What is a boss fight? In a sense, it is the culmination of all of the player's hard work. Hours of determination have brought them to this point—wouldn't it be terrible if that all meant nothing? Wouldn't it be disappointing to see that the boss that they have been working so hard to reach is nothing more than a pushover?
Too many games have reached this point. Players fight battle after battle to reach that final boss. Now a flick of the finger can kill them in only a matter of seconds—where is the fun in that and where is the challenge?
Updated April 16, 2022, by Ritwik Mitra: Boss fights are meant to be climactic encounters that test a player's mettle and serve as a barrier to further progress in the game. The final boss of any game has the added responsibility of being an epic encounter that will serve as a worthy and satisfying send-off to a game that's so far enraptured players' hearts for hours on end. However, there are times when these final encounters end up falling short of the mark, with the most egregious examples of the lot being mentioned below.
15 Alduin (The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim)
Alduin is one of the most daunting dragons in the entire game. His first appearance in Skyrim makes for a great first impression that's only strengthened with each successive encounter. However, when players finally fight the dragon as the final boss fight, they might find him to be too much of a pushover.
After all, exploring the lands of Skyrim is no meager feat, and players will have likely transformed into one-person wrecking crews by this point in the game. As a result, Alduin is barely a threat to most players by the time they finally put a stop to him.
14 Yu Yevon (Final Fantasy 10)
With its fantastic storytelling and beautiful soundtrack, Final Fantasy 10 is one of the greatest games in the series by a country mile. However, one has to say that the final boss encounter in this game is a ridiculous pushover.
After the glorious fight against Braska's Final Aeon, players need to get through what is basically an automated fight where no one in the party can die. It's meant to be a cinematic final battle instead of a challenging one and becomes more of a chore than it should be.
13 Letho (The Witcher 2: Assassins Of Kings)
The Witcher 2's storytelling chops were genuinely impressive. Players had a ton of control over the major events of the game, including whether they even fought the main antagonist to begin with!
Initially, players might consider the idea of skipping the final boss to be ludicrous... but it's only after they defeat Letho that they realize just how futile this battle really was. The Witcher 2 has an inverted difficulty curve as is, so encounters later on in the game become a breeze. This applies to Letho as well, whom Geralt can take down in seconds.
12 Moon Presence (Bloodborne)
For a boss that is supposed to hide the 'true' ending of the game, it's surprising to see just how weak the Moon Presence really is. It's a pushover of a battle, especially after players realize that its HP pool is ridiculously low.
Aside from an attack that stops players from healing and another one that drops them to 1 HP, the Moon Presence isn't really all that threatening. It's a shame, since Bloodborne generally delivers when it comes to hard-as-nails boss fights.
11 The Black Hand Of Sauron (Middle-earth: Shadow Of Mordor)
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor was one of the most surprising and engaging video games. It executed the concept of an open world to a T, with its Nemesis system allowing for some exciting gameplay scenarios as well.
However, the final boss fight of this game was a massive downer. The Black Hand of Sauron didn't even play a major role in this encounter, with his Talons serving as the final encounter instead. Players just had to storm the keep before a bunch of cutscenes ended the game for them instead.
10 The Destroyer (Borderlands)
The original Borderlands game will forever be remembered by fans, but, unfortunately, so will its final boss battle. In a game where players tear down psychos, bandits, and aliens, the final boss, known as The Destroyer, isn't that amazing.
It boils down to either being a bullet sponge, or an easy kill if players are overpowered enough. Gearbox changed the boss in the remastered version of the game, but it fell short, as well. They made some tweaks, added some new attacks, but it functioned mostly the same. Good on them for trying, though.
9 Calamity Ganon (The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild)
Breath of the Wild was an amazing accomplishment for the Zelda franchise. It finally offered an open world to explore, new enemies to fight, and new mechanics to enjoy. It's a real shame, then, that all of that hard work wasn't reflected in the final boss fight.
On their journey through Hyrule, players can choose to take down the four pieces of Ganon to make the final boss easier, as doing this depletes Ganon's health bar and takes away four additional fights. They can also choose to just run straight for him and probably end up beating him. The boss fight is so easy that people have been able to beat the game in under ten minutes. Maybe Ganon will do better in his next reincarnation.
8 Hoyt (Far Cry 3)
Far Cry 3 will remain in the hearts of every gamer who has played it. It will also be remembered as perhaps the best game in the Far Cry series. The only disappointing part of this game was the final boss fight.
Hoyt really comes out of nowhere, and players enter into the fight and take him down through quick-time events. What can be more disappointing than that? Well, not much. Ubisoft should have stuck with Vaas, as every gamer knows that he was the true villain of the game.
7 Gwyn, Lord of Cinder (Dark Souls)
Dark Souls is one of the most challenging games out there. With a tagline like "prepare to die," difficulty is to be expected. What wasn't expected is how much of a pushover Gwyn is. The path leading up to him is filled with Black Knights that make the final boss feel even easier in comparison.
Fans became disappointed when Gwyn could easily be defeated by parrying his attacks. That seems a little easier for someone who is made out to be a huge threat. He is supposed to be a god, right? Well, the ashen remnants of one, at least.
6 The Joker (Batman: Arkham Asylum)
The Joker is a fan-favored villain of the DC Universe, and no amount of bad interpretations have changed that. This was true until fans fought the Joker in Arkham Asylum. The Joker downgraded himself to a Bane look-alike that didn't fit his character.
The final boss fight was so bad that the Joker's goons were a tougher fight. That's right, the enemies the Joker throws at players posed more of a threat than the hulking beast of a former man. That is sad in any game, and it felt like a mockery of Batman's most iconic baddie.
5 Rodrigo Borgia (Assassin's Creed 2)
Rodrigo Borgia and Ezio finally go at each other at the end of Assassin's Creed 2. So much has built up to this moment, and what happens? A fistfight.
That's right, Ezio spends the entire game using his assassin's tools and killing off those who have him wrong, and he is ready to take down a man who has weaseled his way to becoming the pope, and it ends in a fistfight. What's worse is that players don't even kill Rodrigo at the end. Obviously Ubisoft wanted to remain historically accurate, but... well, come on.
4 The Hivemind (Dead Space)
Dead Space was one of the most amazing horror games to release in the past 20 years. The Necromorphs still haunt our dreams, but the same can't be said about the Hivemind. That abomination was the easiest part of Dead Space, which makes it all the more depressing.
The Hivemind features easy-to-hit weak points that burst when they are destroyed and attacks that could easily be dodged. If players happened to get grappled by it, they could easily shoot their way out. Nothing about the Hivemind made it seem like it was menacing enough to be a final boss. What a shame.
3 Frank Fontaine (Bioshock)
Too many fans can agree that Frank Fontaine made for a terrible boss. Bioshock was an amazing game, but no amount of good can outweigh this lazy excuse for a finale. The whole boss fight is nothing more than a game of cat and mouse.
Players shoot Frank, dodge, and then attack again. It's an annoying rinse and repeat that fans still argue about to this day. The creators of Bioshock had an opportunity to put in something more unique, but it ultimately failed.
2 Navarro (Uncharted)
Navarro didn't even seem to be the main antagonist of Uncharted, which might be the reason that this final confrontation is so poor. The whole fight has players chasing down a man with a shotgun. His goons will come out, and they pose more of a threat than Navarro.
When players finally reach the helicopter, they can easily dodge all of the shotgun blasts by hiding behind boxes. Even when they knock the shotgun out of his hands, Navarro will go after it, but players can easily get to him before he retrieves it.
1 Human Reaper (Mass Effect 2)
Mass Effect 2 is another game that will rightfully be considered the best in its series. Everything about this game was as close to perfect as players could get at the time... well, everything except for the final boss fight against the Human Reaper.
This boss fight felt weird, especially since the boss resembled the Terminator. The look of the boss wasn't the only thing fans didn't like. The combat felt more like the Hivemind fight from Dead Space with allies to heal. The boss was easy to dodge and had multiple weak points to hit.