- 3 years ago
These bosses just weren't worth the hassle.
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00:00 So, while not everybody plays video games for the challenge, a lot of people do. And
00:05 the sense of achievement in finally defeating a tricky boss is undeniable. Yet sometimes
00:09 a boss is so bloody annoying that players en masse have just skipped it outright, whether
00:14 bypassing an optional boss fight or just finding clever ways to circumvent a story boss that
00:19 you're supposed to battle the hard way. So let's take a look at them today, as I'm
00:23 Jules, this is WhatCulture.com, and these are 10 Annoying Video Game Boss Fights That
00:27 Everybody Skips.
00:28 10. Sephiroth - Kingdom Hearts
00:31 Square Enix took what should have been a thrilling blast of fan service and turned it into a
00:35 nightmarish endurance trial with Kingdom Hearts' optional boss fight against Final Fantasy
00:40 7 icon Sephiroth. The platinum match at Olympus Coliseum sees Sora battle Sephiroth in a fight
00:46 that truly separates the weekend warriors from the hardened veterans. His attacks are
00:50 powerful enough to take inattentive players out in record time, especially if you haven't
00:55 got second chance equipped and can't negate his one-hit kill attack Sin Harvest. Defeat
01:00 proved infinitely more irritating in the original PS2 version of the game, where cutscenes couldn't
01:04 actually be skipped, meaning that you had to sit through a 45-second preamble cutscene
01:08 every time you wanted to try again. And there comes a tipping point, where after hammering
01:13 at him for two or three hours, most players just give in and decide to sack him off. As
01:17 neat as it was to see him in the game, the legend of his difficulty quickly became known
01:21 enough that many players just never even bothered attempting it.
01:24 9. Warden Eternal - Halo 5 Guardians
01:27 Halo 5's campaign was, let's face it, pretty disappointing all in all. A fact aggravated
01:33 by a series of reoccurring encounters with its ultimate antagonist, the Warden Eternal.
01:38 The fights just aren't fun or clever. They're just boring and frustrating, characterized
01:42 by the Warden's high damage attacks and sheer amount of punishment that he can take before
01:46 going down. But the fifth and final time you battle him is undeniably the worst, and you're
01:51 forced to fight three versions of the damn Warden all at once. It's an extremely frustrating
01:55 fight that'll probably get you killed numerous times. That is, unless you use a much-welcomed
02:00 glitch to skip the fight entirely. That's right, upon entering the arena and triggering
02:04 the battle, catapult yourself towards a raised platform and execute a ground pound. You're
02:08 then able to exit the arena via a nearby door, while the Warden trio just awkwardly stares
02:13 up at you, seemingly unable to reach you or do anything about your scarpering. And just
02:17 like that, you can save yourself hours and hours of anguish trying to beat them for real,
02:20 especially if you're playing on Legendary difficulty. Hilariously, despite the glitch
02:24 being discovered within days of Halo 5's release, 343 never bothered to patch it, granting
02:29 a lifeline to struggling players. And it's just as well, because you know what? This
02:32 boss fight sucks.
02:33 8. Queen Sigrun, God of War
02:37 The ultimate challenge in 2018's marvelous God of War title is, thankfully, optional,
02:42 and comes in the form of Valkyrie Queen Sigrun, who can only be reached by first defeating
02:46 eight ultra-tough Valkyries, which is enough to put off a lot of players already. But even
02:50 if you do reach Sigrun, though, the boss fight becomes an exercise in self-flagellation,
02:54 no matter the difficulty you're playing on. In addition to having tons of health, she
02:58 possesses most of the Valkyrie's abilities, and worst of all, can minister a random pounce
03:03 attack that can kill you in a single strike.
03:05 Now, she doesn't quite make the other Valkyries look trivial per se, but it's not too far
03:09 off it, such is the punishing extent of her hardiness and combat versatility. Only those
03:14 who have categorically mastered the game's combat will have a hope in hell of beating
03:18 her, because players have spent literally hours just trying to defeat Sigrun on easy
03:22 difficulty. Yeah, she's that tough.
03:24 7. The Nameless King, Dark Souls 3
03:28 So here's the first of two FromSoftware entries on our list, and we begin with the infamous
03:32 Nameless King from Dark Souls 3. Without question one of the trickiest boss fights in any FromSoftware
03:38 game, the Nameless King is at least an optional obstacle that you're in no way obligated
03:42 to suffer through. Those who did, however, will have to face off against not only the
03:45 mighty armored fella himself, but also his terrifying dragon steed, the King of the Storm.
03:50 Defeat the King of the Storm, which in large part to a terrible camera is no picnic itself,
03:54 and you'll face the Nameless King in one-on-one combat, where his vicious lightning attacks
03:59 can almost one-shot unsuspecting players.
04:01 Dodging is the name of the game here, but his attacks are extremely difficult to avoid,
04:05 enough so that even many hardy Dark Souls players ultimately decided to throw in the
04:10 bloody towel.
04:11 6. The End - Metal Gear Solid 3 - Snake Eater
04:15 Now, there's a strong argument to be made that Metal Gear Solid 3's The End is one
04:18 of the most ingenious boss fights ever conceived, as players face off against a geriatric yet
04:23 extremely capable sniper who can cause them a real headache. The End's extreme aptitude
04:28 at tracking and subduing the player will result in most being sent back to the beginning of
04:32 the battle numerous times, and while figuring out a way to beat him is fun the first time,
04:36 it's a boss fight that can feel a little bit laborious on repeat playthroughs. Yet
04:39 Hideo Kojima seemingly anticipated this response, and so included two methods for players to
04:44 skip the fight altogether. You can either shoot The End with a sniper rifle earlier
04:47 on in the game when he briefly appears in the distance, outside of a cutscene, or fast
04:51 forward your system clock by a week and let him die of old age.
04:54 While you're definitely depriving yourself if you don't beat The End the hard way on
04:57 your first playthrough, you can't really be blamed for wanting to speed through it
05:00 the next time. It's clever, but also potentially infuriating when he gets the better of you
05:04 again and again and again.
05:07 5. Iazumat - Final Fantasy XII
05:10 To be polite, Final Fantasy XII's final elite mark, Iazumat, can just get in the bloody
05:15 bin. Like a lot of the series' super bosses, even reaching this stage takes a Herculean
05:19 level of effort in and of itself, but persevering through the actual fight is a resolve-shattering
05:24 exercise beyond compare, because this boss has an eye-watering 50 million HP. Although,
05:29 to be fair, the Zodiac remaster included a nerfed version of this fight, but still the
05:33 battle can take even skilled players several hours to complete.
05:36 And beyond this absurd amount of health, it's got a non-zero chance of instakilling your
05:40 party members and will throw up defences mid-fight, which limit the damage of your attacks. It
05:45 is a textbook example of a video game pointedly chastising the player, and unless you've got
05:49 a lot of free time that you really want to waste, it's just not worth it. Though you
05:53 do get 30,000 gil and the God Slayer's Badge, which can be used to unlock one of the game's
05:57 strongest weapons, the Worm Hero Blade, that's not nearly enough to compensate for both the
06:02 time spent and the mental anguish it takes to fell this bloody thing.
06:06 4. Mr. Tommasi - Control
06:09 One of Control's post-game side missions sees the player taking on a hiss-corrupted Mr.
06:13 Tommasi, who is extremely adept at dodging your attacks and has a mighty shield to boot.
06:18 Furthermore, once Tommasi is down to half health, he'll spawn a bunch of hiss-charged,
06:22 and a hiss-distorted will show up out of nowhere, to sneak attack you if you aren't paying
06:26 the utmost attention to your surroundings. Just a few hits are enough to kill you here,
06:30 which becomes especially infuriating in the latter stages of the fight when more waves
06:34 of hiss minions spawn, making it incredibly easy for even supremely skilled players to
06:38 become overwhelmed. Plus, even if you defeat Mr. Tommasi himself, the fight isn't officially
06:43 over until you've mopped up all the other enemies in the arena.
06:46 Were this fight a mano-a-mano rematch with Tommasi, then it wouldn't have been so bad,
06:50 but the swarm of ancillary foes nudge it into outright bullsh*t territory. Preserve your
06:54 sanity and give this one a miss, as so many of us did.
06:58 3. The Operator - The Witcher 2 - Assassins of Kings
07:02 The Witcher 2's optional boss battle against The Operator is truly the stuff that nightmares
07:07 are made of. He summons insanely powerful gargoyles, is resistant to most poisons and
07:11 weapon oils, throws fireballs, has a defensive shield, and can even teleport around the map.
07:16 The result is a boss fight that is the gaming equivalent of smacking your head against a
07:19 brick wall, largely due to the sheer number of threats the player must keep track of and
07:23 attempt to negate. And that's without getting into the invisible walls and dodgy environmental
07:27 hitboxes which severely restrict your movement during the fight, only compounding the massive
07:31 cluster headache that is this boss battle. Simply put, if you haven't got a very good
07:35 build and don't go into the fight with a sound strategy, you will get absolutely hosed
07:39 by The Operator again and again and again. And unless you're an extremely committed
07:43 player, why wouldn't you just bounce off this and go back to the parts of the game
07:46 that are, you know, actually enjoyable?
07:49 2. The Headless - Sekiro - Shadows Die Twice
07:53 FromSoftware players are a hardy bunch indeed, though even the most diehard fans have their
07:58 limits, especially where optional bosses are concerned. In that respect, there's a good
08:02 chance that you couldn't be bothered to take on the four headless mini-bosses in Sekiro
08:06 - Shadows Die Twice, especially as skipping them doesn't prevent you from picking up
08:09 the game's Platinum Trophy. The headless are a major pain in the ass to even highly
08:14 skilled FromSoft players, surrounding themselves with a black mist that can stop you sprinting
08:18 or dashing, while their attacks also inflict the Terror status. And if you haven't got
08:22 some Divine Confetti, which will dampen the headless' resistance to regular blades,
08:26 don't even bother, because the fight will be the slog to end all slogs otherwise.
08:30 Unlike most challenging bosses in other FromSoftware games, the headless aren't a lot of fun to
08:35 conquer because the deck feels so aggressively stacked in ways that really don't allow
08:39 you to learn from your mistakes. It's just cheap, enough so that even the most seasoned
08:43 players might just up and leave. So at least we can count our blessings in that the headless
08:46 are kind of easily ignored.
08:50 Inner Agent 3 - Splatoon 2 - Octo Expansion
08:54 Inner Agent 3 from Splatoon 2's Octo Expansion is, to be blunt, a whole bunch of bulls***.
08:59 Now don't let the game's sprightly, appealing visuals fool you. This hidden boss, unlocked
09:03 by acquiring all 80 Mem Cakes, has made many an adult around the world assume the fetal
09:07 position in a pathetic, tear-soaked mess. The boss fight is a five-phase cage match
09:12 in which Agent 3 is insanely fast, aggressive, and hardier than ever before. To make matters
09:17 worse, you're not given much cover, and there are no checkpoints between the five phases.
09:21 Add to this that you need to be constantly moving and checking your ink levels and shield,
09:25 as well as keeping an eye out for autobombs being fired your way, and the battle quickly
09:28 becomes an exercise in tiresome plate spinning. People have spent hours and hours trying to
09:33 beat this damn thing, enough so that many simply decided to enjoy the breezier main
09:37 campaign for what it is, and just save themselves a whole lot of stress.
09:40 And there we go, my friends. Those were 10 Annoying Video Game Boss Fights That Everybody
09:44 Skips. Hope you enjoyed that, and please let me know what you thought about it down in
09:47 the comments section below. As always, I've been Jules, you can go follow me over on Twitter
09:50 and type in @RetroJ but the O is a zero, or you can swing by Live and Let's Dice where
09:56 I do all of my Warhammer battle reports and streaming outside of work, and it'd be great
09:59 to see you over there, my friends. But before I go, I just want to say one thing. I don't
10:02 want you to skip out on something today, and that is a bit of self-love and self-care,
10:06 because you deserve all of the best things in life. Yes, you do. And don't let anything
10:10 or anyone else tell you otherwise, alright? You deserve love, you deserve happiness, you
10:13 deserve success, you deserve just the best things, okay? Now go out there and absolutely
10:18 smash it. I believe in you. As always, I've been Jules, you have been awesome, never forget
10:23 that, and I'll speak to you soon. Bye.