-------------------------------- NEW COUNTDOWNS EVERY 1st and 15th! My Discord Server: / discord My Website: www.joshscorche... Twitch: / joshscorcher Patreon: / joshscorcher Twitter: / joshscorcher
I honest to God believe the ONLY reason I can think of why Travis would *still* go after Jasper Batt Jr, DESPITE what he learned after the Alice fight, is that Jasper is FAR too dangerous a threat to keep alive, considering what he did to Bishop and likely many others. If THAT was the reason why Travis went to challenge Jasper, because he *must* in order to protect the people of Santa Destroy and the people cares about, instead of just revenge still (as well as fixing this boss's RIDICULOUS difficulty scaling), I believe this fight would've been FAR more tolerable, because it would've been a far NOBLER reason to go after him than just revenge... again.
At the same time tho, at that stage of the story, would Travis really have that noble of a goal in mind? Not without some tweaks to the story...and maybe the third phase changing completely. Story wise, I see it more like this: He doesn't do it for any noble purpose...at first. Rather, he still planned to go kill him, but as he goes, a call comes in right before the final door and save point, just like the first game. It's not Sylvia, rather Shinobu. She starts making him question why he's actually going after him when he gave that speech to Sylvia, and essentially convinces him to not do it out of revenge, but rather to put down a dangerous man in a position of too much power. He says he'll think about it, but hangs up before she can respond. Form here, the next cutscene continues like normal, but as the first phase of the fight goes on, Shinobu's voice echoes in Travis's head, making him distracted until he eventually loses a power struggle. When Henry comes in and tells him to focus up, Travis is now on board with just putting down a threat rather than getting revenge. Phase two of the fight could work the same way (with some difficulty tweaking), but for phase three, there is no giant parade float. Instead, Jasper's power explodes the office building and leaves a pile of rubble around the two, where Jasper's still bulked up body continues to try and beat Travis down. Here, you would get a fight similar to phase two, only since he can't hurricane punch you, his attacks are just boosted enough to take large chunks of health away...larger than normal, that is. At the end of the fight, this would be a chance to either kill him or maim him. If you kill him, congrats, you get a sub par ending. If you choose not to, even better, you've proven yourself better than the pathetic pencil pusher who killed a civilian for "revenge" on a fair 1v1 fight.
Honestly this on my first playthrough of nmh2 this jasper fight pissed me off and even though he made sense I would have wanted Alice to kill him as it would be all more worth it as she would be the amazing final fight for Travis not this fucker!
Maybe that is the reason and he becomes better as a result of this. People died everyday and Travis has to live with it. He is being a hero on his own terms even if he not the hero people wanted, Travis is clearly needed.
Glad to see someone reciprocate my feelings on Kuja/Necron. It wouldn't even have been hard to give him a transformation; he's sitting right next to 'The Crystal', a nexus of power and life energy that he could tap into in a desperate effort to extend his limited mortal life.
That could be intertwined with Josh’s second idea - Kuja loses his sanity and bashes the crystal, his very nature tainting it as it transforms him… or perhaps his artificial nature leads to it only empowering his feelings. Either way, the result is the entity you fight next. No change in appearance or strategy, but with a less proper and more descriptive name - “Nihilism”.
I see it could be this way: his attack killed his mortal body, but his sheer power lingers, his soul persists, fueled by his desire to destroy and end all of existence, congeals and reforms into what is Nekroz, the embodiment of Kuja's power and Despair. It seems hopeless, facing the power that destroyed an entire world, but they get up and do it anyway, because they refuse to give up. "You cannot win. What hope do you have left? Tell me, why do you PERSIST?" "Yeah, it seems hopeless, maybe we can't win, but you never know if you never try." "So many lives are counting on us right now, we can't give up, even if we wanted to." "Right. For all the people still alive, their hopes lie on us!" With his body destroyed, all that's left in the way of the planet being saved is this the soul and power of Kuja, the power that destroyed a world and it being all unleashed in an effort to kill you and everyone on Gaia. Once it's gone, Kuja, who was already stated to be mortal, will be no more.
What a way to end the year in terms of boss battles! 10. No surprise that this is here given how emotional Xion's battle was. Ha! We thought the same thing! 9. Yeah if only the Moon Presence had more of a 'presence' throughout the story! 8. Why couldn't Steven be the final boss in Emerald and Wallace be the post-game boss? 7. Yeah I heard the spiel on the Joker fight from Rabbidluigi and I don't need to hear it again. 6. Okay I know we were building up the leviathans before but really just switch the order of the bosses and you would have cheers instead of jeers! 5. Really the Elder Princess Shroob should have been the final boss and not Bowser! 4. You know... this concept could have worked... key word being 'could' 3. No surprise here... if only Demise has more presence... 2. Where did this death god come from? I want my theater monkey back! 1. If only Alice Twilight was the final boss instead of this p***
I think the way Redips could've worked is if HE's the disguise and Spider is the real villain. Have his motivation tie to his connection with Chief R, maybe have Chief R did something that upset Spider so much it pushed him to villainy by absorbing a supra force metal of his own and grow more insane to the point of wanting more, but have him maintain his subtletly in a similar way to how Epsilon is immune to the maverick effect. It'll create a sense of tragedy and cunning around the chatacter. That would've been a good enough blueprint instead of what we actually got.
IIRC, in the FF9 Ultimania, it states that Necron was summoned by Kuja's despair. Though, would have been better for them to say it in the game and not a companion guide
@@pancakes8670Or alternatively, Necron could've been Kuja's dead body mutated by the power of Ultima, still moving and fighting for one last battle through remnants of his despair and suffering. Think Jyuuza's final stand from Fist of the North Star but in the villain's perspective.
Commenting before the video premieres, my two guesses are Necron (overshadowed by Trance Kuja) and Arceus (overshadowed by Volo, which is something Volo would absolutely be very proud of).
@@delphoxhoopa7289 Ah man spoilers are a pain. Yeah I got spoiled by a fanart of Volo with a shirt that said "god complex". But it didn't tell me the specifics like the music or his team composition at least.
The Omega Metroid in Fusion is this for me. The SA-X is such a great mirror boss, and then the Omega just, shows up last minute with minimal foreshadowing.
One Honorable Mention that I bring is Yabaoth from Persona 5, A Random God of Control an Head of the Metaverse that has no mention or actual leverage on the history other than a literal Bet all this after having Shido the man that tried to ruin our protagonist life over saving a girl he was trying to R* pe, the man that was connected, controling and somehow manipulating almost every previous bad guy, the man that killed a scientist and stealed her investigation to have the metaverse as a tool to caus mayhem, chaos, and a lot of death in favor of his political campain, the man that used his own bastard son as a tool and assasin and then killed him when he stoped being usful
This should be interesting. Let me think of a couple off the top of my head that could qualify for this list (aside from Demise): Nekron or Yu Yevon from Final Fantasys 9 and 10. Kuja and Jecht just make for better bosses. Jasper from No more heroes 2. Haven’t played it myself but I remember a lot of countdown makers saying how much better Alice was than Jasper. Ghetsis from Pokémon Black and White. Ghetsis is the final boss but N basically overshadows him in almost every way. Chaos from Castlevania Aria of Sorrow. While the battle with Chaos is great, the fact that you face a member of the Belmont clan in Julius is just awesome. Lavos’ core from Chrono Trigger. The shell has been all we’ve seen of Lavos up to this point so it kind of overshadows both of the other forms.
I think you got this the wrong way around on some cases. I believe this is going to be a list of final bosses that were good... but ultimately overshadowed by a boss fight earlier than it.
@@CountShaman I was half right at least. To be fair, before the video aired, the title was vague enough that the implication could have gone either way.
I've wondered what might've happened if Alice had become the no. 1 ranked assassin before Travis caught up to her. If she had killed Pizza Bat Jr first then you fight her after.
The game probobly wouldn't have changed outside of her being the final boss. By the time of the Alice fight Travis already learned that the revenge thing was pointless and was instead motivated to put an end to the UAA to end the cycle.
it's funny how you bring up how forgetful Wallace is because the anime also poked fun at this too where Wallace meets ash again but ash doesn't remember wallace at all but he remembers Steven which irritates wallace
YES! FINALLY WE GET A SPOT FOR THE TRAILS SERIES ON A SCORCHER LIST! EVEN IF IT IS A MORE NEGATIVE LIST! Now that my exuberance is out of the way, I agree somewhat with Osbourne-Ishmelga Loge. Yea Ishmelga was far more of a cakewalk compared to Osbourne so I can understand that. While I love being able to play with every playable character from all 3 arcs of Trails, it was fairly easy. Osbourne tested me from beginning to end, even the Divine Knight battle. That said story-wise, it didn’t come out of nowhere since it was alluded to in CS3. I won’t spoil for anyone who wants to play the games. Still love the list Josh.
The reception of the head in library of ruina. It's more of a glorified cutscene than an actual fight, that's completely overshadowed by not one, not two, but three sets of fights before it from the reverberation ensemble, to the keter realization, to the reverberation ensemble again but this time they're distorted completely.
I would still classify the trowser fight as her desperation move instead of a new fight in of itself. It’s still her, continuing the fight. Almost the same as her summoning her minion’s to fight you, just in a roundabout way. Maybe if was just bowser, yeah sure, though I’d think that would be more of a “that’s all folks” kinda situation.
Demise does have one thing atmosphere the arena becoming more stormy and the lightning coming down charging both swords makes it one I still like to some extent
Technically Necron was created by Kuja almost destroying Gaia. So it makes sense there is no foreshadowing or anything. Necron is literally the grim reaper of a world and if Zidane would've stayed on Terra it would've been likely the team would've met Necron then. The developer reasoning about including him is as a meme towards Chaos, Dark Cloud, and Zeromus being just random bosses that show up without much buildup. IX was the game that had references to the previous eight games before it.
DARK. NEBULA. Kirby Squeak Squad was SO close to being a perfect Kirby game, but then Dark Nebula just HAD to be the easiest final boss in the entire SERIES. I had a harder time with DEDEDE. HE'S THE FIRST EFFING BOSS IN THAT GAME.
Josh: Go ahead and guess what number one is! It's been memed to heck and back! Me: I'm still a greenhorn in the gaming community. How am I suppose to get this one? Josh: (Shows number one) Me: Oh... I see... (How do I keep forgetting about that guy?)
Ones that come to my mind: - King Allant. I mean.. the whole point of the fight is that it is a joke and you already fought against a proper final boss, that being his Fake version. But still, it is the actual final boss, so I guess it counts. - Moon Presence.. wait, you actually put it in? Nice! - Ansem, KH1. The fight against his world of chaos form is a spectacle but mechanically not that interesting. And it drags on for a long while. Meanwhile his guardian form is far more enjoyable as a fight. - Armored Ventus Nightmare. It feels like an extra fight for the sake of story, while the Young Xehanort fight from before was far more climactic. - Elden Beast. Technically Radagon is part of the same fight as you do have to them both in one go, but.. Radagon is a much better fight. Elden Beast isn't bad, but by comparison to Radagon's cool moveset, his mostly waiting and distance based attacks feel like a complete pace killer. Godfrey before it is also a fantastic fight. - Angra, God Hand. Does anyone even remember what this boss was called? Does anyone even care? The fight with Azel before him is absolutely fantastic, which is why it is weird to see the game end on such a weak boss by comparison. - Unknown, Tokyo Xtreme Racer 3. This game has three notable final climactic bosses, those being Jintei in his blue highly tuned GTR with a lightning aura, the three knights in their JZA80's, and God's Estuary in a Ford GT. Only once you have beaten all 599 rivals do you get to challenge.. a ghost version of your own car.. which has a V8 for some reason. Not some super cool boss vehicle or some ridiculously turned S30Z as a reference to Wangan Midnight. Instead it's just a ghostly version of your own car. All of that build up just to race against yourself technically. It's rather disappointing. - Reflux, Rayman 3. Kinda like Ansem and Elden Beast, this boss has its better parts at the start while the finale is a bit.. eh. In this case it's because the finale is a very long turret section. Who the hell wants to end a 3D platformer on a turret section? At least the first three forms were about core gameplay, but still...
Another pokemon rep also could of been N>ghetsis considering how ghetsis stole the spotlight from N who was a great rival. But Steven>wallace just makes more sense to be here since not only did we get the idea ghetsis was using N pretty often in the game, but ghetsis,s battle still felt grand and tense. With N it was a battle of clashing ideals, but when ghetsis takes over it becomes a tense albeit cloche fate of the world scenario. Because from bw2 we all know ghetsis Is bat-guano insane enough to kill to achieve his goals
I wanna say, another example from an RPG. Malpercio and Geldoblame from Baten Kaitos 1. Malpercio was a great boss that they build up throughout the whole game, then after defeating him you get 30 minutes of cutscene/talking only to have a forced 2 v 1 battle with no reprieve, and he has an attack to KO one of the two at any point. But Geldoblame is so lame! He's a face made of ground.
The only way I beat jasper batt jr was by getting a weird thing were after being killed Travis lived on 1 health and by starting off with the odd ecstasy gauge ability which decimated his health
I just realized that Steven and Wallace have connections to groudon and kyoger steven represents groudon, his team is rock ground and steel, all benefit from sandstorm which is associated to earth, so steven by extantion is an earth trainer Wallace represents kyoger, his people lived in sootopolis, a crater in the sea for centuries, most of eastern Hoenn is full of water I don't know if it was intentional but my mind was blown when I realized this
10:10 hilarious line imo i truly luv it when someone mentions what should be the funniest pokememe and to any "SENSITIVE" gen 3 fans i would apologize but i can't cuz no one's wrong but if yall want fairness i favor gen 4 & 5 so yall can throw yer too slow/too much hms/too linear jokes at me lol
I'm surprised Alder from Pokémon black and white wasn't the Pokémon rep yeah Wallace was pretty overshadowed but was comes overshadowed Alder is differently overshadowed by N his successor Iris and even by Geteist and now he's a post game battle but he gets reinstated after N leaves at the end and you still need to fight him at to become the champion
Honestly my favorite description of you vs Gehrman is while most stories would play up his negatives doing the topical the hero vs the evil old man frlm the start of the story and ya he did some crap particularly in the fishing hamlet but no we instead see him from every angle at once seeing how he truly is a different man from then because fun fact all those tombstones aren't just for show those are all the hunters he's freed before you let that sink in he's spent god knows how long saving other hunters sparing them from his faith even though he could easily trick one to take his place and rest in peace but no he waits for his friend to return so they can leave together ( you can guess what happened to him ) and now it's you versus him two warriors both trying to save the other from a horrible faith and honestly I love how were not the valiant hero who's perfect in every way and can do no wrong your just a soldier of faith hoping to achieve what your predecessors couldn't but even then you still can stray from that faith or embrace it but like it or not there are hardly any happy endings
for me it's kh2 xemnas, saix was the true antagonist for the game. Before the final boss sora had more words with the windbag ansem than xemnas between the "then the answer is no" scene and twilight towns second visit and taking kairi from axel ;saix felt more personal
yk what I believe could also make it on the list for the Megaman entry? Megaman Battle Network Four. Sure, Duo is... well, Duo, but in my opinion, Dark Megaman is a much cooler penultimate boss (Plus foreshadowing for BN5) as HE CAN USE YOUR CHIPS. If you've used a chip, he's able to use it, and unlike Duo, Dark Megaman is built up through the story through the use of Dark Chips and Nebula and the Dark Souls. And then Duo just come out of nowhere, sure there's the mention of the comet plummeting towards earth but you just would think it's a comet if you knew nothing about the lore. If they had kept it about Nebula and kept Duo and the tournaments out of the game, I would be happy. Hell, ik people don't like fusion things, but if you want to make it work with what we have, make Dark Megaman do something similar to what he did in Rockman.exe Stream. Anything is better than Duo
In both Crash 2 and Crash 3, N Gin overshadows the final fight with Cortex. Especially in Crash 2, which has the only final boss that I was able to finish in 10 seconds.
I feel like in Mega Man X5, the X vs Zero fight should have been the last fight, especially when playing as X. The games before had been hinting at and leading towards this battle. The result of the battle is a friendship has been destroyed due to a plan far in the past set forth by Dr. Wily before his natural death. And yet it is overshadowed by the easiest Sigma battle afterwards.
I for one am glad it was overshadowed. Given X5 as an ending to the series(which was the initial plan) would have two endings in which would somehow lead to Megaman Zero, having Sigma appear one last time in one last battle to rub in X's face that he had to fight Zero is much more of a perfect ending to the series, even more so if the X vs Zero fight left Zero in such a state that him coming to X's rescue is why he was sealed. As much as I hate X6, I frankly am glad for it's existence as it sets the X series on the path to the Zero series in a more natural way without compromising X's character by making him the Maverick final boss of MMZ1. To me, X vs Zero wasn't about a destroyed friendship but about duty and honoring what that friendship is. In the Bad Ending, X fights to honor his fallen friend, fulfilling a promise he had Zero make in the game prior by putting Zero down. In the Good End, the two are still friends and hate that they are fighting. The two beg each other to stand down and fight till it's a tie thanks to Soul Body. Neither can lay the other low and despite his weakened state, Zero still saves X from Sigma because they are eternal friends, so much so that it's the first thing Zero truly remembers in MMZ1. That's why I think the fight is perfect as it is.
You know throughout the whole list I was trying to think what number 1 could be and then at the last second I went “Wait is it No More Heroe-“ and then boom it’s No More Heroes 2
The two boss fights that especially irk me are from Nioh 1 with Edward Kelly/Orochi and John Doe/Hundred Eyes. Kelley steals William's guardian spirit Saorse from the beginning of the game and flees to Japan to use it to steal massive amounts of Amrita just to make England dominate their own wars, not caring in the slightest how dramatically it affects the entire country of Japan. This dude has used YOUR own spirit to take advantage of the suffering of the Japanese people in the war to continuously fuel BOTH sides of the war to get more Amrita, takes the identity of different characters to manipulate people even further, heavily involved himself in an immensely bloody battle between opposing sides just so he can turn everyone who died into a giant yokai, REPEATEDLY corrupted authority figures (good and bad) and your own allies into trying to kill you, manipulated Yasuke (a legitimately more interesting character than WIlliam imo) into bringing him Nobunaga's body for resurrection only for Yasuke to die to your hand, and all this leads up to his success at resurrecting Nobunaga. Unfortunately for him, Nobunaga didnt want to be his pawn and Kelly finally had nowhere to run. Finally getting to officially fight him as himself was absolutely a rewarding experience given how much he had been built up. Even if his first phase isnt that flashy or that difficult, it just adds onto more how much he relied on taking advantage of others while he himself is just a coward who struggles to fight his own battles. At this realization he uses all the Amrita he gathered in a final ditch effort to summon Orochi, which is an INSANELY incredibly fight, having multiple heads to watch for with different elemental attacks, an awesome setpiece at the very top of Nobunaga's reconstructed Amrita castle in the middle of a stormy lake, and defeating the final head gives a special death animation depending on what kind of weapon you're using, and it all finishes off with you finally putting an end to Kelly and taking your guardian spirit back. The Kelly/Orochi fight is so great, with so much hype building up to it, with an amazing final level to lead up to it as well, that it's honestly really insulting that this WASNT the final boss. No, we gotta have a twist in that Kelly was just a homunculus who was created to do all of this by John Doe in England, an out of nowhere villain who has NO PRESENCE in the game at all till the VERY END, who had a stash of his own Amrita in his laboratory just so he can turn into a lame yokai for the TRUE final fight. Even tho being able to travel back to the tutorial area in England and exploring different parts of that map was kinda cool, not only was the reveal of Kelly being a CLONE so goddamn lame that it undermines his character heavily (especially when the laboratory just throws a bunch of Kelly clones at you), not only is the true mastermind behind it all totally random and out of nowhere, but in a game that is in general pretty goddamn difficult with especially difficult bosses, John Doe/Hundred Eyes is INSANELY EASY. And then afterwards WIlliam gets a vision that his new allies in Japan are in trouble, so he goes BACK to Japan in the end anyways (for the DLCS). So in all honestly, the John Doe plotline could've been COMPLETELY taken out and we would've had a much more satisfying final boss in Kelly/Orochi like we SHOULD'VE HAD While im on a ramble of Soulsborne bosses, i would also like to include Elden Ring with Radagon/Elden Beast. Radagon/Marika has been such an influential and intriguing character thats been hinted at through the entire game, and his appearance at the end is so goddamn epic. Hearing the main menu theme play as the fight starts really brings in how epic and final this fight is going to be, and Radagon is an incredible boss to fight with, bringing all kinds of holy magic and wielding the very hammer that destroyed the Elden Ring in the first place. But once he goes down, the Elden Beast appears to turn his corpse into a blade and changes the entire setting to an honestly beautiful spectral looking arena, complete with a total change in tone with the music being much more somber and subtle. The problem with this however, is that Elden Beast is a gigantic pain the ass to fight. Constant (and i mean CONSTANT) AoE spam, its Elden Stars move is unnecessarily difficult to avoid getting chipped by, and it RUNS. AWAY. CONSTANTLY. Literally the majority of the fight will be you running around and trying to chase this goddamn thing to just get maybe one hit in before it decides to sink in the floor and run away AGAIN. If we were at least able to use Torrent in this fight like we could with Fire Giant, it wouldn't feel so tedious, but as of right now, this fight drags and drags and drags and nearly puts me to sleep. Despite the constant AoE spam, aside from Elden Stars, the Beast isnt even that difficult to begin with, the issue is mainly using up your resources on the much harder Radagon phase before it and the Elden Beast is such a goddamn coward that it actually undervalues Radagon's fight by association. If you die to Elden Beast, you have to fight Radagon first every single time, which unfortunately makes his fight feel more and more like a chore that will then lead up to an even BIGGER chore of a fight.
Interesting thing to note is that there IS actually a JRPG that did Necron correctly: Wild ARMs 2 with Lord Blazer To make a long, complicated story short: Lord Blazer was a demonic entity who was pretty much responsible for turning most of the world the game takes place in into a wasteland 1000 years prior. Good news is that he was banished by a legendary hero, bad news is that he was resummoned in the present by a terrorist organization who grafted him to the protagonist during a summoning that killed everyone in the military faction he was part of. Said protagonist (who wants to be a hero, a bit of an important detail there) learns to control him as a super form eventually, though it's made VERY apparent that it's very hard for him to do so. Throughout the game you serve an eccentric millionaire who wants to make heroes similar to the ones who sealed Blazer in the past, and to test this, you defeat the same terrorist organization who got you possessed in the first place... only to later discover that an elderich location is about to destroy the universe. The final part of the game however is where the grim twists come (Yeah I know, after the elderich loci's existence): - The Millionare wants to use his and his sister to trap the elderich location in a vessel to make the heroes capable of killing it - He sends to to the terrorist leader's fallen warship where you learn that the Millionare was the one who funded them in a gambit to unify the world's nations into destroying the Eldrich Loci (the implication being that you were sent there specifically so the heroes would ensure that they wouldn't hesitate in killing him) The Gambit DID work... but the existential trauma the Protag went through of learning that the very same person who was ultimately responsible for killing his faction as a means of saving the world proved a bit too much for him and it resulted in Blazer being resummoned, who then proceeded to mock the protagonist for thinking that there were such things as heroes in the first place and the two dual for the fate of the planet. I know I'm leaving out a LOT of details, but the game is pretty out-there in terms of story/setting, so it's worth checking out yourself if you're interested
I'll defend Ishmelga here. That fight was still fucking sweet and through out Cold Steel 4, he was built up throughout the game as the inevitable final boss. It's also important to the story of Reverie that CS4 has 2 endings, but more on that when Reverie released.
one of my personal favorites was Xenosaga 3s ES Levi and Zarathustra fights. if you do all the side content, you can kill the final few bosses outside the ES in 1 or 2 hits. there is no cheesing the ES Levi fight
For me it would have to be Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millennium Girl spoilers: Etreant is overshadowed by Ren and Tlachtga. Ren & Tlachtga carries far more emotional weight, and they put up more of a fight. I was very disappointed by Etreant, because people were making him out to be one of the hardest bosses in the game, yet I beat him in around 5 turns, and he was afraid almost the entire fight.
You know for how long the cold steel series is, a spoiler warning would have been nice. Since every game is like 200+ hours to have the fourth spoiled by a honorable mention, is quite infuriating.
I’m glad you put Aurora Unit 313 on this list, ‘cause man, was it a dissapointing end to a great game. You don’t even fight Dark Samus herself, instead just a giant, floating brain, when it would’ve been way better if she lost control of her Phazon and just mutated into a giant, deadlier version of Metroid Prime in the first game. Therefore bringing the entire trilogy full-circle, but nope. Even Omega Ridley, the fight before Dark Samus, was way better, and hopefully whatever final boss we eventually get in Prime 4 doesn’t end up suffering the same fate. Also, FF9 being on this list just reminds me that Final Fantasy has a terrible habitat of throwing in random final bosses after beating the main baddie that weren’t foreshadowed in the slightest. They’d even repeat this same mistake with the next game, FF10, with Seymour being the main villain throughout the entire game…only to end up fighting Yu Yevon at the end instead. With him of course entirely coming outta nowhere.
There were actually two final bosses on this list that I want to talk about: Demise in Jasper, bat Jr. (kind of.) With Demise. I actually really liked his fight. And truthfully, I looked at the final fight with Gairahim has the epic prelude to that fight. Throughout the entire game demise has been built up as the big threat. And just as often the giant skill covered beast, version of him keeps trying to escape his prison. And then, at the end they pull the Freeza from DBZ. Giving him a final form that is significantly smaller than his previous form. I always enjoyed that, because it always felt like all that power, and menace, became condensed. And yeah, you can use a bug net to fight him. But you could also use a fishing pole or an empty bottle to fight previous Gannons so that’s not really a surprise or a letdown. As for Jasper bat Jr. I’m not going to defend him. But I am thankful. It’s because of the fact that Sudha51 wanted him to represent revenge, that I decided to try that same prospect to try and figure out another game that was being very infuriating. Final fantasy 13. The story was dull and melodramatic, but the gameplay and level design felt so half ass. But then I decided to look at the game, the same way no more heroes 2 was intended to be looked at. And once I realized with the theme for final fantasy 13 was everything clicked. The level design, the leveling system, the story, all of it was wrapped thoroughly around the theme of FATE. Something that was normally used in other Final Fantasy games as a strength was being used as a detriment to the heroes, and that helped me out significantly with being able to play that game. Heck because of it, I figured out practically from the beginning when is the big twists in the game. So when it comes to that game, at least even though it is crap. It at least helped me understand another game better to the point of actually enjoying it.
We need more Batman media without the Joker. The Joker is only as good as the other Rogues Gallary, as he's meant to be the more personaly threat to Batman compared to the larger stakes villains. They ground each other out.
Necron does serve one purpose that Kuja couldn't have filled himself: Kuja actually saves Zidane and the team from Necron by teleporting them away from him, making it the only selfless thing Kuja does in his whole life and setting up their final moments together. Wouldn't really work if you were fighting Kuja himself.
Hargon-Malroth from Dragon Quest 2 (the remake, the og fights are an annoying fight and a *really* annoying fight). While Dragon Quest games are no stranger to final bosses that take on a hands-off approach, it has worked in almost every game in the series due to already having won (Dragonlord), possessions (Rhapthorne, Jagonuba, Mordegon) or being a Devil analogue (way too many to count, even Dragonlord was increasingly turned into one in spin-offs instead of a princess kidnapper and world conqueror). However, Malroth is so infamously out of nowhere and underdeveloped that Builders 2 gathered hype among fans for the possibility that it would do something with him (which it did). Hargon is the one leading the cult that ravaged Moonbrooke, tries to trick you with an illusion of your homeland and sics Atlas, Pazuzu and Belial on you. He's also ready to throw an onslaught of attack spells at you as you need to manage your party so the team remains stable. Malroth, on the other hand, usually casts Buff on himself and attacks. Given you most certainly have Sap unless you didn't do well in that last fight, his defense buffs can easily be negated and then reversed. And despite the fact that this is basically mandatory due to him also being a damage sponge, this simple strategy tends to break his AI as he'll often spend turns re-applying buffs that can easily be negated once again. Though I will admit that it is a better fight than the original where he's given *Healall* as something he can do whenever he wants and given minimal resistance to Stopspell for "balance".
I think Asgore, and Photoshop Flowey have overshadowed Asriel Dreemurr from Undertale, and maybe ShadeMan.EXE, and LaserMan.EXE overshadowed Duo from MegaMan Battle Network series.
I don't blame you for saying Joker isn't your favorite Batman villain. He's not mine either. My favorite Batman villain is Ra's al Ghul. He's the leader of the League of Assassins, can clash with Batman equally in a fight despite his hundreds of years being alive and deteriorating mental state thanks to the Lazarus pit, knows Batman's identity as Bruce Wayne, but doesn't bother to reveal it because despite their opposing viewpoints, Ra's al Ghul still respects Batman and wants him to become his successor.
Spoilers For Xenoblade. - - - - - - - - - - - In 2, I feel the fight against Jin and then Amalthus overshadows Malos, but only because the final fight is essentially a lesser rehash of the Mechonis Core fight in 1. A stationary target you can hit from thirty yards away is just not as engaging as fighting particle collider samurai and a megalomaniacal pope face to face. Otherwise, it's a great fight thematically: nihilism vs optimism. In 3 however, I feel N completely overshadows Z. I kept waiting for Z to step into the spotlight and show us why he's in charge, but that never happens. He's just a background character for most of the game, while N has several encounters with the party and is built up much more. He again represents nihilism and accepting the status quo, while Noah and the party represent optimism and the will to change the future: the overall message of the trilogy. Z is shown previously, but he feels like he came in just to be the final boss a la ol' Necron. Heck, the first game did the whole main villain comes out right at the end effectively: so Z could have worked, but he didn't. At least for me anyway. In 1, no issues. Dickson is a satisfying fight, and you definitely have reason to fight him and feelings about him, but he does not overshadow Zanza. Expanding on what I said earlier: Zanza may not properly appear until the end of the game, but he feels a lot more present than he is. The story and characters are designed to magnify his influence to the appropriate level for his station while still standing on their own merit. And both get better with hindsight, a second playthrough revealing more and more foreshadowing. Everything ties back to Zanza, and his fight pulls out all the stops as well.
I'm surprised Monaca was even an honorable mention. Yeah, she would've been a better villain, but the fight itself is lame as hell in my opinion. And Kurokuma is the one you damage anyway, so the point about Junko didn't really hold.
A name I would like to toss in the ring is the rematch with K. Rool in DKC2. This is a new version of a boss you already fought, and despite all the work you have to do to unlock the fight, collecting the Kremcoins to unlock the challenging Lost World levels, the fight is actually easier than the first one. Since all he does is stand still and shoot at you, while you have to dodge more attacks, the fight doesn't keep you on your toes like the first one with how he changed up his tactics like in round 1. For another example there is Mr. Sandman in Punch Out Wii. While he's the last opponent, Aran Ryan is the most popular opponent since fans just find him more entertaining, and ironically Bald Bull in Title Defense is considered a tougher fight because he brings more buffs from round 1.
@@CountShaman Oh please, almost everyone in Punch Out cheats, Aran Ryan is just the biggest cheater. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Q7aKQj3nEIw.html
@@dragonstormx And that same video explains exactly why Sandman deserves champ title: he doesn't cheat and still kicks ass. The worst he's got is a slight violation of dress code. And really, Title Defense difficulty between fighters is irrelevant since they're not tiered.
@@dragonstormx Sandman is memorable and a really good fight. Even if there are fighters that gouge more interest in terms of personality, they don't "overshadow" Sandman. The whole point of the list isn't to say which boss is better than the final, it's to show which deserves to be the final boss more. Hence there's a big focus on how bad or underwhelming the actual final boss is.
Lord help us, the Soulsbourne games are painfully guilty of this. DS1 has you fought a possessed knight given to the Abyss and a giant blind laser dragon (and Kalameet), and then it ends on the easily parried Gwyn. DS2 has the Dark Lurker (edgy angel boi), The three crown holders and a giant Two-faced spider. It ends on a sentient burning blob or Nashandra. DS3 has The Nameless King, Sister Friede, Gael, Dragonslayer Armor, etc. And then the Soul of Cinder: fun but... well, look above this. Bloodborne: MAN! As much as I love the Moon Presence, Ebrietas was so much more fun.
Nice list, thought I would put my own entry into this for people to see so here you go (Spoilers for miles edgeworth investigations 1) Shih-na/Callisto yew>Quercas Alba
I'd say Radagon>Elden Beast in Elden Ring. It's pretty much the same as the moon presence in lore and Necron in gameplay (From what I see here and never playing FF9) where it acts as a second phase against a completely new boss. Depending on how you look at it; it may or may not qualify. If the 2 bosses must be separate encounters, I submit Hoarah Loux>Radagon/Elden Beast
24:46 I agree with Josh. From a story/character perspective and as someone who has watched several iterations of this pair of fights as an audience member, it is a shame that Girahim steals the spotlight from Demise like that. I do hope that if Demise returns, he’ll be the one to take the spotlight.
@@alexmartinez5859 maybe but there is a factor to consider: if Demise does return fully, Ghirahim (and with him the Tyrant Blade, the name I’ve given his sword form) will return since both seem to have been sealed together.
Mention of Dreamy Bowser.. I'll be honest.. Antasma/giant bowser is better.. but.. Dreamy Bowser is just from a story standpoint much better. I just love that right before the final act.. BOWSER does something no one saw coming. "He betrays the new Villian that was unsealed." You know how Eggman always does this unsealing the evil thing to only get betrayed? Bowser took a page of it and went: "I may be a guillable brute in these games, but I know when I must hijack the scene" It's also funny how Antasma is actually... kinda a kind guy for an ancient evil. He dumps peach the moment he can team up with Bowser, another evil. Through out the game he is just happy to have a friend and ally in Bowser... to only get betrayed by him.
The problem with Dreamy Bowser is that he's too damn easy. He has LESS health than Antasma and you can hit him with two bros attacks a turn. If he just has at least a thousand more HP or a second form, he would've been way more formidable. Thankfully Shiny Robobowser did exactly that and is a MUCH better fight because of it.
Abit late but honestly for me a great pen ultimate boss that overpowers the final boss: Raphael from BG3 like i actually struggled against Raphael but against the nether brain? I Yawned how easy it was compared to Raphael
I honestly prefer demise, as it's the fight that worked the best on the switch, where I experienced the full game for the first time. Like my God, they needed to rewrite how girahim worked for the switch port, as no control scheme makes thrusting actually fucking work reliably. Motion controls here are lacking, massively by comparison to the wii, so most bosses were bs due to this. So the simpler fight with demise felt better by comparison.
It's funny how widespread the hatred or Jasper became. He topped every worst boss list in the Chaos Theater days. Green Scorpion even mentioned it in his latest (at the time of writing) countdown. He seemed to regard it as a lack of creativity, but I remember those lists fondly, because honestly, as overdone as it became, it really is harder to find a worse boss, and personally I find the idea of making the final boss suck ass for a "revenge is bad" Aesop insulting. It's the most overdone message in the universe, and they sacrificed actual entertainment value for it. If I wanted an anti-revenge Aesop, I'd watch Naruto. I think the Autarch did a fantastic sendoff by topping the list off with him not just because bashing him became a sort of beloved tradition but also because he demonstrated that yes, all the hate WAS justified. Critical Backlash need not apply. "Anyway, since then I've seen a lot of different opinions about this boss, including a few defenses of it as a metaphor for revenge being unsatisfying, so now that I have more critical experience under my hat you might be surprised to hear that I HATE THIS FUCKER MORE THAN EVER!"
The idea of the boss fight being designed to not to be fun as anti-revenge message is also hurt by the fact that you are still killing an evil person. The idea of making the player feel bad about killing a boss is something done much better in Shadow of the Colossus where you are killing this giants that aren't hurting anybody.
@@HugoPegler That game had so many problems, but the one nobody mentions is how it effectively KILLED The Last of Us as a franchise by destroying what people loved about the first game...or maybe they have. I haven't touched The Last of Us.
@@HugoPegler Knowing how the story of that game goes is the reason why I never picked up the game despite playing the first cause my canon wants to end with one. Seriously I watched a video who created an alternative story for TLOU part 2 that does so much better imo compared to the story I have heard from 2. If a random RU-vidr can create a better story than a AAA game company, you know you've fucked up. Not that it matters since the game still has its white knights who will defend it to their dying breath.
Ari's reaction to the Blood Born joke was hilarious. I wonder if we will ever get a Top 10 Overrated or Underrated Games list, that would be interesting.
Fun little fact about Aurora Unit 313: There is some cut lore that 313 was actually involved with a rebellion in the Federation. When a planet started to rebel, 313 stepped up to the plate and actually put the rebellion down. I heard a theory that this rebellion may be an origin story for Sylux. You can find a code for a small terminal in the room 313 was housed in on the GFS Valhalla. Spoiler: The terminal holds a recording of 313. You hear its haunting last recording before it is forcibly removed from its chamber, corrupted, and hauled back to Phaaze.
The funny thing is that Kuja's despair cries and his Ultima attack is actually what ended up bringing Necron into the world to start Necron's end of life move. I think Necron what it needed is to be more alluded to exist like you said, the idea of Kuja's despair being so huge that he ended up summoning the personification of despair is very intense, specially with the creepy music he brings when the characters are in that weird limbo.
Or have the heroes need to fight Necron in order to come back to life to stop Kuja from destroying the world as he could have surived his own spell and so gone back to being the main villain.
I’m reminded of the new boss they added in the _Live-A-Live_ remake. Nothing in the game alludes to it… but it could just as easily be an only-mentioned character as a pure embodiment of strong emotion.
@@devonm042690 Neither does Master Xehanort (BBS or III), Vanitas (BBS), Data Roxas (Re:Coded), Nightmare Ventus (DDD), or Yozora (Re:Mind). Your point?
@@yazmenakamura6750 I don't have one. It was a joke. The closest thing I have to a point is that Riku, and Nightmare Ventus while I'm at it, don't belong in a list of names including Master Xehanort, Vanitas, and Yozora. It should be Xion and Young Xehanort that are among them, but we all know that already, so it'd be moot even if it was relevant.
Not sure if these are going to be on here, but here's a few I could think of. Ghetsis battle in pokemon black and white is overshadowed by N's battle. Dark nebula from kirby squeak squad was over shadowed by dark Daroach. Eggman's final fight in Sonic CD was definitely overshadowed by Metal Sonic's boss fight. Joker's final battle in Batman Arkham Asylum was overshadowed by Scarecrow (for good reason). More recently The End from Sonic Frontiers was overshadowed by every other titan boss fight. (again for good reason).
@@bosskaiju4834 I know I made this comment before the video appeared, and I personally still say Scarecrow overshadowed Joker more than Poison Ivy, especially since the sequels have similar sequences in them.
The Titans were one of the biggest selling points next to the free roam, and they did not disappoint. I’m Here in the Supreme bossfight still gets me hype, and fighting Wyvern in the sky was soooooo satisfying.
I don't think Ghetsis is overshadowed by N. I mean Ghetsis Hydreigon is notorious for destroying a lot of children's dreams and a likely reason fairy types exist.
Yeah...though I personally found the first three titans from Frontiers to be more enjoyable than Supreme, and after that boss...we get a harder version of the hacking minigame...*dissapointed to the highest degree*...AND THAT'S IF YOU'RE ON HARD MODE. Because otherwise, The End is literally just the QTE at the end of the fight...the knowledge alone frustrates me, and having witnessed a friend experience the actual fight, to unfortunate results...it makes me wish that the fight itself was better, or just cut from the game completely...or something... ...Supreme would have been overshadowed by even Knight, anyway.
28:36 Yeah, my girlfriend's villain crush being Kuja, she to this day absolutely hated how Necron, who looks like someone's edgy notebook last boss design just pops up out of nowhere when Kuja was doing just fine and had even won.
I actually liked Demise as a boss. It was fun, even if Ghirahim was more memorable. I still remember how I felt upon the realization I could catch the lightning to shoot at him, and the final strike with Link catching lightning while doing the finishing blow just felt so good to land.
I think I have a suggestion for a future boss countdown: Top 10 Team Bosses. AKA, a boss where you need to focus on multiple bosses at once instead of just 2 or 3. Some examples are the final boss of Project X Zone, the Hero Statues from Dragon Quest 8, and either Baroness Von Bon Bon or the Moonshine Mob from Cuphead
Magus Sisters from FFIV. Yes i know its just 3 but they're the definition of Team. one has supportive magic, one has disruptive magic and one has offensive magic. How do they combo this? by casting reflect on one sister and bouncing a spell off her onto your party so you cant reflect it back if you somehow have reflect at that point. Also their pattern and moves change once you take one or two of them down.
Personally I really liked Demise as a boss. Everything leading up to the fight is really underwhelming, but the fight itself is real good in my opinion. Having your sword get struck by lightning and using it as a projectile is so cool that it’s impossible to hate. The main problem is how reminiscent it is of the final Gannondorf fight in Twilight Princess.
I feel the fight could have used some more variety but I felt it was a good challenge (it took me three tries to beat him, Ghirahim I beat without dying) and the game did tell us as early as the second dungeon that Ghirahim was working for someone else. A good chunk of the game is also spent trying to keep Demise from escaping his prison.
@@dragonstormx yeah but they really didn't do a very good job showing how much of a threat Demise is as the main Antagonist as Ghirahim was always there taunting us. If we spent less time smashing Demises toes and drilling a nail into his head and have him show actual signs of increasing danger he's causing would've really hyped up what he'd become to be in the final battle. Like Calamity Ganon he was done much better in Age of Calamity then he was in Botw actually felt threatening. While he was overshowed by his blights
@@jojomuppet1820 I do agree that Demise could have had more of a presence beyond trying to escape his prison as a giant killer muppet. Since you brought up Calamity Ganon, something I feel could have done with Demise would be as the seal on him weakens, we say all the plant life in the Sealing Grounds slowly die off, like how all the Calamity Ganon's presence turns everything around Hyrule Castle into a barren rock.
@@dragonstormx which would be great to limit the amount of heart plants as he scales up closer to the temple making the player carefully prep and have them try to maneuver around him at the right timing making it hard to get near him especially the cheese way of using groose to launch link onto his head. By him trying to block the successful landing and we'd have to try to tire him out to make an opening
@@jojomuppet1820 And maybe The Imprisoned could have shot a mass of malice to the regions and the water dragon, changing the terrain and giving us a boss fight instead of a tadpole chase. Heck, instead of Demise waiting us like a chum, he opens a hole in the sky and creates a giant tower in order to attack past Skyloft. That tower would be the last dungeon, in which all of the items and skills aquired would be used.
The ultimate attack of the Moon Presence is a two fold move. First, he sets your health to one, then it drops numbing mist clouds all over the arena which prevents you from regaining HP.
No one likes to be overshadowed especially when it comes to bosses but sometimes that's what happens when the previous boss before was extremely epic that the ones after while not bad but end up not as epic.
I actually really like Ishmelga Loge as the final boss. You being able to choose from every playable character in the game (including guests) really makes it fun for me. That and the sheer satisfaction you get when you finally wreck the face of that monster. Plus there were some foreshadowing for Ishmelga before, but yeah Osborne definitely had more of a presence and was there since Sky 3rd.
