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Worst/Most Difficult boss you ever fought?

Pejo

Member
And another one, Alma from Ninja Gaiden Black:



Difficulty level doesn't matter, Alma is just hard.

All of her attacks hit like a truck, she's got a command grab with a massive hitbox to catch you in recovery, and you have to land a heavy knockdown (or anti-air through her very high dodge chance) in order to get a damage window.

And on higher difficulties, she has friends.

Yep, this is always the first boss I think of when it comes to hard bosses. Or at least ended the most number of runs for me personally. So much bullshit from a relatively early-on boss.
 

Shifty

Member
Yep, this is always the first boss I think of when it comes to hard bosses. Or at least ended the most number of runs for me personally. So much bullshit from a relatively early-on boss.
Yeah, she's brutal for the point in the game where you encounter her. The proverbial wall upon which the corpses of many unsuspecting players are piled, even worse if you don't know it's coming and burn through all your heals before the save point.

Though if it's any catharsis, there are ways to humiliate her with a bit of luck, a lot of foreknowledge, and pinch of underhanded ninpo canceling:



Not the hardest but the worst(recently) is monsoon in metal gear rising. I get the mechanics but he is not a fun boss.
Good old Memes McParryCheck. LEFT HAND RULE.
 
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Cheers! And yeah, Kamiya directed both DMC1 and Bayo 1.
Yup, definitely one of my favorite people, since (avatar alert!) he was also behind some of the best Resident Evil games.

I think the 'strong rival character who has your moveset' idea is something that was percolating in Capcom's action studio noosphere during the PS2 era (DMC1 - Nelo Angelo, Viewtiful Joe - Alastor, God Hand - Azel, etc), and formed into something definitive when Itsuno's team did Vergil.
Yup, well said. My reason for not being overly acquainted with Vergil is that so far, my only experience with the series was the original Devil May Cry 4 (on PS3) where Vergil wasn't really a thing. It was all about "new kid in town" Nero and I guess Dante took the role of, like you said, "strong rival character that has a moveset similar to yours" -- before the gameplay switched to Dante himself.

But that at time, I didn't really "get" action games, so I played it somewhat poorly. Even my first playthrough of Bayo a couple of months ago, my results were dirt poor, until the game "clicked" and I really learned how to play. So in the end I ended up somewhat mastering the game and getting Pure Platinums for all difficulties with both Bayo and Jeanne herself. Fuckin' hell, getting Pure Platinum when playing as Jeanne is pure hell, but forces you to really, absolutely, unequivocally "git gud" at the game.

Quoting myself from the backlog thread:

It had been a while since I played a game that was this incredibly satisfying. But I am now moving on.

Not many games I ever played felt this good to completely and thoroughly master. I guess growing up playing practically only fighting games meant that I could have the understanding and reaction times necessary to master this game. I'm not one to have regrets in life, but I do wish I found "character action" games earlier. I guess in a way I did with Devil May Cry 4, but I was experimenting and didn't take it "seriously" at the time. When I do get around to it again (I rebought it on PC), I wonder how I'll approach it differently now that I've finished Bayonetta.

Pure Platinum trophies across the board. One of my best gaming achievements ever.

Bayonetta:

FhbQL0P.jpg


Jeanne:

IlfJvv4.jpg

The guy in the video makes it look easy since he does it no damage, though on some level it feels like you have to due to the sheer danger that taking a hit represents.
Right, but I still appreciate the mastery, although not as much as I will when I watch the video again after I'm playing DMC3 and tearing my hair out :messenger_tears_of_joy:

It's why I was kind of debating putting the Jeanne video in the OP; it's like, if you don't fully understand the game, you don't get a grasp of just how insanely difficult the feat is. It's like not being acquainted with guitar at all, and watching Jimi Hendrix play, and say "oh yeah that guy makes it look easy." LOL....

And you'll have plenty more to worry about before getting to Vergil if you go for Dante Must Die! The special gimmick - equivalent to Bayo taking away your witch time on NSIC - turns the entire game into a ball-breaking mastery check.

It's good stuff, if exhausting, and ranks among the hardest of the hard in my book.
Yeah, I'm looking forward to the DMC series, but I think after thoroughly mastering Bayonetta (which probably consumed a month of my life), I need a break and may go for something breezy from my backlog. Something chill, like maybe... Spyro or something. LOL. Point is, I need a change of pace before I jump to DMC, Metal Gear Rising (which is also in my backlog), and other games like that.
 

JimmyRustler

Gold Member
I‘d say the Ancient Dragon from Dark Souls 2.

I usually like Souls bosses as they‘re hard and challenging but not unfair. The Ancient Dragon was nothing of that. It was just cheap.
 

Lokaum D+

Member
A3S, aka the static breaker. They completely overtune Heavenward savage raid
I think HW was the last content with really hard savage boss ( 012S was hard as hell too ) , SB savage was a joke, did all content using PF with randons, didnt play EW yet.
 
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Lokaum D+

Member
E4S, E8S and E12S are all pretty tough at release. Clear pt= LR porg and Lion prog
Yeah, those fights were tough and lion prog was annoying but was doable even in PF, E6S conflag was something else too, but nothing like O12S dice nightmare back in the day ( even today unsynced that part is hell ), since the game now is more mainstream i think Square is tuning down the difficult a little, but i dont have a problem with that since i dont have the same time to play or have time for a static.
 
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god of war valkyrie queen
This is actually a really good one, and I can sympathize.

Oh wait... maybe I can't fully sympathize, since on my first playthrough of God of War, I only defeated the first two Valkyries, and when I was fighting the third one, thought to myself, "man, fuck this, I'm out." So I never got to the Valkyrie Queen, who I believe you fight after defeating the regular 9 (or 8?) Valkyries.

So I don't know if it was a combination of my Kratos being underpowered (I don't think so, I think I was decently leveled up), me not having a full grasp of potentially advanced combat mechanics, or just being fed up of these optional Valkyrie bosses, but yeah, I was done. Maybe someday on PC I'll come back and beat them if I'm so inclined.

I hated how they had massive, screen-sweeping attacks that did MASSIVE damage.
 

Kataploom

Gold Member
Have you guys played Ys 1? The last boss is so insanely difficult and unfair that even on PC is way more difficult than devs intended because the speed of combat is linked to framerate so at 60 you fight at double the speed it was design for. I got so frustrated that gave up, but for some reason I played one last time while being mad and somehow beat him lol

This is someone else's video, not mine, even make it look easy wtf

 
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anonychus

Neo Member
The final boss of Jet Force Gemini was ridiculously hard. I had to use all the ammo of every weapon I had and still ran out a few times before I finally got him.
 

Neff

Member
You could fill this entire thread with arcade final bosses but this motherfucker takes the cake

J6pAJ9.jpg



Yeah I never got the love for Jeanne's fights. They're spectacular and impressive but she doesn't seem to have patterns or telegraphs like most bosses do. She doesn't offer clear windows to exploit or punish. She just dashes around randomly spamming stuff and runs face-first into your own Wicked Weave spam. Beating her is just an ordeal of constantly dodge-offsetting at a distance and hoping she falls for your longest range attacks. Great game, great character, ok boss.

Wonderboy in Monster World [Genesis]


I remember this being annoying as hell but I did do it. You just have to be patient and wait for your chance.
 
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Shifty

Member
Yup, well said. My reason for not being overly acquainted with Vergil is that so far, my only experience with the series was the original Devil May Cry 4 (on PS3) where Vergil wasn't really a thing. It was all about "new kid in town" Nero and I guess Dante took the role of, like you said, "strong rival character that has a moveset similar to yours" -- before the gameplay switched to Dante himself.
Yeah, 4 was a bit off-kilter in that sense since it has Credo acting as Nero's peer but struggling for relevance outside of being a cool boss, and Dante being so many steps ahead in both plot and experience that Nero never truly exceeds him in the way that's become traditional for a rival archetype.

But that at time, I didn't really "get" action games, so I played it somewhat poorly. Even my first playthrough of Bayo a couple of months ago, my results were dirt poor, until the game "clicked" and I really learned how to play. So in the end I ended up somewhat mastering the game and getting Pure Platinums for all difficulties with both Bayo and Jeanne herself. Fuckin' hell, getting Pure Platinum when playing as Jeanne is pure hell, but forces you to really, absolutely, unequivocally "git gud" at the game.
It's crazy how that goes with the action genre. It's one of those skillsets that seems hopelessly out of reach when you start out, but is highly transferable and ends up becoming second nature across a lot of different games with satisfying results.

I have a distinct memory of thinking 'why do all these games have this stupid parry mechanic, surely nobody has the time to figure them all out' during the PS2 era. In distinct contrast to the "holy shit it's third strike baby!!!" pop-off that Bayo got out of me when I unlocked the Moon of Mahaa-Kalaa 🤣

Right, but I still appreciate the mastery, although not as much as I will when I watch the video again after I'm playing DMC3 and tearing my hair out :messenger_tears_of_joy:

It's why I was kind of debating putting the Jeanne video in the OP; it's like, if you don't fully understand the game, you don't get a grasp of just how insanely difficult the feat is. It's like not being acquainted with guitar at all, and watching Jimi Hendrix play, and say "oh yeah that guy makes it look easy." LOL....
Had the same thought picking out the vergil video - it's got everything I remember except the struggle lol.

Yeah, I'm looking forward to the DMC series, but I think after thoroughly mastering Bayonetta (which probably consumed a month of my life), I need a break and may go for something breezy from my backlog. Something chill, like maybe... Spyro or something. LOL. Point is, I need a change of pace before I jump to DMC, Metal Gear Rising (which is also in my backlog), and other games like that.
I feel that - I started Bayo 1 shortly after moving house, so it was my wait-for-the-internet-to-come-on coping device for a solid month. Perfect game for it given the depth and how many genuinely interesting unlockables are crammed in there, but I burned out hard enough that the Switch and PC copies I bought later down the line never got as much attention.

Sean and his two FUCKING disciples leading up to him in SIFU

Before the patch
Oof, they got nerfed in a patch? I started recently and those two are already on my shit list :messenger_weary: though bossman himself seems alright now I have a handle on dodging his strings.

I've beaten all the stages except the last so am probably speaking too soon, but Kuroki is easily my most hated thus far. I have a decent handle on phase two now I have catch unlocked, but that keepaway mixup shit in phase one easily chomps 40 years off my run if I'm not raw blocking everything and abusing backdown strats to recharge structure.

Have you guys played Ys 1? The last boss is so insanely difficult and unfair that even on PC is way more difficult than devs intended because the speed of combat is linked to framerate so at 60 you fight at double the speed it was design for. I got so frustrated that gave up, but for some reason I played one last time while being mad and somehow beat him lol

This is someone else's video, not mine, even make it look easy wtf


Ha yes, I remember this guy. I knew about it ahead of time so went in prepared for a challenge, he was a wall but not as bad as the steam forums had built him up to be if memory serves.
The worst part is how he plays arkanoid with the platform you're standing on - you can bone yourself really early if you let him cut off too much space.

It's funny, outside of that instance of going full touhou I remember thinking those Ys remasters were really chill little games that had simple, tight design and didn't outstay their welcome. Bump combat was a neat idea.
 
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First time I played Dark Souls - Ornstein & Smough. The second time they were a lot easier but man, that first time... Thought I was gonna go insane.
 

Bakkus

Member
Too many to name. My least favorite has to be the ghost from Metal Gear Solid 3 (don't remember his name), basically, there's no battle here, you move on rails for several minutes and you just have to reach the end and avoid enemy ghosts which appear at you which is easy, but then you reach the end and meet the main ghost and you automatically die...BUT unlike every other time you die, you now have like a split second to react and open your inventory despite nothing suggesting you actually can do any of this, pick some sort of a revival pill and use it, if you didn't know you could do this (as the game don't give you any indication that you can), then you have to repeat the entire minutes long segment again until you do figure this out...
 

Eimran

Member
Not in terms in difficulty but I hated Simmons in Resident Evil 6 (not surprised since I hated the game as well). That guy just kept coming back. After the second fight I said 'Just die already!'
 

mekes

Member
Genichiro Ashina from Sekiro. Secret ending fight was more difficult than the first, although the first was probably my favourite fight in the game and probably one of my favourite boss fights I can remember.

Sekiro was great. Lots of great boss fights in this game. Do play it if you haven't.
 

Shifty

Member
Not in terms in difficulty but I hated Simmons in Resident Evil 6 (not surprised since I hated the game as well). That guy just kept coming back. After the second fight I said 'Just die already!'
Giving him Transformers-style shapeshifting as a mutation was so dumb. I was already mentally checked out by that point, but seeing the game pull out Optimus Prime for a quick highway chase was just... Exquisite levels of 'how did it come to this'.

It's a real shame, I'd consider RE6's underlying gameplay systems to be up there with some of the other action greats mentioned in this thread, but they're buried under so many layers of expensive trash for the sake of the campaigns' paper-thin survival horror conceit that mercs mode is the only way to really have fun with them. And ain't nobody playing mercs mode after sitting through four straight Michael Bay movies back-to-back-to-back.
 

Fredrik

Member
I had serious issues with Maliketh in Elden Ring, too fast and lots of bs distance attacks.

And while Radagan was okay (except for the glowing fist attack that could kill me instantly if I wasn’t fully healed up) the combination of him and Elden Beast directly after made me drop the score from 10/10 to 9/10.
 

SeraphJan

Member
Remember in Nioh where you have to fight two boss simultaneously (Especially the Nine-Tail + Hideyori ones and those later abyss bosses)? Doing it on the highest difficulty (I believe its NG+5 Way of the Nioh) is the worst experience I've ever had for a boss fight.
 
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mxbison

Member
Guess the hardest would be a World of Warcraft boss. 40 people who've grinded their gear up for thousands of hours, just dying over and over and over again to the same raid boss. I think Eye of Cthun took us like 2 weeks.

I stopped playing before the first expansion came out. Guess that bosses are even harder now that people are also better at the game.

Hardest singleplayer boss would probably be one from Cuphead for me. Maybe the clown or dragon.

Elden Ring had some tough bosses but you could always cheese them in some way so not really.
 

M1987

Member
Yeah bloodborne was my first Soulsborne experience. I think I was taking on the blood starved beast a bit too early. I think I found Father Gascoigne a bit easier just because he wasn't the blood starved beast. Lol.
Yeah, it's my first too and Father Gascoigne made me so much better at the game
 

Star-Lord

Member
Egg viper from sonic adventure 1 or 2 for the dreamcast and the most recent game I played was elden ring
Ugh, and now I'm suffering flashbacks to Egg Viper. It wouldn't have been so bad had the space you fight in be bigger, but it was such a narrow, confined space. Everything in the game up to that point had been fairly easy, then that happened. It was such a jump in difficulty, and almost ruined the game for me.
 
100% alma from ninja gaiden black, played this game recently and ive only wver finished black on normal on the og xbox when i was about 12 but holy shit this boss is impossible, literally need the fast reflexes on the planet and puts to shame every souls boss out there
 

Watched about 15 minutes of this video.

My question to you is... Have you been able to beat this "Any Radiance" boss? 😂

I haven't gotten around to playing Hollow Knight yet (it's in my Steam backlog of stuff to play), but this reminds me of those super crazy Mario Maker levels... On steroids.
 
MAJOR YAKUZA 5 SPOILER

Probably Aizawa. Not because of the fight, but the story that led there made no fucking logic.
AGREED. The toughest regular boss I've experienced in the Yakuza series, and honestly almost on par with Amon.

When you see the boss 's health bar and it's purple, gray, or white, you know you're in for a treat 😂
 

BlackTron

Member
When I think of the bosses I had to restart the most times, I realize they were mostly RPG. It would usually be a situation where a boss was kicking my butt, but the game didn't give you the opportunity to go back and level up or buy anything. It was forge ahead, or not at all. I would occasionally get blindsided in an RPG I was just happily plowing through and suddenly be stuck and frustrated. Shit like this is why you start to have backup saves and think ahead lol.

Most of Grandia II was easy except fighting Melfice. I must have heard the opening to his boss music theme 50 times. Yes that's how long I was stuck trying to beat this dude. I guess I was really unprepared for the fight and eventually squeezed out a victory. Man today I can't see that kind of dedication lol. Same thing happened during my FIRST playthrough of Mario RPG (my first RPG). I was stuck at Jonathon Johnny Jones, the shark in the pirate ship. I didn't beat it until I used a pencil and paper to keep track of all the enemy HP to make more informed decisions...only time in gaming I ever did anything like that lol. This fight split up the party leaving you to fight with only one character, and your enemy could heal too. A real challenge in baby's first RPG lol. These days I would curbstomb the fight while juggling a joint, a whiskey and a controller in the air at the same time.
 
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