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.

There is literally a million bosses i could think of but ill just pick one from each genre that will pop into my head at the moment! So here we go:

1. RPGs: Nyx's Avatar from Persona 3. Easily one of my favorite final bosses of all time. Everytime you take down its health bar Nyx will change its Arcana that's its part of until it goes through all like 45 of them. Then you get a one on one with just the main character and a thecnically different thing but it all plays out literally in rythem of each other. While the boss is pretty standard for the bosses of this game its super epic as its literally a boss fight for the history of everything. While it takes place on top of Tarterus, the tower you've been climbing all game long. And the most epic boss theme ever called: The Battle for Everyone's Soul, and it feels like it. The full moon in the background, the overall green hue of everything. Just how final it all feels is just great. And while the other thing after this is a different boss, the theme of that being Burn my Dread being the final final boss theme is a really nice touch as well. Its also cool that since it goes through all the Arcana of the game that everyone is a valid choice for this boss as they will eventually all have their chance in the fight. Its also so narativally impcatful that it sticks with you after you beat it.
2. Fighter: Virgil 2 (with honorable mention of Virgil 1, and not 3!) from Devil May Cry 3. Talk about being on even footing with the boss! Or maybe its vice versa, either way get ready to go toe to toe with yourself in this boss! The same way that Deathstroke could of went here for being a Batman on Batman boss in Arkham Origins, I just feel like you get to play this boss more then that boss. That was a great boss, but don't you want to do all the flashy stuff that is just done with a few button presses in that game? Well just do a few button presses in this game instead! But for real, that's a big thing for me in this one is that if your doing some stylish looking stuff its cuz your doing it. And then getting knocked around by some stylish looking attacks from Virgil in return! Trust me you will die a lot in this fight, your first time around will feel impossible! But you will want to win and you will, and you will do it with a stylish sounding boss theme called The Path To Power a super fitting name for a super fitting theme for a super fitting, super hitting boss! Virgil is a cool dude, so having to fight him again is even cooler, for sure now that you both have Devil Trigger and recognized daddy issues to fight about! I also super like the sounds Virgil makes as he's readying up an attack or attacking an attack, the way his voice sounds in Devil Trigger is super cool, shall I say stylish? It's also nice that the cutscene before hand about something to do with preparations for the BASH is just so iconic, and finding out who the Jester that spanks butts is after this boss is nice as well! And since I hinted it ill hint a bit more that first encounter with Virgil is great as well! Id say its way more cinamatic and impactful, some could say gut wrenching even, isn't that right Dante? With the rain and the Moon and the music, and the top of the tower......... again. Lots of Moons and towers in this list! But you don't have Devil Trigger in this one, and literally get it right after fighting ironically, but they are fairly similar concept of bosses. Its just the second go is waaaaaay cooler. And speaking of cooler!
3. Steath Game: Mr. Freeze from Batman Arkham City. This one might be stretching the game genre thingie, as I was going to put Pig from Manhunt on here, but kept thinking about how Mr. Freeze was Pig but Pig squared! It takes the concept of hiding somewhere to get the advantage on the boss and getting a hit on them only to (literally) get the bat out of dodge and do it again. BUT with Freeze, he will learn from his previous mistakes, but do you Batman, or whatever he yaps about in the middle of the fight. And will change the boss arena up so that you don't have to do something different to cause damage next, literally nothing works twice in this boss fight. This boss is so great that its always on the top 10 boss fights ever list, and if its not its cuz that sad poor soul hasn't played the game before, cuz ain't no way its not on it if they have played it! It's one of the times where I agree to play something on the hardest difficulty to get more out of the game, as when you do then you really have to think for this boss fight. On normal or easy or whatever its like 3 or 4 hits and its over, just enough to make you do like 1 thing you might not really normally do in combat to get the upper hand. While on hard, you like literally have to do all the takedowns and gadget stuff on him, it's really wild and a great brain racker sometimes! Mr. Freeze himself sounds great with his literal cold robotic sounding voice throughout the fight. And the arena looks cool, and of course pun intended. It's for sure cool by the end of the fight i know that! As it takes place in the Gotham City Police Department. Pretty neat boss theme as well, up there with other great Arkahm City tracks.

Recently First Beserker Khazan: Ozma from First Beserker Khazan, easily one of the hardest bosses I've ever beat , he had 3 stages to the fight gradually each stage was harder than the last , First Beserker Khazan is one of the best souls games and easily one of the best games to release so far this year

To me a good Boss fight should be enjoyable and challenging. I have some amazing boss fights in the games that I play.

I don't think I could rank them as their is too many. However, I will make a list.

Sunstar Mega Man V- This is a really hard and difficult battle. Sun Star throws everything at you. Plus his attacks can be hard to dodge and oh yeah his laser storm can do significant damage. Still it is a good battle as it tests your skills and reflexes, and it really challenges you.

Sigma from Mega Man X3- This can be a difficult battle because there are 3 parts to this battle. The First part is easy Sigma follows a pattern. The second part is the most difficult. Sigma is in his Kasier battle armor. His weak point is his head. The problem is his head is hard to hit. In the mean time you have to dodge the missiles and lasers that he shoots. After you take him down you think you have one. His Third Part is you have to climb the wall and his computer virus form is chasing you behind. Oh yeah the lava is quickly rising up too.

Sigma from Mega Man X2- This battle has two parts. Sigma is in his thick armor. That battle is not so bad. The other one is difficult because his form is in his virus form. Only one weapon is effective against him. He also creates new enemies. It takes him a while to go down.

Dr. Wily from Mega Man VII (7) this is a tricky challenge. Wily's Machine is so big that you have to wait till he opens up to fire. Then you have to make sure when he jumps he does not land on you. The best part is when Wily does his teleport capsule fight. He can appear at random so you do not know when he is going to show up. Also his weapons are elements yellow is electric, blue is ice, and red burns you. You have to do a timed attack to hit him.

Bowser from Super Mario World- Bowser fights in his clown vehicle. He throws everything but the kitchen sink at you mainly cannon balls, and fireballs. He also throws his mechanical koopa troops at you. You have to defeat the mechanical Koopa Troops and then throw them back at him. He will eventually go down but it takes a while.

King K Rool Donkey Kong Country One and 3. I decided to list both battles here. In Donkey Kong Country I the final fight takes place on King K Rool's ship. He runs back and forth, throws his crown at you, and then fires cannon balls. He constantly changes his attacks. The favorite part of this battle is he fakes being knocked out. Making you think you have won, only to get up and fight harder and faster.

In Donkey Kong 3 he uses a science theme you have to drop barrels pick them up while dodging his electric device. Then you have to dodge him and hit him from behind to knock him into his electric device shocking him.

Going back to the Mega Man series I enjoy the Neon Tiger fight from Mega Man X3. Tiger is very fast and this is a battle if you do not have his weakness its going to be other quickly.

Other Mega Man Robot Masters I enjoy fighting are Freeze Man, Slash Man, Pharoah Man, Shadow Man, Terra, and Jupiter as well as Pluto. These boss fights are challenging and really test your skill.

it's kind of hard to name one when they all are a pain in the butt, well at least all you do in the Sonic games is just beat up on Robotnik all the time

you know what beating up on Mizrabel wasn't so hard at least she was willing to help our heroes get out of the castle when it was crumbling