Some video games are easy, and some video games are hard, but almost every single video game under the sun tends to have one thing in common: at least a single hard boss. I don’t know what it is, but developers and programmers LOVE to put difficult bosses into their video games, no matter what age group the game was made for. It’s crazy…but, conquering a terrifyingly hard foe often leads to some of the most formative memories in gaming.
Here are the 10 trickiest opponents I’ve managed to best!
10) Ba’al Turtle Dove ~ Bravely Default
So, in Bravely Default, you can participate in a side activity where you help to rebuild a destroyed town. Nothing too crazy, but every so often, the town is invaded by evil spirits known as Ba’al. These malevolent spirits are not encountered anywhere else in the game, and have little-to-no explanation for their appearance. All you can do is fight them off to protect the town, and get some great rewards in the process.
But, that’s easier said then done with Turtle Dove. This malnourished marital chicken demon is the stuff of nightmares, and yet it is ironically the master of love. See, Turtle Dove can inflict your heroes with love sickness that makes you unable to control their actions as they mimic another one of your party members. Turtle Dove can even use a “love triangle” alteration to hit three party members at once. Then, the boss can pit your love-crazed heroes against each other, or kill them all at once with “Heartbreak”. It’s a lot to manage, but also a lot of fun.
9) The Batomys ~ Valkyria Chronicles
A vast majority of the human bosses in the Valkyria Chronicles series boil down to the exact same set of steps. Position a shocktrooper in front of the boss, and one behind. Attack with the one behind, the boss turns to face them, and now you can attack with the other shocktrooper who is now behind the boss. Rinse and repeat. Small tank bosses are similarly simple, and just require having lancers dump explosion after explosion into the tank’s radiator.
Giant vehicles are different, and the Batomys is the granddaddy of them all. This hulking behemoth takes an entire level and nearly two hours to put down, and requires more strategy and critical thinking than nearly anything else in the game. You have to blow up its defense turrets, slow its path with rocky detritus, and climb its sides to throw grenades into its exhaust pipes. Even then, the terrifying warrior Selvaria shows up halfway through with an elite squad prepped to gun down your troops. It’s nuts.
8) Blade Bearer and Cannoneer (Depths) ~ Code Vein
Much has been said about the beloved Dark Souls boss, Ornstein and Smough. It’s a great boss, to be sure, but the past few years have really blown their difficulty out of proportion. They aren’t too tricky for anyone halfway experienced with Soulslike games. But, you want to know what dastardly duo boss IS extremely difficult, even for the most advanced gaming pros? These two!
Though an optional fight, the battle against Blade Bearer and Cannoneer in the dungeon depths of Code Vein is easily one of the hardest fights in any Soulslike. These opponents cover each others weaknesses perfectly, with Blade Bearer zipping in and out with icy sword strikes, and Cannoneer blasting from afar while you’re distracted. Once you get one of them down, though, the fun really beings. The remaining foe recovers all health and enters phase two, developing an entirely new moveset with attacks so hard to dodge and so damaging you’ll be dead before you can blink. Only the fact that you have a partner of your own keeps this fight from being borderline impossible.
7) Blood-Starved Beast (Ailing Loran) ~ Bloodborne
As oppressive as the duo mentioned above are, there’s one singular monster that holds a special place in my heart as the most consistently tricky and borderline unfair boss in Soulslike games. That dubious honor goes to the Blood-Starved Beast, simultaneously one of my favorite and least favorite boss fights in gaming. All that is guaranteed with this fight is that it gets my heart racing and blood pumping.
The Blood-Starved Beast is a lanky and deceptively quick boss who rushes around the arena and attacks with rapid claw swipes and deadly bites. Now, he’s a required boss in the story mode of Bloodborne, and he is only a mildly tricky nuisance. In the optional Ailing Loran chalice dungeon, he’s a whole other beast (get it?). Not only does he have a huge health pool and high damage, but you fight him in a room the size of an overpriced NYC apartment. As in…very small. There’s no room to breathe, no room to escape, and no room to back up and heal. The Blood-Starved Beast can inflict rapid poison on your hunter, and if you get afflicted, it’s best to just give up. I sure hope you’re good at dodging his insta-kill grab attack too!
6) Eve ~ Stella Glow
Stella Glow was a game I’d heard nothing about before grabbing it at GameStop (what can I say, I’m a sucker for cool looking anime JRPGs). It’s a solid tactical game, and though I have a few gripes, I’d definitely recommend giving it a playthrough if you ever get the chance. One of my gripes, however, is about the game’s uneven difficulty curve, and BOY did that rear its ugly head in this game’s finale.
Barring the true ending (which is notoriously obtuse to achieve and has a different, easier final boss), Eve is the final boss of Stella Glow, and she doesn’t even remotely being to hold back. Humongous health pool with several phases? Check. Highly damaging and far-reaching attacks? Check. Infinitely spawning reinforcements to thin your ranks and cut down on your supplies? Check. Extremely narrow margin for error in a fight lasting over two hours? Check. A really good boss theme, though? Also check!
5) Gym Leader Elesa ~ Pokémon Black 2
In the grand scheme of the universe, Pokémon games are not the first thing someone thinks of when talking about difficulty in video games. I mean, it’s basically just a game of rock-paper-scissors, just with over twenty options instead of three. Use a Pokémon strong against your opponent, and be careful not to use a weak one. The thing is, this only applies to gym leaders who follow the rules.
Elesa is only the fourth gym leader in Pokémon Black 2, but she is easily the most formidable. She’s got a nasty team of four Electric Pokémon easily able to paralyze and confuse you, plus they each have the move Volt Switch (allowing them to attack AND switch out in the same maneuver). Two of the Pokémon have a Sitrus Berry, which heals the Pokémon practically to full once per battle without taking up Elesa’s turn. One of her Pokémon is both Flying and Electric, which means that Electric’s only weakness, Ground, is unable to be used. Then, her strongest Pokémon has Flame Charge, which makes it faster each time it uses it. It’ll quickly be able to attack and defeat you faster than your own team can act.
On top of all of this, in my first playthrough of Pokémon Black 2, my two strongest Pokémon were my Water and Flying types, which are both critically weak to Electric. It took over six attempts to take Elesa down for good, and two different trips to catch and train a new team.
4) Bloody Marie ~ Skullgirls
It’s basically just a known fact in the gaming world that final bosses in the fighting genre will do anything to cheat and win. From health bars multiple times the size of your own, to screen-filling attacks that are nigh-undodgeable, to combos so erratic and overwhelming that you will die in seconds. To be fair to this list, practically any fighting game final boss could show up here. My pick goes to Bloody Marie.
Right off the bat, Marie ticks the majority of the boxes for an unfair fighting game final boss. She has the screen-filling attacks, the crazy combos, the insane damage, and the massive health pool. She also has a few tricks of her own, such as having a very small and hard to attack hitbox, and she is unstaggerable, meaning her attacks cannot be interrupted. She also has three phases of consistently escalating attacks that necessitate the perfect balance of offense and defense. She’s also easier or harder depending on whose campaign you’re playing, with the match as Eliza (my favorite character) taking the cake for difficulty.
3) The Second Sister ~ Jedi: Fallen Order
If you had told me a few years back that we were going to be blessed with a Soulslike game set in the Star Wars universe, I would have laughed. And yet, here we are, and Jedi: Fallen Order is an exceptionally high-quality video game that I loved every minute of playing (including the staggering number of hilarious bugs and glitches). I recommend it to every Star Wars fan…with one caveat. See, where Blade Bearer and Cannoneer showed two heads were better than one, and Blood-Starved Beast demonstrated the depths of insanity Soulslike games could get to, the Second Sister is the peak of boss fight design, managing to be completely balanced and fair, and also hair-pullingly difficult.
This is the fourth and final bout against the Second Sister, and every fight thus far has simultaneously prepared you for this final showdown, and also lulled you into a false sense of security. Second Sister was holding back, all this time. She’s got rapid strikes and slashes, sudden sweeps, a plethora of feints and counters, devastating force abilities, a massive stamina gauge you have to deplete, and even a few droids she can call on for backup. At the same time, this extreme challenge is balanced by being totally fair and demanding of the player’s own skill level. Though it took me over an hour, I knew it was entirely my own ability that landed me the victory.
2) Neo Khidr ~ Rogue Legacy
I’m not even going to beat around the bush with this one: Neo Khidr is unbelievably difficult. Like, crazy, super hard. Like, arguably even harder than the number one boss on this list. Rogue Legacy is not the easiest game ever created, but the level of skill and dedication needed to bring down this behemoth is nothing short of superhuman.
And that’s really the thing. Neo Khidr follows an extremely specific and rehearsed set of attacks. His pattern is predictable, and able to be memorized without practice. The problem is actually being GOOD enough to follow through on your memorization and win. The fight is about five minutes long, and you have to be perfect and flawless to win. A maximum of three mistakes is allowed, and that’s being generous. Once it all clicks, winning isn’t too hard. The path to victory, however, is paved with blood, sweat, tears, and (for me), about two hours of failed attempts.
1) Bow Bros ~ Fire Emblem Fates
Hold on. This couldn’t possibly…no, that’s not right. Is it? Could this really be…a Fire Emblem game without a dragon as the final boss!?! What sort of crazy world are we living in, huh?
Takumi is one of my favorite character’s in Fire Emblem Fates, and a large part of that is due to his role as the villainous rival in the Conquest campaign. Akin to the Second Sister a few entries higher on this list, Takumi is fought four times during the runtime of Conquest, but it is his final and most unforgettable bout that commands the player’s full attention, strategic might, micromanaging expertise, and a healthy dose of luck.
You have to fight your way through an infinitely spawning horde of enemies to reach Takumi down at the bottom of the map, using rocks and rubble to hide from his screen-clearing waves of energy blasts. These enemies are immensely strong, and it’s a long slog down to Takumi. You better hold onto your best units until you reach him, because that’s where the fun REALLY begins!
Takumi, the absolute mad lad, has created an evil clone of himself, and the two fight side-by-side. Though you only need to take one of them down to win, that doesn’t make it any easier. His clone is capable of attacking alongside him, utilizing specials and critical hits, and (every two to three hits) completely blocks your next attack. Takumi also gets stronger the lower his health is, ensuring his battle only becomes harder the longer it lasts. He lowers your unit’s states just for engaging him in combat, halves all damage received, and can nullify your ability to counteract. His range also far exceeds your own units’ range. He also prevents your units from critical striking.
It’s an insane amount to deal with in a level running over two hours in length, and not only is it the hardest boss I’ve ever beaten (and let me tell you, it was entirely by luck, as my Conquest team was infamously underleveled and underprepared), but one of the most memorable. There’s just something special about tackling the odds and coming out on top, right?
But hey, that’s just my opinion!
The Contrarian Corner 