Continuing my top 15 favourite boss fights of all time, these entries are relatively spoiler free, though entry six will outline the ending of one of the greatest games of the PlayStation 3 era… Enjoy!
I felt I should pick one God of War fight from the assortment of amazing fights this legendary franchise has thrown at us over the years, and for me the gold medal absolutely has to go to Hercules. Hercules’ occasional roars of frustration at getting beaten back by Kratos, who is half his size in stature, add to the satisfying soundtrack that accompanies this battle between these two spurned children of Olympus. The very battleground this clash takes place on will be shaken over the course of the fight, and completely demolished come its conclusion!
Receiving Hercules’ powerful gauntlets, the Nemean Cestus, after tearing them off and turning them against him to topple this formidable foe is a great reward, and I have no doubt in saying he’s my favourite God of War boss fight of all time!
The Raging Moon Warrior, Minotaur Joe! I expect the majority of you have no idea who this is, but as Dark Cloud is now available on PlayStation 4 you really have no excuse to not experience this early PlayStation 2 days masterpiece. Timing is key in this fight, as the Tournament organisers who set up the fight between you and Joe will throw out barrels of Stamina Potion (Think Red Bull mixed with peak strength steroids) that he will try to down before you can get to him and stop him. If he manages to finish one you’re in for a tough ride, as his speed and physical strength is greatly accelerated for a limited time, ramping the difficulty of the fight right up. If you manage to catch him and attack while he’s drinking then you’ll be well on your way to victory.
I guess one of the reasons I love this fight, like most of the boss fights in Dark Cloud, is that you rarely go into a boss level (The games tells you when it is) and know what kind of fight to expect. Minotaur Joe is an incredibly daunting looking foe when you enter the Tournament ground, needing it’s grand prize to continue the plot, and his massive axe is enough to give pause to even the strongest and bravest of heroes.
One of my favourite franchises that I wish had more entries, the Prototype franchise are the gory hack and slash games that I didn’t know I needed so much until I played them! The first Prototype games features Alex Mercer as the playable character, before shifting gears and making James Heller the front man for the sequel. A stroke of brilliant video game design that I love, they made the man-monster we had spent hours building into an unstoppable killing machine in the first game into the big bad challenge we had to overcome in the second.
The tagline used in the promotion of Prototype 2, ‘Murder Your Maker’ is great not only from an alliteration standpoint, but also for the blood thirst it evoked from the die-hard fans the first game had created.
Whilst even on the hardest difficulty (One of the only games in my life I’ve attempted on hard mode) this fight isn’t much of a challenge. The menacing interaction between Mercer and Heller before all bedlam breaks loose is great to watch, and sets this climactic showdown up superbly.
Yes this is cheating a bit, as technically it is two fights against two different people that take place in the main game and also in its DLC, but I couldn’t mention one and leave out the other! The story to the game really gives this great, albeit short, fight so much weight. Both sides equally want the other dead, though Corvo can definitely say (Or could if he wasn’t a silent protagonist) that he is fighting from a higher morality standpoint.
Two men marked with incredible power by a man turned God, The Outsider, must use all the weapons and Void powers in their arsenal in order to take the other down. The outcome of these battles is decided differently depending on who you are playing as and also on what part of the game you are experiencing the fight in.
While playing as Corvo, you can decide whether to execute Daud for his crimes, or to exile him and spare his life. While playing as Daud, you cannot kill Corvo, but depending on if you are playing the game in a high or low chaos run, Daud will be spared by Corvo if you are playing in low chaos (Low kills / being a nice man), or executed in high chaos (Playing the game as a psychopathic murderer). I’ll let you figure out which outcome I got every time I played..
I’ve only played through Devil May Cry 5 once, but that was enough to decide that the Vergil fight in it isn’t as great as as the fight with him in DMC: Devil May Cry, though of course it is still great. The story concludes with Dante and Vergil insisting on different ways on how to let humanity continue existing after the destruction of the Demon King Mundus. The altercation leads Dante and Vergil (Usually referred to as Posh Vergil by me) to crossing blades to determine whose opinion is correct. Of course, the battle ends with Dante turning Devil Trigger and skewering Vergil, until the latter retreats into the Demon World, setting off the events that unfold in the equally incredible ‘Vergil’s Downfall’ DLC that I’ve played, without hyperbole, about three billion times.
To summarise, a high stakes and intensely cinematic fight that contributed to the highlight packed end of the PlayStation 3 era.
Thank you for reading Part 2 of my top 15 boss fights of all time, and Part 3 will be upon you soon! Let me know what you think of my picks so far in the comments and on Twitter @MaliceVER and also nominate who you would like to see take one of the top five spots. See you soon!
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