That One Boss

machomuu

machomuu

Stuck in Hot Girl Summer
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    You're having a jaunty, wonderful time in a game. It's not too difficult and some of the mechanics seem arbitrary at best. That is, until a knight and an executioner comes down and gives you a beating so hard that you realize everything you knew was wrong...only to see the difficulty go down after the fight.

    That's "That One Boss". The boss that you look back on the game after all's said and done (or after you rage quit and sell the game at Gamestop for 2% of what it's worth) and feel an overwhelming sense of dread towards. More than anything else in the game.

    Do you know or remember any bosses like this?
     
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    Every boss in Kingdom Hearts
     
    Any boss that has other enemies around to help it (hello Capra Demon in Dark Souls and Gargoyle in Xenosaga 1, you can fuck off). Fight is usually bullshit when the little helpers are around, but once they're dead the boss is usually not terribly threatening.

    That and the Spider Ball Guardian in Metroid Prime 2, always dread that part of the game.
     
    Nah said:
    That and the Spider Ball Guardian in Metroid Prime 2, always dread that part of the game.
    Click to expand...
    Yes! The Spider Ball Guardian is difficult because it is quite damaging if you make a mistake. It becomes easier with practice, but it's still annoyingly long for what is more of a timing puzzle. I hate the Boost Ball Guardian as well - it's on a timer and is a really spammy boss.

    Oh, and again in MP2, the final boss
    Spoiler:


    I can't say I didn't get a few Game Overs from Meta Ridley in Metroid Prime 1. His ground phase leaves few openings and one attack in particular requires fast movements to avoid correctly. The game does somewhat build up to the difficulty of the fight, but there is an immediate difficulty drop in the following boss.
     
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    Some of mine:

    • Shao Khan in every Mortal Kombat game I've played: hits hard, takes no time to recover, and has high defense. That's all. I'm bad at fighting games.
    • Jasper Batt Jr in No More Heroes 2: his first and third phases are easy, but the second one is very difficult, especially when he starts one-hit killing you.
    • Cheren in Pokémon Black2/White2 : because at this point I don't have a decent fighting-type (or at least one with a move that's actually useful) and his Pokémon love spamming the move "Work Up" before OHKOing all of my team.
    • Duriel in Diablo II : because he is so fast, he can kill a character before his room even loads. I'm not kidding.
    • Mandara in Shinobi (Master System) : its first phase consists in destroying an advancing wall of statues. They take a lot of hits, and unless you hurry, they'll eventually push you against the wall, which is a one-hit kill.
    • Sans in Undertale: his attacks inflict damage over time, he takes a fixed number of hits to be killed (so the equipment does not matter) and, after a certain point, stops caring about how a turn-based battle in an RPG is supposed to work and starts attacking you while you're browsing the menu. I think I spent 5 or 6 hours on this one.
     
    Shin Megami Tensei 4's Minotaur. Basically he counts as both that Wake Up Call boss who perfectly sets the tone of what to expect in SMT4's Boss fights, as well as telling all players on how to play the game's Press system, and THAT ONE BOSS who will ruin a lot of moods. Even if you get the pattern right, he can still get really lucky with Labrys Strike and dumpster your team with RNGesus decides to downright shoves its middle finger into your suckhole.

    And it doesn't help that him as a playable demon doesn't get Labrys Strike himself... >.>
     
    You don't know pain until Dragon Quest IX's final battle (spoilers), Corvus.

    I've never managed to win below level 50 (you typically arrive at him at about 38 or so), and he not only dispels buffs from the party, but he heals himself, attacks twice a round, and uses the strongest magic spell in the entire game. It's certainly an ordeal.
     
    I recall those type of issues when I was younger. I had trouble moving forward in most Castlevania games (FFX sadly enough I never knew for the first 25 hours logged that I needed to use the skill rings. So I ran around skillless with shitty gear) and I was stuc at that fish fiend off MoonFlow(?????)) Yeah I had super urges here to return the games to gamestop.
     
    For whatever reason I can only remember one: Demyx from Kingdom Hearts 2. Pretty much the reason I never finished the game.
     
    Colonel Mael Radec: Killzone 2 Elite difficulty. No boss in FPS history has given me such a challenge. The missiles, the teleportation, the stabbings, the invisibility, the submachine gun...
     
    Dark Souls.

    All of Dark Souls.
     
    Mot from SMT: Nocturne.

    Lets face it, ANY boss who can have an infinite number of turns is pretty BS, but this guy ABUSES THIS TOO THE MAX. He is the ONLY boss, other then the Super boss of that game, that I dread. Every other boss can be beaten with proper strategy, but this guy is ENTIRELY luck based. He can decide to let you continue on your quest to be a Demon Badass, or he can just go, "**** you" and spam Beast Eye and Megido, which you have NO protection against.

    So yeah, I hate Mot with the passion of a thousand suns. He has ended MANY of my runs because of his BS.
     
    I think mine are Death and Abaddon, both from Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin. I think I'm fairly good at the Igavanias (having beat OoE on Hard mode in my usual 100% run, I can say that much), but Death and his instant death attack (heh) send waves of panic through me like no other game. Abaddon is just one big swarm of douche and he's probably the only Castlevania boss I haven't figured out a proper strategy for, assuming money grinding for Super Potions doesn't count.
     
    After I first played Halo 5 Guardians, I have to go with Warden Eternal. This boss not only falls under the That One Boss trope, but several other tropes as well including both Flunky Boss and Recurring Boss. Plus he does not just show up in the Campaign, he also shows up in the Warzone multiplayer mode.
     
    The one part in Neptunia VII where
    Spoiler:
    The game was so easy and then that RNG-happy mess happened.
     
    The scorpion from Skyward Sword because I COULDNOT get my Wii Motion Plus to register my motions properly so I died like four times because I never could stab it. Same thing happened with the pirates on the planks--can't remember their names--I took forever with those too.

    Also Megrez from Devil Survivor 2 took me like 2 weeks lol
     
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