Honestly. I thought they were gonna say Berial (who's still not as hard), but Credo? He doesn't even really count as an "early boss," nor would I call him all that hard.
Translated to "I'm a pay pig but lately even I've known triple A products as so bad I can't stomach them..." Edit, sorry if that's a bit too on the nose, I've just seen ssquad and skull and bones come out recently and people have been defending that vehemently
@@BuildinWings sorry man, knee jerk response, hearing anyone say they like triple A games nowadays feels like hearing someone say they like spending money
The Matador of SMT: Nocturne will always be the king of these. He even observes that the Demi-Fiend is still weak when he duels you. Not that pity will stay his blade or capote.
Here's a tip, just Sukukaja, like blade wolf and parries, Matador is a gate for players who dont understand all the game mechanic from fusions to buffs
Great choice, but we already know assist moves by then. For me, I prefer Minotaur from SMT 4 or Nuwa from 5. They really hit you hard with how ruthless they are.
6 was my first AC game. That helicopter nearly made it my last LEVEL. That fight is honestly brutal to a newbie. Im a few missions on and still have no clue what im doing.
Yeah, that stupid helicopter was also what instantly came to my mind. But the "spirit of motherwill" from 4A is also a nasty upgrade. (That one was telegraphed in the opening sequence though)
Literally when I saw this list, this was the first boss that came to mind.... I'm glad I stuck through the game, but it has some damn hard filter bosses early on.
@@TheDarkEnigma It was my first AC game as well, let me give you a tip. You want to be aggressive. No, more aggressive. Do not let your enemy breathe, do not let them get away, do not let up. You dont want to kick them while theyre down, you want to fuckin annihalate them while theyre down. And yeah the difficulty in that game is uhh.. whatever it wants lol. Normally you want difficulty to go like "1 2 3 4 5" throughout the game, but AC 6 kinda goes "8 1 1 2 1 10 1 1 7 2 3 10 1" lol
The Botanist in SiFU. I heard about the game's difficulty, but I breezed thru the first level and was like..."Is this all?". Then, the Botanist happened.
BRO EXACTLY!!! I didn’t play it myself, I watched my partner play it, and he was like 25 or so when he got to the Botanist. He finally beat the Botanist at like 38. It was rough to watch.
Gotta shout out to Aztec Falcon from Mega Man Zero! You won't have any equipment or combos by the time you fight him, you'll likely have lost lives on the level leading up to him, and you need to finish the fight in under two minutes or your new friends are crushed to death.
Yeah, I'm surprised no games from Team Ninja are mentioned, they're usually known for their extremely complex, extremely hard fighting mechanisms. Wo Long and Nioh comes to mind
and unlike most bosses, you only get one shot at it, unless you left a save conveniently close by. You do get to fight him again at the arena though, once you're much stronger.
@@deathbykonami5487Monsoon and Armstrong were the hardest ones for me starting out, Bladewolf was just fun to fight. No real issues with parrying our chainsaw weilding K9.
Mass Effect 1: Either boss fight on Therum. You're encouraged to go there early to get the last of your companions but if you don't gear up with some side quests first, both the Geth Colossus you're forced to fight without your tank, and the Krogan Warlord who can 1-shot you 3 different ways can catch you by surprise really easily.
The Geth Armature (it wasn't a full-blown Colossus) was actually pretty easy once you figured out that the area off to the left of your starting location was safe and you could hide out in there, popping out only long enough to hit a geth target with some attacks/powers before ducking back into it before it could fire its cannon again. The Krogan Warlord, on the other hand, had to be hit with a power that knocked him down as soon as the fight started or you were toast.
Gotta hand it to Bloodstained, they did well with their voice actor picks. For one, Dominique is voiced by Fryda Wolff, the same gal who did Sara Ryder in Mass Effect: Andromeda and the Collector in The Owl House. Hey, don't diss on Angelo Credo's style. (That aside, at least his sister didn't become mad and turn into a far stronger anomalous foe than even her brother was. Think Iris from the Zero route of Mega Man X4.)
yeah, SOME players would just slap it and not even worry about it.... MOST though.... yeesh. It's a good wake up call for the "think strategically" aspect of Pokémon though.
@@SirStanleytheStumbler honestly.... I found forcing the thing to flinch or sleep the best ways. :p Geodudes can learn flinch attacks, but are too slow.
@@SirStanleytheStumbler Yeah, I remember trying that, and realizing it only works if you start there, and don't wait to switch. Also isn't this high enough level to use Graveler or Golem?
The only time these kinds of bosses are good, is if you're actually able to beat them. I really don't like boss fights that are designed to be impossible to win. The worst kind of boss fights though, are ones where you have to win or you get a game over, but story says you didn't win that fight.
I actually remember Sly 3's first boss being rough. Not only is it one of the first points in the game that you get to play as Muray (the first time you get to fight with him as the other if you tried you failed his mission), but the second stage of the fight is rough if you are not well. . . used to it. Especially since Octavio can use his sonic scream on you at point blank range or sometimes, he will just sit on the tar geyser singing his song of your doom at you so you can't slow him down lol.
I would also say final fantasy tactics’ first fight against wiegraf as it is the first time you fight against one of the sword magic classes and he has considerable support from his monks, knight, and chocobo which can cover most of the map and heal every time it’s up
You just landed on Rubikon in your starting AC with little to no knowledge how to pilot it and then out of nowhere you are fighting a helicopter with the size of a four story building.
Then just a handful of missions later, you're faced with an asshole with too many missiles and a barrier you can basically only get rid of with a couple of weapons at that point in the game. Personally I'd say he fits the list theme a little better purely because he's meant to be an example of "learn to bring the right loadout or you're screwed". I swear until near the end of your first playthrough you don't fight anything as remotely difficult as him.
@@Gamer3427 Yeah, Balteus brings that "build check" energy. If you don't know how to make an effective AC, it's time to learn. I remember having to punch him to death first time I did that fight, cause I ran out of ammo on all my guns when he had a sliver of health left. Also, that heli is bigger than a four story building. It's at least 500 meters long, going off the size of the apartment blocks you sometimes see in the game compared to your AC. It kicked my ass so hard having never played an AC game before, or any game like it.
@@Gamer3427Yeahhh Im glad they nerfed Balteus a bit, I fought him again on a new game recently and got him first try no problem. I got the game on release and he stopped me dead, though I did manage to beat him right before the nerf so Im kinda proud of that lol, but he needed that nerf it was just annoying tbh. And then after you get past that wall of a boss everything for the next like 15 missions dies in one hit lmao. Idk who designed the difficulty curve in that game but I think they had a seizure when drawing it lmao.
Corypheus in Dragon Age: Inquisition. The fight was over so quickly that I thought there must be a catch or additional phase, but no, it was just unexpectedly straightforward.
Soul of Cinder isn't too bad if you've gone and done both DLC before fighting him. A lot of late game Elden Ring bosses can be easy, especially if you've been farming certain locations. Doesn't apply to Radagon and Elden Beast, but those fights are bs, especially Elden Beast.
The Tree Sentinel you encounter when you first emerge into the open world of Elden Ring might “just” be a field boss, but he introduced my tarnished to several worlds of hurt before I decided to bypass him. This was before I got introduced to Torrent... Also, great vid as always, please keep up the great work.
When I saw Elden Ring on the spoiler list I thought it would be about the tree sentinel. That guy took me about ten attempts on my first play though, I just couldn't get the pattern right.
Shimano in Yakuza Kiwami 1 was a kind of a pain, mostly because they gave him Mr Shakedown's powerful moveset from Yakuza 0, and you're likely unable to properly negate his self-healing phases so early on in the game (it takes a particular attack you've likely not unlocked yet).
You can also use the lanterns in the arena to knock him out of the heal, but at the same time have to agree, his health is huge for that point of the game, and while his damage doesn't have anything on the Shakedowns themselves, putting him at the end of an extended battle sequence made me think I was supposed to lose first time through
No mention of Fuoco from Lies of P? Third boss in the game, and introduces ranged attacks like no other. Huge shift from the melee based first two bosses
@@deathforefox I'm almost at that part myself, but for new players who suck at Sekiro and haven't mastered the deflect mechanic, the Parade Master is an absolute freaking nightmare.
@danishnande9629 I forgot how hard it was for me on my Hard run. Rufus was certainly a prick, tho. Anyway, the first Hell House made my friend rage quit and uninstall the game. :(
Honestly, I've forgot. Not the Hell House, I'll never forget that bastard, but the mechanics and tricks. What were you REALLY supposed to be doing to beat him, that wasn't just chopping at his tank-defenses and hoping it didn't suck you inside it?
Nice video, keep up the good work! As far as early bosses go, I would say the first Corruptor you face in Horizon: Zero Dawn. You were just done with a difficult but manageable fight and suddenly you are attacked by this huge never-seen-before machine that moves fast and hits like a truck. This is at the beginning of Aloy's journey, when your weapons and armor are extremely poor (and you might have used up most of your resources during the previous fight). At higher difficulties the robot can very easily kill you in two-three moves. In the same game, later, you have to fight a Scorcher as an introduction to the tougher robots you find in the Frozen Wilds DLC. Again, a new monster that is quick and hits hard, this one with huge areas attacks as well.
Half expected the Feathstroke fight from Arkham Origins to be on the list. Most Arkham bosses can just be dealt with by dodging, punching and sprinkling in the occasional Batarang. Deathstroke will teach you a lesson in following the contextual button prompts you've been ignoring until now.
Gattuso at Ehmead in Tales of Vesperia. You don’t have recovery skills to cure poison unless you over level a ton and just get wrecked. Grinding at that point was also such a pain while all the other hurdles were a breeze prior.
I spent a few hours grinding levels so I could beat that boss and get the secret achievement. And the worst part is, after the fight your characters say something like, "That was so easy lol".
Shimano from Yakuza Kiwami for me. You've barely started, you have no money for healing items, few if any substories are available for leveling up, you'll still be learning the combat of your three different stances, you run a gauntlet through Tojo headquarters AND you just had to fight Goro Majima, and then this big tub of muscle rolls up on you with super armor and repeatedly throws you around like a toddler.
What's maximum bullshit about Shimano is that you don't even have access to the Kiwami moves to stop his healing at that point in the game. The game prompts you to use the Kiwami moves during that battle, but you're incapable of doing it in that fight unless you're on NG+.
For me, the first boss from Neir Automata really kicked my butt. I wouldn’t say it was particularly hard once I learned how to fight properly but getting back to it each time was a ten minute slog that made it feel way more intimidating. Kinda like fighting the god tamer in hollow knight. It’s a pretty easy boss but after 17 rounds of fighting, you’re on edge and terrified you’ll die and start the whole thing over again
That's why I haven't played it so far. The moment I realized I had to replay the level just for another attempt I decided to do something else. Great game from what I've heard but if the rest of the game is like that I'm not interested.
Ironically, the rest of the game is a *lot* better with save points before boss fights. Iirc there's even checkpoints between boss phases but I'm not 100% on that @@SaHaRaSquad
that's just the intro specific thing, everythings pretty fast after that as far as i remember- if you're worried can always lower the difficulty and then put it back up after the boss
@@SaHaRaSquad The really strange thing is that Neir is much, much, much easier after you get past the tutorial boss. You start unlocking upgrades, the next few bosses aren't as strong or relentless as the tutorial boss. You honestly don't start to struggle in Nier after the tutorial until you get to near the end of the character arc. The tutorial would be much better if it had a checkpoint, but after you play Neir quite a bit you get the feeling that the Director wanted you to understand that B2's cycle of destruction isn't just a game mechanic, but something that has occurred numerous times.
I think Letho from Witcher 2 is a more difficult early boss than Nithral, but Nithral is definitely tough if you run right to that quest. Also, honorable mention to Prince of Persia: Lost Crown for the Vahram fight. Even though you're supposed to lose in that fight the mechanics of it and how it comes back around later in the game is amazing. One of the best fights in any game I've ever played
I'd argue that Red Skull's laugh in the Captain America and the Avengers arcade game is probably weirder than Damnd's laugh... Wait...7 weirdest laughs in video games?
Hm I'm debating between two which are just the same laugh but played differently. Kefka from Final Fantasy 6 has an iconic bizarre laugh...but Norstein Bekkler from Chrono Trigger just has Kefka's laugh but slowed down, which does make it weirder, but while Kefka is a major character, Bekkler is just a weird floating face that runs a carnival event
I feel like Hornet from Hollow Knight fits this Bill. She's the 2nd full boss most players will encounter and even though she's pretty easy when you're used to the game, I remember her being quite hard when I first played.
I always go to Keira all the way to the crones before seeing the Baron, that way Ciri's story is in order. I do everything I can in White Orchard before diving for the buckthorn So I'm usually at a high enough level
It's because that boss was the end of the demo, and they made it hard so people wouldn't finish the demo too quickly. They were supposed to lower his stats for the full game but the developers forgot to do it.
The Mantis Lords from Hollow Knight. They're the third boss you really have access too, but you're expected to fight them closer to the end of the game. Oh and of course if you do somehow beat them early your only reward is getting into Deep Nest wich is just mean.
I was honestly expecting Ba'al feom DMC4, not Angelo Credo. Ba'al always managed to kick my arse and he shows up several missions earlier than Credo. Credo is a challenge yes, but Im not sure he qualifies as an early game boss, considering he appears at the midpoint in the game, almost in the exact median mission.
I wouldn't say easiest, he's harder than most of the optional dungeon bosses because of all the delayed attacks and combos. But very well designed imho, especially as Morgott.
Leon in Kingdom Hearts. I think you're supposed to lose to him in that first fight in Traverse Town, but on my second playthrough of the game I stubbornly stayed on Destiny Island for literal days grinding 1xp heartless until I was lv 75. I beat him, but the result is still the same: Sora passes out from exhaustion. Waste of time.
He later gives you an elixir if you defeated him (after you defeated the Guard Armor). Also, he's pretty easy to defeat, even without power-leveling. Just hit back his fireball to stun him and then hit him.
Anyone else think of V2 from Ultrakill? First major boss past the tutorial world, and he's basically you but with 10x the health and actually understands game's movement.
The Butcher, of Diablo. Whack some weak-ass skeletons, scavengers, and cowardly little imps. Then open a door and "AHHHH, FRESH MEAT". Then you're stunlocked and dead.
The Witcher 3 one also happens at the end of a dungeon that you can't quit until you've cleared it. If you're too low level, or don't have repair kits for your broken items or healing items, or your build is not up to snuff... I hope you like redoing the whole same dungeon again
I’ve played all the Devil May Cry games A-Lot. I had no trouble with Credo. Not even the first time, I think anybody who regularly plays DMC probably didn’t have much trouble with him either.
Great video as always! My suggestion for this list is the Draugr in BPM: Bullets Per Minute. He's the first boss you'll run into, and while so far you've just been shooting bats and spiders, the Draugr is fast, has a bunch of AoE attacks, and throws a whole lot of projectiles at you all at once. Personally, I rate him harder than most of the other bosses, with the exception for the fourth boss Gullveig and the final boss Nidhogg.
This just made me think of Matador from Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne, and then I got PTSD flashbacks. It really says something about the boss when it's considered a huge difficulty spike in a game that is already super hard from the beginning.
Minotaur from SMT: IV - a very early boss that keeps you from the rest of the game. Have you mastered all of the mechanics? Go back and train until you have (oh, and hope RNG is on your side, too).
Aztec Falcon from Mega Man Zero. He's got answers for both your buster and saber which are both probably underleveled if you didn't know that the game had a weapon-based leveling system going into the fight, and since he appears just before mission selection becomes available, he can't be skipped for later. Can this fight get any worse? Oh, I forgot, it has a time limit!
I’m surprised Genichiro Ashina didn’t make the list. Aside from the scripted loss you get whether you defeat him or not in the beginning, like Blade Wolf, Genichiro makes you learn the sword mechanics and not just hammering the attack button.
lol when Luke said, "Snake?" that's exactly what I was thinking, I'm literally playing MGS3 right now! Glad they included Sodominic, he's a peak example of, "That's far enough, kid, now we steal your quarters."
Blade Wolf wasn't the parry mastery boss, he was effectively designed to make you focus on quick camera control and dodging mastery, it was Monsoon who was the boss designed to force you into mastering Parry.
Angelo Credo also is the first boss that punishes you for abusing Nero's pull move, which you were encouraged to use against every other boss (and enemy, mostly) before then to close distance.
"Horribly, horned, hairy hombre named Margit the fell omen" Awesome. Just awesome xD Also: The way they prevented that poor soldier to blow his trumpet ;_;
While not technically a boss, The Pursuer in Dark Souls still gives me fits. I can get through The Last Giant pretty easily, then this joker shows up to ruin my day and test my resistance to rage quitting.
6:45 love this game and what’s funny is I beat it without learning to parry for years. I can do it now but it’s funny that parrying took me the better part of 6 years to figure out because I don’t play tutorials
I think a boss that unexpectedly that got a lot of players was the Marauder from Doom Eternal. Admit it. First few attempts at The Marauder, and even the next few appearances killed you.
That was how I saw how much I grew in the game; by being able to kill the Marauder in 2-3 rotations without getting hit once. Now they're nothing more than a speed bump.
Clayton in Kingdon Hearts. He's arguably the sixth or seventh boss in the game (not counting the optional bosses), located the game's third world, Deep Jungle. Clayton, & his invisible Heartless chameleon, Stealth Sneak, pack an array of powerful attacks that take huge chunks out of your health. Made even harder if you're underleveled (speaking from experience): especially if you come here right after Wonderland (instead of backtracking to Traverse Town to complete Olympus Coliseum first)
Love how 4 of the 7 bosses (Zangetsu, Blade Wolf, Soddum and Margit) are on this list because "I can't just spam attacks and actually have to stratigise"
Very glad MGR:R was mentioned. That blade wolf is easy if you understand how to play the game but it's so early in the game that it becomes quite frustrating.
You can put the spectral steed whistle on your shortcuts on the right of the menu. It keeps it from being on the same bar as your estus so you dont have to switch between them 😬
I like to think of bosses like this as the "Wake Up Check" kind of bosses. They're designed to get you to understand the mechanics of the game. Before you can just breeze through most encounters but these bosses force you to fight on the game's level.
