Favorite Video Game Bosses/Villains Thread

As the title says. If there's already such a thread, then my bad.

Anyway, probably my favorite in recent video gaming is probably Konstantin Brayko from Alpha Protocol. He's just so damn entertaining that it's easy to overlook his more reprehensible qualities.

Plus the fight against him is probably the best boss fight music in recent gaming, in my opinion.

Henry, Elvis, Nightmare, Doctor Zombot, Quadraxis, the Water Wraith, that damn chopper, and that giant Eggman robot. Oh, and nearly every boss from Shadow Of The Colossus.

• Henry is just fun and hard. Especially on Bitter. No More Heroes in general had great bosses.
• God Hand did too, but Elvis was great because of everything. The music, the characters, the actual gameplay, everything.
• Nightmare is one of the most inventive Metroid bosses, and JEEBUS HIS FACE IS MELTING!
• Doctor Zombot was just hilarious, especially when he began dropping trailers. Plus, great music.
• Quadraxis is a fifty foot tall robot. Does anything more need to be said? Okay, the awesome music, the myriad ways you could kill him, and the awesome Annihilator beam you got afterwards all made him even better.
• The Water Wraith chased you around in a really creepy fashion, and the actual fight was fun, if easy.
• The Chopper was just satisfying to kill, and the final part where it began dropping bombs like a Touhou boss was hilarious.
• Sonic The Hedgehog 2's final boss took twice as many hits to kill as every single other boss in the game, had cool music, and had a neat mustache.

edited 30th Mar '11 4:47:04 PM by Scardoll

Captain Schwann.

It certainly helps that the battle is the climax of a Wham Episode. Also, Schwann himself is my most favorite battle in the game, and it manages to be a really tough fight, as two out of three of your healers are missing, and the third one isn't very good at healing.

I know Portal gets enough gushing as is, but Glados kept me compelled through the whole game.

I love how you see her just going gradually insane through out the game. She starts out completley-deadpan-but-so-transparently-malicious, which just makes it funnier when she looses her cool and maskes her insecurity by yelling anything she can think at you.

The actual bossfight against Glados is pretty boring... Until you actually try listening to what she's saying.

The cake recipe had me in fits.

Yeah Glados was AWESOME.

QUADRAXIS. That is easily one of the best boss battles of any video game. Seriously.

Also, from Pokemon Ranger: Guardian Signs, I really liked the Ditto battle. A battle against a small pink amorphous blob with no direct attacks doesn't seem very interesting, does it? A battle against a small pink amorphous blob that shapeshifts into the 3 Legendary Beasts over the course of the battle, however? Hmm...

For bosses, final Jean and Father Baldur in Bayonetta. I mean the music, atmosphere, and fights themselves are just epic beyond belief. Baldur was a bit easy though compared to Jean(who's a complete bitch on Nonstop climax). Still loads of fun.

Favorite villain? Hazama, from Blazblue. No one trolls em like he does. Others are Rugal Berstein from King of Fighters and Geese Howard from the Fatal Fury series.

edited 30th Mar '11 6:04:50 PM by Vertigo_High

[1]

From Bit Trip Beat. Speaks for itself (ending's a major spoiler, though).

Other games with good bosses include:

• Final Fantasy V: Easily the Final Fantasy game with the most Puzzle Bosses (even Omega, Shinryu, and Neo Exdeath sort of fell into Puzzle Boss territory). While some were annoying (Wendigo, Crystals, etc.), I thought most of them were pretty clever and they go well with the Job System and requiring multiple different approaches to beat. Especially the Rift bosses, which had exploitable weaknesses making them trivial if you know what to do. Also, a few were hilarious (Minotaur, Necrophobe, and of course Gilgamesh).
• Street Fighter II: The methodic AI made me feel like I was actually being challenged rather than randomly pushed around, Artificial Stupidity aside. The final four were quite varied if a little overwhelming at first (and still are, because I suck at fighting games).
• Mario And Luigi Bowsers Inside Story: Like the Final Fantasy V examples, Bowser X felt really satisfying to face. Aside from being freaking Bowser at his peak, his wide moveset challenges you with just about everything you've learned through the game. I'd also like to mention Peach's Castle, a perfectly paced fight. ENEMY STRENGTH IS ADMIRABLE. BUT YOU ARE FINISHED!
• Red Eye from Sonic 3 And Knuckles, otherwise known as the only truly challenging miniboss (okay, Carnival Night Zone's miniboss caused me trouble, but that's because I was slow in catching on to how to damage it). Pretty clever merger of Sonic The Hedgehog 2's Metropolis and Wing Fortress bosses, and it really tests your aptitude with the insta-shield.
• King Galaxian from Pac Man World. Like the Bit Trip Beat example, speaks for itself. Pity the second game's bosses were so by-the-numbers in comparison (For starters, they use the same boss 3 times).

edited 30th Mar '11 6:57:47 PM by Cliche

• That giant Zombie Gorilla from The Ball. It's damn huge, it stomps everywhere, and beating it kinda reminded me of Quake.
• Speaking of which, Cthon itself. It's actually rather fun, although easy to beat, but fighting this guy must have convinced a lot of people who played the Shareware version to buy the whole game.
• Bone Head was pathetically easy to beat if you had a Sniper Rifle and some patience, but he does drop a nice SMG.
• If a Driving Game counts, then I nominate the Sheriff from the Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit mission "Blacklisted." I mean, you're in a Mercedes-Benz SL 65 AMG Black Series against not just the cops, but the County Sheriff, who is riding in a Chevrolet Corvette Z06. I think one of the best parts of that mission is the chance to wreck the Sheriff's car.

Too many to name all of them. Kane and Revolver Ocelot are the two big ones.

edited 30th Mar '11 7:14:37 PM by Rationalinsanity

I second Bowser X. Also, YO DAWG I HEARD YOU LIKE BOWSER SO WE PUT A BOWSER IN YOUR BOWSER SO YOU CAN FIGHT WHILE YOU FIGHT.

Chykka was a looooooong fight, but it was awesome. Especially when the platforms begin to sink and you hang from the grapple points while shooting at it.

True Ultimecia from FFVIII. Its the battle I immediately think of when I think 'Epic Boss Fight'. Not in terms of difficulty, just in sheer epicness. And her boss theme is in my top 3 favourite boss themes of all time.

I was listening to Ultimecia's final battle theme the other day, and it made me realize that it's such an underrated boss theme. The fight is awesome too.

Some of my favorites off the top of my head:

• Final Fantasy V: Any of the Gilgamesh fights, because he's probably my favorite supporting villain. IT'S MORPHING TIME!
• Final Fantasy VI: The final fight with Kefka. Mainly because I love "Dancing Mad," and Kefka's a pretty awesome villain.
• Final Fantasy X: Yunalesca, even though she's That One Boss, because ever since my first playthrough I always level grind like crazy before her fight so I can curb stomp her. I like Seymour's final fight too, mostly for the music.
• Kingdom Hearts: Chernabog, because you're fighting the Nightmare Fuel-inducing demon from Fantasia and it's totally awesome. Dragon Maleficent is always cool too. Maleficent was such an awesome villain in the first game.
• Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days: The Saix fight, just because I find it cathartic to replay the mission and beat him up. Also the Xion fight, although her second form is annoying.
• Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep: Any of the Vanitas fights, mainly because of the music. And because he's awesome.
• Chrono Trigger: Magus, again for musical purposes, and he's one of my favorite Chrono Trigger characters.

And a couple of random ones from some of the games that I played a lot when I was younger:

• Klaww from the first Jak And Daxter game really stands out in my mind for some reason, even though it's been years since I've played it. Maybe because I thought dodging boulders and spamming yellow Eco was fun?
• Neo Cortex from Crash Bandicoot Warped. That fight kicked my ass so badly when I was younger, but I still remember how awesome it felt to finally knock him down into that hole.
• Nitrous Oxide from Crash Team Racing because I played that game so often when I was around 8 or so that I could completely own him. There was also a race in the purple gem cup that put you against the four other bosses (Ripper Roo, Papu Papu, Komodo Joe, and Pinstripe) that was fun too.

edited 30th Mar '11 10:13:02 PM by Serenitas

Speaking of Days, I found it immensely satisfying to beat up Riku, and wish I could've done the same to DiZ.

The Immortal One, from Planescape Torment.

Irenicus from Baldur's Gate 2. For being David Motherfucking Warner. Actual Name.

Sovereign and Harbinger from Mass Effect have epic voice treatments.

General Azimuth, from Ratchet And Clank: Crack In Time was a pretty good villain, and had an atmospheric final fight.

Doctor Breen. Doctor Loboto.

Kreia. Holy fuck this woman. And Ravel Puzzlewell, by extension. Literally.

I liked doing the Riku fight too (mainly because in the first part of the mission you can use Dual-Wielding Roxas who is so much better than the one you can use in mission mode—it's a shame you can't keep duel-wielding for the whole fight), but there's just something that satisfies me so much in beating up Saix over and over again. Probably 'cause he's such a dick in the game, and it's not nearly as annoying as the fight with him in KHII (although come to think of it, I like that one too—ALL SHALL BE LOST TO YOU!).

But the Riku fight is also awesome because it's pretty much the playable version of the secret ending from the first game, and it reminds me of the days before KHII came out and everyone was all "Who's that blond kid, and why is Riku blindfolded?"

I remember thinking "Why can I not do this in-game?"

Anyway, favourite villains?

• Revolver Ocelot
• Kane
• Xehanort
• Sovereign
• Zoran Lazaravic
• KREIA. Holy balls, Kreia might just be one of the greatest villains ever.

As for favourite bosses:

• Vanitas
• The entirety of Kingdom Hearts II's endgame bosses.
• Riku, as mentioned above. The time you fight Ansem-possessed Riku in Kingdom Hearts 1 definitely qualifies as well.
• Darth Malak.

'Bout it, really. Most I can think of. I've got a lot of favourite bosses, but these are the ones that really stick out.

edited 30th Mar '11 11:52:59 PM by Legionnaire

God/Ultimate Rugal from Capcom Vs SNK 2. The atmosphere, music, stage and intro just set the mood for the final showdown. Plus the way he owns Akuma at the start of the fight shows he means business.

Villains? none.

Bosses, on the other hand? Doomsday Zone, Gilgamesh and Exdeath, Cirno, Yukari and Utsuho

Doomsday Zone: DAT. MUSIC. AND IT'S A GREAT LEVEL. Gilgamesh has good music, too, and is pretty iconic. Exdeath? oh wow Exdeath, he was my first experience of the more typical RPG boss with crazy backgrounds ans such. THE STRONGEST is jsut my favourite character in that series (and the first I was introduced to)< whereas both Yukari and Utsuho have awesomem usic (though I've never actualyl fought them i nteh bullet hells)

Twinrova from Ocarina of Time and Ninetails from Okami are two among my favorite bosses. Father Balder from Bayonetta and Majora from, well, Majora's Mask are my favorite villains.

edited 1st Apr '11 7:23:40 AM by Sortuob

Ridley.

Bosses?

• Black Heart, for being a cool looking boss with an Awesome Music that backs it up.
• Ajattara, Alacran, and Satariel.
  • These boss fights are backed up with awesome music.
  • Ajattara makes good use of the camera changes when you're fighting it in tank form, and when it's chasing you on it's plane form.
  • Alacran, for one simple reason: Scorpio.
  • And I can't tell about the other favorite boss.
• EVERY SINGLE BOSS FROM CRIMZON CLOVER. THAT IS ALL.
• Nineball Seraph. Sure it may be That One Boss, but it's satisfying to destroy it while dodging everything, from missiles to lasers. Also, This.

edited 1st Apr '11 1:00:32 PM by AttObl

wait. nineball... and dodging everythign? THE STRONGEST.

edited 1st Apr '11 12:48:21 PM by TARDISES

Favourite villain: Kuja.