ThePlayStation 2has thousands upon thousands of games. Myriad titles within myriad sub-genres. An all-around stone-cold classic of a video games home console. That’s why we’ve been ranking so many darn things about the PS2, and hopefully, y’all have been reading ‘em.
In the realm of boss fights, Sony’s second-gen titan is among the best. Not that I have ever jotted down every console’s relative ranking in my personal view of relative overall boss fight strength. But I could totally see myself having done so. These are my picks for the best of the best, the bosses who have stuck with me from the PS2’s heyday up until today.
Luke fon Fobre tends to leave a bad first impression. The protagonist of Tales of the Abyss starts off whiny, entitled, spoiled, and generally uninterested in being a helpful, kind, and least of all heroic, kind of fellow.
Tales of the Abyss, though, is all about character growth. Luke’s the centerpiece of it, and by the end of the story, he’s transformed into one of the most dashing and selfless figures in the series.
What does any of this have to do with the game’s final boss, Van Grants? Van was Luke’s mentor, his sword instructor, his all-around unofficial caretaker. But he’s a bad seed. He’s the main antagonist, and he’s got some wild schemes up his sleeve. As much as he skillfully disguises it, he’s not, in fact, a good influence on Luke.
The showdown between Luke and Van is something players will be waiting much of the game to behold, and the execution of it doesn’t miss the mark. Bringing down Van is a thrilling feeling. It’s the completion of Luke’s incredible arc.
Final Fantasy 12
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Final Fantasy 12 transports us to Ivalice, in the midst of war between Archadia and Rozarria. Dalmasca is a helpless kingdom stuck in the middle, and home to wannabe sky pirate Vaan. Together with Dalmasca’s princess and a motley crew of allies, they work to resist Archadian rule.
Yiazmat is Final Fantasy 12’s optional superboss. Or rather, the strongest of several. FF12 is bursting at the seams with optional battles. Truth be told, it wouldn’t have hurt to have sacrificed a few of them in service to enhancing the back half of the story. But I digress. And in any case, I love all these hard-as-nails side quest battles, so I should stop complaining.
None hit so hard, andnonehave so much HP, as Yiazmat. Named in honour of Yasumi Matsuno, FF12’s original director and the creator of its multi-game setting of Ivalice, Yiazmat holds nothing back and will take several hours to defeat. Time was, it took even longer, but with The Zodiac Age, you can fast-forward once you get into the perfect rhythm with Gambits. Whew.
Triumphing over a fight so brutally long feels amazing. It’s surely a memorable feat.
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (2004)
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is a prequel game in Hideo Kojima’s stealth action series. Set during the Cold War, it follows Naked Snake on a mission to rescue a rocket scientist from deep within the Soviet Union.
The first three Metal Gear Solid games have an extraordinary collection of boss fights. MGS4’s doesn’t quite match, and MGS5’s is nowhere near them, but they still have their moments. Liquid Ocelot? Fantastic finale, that.
None of the original MGS titles have quite so strong a suite as Metal Gear Solid 3, and The End is one of the two biggest reasons as to why. The fight against this centenarian sniper is intentionally slow-paced. It encourages a methodical approach, provides a large jungle environment to sneak across, and offers several golden ways to win. One of which is so funny that there’s no way in heck I’m spoiling it here.
The tension in this boss fight is off the charts. Whether it takes you mere minutes to down The End, or over an hour, you’ll feel the achievement as much as Naked Snake does.
Persona 3
Originally launched in 2006 for PlayStation 2, Persona 3 is the fourth game in the long-running Persona series from Atlus. Set in the fictional Japanese city of Iwatodai, it sees your character join SEES and investigate the Dark Hour, a supernatural phenomenon. Harnessing the power of Personas, the ominous Tartarus tower stands in your way of discovering the truth.
Persona 3’s plot is a slow burn. For much of the game, its focus is chiefly on the development of its cast. The mysteries pile on, and the answers are only half-measures.
It’s all quite intentional, though. In the final act, when the story spins into overdrive and the end of the world is nigh, it’s all those bonds which the protagonist has forged that make the grand battle against Nyx so worthwhile. The stakes are tremendous. Not just because the planet is at stake, but the hero may be forced to make a heck of a sacrifice.
Persona 3 Reload is a worthy remake, by the by, although if you have dreams of choosing a female protagonist, you’re going to be stuck with Persona 3 Portable. Just so ya know.
Dante’s clash with his brother Vergil in Devil May Cry 3: Dante’s Awakening is flashier than anything else in a technical action game that’s got flash in spades. Devil May Cry has always laid it thick with the flair; scoring the best kills you can muster earns you an ‘S’ for ‘Stylish’, after all.
Vergil is just as flashy as his bro (and all the more sassy, to boot). And heck,you fight him thrice. Which round am I even talking about here? Presumably the third, given its role as DMC3’s climax. With the power of Force Edge at his beck and call, Vergil’s strength is significant. On higher difficulty settings, this fight is tough as nails.
In Shadow of the Colossus, every fight is a boss fight. This concept has put off many would-be players, and that’s a shame, because the atmosphere in SOTC is simply sublime from start to finish. Every battle against one of the colossi is good enough to leave a permanent impression in my mind. One is even downright tragic to the point that I feel my eyes getting all misty-like just typing this sentence.
The sixteenth and final colossus, Malus, is gargantuan. I’m not comfortable proclaiming Malus the single biggest boss in the gaming medium, but it would not shock me in the slightest if it’s the truth. Shadow of the Colossus is about scale; it’s about the hero’s journey to fell these mighty titans. Malus isn’t just a final boss fight, he’s a revelation of size and substance. It feelssogood to bring him down.
1The Boss
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
I told myself when I started typing up this article that I wouldn’t include the same game twice. Metal Gear Solid 3’s boss fights are just that good. And what better way to lock in first place than to cite a boss fight against a character called The Boss? It’s like poetry, it rhymes, yadda-yadda.
The story of The Boss is heart-achingly beautiful. Naked Snake’s mission to put her down leads to such conflicted feelings in them both. Her defeat prompts one of the most poignantly melancholy and pitch-perfect endings in gaming. And their battle takes place amid a field of flowers, steeped in raw hand-to-hand combat.
The way the music cuts in a couple of minutes into the countdown timer, soaring ever louder as the fight goes on, is peak Hideo Kojima from an era when he seldom missed a chance to cement a memory in me. If this ain’t the best PS2 boss fight of ‘em all, it’s surely darned close.
