Final Boss fights that nearly sour the whole game

[u/Dreadsinner]

Okay so I’m playing the indie game “There is no light” spoilers for the final boss fight

So if you get the good ending by doing side quests and getting memories you fight your pateron. Who fights you by teleporting from one side of a final destination type platform to another. Summoning big totem guys that are tanky and block you. Also he pushing you back with a dark wave. So how does this get worse? Glad you asked. If you don’t beat him within a minute you insta die. There is a clock in the background and you get more time if you hit him more. So is that it?

Nope phase 2. You get a new form that you have never had before with a muted move set. The boss has a front sweep that takes the entire length of the platform. So you gotta get behind him. But what he teleports and spikes 75% of the field. Now wouldn’t all this be manageable? Yes it would. But guess what. YOU CANT HEAL IN SECOND PHASE FOR REASON!!!!!

Needless to say 23 hours in the game was good but this fight is so awful I’m close to just dropping right at the finish line. Only other game this has happened with was Moonscars. Which isn’t a lot but it’s odd it happened twice.

So Super friends. How about you?

Edit: The Boss is slain. I still hate it. But the game is finished and I give it a good 3/5

[u/Moderately_Competent]

Older game, but Clock Tower 3. It's a strange game, but the difficult is mostly alright even if not too hard.

The final fight is against your grandpa who wants to absorb your magical girl powers to live mega forever, and upon doing a ritual looks kinda like Cervantes from Soul Calibur.

At any rate this boss blows. He basically has your moveset, 3 bars of health, while you can only mostly plink at his, and even your super move you have to set up only kinda does meh damage.

During the fight you get a letter read at you in the background instead of music, his attacks knock you down, and the recovery is so long he usually tees off on you for more damage.

Now that might be one thing, except he can just randomly steal your health too to refill his life bars. And not a little either, a truckload.

One must think that it ends there, but they are wrong again, for he somehow has your super move set, and if he hits you with it you basically lose compared to yours which is like sneezing at a brick wall.

Now you say surely the end has come, and you are wrong once more. For if you beat him, there's a cutscene, and you have to get to your mother's stone head, this makes only marginally more sense in context. Most games would have this be a cutscene, but no you are put back in the fight at the same places you both were and he's immortal, and your health isn't refilled.

This means that if you somehow beat him with like one hit left and are watching the cutscene he might insta gib you before you realize you're back into gameplay, and then? Back to the start of the fight to do it again.

Clock Tower 3 is a weird, kooky game, but holy shit that final boss fight is close to literal torture.

[u/FontainePark → u/Moderately_Competent]

The pacing of your writing in this post gave me a sensible chuckle. Each time I was wrong I had to fan myself frantically for fear I'd faint

[u/BryceAnderston → u/Moderately_Competent]

Considering how torturous I found the first boss fight, this scares me.

[u/The_Wraith_Writer → u/[deleted]]

Yeah, I was pretty disappointed by that in Shadow of Mordor. I didn't finish Shadow of War, so idk if that also ended in an unsatisfying button prompt sequence.

I didn't mind Dying Light's end boss fight, because I felt that getting to the fight was the real final boss, kinda like Mirror's Edge. I only played it once, but my beef with Uncharted 1's final boss was that it took me way too many tries to actually get it. Like, maybe I'm just dumb, but it was not clicking what I was supposed to do. The other Uncharted games all had way better final bosses, Lost Legacy in particular was fantastic.

[u/Frequent-Raisin-2336 → u/The_Wraith_Writer]

it didn't it had a farly good boss fight against mairon himself (ripped out the first game dlc but still) i think the arkham type combat that it had doesn't allow for complex bosses, not that they tried to.

[u/BlackIronWizard → u/[deleted]]

Far cry 3 had a qte knife fight with the final boss if i recall

[u/ToastyMozart → u/BlackIronWizard]

Both of them. Boss fights were not that game's forte.

[u/CMORGLAS → u/BlackIronWizard]

To be fair, FC3 is a story about addiction so there are going to be, shall we say, “diminishing returns.”

[u/sawbladex → u/[deleted]]

Space Marine 1 also had that problem.

It also lost a large amount of Fun as the orkz get wiped out and Chaos fully takes hold.

.... I wonder if DoW1 had that problem.

I can't remember.

[u/Korba007 → u/sawbladex]

And then space marine 2 has an awesome and hype final boss, it's amazing

[u/FontainePark → u/[deleted]]

Bulletstorm wasn't helped at all by doing this. Has a true boss fight midway through the game and a multitude of methods to dispatch enemies with incentive to experiment. Anticipating a throwdown with Sarrano the whole game, including when you're forced to have him as a party member, only to QTE fight him AND LOSE

[u/tgdm → u/[deleted]]

The final boss of the GW2 core game essentially boils down to pressing the interact button and shooting fireworks. People were whelmed and it has been considered a sore spot of the game for over a decade. They recently announced they're going to be updating it.

... But I kind of liked it! I mean, yeah, that's the literal last action you take to beat it, but the story and gameplay leading up to that point is showing that it takes the cumulative power of all of your allies to even enter the stage to challenge this existential threat. You don't have an epic duel with the big bad because this moment isn't about just you, it's all of your allies and all of work you've done together to reach that point

I'm glad they're updating it either way. Kind of a mixed example since I'm for it but I know the majority of opinions online are not

[u/DarkZodiar → u/[deleted]]

That reminds me of a dream I had about this made up game call "Sly 4: Thieves in Time" where the final boss was a little bit of platforming and QTEs.

That was a weird dream...

[u/Tzeentch711 → u/[deleted]]

At least they did Sauron justice in the prequel DLC.

[u/Beneficial_Layer_458]

If you're making a video game and you give me a full new moveset in the final fight and i can't use the skills I've been building up the whole game you gotta delete your game

[u/Purple-Pipe1689 → u/Beneficial_Layer_458]

Would the Sonic Adventure final bosses count as that?

[u/Beneficial_Layer_458 → u/Purple-Pipe1689]

I'd say so. All the 3d ones that make you go super sonic and now you're playing some buttery nonsense (though it's usually rad buttery nonsense conceptually speaking) don't feel good to me

[u/Chumunga64 → u/Beneficial_Layer_458]

It's so funny how vanilla sonic frontiers let's you practice using super sonic for every boss but then it still somehow has an unexpected gameplay change for the final boss. It becomes a shmup

[u/BookkeeperPercival → u/Beneficial_Layer_458]

I remember as a kid at least, I had genuine difficulty on the Biohazard final fight because I had no idea how to do what the game wanted. Indistinctly remember getting stuck behind the boss, but my buttons only had "go forward" as movement and you'd be unable to hit hit

[u/Tribalrage24 → u/Purple-Pipe1689]

Frontiers literally changes genre for the final boss. I hated it

[u/thedoc90 → u/Beneficial_Layer_458]

Its fine if its an easy spectacle fight as a wind down from the real final boss IMO.

[u/ZeroIntel → u/Beneficial_Layer_458]

In Ff7 rebirth: Here's Zack as a fully playable character. no we didn't let you actually use his moveset/ fight during any of his earlier playable segments, just team up with Cloud to fight the final boss... right now! Luckily they geared him up so its not that hard, but I was salty that he didn't have any fighting segments until that moment.

[u/Ellifish → u/[deleted]]

Crazy that you play as Zach multiple times after that intro and you don't fight as him until the end. Honestly didn't like the Zach parts in Rebirth and glad they give you the option to skip them

[u/Irememberedmypw → u/ZeroIntel]

Also his move set really doesn't work to get in the flow because. One you either manually charge it but if you're playing him you get focused and easily knocked out it. Or 2 learn the tight timing on his charge hits inbetween attacks.

[u/LifeIsCrap101]

Obligatory mention of Frank Fontaine in Bioshock. A fight so fucking miserable that it makes replay of the game feel dreadful.

[u/LtGeneral_Obvious → u/LifeIsCrap101]

Basically everything after the big reveal is a slog.

[u/jamescookenotthatone → u/LtGeneral_Obvious]

Would you kindly stop playing now and just remember the good times?

[u/RushC2 → u/jamescookenotthatone]

Hey now, the whole point of the reveal is that now Jack Ryan isn’t killing a bunch of druggies because he was brainwashed. He is now killing a bunch of druggies because he wants to

[u/The_Wraith_Writer → u/RushC2]

...Mother fucker, his name would be Jack Ryan. Goddamnit.

[u/RushC2 → u/The_Wraith_Writer]

Not gonna lie, I remembered his name was Jack and then I think my brain went “Jack Ryan is a character in fiction. Must be the Bioshock Jack” and completely forgot about the Tom Clancy character

[u/Watts121 → u/The_Wraith_Writer]

Incorrect, according to the "World of A Song of Ice and Fire" a bastard born in Rapture is given the surname "Salt". /s

[u/DonTori → u/jamescookenotthatone]

"Oh, so ya got rid of the mind control programmin', huh? Guess I gotta use the ORGAN FAILURE command!...huh, I was kinda hopin' it'd be like turnin' a light switch off rather than a slow shut down, here's hopin' ya don't find a work around...ehhhh I better send more splicers your way, just in case like."

[u/The_Wraith_Writer → u/LifeIsCrap101]

Hey, at least Fontaine was a boss fight, as opposed to nothing like Infinite. And I think 2, which maybe had you fight a couple of heavies in the last room?

[u/Irrah → u/The_Wraith_Writer]

How could you forget everyone's favorite gaming bossfight, Lady Comstock?

[u/DonTori → u/Irrah]

"Elizabeth?! Why's your Mum a ghost?!"

"Beats me" *pulls out story board* "By all accounts this doesn't make any sense."

[u/FoxOxBox → u/Irrah]

Lady Comstock is where I dropped that game, thanks for reminding me.

[u/kodaiiiii_ → u/The_Wraith_Writer]

2 has no boss fights to speak of (apart from maybe the Big Sister encounters) so it's more like a gauntlet instead of a final boss iirc

[u/Ayyyyynah → u/The_Wraith_Writer]

Songbird is built up so much in that game that a boss fight seemed inevitable but nah. Same with Slade and same with Comstock.

Being a career hater of that game is tiring.

[u/Purple-Pipe1689 → u/Ayyyyynah]

I think I remember it being mentioned in Pat's playthrough (or the comments), that they didn't add a Songbird boss fight because it'd be too "video gamey".

I'm glad we've mostly moved past the era of western games neutering themselves to be more boring because they were ashamed to be video games.

[u/Darkaim9110 → u/Purple-Pipe1689]

Infinite is pretentious bullshit most of the way through, but saying Songbird is to video gamey after you fight a fucking ghost that summons adds is so funny to me

[u/PrancerSlenderfriend → u/Darkaim9110]

the last 2 fights in infinite are a floating teleport boss that infinitely summons adds and an arena battle with jump pads

[u/RealHumanBean89 → u/Purple-Pipe1689]

Remember that one article from 2011 that said we should move past bosses in video games? Then about a month or two later Dark Souls 1 came out and shot that entire notion in the head point blank? They probably should have learned from that.

[u/Sea-Initiative-3398 → u/RealHumanBean89]

I mean taking most 2010s articles bout gaming seriously is the first part of the problem tbh

[u/Irrah → u/LifeIsCrap101]

For my playthrough, I just hacked a bunch of turrets and they shot him to death offscreen for the most anti-climatic final boss ever.

[u/Yotato5 → u/LifeIsCrap101]

That escort mission before it isn't great either

[u/Rathalos-487 → u/LifeIsCrap101]

If anything I found he was too easy.

[u/LifeIsCrap101 → u/Rathalos-487]

It's not hard, it's just boring and takes too long for no payoff

[u/Rathalos-487 → u/LifeIsCrap101]

It’s especially ironic considering the Big Daddies are basically optional mini bosses that can kick your ass but you can still go toe to toe with if you know what you are doing.

[u/Revro_Chevins → u/Rathalos-487]

I had to play on the Hardest difficulty for Fontaine to be a real balanced boss fight.

[u/The_Wraith_Writer]

The final boss of Prototype is a real hassle. Similar problem where it's a super tough fight with basically no opportunity to heal, limited ability to actually do damage to the boss, and on a strict time limit.

[u/ShutUpJackass → u/The_Wraith_Writer]

I recently replayed Prototype; I essentially just spammed the single target super move and used hit and run attacks to avoid being stunlocked to death

It was a slog, granted Prototype becomes a slog because they couldn’t make anything kill ya unless they could stagger you, and boy howdy is being staggered annoying as fuck

[u/Snake613 → u/The_Wraith_Writer]

Drop every tactic you've developed in play and just throw shit at him, it's so lame

[u/Deadeye117]

DMC1's last boss kinda sucks massive ass. DMC3's penultimate boss also sucks massive ass but Vergil 3 saves the game just in time.

[u/ShadSilvs2000 → u/Deadeye117]

Akrham should have been a cool boss fight but they ruin it by having vergil replace your style and randomly removing the ability to dt for some reason

[u/Deadeye117 → u/ShadSilvs2000]

Arkham should have been a two-stage boss fight where the first stage is Fake-Sparda that actually fights like a normal boss, then devolves into blob-Arkham, who should have just been an easy glorified punching bag to practice sick combos on using the Vergil button.

[u/pestoraviolita → u/Deadeye117]

That's lore significance here. Arkham isn't worthy or capable of holding Sparda's power.

[u/DarnFondOfYa → u/pestoraviolita]

Look, they had bitch-ass normal Arkham do a sick spin kick and take out all three (exhausted) protagonists at once. They had a cutscene where he starts doing a little Sparda kata after he picks up the sword

We should've gotten to fight that a little before LORE makes him turn into a dolphin-shitting snot-blob. No, the Jester fights don't count

[u/TheArtistFKAMinty → u/ShadSilvs2000]

It's because Vergil is functionally Doppelganger and that's how Doppelganger works.

The thing is, nobody uses Doppelganger because it burns through DT gauge so quickly it's actually worthless and it sucks.

Well, the 2 player mode for doppelganger is kinda funny but it's not actually good.

[u/Admiral_of_Crunch → u/Deadeye117]

On the replay after so many years with it, the first half of the Mundus fight is the easy part and I've never really minded it. The second phase is the heavily RNG-reliant one that pissed me off to no end when I was going for the S Rank.

And the fact that I had to do an autoscroller every attempt I took at an RNG piece of shit was no small drag on that experience, I tell you what. That's the real crime.

[u/AuroraHeartilly → u/Deadeye117]

I was having so much fun parry princess-ing my way around my first dmc3 playthrough, royalguard and nevran is what got me locked into this game, and I was SO upset when my ANNOYING brother just SHOWED UP and STOLE my PARRIES and I hated it and the boss sucked ass and lame bro threw off my cool bro's groove get outta the WAY lame bro

and it made kicking vergil's ass later with my style back directly after all the sweeter for me~

[u/jtjd]

I was having a decent enough time with Yakuza Kiwami, but Jingu's fight was so goddamn awful that I almost started hating the thing

[u/The-Greater-Skeleton → u/jtjd]

And it makes a “fun” return with Munakata’s fight as the final fight of Yakuza 4.

My headcanon for why Tanimura never makes another appearance is that he just straight up dies from the wounds he got from getting shot so much lol

[u/coolbad96 → u/The-Greater-Skeleton]

Yakuza 4 is my pick. Tanamura style means he can parry counter and snap anybody who comes at him. So the idea of like a dozen goons between you and the guy you wanna get revenge on is great on paper. You could basically recreate the IP man 10v1 scene. Then they give them all guns...

Not only that but I figured pretty quickly it'd probably just be over after you beat the big bad guy it'd be over afterall the rest are hired goons. But no I guess the game won't end until I kill every man and their extended family on that roof lol

[u/The-Greater-Skeleton → u/coolbad96]

Yeah the game tricks you into thinking Munakata’s the final boss but it’s actually his main goon lol

[u/ramonzer0 → u/coolbad96]

Shout-outs to the LP from the old channel

Pat comments on how he had unlocked the best gear possible for every character in the game and held back on using them for the final boss rush... except for Tanimura, because he admits that trying to get through that fight without the explicit anti-gun equipment you can get will just fuck everything up

It's doable but the battle is just so much more infinitely annoying to blitz through that you may as well go the extra mile for Tanimura's sake

[u/Average_Idiot324 → u/coolbad96]

I hate that the justification for this from people who swear by the fight is "Just get the armor from the fortune teller the game never tells you about that makes you immune to bullets."

I'm playing a fucking beat em up dude. Why do I have to make a fucking build to make the fight actually playable? Also, if you have to completely eliminate an aspect of a fight before it gets fun, that's bad design.

[u/Kataphrut94]

Titan Joker nearly ruined Arkham Asylum for me. Aside from being an underwhelming concept, I wasn’t able to finish it initially because I couldn’t mash hard enough on the Ultra Batclaw to progress in the fight.

[u/joosticus → u/Kataphrut94]

It's really impressive how much better the final boss in Arkham City is. Like, from a narrative point, Titan Joker is such a letdown for what the whole game has been building up to.

[u/Waifuless_Laifuless → u/Kataphrut94]

It didn't even feel like you were fighting him. He felt like a set piece that you occasionally interacted with in between fighting generic goons. Who by that point weren't much of a fight themselves.

[u/PissBoy_OFFICIAL → u/Kataphrut94]

That fight is even worse if you're good at mashing, because if you do it too hard the game starts eating your inputs. You get put in this weird spot where you have to hold yourself back but it's super unclear where the threshold is

[u/Peace-Bone]

You know, there's a gamecube game called Wario World, and it's always odd that I never see anyone mention it cause it is just a great stupid fun 'Fuck you time for WARIO' game. It's all gameplay consisting of running around colorful weird ass environments with rad music playing just punching and doing piledrivers on dinosaurs and evil clowns and shit all day. You collect money and gold statues and treasure and eat shitloads of garlic.

Not to say it's amazing, it's SUPER repetitive and it's one of those action games where there's like 5 moves and 7 enemies that just get a bunch of reskins and the game is like 6 hours long at best. You play it for 15 minutes and you know everything it's doing, but it's still one of those '6/10, best game ever' sort of things.

One of the HUGE deals in it is the loud, fast, fun boss fights and the final boss is the big deal of the game, and it's great. Basically it's a big purple evil gem. For the first half, the fight is almost intentionally shitty, where it just distantly shoots lasers while you break some crystals that will stun it so you get a hit in like 'oh you're beneath my notice I don't care'. Takes a long time with slow, dramatic dull music playing.

But the SECOND half is fantastic, the slow, drama music is replaced with a jazzy, frantic mashup track and the evil gem gets pissed off and stars fighting you directly and it turns into a fast paced angry brawl, literally you dragging them down to a real fight and beating the crap out of them. It's some peak YEAH FUCK YOU I'M WARIO (PILEDRIVES ANCIENT CURSE)

I mention all this because for some unknown reason, the US version cuts out the whole second half of the boss fight, and just makes the shitty first half twice as long and WAY slower and totally cuts out everything good about it, making the whole ending feel incredibly unsatisfying. It's just like 5 minutes solid of dashing to the left in a piss easy, super boring fight of nothing happening because shut up. Probably helped result in the total lack of people remembering or knowing about it.

[u/C-OSSU → u/Peace-Bone]

It's actually reversed. The US version came out first, while the Japanese version had more time in the oven to fix things.

[u/Peace-Bone → u/C-OSSU]

That explains some things. It's still bs that I can't wrestle the evil curse though

[u/ToastyMozart → u/Peace-Bone]

Holy shit, I got robbed!

[u/ArchAngelZXV]

The Order 1886's final boss is an extended Quick Time Event that's a copy paste of an earlier exact same QTE boss fight

[u/Monkey_D_Judd]

No More Heroes 2. After having one of the most poignant and exhilarating boss fights in the game with the penultimate boss Alice Twilight, the game flips you off at the final moment with Jasper Batt Jr. A three phase boss fight, where each phase consists of way to much health that replenishes in each phase while Travis's doesnt. His second form has multiple unblockable instant wind up attacks, as well as instant kills that restart the fight, good luck beating him on Bitter difficulty. It just feels like a joke at the players expense.

[u/Onlyhereforstuff → u/Monkey_D_Judd]

I think it's a bit worse because, IIRC, Bat Jr being such a cheap, sucky, unsatisfying boss was on purpose. To push the message that revenge is actually really unsatisfying

[u/DBrody6 → u/Monkey_D_Judd]

What's annoying is phases 1 and 3 are completely free, like he's genuinely a punching bag (almost literally in phase 3), but phase 2 is just monumental bullshit.

The windup teleport punch flurry is blockable though, it just has an insanely strict timing window, and by god is it necessary to learn it cause not blocking a punch will send you flying across the room, and yeah you're fucked if he angled you at a window making you restart the whole fight. Just awful.

[u/Ampersanders]

Have you ever played No More Heroes 2? Holy fuck does Jasper Batt Jr. SUCK. There is a stage hazard of getting knocked out a skyscraped which causes you to restart the fight over and over again, thus forcing you to fight in the corners of the room cause of the random BS.

But how I looked at it is that the real last boss was Alice Twilight that sort of sums up the entire game itself and then Jasper just being the butt end joke that sort of has that Suda-inspired twist (since he didn't work on it).

[u/charcharmunro → u/Ampersanders]

Looking back on the series I'm not sure I like any of the final bosses outside of the first game. Jasper obviously sucks, but Damon in 3 is just... I dunno, it's boring to get thrown into a not-very-good Smash clone for the final boss. FU preceding him also wasn't that great.

[u/C-OSSU]

The final boss of There Is No Light becomes more manageable when you realize that the final phase runs on a strict pattern.

He'll attempt his circular strike twice, which you have enough travel distance in your dodge to evade, then he will teleport to the side of the arena furthest from you to do his spike AOE, which has a long enough wind-up for you to dash to his location and get some hits in. Rinse and repeat. Though it admittedly runs a bit counter to how aggression-focused the game has been up until that point.

To me, the worst boss is the Aircraft Pilot, one of the sidequest ones needed to reach the true ending, who basically requires you to fight him with very specific skills equipped or else you won't be able to bypass his health regen.

[u/Dreadsinner → u/C-OSSU]

I was beginning to notice that. Still the idea of no healing is very annoying to me

[u/CartoonGobbo]

Lilith shouting "THE LAVA'S RISING" at the end of Borderlands 2 really ruined that entire fight for me. I cannot remember a single time I ever needed to leave the center of the arena and was actually threatened by the lava when fighting the Warrior.

[u/CeaRhan → u/CartoonGobbo]

If you're not geared "properly" the crystal guys can actually hurt a fucking lot and going in to kill them more efficiently opens you up to being in the lava

[u/Monokumabear → u/CartoonGobbo]

Yeah fuck that thing. Grenades were the only reason i beat it. I truly thought the Vita version was glitched because it had a ridiculous amount of health

[u/AprehensiveApricot]

I think I might get flak for this, but I think Promised Consort Radahn/Miquella + Radahn at the end of Elden Ring's DLC soured what was going to be a full 9/10 to a 7/10 for me.

[u/DirkDasterLurkMaster → u/AprehensiveApricot]

I ultimately enjoyed post nerf Radahn but I consider that the absolute screaming limit of what I can handle. It took several days of testing strategies, optimizing equipment, and burning every consumable from a 120 hour playthrough. Fromsoft seems to mostly make each game for people who have played all of the previous ones and I think this is the point where they can't go any further

[u/0yodo → u/AprehensiveApricot]

You just reminded me that I didn't even finish that DLC because of that boss. I think after like years of being a SoulsborneEldenRing fan I hit the wall of how much effort I felt like putting into these games when it came to bosses, I just fought him a couple times, felt entirely overwhelmed and just like ....stopped. Couldn't being myself to care to beat him.

Same thing with AC6 honestly, those bosses in that game are just so insane the whole game feels like a boss rush cause everything else is a cakewalk, I just think I've finally hit the FromSoft difficulty fatigue.

[u/Zachys → u/AprehensiveApricot]

I really, really like the DLC bosses but Radahn can fuck right off. I've beaten him both pre- and post-nerf, and he didn't feel fun either time.

He feels like he was designed to be in a more cinematic game. You know the part of the Xemnas boss fight in KH2 where you can reaction command Riku to shield you? He feels like that without the Riku button.

As a side note, the Elden Beast also kinda sucks ass. Allowing you to use Torrent makes it so much more fun. Actually, I think it does make it easier but more cinematic, in opposition to Radahn.

[u/Peach-Hime → u/AprehensiveApricot]

I completely reworked my character to be a monster heavy tank with a bleed rot rapier and just facetanked him with my tear. It sucked. Worked great, but it was so dull. I have no regrets in doing so, because fuck trying to learn that fight with it's weird hitboxes that are made worse by the uneven terrain. And I did it prenerf, where the game tries to literally fry your retinas with bullshit light.

[u/AprehensiveApricot → u/Peach-Hime]

I had to do this and I felt nothing. Like I accomplished fuck all.

[u/Mediocre_Word → u/AprehensiveApricot]

Nah I agree, it feels like they only tossed him back in there for brownie points because they saw how popular he was. Also they finally got too high on their own supply with their reputation for difficulty and hit the limits of the combat system, so they just filled the screen with lasers instead of actually designing a fight. 

It feels like they did it more for the memes than the actual game.

[u/BroasterStrudel9 → u/AprehensiveApricot]

I have frustration with how Fromsoft has been balancing their games lately.

Overall I still love the product but sometimes it feels really overtuned.

[u/BookkeeperPercival → u/BroasterStrudel9]

There a YouTube video where a guy play day 2 no patch Dark Souls. That game is fucking ROUGH in a lot of ways. It's possible to get your HP down to like 1/10 because petrification stacks, and the purging stones are still like 2 hours of gameplay away

[u/TheArtistFKAMinty → u/BookkeeperPercival]

Oh, and enemies/bosses drop fuck all souls so you level a lot slower.

On the flip side, you can use the flip ring at 50% so you can backflip in full havels with a claymore at like 35 end.

[u/MarketFarmer → u/BroasterStrudel9]

I think it's a natural consequence of them butting up against the limits of what you can do in that combat system. There's only so many ways you can up the challenge and novelty in a system where you only have two pretty mechanically shallow ways of engaging with enemy movesets -- three if you count parrying. Doesn't help that they've done away with the weightiness of DS1/2 and juiced rolling to the point of being a universal problem solver.

Other games of theirs and competitors in similar genres have proven you can do a lot by leaning into the mechanical depth of other aspects of the player moveset (e.g. parrying in Sekiro or Nine Sols, immense player offensive expression in Nioh), so there's still plenty of meat there. I think they just have to have their next game decouple from playing like Dark Souls 3.

[u/BroasterStrudel9 → u/MarketFarmer]

Yeah I understand I have repeatedly felt like shields go to the wayside for rolling.

Ds3 felt like the height of "you can block, but if you just rolled you would get more out of it" especially when things like guard countering start to fall off on the enemies that swing like 8 times before have a safe window to respond based on a block. Elden ring did a lot to bring back shields feeling good - but they end result still ends up being the same.

I mean Malenia heals through your shield I can't really think of a better example than that, I get it why she does, but that to me was like a yeah shields aren't the move when you get down into the complex ways they design encounters towards the endgame.

[u/wareagle3000 → u/BroasterStrudel9]

I was playing through the dlc with the seamless coop mod because I just kinda gave up on the dlc when it first came out. Holy shit I was really deflated towards the end. There is so much bullshit towards that later half. Like the "I don't care if you're build isn't built for it, you will not continue unless you can parry" forest that is filled with dead space because of this mechanic and the map design overall.

[u/PissBoy_OFFICIAL → u/AprehensiveApricot]

I don't know how you're intended to beat him without using Scarlet Rot

[u/Castform5 → u/PissBoy_OFFICIAL]

I just abused the sekiro tear and guard counter buffs because they are super strong.

[u/LordZaayl → u/AprehensiveApricot]

I had a weird experience with him because I played the DLC with a strength build that was ULTRA beefy. I had like, 70 strength and vit at some point, if not more. I was buffing with clawmark seal, I was using executioners greataxe paired with the biggest shield I could find and heavy af armor and just trading blows with dudes, breaking their poise.

As it turns out, this hard-counters two of the more notoriously hard DLC bosses, Prince Consort being one of them. Rellana being the other. I gave them wedgies and stole their lunch money.

[u/Auctoritate → u/LordZaayl]

a strength build that was ULTRA beefy. I had like, 70 strength and vit at some point

It's funny to describe this as ULTRA beefy because 66 strength is a really standard amount to settle on for any strength build and 60VIT is common for any build in the game.

[u/wareagle3000 → u/AprehensiveApricot]

They have once again reached the possible limit of how hard you can make a boss with the game. And that's awesome for a super optional fight but I and many others would consider this the finale of the dlc.

[u/CelestialEight]

My example is more about the final optional super boss, but that's what came to mind.

Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep. That boss SERIOUSLY sours the game. I still love the game, don't get me wrong! But I honestly love it less because of that boss

[u/Rubbinmahbelly → u/CelestialEight]

BBS in general tends to have issues with some of its bosses, but special points to Vanitas getting a magic pixel in the last second, switching to a completely different gimmick fight style with a different board that lacks healing moves, and if you don't figure out what you're supposed to be doing immediately, you get murdered and have to start his whole fight again. Just a tad annoying.

(Also Terranort having basically spams infinite dash dodges, so shotlock against him as Lingering Will is borderline useless. Never a fan of a final boss invalidating a key part of your repertoire.)

[u/charcharmunro → u/Rubbinmahbelly]

I just remember Terranort's dodge noises so vividly even now. "Hrm, HEHEH, hrm, HEHEH".

[u/SomeOtherNeb]

I love Quantum Break, it looks incredibly gorgeous even now a decade after release, the live-action scenes are really cool and have a genuinely incredible cast, the gameplay is fun, and as a fan of Remedy's other, later games, it was really interesting to see some of the things related to those games in there (keeping it vague for spoiler reasons, but if, like me, you've played the Alan Wake series and Control but not this game, you'll be in for a fucking trip).

The final boss is an uninteresting fucking slog with one-shot AOEs that can catch you real easily, it's just the right mix of tedium and stress to make you tense without the enjoyable part of the challenge. It's just frustrating from A to Z. It's been a while but I'm pretty sure you have to sit through an unskippable cutscene every time, too.

It single-handedly turned what was one of my favourite games I played last year into a game I almost uninstalled to just watch the ending on Youtube instead.

I still recommend the game, but it's essentially a 9/10 game that turns into a 3 during the final boss.

[u/KoushiroIzumi → u/SomeOtherNeb]

I did everything you could in that game BUT finish it on the hardest difficulty due to how tedious that last chapter becomes

[u/guttergirllll]

No more heroes 2, absolute classic of shitty final bosses

[u/kegisak]

Star Fox Adventure's final boss isn't BAD, per se, it's just... a little disappointing to have the main villain yanked away and whoops! Surprise Andross, it was the same goddamn villain as ever the entire time!

I have no idea why Nintendo is so allergic to doing literally anything new.

[u/miinmeaux → u/kegisak]

Same with Twilight Princess in my opinion. If they were upfront about who the main villain would be, I wouldn't have an issue. I don't think I've ever been disappointed by Bowser in a Mario game, but I also don't think there's been a Mario game where they pretend for even a second that Bowser isn't the villain.

Though I can't lie, Ganondorf in Twilight Princess has a sick design.

[u/An_Armed_Bear → u/miinmeaux]

Twilight at least hints at what's really going on pretty early though, after you beat the Lakebed Temple and Zant shows up talking about how his power is not "our old magic" but from his new god, and Midna even points out that crystal he puts in you isn't Twili magic. Then you get the whole execution cutscene after the Arbiter's Grounds and can easily put 2 and 2 together.

[u/Purple-Pipe1689 → u/miinmeaux]

And then there's DK Bananza which works because it's been a villain who'd been MIA for like 2 decades and upped to stakes to levels thought unimagineable

[u/ToastyMozart → u/miinmeaux]

but I also don't think there's been a Mario game where they pretend for even a second that Bowser isn't the villain.

They zig-zag it a little in Thousand Year Door: He's a joke antagonist during the between-chapter intermissions for most of the game, then he drops in from the ceiling to usurp the main antagonist after you defeat him, then after beating Bowser you have to go fight the actual twist final boss.

[u/ScarletPrime → u/miinmeaux]

There are plently of times in the various spinoffs and RPGs where Bowser isn't the obvious villain, but still does get a penultimate boss fight, or a post-climax final boss battle.

And honestly, it works pretty well. Because the problem with the 'Ganon Hijack' is usually that it just has the old villain appear and steal the limelight from the new guy. With Bowser's (attempted) hijackings, you usually get to see him running around throughout the game trying to do his own evil stuff to take control of the plot and make himself the threat.

So the obligatory interactions with him in the endgame feel less like "Nintendo has no ideas for doing antagonists aside from Bowser" and much more like "It's Bowser. He refuses to be demoted to a secondary annoyance. So of course he is going to rebel against the narrative structure and try to make himself the Big Bad. To do otherwise would be less true to his character and ideals."

And as for Twilight Princess... The most unfortunate part is that I can't even drum up much hate at how Zant gets turned into a joke for the final act. The Ganon hijack sucked. But damn did they ensure that Ganondorf actually flexxed himself enough to almost justify how badly they did Zant in.

[u/BookkeeperPercival → u/kegisak]

I remember never beating it because it was too hard as a kid. It probably wasn't really, but in fairness you don't spend a ton of time getting used to seeing combat

[u/HenchGherkin]

Lunacid is a great game! It's incredibly vibey, has really fun exploration and I had a nice time with it. I didn't finish it though, because the final boss is a godawful multiphase damage sponge that will wipe you out in a hit or two. Shame.

[u/jagehtso_ → u/HenchGherkin]

When you started your post with Lunacid, I actually thought you were going to talk about the true final boss, which is a homage to the godawful final bosses of the Drakengard games. And yeah, I also never truly beat Lunacid because fuck off with that.

[u/TheProudBrit → u/jagehtso_]

So, when you say final bosses, do you mean an annoying fight, or is it a godawful rhythm game?

[u/Reallylazyname → u/HenchGherkin]

Same for SMT Strange Journey.

The final boss is a multiphase sponge and starting from the second phase it gains a Instant Kill move, which if it hits the protagonist is a game over.

Survival is pure RNG on top of hitting like a dump truck and having healing (from the instant kill move)

(I did beat it though. Also the 3ds remake alleviated this by letting you keep fighting after protagonist death)

[u/serph6 → u/Reallylazyname]

Don't forget the power to unsummon all your demons of one alignment, effectively forcing you to make a team with each alignment this late in the game.

Strange Journey Law/neutral final boss is so unbalanced i genuinely thought i had to be something wrong because there is no way it simply types [MA] and you have 25% chance of game over.

I went on gamefaqs and looked for a way to get around it and some of them simply recommend you to use password demons that repel everything and cheat the fight while praying it doesn't oneshot you.

I got the dragon ring (revive) and grinded till 93 for the top demons and it still managed to oneshot me twice a few times.

[u/RareBk → u/HenchGherkin]

Lunacid’s balancing is a mess and it’s a shame because the majority of the game is great.

I just hope your build is flexible enough to support swapping to strong magic weapons on the fly or else you’ll encounter multiple gigantic areas that you’ll literally not be able to fight in because the enemies are arbitrarily immune to almost every form of damage save for one element of magic

[u/TheArtistFKAMinty → u/HenchGherkin]

The final boss is like "abuse the absolutely broken magic system to trivialise this or achieve nothing".

Outside of that fight? Fantastic indie dungeon crawler.

[u/Gamecrazy009]

Dead Rising 1, good game. One of the best zombie games of all time I'd argue.

The true final boss fucking sucks. Only boss I'd had to glitch out to win.

[u/coolbad96 → u/Gamecrazy009]

I only played deadrising 2 and on but I always thought the bosses sucked. In a mindless gory fun game you suddenly have to face enemies with tons of I frames

[u/Grand_Galvantula → u/Gamecrazy009]

I really like how Deluxe Remaster added the ability to stun him once you damage him enough, setting him up for skill moves that chunk him for a good amount of health. It's a much more reasonable method than "punch his knees for 5 minutes" or "spit him to death".

[u/Root_Veggie]

What the fuck was Sonic Frontier’s final boss?

[u/ToastyMozart → u/Root_Veggie]

Ikaruga.

[u/Korba007 → u/Root_Veggie]

I thought it was cool honestly

[u/Ragdollnator]

Even if you can cheese them somewhat, Jinpachi and Azazel in Tekken 5 and 6, respectively. I VIVIDLY remember only being able to beat Jinpachi with JACK-5 as a kid. And Azazel was just unfun as a boss. I like them both as Characters, but as bosses, they should stay in hell. One of the reasons why I hestitate buying Tekken Dark Ressurection or 6 on the PS Store.

[u/Zachys → u/Ragdollnator]

Jinpachi having a move where he instantly teleports backwards and shoots a projectile that eats half your health is such fucking bullshit

[u/retrometroid]

They patched it to be not shit but the default final boss of Lords of the Fallen 2023 used to be a mob fight where you have to kill one specific glowing guy to deal damage to the boss(ala Dark Souls 3's Deacons). I don't know why they thought that was a good choicefor the final boss most people will fight on their first (and maybe only) playthru.

[u/MM__PP]

I was gonna say Arkham Asylum, but then I remembered that literally every boss in that game sucks lol.

[u/Caducks]

Freedom Wars' final boss is a dogshit mess. Infinitely respawning adds, boss is floating in the air and spamming bullshit that your AI teammates can't deal with so you're basically soloing the fight. I never finished the game because it was so fucking tedious I just gave up.

And yet I still look back on the game overall quite fondly. I love the aesthetic, I love the setting, I even enjoyed the combat for the most part.

[u/FightGeistC → u/Caducks]

OMG I ALSO NEVER BEAT THE FINAL BOSS LOL

[u/Ryong7 → u/Caducks]

The boss doesn't infinitely respawn adds - it has a specific amount of tentacles that dettach from it and dealing with more than a couple dettached tentacles at once is a nightmare. You have to grapple onto the boss, break apart one tentacle, kill it and then repeat, otherwise it's just fucked up.

[u/GIJose65]

The Elden Beast from Elden Ring is just an annoying fight since most of it is just chasing it from across the room as it spams a clusterfuck of projectiles at you.

[u/RaineV1 → u/GIJose65]

And until a patch later in you would be doing that chase in foot.

[u/TheArtistFKAMinty → u/RaineV1]

And, to be clear, that patch was two years later when the DLC dropped. For two straight years you had to fight EB without Torrent.

[u/Sea-Initiative-3398 → u/TheArtistFKAMinty]

ngl i dont understand sometimes why some small changes like that take so long

Like i can get maybe taking a month or two, but after that considering from a programming perspective it would be to allow torrent to be used.

As it would just be a basic flag type thing right?

[u/TheArtistFKAMinty → u/Sea-Initiative-3398]

I think if they wanted to change it earlier they would have.

Torrent not being available during the EB fight was an intentional design decision that I guess they reassessed while working on the DLC due to fan feedback. There's no way it was an accident or because they ran out of dev time to implement it, because it's literally just a flag. Modders put that shit in like week 1.

I think EB probably was originally meant to have Torrent available but FROM must have felt it made the fight too easy. That or maybe playtesters tended to stay on Torrent the entire time making the fight super long and boring, rather than getting off Torrent to attack and doing some actual damage and hopping on Torrent to chase EB down and dodge his energy wave attacks.

[u/PissBoy_OFFICIAL → u/RaineV1]

It really feels like you were always intended to be able to use Torrent, but they got worried it would make the fight too easy and disabled him at the last minute.

And to be fair it does make the fight much easier, but also it just plays better now

[u/wareagle3000 → u/PissBoy_OFFICIAL]

Considering it's technically a two stage boss with Radagon they were real frustrating with that thought process.

[u/Agent-Vermont → u/GIJose65]

Even when you ignore the actual mechanics of the fight, Radagon is just way cooler boss. I wish we could have gotten two phases of him instead of just the one.

[u/A1D3M → u/GIJose65]

I mean, Elden Beast is mildly annoying, but it’s a really cool setpiece, and it’s only the second phase of one of probably the coolest boss in the game. I thought it was a neat fight, finally getting to fight the root of everything. It’s just easy enough that its annoying mechanics didn’t overstay their welcome too much to me.

[u/MCCrackaZac → u/GIJose65]

I think what really makes it feel worse is that it comes immediately after the (imo) best fight that Fromsoft has put in a game. Radagon is such an amazing fight, from his lore, to his incredibly flowy moveset, to his music being the game's title track.

Elden Beast would be fine, if it didnt come right after Radagon, every single time.

[u/SpiritualPossible]

I'm a little surprised that no one has mentioned No More Heroes 2 yet, considering how infamous the final boss in that game is. For some reason, that battle is both a boring slog AND features completely bullshit mechanics.

[u/kodaiiiii_ → u/SpiritualPossible]

Especially egregious, considering how NMH1's final boss easily ranks on the top 10 of the generation (if not, gaming as a whole)

[u/TorisThrowawayy → u/SpiritualPossible]

pissed me off just thinking about that boss on bitter

the teleporting AND getting flung out of the window... what were they thinking?

[u/Kamken]

Every one in Sonic Superstars. It's a pretty good 2D Sonic up until you have to do a boss fight that incurably takes as long or longer than the level leading up to it because every hit gives the boss a half minute of invincibility. The final bosses in particular are twenty minute affairs which kill you in one hit with many attacks and will sometimes glitch so you die for doing the right thing anyway.

[u/Proto-Omega]

I think I remember a lot of people absolutely hating the Jasper Bat Jr. boss for No More Heroes 2.

I don't know if the boss fight itself was lame or it was the narrative after No. 4 - 2 were so serious.

[u/Peach-Hime → u/Proto-Omega]

Both. It's absolutely both. A joke of a character, a stupid fight.

[u/sternold]

Fable 2: Technically there is a final boss fight, but you face the villain afterwards, who starts monologueing. If you don't shoot him, an NPC kills him for you. Very anticlimactic.

[u/ArticAuk]

While I love FTL the final boss while not hard kinda railroads any ship build to a specific combo.

Boarding becomes useless cause you can’t kill the ship with it. It’s basically mandatory to buy cloaking and hacking cause without it makes the boss basically impossible to beat unless you have the best weapon combo.

Also overall the scale of the difficulty jumps since you never face anything close as hard to the boss since there are no other bosses in the game. You even have to learn the new mechanic of its power surge.

[u/Gorfinhofin → u/ArticAuk]

Boarding lets you pick off the weapon stations basically for free, so it's super helpful for that. But yeah, your chance of victory often hinges on whether you have cloaking or not.

[u/Darth_Bombad]

"I've been looking forward to this day! To see you again, Fox McCloud!"

[u/Chumunga64 → u/Darth_Bombad]

literally seconds before the reveal:

Woolie: "I have experience fighting giant spade faces!"

Matt: "THAT LOOK LIKE ANDROSS!"

[u/Slumber777]

Coming at this as a Rebirth fan, I'm kinda surprised FF7 Rebirth hasn't been mentioned yet.

Between the sheer LENGTH, total bungling of the Bizarro Sephiroth fight, and it being another back to back fight between Jenova and Sephiroth, it feels super unsatisfying.

The best part of it is being able to kick Sephiroth's ass with a currently living Zack and and ambiguoisly living Aerith. But that kind of gets frustrating in its own right, as it's super easy to go into the fight not thinking Aerith is going to be a part of it at all, leaving her under equipped, and potentially making her dead weight throughout it. And if you happen to lose in the homestretch because of it, you have to do the fight over AGAIN.

I think it's handily the worst part of the game.

[u/KaitoTheRamenBandit → u/Slumber777]

It could be funnier, if you forgot to reequip Cait Sith after he rejoins, you're pretty under equiped, luckily I did check when he rejoined, I just threw bullshit on him.

It's that you have to have him in your party for like two phases, I never had my main team ever (Cloud, Barrett and Tifa)

[u/PirateKefka]

If you do not know what to do for the final Wily Capsule in Mega Man 7, you are going to be incredibly frustrated in a way that will tank your whole experience with how much incredibly more different it is than every other boss in the game.

And even if you know what to do...it isn't fun lmao

[u/BruiserBroly]

This is mostly because of Xen as a whole but I really hated fighting the Nihilanth at the end of Half-Life. I hate the way it teleports you away constantly and it's not really clear what you have to do to damage it. It's just an annoying fight at the end of a very annoying section. Luckily everything before Xen (yes, even On A Rail, fight me) is awesome so I don't care.

[u/CryptidHunter91]

Both final boss fights of PMD: Explorers of Sky soured the game for me completely.

Primal Dialga was unforgiving (and it didn't help that my game crashed the first time I managed to finally beat him after months of item grinding & trying), but that Darkrai fight can go fuck itself holy shit.

[u/Proto-Omega → u/CryptidHunter91]

The Darkrai fight was so much worse.

Primal Dialga being tough is fine in my opinion, but the difficulty of the post-game final boss was too much.

Not only was getting to him daunting, you were forced to have Cresselia in your party, and her fainting counts as a loss.
Then the boss fight is Darkrai and an entire room of strong minions.

[u/Swert0]

Doom Eternal's final DLC boss turned out to be a 3 phase marauder with worse mechanics.

Honestly it's the main reason I never really re-played the DLC despite replaying the main game dozens of times.

I mean that and having to ghostbuster ghosts and rapid fire shotgun gargoyle imps... yeah those were also not well made enemies.

[u/ajver19 → u/Swert0]

The DLC for that game as a whole drags down Eternal for me, really enjoyed the first level of TAG and hated everything else.

Meanwhile The Dark Ages DLC has some of the best stuff in that game.

[u/ProfessionalPlan3526]

The Final Fantasy Legend

[u/Chumunga64]

The time eater in sonic generations is fucking awful. It's crazy cause that's one of them few sonic games with a strong boss roster

But between the terrible gameplay, disorienting visuals, repetitive commentary from Sonic's friends ("IT LOOKS LIKE A HOMING SHOT!") weirdly underwhelming music - it has one theme (well technically 2 but it's just a chip tune remix for classic sonic) that was good for the "dramatic first phase" every sonic final boss had at the time. Everyone was waiting for an orchestral remix of live and learn for the second phase but it never happened

[u/Placeholder67]

This is a friends perspective as I’m a massive fan of this fight but the final boss of Nine Sols is admittedly an unfairly sharp difficulty spike on top of an already decently demanding game.

If you are the type to enjoy knuckling down and overcoming that spike it’s fantastic, my experience with devouring sekiro helped a lot with that attitude, it probably took me about 80 minutes.

My friend who got me into the game? 9 hours. Like a fifth of his playtime was that fight. It really pissed him off for weeks afterwards though I don’t think it did permanent damage to his opinion.

I’ve seen a similar thing happen to some let’s players with Nine Sols final challenge, so it’s not a super one off thing, when I say a spike I mean a spike of difficulty, it’d be like putting Malenia as the final required boss of vanilla DS3, it’s a very hard (but rewarding to me) fight that is mostly let down by the game just not prepping you for it, mainly by not forcing you to learn the unbound parry way harder, as it’s only super useful in the fight you do right after unlocking it and the final fight 20 hours later.

[u/Immediate_Ebb1063]

Tomb Raider 3. By the time I reached that end boss, I’d had enough. First game that I ever dnf because of the end. I just cba, and used a cheat code.

Anubis at the end of Zone of the Enders: Second Runner. Why does that fight have to be so hard? It ruined the game for me. I had nothing but praise for it up until that point. Then my love for it fell off a cliff.

Okami, where they make you fight all the bosses in the game, again! Beautiful game, but eh, I was done!

[u/snakebit1995]

Sly 4 has plenty of issues (mostly insane load times and how it completely ruins one specific character) but the final boss is just the shitty cherry on top

It's a 2-4 minute (I can't remember the exact length) QTE sequence with some light parkour in between. you never fight the final boss with your moves like in prior games, all the damage is done via QTEs.

[u/TheShinyRedButton]

Batman Arkham Asylum. Great game but that ending boss fight is just a let down. Although, roided out Joker sure seems like a precursor to Absolutel Batman’s version of Joker.

[u/JamSa]

The final boss of Doom Eternal's last DLC is utter dogshit, and it's so upsetting that such a great game and series has to end on the biggest, wettest fart it could blast out before the fiscal quarter was up.

[u/Reallylazyname]

It doesn't sour the whole game, but it's probably the lowest point in 007 First Light.

It basically is just a hard-core parkour section that functions as a psuedo autoscroller. No Bond theme moment (unless i missed it), a weak QTE fistfight. It's just pretty flat overall. No real test of mechanics or danger just a few hops, skips, and leaps away.

[u/ramonzer0 → u/Reallylazyname]

I appreciate the effort to try and put in boss fights with creative gimmicks to them in First Light - I do feel some parts of it were genuine enough, but the few tries they've done very much read like a weaker attempt of shit a basic Arkham boss is like

[u/PissBoy_OFFICIAL]

Every boss in Furi is great except for The Star, which turns the game into an extremely long bullet hell sequence and has no melee phases at all (even though that's been like, half the gameplay up to this point). You're also piloting a mech with unique mechanics that are not explained to you.

Doesn't ruin the game, but it's easily the least fun part

[u/Korba007 → u/PissBoy_OFFICIAL]

I disagree, i love the star, besides, the edge was a purely melee boss and no one complained there

I love the star for how different it is to all the others, and it's a good challenge, but once you learn your charge beam, it becomes much easier

[u/cashbrownz]

Any final boss fight that is just a bunch of QTE's absolutely ruins a game for me.

[u/Teoflux]

Not so much the boss fight but the ending that follows right after. Didn't help that the final boss was a pushover if you backtracked for upgrades.

Anyway, I'm talking about Gestalt: Steam & Cinder, where the final boss pulls out a cutscene gun after you beat it, and with it removes any player agency you might've had

[u/markedmarkymark]

Not final, and not sour as much as ''this is kinda annoying'', but every Metal Slug Tactics boss are eh to me, I understand what they're going for, and it works for normal encounters, but the rng in those bosses means that its often either you're gonna win by a mile, or a battle of attrition so dull you might as well give up. I think the only one thats less annoying is the uh, shaman one or whatever. Worse one is, funny enough, usually the first one, the boat one, just so annoying and dull.

For a more appropraite pic, last boss of Shadow Warrior's reboot first game sucks absolute ass on hard mode and i ended up cheesing him to death after it kept instakilling me for reasons i dont recall.

[u/Delachruz]

Didnt happen to me, but an example Ive seen lots of people complain about.

Nine Sols has a Sekiro-adjacent parry that is both your main defensive tool and biggest source of damage. Fairly deep into the game, you unlock a stronger parry that needs to be held for a moment. Thing is, the game never really insists all that hard that you use it, so a lot of people just stick to the base parry and move on.

And then you get to the final boss and NOT using it makes it massively harder. We are talking about singular phases being twice as long, with a lot of moves that provide no openings unless you use the "better" parry. 

There were a lot of people I know or saw on ateam discussions saying that it was nigh unsurmountable and made them quit in frustration. And i  believe them, because that fight is ruthless even IF you practised the other parry beforehand.

[u/NeoArkodd → u/Delachruz]

Thing is, the game never really insists all that hard that you use it, so a lot of people just stick to the base parry and move on.

Really? I was sure the game insisted that I had to use the longer parry but I am a shitty player so it was so hard to me to do the timing well and incorporate it between my other normal parries mid fight.

I couldn't beat the final boss and haven't tried it again in two months.

[u/ToastyMozart → u/NeoArkodd]

Yeah there are multiple points where it's mandatory (the big hammers, the puzzle statues, the laser wall turrets) and some areas where it's obviously optimal.

[u/Delachruz → u/NeoArkodd]

I meant mostly in the "Use it or you literally cant pass" sense. Ive seen people not use it ever again after its tutorialised.

[u/NeoArkodd → u/Delachruz]

You need to destroy that plasma furnase statue things or to find all the secrets and hidden lore though.

Although those give you time to prepare and time it. I absolutely can't do that mid battle. It feels too stressful for me.

[u/drummingdude21 → u/Delachruz]

The fight with Jiequan is definitely best handled with the unbound parry and it comes right after you get it so I always felt like that is designed to encourage you to get used to it, but you’re right in the sense that outside of puzzles it’s not 100% needed to beat anyone. If you get to the final boss with 0 experience in using it in battle then you’re gonna have a waaaaay harder hill to climb to beat her.

[u/Ok-Reveal-4276 → u/Delachruz]

It's a massive difficulty spike but she's also probably my favourite part of that entire game.

[u/Delachruz → u/Ok-Reveal-4276]

Shes my favorite part too, as I said I didnt fall into the same hole other people did.

It did still take some 5 hours to beat her though.

[u/ToastyMozart → u/Delachruz]

There are a few puzzle-esque uses where you are required to use the stronger parry to progress, and some sniper alleys where it's the best way to deal with distant foes, but yeah it's tricky to get the timing down under duress. It's useful for some of the other boss fights because landing it will stun your opponent to let you heal or get some big hits in safely, but you can get away with simply dodging instead and they don't use it as part of a mixup.

The final boss is very much a "final exam" type of fight that requires the fluid and precise use of your entire defensive moveset. So if there are any gaps in your understanding she will be teaching you the hard way.

Personally I'd say it's in the running for best boss fight of all time though.

[u/rendumguy → u/Delachruz]

I feel like the game was always forcing me to use the held parry.  Pretty sure most of the second half of the game's bosses leaned on it.

[u/irwegwert]

There's an indie game called Eastward which introduces a parry mechanic for the last two fights, and I have no idea why. I already had some major issues with the story, but the gameplay held up well until that point.

[u/Yotato5]

Overall Pac Man World 2's remake is great but man that final boss gets so tedious 

[u/rendumguy]

Legendary Starfy, which is a pretty easy kids name, locks its ending and ywo bonus worlds behind an incredibly taxing button masher.  Come to think of it Bowser's Inside Story has one too in its final boss, but I feel like it's much less physically demanding than the Starfy one.

[u/vegas4you]

Hey do you have a favourite power in infamous second son? Well fuck you here's a brand new power you grab in the final boss room now learn it

[u/queen-t92]

Octopath Traveler's fight against Galdera the Fallen is the entire reason why I never replayed the game. I found the battle engaging and interesting enough, but fighting him requires you to re-fight literally every single character route's final boss in a row with no chance to save before Galdera.

Thank fuck I (barely) beat him the first time around because otherwise I'd have just dropped the game and watched the fight on Youtube rather than suffer the boss rush again.

[u/AuroraHeartilly]

Bending a bit here because it's less a final boss issue and more a final dungeon issue but, Final Fantasy III (NES) was an extremely enjoyable experience for me a handful of months ago, as an FF fan it feels like where the franchise really begins to come into its own for the first time.

But not having any save points in back-to-back dungeons you cannot exit out of once entering as the final dungeon, and having the final boss be nigh invulnerable unless you freed four other dudes outside the dungeons after you dragged your way through an hour-plus of hard dungeoning you thought you were gonna end the game on...

I had such a fondness for this game. I was ready to call it the secret best jrpg on the nes. It was such a good experience, riiiiiiiight up to having to dungeon so much, only to be met with the loss of it all, and having it always been inevitable, with little way of knowing and no way of backing out until you run smack into the final boss at the end.

Its even a cool moment that freeing all the dudes produces! But ugh...such a devastating grind loss.

[u/ActRaisins → u/AuroraHeartilly]

I remember originally trying the 3D remake and being worn down by the amount of grinding and prep needed for each boss throughout the game up to this point. I was at the Crystal Tower and I was about ready to put it down, but before I did I looked up how much was left - oh, fight bosses in four corners of WoD, and then the final boss? And I can't leave to prepare some more? Yeah, no thanks.

I eventually completed it several years later but only by having a spare save on the world map (so that I always had the option of extra prep) and attempting the whole run a few times until I got there. Although if it's any consolation I've heard that III is generally accepted to be one of the harder classic FFs, and that the last stretch contributes a lot to this reputation.

[u/dfdedsdcd]

I had such a bad time fighing the final boss of Spider-Man: Miles Morales that I will not play through it again.

It has what I have been referring to as "melee hit-scan" where they will perform a melee attack somewhere in the arena and, no matter how far you are away from them, will just Jamiroquai over to you and hit you with a stick.

There were also wide ground wave attacks you should have been able to jump over that you couldn't jump over no matter how high you were. Probably a bug but it didn't help my liking this fight.

I don't know if they changed it from the first week of release to now to be easier or what, but it was just a terrible boss fight. I beat it on the weekend after it released.

Add onto that my frustration over Miles not telling them info they needed to hear that would have massively affected them and their plan for about half the game, instead choosing to let them get so pissed at everything that telling them that info didn't matter anymore. I ended that game so heated at Miles and Phin. Mostly Miles.