Pretty self explanatory thread title. There are a lot of memorable boss fights across the history of video games and the purpose of this thread is to celebrate and discuss some of your favorites. Whether they're emotionally significant, mechanically brilliant, or just plain fun.

Here are a few that stand out to me (in no particular order):

1. Sephiroth from Final Fantasy 7

2. Kefka from Final Fantasy 6

3. Sans from Undertale

4. Red from Pokémon Gold/Silver and HG/SS

5. Cynthia from Pokémon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum

6. Malus From Shadow of the Colossus

7. Malenia, Blade of Miquella from Elden Ring

These are a just a few standouts from the dozens of games I've played in my lifetime, what are some of your favorites?

I'm very interested to see what video game bosses come up in this thread lol.

Where to begin I think for me not a lot of boss fights stand out to me unless I really had to put in work to beat them so most of my choices likely reflect that.

Note I'm too lazy to spoiler tag each part of the post so I have some spoilers for boss names and final boss names for the following games Kingdom Hearts 2, Kingdom Hearts 3, Persona 5/Royal, Sonic Heroes, Sonic Frontiers, Shadow Generations, Pokemon Ultra Sun/Moon, and Pokemon Platinum

First off the first super boss in a game I ever beat Sephiroth in Kingdom Hearts 2 I was terrible at the game as a kid but Sephiroth really pushed me to learn the combat better way back when I didn't know leveling drive forms was a thing day after day I would level grind and make another attempt to see where I stood vs Sephiroth and for a whole summer day after day I would get closer till finally I tried at level 80 got fairly close but at that point decided I would grind till 99 and sure enough that next attempt I was finally able to beat Sephiroth. On another note every time I've played critical I've beat him first try and I like to think my muscle memory for the fight is why I always win I only played it countless times after all.

While on the topic of Kingdom Hearts I'll also shoutout Yozora in Kingdom Hearts 3 while all the super bosses besides Sephiroth have pushed me on critical Yozora was the first one to ever make me grind for over a month the way Sephiroth did I can still hear his "Thought you'd win?" line from dying to this day what a well designed challenging fight.

I can't believe I almost forgot to mention maybe my favorite boss fight of all time Xemnas in Kingdom Hearts 2 that final 2v1 with Riku has some of my all time favorite moments in Kingdom Hearts and 10 years after I first played it when I learned how to actually do the laser part it became 10x better.

Enough of Kingdom Hearts I now wanna talk for a moment about my favorite game of all time Persona 5 and the Shido fight in the Royal version I'm not the biggest Rivers in the Desert fan but that fight is the one fight where I give into the hype the song gets it fits perfectly for a fight with a lot going into it for the story and the 1v1 in the Royal version had me legit nervous not knowing if I could win.

So I know the Sonic series has a bit of reputation of not having good boss fights but I have a couple I wanna talk about so I'll start with Metal Overlord in Sonic Heroes and Shadow Generations so for Sonic Heroes I will say it's not the greatest designed fight of all time but What I'm Made Of is Crush 40's best song and it took me years to reach the fight it's super nostalgic for me. The fight in Shadow Gens though? Is quite possibly the most well designed fight in a Sonic game clearly telegraphed moves and the game rewards you with better times by playing well no waiting forever just to get 1 hit for most of the fight I'd say the player is the one in control of the pace and on the offense.

On the topic of Sonic fights I have to talk about Frontiers which while not having the best designed fights looking back the first time playing every boss in that game minus the original final boss was breath taking I legit was in shock when Undefeatable started playing the first time and getting to do combos on Giganto, but the fight I really wanna talk about is The End or the final boss of The Final Horizon update I think they did a fantastic job on all the new attacks Sonic can do in the fight and the cinematics along with the new remix of I'm Here but alas I will admit the perfect parry being required does make it hard to rank as high as I'd like to.

Going back to Shadow Generations I LOVE the devil doom fight in this game the first part is kind of just Metal Overlord again but then the Doom Morph part is where it get's more interesting but the final phase blew me away hearing the Symphony version of All Hail Shadow realizing in real time that when I went to the Sonic Symphony they played the final boss theme in front of everyone and no one knew and then just how well the story did Shadow's character and how well All Hail Shadow fits in general I couldn't believe one game after I thought they topped my favorite Sonic boss they just blew The End away too as I think the fight works incredibly well.

I wanna talk about Pokemon as well but Cynthia everyone knows about I don't think I can say anything about that fight that's not been said before, same for red. So I'll talk about 2 different fights, first off Ultra Necrozma which was one of the most intimidating fights of my life I can't even remember how I ended up winning my first time playing cause all I seem to remember is sending out mon after mon and them getting one shot over and over while I was taken aback again and again, one of my all time favorite pokemon memories in my favorite pokemon game.

Brandon the Pyramid King was the last of the Battle Frontier I challenged and while the fight itself wasn't all that special it was nerve wrecking as I didn't wanna do any more pyramid floors and just thinking about all the fights I had done leading up to it I just wanted it to be over and when I won was probably the proudest moment I've had in Pokemon.

My favorite is The Immaculate One in the Silver Snow route of Fire Emblem Three Houses. The story side of things is amazing and the battle itself is both fun and challenging.

My favorite boss fights in no particular order:

Mustafa in Fire Emblem Awakening.
The fight itself is not particularly notable. However, storywise, this level comes after a very important character is killed. Your army is demoralized, but forced to press on. The level's music is notably somber, in contrast to the rest of the game's soundtrack. The boss dialogue is sympathetic to your army, also in contrast to other boss dialogue throughout the game. It's an emotional video game moment.



Goht in Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask.
This is the snow temple boss who runs throughout the corridor. You have to wear the goron mask to morph into one. The goron's power lets you roll around with spikes. This fight feels almost like moment of Mario Kart in a Zelda game.


Dung Defender in Hollow Knight.
He jumps and bounces around the arena. Dodging most of his attacks requires good spatial positioning (most bosses follow this scheme). Since he's a dung beetle, he rolls up and throws actual poop at you. What's not to love!



Magus in Chrono Trigger.
It's a difficult boss fight that requires you to change which elements you attack with. Keeps you on your toes. The game also sets up this fight to be an epic showdown, only to reveal that the truth behind that context goes far deeper. Plus, the music is amazing!



Saturos in Golden Sun.
The main villains of this game are a duo (plus hostages) that your party is chasing trying to stop them. At one point, you catch up to them. One of those villains buys time for their own party to escape, he then fights your party. It's a 4 vs 1 battle against a difficult boss for that part of the game. New boss music plays for this battle, and it's awesome!

Honestly can't think right now, brain too fried from posting all day, but I do agree that Red in Pokemon Gold and Silver is iconic. Such a simple but great idea to put the protagonist from the first game as the final boss of the sequel.

My favorite has gotta by in FFVII Rebirth when you fight Sephiroth, it was intense and epic. Even though it was on easy, it was still hard.