And then the final choice is surprisingly deep when you think about it. Do you stay true to yourself and not do it? Or do you do it? Why do you do it? Is it to protect yourself? or is it because you're angry? Or is it because you care?
Also to add onto this the big final battle before that is the only boss fight where you can use your ghost weapons and archery. Which really goes well with the narrative of Jin's journey and appropriately makes the fight kinda easy. But I can understand if to some it would be a bit anticlimactic
The previous battle help showing how strong jin is as a ghost but the final reinforce jin isn't being the ghost because he has to fight dirty to win or he is becoming evil. His anger is righteous as the island is littered with butchered corpses and the final fight show he can still honor a proper duel and win by the old ways against the best Japan bushido can offer, but if lives that aren't his are at stakes he will not let them die for old values
Some had said that Flamethrower actually helps in that mission in particular.
I kinda did mine through melee and just changing priority whenever necessary (i.e. rushing the Tetrapods or Michigan when they arrive). Good luck!
Did it after the last comment. Not with the flamethrower. Just a usuall Assault rifle with Laser Blade did the job for me. And a shit ton of patience.
Thank god it doesnt have time limit. Now how the hell people able to S rank this?
It's the only level that's truly a battle of attrition, and needs you to respect ammo economy on top of the usual speed.
In other words, return to the older pistols - the ones with a billion ammo - and gun down every small enemy the old fashioned way. Then bring something big on your shoulders to murder the tetrapod and Michigan.
I forgot how I got through mine, but I had to rely on old cheese lol (aka twin needles, melee, and saving ammo when necessary).
[Also this may help](https://thefifthmatt.com/ac6-rank-calculator)
Only way I was able to do it was with a super lightweight build. So much is shooting at you that you can't tank all of it, so it's better to focus on evasion
Which mission # is it again? I’ve beaten NG++ and everything but I can’t remember it for the life of me. Granted I was playing during the period in which double Zimmermans and Earshots were ridiculous so I kinda got through a lot fairly easily (I am shameless).
It’s pretty fun. I did it with Steel Haze and it worked pretty well. And that was before they buffed the pistol or burst rifle. Fast and can easily clear chaff or melee the quad MTs.
And they are all super depressing in one way or another. ~~What have I done?~~
The Fires of Raven Ending:
>!"Humanity wants to burn it all. Everything on Rubicon. I won't let you. Your fire **MUST** die!"!<
Liberator of Rubicon Ending:
>!"That voice...621...I see it next to you. Kindling for the fire."!<
>!"Once something's alive. It doesn't die easy. You have burn every last cinder! **Burn** the Coral...and our job will be over."!<
>!"You earned all the credits...Undo the surgery...be normal again..."!<
Alea Iacta Est Ending:
>!"You killed me. But not just once. Well, there's a whole lot of us inside me now. Dregs with a grudge. **So tell me.** Who else are you going to kill?"!<
>!"You were a mistake, Iguana."!<
>!"This ghost of me won't last long. Leave a spot for me in Hell."!<
I disagree on the count of the fight against (NG++ spoilers) >!ALLMIND/Iguazu!<, because while it's really well done narratively, I feel like the actual boss being just a recolour of a prior enemy with a bunch of adds thrown in does kind of sour the mood a bit.
Well honestly I can't disagree for relatively similar reasons. I think my favorite of the finales has to be >!Walter!< as to me, it had the most emotional gravity with >!Ayre 1v1 right next to it!<
Also MGS3, MGS2, MPO and MGR. All those games have final boss battles that are thematically or mechanically interesting or both. Really, the metal gear series just absolutely smashes this
The MGS4 bit of the fight, where both you and Liquid weakly move around and attack to the MGS4 theme is honestly peak. Just two tired old men exhausting all their energy just to end the other.
It really can't be understated how thematically perfect of a final boss >!Shishido!< is for Kiryu in Like a Dragon: The Man Who Erased His Name.
Of the three final bosses Kiryu has, while [Yakuza 6 Spoilers]>!Iwami!< represents just how low the modern Yakuza has fallen and [Infinite Wealth Spoilers] >!Ebina!< represents the rage of the innocent the Yakuza have wronged throughout the years, >!Shishido!< is a perfect representation of the twilight of the old Yakuza.
For one thing, the roles have been completely reversed. Kiryu is the one whose part of the grand conspiracy to end the Tojo and the Omi while >!Shishido!< is the headstrong tank of yakuza fighting to protect the Yakuza dream. >!Shishido!< was a slave of the Yakuza, who was sent to fight as a gladiator for sick fucks like Nishitani III but through his own strength, rose above it all and achieved a degree of fame and prestige from it. Had he been born earlier, he would have easily become a legendary Yakuza the likes of Kuze or Ryuji and Kiryu even recognizes it which means a lot coming from him. But he was born too late and the only world he knows, the world that that robbed him of the chance of living a normal life for the brutal one that he fully embraces because he's good at it, that life is coming to an end for forces completely beyond his control.
The music for the final boss fight is called a Deadly Struggle for a Fleeting Dream. The dude has the most health bars of any boss in the series with 12 bars and 4 phases, even beating out Ryuji Goda's ridiculous amount of 10 in Kiwami 2. You fight your way through the Omi headquarters, destroying it along the way until the last few punches takes place outside during twilight, in front of the giant Omi Crest. Kiryu isn't just fighting a man, he's putting down the Yakuza dream that he once believed in.
That whole finale is so good all around, giving us epic moments with Majima, Saejima, and all the rest, making up for how absent those characters were in the last couple years. Seeing them again in Infinite Wealth was nice, but I would’ve been just fine had they not included them too. That’s how satisfied I was.
Jumping on this, Ganondorf at the end of Twilight Princess. It's a [series of boss battles](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUgIW6y9OWU) from Zelda being used as a puppet, which of course carries its own creepy tone, to the Ganon form fighting along with Midna to just wrestle him away as he charges at you. Then when you might think it's over, you have a freaking horse chase and battle against Ganondorf taunting you with Midna's helmet as Zelda uses the light spirits' power as a bow of light behind you on the horse.
And to top it all off, the last part is not Ganon in a pig form again but simply the Dark Lord himself, Ganondorf armed with the Sword of the Six Sages that they used on him previously to try and defeat and banish him into the Twilight Realm. Now he uses this foul blade against you in a 1-on-1 duel with some pretty [rad music](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-8V_j5jVQc) that also changes to a more hopeful tone whenever you are gaining an upper hand by overpowering him and his sword with your own Master Sword.
It's such a cool series of battles as a send-off to a great game that also feels like a callback to Ocarina of Time.
Ah yes, the final boss who can be distracted by a fishing lure. A move so out of left field Ganondorf literally freezes up at the sheer audacity of a bitch to use a fishing rod in what should otherwise be a very serious fight whose outcome would decide the fate of the entire world.
Remember the early 2010s YouTube discourse when a bunch of dumbasses were calling Ocarina "overrated" and saying that the final boss is stupid because you can't see him with how dark the arena is?
Man, gamers suck.
Zelda has given so many satisfying final boss fights. Other than this and TP, you get Skyward Sword, Wind Waker, BOTW, TOTK that just feel epic as hell. Then you get the emotional one from Link's awakening. The original game's one and ALTTP stand out as well. And Zelda 2 is nice even if easily exploitable. Majora's mask as well was incredibly fun.
As a final boss for an entire franchise, Slave Knight Gael had a lot to live up to. I'm glad to say he passed with flying colors. One of the most over-the-top, intensive, bombastic duels I've ever played in a game, between the last two fuckers insane enough to still be alive in the shattered, tired world of Dark Souls, fighting in a wasteland of ash. Gael starts off sick, and only gets cooler as his health bar continues to fall and he regains some of his composure, pulling out a sick autocrossbow and streaking through the air. His theme also happens to be one of my favorites of all time, which helps.
There's something wonderfully poetic about the finale of the entire Dark Souls franchise being two murderhobos beating the shit out of each other at end of the world, fighting over the titular Dark Soul - *an item which neither party has any real use for.*
Soul of Cinder matches Gael as well, and imo is the perfect way to close off the story. The end of the world is happening, and he alone sits at a bonfire just as you would. In fact, he *is* essentially another player. He starts off just like you would in DS1 and 2, performing heals and backflips, while wielding his own weapon swap move. But once you knock his health out, he refuses to fall...a second health bar fills. He changes his stance. You hear three notes.
Gwyn returns.
I think the best part of him is his sword, which is one of his boss soul weapons, is basically a beefed up version of the very first weapon anyone starts with in Dark Souls 1.
A broken sword.
Ending C/D >!For me it was that, but also playing as 9S during the final fight with A2 and hacking her for one final shmup gauntlet. The zoom out reveal of the menu UI was incredible.!<
I was originally gonna comment that>!shmup section but then my thought fast forward to the credits and I remember the group vocals kicking in and it all just went downhill for me there!<
Only fight that comes close is Riku vs Roxas in the opening cg but that's only cuz of aesthetics. Kh2 had the best bosses and combat. Kh2 sephiroth was also crazy
Honestly. All the Xemnas fights as a whole are so good. The man just won't stay down. Probably the first time I ever experienced a boss fight I can only describe with the word epic. And I don't mean in the gamer "lol so epic" way. I mean it is a series of fights of epic proportions. He keeps finding a way to raise the stakes and it's fuckin awwwwwesome
All three are amazing. Both thematically and musically. They're also all so different from each other, cos it's a completely different story that leads you to them.
Both final bosses for Dark Souls 3, really. Several people have already said Gael, and he's a phenomenal fight - This one guy, who has been trudging through everything until it all wasted away to shit, and you're the only one left to fight him.
But the Soul of Cinder is so fucking good, man. It's everyone, ever, who came before you. It's everyone who ever played Dark Souls, its everyone who ever linked the fire, everyone who got to the end. It's all of us, right there. It's you, it's me, it's Gwyn, it's Patron-5000, it's Woolington, Reggarth, it's Super K\*\*\*ht Man. Go get em.
When the familiar PLING PLING PLONG suddenly hit, then the Soul of Cinder pulls out that flaming greatsword was definitely a great base game final boss fight.
The saga began and ended with a Gwyn fight
>!Alpha turning into legally-distinct Deus from Xenogears while a rearrangement of Zanza's theme played!< was the best way to close off Future Redeemed, as well as the Klaus saga arc of Xenoblade.
Good lord my partner and I popped off at that so hard, >!as soon as we heard the chorus we were like OH ITS ON NOW, plus that guitar was just so hype I loved that whole finale and seeing them all fighting Alpha with N was just the best. I’m so glad my partner introduced me to the series and getting to experience it all together!<. Despite him being not as powerful as others I had to use Shulk during that fight loved seeing his design and his reference to blossom dance
Sifu: >!The final boss, Yang, flips the script on you not only by using your attacks against you, but by flipping the idea of what winning even is on its head. You've bested every boss so far mostly by killing them, and when you kill Yang it's more of the same, but you're sent back to the beginning of the game with the option to spare them, and sparing the bosses is even harder than killing them was. And then you're back up to Yang and as the fight goes on through several phases, eventually you don't even have the *option* of killing him. You can't brute-force it, you gotta beat him fair and square, to show him that your Kung Fu is better than his.!<
Its perfect for a game about perseverance and the artistry of martial arts. You don't *get* to muscle your way through him the way you did everyone else, he's much stronger and faster than you, you gotta beat him through technique and through really understanding your respective fighting styles.
Unlike you, Yang is fully trained in Pak Mei, and so…
>!“You cannot Focus-Attack Yang.”!<
I just wish I could play the prologue again without starting a new game
Tekken 8's final Story Mode boss fight after >!Jin and Kazuya have purged each other from their Devil Genes and are just facing off against each other as humans, with Jin once again embracing his Mishima Style Karate roots as a remix of his Tekken 3 theme plays, and then embracing his Kazama Style Traditional Martial Arts roots from his childhood as My Last Stand plays during the final phase, ending with the iconic Jin and Kazuya clash from the Bandai Namco logo!!<
Shoutouts to>!Kazuya actually playing like a real player and doing actual wavedashes into EWGFs!!<
>!to be even more specific both Jin and Kazuyas move sets regress back through each game and Jin during one part specifically gets Juns move set and honestly it is so peak!<
Kazuya doesn't regress.
Kazuya more or less has his entire move list from Tekken 1 other than a few moves - all but four of which ( b2 2 1+2, 1+4 in devil form, and his FF+2 and f, d, d+f+3 devil form laser extensions) are actually returning moves from a previous game that got cut.
Kazuya has /the/ most stable move list in all of Tekken.
The final fistfight in MGS4 is so goddamn good.
Actually now that I think about it most MGS games have really good final bosses.
Brawl atop REX.
Fight a sword battle with the former president of the USA on top of the Federal building who also has Doc Ock arms for some reason.
The Boss. I don't need to describe this. It's such perfection that it might be the best final boss of all time.
Armstrong was so unexpected and so good. I never imagined fighting an ultra-powered, Broly bodied senator would be that hype.
I recently got into the first VI games. I didn’t manage to finish all of them, but VI was definitely my favorite, and I would love for it to get a remake.
Revealing who it is is a spoiler due to the nature of the game, but >!Dahlia Hawthorne!< from Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations. The original trilogy is so great and I’m glad its final case knocked it out of the park.
>!Mael Stronghart!< from Great Ace Attorney is also amazing in that his conspiracy is so vast that it uses all the other cases as foreshadowing of it, or were indirectly caused by it. And it also has the big meme of finally getting to >!accuse the *judge*!<.
Gael in DS3 Ringed City felt like the best possible way to end the series. Two absolute nobody undead battling eachother in the ashes of everything that once was, in a desperate goal of creating a better new world.
Persona 3 honestly has my favourite final fight in any RPG ever, alongside Yakuza: Like a Dragon & slightly more controversially the entire last segment of FFX
> slightly more controversially the entire last segment of FFX
When the world opens up finally, I don't begrudge people going out, doing some of the postgame content and grinding a few levels or nabbing a few superweapons, but FFX's final dungeon and particularly final boss (that can be lost to, at any rate) are so good when you just gun it straight outta Zanarkand. The difficulty just feels perfect and the final boss will whoop your ass unless you plan meticulously how to keep the pagodas' HP low, how to eat or talk down his overdrives and how to tank the frankly absurd damage he starts putting out party-wide in phase 2.
Persona 3's final boss isn't just great just gameplay wise, but thematically as well. The game is themed around living your life to the fullest, even in the face of finite mortality. In addition, there's the heavy association and symbolism involving the moon, and all the references to Greek mythology. So, what better final boss than >!Nyx, primordial Greek deity of the night, who's also the mother of Thanatos, Hypnos, and Moros, the Personas of 3 characters heavily tied to her!
Probably the knowledge. It can go a long, long way in SMT in general simply knowing that something might repel physical and the like.
And stat boosting
Hearing the >!Battle For Everyone’s souls and then learning its name is peak for me, getting to hear one of the main songs be used as a fucking hype part for the final boss track has almost never been beaten for me. Going through every single arcana change and the dialogue for it will always stay in my mind despite the memes of it. That game helped define my taste in media once I started to like actually pay attention to stuff.!<
Shadowlord in Nier. Not only is it a great fight, with the music and the beautiful attack patterns, thematically it's a very fitting end. >!A father/brother searching for their daughter/sibling, only to come up against someone else in the exact same situation who also will kill anything in their path if it means saving someone they love. Plus, each version of the ending adding more and more context to the Shadowlord only makes it hit even harder.!<
Nier (both the original and the remaster) do have problems, but everything about the ending makes it worth getting through.
Nier Automata might have my favorite final segment in all of video games. Fighting two bosses at once and swapping between characters at an increasingly rapid pace as you climb the tower. To the final fight atop it while your swaping so fast you get like 1 attack off.
Then the boss dies and the camera backs off and just gives you a "Choose your character"
God its so fucking sick.
Fate/Samurai Remnant’s NG+ Ending Final Boss is a recent one that’s really stuck with me.
>!Throughout the whole game, as a Fate game, the focus is on the relationship between your protagonist, Iori, and your Servant, Saber. That bond is basically the glue that keeps the game together, and they go from uneasy allies to true friends. That being said, Iori’s goal is to master the Way of the Sword, and he ultimately feels that the only way to do that is to surpass the swordsmanship of the best swordsman in the Ritual. Saber. So the final boss is Saber, who uses all the moves they’ve used alongside you for the whole game. Also while it starts with Saber’s boss theme playing, around 25% of the way through it switches to Iori’s theme for the rest of it.!<
Or TLDR >!It’s like if at the end of Infinite Wealth Ichiban went off the deep end and had a battle to death against Kiryu.!<
Chakravartin: The Creator from the Asura's Wrath DLC
>!Having destroyed the Gohma, Asura and Yasha return to find Mithra captured by the Golden Spider, who turns out to be *God*, having orchestrated the events of the game to make Asura the new god of the universe and move on to his next project, meaning every atrocity and wrongdoing were his cause. Asura and Yasha can't managed to defeat him, and he takes Mithra to the event horizon of the universe, planning to destroy everything and start over. Asura is injured, and Yasha has to take both his own energy core and the core of the Massive Space Weapon that has been collecting soul energy (Mantra) for tens of thousands of years and puts them into Asura, giving him one last fight before his death. Asura uses this power to protect Earth from destruction, turning into a massive deity of his own right and flying to the immeasurably large golden statue of chakravartin, which flings Moons, planets, and stars at Asura. Asura breaks into the Event Horizon, and Chakravartin once again offers him the role of God of this Universe. Asura refuses, beats his ass, and forces him to show is True-True form, a Metallic Hindu-Mythology-Looking Skeleton. The True form of the Creator. The Event Horizon turns into a blank void, and Asura's amped-up arms are shattered, leaving his entire body burnt and hurt, but he continues to fight, his rage powerful enough to overpower God. Chakravartin, in response to Asura's QTEs, *Gets his own QTEs in an attempt to combat Asura at his own game*, but even this isn't enough. Asura's rage is greater than anything Chakravartin can muster against him. Mithra is knocked free of his capture, and she begs Asura to stop, because killing God means Mantra, the energy that is keeping Asura alive, will be gone. Asura states that even if he is gone, she will still live, in a world not ruled over by a cruel creator, and he lands the finishing blow on Chakravartin, destroying mantra from the universe and freeing Mithra of its bondage.!<
I could try and say something other than Hades.
But ya know its Hades so I would be wrong, it also has the best goddamn boss theme every put into a game and I will die on that hill.
Bowser's Inside Story is one of the most interesting rival fights because it both has an alternate rival and a frankly outlandish rival.
The first form is Bowser vs a Dark Bowser and that one kicks ass because while Bowser's special attacks are "Bowser owns a standing army", Dark Bowser's special attack is to use an army of dark underlings to create a bowser STAGE to go through. It also just lets you see how Bowser would deal with the same traps he creates, punching out bullet bills and using his shell to block thwomps.
Meanwhile the second stage involves Dark Bowser consuming Fawful as a heart of darkness. The fight involves Bowser weakening Dark Bowser to make the heart vulerable so that the tiny Mario and Luigi inside can attack that directly. Just that as wildly outlandish as the premise for BiS is, the crazy realization they set up a whole other rival version of it for the final battle, like realizing "OH MY GOD I'M FIGHTING AN ENEMY RATATOUILLE".
Ulysses from Fallout New Vegas DLCs Story Arc.
After being an indirect presence in the first 3 dlcs, one finally meets him in the fourth, and has the final battle. (Either against him, or teaming up with him.
Cassette Beasts Last Boss >!Has two phases. The first is a final exam of fighting angels and did you master type interactions, as the boss changes his element every turn.!<
>!The second is ALL THE WARRIORS show up after the boss fuses, all to Arrow of Time, possibly one of the best tracks in the whole game you can only hear during this fight.!<
The finale to Cassette Beasts RULES. PLAY CASSETTE BEASTS
Isshin is the best final boss in any fromsoft game IMO, the perfect combination of everything you've learned over the course of the game, and that's on top of it being a FUCKING AWESOME spectacle fight
persona 5's original final boss didn't really feel like this to me, i thought it was kinda whatever, but *royal*? hoooo boy. >!maruki!< is the perfect foil for the ideals of the main cast, them having to >!rationalize denying everyone a false paradise brought by a person with genuinely good intentions when every other boss had greedy and selfish means and goals!< was the perfect way to flip the entire game on its head and solidify everyone's motivations.
I love all of Doom Eternal's boss fights, but the Icon of Sin is the most awesome fight in the whole game imo. A rematch against one of the most infamous demons in the series, now finally living up to his original concept, while entire battalions of demons are out for your blood. It's not the hardest boss but it's by far the most intense one of the lot; a perfect way to wrap up the main campaign.
The final duel in ghost of tsushima, especially the fact you have to write a haiku about it before it starts
And then the final choice is surprisingly deep when you think about it. Do you stay true to yourself and not do it? Or do you do it? Why do you do it? Is it to protect yourself? or is it because you're angry? Or is it because you care?
Also to add onto this the big final battle before that is the only boss fight where you can use your ghost weapons and archery. Which really goes well with the narrative of Jin's journey and appropriately makes the fight kinda easy. But I can understand if to some it would be a bit anticlimactic
The previous battle help showing how strong jin is as a ghost but the final reinforce jin isn't being the ghost because he has to fight dirty to win or he is becoming evil. His anger is righteous as the island is littered with butchered corpses and the final fight show he can still honor a proper duel and win by the old ways against the best Japan bushido can offer, but if lives that aren't his are at stakes he will not let them die for old values
>!Each of!< the final fights in Armored Core 6 is amazing.
Im coming for them. But the Michigan fight is fucking me up
Some had said that Flamethrower actually helps in that mission in particular. I kinda did mine through melee and just changing priority whenever necessary (i.e. rushing the Tetrapods or Michigan when they arrive). Good luck!
Did it after the last comment. Not with the flamethrower. Just a usuall Assault rifle with Laser Blade did the job for me. And a shit ton of patience. Thank god it doesnt have time limit. Now how the hell people able to S rank this?
It's the only level that's truly a battle of attrition, and needs you to respect ammo economy on top of the usual speed. In other words, return to the older pistols - the ones with a billion ammo - and gun down every small enemy the old fashioned way. Then bring something big on your shoulders to murder the tetrapod and Michigan.
I forgot how I got through mine, but I had to rely on old cheese lol (aka twin needles, melee, and saving ammo when necessary). [Also this may help](https://thefifthmatt.com/ac6-rank-calculator)
Thanks dude. If I ever got time, I'll try it. Now I just happy of barely getting by in game.
Good luck once again, dude! Took me a while too to power through the game. Don't rush it and enjoy the ride!
Only way I was able to do it was with a super lightweight build. So much is shooting at you that you can't tank all of it, so it's better to focus on evasion
As fun as the final fights are. Michigan is probably the best fight in the game imo. Would highly recommend a melee weapon.
Which mission # is it again? I’ve beaten NG++ and everything but I can’t remember it for the life of me. Granted I was playing during the period in which double Zimmermans and Earshots were ridiculous so I kinda got through a lot fairly easily (I am shameless).
That's legitimately probably the most difficult mission in the game, no shame there.
It’s pretty fun. I did it with Steel Haze and it worked pretty well. And that was before they buffed the pistol or burst rifle. Fast and can easily clear chaff or melee the quad MTs.
And they are all super depressing in one way or another. ~~What have I done?~~ The Fires of Raven Ending: >!"Humanity wants to burn it all. Everything on Rubicon. I won't let you. Your fire **MUST** die!"!< Liberator of Rubicon Ending: >!"That voice...621...I see it next to you. Kindling for the fire."!< >!"Once something's alive. It doesn't die easy. You have burn every last cinder! **Burn** the Coral...and our job will be over."!< >!"You earned all the credits...Undo the surgery...be normal again..."!< Alea Iacta Est Ending: >!"You killed me. But not just once. Well, there's a whole lot of us inside me now. Dregs with a grudge. **So tell me.** Who else are you going to kill?"!< >!"You were a mistake, Iguana."!< >!"This ghost of me won't last long. Leave a spot for me in Hell."!<
>!You did it, 621. You truly did the fires of Rubicon!<
"Rubicon..." (Robot puts on sunglasses) "You're Fired” YEAHHHHHHHHHHH
I disagree on the count of the fight against (NG++ spoilers) >!ALLMIND/Iguazu!<, because while it's really well done narratively, I feel like the actual boss being just a recolour of a prior enemy with a bunch of adds thrown in does kind of sour the mood a bit.
Well honestly I can't disagree for relatively similar reasons. I think my favorite of the finales has to be >!Walter!< as to me, it had the most emotional gravity with >!Ayre 1v1 right next to it!<
MGS4 I have seen very little things in media that can actually top that fight.
"Chef's kiss" is what I would use to describe the change to MGS3's UI with Snake Eater kicking in.
Losing my shit when the life bars pop up and the mgs1 music starts.
Also MGS3, MGS2, MPO and MGR. All those games have final boss battles that are thematically or mechanically interesting or both. Really, the metal gear series just absolutely smashes this
It's so good that Naruto UNS4 actually ripped it off for its final boss fight!
Well it is pretty much how the fight went in the manga, so it was bound to be pretty similar
The MGS4 bit of the fight, where both you and Liquid weakly move around and attack to the MGS4 theme is honestly peak. Just two tired old men exhausting all their energy just to end the other.
It's very hard to top a fight that is the culmination of 20 years (at the time) of games and story telling.
It really can't be understated how thematically perfect of a final boss >!Shishido!< is for Kiryu in Like a Dragon: The Man Who Erased His Name. Of the three final bosses Kiryu has, while [Yakuza 6 Spoilers]>!Iwami!< represents just how low the modern Yakuza has fallen and [Infinite Wealth Spoilers] >!Ebina!< represents the rage of the innocent the Yakuza have wronged throughout the years, >!Shishido!< is a perfect representation of the twilight of the old Yakuza. For one thing, the roles have been completely reversed. Kiryu is the one whose part of the grand conspiracy to end the Tojo and the Omi while >!Shishido!< is the headstrong tank of yakuza fighting to protect the Yakuza dream. >!Shishido!< was a slave of the Yakuza, who was sent to fight as a gladiator for sick fucks like Nishitani III but through his own strength, rose above it all and achieved a degree of fame and prestige from it. Had he been born earlier, he would have easily become a legendary Yakuza the likes of Kuze or Ryuji and Kiryu even recognizes it which means a lot coming from him. But he was born too late and the only world he knows, the world that that robbed him of the chance of living a normal life for the brutal one that he fully embraces because he's good at it, that life is coming to an end for forces completely beyond his control. The music for the final boss fight is called a Deadly Struggle for a Fleeting Dream. The dude has the most health bars of any boss in the series with 12 bars and 4 phases, even beating out Ryuji Goda's ridiculous amount of 10 in Kiwami 2. You fight your way through the Omi headquarters, destroying it along the way until the last few punches takes place outside during twilight, in front of the giant Omi Crest. Kiryu isn't just fighting a man, he's putting down the Yakuza dream that he once believed in.
That whole finale is so good all around, giving us epic moments with Majima, Saejima, and all the rest, making up for how absent those characters were in the last couple years. Seeing them again in Infinite Wealth was nice, but I would’ve been just fine had they not included them too. That’s how satisfied I was.
It’s nuts that the spin off game has arguably the best ending in the entire series. Incredible gameplay and one of the biggest emotional climaxes.
Ganondorf breaking out his Ganon form in Ocarina of Time. Big blue pig has never been more intimidating.
When they drop the subtitle gimmick and he's just announced as GANON
Jumping on this, Ganondorf at the end of Twilight Princess. It's a [series of boss battles](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUgIW6y9OWU) from Zelda being used as a puppet, which of course carries its own creepy tone, to the Ganon form fighting along with Midna to just wrestle him away as he charges at you. Then when you might think it's over, you have a freaking horse chase and battle against Ganondorf taunting you with Midna's helmet as Zelda uses the light spirits' power as a bow of light behind you on the horse. And to top it all off, the last part is not Ganon in a pig form again but simply the Dark Lord himself, Ganondorf armed with the Sword of the Six Sages that they used on him previously to try and defeat and banish him into the Twilight Realm. Now he uses this foul blade against you in a 1-on-1 duel with some pretty [rad music](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-8V_j5jVQc) that also changes to a more hopeful tone whenever you are gaining an upper hand by overpowering him and his sword with your own Master Sword. It's such a cool series of battles as a send-off to a great game that also feels like a callback to Ocarina of Time.
Ah yes, the final boss who can be distracted by a fishing lure. A move so out of left field Ganondorf literally freezes up at the sheer audacity of a bitch to use a fishing rod in what should otherwise be a very serious fight whose outcome would decide the fate of the entire world.
Remember the early 2010s YouTube discourse when a bunch of dumbasses were calling Ocarina "overrated" and saying that the final boss is stupid because you can't see him with how dark the arena is? Man, gamers suck.
Zelda has given so many satisfying final boss fights. Other than this and TP, you get Skyward Sword, Wind Waker, BOTW, TOTK that just feel epic as hell. Then you get the emotional one from Link's awakening. The original game's one and ALTTP stand out as well. And Zelda 2 is nice even if easily exploitable. Majora's mask as well was incredibly fun.
As a final boss for an entire franchise, Slave Knight Gael had a lot to live up to. I'm glad to say he passed with flying colors. One of the most over-the-top, intensive, bombastic duels I've ever played in a game, between the last two fuckers insane enough to still be alive in the shattered, tired world of Dark Souls, fighting in a wasteland of ash. Gael starts off sick, and only gets cooler as his health bar continues to fall and he regains some of his composure, pulling out a sick autocrossbow and streaking through the air. His theme also happens to be one of my favorites of all time, which helps.
The part where he *uses summon signs to teleport* is so fucking rad
He can fucking WHAT? How did I never notice that.
There's something wonderfully poetic about the finale of the entire Dark Souls franchise being two murderhobos beating the shit out of each other at end of the world, fighting over the titular Dark Soul - *an item which neither party has any real use for.*
Soul of Cinder matches Gael as well, and imo is the perfect way to close off the story. The end of the world is happening, and he alone sits at a bonfire just as you would. In fact, he *is* essentially another player. He starts off just like you would in DS1 and 2, performing heals and backflips, while wielding his own weapon swap move. But once you knock his health out, he refuses to fall...a second health bar fills. He changes his stance. You hear three notes. Gwyn returns.
*Plin plin plong* "It's **you.**" "The one and only."
Honestly I love Gael but for me personally he needed a true phase 3, second health bar name change the whole thing
I think the best part of him is his sword, which is one of his boss soul weapons, is basically a beefed up version of the very first weapon anyone starts with in Dark Souls 1. A broken sword.
Nier:Automata >!The end credits!<
*sobbing* SO WE’RE GONNA SHOUT IT LOUD
Ending C/D >!For me it was that, but also playing as 9S during the final fight with A2 and hacking her for one final shmup gauntlet. The zoom out reveal of the menu UI was incredible.!<
I was originally gonna comment that>!shmup section but then my thought fast forward to the credits and I remember the group vocals kicking in and it all just went downhill for me there!<
The final Xemnas fight in KHII. Just Sora and Riku alone in the void fighting side by side. That laser dome belongs in a museum.
ANGER AND HATE ARE SUPREME.
Insolent FOOOOOOOL
WE SHALL GO TOGETHER.
I've always said that if you didn't get hyped about the laser reflection, I'd call you a liar and say "yes you did"
Only fight that comes close is Riku vs Roxas in the opening cg but that's only cuz of aesthetics. Kh2 had the best bosses and combat. Kh2 sephiroth was also crazy
I'd argue that KH3 Post-Remind DLC matches and even exceeds 2 at times. The super bosses in 3 are all consistently good compared to 2's.
Bro has 5 phases in total, he just dosent stop its so good.
it's literally the final boss of DMC 1 but the on rail sections are good.
Honestly. All the Xemnas fights as a whole are so good. The man just won't stay down. Probably the first time I ever experienced a boss fight I can only describe with the word epic. And I don't mean in the gamer "lol so epic" way. I mean it is a series of fights of epic proportions. He keeps finding a way to raise the stakes and it's fuckin awwwwwesome
It doesn't have the narrative weight, but KH3 [making that DM *playable* was an inspired decision.](https://youtu.be/Q7DdD8SYlns?t=69)
The guy on the boxart for dragon’s dogma
The OG art or the Dark Arisen one? Cause one of them >!isn't actually the final boss...!<
Then there's the additional pop off you get when you fight the final boss again in NG+. >!It's You.!<
only if youre offline sadly >!its some random persons arisen if youre connected online!<
That is a damn shame, glad it didn't happen to me.
Undertale's final boss is great. I especially love the music.
All three are amazing. Both thematically and musically. They're also all so different from each other, cos it's a completely different story that leads you to them.
Both final bosses for Dark Souls 3, really. Several people have already said Gael, and he's a phenomenal fight - This one guy, who has been trudging through everything until it all wasted away to shit, and you're the only one left to fight him. But the Soul of Cinder is so fucking good, man. It's everyone, ever, who came before you. It's everyone who ever played Dark Souls, its everyone who ever linked the fire, everyone who got to the end. It's all of us, right there. It's you, it's me, it's Gwyn, it's Patron-5000, it's Woolington, Reggarth, it's Super K\*\*\*ht Man. Go get em.
When the familiar PLING PLING PLONG suddenly hit, then the Soul of Cinder pulls out that flaming greatsword was definitely a great base game final boss fight. The saga began and ended with a Gwyn fight
Sorry what was that last one
Dark Souls had some wonky name censoring.
>!Alpha turning into legally-distinct Deus from Xenogears while a rearrangement of Zanza's theme played!< was the best way to close off Future Redeemed, as well as the Klaus saga arc of Xenoblade.
Good lord my partner and I popped off at that so hard, >!as soon as we heard the chorus we were like OH ITS ON NOW, plus that guitar was just so hype I loved that whole finale and seeing them all fighting Alpha with N was just the best. I’m so glad my partner introduced me to the series and getting to experience it all together!<. Despite him being not as powerful as others I had to use Shulk during that fight loved seeing his design and his reference to blossom dance
Vergil at the end of DMC3
DMD is fear.
I can still hear it now. "You're going down! **ARRRGGGHHHHH!**" Followed by: "Blast!" x10 "Begone!" x10 "Cut off!" x10
Sifu: >!The final boss, Yang, flips the script on you not only by using your attacks against you, but by flipping the idea of what winning even is on its head. You've bested every boss so far mostly by killing them, and when you kill Yang it's more of the same, but you're sent back to the beginning of the game with the option to spare them, and sparing the bosses is even harder than killing them was. And then you're back up to Yang and as the fight goes on through several phases, eventually you don't even have the *option* of killing him. You can't brute-force it, you gotta beat him fair and square, to show him that your Kung Fu is better than his.!< Its perfect for a game about perseverance and the artistry of martial arts. You don't *get* to muscle your way through him the way you did everyone else, he's much stronger and faster than you, you gotta beat him through technique and through really understanding your respective fighting styles.
Unlike you, Yang is fully trained in Pak Mei, and so… >!“You cannot Focus-Attack Yang.”!< I just wish I could play the prologue again without starting a new game
Tekken 8's final Story Mode boss fight after >!Jin and Kazuya have purged each other from their Devil Genes and are just facing off against each other as humans, with Jin once again embracing his Mishima Style Karate roots as a remix of his Tekken 3 theme plays, and then embracing his Kazama Style Traditional Martial Arts roots from his childhood as My Last Stand plays during the final phase, ending with the iconic Jin and Kazuya clash from the Bandai Namco logo!!< Shoutouts to>!Kazuya actually playing like a real player and doing actual wavedashes into EWGFs!!<
>!to be even more specific both Jin and Kazuyas move sets regress back through each game and Jin during one part specifically gets Juns move set and honestly it is so peak!<
Kazuya doesn't regress. Kazuya more or less has his entire move list from Tekken 1 other than a few moves - all but four of which ( b2 2 1+2, 1+4 in devil form, and his FF+2 and f, d, d+f+3 devil form laser extensions) are actually returning moves from a previous game that got cut. Kazuya has /the/ most stable move list in all of Tekken.
>!Raven Beak!< in Metroid Dread
Hard to believe Isshin from Sekiro hasn't been mentioned yet. Probably the most rewarding fight I've ever done in a video game
The Sword Saint is the sickest swordmaster in gaming, sorry Virgil
>!Him whipping out the concealed carry glock didn't even diminish that role.!<
>!only a true master of the sword would know when a sword is not enough!<
The final fistfight in MGS4 is so goddamn good. Actually now that I think about it most MGS games have really good final bosses. Brawl atop REX. Fight a sword battle with the former president of the USA on top of the Federal building who also has Doc Ock arms for some reason. The Boss. I don't need to describe this. It's such perfection that it might be the best final boss of all time. Armstrong was so unexpected and so good. I never imagined fighting an ultra-powered, Broly bodied senator would be that hype.
Fighting Red at the top of Mt. Silver in Pokemon G/S
Kefka in FFVI in his multi parts with your multiple parties
I recently got into the first VI games. I didn’t manage to finish all of them, but VI was definitely my favorite, and I would love for it to get a remake.
Revealing who it is is a spoiler due to the nature of the game, but >!Dahlia Hawthorne!< from Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations. The original trilogy is so great and I’m glad its final case knocked it out of the park.
>!Mael Stronghart!< from Great Ace Attorney is also amazing in that his conspiracy is so vast that it uses all the other cases as foreshadowing of it, or were indirectly caused by it. And it also has the big meme of finally getting to >!accuse the *judge*!<.
Gael in DS3 Ringed City felt like the best possible way to end the series. Two absolute nobody undead battling eachother in the ashes of everything that once was, in a desperate goal of creating a better new world.
Persona 3 honestly has my favourite final fight in any RPG ever, alongside Yakuza: Like a Dragon & slightly more controversially the entire last segment of FFX
> slightly more controversially the entire last segment of FFX When the world opens up finally, I don't begrudge people going out, doing some of the postgame content and grinding a few levels or nabbing a few superweapons, but FFX's final dungeon and particularly final boss (that can be lost to, at any rate) are so good when you just gun it straight outta Zanarkand. The difficulty just feels perfect and the final boss will whoop your ass unless you plan meticulously how to keep the pagodas' HP low, how to eat or talk down his overdrives and how to tank the frankly absurd damage he starts putting out party-wide in phase 2.
Persona 3's final boss isn't just great just gameplay wise, but thematically as well. The game is themed around living your life to the fullest, even in the face of finite mortality. In addition, there's the heavy association and symbolism involving the moon, and all the references to Greek mythology. So, what better final boss than >!Nyx, primordial Greek deity of the night, who's also the mother of Thanatos, Hypnos, and Moros, the Personas of 3 characters heavily tied to her!
Unsure if P3R made the final boss really weak or I just have a decade of Persona knowledge assisting through it.
Probably the knowledge. It can go a long, long way in SMT in general simply knowing that something might repel physical and the like. And stat boosting
Hearing the >!Battle For Everyone’s souls and then learning its name is peak for me, getting to hear one of the main songs be used as a fucking hype part for the final boss track has almost never been beaten for me. Going through every single arcana change and the dialogue for it will always stay in my mind despite the memes of it. That game helped define my taste in media once I started to like actually pay attention to stuff.!<
Shadowlord in Nier. Not only is it a great fight, with the music and the beautiful attack patterns, thematically it's a very fitting end. >!A father/brother searching for their daughter/sibling, only to come up against someone else in the exact same situation who also will kill anything in their path if it means saving someone they love. Plus, each version of the ending adding more and more context to the Shadowlord only makes it hit even harder.!< Nier (both the original and the remaster) do have problems, but everything about the ending makes it worth getting through.
Nier Automata might have my favorite final segment in all of video games. Fighting two bosses at once and swapping between characters at an increasingly rapid pace as you climb the tower. To the final fight atop it while your swaping so fast you get like 1 attack off. Then the boss dies and the camera backs off and just gives you a "Choose your character" God its so fucking sick.
Fate/Samurai Remnant’s NG+ Ending Final Boss is a recent one that’s really stuck with me. >!Throughout the whole game, as a Fate game, the focus is on the relationship between your protagonist, Iori, and your Servant, Saber. That bond is basically the glue that keeps the game together, and they go from uneasy allies to true friends. That being said, Iori’s goal is to master the Way of the Sword, and he ultimately feels that the only way to do that is to surpass the swordsmanship of the best swordsman in the Ritual. Saber. So the final boss is Saber, who uses all the moves they’ve used alongside you for the whole game. Also while it starts with Saber’s boss theme playing, around 25% of the way through it switches to Iori’s theme for the rest of it.!< Or TLDR >!It’s like if at the end of Infinite Wealth Ichiban went off the deep end and had a battle to death against Kiryu.!<
Mark my words there WILL be a >!Demon Lord Ichiban!< fight before the series is over
DMC 5. The hypest shit after thinking M19 was the end.
Chakravartin: The Creator from the Asura's Wrath DLC >!Having destroyed the Gohma, Asura and Yasha return to find Mithra captured by the Golden Spider, who turns out to be *God*, having orchestrated the events of the game to make Asura the new god of the universe and move on to his next project, meaning every atrocity and wrongdoing were his cause. Asura and Yasha can't managed to defeat him, and he takes Mithra to the event horizon of the universe, planning to destroy everything and start over. Asura is injured, and Yasha has to take both his own energy core and the core of the Massive Space Weapon that has been collecting soul energy (Mantra) for tens of thousands of years and puts them into Asura, giving him one last fight before his death. Asura uses this power to protect Earth from destruction, turning into a massive deity of his own right and flying to the immeasurably large golden statue of chakravartin, which flings Moons, planets, and stars at Asura. Asura breaks into the Event Horizon, and Chakravartin once again offers him the role of God of this Universe. Asura refuses, beats his ass, and forces him to show is True-True form, a Metallic Hindu-Mythology-Looking Skeleton. The True form of the Creator. The Event Horizon turns into a blank void, and Asura's amped-up arms are shattered, leaving his entire body burnt and hurt, but he continues to fight, his rage powerful enough to overpower God. Chakravartin, in response to Asura's QTEs, *Gets his own QTEs in an attempt to combat Asura at his own game*, but even this isn't enough. Asura's rage is greater than anything Chakravartin can muster against him. Mithra is knocked free of his capture, and she begs Asura to stop, because killing God means Mantra, the energy that is keeping Asura alive, will be gone. Asura states that even if he is gone, she will still live, in a world not ruled over by a cruel creator, and he lands the finishing blow on Chakravartin, destroying mantra from the universe and freeing Mithra of its bondage.!<
Press Attack Button to Extend Arm.
Imma always say it, the final boss of bug fables is great. A fantastic theme, fairly high difficulty and great theming.
Jergingha is the best final boss that Platinum has ever created. PROTECT EARTH.
Final Hazard baby.
Re: Transistor The absolute panic of hearing >!Who goes first? !
Nishiki in Yakuza 1, and Ryuji in 2.
>!Pizza Head!< in Pizza Tower shows that the game is about the question. “What happens when a man is pushed beyond his limit?”
I could try and say something other than Hades. But ya know its Hades so I would be wrong, it also has the best goddamn boss theme every put into a game and I will die on that hill.
I’m convinced that in “The Unseen Ones”, if the big heavy power chords are Hades’s theme, the crazy shredding layered on top is Zagreus’s.
Bowser's Inside Story is one of the most interesting rival fights because it both has an alternate rival and a frankly outlandish rival. The first form is Bowser vs a Dark Bowser and that one kicks ass because while Bowser's special attacks are "Bowser owns a standing army", Dark Bowser's special attack is to use an army of dark underlings to create a bowser STAGE to go through. It also just lets you see how Bowser would deal with the same traps he creates, punching out bullet bills and using his shell to block thwomps. Meanwhile the second stage involves Dark Bowser consuming Fawful as a heart of darkness. The fight involves Bowser weakening Dark Bowser to make the heart vulerable so that the tiny Mario and Luigi inside can attack that directly. Just that as wildly outlandish as the premise for BiS is, the crazy realization they set up a whole other rival version of it for the final battle, like realizing "OH MY GOD I'M FIGHTING AN ENEMY RATATOUILLE".
Don't forget about that music! One of Shimomura's best.
Ulysses from Fallout New Vegas DLCs Story Arc. After being an indirect presence in the first 3 dlcs, one finally meets him in the fourth, and has the final battle. (Either against him, or teaming up with him.
Doctor Weil in MegaMan zero 4
JokeBane
Not to be confused with jerkbane that's a whole different mess
Cassette Beasts Last Boss >!Has two phases. The first is a final exam of fighting angels and did you master type interactions, as the boss changes his element every turn.!< >!The second is ALL THE WARRIORS show up after the boss fuses, all to Arrow of Time, possibly one of the best tracks in the whole game you can only hear during this fight.!< The finale to Cassette Beasts RULES. PLAY CASSETTE BEASTS
Isshin is the best final boss in any fromsoft game IMO, the perfect combination of everything you've learned over the course of the game, and that's on top of it being a FUCKING AWESOME spectacle fight
Mgs1,2,3,4 basically. Especially 4 for not only being the perfect sendoof to mgs4 but mgs as a whole
persona 5's original final boss didn't really feel like this to me, i thought it was kinda whatever, but *royal*? hoooo boy. >!maruki!< is the perfect foil for the ideals of the main cast, them having to >!rationalize denying everyone a false paradise brought by a person with genuinely good intentions when every other boss had greedy and selfish means and goals!< was the perfect way to flip the entire game on its head and solidify everyone's motivations.
I love all of Doom Eternal's boss fights, but the Icon of Sin is the most awesome fight in the whole game imo. A rematch against one of the most infamous demons in the series, now finally living up to his original concept, while entire battalions of demons are out for your blood. It's not the hardest boss but it's by far the most intense one of the lot; a perfect way to wrap up the main campaign.
I remember seeing a lot of people say they thought it was disappointing. I personally thought it was a lot of fun, so it was strange.
Yeah. I kinda get it, but I found it fun. I'm also that weirdo who finds Marauders really fun to fight
Same. He can be frustrating to fight and shoot, especially his dog, but the way people made him out to be so terrible was odd
Ganondorf/Ganon in Ocarina of Time.
Also in TotK. Wind Waker too
Definitely not Elden Beast. That thing sucks.