Absolutely. There are about 40 bosses in hollow knight. 3 of them have a title card that takes up the entire screen. One, which is the infection (called Radiance) that takes over the 'eternal' and greatest kingdom, one is the radiance in its absolute pureness, and one is nightmare king grimm, God of the nightmare realm. Not to mention he's so difficult that you have to the option to just banish him to get perfection. If that doesn't show off his difficulty....
The game literally allows the player to skip the boss entirely for getting 112% (absolute perfection) for those who find it too hard. It is a great challenge for those who are looking for it. He's one of the fastest bosses in the game, deals double damage, and requires you to fight a lesser version of him (Grimm) at an earlier part of the game to even fight him, or you can do the 30+ bosses boss rush and fight him as one of the top 3. Even though what I said can sound daunting, it is still an absolute blast of a boss fight, earning himself the 1# spot for the best boss fight in the game for many people including myself.
Here’s something funny though, I did complete Luigi’s Mansion 2 on a 3DS I bought that had the game preinstalled on it, but I somehow managed to completely forget this boss’s existence, like 100% completely as if I never fought him. Kinda makes me want to play the game again to see how bad he really is… Now that the “remaster”/port to switch is around the corner though, maybe I’ll get the game on switch and see if it’s any different or not…
@@Raoul1808. I remember having a decent time with the 4th boss because I had alot of muscle memory for the ice plates & ridiculously finicky final hit (along with aiming for the middle plates first) but I can definitely see it being extremely frustrating otherwise I remember it being my second-favorite boss in the game (behind the final boss) back when I first played it, which is kinda insane looking back
The worst part about Queen Slime is that she literally makes a cartoon fart sound when she dies, driving home the fact that this boss is a literal joke, and one which you are the butt of.
I always imagined that sound effect as a deflating sound, cause the final blow of king slime deflates him like a balloon, so I applied the same for queen slime.
Notes on Queen Slime: Queen slime was designed as the hardmode counterpart to King slime. Groundbreaking I know, but understanding this idea allows you to see why queen slime sucks so much. King slime is most commonly fought (without cheese) by running directly away from it in one direction. This is because at the appropriate "level", the minions king slime spawns are very difficult to deal with, so it is much easier to deal with it if you simply never fight the minions. This is echoed in Queen slime's minions, but because it's hardmode, the player already has access to far superior movement and weapons than the ones they had when they fought king slime. Meaning that the only way to re-create the experience was to make the minions horrifically OP to the point where just standing in the same screen as them is deadly. On paper, this makes complete sense and is understandable. When King slime loses a lot of his health, he becomes much faster, making it more difficult to dodge him and turn around. To counter this, players will learn to time their movements with King slime's leaps to ensure they can safely cross underneath him and continue running the other direction. Queen slime's 2nd phase echoes this mentality, but again, because players in hardmode will have significantly better options, queen slime's attacks need to be significantly more oppressive. The spreadshot that queen slime does is a test of spacing, it is easy to dodge if you keep position yourself into the dead zones of the attack, but this requires you to keep a somewhat specific speed and to understand queen slime's movement behavior. The slam is there to make sure you keep moving and don't stay still. On paper, the 2nd phase is a well designed fight that tests a player's movement proficiency while recreating the experience of King slime. On paper. In practice, literally no one fights queen slime like this until they die like 12 times to her. It's not an intuitive way to fight her, because at this point everyone has gotten incredibly used to fighting bosses in an arena. Also, because the minions are so stupidly OP, this is about the only way to fight queen slime. The only other boss with "1 way to fight them" is wall of flesh because he's a literal wall. This leads to the biggest crime queen slime commits: Disempowerment. Queen slime disempowers the player from fighting them their way through the use of stupidly OP minions for no good reason. Queen slime is possibly the most optional boss terraria has to offer. I legitimately forgot to fight queen slime in my recent mage playthrough. I forgot they existed. So why is it that this VERY SKIPPABLE boss has a VERY STRICT AND SPECIFIC WAY THAT IT HAS TO BE FOUGHT. It feels terrible. this has been my ted talk goodbye
Honestly i find king slime without going in one direction extremely fun, as you can predict his teleports, and high jumps to get to the other side of him. The minions are managable, though none of what i like about king slime is possible with queen slime.
Also the player should have collected a cobalt shield long before dealing with her, negating the issue of being juggled; and it's one of the few bosses easier to fight without a dash, as the movement burst can put you in harms' way easier during a spam-attack. But I can't say I'm surprised so many people have trouble when they think damage & speed are all they need, there's plenty of other equipables out there, just so few are willing to try other strategies.
As a kid I remember spending about 2 hours on that Luigi's mansion fight. I probably retried it 15 times, and it took me developing a shooting strategy and pattern in order to win. Its a fun gimmick, but way overtuned and unnecessarily difficult
@@osamaalk3477 Same I think its cause it's the most unique out of them all unlike all the others where if you already knew what to do it could be done quickly (except for the stair boss but we dont talk about it)
I completed this game when I was around 8 years old, and now rewatching this boss after so many years, I can't explain how I defeated it first try as an 8 years old, like, H O W
Godcat from EBF4. now that one pleasantly surprised me. And honestly, I can agree. a character that *actually* feels like a god, both in their strength and behavior, really does make it an incredibly good fight. And you didn't really "defeat" them either. you simply managed to survive long enough to really impress her, and being able to withstand a mere fraction of both sides of her power, goes to show just how incredibly strong the EBF gang has to really be in order for Godcat to like them enough to let them go. I doubt they would have even really survived had she taken the fight much more seriously. I mean, *they could have just decided to bombard you with limit breaks right at the start and you wouldn't be able to do anything.* So really, even if gang managed to destroy Godcat's war machines, that doesn't make them capable of truly killing her, which proves her true strength as an *actual* god. in most cases in RPG games, when a character is called *the* God, they don't feel like it. they don't the same kind of energy as her, and apparently they aren't as strong as they're credited to be cause some random group of misfit adventurers with a single guy who's "The Chosen One" can apparently just kill him.
thats always been something that bothered me about rpgs in general: to quote a certain elden ring character who loves spamming nonsense, "a man cannot kill a god". religious or not, i honestly cant comprehend how people can readily accept the idea of a supposedly omnipotent entity being defeated or even killed by just some guy with a $2000 sword he picked up from the local blacksmith and the power of friendship.
@@firewall5189 I think some games fix this by simply having ''gods'' as in plural. I can understand THE God, the creator of everything, being defeated by randoms feeling pretty weird, but if you just defeat a singular god out of multiple that exist then its sorta fixed. There being multiple gods already means that you know none of them are omnipotent and omniscient, merely incredibly powerful beings.
The first example thst comes to mind for me as a god thst doesn’t feel like one is the “god” at the end of persona five (or the end of semester 2 in royal). He isn’t that difficult from what I’ve seen of it and then joker is just like “AYO DEMON LORD TIME” and just freaking one shots him. God my ass.
NKG is absolute my favorite Hollow Knight boss, I love as much difficulty in boss fights as possible, and he provided me with plenty, but also just his design, buildup, music and such around him are great to me, I also love how it’s treated like some kind of dance between the two of you, and it really feels like one.
Also I absolutely agree with you on queen slime, at first I didn’t realize how much I disliked her bc I lover her design and almost everything added in 1.4 was just amazing, including my new favorite boss, Empress of Light, but absolutely everything you said about queen slime was true, the fight is annoying and janky, and by making a platform with a mount, even at times without a mount and just decent movement speed buffs, she’s frustratingly easy, she’s the only boss I’ve actually skipped a couple of times, mostly because when not playing as a summoner her loot pool is pretty much worthless besides the mount, Terraria is one of my favorite, games, but on my second play through of 1.4 I gained a disliking to her that really disappoints me, I hope relogic see’s this video and thinks about changing her.
What boss I would personally consider my favorite of all time of the top of my head is the final boss in Thumper, Triangle itself, it has one of the greatest buildups ever, in my opinion that game was a game that saved it BEST for last, it wasn’t necessarily the hardest boss in the game, but it was absolutely my favorite, some of my other favorites include EOl, from Terraria, The Devil from Cuphead, the final boss of Inscription’s first act, I also love Ennard’s night from Sister Location, if that counts, I don’t have many least favorite bosses tbh, mostly just a couple that disappointed me like Zomboss from Modern Day in PVZ2 due to him being basically exactly the same as the previous fights against him, as well as that I was disappointed in Archvale’s final boss due to it’s easy difficulty even on the game’s hardest difficulty setting.
@@MonomaDNWThat was quick. It took me like 4 hours throughout 3 days. And after that I easily do him All Bindings hitless. That's the beauty of the boss, once you get it, it is 100% skill, reaction time and muscle memory, as well as some quick decision making. It is my favorite of all time.
I'm far from against cheesing bosses in terraria, that's kind of unavoidable anyway. But when actively disengaging with the boss is not only the most efficent way to "fight", but also the natural solution you'll come to because of the boss being so frustrating, that's where it loses me. It makes me appreciate bosses like the wall of flesh more because it actively uses this tactic to it's advantage.
I'd honestly say that Moon Lord suffers even more from that issue, since the homing Lunar Bolts he spams, combined with the large spheres and the fast bolts, are basically undodgeable at close range, and then phase 2 with the True Eyes of Cthulhu often hitting you with crisscrossing beams that leave you no room to dodge And that's not even taking into account that should you lose to it, you have to farm Pillars again just to craft the summoning item, which is the most boring and unfun event in the game I've ever seen
Despite Queen Slime being bad I think it's worth mentioning that she got a little overhaul in latest Terraria update (1.4.4) that improved some of the blunders you mentioned
The worst part is that I still hate her just as much knowing this, it did not really address and fix the fundamental problems with the fight. Only slightly toned down damage (it was ridiculous before) and slightly slower max flight speed in phase 2.
In my young age, fighting that ice boss was nothing but pain, and all of my classmates kept saying, it was easy, not a struggle, while I was literally angry for his unjust deaths and mechanics You just brought back terrible memories with this video, thanks
So fun fact about my godcat experience: I didn’t bring nearly enough coffees. I ran out of coffees quick and had to focus primarily on never letting Natalie die, else it was over. It was very stressful but raised the stakes just that much higher. What an amazing and fun boss, thank you Matt Rozak.
Pokemon Legends Arceus is such a mixed bag because on one hand it has the Enamorus fight which is an example of really annoying and unfun difficulty in a boss fight, but it also has the Volo fight which might be the best in the series. It combines what made the Cynthia and Red battles feel epic while also adding TWO EXTRA PHASES where you fight Giratina. To beat him without items, I used a team full of legendaries and overleveled alphas and even then the fight took me hours of attempts. Volo is a great example of how a boss fight can be difficult but still be fun.
The moment where you think you've beaten Giratina only to psyche you out and turn into his origin form is such a cool moment. I barely won that fight the first time I did it! (Thank god for Hisuian Goodra, she was the only mon left standing.)
I personally managed to beat the full thing w/o items first try, but I went in with my team at Lv. 90-95 with near maxed Effort Levels and still only barely won due to Shadow Force boosting Giratina's Evasion. The Volo part was actually the easy part, he only managed to KO one of my Pokemon, which goes to show how much the Shadow Force evasion screwed me over (Griatina single-handedly KO'd 4 of my Pokemon and was 1 move away from KOing my last)
I can’t decide on the best boss I’ve ever fought easily, but the worst one is hands down Crab King from Don’t Starve together. It actually has every worst aspect a boss can have. It requires an ungodly amount of preparation, is a massive resource sink, requires you to play almost perfectly as doing anything wrong will instantly kill you, and all of that for some of the worst loot in the game. Its hard to put into words how bad this boss is, but after fighting it just once you’ll be permanently scarred for life.
jesus christ I forgot about that fight when making my comment lol. You'd have to be masochistic in order to fight him without cheese (bee mines and such). I am still surprised it hasn't been nerfed or straight up reworked yet.
It's not 𝘦𝘹𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘭𝘺 a boss, but my favorite would have to be the badeline fight in Celeste, it takes all my favorite parts of the normal gameplay, and condenses it into an epic bossfight with some of the best music in the game
And due to the fact that custom levels can be made using mods, that boss could be done in many ways, like making it so only level mechanics like puffers, or a throwable object can damage her.
Was NOT expecting to see epic battle fantasy on this list. One of my favorite series, and, in my opinion, criminally unknown and underrated. I would just like to mention the final boss sequence from epic battle fantasy 5 here, as it's one of my favorite fights in any game I've played. It really starts before you even enter the fight. When you enter the room, reality is fractured and there's an ominous glowing orb in the center, alongside fittingly creepy music. When you interact with it, a MASSIVE version of the monoliths you've been discovering and fighting all through the game shows up (alongside bopping music). What's really different about this fight is that to start off with, it doesn't really attack you itself. It retaliates whenever you hit it, and it retaliates hard, but to start, it doesn't attack you much itself. It'll de-buff you and disable your magic, but nothing else. But as you keep hitting it, it literally starts cracking, it is a rock after all. And then, after enough turns, it *changes it's weaknesses.* Nothing else in the game can do this, and it forces you to think differently about what you want to equip, and what you want to use. Another factor is, as you bring it's health down, it starts attacking on it's own. And it hits, REALLY HARD. You need a metric ton of dark resistance to resist it's laser attack, and even after that it scorches you, dealing damage every turn and decreasing your max HP. As you whittle it's massive HP bar down, your party grows weaker and your HP drops as well. When you finally beat the GIGALITH, yes that's what it's called, I should've mentioned that earlier, GREAT name, you've won right? That's the end, you've beaten the leader of the monolith's that have been destroying the continent, right? Not quite, as it puts out one final MASSIVE attack, in an attempt to kill your party before it goes itself. But if you manage to survive, you are greeted with the fact that you're actually only half way done. A new boss, the canonical creator of the game or "simulation" shows up with the amazing line "ALLOW ME TO INTRODUCE MYSELF. I AM YOUR END." The thing is, you're likely near-dead due to the final blast from the Gigalith, so surviving the first FIVE attacks from the devourer because of it's multiple parts is extremely difficult, but if you manage it you're allowed to continue. The devourer is complex, with lot's of parts to keep track of and it's quite interesting because of how it fits in to the universe as well. Canonically, it has run 5 different simulations, one for each game, and each time, the players have gotten in the way and forced it to restart. It has grown tired of this, and now that the players are within it's grasp it has decided to delete them. He is also aware of the player and the outside world, and when he is defeated he claims to have found a way in to the outside world. The fight itself is amazing, though I must admit it has been a while since I've actually experienced it so I'll describe it as best I can. As you fight it, he summons multiple of his limbs at a time and has a variety to choose from. You need to balance attacking and defeating his limbs and the main part, along with increasing your survivability and buffs yourself. After you deal enough damage to him, he will use an attack called "Giga Doomray" an incredibly strong attack that requires careful preparation to survive, as he'll always use it at the same health threshold. Now, the best part of the fight. As the creator and controller of the universe, he can control and destroy anything that he chooses, save the sentience of the players themselves. So as a method to destroy the players, he deletes the Earth, and without a connection to their world or really anything the players take slowing increasing damage, essentially putting a soft time limit on the remainder of the fight. You need to burst down the rest of his health bar before the inevitable demise of your entire party. Just an absolutely fantastic fight for me, and aesthetically and lore wise is really awesome. It's also a quite the difficult fight, requiring a lot of skill on the harder difficulties, harder I'd say than even some of the optional superbosses (Not Neon Valhalla though, screw that fight it took me like 1.5 hours I think) Sorry if this rant was way too long, but I wanted to talk about this and I'm bad at condensing my thoughts, and I really wanted to mention this fight, as it's a fantastic experience, especially for the first time when you don't know what's coming after the Gigalith. p.s. the glitch (a.k.a.??.@'¬?]-?e??255) is also really awesome, though it's really easy to one-shot because it has literally NO defense. Great for getting the damage achievements though.
My most hated boss is Fawful's Express in the original M&L Bowser's Inside Story. It really doesn't need any explanation, we all know why it is despised. You basically have to hit it only with flames by blowing at the mic of the DS (which usually doesn't work), and if you "miss" a great or excellent hit at least twice (that is, blowing like 5 seconds considering the mic detects the blow) you basically lost since you don't get to destroy the train before it leaves. At least in the 3DS remakes it got nerfed.
One of the worst ones for me is Delirium from The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth. It randomly teleports while spewing out random bullet patterns with an insane amount of health, and most of the time it's in a transformation which means you can't really do any damage to it. The only way to beat it is to get really lucky with the items in previous floors, and the plans to release an update to fix the fight just got cancelled by the dev team. It's horrible.
Something to add with Genichiro: there are 2 more fights with him (3 if you count Inner Genichiro), one at the very start, and the other literally just before the final boss This not only makes Genichiro a skill check, this makes him a skill indicator, as the first is supposed to be a scripted loss and the final encounter shows how far you’ve come since the time you got bodied Granted, with enough skill (or NG+ in my experience) you can beat the first fight with Genichiro, but on a first playthrough you will absolutely die before you even get to phase 2 This is why Genichiro is such a great boss in my opinion, he is an amazing indication of progress and each fight feels amazing
I know I'm late, but I have to make mention of Pizza Tower's final boss here. I won't mention much about the fight's mechanics and such, but DAMN it's such a good conclusion to the game. The main character looking like he's super scared all the time just goes freaking apeshit on every boss in the game, and then THE PILEDRIVER AT THE END is just the icing on the cake. The pace of the fight even speeds up as you fight the previous bosses again, so you don't even have to tediously shoot the Vigilante again, just chuck Gustavo in his face and beat the shit out of him. My heart gets racing just thinking about that fight. Best final boss I've ever seen in a game. 10/10
Spoiler for A hat in time: I adore the director's fight in that game. Fun characters, great music, fun attacks, ever changing moveset that utilizes aspects from the stages, and it's got a decent length! The fight is so choatic that you don't know what's gonna happen next. The moveset changes completely multiple times, they start duplicating their moves, mid battle you stop fighting and have a heart to heart, he straps a BOMB to you and you have to beat the phase within the time limit, he busts out the SAWS, and to end the fight you have owls from the parade level chasing you so you can't stop moving and have to make sure you don't double back into them. It's so choatic and fun and I don't think it's talked about enough
One of my favorites has to be undyne the undying. Not only because of the intensity and difficulty, but the whole atmosphere as well. It's the one moment in genocide route that makes you feel like a villain the most.
The Godcat fight was the GOAT. It always felt fair even if it was immensely difficult. The Devourer was such a step down honestly. The Devourer's status effects and reverse stats made the battle so incredibly infuriating in comparison. That's not to say it was awful but Anime Monster will never live up to Godcat
I didn't have particularly high expectations for The Devourer back when EBF5 released because I knew Godcat couldn't be topped or even reached in greatness two games in a row.
yeah, Devourer was a little bit frustrating to fight, in my first playthrough I had to grind some extra levels cause I had absolutely no idea what I was supposed to do at all and the fact you have to fight Cosmic Gigalith first every time kinda sucks but the parts where he uses Giga Doomsday (the giant laser that cuts Earth in half) and then casually deletes Earth are pretty cool, really makes you feel like you're fighting the strongest foe in the universe, even though you literally have no idea who that guy even is until he shows up and the boss theme is pretty damn good (just like with all final boss themes in the series lol)
I've always found that terraria had a problem with boss designs. It's a completely underutilised area of the game with massive potential which is completely wasted. Most bosses have like 3 attacks and the strategy is incredibly simple. Duke was a step in the right direction for sure, so is Empress, but we probably won't be getting much more. I'm glad there are mods that are getting increasingly good at making fun boss fights, I think there's still so much to explore and in the future we'll see some absolutely amazing bosses.
As well designed as Godcat is, I've always loved Akron out of sheer nostalgia and because of his design. W video, very happy to see you pop up in my recommended especially if I'm gonna see some EBF!
I love the Akron attack where it launches a gigantic ball that scratches your party and then violently explodes off-screen dealing damage. It's so much cooler than if it were to just immediately explode on contact.
@@coppersky9448 which one was that? I haven't played in a while. The problem I have with Akron's berserk attack is that it removes control. Godcat I consider harder by a wide margin but the chance to berserk on Akron is a pain in the ass
I can understand having Queen Slime as your least favorite boss from Terraria, but I prefer fighting her over Betsy. The whole event is not balanced on higher difficulties, but Betsy takes it to a whole other level.
Place a block, hammer it so it's slanted away and block swap with a platform to just not the whole event. Should just hoik every non flying enemy infinitely (including ogre which I didn't expect) making the event free if you're ok with cheese.
@@bbittercoffee Unsure if that's possible considering the crystal is always on top of a large structure largely preventing you from placing blocks on top
I like how the 2 terraria bosses added in 1.4 are complete opposites, empress of light is an attempt at bullet hell done right, and queen slime is an attempt at bullet hell done terribly. with that said, I like queen slime because she can be fought very early in hardmode and gives pretty good stuff for the rest of early hardmode (rip gelatinous pillion though).
Great lists. If I had to choose I'd say Pure Vessel from Hollow Knight is my favorite boss. It's such a great idea for a superboss, the Hollow Knight at their peak, the supposed perfect fusion of God and Void. I like how they switch it up from NKG, having a lot more openings to force you to figure out how many hits you can get in before being punished. I also like how their attacks slowly ramping up makes you desperate to end the fight, potentially making you mess up. Boss kicked my ass for months, but man, once I found a way to punish each attack the fight became a beautiful but frantic dance.
Epic battle fantasy, especially on Epic difficulty, have one of the best bosses design i have seen, the way you have to build your equipement and the fact you can change it midgames makes it one of the best most underrated Turn based RPG
In my opinion NKG isn’t that hard, but it’s an amazingly fun fight, specially the pantheon variant since It removes a bit of the arena and adds extra health and damage. The first few times it feels impossible, but one you learn the rhythm it becomes incredibly fun, and that’s the best part of a boss, the fun you get fighting them.
Just so you know, the pantheon variant doesn't make NKG faster, it just removes the walls to the side of the arena. Pantheon variants only modify the boss's health and arena.
I thought i was the only one who enjoyed ebf4 so much. The final battle truly is memorable, even tho it's been more than 6 years i still remember that bossfight
The worst part about queen slime for me is that i didnt even realize there was a "slam" attack because i never noticed the tell for it, and would always get frustrated over taking damage for seemingly no reason.
I should probably take notes for when I try to slip an easter egg into my videos. The last time I tried, it was a 1-frame secret that you had to watch in 60 FPS to find, _during some text glitching._ Whoops.
I scrolled into the comments before reaching number 1, seeing that it was apparently a Luigi's Mansion boss. I thought "Really? I thought the bosses were good in Luigi's Mansion, or at least inoffensive." Then number 1 came, I saw it was from Dark Moon, and suddenly everything made sense all at once. I even knew which boss it was. Felt satisfying, but also quite exemplifying of just how horrid the boss actually is.
How about the King’s Hand fight from Dead Cells? I love that boss because it is one of the few bosses that you cannot just “out DPS”, as well as being challenging, but rewarding if you get timings like parries right. The cutscene at the end of the first time you beat him is incredibly satisfying because of how difficult King’s Hand is initially, as well as the cutscene being very well-done. On top of that, he even mourns after you kill the King, which is a detail I love.
I find the King's Hand from Dead Cells very out DPSable with tactics, to the point where truly learning his moveset is unnecessary. He is more interesting in brutality and survival, but I just find all the bosses very weak in dead cells as they can't really be tailor-made against you, as well as getting old quickly.
my most hated bossfight of all time that I've fought against, HAS to be dame dedtime from Yo-kai Watch 2, and it's because of one gimmick, level steal, where she makes one of your yokai go back to 1st level, and she makes an enemy with whatever level your yo-kai was, and she can make 2. THIS IS THE WORST THING EVER. If she steals you're healers, you die. If she steals your attackers you'll get overrun, and die. And the worst part is, you CANT get any new yo-kai, because none of the yo-kai that you can fight in the area, aren't obtainable like that. So you have to save before the event happens and go back to get some better yo-kai, or make an entirely new save JUST to beat this boss, if you don't have the correct yokai, as if you level up, so will her monsters. AND YOU HAVE TO BEAT HER TWICE. Don't know what my favorite bossfight is, tho.
I feel your pain Dame dedtime took me actual weeks and the entire fight really puts into light how poorly balanced the fight is She’d be more fitting for a post game boss considering how busted 2’s post game super-bosses are, but as a story boss no thanks Yo Kai watch 2 is a fairly easy game that never really challenged me at all, half the story is easy and never really hard Then you reach this boss and it kinda ruins the progression That move should’ve been removed before release, level steal is way too unbalanced
I remember that Dark Moon boss fight, and tbh, while I remember it being more difficult than pretty much the entire rest of the game, I don't remember it being THAT bad... maybe it's just my unclear memory. I actually kind of liked him, but found it weirdly creepy, not just from the face of the monster, but mostly because something about the fact that I was supposedly constantly digging through the earth combined everything being icy was for some reason creepy to me at the time. I can see why anyone would hate it from the footage though (btw I'm super excited for Dark Moon to come to the Switch).
Have to hard agree with the #1 Favorite. When i played the flash version, i never got that far but i bought the games on Steam and played through the whole thing, 100/10 boss fight. And the music in both EBF4 and 5 really, really helps. I've definitely used some of those songs for my dnd games.
i was wondering what could possibly top the favorite list, godcat is a perfect choice. that fight is a true test of endurance but it never feels tedious, just incredibly grand and imposing the whole way through. the fact that a fight against a pair of glowing cats in a silly flash rpg makes me feel more like i'm fighting god than my favorite game of all time does is just insane. and the music is easily my favorite final boss theme.
funny about the mother brain hate, because there's an even worse version of it joined together with a "whole building is collapsing gotta run away fast while the floor eats you up" section right after it, in a weird old school hard game called I Wanna Be The Guy
Finally someone adressed how unfair the Queen Slime minions are, everytime I fight her I have to build a lava pool for her minions to not live as quickly as possible
Controversial opinion time, one of my favorite bosses in Hollow Knight is Absolute Radiance. It felt so wonderfully beautiful when I beat it on Radiant relatively quickly and also realized that I've killed it without getting hit multiple times prior. I don't have much to say other than it felt really good to know that I hit what felt like a pinnacle of skill on a boss that is both incredibly challenging and that I enjoyed it. Also, the music feels godly, and there's something empowering about fighting this being that has laid waste to the eternal kingdom single-handedly in a form in which it is even MORE powerful. I'm not sure how to explain it in understandable English, but I love this fight. Part of it definitely belongs to the bragging rights, even more so in the category of efficiency.
I don't think anyone hates Absolute Radiance, they just have dislike for Pantheon 5 and the fact you can't practice Absolute Radiance before encountering it at the end for the first time.
@@Shyguymask I definitely know a good few people who actively dislike the fight, but not to the extent of hating it like with some other fights in that game...
Yea, I’ve only really seen people not like AbsRad as much purely because they find it too difficult, which is fair enough But it is a very nice fight, and while not my favorite, certainly up there The climb phase brings it down a little for me though, personally
The Corrupt Heart in Slay the Spire (deckbuilder roguelike that practically started the genre) is one of the best designed bosses I've seen. For starters, it makes you take damage with each card played, so you need to be blocking constantly. It starts with a huge debuff turn one, then 2 attacks (one strong hit and fifteen small hits) in random order, then buffs itself, and then it cycles with two attacks and one buff until the end. The only reason you need to know this is because it has the Invincible buff that caps damage on a turn, making it takes at least four turns to kill it, so you _need_ to be able to block consistently, even more during the attack turns, to quickly finish the fight, or be overwhelmed by its buffs. I also love the final superboss of Bug Fables, simply because they're an "upgraded" version of the best team the kingdom has (now they have one extra member) and only were defeated by the final boss because the protagonists had a magical item protecting them, something they call out before their "friendly spar" starts. This being locked to only after a few post-game quests makes the build up for the fight so much better, and it's something I'm looking forward every time I replay that game. Also there's a funny dialogue if you kill Yin after Kina that I managed to get on my second attempt. I don't think there's a boss I genuinely hate, even looking at my Steam library now... maybe I'm too old to be mad at videogames...
I agree with the Heart, SUPER satisfying the first time I beat it with a very unorthodox Reprogram/Hyperbeam using Unceasing top and energy gains. You feel like a god when you beat that thing.
I'd say on the contrary, it's probably the worst boss fight I've ever experienced While it fits thematically a "final boss", in the sense that it's extremely powerful, it also severely limits which decks you can and cannot play Of course in other rougelikes that's likely bound to be the same... but not up to this level. You can absolutely defeat Nuclear Throne in the game of the same name with a fucking Screwdriver if you want, you can absolutely take on Rebel Flagship in FTL with Boarding only or just by burning their ship to a crisp if you put in enough effort, but in this game? No matter the build I've tried, there was barely any room for peace that would compensate for the amount of things you DIDN't get in your run, because StS is so much more RNG based than other rougelike games I've played It limits your creativity so much, and for a final boss inside a game that constantly encourages creativity instead, it's a real shame
I clicked on this video mostly to see if a hollow knight boss is here. I was not disappointed! Beating nightmare king grimm is the most difficult yet fair challenge ive ever had in a game. I dont even know where to start with explaining why he is awesome. The music, the buildup, the setting, the visuals, the actual fighting, all of it is about perfect. It is the peak of gaming
I recently played a game called "afterimage" (really fun metroidvania btw, gave me massive SOTN vibes while having much more fun combat and movement), and one boss in the game stuck out to me a lot: Valos, the first knight. Valos has a lot of moves: dashing uoward sweeps, aoe light pillars, teleports, even a fullscreen-dash-into-anime-delayed-slash-when-sword-gets-sheathed. These moves are incredibly varied and all require very different responses. But then, every so often, the gem on thier chest glows with light, and her attacks get amplified for that time period, usually with extra followups. Some are bad, like a projectile fired off of a downward slash that punishes you for not going under them while they were in the air, while some are arguably beneficial, like an extention to the light aoe that doesn't cover themselves, allowing you to put out some high damage if you can get close. This fight was quite hard, not "spend days beating it" hard but "ok, I need a new strategy" hard. And that I did, finding out that the greatsword "iron bastion" weapon skill was very well suited for this fight (and basically all boss fights tbh, that skill is insane), which allowed me to get Valos down to almost dead... Until they were blessed by holy light, healing them to full. This phase makes every attack amplified and boosts thier defence to the point that all your attacks deal single-digit damage... But also constantly drains thier health. This is just an awesome phase, I've always loved desperation phases in boss fights (big readon I love Furi bosses so much), and this might be my favorite of all time. You can spend the entire fight surviving, but that health isn't draining particularly fast, so getting some hits in when you can can speed up the phase a lot. This leads to an interesting question of risk/reward: do you play safe and don't go for hits, allowing the fight to drag out longer and risk making a mistake? Or do you risk trying to get hits in and speed up the phase? It's an awesome fight that even gives my favorite weapon in the game as a reward for beating it.
It was always the last, smallest piece of ice cristal in the fucking artic tunnel. I almost wanted to cry when I got to the last bomb throw but missed misserably by a few pixels. and got overheated. That boss is just absurd, ridiculous. Thank you for the concordance in perspective.
Wow, I absolutely did NOT expect you to add an Epic Battle Fantasy boss in this list, let alone top #1 fav. The series is amazing, actual top notch classic Flash game. I'm glad you enjoyed Godcat as much as I did all those years ago.
My favorite boss of all time is not what I would have expected to be my favorite going in. In fact, the thought of a boss where many of its actions are scripted makes it seem inorganic and therefore less immersive - though you can see even in the number 2 favorite in this video that the boss's behaviors are scripted to occur at different health thresholds, and it doesn't feel that way. Instead, it comes across as a tailor-made, handcrafted, wonderfully epic boss battle. That boss is Grigori of Dragon's Dogma. Not only is the music fantastic without trying so hard to be bombastic (one of my favorite things about the game's OST overall), but the whole atmosphere of the fight is all about making it epic. I have a thing for battlefields/arenas changing as the fight progresses, especially if it has a significant impact on the gameplay itself. The fight has you battle a huge dragon that destroys and breaks out of a temple, making you feel like an afterthought to him, only to then be chased through the ruins, cling onto his back and ride him through the sky, and then finally battle him in an isolated arena. Any damage you deal to him throughout these phases will carry over, which helps make every part matter. All the while, he says some of the most chillingly epic lines such as, "We are the axis about which the world turns... time itself flows with your footsteps." It makes the player feel so important, which is really underrated in a lot of games. I want my actions to matter as much as possible, and in this case, "The world will have its answer: You, or me? Death, or life beyond?" I can't wait to gush about this in my own video about why this is my favorite game of all time in spite of its flaws. Your videos always motivate me to get back to posting. As for a least favorite boss, I'd say Leviathan from Kingdom Rush Frontiers, as he's not only a boringly easy damage sponge, but also a huge disappointment given the build up to him was the entirety of Rising Tides, which is arguably the hardest mini-campaign Ironhide has ever made.
It's a bit long so get ready. One boss that I liked : At first I wanted to put Honkai Star Rail, but since there is merely 10 actual bosses and the game came out 2 months ago, I trashed it out, however it didn't take me too long to think of another boss that came out 3 years ago which you might have forgotten... The King Olly in Paper Mario The Origami King. So, he has some cool music, has multiple phases and become giant at some point, that check everything on the list for a normal final boss. What makes him special for me is that he doesn't battle you in his normal form, he shape-shift himself into previous bosses at the 1st phase, sounds ki da unspecial but still ! at the 2nd phase we quit circles and we go on a sumo match with Bowser going up against him. But instead of just cheer Bowser, we have to actually do some actions to support him while King Olly tries to stop us from doing it. On the 3rd phase, we are back with the circles, but this time, you have to complete a drawing that will allows you to finally kill the king. The boss's attacks are pretty nice and there is a QTE (Quick Time Event) system, that means you don't have to just block and hope you don't die, you have to actually dodge the attacks. I know, it's easy for a final boss because it's Nintendo blah blah blah, but it's the vibes he gives alongside with the music and originality that makes King Olly really good. One boss that I hated : Once again I wanted to put another Hoyovese game and ended up trashing out that idea because people may say "it's easy wdym" or "you just agree with the community" and stuff like that. So I searched in the deepest part of my mind for any boss type that I didn't liked, even the secret/optional ones. And I finally found it... Bowser Skelet in Mario & Sonic at Olympic Games of Rio 2016. Let me explain, in the stroy mode you can find other characters on the map at certain point of the story and you can challenge them at their respective sports on Extra mode to unlock them as playable characters in that sport. Same goes for Bowser Skelet, you have to beat him at the Javelin Throw on Extra mode. So, how do you play this sport ? Simple. 1) Do some left and right on the tactical screen very fast 2) Lift up your stylet 3) Trace a line with the perfect angle showed previousely before you start running Sounds easy ? Now on Extra mode, it's the same thing except you have to do step 3 the most amount of times you can in 3 seconds. Now that you have the rules, let's talk about the "fight". You have to do a better score that Bowser Skelet to beat him, sounds easy right ? Except he has a really high score and throw 10 javelin every time which is really hard to match, not sure if a child can beat this score. You might be apptemting to say that this is a secret boss, of course it's hard, but the catch is that the other secret boss battles have at least a beatable score, so it's doable and their score fork is kinda large so it's fine, but Bowser Skelet just s**t on that one rule. He does almost if not the exact same score every time ! Oh yeah and there's two thing that I didn't mention : First, you are forced to play with the Mii character so you have to adjust your stats to stand a chance. Second, the length of the lines you traced also matters, so you have to mix amount and length in 3 seconds remind you ! I remember earlier in the past, I didn't actually beat him, I quitted the game for some reason and when I came back, the game send me to where I left (the challenge against Bowser Skelet) and acted like I won. Yup, you heard (or in this case rode) it right, a accidental glitch just saved my booty cheeks ! If you are not convinced about this because he is optional, I could talk about his normal self which is this time obligatory to finish the story mode (you have to beat him at Golf), but I won't because I did beat him normally and also because the comment will be as long as a Zelda BOTW 100% speedrun. And I guess that's it.
Honestly I love the designs of the godcats vehicles! There is some fanart of them but not enough in my opinion. Also one of the other reasons they feel like actual gods is because they one shot your characters in between the phases as well. The first encounters with them also catch you off guard as you see your team get wiped to oblivion
My favourite video game boss fight is Flowey from undertale. It's a boss that feels and looks powerful, and it genuinly looks unbeatable, like some sort of bad ending that you are stuck in. It comes right after asgore, who is a kind of meh and anticlimatic boss fight with all the build up, but that works in favour with the introduction of flowey, who you have probably forgotten about at that point. It keeps taunting you with death screens and fast bizzare attacks, and you are in a sidescroll battle you can't control or rest from, but to get through it you have to be determined, and you may notice it is possible after getting hope from seeing the first soul stage. The music sets the mood, aswell as the final track at the great climax, and the option to spare flowey at the end. I think it is much better than asiriel dreemur.
You just reminded me of Luigi’s mansion dark moon, and I remember never finishing the Ice monster because it was so hard. I am definitely gonna try and complete the game when I have time
One of my favorite bosses of all time is Supreme Witch, Calamitas, the current final boss of Terraria's Calamity mod. Amazing buildup, extreme but fair difficulty, spectacular pacing, gorgeous and creative sprites for every attack, and a 12 minute, 4 stage masterpiece, with appropriate and weighty lyrics to boot! I legitimately think Stained, Brutal Calamity is the best boss theme ever, and it has to compete with the likes of Sealed Vessel, Nightmare King, It Has To Be This Way, Brainiac Maniac, and the whole rest of the Calamity soundtrack. I love how the fight takes inspiration from bullet hell games, emphasizing precise dodging above all else, while still making it feel like a Terraria boss fight. The fight is ever-changing, with frequent developments that will keep you on your toes without ever being unfair. No crazy twists, no stupid desperation phases, just pure, raw climax and skill.
My most hated boss is probably Cackletta's Soul from Superstar Saga. I swear I never beat the game as a kid because of that boss. Most of the attacks aren't even that hard to dodge but that stupid attack where Cackletta swings her arms in a circle always hit me. Maybe I should go back and replay the game again.
for anyone wondering how hard epic godcats are? lets just say *they will use limits at low hp disregarding everything* not to mention how deadly the minions are
Favourite: Sysyphus Prime (as well as all of P-2), ULTRAKILL P-2 is as for now the most brutal difficulty curve in UK, especially if you dare to ignore the invincible (and then 2 of) mindflayer, but its still fair. It always feels like its your fault, and that pulse-pounding actuion is just great, the music is an absolute banger, and the challange? I am 7 days in and yet to p rank it (i got a bit rusty lol). Then it gets to Flesh prison, aka the boring part, as it can be easily one-cycled and just shotgun spammed, and sysyphus himself.. this sun power-wielding warmonger maniac kicked my ass so hard that i saw Jesus. He's more challenging than any of p-2 rooms, and even seems unfair at first, but then you persevere and memorise him, and realise you play a bossfight of rythm, skill and speed. Its absolutely amazing Most hated: Queen slime. Basically for your reasons, and i still tried (by sheer luck) won the battle by playing casualy. This boss is not fun when played normally, nor it is fun by cheezing it (but thats every boss). Daedalus stormbow was all i needed in the fight, but this boss took me 4 potions of healing and made for one of the most stressful bossfights jn the end, good lord.. one tine you get sniped by a bouncy ball, one time her minion will spawn directly on top of you, one time she will HERSELF spawn on top of you.. crap design imo. Good points as to why Anyway, amazibg video Shy! I always love to watch your tierlists and see your opinions on bosses! Keep it up, and have a good one.
Sisyphus Prime is definitely one of the most cracked up bosses I have fought yet. That said although Minos Prime is easier, I fought that guy first when I was less experienced and he briefly broke my will to live.
Don't worry, I also hate Ravager and think it's a crappy boss fight (at least last time I played the mod). On a related note, the old pre-rework Storm Weaver almost made it to this video and was an awful underdeveloped boss by itself, but then I realized I hate the Queen Slime even more and find it even more offensive considering it's an official vanilla boss that was created and released during this decade.
I'm happy to hear people don't like him because I've had the most consistently awful performances against him. Old duke was so much easier for me and I doubt that's normal
@@Shyguymask Makes since, besides, I don’t really think mods don’t belong in a video like this unless it’s specifically about mods, but that’s just my opinion
As a new Terraria player who experienced the horrors of the Queen Slime bossfight,i can confirm it made want to remove myself from pain with a Boomstick. So basically,it all started by when i was getting absolutely bodied by the mech bosses,and i thought “hey,maybe if i fight Queen Slime first,she can give me some good items to fight the bosses”. Holy hell,it was genuinely the worst thing i had experienced up to that point. (Keep in mind this was in 1.4.4.9,and in classic mode.) There were a bajillion projectiles,a million more thanks to the minions,and any attempt i made to maybe easen the situation by killing them just resulted in me taking even more damage and even more minions spawning. And oh god,the second phase, *the second damn phase.* It was genuine hell. The ground minions were still there spewing out their million projectiles,and now aerial slimes were added into the mix! How fun! This was the literal only fight up to that point where i had to use potions just to have a chance to beat it. I then just killed a Hallowed Mimic and curbstomped the Destroyer with a Daedalus Stormbow. TL;DR - Queen Slime sucked ass,and a literal mini-boss enemy dropped better loot than her.
I don't really hear all that much disdain for QS, at least in the places of the internet I occupy -- most of the time I just see ambivalence. Glad to know I'm not alone in thinking that fight is absolutely awful.
Such a treat to see Godcat here! You've described perfectly well everything that makes her such a memorable final boss. The Devourer in comparision is so underwhelming. It's suddenly "the Beholder is back but he is a final boss this time because yes" it doesn't feel nearly as grand, intimidating and epic as previous final bosses from the series. He has the best theme from the entirety of EBF tho.
I generally don't understand why Queen Slime has to teleport right into the player, its basically forcing the player to take some damage during the fight
Junko from Touhou 15 a cool idea in theory. I mean, she literally just wants to kill you dead so doesn't bother being fancy. So why is one half of her battle spamming rings and walls, and the other boring RNG bullshit? There's like, one, maybe two actually fun spellcards (The lily one). Like I get the concept, but you can do simplicity and pureness without hashing basic patterns that has no real strategy. When you die, it's more like 'oh, I was unlucky and was slightly off position' rather then challenge. That and she's the final boss in a game that really has no business being so hard.
I noticed while looking back at the footage that I would aim the bomb a little downward just before shooting, which probably made me die. Still annoying though.
my favourite bossfight is probably the trapper/trader from inscryption. the two part bossfight is incredibly punishing if you cant deal high damage with good cards, and part 2 is impossible without preparing during the first part of the fight. a really good bossfight in a really good game
Not to mention, the minor twist of the fight, being that the Trader was the Trapper all along, was so cool and unique when I first saw it. It was hidden in plain sight, right from the beginning, which sets the tone for the rest of the game's endless twists so well. The only gripe I have is that I feel like the second phase was a bit too easy; If you pick your cards right you can easily ignore the main gimmick and immediately win. Maybe if the fight didn't give you extra Pelts it could've matched the threatening, oppressive feel that the first phase put down.
Glad to see Dark Moon's ice boss get the flak it deserves. Dark Moon is one of my favourite games from my childhood and I'm overjoyed that its getting a remaster, but wow I am not looking forward to fighting that awful oversized ice cube again.
Kefka, Final Fantasy 6. Wonderful sendoff to the game, the story, and the character, and is pretty much what defined Final Fantasy as one of my favorite franchises. Dancing Mad is an absolute banger of a final boss theme, and the fight's symbolism utterly blows me away. Although, Godcat is a very close second for one of my favorite RPG final bosses
OH MY GOD YOU'RE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT WITH THE ICE BOSS OF DARK MOON I'm the biggest Dark Moon apologist but even I can recognize that battle is just a frustrating chore to get through, it's like when you itch under your clothes and try scratching by pinching your fingers, but you cant quite reach and now it's just way worse
Beating Mother Brain in Zero Mission gave me a headache. Trying to get back onto the platform while constantly getting into the acid/lava was insanely annoying, and I'd even get juggled by the turret shots and Mother Brain's blasts. Thankfully I learned that the turrets can't hit you if you crouch on the platform to the right and I managed to scrape by
I forgot just how much I hated the fourth dark moon boss until you reminded me it existed, don't think it took me that long to do but as a kid I straight up raged a bit when he regenerated his ice shield after I took too long.
My idea of a top tier final boss would be Tabuu from Smash bros Brawl's Subspace Emissary. Unfortunately it's held back by the game's fundamental design and mechanics, but it has loads of replayability, variety in the characters you can use, and requires you to know when to play offensive and defensive. It's well paced, and the ambiance and environment perfectly set up for a tense, well designed final battle.
I have to mention the Heart fight from Slay the spire as something I enjoy a lot as a design. An unfair challenge that's built to counter any single strategy (invincible stops oneshots, beat and statuses stops basic infinites, scaling and powerful early turns agains slow strats, etc), and preceded by a very punishing elite fight. But it's entirely optional, and you know what it does and can plan for it from the start. And it's just soft counters that you can still plan around, not just hard counter "this never works". such as generating block during infinites, survival (like wraith) to melt it safely, and absurd scaling (like some frost or exhaust decks) to still beat it slowly. Plus, the added opportunity cost of having to to take the keys really helps with the "my deck is strong enough to take the keys and go for the heart", versus just scraping by and not getting the chance (or being greedy/hopeful and dying).
Ey don't diss the Virus boss battle in Kirby like that ☠; the concept gives us the most original boss battle I've ever seen. I love the old pc rpg references, but I don't blame you for feeling it slow, though I particularly don't have that problem. My favorite boss battle in gaming is Omega from Megaman Zero 3.
the worst part of queen slime is def how hard it is to see attacks, no other boss in vanilla really has the problem except maybe plantera but her projectiles are so fast it doesn't even matter.
I've never really considered queen slime among the worst bosses I've ever fought, personally. Like, I wouldn't say she's well designed, but having her as your second least favorite boss of all time feels a bit.. hyperbolic.
@@teiull9388 Even that aside the fight really is that badly designed objectively. Like, what other bosses in modern gaming are as badly designed, unfair and with more innacurate hitboxes?
As one of the 5 fans of the og Kirby Super Star, the computer virus is even worse in that game as bosses had a lot more health (at least by comparing your gameplay to mine), at least the sprites looked somewhat appealing in SS
As someone who plays terraria on master mode, i think your issue is that you dont realize that the whole point of the fight is to stay in the air. If you're too bad to fly properly with wings just get the Black Spot to cheese it
I definitely agree with your number 1 hated. I was actually stuck on that boss for like 2 years or something crazy. It still takes me 2 attempts when I play through that game.
I love the ender dragon fight in Minecraft. It is so creative and has so many attacks, it's practically impossible to memorize all of it! The way you deal damage to it is extremely complicated, it has more than 0 phases and the arena is also really good. It has tons of colors and different components that help you while fighting. All in all, it's a very difficult boss made with tons of love and creativity, 11/10!
great video! seriously, i loved every bit of it! as a huge fan of luigis mansion dark moon, since it was the game that literally got me started into gaming as a kid, i was really surprised that a boss from the game got a placement in your video (even if not the best lol). but honestly, i have to totally agree on that placement, and i think it was very nice of you to say that in your opinion the game was overhated for what it is. personally, i may be a bit biased, since for me it's literally what brought me into the life of gaming, but still, i really had a blast with it, compared to so many other games i played even when i was at that age, so seeing that made me really happy, and generally just you talking about the game (and no, i don't think what you said was "negative" in any way, because yeah, that boss is total crap.) so yeah, that's really all i wanted to say. great vid! Also: when thinking about "favourite" and "most hated" bosses, personally, my favourite bosses are probably the prime souls from ultrakill. even though i only beat minos, i love both the concept of the fights as well as how they are executed. they are literally physical manifestations of emotions finally unleashed, and both minos and sisyphus perfectly encapsulate that. when it comes to pure show-off, both of them are definitely my favourite bosses. if i have to choose though... probably minos. As for my most hated boss... as a huge terraria enthusiast, i have to say that personally, i enjoy every vanilla boss (yes, even queen slime), HOWEVER, for some reason i have insane amounts of troubles with a few calamity bosses, especially mid-game ones... if i have to choose who i hate the most, it's either astrum aureus or the ravager, but honestly, it's a hard battle. something about these two bosses specifically just turns my body into a burning, sweating representation of rage. if i have to choose though... probably aureus. ultrakill act III when
While not the worst fight i've ever seen, poison ivy from arkham asylum is definitely up there. The entire fight is a 10-15 minute grind of spamming batarangs until she goes down, which is bad enough, but what makes it even worse is how boring the fight is. Ivy has literally 2 attacks: summoning vines from the ground in a straight line and shooting spores at you. That's it. The fight doesn't change much in her second phase, which literally only spawns 4 or so thugs that die near instantly from the vine attack. I genuinely hate that boss so much.
