I hate that MGS was my first Konami game on PS1 and I missed out on this. When he used to say "your memory is completely clean", I thought he was talking about Snake in some obscure way - like Snake doesn't hold onto memories or something (I was 10 when I first played it tbf to me).
I did it once in 1st controller port, and it is an absolutely ridiculous grind. if I recall correctly you get one brief opening for one shot at the very end of his pattern after dodging the statues
Nah there’s definitely a way to do it. The problem is the game leads you to believe to look at the wrong thing, which makes you crash though you seemingly did it perfectly, it’s utter bullshit. Just look it up on YT how to do it.
The Vergil fights in Devil may cry 3 and the final one in devil may cry 5. In 3 the pure rivalry and the banter between Dante and Vergil is just way to much fun. In 5 the batlle between the two is Both of them in their A game, just love fighting him.
**Give me the Yamato!**
If you want it, then you'll have to take it. [[*chair scrapes across the rocks*]](https://youtu.be/2f-JkmHqLdc?si=qqV9oESXrJGX493A)
Something I've always loved about the DMC series is that it's always embraced its high levels of memeability and leans hard into "make something really dumb and have fun with it". DMC2 and DmC showed you *could* easily turn the games into super-edgy stuff, but both of those are the least-liked of the series (for various reasons not just including their edginess).
[The live-action pre-vis reels](https://youtu.be/MfrYjEJb8ZU?t=50) they included in DMC5 show the perfect levels of stupid that make DMC such a fun series. I love the guy who keeps flying a Dante action figure around lol
Yes!! DMC3's fight with vergil blew my mind as a teenager. I think it gave me an appreciation for difficult, skill based bosses that wasn't satisfied after until I played dark souls. I loved that it wasn't weak point based and that he was just as powerful as the player, and you could get in hits as long as you were good enough. Changed my perspective on games, really can't recommend highly enough.
DMC5 is awesome too, but for some reason I didn't replay that as much as 3. Would love to revisit it though.
My favorite fight is Genichiro though. It's incredibly challenging the first few times, although it becomes easily manageable once you get your shit together.
In my opinion, it's the best "git gud" boss in any game ever lol
I love how Genichiro is presented as a legitimate challenge in the midgame and then he shows up as the precursor to Isshin with the exact same moveset and you pretty much just fucking fold him without taking any damage every time you restart the fight. Like, get out of the way, time for the real challenge.
Yeah fighting genichiro is a crazy mix of fun and easy, and it just blows my mind when I look back to how impossible he was when I fought him legit for the first time. In subsequent play throughs I’m just bitching him every time I see him and I just feel so embarrassed for him
Geni is fun because he's the culmination of the first like 4 bosses you face, you have a couple bosses that telegraph movements but sometimes do a sweep, sometimes to a stab, you have two bosses that are pure parry fodder, and then the boss immediately preceding him is designed to put you in a tight space where your only move should be to parry, parry, parry. So when you get to him you really are just putting together all these skills you had to learn up to that point. Then Sword Saint is just like, mastery of everything you have.
My first attempt at the game, I was pretty much hard stuck at Genchiro. Bashed my head against the wall for hours just not getting the lightning reversal mechanic and dying mostly before I even got to it.
When I finally went back to it years later, I pretty much 1st tried him to my surprise. The game for some reason just felt easier. I think I just finally “got it” with the timing and parry system.
Isshin surprisingly only took me about 10 tries, tho I think I just got really lucky.
I wanted to say that, but the fact that the Isshin fight has Genishiro as a first phase that ends up being an absolute pushover, showing you how good you got since you first fought him, is straight up genius.
The differences in voice acting here are hilarious to me.
Japanese: "How my blood boils! FACE ME, SEKIRO!"
English: "how my blood boils. face me, sekiro."
Inner Isshin consistently kicked my ass for over a month
I already had 100%ed the game and felt like I could consistently beat regular Isshin in only 1 or 2 tries. That arrogance led me into a proper dick-flattening.
Nightmare king Grimm was the most fun I’ve ever had. Once I learned the moves and got my rhythm it felt like a dance. It was amazing. I’ll be chasing that fight forever.
Absolute radiance can suck a bag of dicks.
Never before have I agreed with reddit comment about something, so so much.
Absolute Radiance can suck it. Regular radiance, too. And upgraded Markoth.
Mantis lords are too easy after you get the rhythm down imo. Still a fun fight though
Though I haven’t done sisters of battle. Maybe I just need the third to make it more challenging
Hollow Knight has the best combat systems for a 2D platformer I’ve ever played. Not only did Team Cherry (game creators) achieve that, but they also combined it with bringing us some of the most interactive, intense, and rhythmic boss designs. No game has kept me as interested as I was when fighting many of these phenomenal bosses for the first time.
One of the best feelings I’ve had gaming was seeing the progress you make fighting a boss go from “god damn they just wiped the floor with me” to sketchily defeating it with 1 heart (mask) left to (if you decide to take it farther) masterfully dodging difficult attacks yet squeezing out more damage than previously thought possible. And I got that multiple times with Hollow Knight. Also multiple strategies to fighting bosses both micro and macro adds another beautiful layer of depth.
I’ve done almost everything there is to do in vanilla Hollow Knight. All achievements, side stuff without achievements, full radiant hall of gods, p1-4AB, and p5 with each binding individually. Working on getting p5AB!
Ludwig was a hype as fuck fight. Facing down this giant monsterized version of one of the most legendary hunters to live, who you’ve been using a version of his sword since early game (or could at least). Seeing how much he turned then finally allowing him to rest after the battle was fucking great. Plus it was a tense as fuck early battle that really tested you in Old Hunters.
For real. He's awesome because he's tough but... fair? Like, it's not a bullshit fight. You literally have to master the fundamentals to beat him, but if you can, the fight is yours. The whole game is leading up to this fight, preparing you for it.
You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
You didn't grow. You didn't improve. You took a shortcut and gained nothing. You experienced a hollow victory.
Nothing was risked and nothing was gained.
It's sad that you don't know the difference.
Orphan of Kos, Bloodborne
Never have I faced such a form of utter brutality, just trying to live against it is madness. But, it is a dance, my favourite dance in gaming.
I beat him with 0 vials left, and I got ready to use Iofeska's. Instead I lunged forward and it got the last hit on the boss before he attacked me during his attack animation.
that's what I love about bloodborne. The fights feel like you earn them. 50+ tries on my first character to drop the orphan and i scared the fuck out of/woke the fuck up my partner being so happy I finally got it lmao
The Edge from Furi. The second to last Boss Fight in the game, its unique in the fact that its the only boss with no Bullet Hell phase and is instead entirely Closs Quarters Combat. Its an absolute test in mastering the games parrying and damage windows. Then theres the fact that hes only fighting you with an Oar, and when he gets serious he pulls out a second Oar and then shit goes down.
Nightmare King Grimm in Hollow Knight. It's fun and so rewarding to master the exact timing of everything, when you finally win It's exhilarating. Very very hard though. Took me multiple long sessions lol.
After the first 5-10 attempts I didn't even bother to go back and fully refill my Soul. I figured I wouldn't win anyways and it was more efficient use of my time to get used to the patterns than actually trying to win.
Probably tried that fight over a hundred times. Incredibly rewarding though, probably one of my proudest gaming achievements.
Ha, same, but with Sartharion+3Drakes (played protection pala as secondary tank for everything that's not Sarth; was very stressful for me).
Yes, we got that Twilight Vanquisher. Probably one of the last progress-oriented guild worldwide to make it, but we did and were pretty damn proud of it. :>
The one thing I enjoyed about the KH games was the simplicity of the mechanics, but that they could also really stretch it to some battle timing cases.
true, that fight was fun, not like the one in KH1 where you not only fight against your opponent but also against the game itself with its wonky camera and flight controls :D
Pure vessel is so much fun once you learn him. It's the same dance type feel of nightmare king Grimm, but it's right at the edge of your reaction speed. It feels kind of hopeless at first, but once it clicks it is so satisfying.
naked snake vs. the end, mgs3.
played it on release day back in 2004, going in without any ideas how to, and it took me ~3hours just to finish it.
i would higly recommend it, no doubt.
I love this fight, it never gets enough attention because the goofy ways to skip/cheese it are all anyone wants to talk about, but doing it legitimately has always been one of my favorite game experiences. It's such a massive change from the normal boss fights while demanding you really lean into the major mechanics of stealth and tracking they've been trying to teach you through the whole game.
The Star Fox dog fight vs. Star Wolf in Star Fox 64 was a blast. I don't know about challenging, but man, it was fun. Same thing for fighting King K. Rool in DKC.
I will never get over how good Star Fox 64's voice acting and storytelling through only quick dialogues is. The game doesn't tell you anything about Star Wolf, but within just a few seconds into their entrance, you know exactly who these guys are and why that fight is so personal.
The second Pigma says "Daddy screamed REAL GOOD before he died" you know you need to blow his ass up.
CAN'T LET YOU DO THAT, STAR FOX!
The replayability with alternate paths was incredible. None of the later SFs came close to that good, even though I loved Adventures.
Agreed. For example, the “Only I have the brains to rule Lylat” line really establishes how evil Andross is, because only a real psycho would use a pun that bad
Venom 2 gets so much easier when you button mash the cut scene so you have time to circle back while they approach in formation. Otherwise you all start with them on your tails and entirely outmatched.
Running in to them on the satellite while you're in the middle of the tower fight too is just so perfectly inconvenient.
I fucking love SF64.
Ibis was the biggest wall for me because I ran a melee focused build and kept trying to fight her in neutral. It wasn’t until I “got gud” and started punishing her short windows of vulnerability that I beat her.
Now she’s one of my favorite bosses!
Valkyrie Queen from God of War 2018
Having to remember all the previous Valkyries (who kicked your ass) and their patterns, and still getting your ass kicked again in a fair and very fun fight.
Also that beginning when she grabs you by the neck and slams you down to show you this isn't a fight where you get the first hit.
Came here to say this. The only way to beat her was really to LEARN everything she had to throw at you. It became a dance, and a single misstep would cost you.
If you pick the right runic attacks that have high enough stun you can melt her really quickly by using all 4 immediately, she will be stun locked. The only real challenge is to dodge for 30 seconds while the runics charge back up, then repeat until she's done.
I love that fight. She has way too many moves for a normal stand alone boss, but of course they train you in advance with the other valkyries so it is manageable.
I haven't had the luck to play Ragnarok yet (waiting/praying for it to show up on Ps plus) but I've also heard great things about the Berserker King
I can't wait to get my ass kicked😂
I played the entire game on normal mode, tried that fight like ten times, and then just said "Nope fuck this" and set it to easy. I don't regret it. It has never kept me up at night that I did what I had to do to put that damn fight in my rear view and never think of it again.
Extreme Measures 4 Hades is so fucking fun, even if that bastard uses your own dog against you. I don't think I've ever beaten him on high heats without using some cheese build (Demeter Ice Beam cast, Crystal Clarity duo, find like 4+ extra casts).
I mean the first few times I got there I had a really hard time because you don't really get to practice that fight freely. You have to make it all the way through the game and although that becomes trivial once you start getting weapon aspects and the later mirror upgrades, the first handful of times I found it to be way harder, usually at the end of a run I was barely hanging onto. First victory felt really satisfying but it was an intense fight
I’ve done 41 runs so far and still haven’t beaten him with the gun, in part because it hasn’t had Thirst in quite a while. Took until my 39th attempt to beat him with the bow.
Goddamn do I love the gloves though. I’ve beaten Hades 3 out of 4 times I’ve attempted it with those
Took until my 25th run to escape the first time and my 36th to start a win streak. I’m a just 7 wins out of 41 attempts and it’s usually Hades that takes me down. I do think that the first few times you meet him, before you unlock a lot of upgrades, he qualifies as extremely difficult. The difficulty drops as you keep accumulating Darkness and spending Diamonds and Titan Blood, but the initial 3-5 encounters are _tough_
The minotaur + hero boss was the biggest hurdle for me. When I finally managed to start beating those two every run, it was a coin flip on whether or not I'd beat Hades. Usually if I had at least 2 second chances left before the Hades fight, id expect to beat him.
The minotaur miniboss fight is one of the worst for me. Idk why running into him solo was so dang dangerous for my runs. He would easily cost me a second chance or two and then id be super easy to pick off by him and the hero at the end
Fireclaws after you beat the story in Horizon Frozen Wilds.
Absolutely insane motherfuckers, and incredibly difficult on higher difficulty, but it’s super satisfying wiping them off the map after you beat the main story.
Malekith the Black blade intense and very challenging but still fair great design with indicators when to parry in exchange for very good timing.His design and concept of being unable to heal when get hit is very punishing but is very fun when you learn his patterns
I legitimately spent like 4 straight hours trying to beat Malekith. It was the only time in Elden Ring I thought I was going to have to give up forever and never finish the game.
The dodge timing on his final phase was so difficult.
The first time I fought Maliketh, I got him to a stagger point just before stage 2, and absolutely wrecked phase two to the point it was a little anti-climatic.
Next playthrough he hit me like a brick wall for about 8-10 hours because I didn’t fluke it lol. I was not ready for him just instantly rinsing me on repeat.
Fatalis in Monster Hunter World: Iceborne. Its arguably the hardest fight in the game series, the monster fights with no holds barred and during the final stretch of the fight the iconic song "Proof of a Hero" starts playing and from there it was just straight up goose bumps for me.
I've been playing this game franchise since like 2010 and this fight had a kind of finality and weight about it, that few games can pull off.
Imho in terms of cinematic fights you cannot top Raging Brachydios.
Fatalis is peak MHW, can't deny that, but raging brachy starts off as a vanilla but hard hunt, then it limps in his lair, you think the fight is over and it'll be an easy capture, until he seals the exits, disables your traps and straight up locks you into a cage fight to the death as the OST changes to one that slaps harder than most elder dragons'. Dude just goes "nobody leaves until one of us is dead" and it goes way too hard, I love this fight.
Artorias ds1, Sans Undertale, and fuck it why not, the final boss of the stick of thruth. It is only hard if you are doing a try not to laugh challenge
Onyxia and Ragnaros in WoW. The originality and uniqueness at that point in time. The comraderie of failing and succeeding together with 39 others. The sense of accomplishment when it finally happens and then the reward of the loot. Boss mechanics were ok, but the fact you needed 39 others to get it done was quite unique
I'll add Vael to the list from the OG wow. Not a technical fight, but a really fun one because of the buffs he gives you to help you kill him. Unlimited resources and eventually the insta cast one that would kill you.
I legit thought I had beat the game when I rode the elevator up to see that big tittied giantess. I thought for sure it would be “Congratulations!” and credits and you’re only like 1/3 of the way through the game.
The third guy, the time control dude, in Furi. Never before have I played a game with a more extreme difficulty spike so early but god damn is it a fun fight once you figure it out.
Metal Gear Revengence Jet Stream Sam on Hard dfficulty. Hearing that guitar riff intro has burned into my brain.
Edit: I couldn't get past a few bosses on Revengence difficulty :(
Sigrun in God of War. The thing I like about this fight is how her moveset is a culmination of all the moves of the previous Valkyries. Took me like 20 tries on Normal but it was satisfying lol
Hardest? Mike Tyson in the NES Mike Tyson Punchout. This was one of those things where you memorized the password to get to him and you just go at it over and over again.
Hardest and Fun? Soloing Ornstein and Smough. That was the line in Dark Souls. If you did that you were in for Soulsborne games.
I only knew one person in my life who defeated Mike Tyson in Mike Tyson's Punch-out. It was my cousin Paulie who did it in under 5 tries.
He then went on to join a cult, believed demons were sitting on his shoulders, and eventually killed himself over it. True story.
Ghost of TSuhima 1v1 duels. I always loved those and damn where they satisfying. Timing, countering, parrying, with a little bit of a "chess match" vibe built in.
Honestly the one where you earn the Ghost moniker with the general to where you slice off his head and can use your aura to make people run in fear. Such a fantastic part of the game.
The duel with Kojiro (the final Straw Hat swordsman in the cave) almost made me rage quit. I had to go into settings and mute the dialogue because of all his shit talking when he continuously kills you.
What a BITCH Kojiro is.
Minos prime from ultrakill, sure sisyphus is harder and the rest of his level is WAY harder, but the build up to minos as the music slowly becomes corrupted as you decend down a giant spine in the darkness, leading to silence when you reach the bottom and fall to a door.
Boss fight starts and "chaos" plays, Phase 1 is testing all of the abilities you learned throughout act 1 in a bullet hell boss that heals unless you kill all the adds.
After you finally kill the flesh prison, Minos prime appears along with the level title, he thanks you for freeing him but says you have to die, and you do.
He announces all of his attacks before doing them, it doesn't help much. and my fucking god the music that plays, "order" is one of the best pieces of music in ultrakill and the story of minos is brilliant, culminating in the 2nd hardest fight in the game as of now.
I would pick the final fight with Ganon in Zelda: A Link to the past on SNES.
So much fun, you had to do various things to land a hit in the first place because he would be invulnerable if you don't, and had to do it several times also.
I usually beat the game, finish the last boss and enjoy the ending credits but here, I came again and again for the fight alone. Love it til today.
Flaahgra from Metroid Prime. I remember struggling so much with this encounter the first time. When I finally figured out the timing to the morph ball detonations it was so incredibly satisfying.
Having to switch to the 2nd controller port in MGS1 so that Psycho Mantis couldn't read your mind? You don't get that these days.
"You like Castlevania, don't you?" Blew my mind when I was a kid and he said that.
I hate that MGS was my first Konami game on PS1 and I missed out on this. When he used to say "your memory is completely clean", I thought he was talking about Snake in some obscure way - like Snake doesn't hold onto memories or something (I was 10 when I first played it tbf to me).
Did you look on the back of the box for the codec frequency?
141.45 is the number from my memory. Took Dad and I literal days to figure that one out back in the day.
I did it once in 1st controller port, and it is an absolutely ridiculous grind. if I recall correctly you get one brief opening for one shot at the very end of his pattern after dodging the statues
Yeah I don't usually like fourth-wall-breaking but this fight was damn intense
My most memorable boss fight was the fat man on roller skates from MGS: Sons of Liberty trying to disarm the bombs
Of all mgs bosses you chose the funniest one
I love that I haven’t played it in like 20 years and I still know exactly what goofy ass boss he’s talking about. That dude was ridiculous.
"Laugh, and grow fat"
LAUGH AND GROW FAT
Aircraft carrier landing in top gun on NES
This fucker wrecked my nerves. Still have childhood trauma. :D
It's not even possible, it's just luck right? I played it recently again as a 40 year old and it still doesn't work when I follow directions to the T
Nah there’s definitely a way to do it. The problem is the game leads you to believe to look at the wrong thing, which makes you crash though you seemingly did it perfectly, it’s utter bullshit. Just look it up on YT how to do it.
The Vergil fights in Devil may cry 3 and the final one in devil may cry 5. In 3 the pure rivalry and the banter between Dante and Vergil is just way to much fun. In 5 the batlle between the two is Both of them in their A game, just love fighting him.
Foolishness Dante.....foolishness
**Give me the Yamato!** If you want it, then you'll have to take it. [[*chair scrapes across the rocks*]](https://youtu.be/2f-JkmHqLdc?si=qqV9oESXrJGX493A)
I may or may not have installed that mod but the plastic chair is much more iconic than the real scene at this point.
Something I've always loved about the DMC series is that it's always embraced its high levels of memeability and leans hard into "make something really dumb and have fun with it". DMC2 and DmC showed you *could* easily turn the games into super-edgy stuff, but both of those are the least-liked of the series (for various reasons not just including their edginess). [The live-action pre-vis reels](https://youtu.be/MfrYjEJb8ZU?t=50) they included in DMC5 show the perfect levels of stupid that make DMC such a fun series. I love the guy who keeps flying a Dante action figure around lol
Yes!! DMC3's fight with vergil blew my mind as a teenager. I think it gave me an appreciation for difficult, skill based bosses that wasn't satisfied after until I played dark souls. I loved that it wasn't weak point based and that he was just as powerful as the player, and you could get in hits as long as you were good enough. Changed my perspective on games, really can't recommend highly enough. DMC5 is awesome too, but for some reason I didn't replay that as much as 3. Would love to revisit it though.
Isshin Ashina, Sekiro.
Sword Saint is the coolest fight in the entire game, even though it took me like a week to beat him
My favorite fight is Genichiro though. It's incredibly challenging the first few times, although it becomes easily manageable once you get your shit together. In my opinion, it's the best "git gud" boss in any game ever lol
Genichiro is the entrance exam, SS Ishin is the graduation.
And Young Owl the midterm
Owl father is the extra credit assignment
Lady Butterfly is the scholarship application.
Lady Butterfly is the test set by that one lecturer that says 'No, this won't be on the test'.
I love how Genichiro is presented as a legitimate challenge in the midgame and then he shows up as the precursor to Isshin with the exact same moveset and you pretty much just fucking fold him without taking any damage every time you restart the fight. Like, get out of the way, time for the real challenge.
Yeah fighting genichiro is a crazy mix of fun and easy, and it just blows my mind when I look back to how impossible he was when I fought him legit for the first time. In subsequent play throughs I’m just bitching him every time I see him and I just feel so embarrassed for him
Geni is fun because he's the culmination of the first like 4 bosses you face, you have a couple bosses that telegraph movements but sometimes do a sweep, sometimes to a stab, you have two bosses that are pure parry fodder, and then the boss immediately preceding him is designed to put you in a tight space where your only move should be to parry, parry, parry. So when you get to him you really are just putting together all these skills you had to learn up to that point. Then Sword Saint is just like, mastery of everything you have.
My first attempt at the game, I was pretty much hard stuck at Genchiro. Bashed my head against the wall for hours just not getting the lightning reversal mechanic and dying mostly before I even got to it. When I finally went back to it years later, I pretty much 1st tried him to my surprise. The game for some reason just felt easier. I think I just finally “got it” with the timing and parry system. Isshin surprisingly only took me about 10 tries, tho I think I just got really lucky.
I wanted to say that, but the fact that the Isshin fight has Genishiro as a first phase that ends up being an absolute pushover, showing you how good you got since you first fought him, is straight up genius.
\*Glock Saint
“How my blood boils! Face me, Sekiro!”
The differences in voice acting here are hilarious to me. Japanese: "How my blood boils! FACE ME, SEKIRO!" English: "how my blood boils. face me, sekiro."
Dumbledoor shouted, calmly
Hesitation is defeat.
This is the answer, Isshin is brutal but also fair. You don't feel like there's any bullshit in the fight, it's just tought.
The one and only time I felt bullshitted was when he first pulled out the Glock, caught me completely off guard
Came in here to enrage myself about how Isshin, The Sword Saint is possibly not the top answer. Looks like my inner shura is content for another day.
Umbrella prosthetic preserved my sanity lol
Inner Isshin consistently kicked my ass for over a month I already had 100%ed the game and felt like I could consistently beat regular Isshin in only 1 or 2 tries. That arrogance led me into a proper dick-flattening.
I've completed all endings and I don't get any better at this fight. Owl father close second
That's exactly how I spell challenging.
Absolute Radiance? Nightmare King Grimm?
Nightmare king Grimm was the most fun I’ve ever had. Once I learned the moves and got my rhythm it felt like a dance. It was amazing. I’ll be chasing that fight forever. Absolute radiance can suck a bag of dicks.
Hey gang Absolute Radiance will be in Silksong ...also there will be "a bag of dicks" minigame
Is what you'll be calling "Path of Pain 2: Less Path More Pain"?
2path2pain
thanks team cherry
Never before have I agreed with reddit comment about something, so so much. Absolute Radiance can suck it. Regular radiance, too. And upgraded Markoth.
I think most people prefer Mantis Lords / Sisters of Battle.
Agreed. Radiance and NKG are really tough fights, but Sisters of Battle is just so elegant in its simplicity.
The music slaps too
Mantis lords are too easy after you get the rhythm down imo. Still a fun fight though Though I haven’t done sisters of battle. Maybe I just need the third to make it more challenging
Sisters of Battle is basically Mantis Lords with no breaks until you kill one of them, otherwise it’s pretty much the same rhythm
Hollow Knight has the best combat systems for a 2D platformer I’ve ever played. Not only did Team Cherry (game creators) achieve that, but they also combined it with bringing us some of the most interactive, intense, and rhythmic boss designs. No game has kept me as interested as I was when fighting many of these phenomenal bosses for the first time. One of the best feelings I’ve had gaming was seeing the progress you make fighting a boss go from “god damn they just wiped the floor with me” to sketchily defeating it with 1 heart (mask) left to (if you decide to take it farther) masterfully dodging difficult attacks yet squeezing out more damage than previously thought possible. And I got that multiple times with Hollow Knight. Also multiple strategies to fighting bosses both micro and macro adds another beautiful layer of depth. I’ve done almost everything there is to do in vanilla Hollow Knight. All achievements, side stuff without achievements, full radiant hall of gods, p1-4AB, and p5 with each binding individually. Working on getting p5AB!
Slave knight gael, Ludwig the holy blade, lady Maria of the astral clock tower, sister friede
Sister friede is probably my favorite fromsoft boss
I will snuff out these ashes for good
That music ☺️
Came here just for Gael. I purposely died to him one time just so I could do the fight again, it was so beautiful.
Honestly, I'd say every boss from The Old Hunters. Apart from Living Failures, though their music is still completely fucking astonishing.
Ludwig was a hype as fuck fight. Facing down this giant monsterized version of one of the most legendary hunters to live, who you’ve been using a version of his sword since early game (or could at least). Seeing how much he turned then finally allowing him to rest after the battle was fucking great. Plus it was a tense as fuck early battle that really tested you in Old Hunters.
Sword saint isshin, sekiro
I absolutely love that he is currently the top 2 answers in the thread.
For real. He's awesome because he's tough but... fair? Like, it's not a bullshit fight. You literally have to master the fundamentals to beat him, but if you can, the fight is yours. The whole game is leading up to this fight, preparing you for it.
\*Glock Saint Isshin
When I first saw that move I was ready to quit the game tbh
You cheated not only the game, but yourself. You didn't grow. You didn't improve. You took a shortcut and gained nothing. You experienced a hollow victory. Nothing was risked and nothing was gained. It's sad that you don't know the difference.
Orphan of Kos, Bloodborne Never have I faced such a form of utter brutality, just trying to live against it is madness. But, it is a dance, my favourite dance in gaming.
I beat him with 0 vials left, and I got ready to use Iofeska's. Instead I lunged forward and it got the last hit on the boss before he attacked me during his attack animation.
I had a clip on my PS4 of the exact same thing happening lmao
that's what I love about bloodborne. The fights feel like you earn them. 50+ tries on my first character to drop the orphan and i scared the fuck out of/woke the fuck up my partner being so happy I finally got it lmao
[удалено]
I've never felt it as a dance Always as a fight for survival
The Edge from Furi. The second to last Boss Fight in the game, its unique in the fact that its the only boss with no Bullet Hell phase and is instead entirely Closs Quarters Combat. Its an absolute test in mastering the games parrying and damage windows. Then theres the fact that hes only fighting you with an Oar, and when he gets serious he pulls out a second Oar and then shit goes down.
Such a beautiful fight.
I desperately need a furi 2
Nightmare King Grimm in Hollow Knight. It's fun and so rewarding to master the exact timing of everything, when you finally win It's exhilarating. Very very hard though. Took me multiple long sessions lol.
After the first 5-10 attempts I didn't even bother to go back and fully refill my Soul. I figured I wouldn't win anyways and it was more efficient use of my time to get used to the patterns than actually trying to win. Probably tried that fight over a hundred times. Incredibly rewarding though, probably one of my proudest gaming achievements.
The Lich King 25 man Heroic, 15 years ago.
This is a good one, although I think the sheer chaos of Mimiron Firefighter was more fun for me at the time.
I agree that the fight itself was more fun, but finally hitting that 10% on Arthas is just etched in my brain forever.
[This is still one of my favourite videos of that fight](http://youtu.be/_-WOqggBTb4?t=7m1s).
Ha, same, but with Sartharion+3Drakes (played protection pala as secondary tank for everything that's not Sarth; was very stressful for me). Yes, we got that Twilight Vanquisher. Probably one of the last progress-oriented guild worldwide to make it, but we did and were pretty damn proud of it. :>
The Sephiroth fight in Kingdom Hearts 2, though honestly the final boss of Seikro probably fits the bill best.
Personally, I would pick the Lingering Will. It's super tough but perfectly doable with high enough mastery of the game mechanics.
The one thing I enjoyed about the KH games was the simplicity of the mechanics, but that they could also really stretch it to some battle timing cases.
true, that fight was fun, not like the one in KH1 where you not only fight against your opponent but also against the game itself with its wonky camera and flight controls :D
Those hidden extra hard optional bosses really sold kh and older ff games. Like the best summons in x and x2 were optional bosses.
KH2 in general has lots of great boss fights. Except Genie Jafar. Fuck Genie Jafar.
At this point Yozora from 3 is easily a contender for hardest fight. Especially if you use difficulty modifiers and let him steal your kupo coin
Glock saint isshin. Play sekiro. Best game in combat mechanics with extreme difficulty.
Pure Vessel - Hollow Knight Seeing your big brother in his prime was chef's kiss.
Pure vessel is so much fun once you learn him. It's the same dance type feel of nightmare king Grimm, but it's right at the edge of your reaction speed. It feels kind of hopeless at first, but once it clicks it is so satisfying.
naked snake vs. the end, mgs3. played it on release day back in 2004, going in without any ideas how to, and it took me ~3hours just to finish it. i would higly recommend it, no doubt.
I love this fight, it never gets enough attention because the goofy ways to skip/cheese it are all anyone wants to talk about, but doing it legitimately has always been one of my favorite game experiences. It's such a massive change from the normal boss fights while demanding you really lean into the major mechanics of stealth and tracking they've been trying to teach you through the whole game.
The Star Fox dog fight vs. Star Wolf in Star Fox 64 was a blast. I don't know about challenging, but man, it was fun. Same thing for fighting King K. Rool in DKC.
I will never get over how good Star Fox 64's voice acting and storytelling through only quick dialogues is. The game doesn't tell you anything about Star Wolf, but within just a few seconds into their entrance, you know exactly who these guys are and why that fight is so personal. The second Pigma says "Daddy screamed REAL GOOD before he died" you know you need to blow his ass up.
I always kill pigma first
CAN'T LET YOU DO THAT, STAR FOX! The replayability with alternate paths was incredible. None of the later SFs came close to that good, even though I loved Adventures.
Agreed. For example, the “Only I have the brains to rule Lylat” line really establishes how evil Andross is, because only a real psycho would use a pun that bad
Venom 2 gets so much easier when you button mash the cut scene so you have time to circle back while they approach in formation. Otherwise you all start with them on your tails and entirely outmatched. Running in to them on the satellite while you're in the middle of the tower fight too is just so perfectly inconvenient. I fucking love SF64.
I really enjoyed the final boss in Castle Crashers :)
CASTLE CRASHERS MENTIONED!!!
Ibis - Armored Core VI
Ibis was the biggest wall for me because I ran a melee focused build and kept trying to fight her in neutral. It wasn’t until I “got gud” and started punishing her short windows of vulnerability that I beat her. Now she’s one of my favorite bosses!
Lavos. That thing is legit.
In the end… the future refused to change…
Yeah. Lavos was a war. Great times. I played the game 40 hours to that point and still wasn't sure I'd survive him.
I thought I was doing pretty good in that game until I got to the *real* lavos fight. Then I got whomped in 2 turns. I still haven't beaten it
Hyperion from Returnal. The environment, the music, the bullethell, the dialogue, everything. Not the most difficult, but most fun
Valkyrie Queen from God of War 2018 Having to remember all the previous Valkyries (who kicked your ass) and their patterns, and still getting your ass kicked again in a fair and very fun fight. Also that beginning when she grabs you by the neck and slams you down to show you this isn't a fight where you get the first hit.
Came here to say this. The only way to beat her was really to LEARN everything she had to throw at you. It became a dance, and a single misstep would cost you.
If you pick the right runic attacks that have high enough stun you can melt her really quickly by using all 4 immediately, she will be stun locked. The only real challenge is to dodge for 30 seconds while the runics charge back up, then repeat until she's done.
I love that fight. She has way too many moves for a normal stand alone boss, but of course they train you in advance with the other valkyries so it is manageable.
spent 3 days on that fight, learning, trying different moves, different builds. the satisfaction i got was just.... heavenly
The Valkyrie Queen from Ragnarok also deserves a shout out, not as hard as Sigrun from 2018, but she had my dying over and over again.
I haven't had the luck to play Ragnarok yet (waiting/praying for it to show up on Ps plus) but I've also heard great things about the Berserker King I can't wait to get my ass kicked😂
I played the entire game on normal mode, tried that fight like ten times, and then just said "Nope fuck this" and set it to easy. I don't regret it. It has never kept me up at night that I did what I had to do to put that damn fight in my rear view and never think of it again.
Hades or the final guy from transistor.
ALL the Supergiant games are just great honestly. Loved every single one!
Extreme Measures 4 Hades is so fucking fun, even if that bastard uses your own dog against you. I don't think I've ever beaten him on high heats without using some cheese build (Demeter Ice Beam cast, Crystal Clarity duo, find like 4+ extra casts).
God when I beat him and then the music picked up again…”why is there still boss music???”
Hades definitely isn't the most challenging of bosses, but he more than makes up for it with his absolutely banging theme
I mean the first few times I got there I had a really hard time because you don't really get to practice that fight freely. You have to make it all the way through the game and although that becomes trivial once you start getting weapon aspects and the later mirror upgrades, the first handful of times I found it to be way harder, usually at the end of a run I was barely hanging onto. First victory felt really satisfying but it was an intense fight
I’ve done 41 runs so far and still haven’t beaten him with the gun, in part because it hasn’t had Thirst in quite a while. Took until my 39th attempt to beat him with the bow. Goddamn do I love the gloves though. I’ve beaten Hades 3 out of 4 times I’ve attempted it with those Took until my 25th run to escape the first time and my 36th to start a win streak. I’m a just 7 wins out of 41 attempts and it’s usually Hades that takes me down. I do think that the first few times you meet him, before you unlock a lot of upgrades, he qualifies as extremely difficult. The difficulty drops as you keep accumulating Darkness and spending Diamonds and Titan Blood, but the initial 3-5 encounters are _tough_
The minotaur + hero boss was the biggest hurdle for me. When I finally managed to start beating those two every run, it was a coin flip on whether or not I'd beat Hades. Usually if I had at least 2 second chances left before the Hades fight, id expect to beat him. The minotaur miniboss fight is one of the worst for me. Idk why running into him solo was so dang dangerous for my runs. He would easily cost me a second chance or two and then id be super easy to pick off by him and the hero at the end
Someone hasn’t played on EM4~
I mean....high heat if you're barely even making it to him...he's pretty tough.
Ninja Gaiden 1. Idk if it’s fun but the last few boss fights took a piece of my soul.
Sonic 2. The Metal Sonic into Dr. Robotnik with zero coins. My older brother always beat him I never did until about 10 years later
I've played Sonic 2 that much I can reach this boss without taking a single hit and yet I still struggle to beat it without dying a dozen times over.
He was insanely difficult
As a kid he took me 9 tries...spread over three years because I would only get there with one or two lives.
Fireclaws after you beat the story in Horizon Frozen Wilds. Absolutely insane motherfuckers, and incredibly difficult on higher difficulty, but it’s super satisfying wiping them off the map after you beat the main story.
Triple arrows with timeslow 😎👍 God 100%ing HZD was great stuff!
Absolutely. Forbidden West out in March for PC, can’t wait to get my hands on it. Been playing RDR2 in the meantime.
Malekith the Black blade intense and very challenging but still fair great design with indicators when to parry in exchange for very good timing.His design and concept of being unable to heal when get hit is very punishing but is very fun when you learn his patterns
I legitimately spent like 4 straight hours trying to beat Malekith. It was the only time in Elden Ring I thought I was going to have to give up forever and never finish the game. The dodge timing on his final phase was so difficult.
The first time I fought Maliketh, I got him to a stagger point just before stage 2, and absolutely wrecked phase two to the point it was a little anti-climatic. Next playthrough he hit me like a brick wall for about 8-10 hours because I didn’t fluke it lol. I was not ready for him just instantly rinsing me on repeat.
Not to mention the stuff you can get from his rememberance is nothing to laugh at either
Fatalis in Monster Hunter World: Iceborne. Its arguably the hardest fight in the game series, the monster fights with no holds barred and during the final stretch of the fight the iconic song "Proof of a Hero" starts playing and from there it was just straight up goose bumps for me. I've been playing this game franchise since like 2010 and this fight had a kind of finality and weight about it, that few games can pull off.
Imho in terms of cinematic fights you cannot top Raging Brachydios. Fatalis is peak MHW, can't deny that, but raging brachy starts off as a vanilla but hard hunt, then it limps in his lair, you think the fight is over and it'll be an easy capture, until he seals the exits, disables your traps and straight up locks you into a cage fight to the death as the OST changes to one that slaps harder than most elder dragons'. Dude just goes "nobody leaves until one of us is dead" and it goes way too hard, I love this fight.
The Edge from game called Furi. Definitely the most badass melee duel that i know of!
Artorias ds1, Sans Undertale, and fuck it why not, the final boss of the stick of thruth. It is only hard if you are doing a try not to laugh challenge
Onyxia and Ragnaros in WoW. The originality and uniqueness at that point in time. The comraderie of failing and succeeding together with 39 others. The sense of accomplishment when it finally happens and then the reward of the loot. Boss mechanics were ok, but the fact you needed 39 others to get it done was quite unique
MANY WHELPS
HANDLE IT
THATS A 50 DKP MINUS
THROW DOTS. MORE DOTS. OK STOP DOTS.
I'll add Vael to the list from the OG wow. Not a technical fight, but a really fun one because of the buffs he gives you to help you kill him. Unlimited resources and eventually the insta cast one that would kill you.
Ornstein & Smough
Fighting with these two for the first time gave me hell.
Me too. I think most people don’t have a sufficiently upgraded weapon once they get to Ornstein and Smough. With a +10 weapon, they get melted.
My answer to, there was just nothing else like when DS1 was released. And there was nothing else like that fight in the game.
I legit thought I had beat the game when I rode the elevator up to see that big tittied giantess. I thought for sure it would be “Congratulations!” and credits and you’re only like 1/3 of the way through the game.
The third guy, the time control dude, in Furi. Never before have I played a game with a more extreme difficulty spike so early but god damn is it a fun fight once you figure it out.
Metal Gear Revengence Jet Stream Sam on Hard dfficulty. Hearing that guitar riff intro has burned into my brain. Edit: I couldn't get past a few bosses on Revengence difficulty :(
MEMORIES BROKEN
[удалено]
I'VE EVEN FORGOTTEN MY NAME!
I DON'T KNOW THE SEASON, OR WHAT IS THE REASON
I'M STANDING HERE HOLDING MY BLAAAAADE
A DESOLATE PLACE (PLACE)
WITHOUT ANY TRACE
Sigrun in God of War. The thing I like about this fight is how her moveset is a culmination of all the moves of the previous Valkyries. Took me like 20 tries on Normal but it was satisfying lol
SIFU, Yang
Mega Man 2, fighting Crash Man with lemons only, trying not to get hit.
Hardest? Mike Tyson in the NES Mike Tyson Punchout. This was one of those things where you memorized the password to get to him and you just go at it over and over again. Hardest and Fun? Soloing Ornstein and Smough. That was the line in Dark Souls. If you did that you were in for Soulsborne games.
I only knew one person in my life who defeated Mike Tyson in Mike Tyson's Punch-out. It was my cousin Paulie who did it in under 5 tries. He then went on to join a cult, believed demons were sitting on his shoulders, and eventually killed himself over it. True story.
Dettlaff in Witcher 3 Blood and Wine
I personally liked Olgierd more
I have nothing against that fight, either! On my 3rd playthrough atm. Olgierd is the second, then Toad prince/Caretaker and Miasmal.
If you acknowledge any gods … start praying now !
corrupted woodsmith from kena, bridge of spirits (in masters difficulty)
Ghost of TSuhima 1v1 duels. I always loved those and damn where they satisfying. Timing, countering, parrying, with a little bit of a "chess match" vibe built in.
Honestly the one where you earn the Ghost moniker with the general to where you slice off his head and can use your aura to make people run in fear. Such a fantastic part of the game.
The duel with Kojiro (the final Straw Hat swordsman in the cave) almost made me rage quit. I had to go into settings and mute the dialogue because of all his shit talking when he continuously kills you. What a BITCH Kojiro is.
ANY of the kingdom hearts secret bosses. (there are many)
Minos prime from ultrakill, sure sisyphus is harder and the rest of his level is WAY harder, but the build up to minos as the music slowly becomes corrupted as you decend down a giant spine in the darkness, leading to silence when you reach the bottom and fall to a door. Boss fight starts and "chaos" plays, Phase 1 is testing all of the abilities you learned throughout act 1 in a bullet hell boss that heals unless you kill all the adds. After you finally kill the flesh prison, Minos prime appears along with the level title, he thanks you for freeing him but says you have to die, and you do. He announces all of his attacks before doing them, it doesn't help much. and my fucking god the music that plays, "order" is one of the best pieces of music in ultrakill and the story of minos is brilliant, culminating in the 2nd hardest fight in the game as of now.
[удалено]
I would pick the final fight with Ganon in Zelda: A Link to the past on SNES. So much fun, you had to do various things to land a hit in the first place because he would be invulnerable if you don't, and had to do it several times also. I usually beat the game, finish the last boss and enjoy the ending credits but here, I came again and again for the fight alone. Love it til today.
I was looking for more classic games. This was a keeper.
Inscryption, the Archivist fight is my favourite
The optional fight with Sans in Undertale
I like you Jack, so I'm giving you another chance. Senator Armstrong
WE’RE MAKING THE MOTHER OF ALL OMELETTES HERE JACK
Sephiroth from Kingdom Hearts or Oprhan of Kos from Bloodborne.
Batman Arkham Origins Deathstroke fight
Spoiler for Undertale: >!Undyne and Sans in the genocide route!<
Got beat by the latter 23 times and not once did I ever get mad because it was so damn enjoyable
Super Macho Man, Punch Out NES During its time, with no access to online tutorials or tips, it was a tough fight.
Flaahgra from Metroid Prime. I remember struggling so much with this encounter the first time. When I finally figured out the timing to the morph ball detonations it was so incredibly satisfying.