was a single player on rails only, and the canon reason for why that is the agent for the single player games is the only one who is badass enough to do these missions by himself, every other agent gets paired, hence 2 players.

Edit: Also now remember a damn fun boss in Time Crisis 4. It's the boss of the 2nd act. Big guy with a gun, but your NPC captain is fighting him in hand to hand, stopping him from shooting you while you shoot him. The NPC will get knocked away, letting the boss resume shooting you. He uses the captain as a weapon at times during the fight. Cool in concept for an on-rails shooter.

 
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Dark Edea said:
Gruntilda in Banjo-Kazooie. You are forced to show proficiency will every skill learned in the game. And there are no bullshit new skills thrown at you that are only useful for the final fight.
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To say nothing of the absolutely epic rendition of Grunty’s theme that plays during the fight.
I have a soft spot for Yoshi’s Island’s final boss. That game basically pulled out every magic trick the SNES and FX2 chip could do, and they saved one of the best for last.
 
Catgirl IRL said:
Soul of Cinder as well. It was a great capstone to the franchise.

Senator Armstrong. Thematically, mechanically, and that goddamn music were all absolutely perfect. An under rated example of gameplay and story cohesion.
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yeah armstrong is great as well, I like the part where raiden is punching him and his healthbar goes down ever so slightly showing that, while very strong, he still isnt undefeatable
 
The final bosses of Earthbound, Mother 3 and MGS3 are the ones that come most prominently to mind for me, although I don't really put any of those in the difficult category as much as the gut-punch category.
 
Slimy Time said:
Favourite on rail shooter of mine has always been Time Crisis. Including this guy.
View attachment 1630351

Wild Dog, he's in every game, not always as the final boss, but later as the 2nd last one. Play the first game, and he's a guy with a Mauser who blows himself up at the end. Comes back in 2 and the 2nd last boss, with a gattling gun arm, and then in each following game comes back with even more wacky augments, a missile launcher, a tractor beam and his own side kick as well - Wild Fang. Each time he blows himself up after losing and always comes back in the following game.

Also love how in those games the first one was a single player on rails only, and the canon reason for why that is the agent for the single player games is the only one who is badass enough to do these missions by himself, every other agent gets paired, hence 2 players.

Edit: Also now remember a damn fun boss in Time Crisis 4. It's the boss of the 2nd act. Big guy with a gun, but your NPC captain is fighting him in hand to hand, stopping him from shooting you while you shoot him. The NPC will get knocked away, letting the boss resume shooting you. He uses the captain as a weapon at times during the fight. Cool in concept for an on-rails shooter.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=USgwe5q962Q
Click to expand...

If I could own one original arcade cabinet it would be Sniper Scope. The bosses are kind of shit (anyone whose beaten it will remember DID YOU FIND ME DID YOU FIND ME DID YOU FIND ME, I FOUND YOU) but it's in my top 3 for favorite on rail shooters. Something about that rifle setup just gets me going lol.
 
SSF2T Old User said:
Sonic 3 (before "& Knuckles" was a thing).

You just defeated Robotnik's black ball contraption, and now hi-jacked his egg mobile to go sabotage the death egg. But wait, who's that standing on one of the pillars? Knuckles?! GTFO of the way you fucker!! Wait, the Death Egg is active and it's taking off? Oh shit, Knuckles just fell into the water... serves him right!

You land on one of the Death Egg platforms when HOLY SHIT Robotnik now has a long-ass LAZOR machine!

But that's ok, you take care if it no problem. Now it's time to...

... wait, why did the sky get dark all of a sudden?
... what's with that dark music that just started to play?

And then you see it.. BIG. ARMS.

OH MY FUCKING GOD!! This thing has spikes EVERYWHERE!! And he can catch you like a soccer ball and fuck your shit up?! Daaaaaaaaaaaaaamn! He's faster too, now you gotta make sure your aim is precise, all the while listening to that fucking awesome song!! After a tough long battle, you give him the final blow, and then THE DEATH EGG EXPLODES!!

Oh wait, I'm falling in the air now... THATS OK, I WON!!!
Click to expand...
Bro, you didn't even include the music.

 
Behold the heart of the world! Progenitor of life, father and mother, alpha and omega! Our creator... and our destroyer.
HoD.png
 
That boss is the absolute worst if you go into it blind not knowing what it does. There's a GDC lecture by the DD devs from a few years back where they have streamers reacting to it and publicly apologize for it.

e: Really though, I think an emotional reaction that strong is all you can really ask for from a game so personally I can't fault it.
 
Yami from Okami.

Why I love this fight:

After a long journey, you finally make it to the end, and face off against Yami, the Emperor of Darkness source of all evil. You fight him alone, as your companion Issun was unable to accompany you to the final fight. The fight begins, and as it goes on, one by one he steals your powers that you earned through the game. After a few phases, Amaterasu appears to defeat Yami, only for him to hit you with a sneak attack, which appears to drain the last of Ammy's godhood. Just when it looks like Yami is going to win, it's revealed that after Issun was left behind, he had traveled to all the people you had helped along you're journey, revealing to them through his artwork that you are the god Amaterasu. The people you helped bow their heads and pray to you, restoring your powers, allowing you to defeat Yami.

And to top it off, this beautiful track kicks in during the final phase, as you take down the lord of evil:

It was such a great culmination of the journey you went through, down to the people you had helped earlier returning the favor by praying to you and restoring your powers at such a critical moment.

Everything about this game was amazing, including the final boss.
 
The Rogue Process from The Surge.

While mechanically its a straight forward fight, something I didn't pick up on until a couple of playthrough in is how its "dialogue" is spliced together from what audio logs and NPCs you interacted with, and how you resolved several quests. For example if you just blazed through the game with no real care, it sneakily calls you a violent lunatic:

"Uncle Warren!
...everyone dead, no survivors...
...I think he's having some sort of psychotic break...
...a fine example for us all!"

Whereas if you spent time talking to people and solving problems, the lines of dialogue form a less judgemental, almost pleading narrative:

" Freedom?
...even the children...
...what did we do wrong...
...whats happening to me?!"

While the game deals with themes that aren't really unique - the value of artifical life, freedom means having a choice, etc - it's surprisingly thorough, and I really enjoyed just how many variations of that final speech are. A final cute thing is if you get the "good" ending, the Rogue Process yelps "time for me to get my ass outta here" when defeated, whereas killing it with the bad ending has a more direct "WELL FUCK YOU TOO".

It loses a lot in text, but the execution was great.
 
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