Annoying Bossfights?

[Joshua the Writer]

What do you think is the most annoying boss fight in any game you have made. I'd say all iterations of Kushala Daora from Monster Hunter. It basically abuses the wind pressure mechanics, where if you get slapped by wind from a monster (such as when it flaps its wings), it knocks you back a bit. Kushala Daora takes that one step further and has an aura of wind surrounding it, which covers pretty much all of it except for the tip of its tail, some of its wings, and its head. Basically covers 95% of the monster's body. It makes it so that melee weapons can't hit it effectively without being blasted back, and bow arrows and bowgun shots cannot even hit that area because it basically deflects them. Also, the freaking tornadoes are goshdarn annoying, and sometimes they torture my Xbox One (I have the normal Xbox One). In most MH games, a poison weapon is required to fight it, because poisoning the monster also makes the wind aura go away.

An image of Kushala Daora:

I honestly like the idea of a dragon capable of controlling wind, but Kushala Daora is exactly the wrong way to implement it into mechanics. It's fight is annoying, and in World, poison weapons no longer stop the wind aura, a weapon mechanic known as elderseal does, which I think that is kinda dumb, or could be used at the same time as elderseal. Elderseal basically lets you cancel out certain abilities of monsters of the Elder Dragon classification in Monster Hunter World and Monster Hunter World: Iceborne.

 

[Raggamuffin]

The Weapon enemies in FF7 and 8. Those sort of boss fights where they're not integral to the storyline - they're just there to be horrendously difficult and for players of a certain mindset to prove their worth.

Ed

 

[QueenOfFrance87]

I am more of an old school gamer, and have more than one hard boss to share.

On the NES online and SNES online apps on the switch, I have faced pretty tough bosses. I faced several bosses in Ghosts n' Goblins, and many of the bosses are immune to certain weapons, which can be a pain, especially if you accidentally grabbed the wrong weapon.

In Ninja Gaiden, I only had one bit of health by the time I defeated Bloody Malth, who literally shoots lightning fast bolts, making it impossible to dodge.

Mother Brain from Metroid and Super Metroid was difficult. You had to shoot glass whilst dodging turrets, which is annoying. I also had a tough time battling Ridley in Super Metroid.

I love Smash Ultimate, but some of the spirits were hard to defeat, especially the legendary ones. Also, defeating the final bosses were annoying in Story mode, but necessary to get that Mew spirit; even on Easy, it was difficult.

The Bloody Roar series had some difficult-to-unlock final fighters. I had to play through that game without losing a match, especially if you are trying to beat the game without transforming.

Also, the Death Egg boss in Sonic 2 is so cheap with the spiky hands, and you had to avoid them while defeating him. Playing as Knuckles is even harder here.

As far as Pokemon go, I think the hardest boss is Whitney from Gold and Silver. Even though all her Pokemon are Normal type, her Miltank is literally a tank; lots of HP as well as the Rollout move that can make my Pokemon faint. And she can replenish her HP with Milk Drink, too.

Well, that's all I could think of, I might think of more later and maybe write it down here. But yeah, I found these pretty hard.

EDIT: Totally forgot about the Boobeams in Mega Man 2. They are lightning fast, and you only have a few Crash bombs to defeat it.

 

[Wolfsage]

Timed ones.

 

[AGXStarseed]

While I've not played this one, I think a notable mention should go to Great Gurianos (also known as Gladiator) - more specifically the ZX Spectrum version.
The reason I bring this up is that, due to having to port an arcade game to a limited 48K of space, it meant some things had to be taken out. In the case of this game, they took out the ending (yes, really).

To truly make sure that no-one could 'finish' the game (since this version didn't have an ending), the programmers 'compensated' by taking the final villain - in this case a skeleton warrior - and literally making him invincible!
As such, you can hit the guy as much as you want and you'll never be able to win. If you try to cheat/hack your way past him, the game just crashes as there's nothing there for it to follow on from.

 

[Markness]

I used to have a hard time beating I-No in her Guilty Gear XX incarnations until I learned Megalomania’s patterns as well as how to use Faultless Defense. Before that, I would get wrecked fighting her most of the time.

I never could beat Final Bison in Street Fighter Alpha 3 unless I had the difficulty set low and even then I just couldn’t win with certain characters. I could probably do better now.
Same with Omega Rugal in KOF ‘98. The Samurai Shodown bosses were absolutely beastly and it took me some hours depending on the character I used to finally take them down. Shizuka Gozen in the current SS game can be tough for some characters but she’s not as bad as the older bosses.

I haven’t got very far in Dark Souls since the bosses I’ve encountered after the Gaping Dragon just wreck me.

On my first play through of the Final Fantasy VII remake, I got beat by some of the bosses and had to restart. They are easier on my current play through but they still have a lot of damage soak and hard hitting attacks.

Eve in Parasite Eve 2 was a pain. I couldn’t afford to miss a shot or get hit too much or I would have to not just face her again but also Brahman all over again.

Sigma in Mega Man X4 was tough to deal with, especially if you made the wrong moves.

I won’t even go into some of the post game bosses in the Disgaea franchise except that they make the Emerald and Ruby WEAPONs blush.

 

[Joshua the Writer]

While I've not played this one, I think a notable mention should go to Great Gurianos (also known as Gladiator) - more specifically the ZX Spectrum version.
The reason I bring this up is that, due to having to port an arcade game to a limited 48K of space, it meant some things had to be taken out. In the case of this game, they took out the ending (yes, really).

To truly make sure that no-one could 'finish' the game (since this version didn't have an ending), the programmers 'compensated' by taking the final villain - in this case a skeleton warrior - and literally making him invincible!
As such, you can hit the guy as much as you want and you'll never be able to win. If you try to cheat/hack your way past him, the game just crashes as there's nothing there for it to follow on from.

Great Gurianos sounds like a Monster Hunter monster.

 

[AGXStarseed]

Great Gurianos sounds like a Monster Hunter monster.

This is the game: Gladiator (video game) - Wikipedia

 

[Misery]

This unholy nightmare:

Right around 4:30 is when the boss is at it's worst, but... really the whole fight is chaos incarnate.

Binding of Isaac, a game with over 60 freaking bosses, has some real stinkers in there. But nothing in this game, or the entire genre, compares to this warped disaster.

Delirium has the ability to transform into most of the bosses in the game. Except that they are twisted versions, capable of constantly spewing bullets at all times while doing their usual attacks, except faster. Every time it transforms, it teleports. Its transformations/teleports are *instant*. In the literal definition of the word. No wind-up, no animation, no telegraphing, NO HOPE. What's more, it has no restrictions on them. It can be in the form of one boss, start an attack, and before bothering to complete that attack, transform/teleport and attack 3 more times with other bosses, not bothering to finish those attacks either because heck with you, player, you dont deserve fairness. It is possible for Delirium to transform like 7 times in the space of about 4-5 seconds. Also, when it transforms, there is no cooldown or delay: it typically begins its next attack before the sound effect finishes. And the ENTIRE TIME, no matter what form it is in or what attack it is doing, it will spray bullets absolutely everywhere. There is no actual pattern to its behavior, either. You cant learn patterns with him.

If that wasnt enough, Delirium is one of only two bosses in the game that possesses perfect armor. One of the things this game is known for is that sometimes, you end up with a completely overpowered build that can utterly melt even tough bosses in less than 2 seconds due to the insane damage output. But not this guy. There is a cap on how much damage he can take per second, a hard cap that nothing can surpass. This is a long, brutal fight no matter what you do. The bane of pretty much every player.

If that wasnt bad enough, there's the story element of it.

Beating Delirium unlocks ending #20, the true ending. In it, you discover what is REALLY happening, and in the process of that, you find out the true nature of Delirium, and what he represents. Aside from being quite depressing, you realize something: the fight with this boss is not only futile, but POINTLESS. Isaac's very tragic and dark fate is sealed from the very moment you start the game from the first time, and there's no way out of it for him. Delirium wins... no matter what you do. He exists only as a final torment and punishment for Isaac, and Isaac meets his fate the moment the boss goes down.

The one GOOD thing, the ONLY good thing, is that you arent forced to do this fight. There are many paths to winning a run, each one ending with a different final boss. Delirium is the *true* final boss, but yeah, even after unlocking his area you dont NEED to go there. The devs were wise in that decision, because many, many players would rage quit for good if they needed to fight this guy every time.


I can think of plenty of other irritating bosses in games, but for now that'll do.

 

[Wolfsage]

Super Nintendo's entertainment system Super Mario Bros. Cloud koopa throwing those spike things while you jump across platforms. The original "leap of faith".

Xbox Star Wars Naboo Starfighter.
End boss was a ship with explosive missile like bubbles. You had to dodge them and take down the ship. Then figure out how to get past the shield trapping you to blow the main reactor.
Without any aid.