Boss battles are and have been a constant of gaming since some of the first arcade cabinets. Working your waythrough hordes of low-strength enemiesto fight a boss who is a challenge all by themselves has always been a real treat. Whether it’s a giant lizard in a castle, a knight of dubious origins, or an evil mastermind, boss battles are one of the peak gaming experiences.
While most increase the difficulty, some even increase the emotions too. Nothing is quite as difficult as fighting an already tough boss through tears (whether they be grief or rage). Here are some of the toughest bosses that test your emotional and gaming skills at the same time.
Not many people go to 2D games for incredible storylines, but hidden there among the often simple graphics are some stories you may’t find anywhere else. The Binding of Isaac is one such game where the storyline is dark and often culminates in some emotional boss battles.
As you learn more of the story, the tasks that face you just become more and more grim, and the game takes on an all-new grimness to it. None so much as fighting Mom, though. The eye peeking in to check on you, the morphed sound of her calling her son’s name, it all adds up to quite an emotional experience, one that lived on in the minds of players for some time.
The Metal Gear series loves an odd boss fight. Old snipers with parrots, men on roller-skates sipping wine with a straw,psychics that read your game’s save data; they aren’t afraid to think outside the box. Sometimes, though, instead of peculiarity, the games just hit you with pure emotion, such as fighting The Boss at the end of Snake Eater.
The history between the characters, the field of flowers, and the music. It all culminated into a serene experience that worked beautifully as the end piece of the game. Seeing Snake unhappy about not having a choice to defeat her was a perfect end to all the fights leading up to that point.
The Last of Us series is full of emotion, which is surprising for a game in the zombie apocalypse genre. The first game had some pretty serious fights, but nobody saw what was coming in The Last of Us Part 2. After seeing Joel die in the first 15 minutes of the game, following Ellie on her quest for revenge was quite a twisting tale.
The fight in the basement of the hospital may not have been the end of things, but it was in many ways the outlet of emotions for both the characters and many of the players. Hoping you’d finally get the drop on Abby just to continue the chase once again, it was such an emotional rollercoaster that only built the rest of the way through the game.
There are plenty of bosses in the original Dark Souls game that had people showing emotion at their screens. Usually, that emotion was anger… but not always. Seeing Sif for the first time, high above the moon, was quite a treat.
A giant fluffy dog was unexpected compared to the monsters that usually call Dark Souls home. But, slowly realizing you had to fight Sif, right there by his master’s grave, was a boss fight few were ready for. The difficulty was high, but the emotional difficulty was far higher.
There are a lot of reasons you’ll find the protagonist of the game you’re playing needing to fight a boss. Usually, it’s a pretty good reason, too, but few are as emotional as choosing to fightGehrman in Bloodborne.
A hunter like yourself, he simply wants to take you away from the evil world you are trapped in, and you wish to do the same. What follows isn’t a fight of survival or anger, but simply trying to help one another. A surprising amount of emotion from such a gruelling game.
Every so often in a Dark Souls game, there comes a boss that catches people by surprise, and it isn’t always because of a deadly move set. The Twin Princes of Dark Souls 3 do just that, and it happens due to the lore that binds them to their world.
Both having duties far beyond what they were prepared for, they chose to stay with one another as the world crumbled around them. One cursed, and the other took on that curse to ease his brother’s suffering. It’s a cruel place you find them in, but they give it their all once you approach them as a challenger, making for a bitter-sweet fight.
At first glance, Undertale looks like a pretty cute game. With all the talking flowers and cute skeleton guys, one may mistake it for a cozy adventure or a kid’s game, even. Butthis game’s storyis actually quite a dark look into morality that you may not expect.
Sans, the final boss of the genocide route, proves that in spades. Relentlessly bringing up every bad choice you made, every person you killed, can be a lot to handle. Plus, he is just a tough boss in general, which doesn’t help the rush of emotions you’ll feel fighting him.
The Borderlands series isn’t where most people would go for an emotional experience. The series is much more comfortable dealing with humor than it is sadness, but to get the best laughs, sometimes you have to temper that with more serious emotions. By the time you reach Borderlands 2, you’ve seen how much Mordecai and Bloodwing are a good pair.
Unfortunately, you’ve also seen how cruel Handsome Jack is. Those things combine in the form of the tortured and mutated form of Bloodwing attacking you in a boss fight that caught plenty off guard. Fighting a former friend, as you hear Mordecai go through the full range of emotions, is something Borderlands fans won’t ever forget.
Fans of Elden Ring will know that it combines some of the best facets of the Soulsborne genre into one epic package. Like any game of the genre, the boss battles are the pinnacle of the experience, and Elden Ring was far from afraid to pull punches, especiallywhen it came to Malenia.
By the time you find her, you have probably dealt with Radahn and seen the effects of the scarlet rot. But to find her, hidden in the roots of the tree of the person she was sworn to protect, blind, missing limbs from her curse, asleep, and altogether uncertain of what is going on around her, it’s a lot to handle. The fight that follows is a brutal lesson in what Elden Ring can throw at you in one fight, which is more than enough to bring some to tears.
