Well-crafted bosses should be both memorable and satisfying to clear. Moments like slaying Alduin at the end of Skyrim for the first time is a moment laser burned into the heads of many gamers. A quality fight is an adequate challenge but doesn’t interfere with the player’s attempt to enjoy the game’s narrative. Other times, however, you remember fights because they are mercilessly difficult and made you go outside for a walk. (unlikely)
Debate is ongoing over accessibility and whether or not developers should guarantee their players’ ability to beat any game they pay for. Game studios often take measures such as implementing difficulty settings so players of all skill levels can have fun. The bosses we’ll be looking at today though were created by dev teams seemingly out of malice for their games’ player bases. These are six bosses that will make you spike your controller like an American Football. Gameplay of them getting flawlessed will also be shown to add insult to injury.
Temperantia – Bayonetta
I saw gameplay of Bayonetta a couple of years ago and decided to play through it for… reasons.
I play Bayonetta for the fluid hack-and-slash gameplay mechanics 😉
But this game is pretty hard, especially on the higher difficulties. I moseyed my way through the first few levels and remember a mini-boss duo by the name of Grace and Glory sending me back to the lobby a couple of times. But I haven’t finished this game because a certain boss battle made me uninstall. Temperantia. A big lummox of a thing that follows the game’s boss art formula very well, big creepy face, lots of Arms. But this creepy guy’s arms are actually maces and miniguns.
I mean just look at this guy.
In the fight, Bayonetta must jump from three floating platforms to dodge a slam attack from one hand which lingers for the player to deal damage to. All while the other hand shoots lasers at the platform the player stands on eventually destroying it. Since the boss is immune to damage during its melee phase, getting close for the attack window is a good bet. However, the projectiles are sinisterly difficult to dodge and will stun-lock you past the damage window if one is caught in them. This boss will also take a hearty chunk of the player’s HP with one shot from either hand. Once you eventually remove both arms, the fight becomes easier, but I could not get past the initial phase.
(Video by 4K no HUD Gameplay)
The most comedic part is that this isn’t even a late-game boss. I’m embarrassed to not have made it halfway through the game before throwing in the towel. Feel free to light me up in the comments for being bad. I will likely soon go back to reattempt beating this game, just because I don’t like Temperantia’s stupid face
Capra Demon – Dark Souls
If this list is in terms of raw difficulty, it would be full of mentions from various FromSoftware games of the Soulsborne series. My pick comes from the first Souls title I ever played, Dark Souls Remastered. The Capra Demon. Granted the player has a hard time with the first 4 bosses in the game, this one is going to be rough. The difficulty gap between Bell Gargoyles which the player fights before this boss and this fight is exponential. There are few who adequately prepare for the absolute reckoning of the Capra Demon on their first playthrough.
He isn’t chill at all.
The arena is very small, which means the player is also fighting with wall collision which frequently cancels attacks. The Capra Demon himself is pretty scary, he dual-wields oversized machetes and wears a longhorn skull as a mask. He’s also shirtless and ripped which adds to intimidation along with a choral soundtrack. The Capra Demon also has dogs which eliminate all hopes of the player getting a fair 1v1 before they are defeated first.
He isn’t hard for a unique reason when discussing bosses in this series. He does a ton of damage and moves faster than you’d like him to. The boss room is the biggest disadvantage. But a plus is that once the dogs are gone you can kite the boss. There is a staircase in the boss room which the player can use to cheese the Demon with falling attacks. But the funniest method is pelting dung piles over the boss gate and letting the stinky damage over time effects kill the Capra Demon and his Hounds.
(Video by Roka)
Mom’s Heart – The Binding of Isaac: Repentance
The latest Repentance expansion for The Binding of Isaac reworks many of its difficulty features to ensure the player is increasing in skill through their progression. Like how completing six runs will permanently raise the difficulty in normal mode.
The player must reach the second floor of the “Womb/Utero” floor to fight Mom’s Heart.
I won’t even sniff the hardmode feature due to it making even the first two floors a nightmare to no hit. More special enemies means getting hit will more often cost one whole heart instead of just half. And with how many of these special enemies shoot projectiles or explode on death, it is hard to score any angel/ devil deals unless the player is really cracked. Like Youngbuck on YouTube who beats this boss as Isaac with no items and 12 black hearts.
Players of lower skill have runs consisting of barely getting by to the next floor and praying to get good gear in item rooms. Sometimes the random number generator does support big dreams and the player gets lil brimstone, or soy milk with explosive tears. This makes your DPS good enough to get to the final boss of the game, Mom. The fight between the player and Isaac’s mother is the key to progressing through the game. The first time you beat the game you fight a version of Isaacs’s mom who is much less dangerous than the one post difficulty increase. She has minions that are fast and damaging. She also has brimstone laser attacks, a large hitbox that can work for or against the player, and her attacks deal one heart each.
Veteran players of the series will say I’m just a big baby. There are many more advanced and more difficult bosses in the game. But I can’t tell you how many times my based RNG runs have ended in taking 8 hearts of damage to Mom before the finish and losing it all.
Master Gee: Toughest of the Invincible Bosses – Borderlands 2
Borderlands 2 is a game all about guns and the numerous variations of weaponry. Some of the best gear in the game are drops from “Seraph Guardians”. Bosses added through DLC Packs. These fights are mostly fun and essential for late-game gear.
Farming Master Gee from Captain Scarlett’s DLC is one of the ways to get the Ahab rocket launcher. A gun with the highest single-shot damage in the game making it useful for damage glitches. Like the one involving the Flakker shotgun or Pimpernel sniper. This is a grail for any Gunzerker, Psycho, or Commando build. But those who want to get one legit and not just buy it from the vendor in Oasis have to fight this cursed boss.
Buying the gun is always going to be the better and more time-efficient choice.
For the most part, Borderlands bosses have unique mechanics, but mostly they are just big blocks of health. Gee makes this list because he is the biggest block health among all seraph bosses and has a fight so frustrating and time-consuming, that it is unlikely most players have this rocket launcher from farming Gee.
Master Gee looks to be at least 10 feet tall. The Invincible boss should have taken up basketball.
Master Gee is the Master of a brood of sandworms, a new mob in this DLC. Gee has an infinite number of sandworms that will attack you in groups of 1-4 at a time. And while they spit corrosive venom in the player’s direction, Gee is shooting his torpedo RPG at the player. Bullets do nothing to the disgustingly large shield and pool of health on Master Gee too. That leaves the only path to victory being to kill one of the sandworms and kite Gee through the corrosive puddle that it leaves behind.
This process takes five forevers. That is why the community found a way to speed kill this boss by lowering the gate you enter the arena through onto Gee crushing him.
(Video by Borderland Glitches)
Empress of Light (Daytime) – Terraria
The “Terraprisma” in Terraria is one of the best summoner weapons in the game and looks cool. But earning it is a very tall order. The only way to attain this summon is to defeat the Empress of Light during daylight.
Nobody will judge you for skipping this boss entirely granted it is optional.
From 7:30 pm – 12:00 am in-game, a mob called the “prismatic lacewing” spawns in the hallowed region of a hardmode world. With a bug net, the player is able to catch this critter. Pressing the use button on this bug will release it and then killing it will spawn the Empress of Light.
The bug also emits effervescent light at night.
Fighting her during the nighttime is still no easy ask. But make a platform and take buffs, and it’ll probably be alright. However, during the day, a fight that is pretty doable with a late-game loadout turns into a four-minute war where you can barely take any damage.
(Video by scientistB)
The erratic flight patterns of the boss paired with the massive amounts of particles on your screen all being able to kill in one shot make this boss grade-A rage fuel. Players who can win this fight deserve a veterans discount.
Matt: Boss of All Bosses – Wii Sports
The folks at Nintendo must have hired a team of scientists to develop the greatest virtual athlete of all time. This man was Raphael Nadal on the tennis court. But also Tiger Woods on the golf course, Barry Bonds on the baseball diamond, and Tyson Fury in the boxing ring.
The Greatest Of All Time.
His name was Matt and he probably tuned you up in numerous sporting events.
Players who favored the boxing game mode likely resent this character more than others due to the furiosity of his barrage. Matt has hands that would make prime Mike Tyson cower in fear. He is an inhuman specimen and needs to submit a drug test sample immediately.
Even though AP89 won his fight against Matt, pay close attention to 0:45 where he gets clipped by Matt with a 3,1,2 combo so fast you can’t even see it clearly. The key here is to actually be good with slip counters, but that still won’t guarantee victory against Nintendo Deontay Wilder. There is no method to cheese him, you either win or succumb to fists that could crush diamonds.
