Games where the final boss is an exam in a class you didn't know you were enroled in [tagged spoilers]

[ThereAreFourNaan]

The Evil Within
The game is a horror/stealth/action hybrid, but is pretty notorious for having set-pieces that have little or nothing to do with the core mechanics as a way to add variety. Sometimes it's ok, and sometimes it's not.

Spoiler: The Final Boss

• A slow corridor full of searchlights you need to avoid, which leads to...
• Wire traps that instant kill you but the hitboxes are real bad, which leads to...
• A giant crab monster you have to fire an infinite ammo turret at, which then leads into...
• The same giant crab monster but now you have to hit it in the head 3 times with a rocket launcher. The rockets move slow, and he's bobbing around. You don't get a rocket launcher at any other point in the game.

This is, I think, a very bad concept for the fight. It's not really "stealth" like the rest of the game, and the action isn't the same kind of action you have in the rest of the game.


Uncharted 4: A Thief's End
Third person shooter with light platforming and puzzle solving. Also has a lot of setpieces that try to mix things up or just look spectacular.

Spoiler: The Final Boss

A semi-QTE sword fight with completely new mechanics never introduced before in the game.

Again, this feels like a bad concept for the fight. In this case, it feels like there was a plan to introduce these mechanics earlier in the game, but they might have been cut for some reason or another.

 

[Annabel]

Drakengard 3 has one of the most extreme examples of this.

The game is a pretty brainless hack and slash, the final boss is a brutally difficult and unfair rhythm game.

 

[The Lord of Cereal]

Drakengard 3: The thread.

For those who don't know: Drakengard 3 is a Yoko Taro action game with combat that feels similar to many other hack-n-slash games like Devil May Cry or Darksiders

Spoiler: Final Boss

The final boss is a musical rhythm game that's hard as hell with literally no room for errors, with nothing explained previously in the game to do with this

Edit: Beaten. Should be surprised, but it was literally all I thought of and is probably the most infamous

 

[Deleted member 17207]

Bioshock (1) final boss. For a game that was a comment on the relationship between the player and the game - the final boss fight was exactly that - and a super boring one at that. Very weird choice considering the rest of the game.

 

[Soulflarz]

Drakengard 3 has one of the most extreme examples of this.

The game is a pretty brainless hack and slash, the final boss is a brutally difficult and unfair rhythm game.

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Maybe the rhythm game was the real game all along

 

[Harmony Friends]

too many sonic games to list, including many i adore

 

[CHC]

Gonna say Dark Souls 1, with regard to parrying. Pretty rough time if it wasn't a habit when you face the boss.

Also MGS1, with the Liquid Snake fist fight. Nobody's been punching dudes the whole game now, come on.

 

[Deleted member 17207]

Gonna say Dark Souls 1, with regard to parrying. Pretty rough time if it wasn't a habit when you face the boss.

Also MGS1, with the Liquid Snake fist fight. Nobody's been punching dudes the whole game now, come on.

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Holy shit that fist fight took me way too many attempts lol. Super obtuse.

 

[Flon]

Some JRPG's have a gameplay final boss and then what I consider a story final boss where it takes on light puzzle elements, however they're usually impossible to lose too.

Final Fantasy X

Spoiler

has a boss that heals itself for 9999 damage every turn. Just whacking it like every other enemy isn't the point. There's actually a lot of ways you can easily kill it, including using that healing ability against it.

Earthbound

Spoiler

has you not fighting and instead using the Pray command. Something that many players can easily have ignored for the entire game.

There's an obscure SNES RPG called Growth or Devolution where the post gameplay final bosses are...

Spoiler

against your Anger, Insecurity and Sadness. You actually have to take off your equipment before the fight, never attack and instead heal the "enemy" depending on the fight. It reminds me of Earthbound in that you're pretty much just fighting a background.

 

[Abi]

Again, this feels like a bad concept for the fight. In this case, it feels like there was a plan to introduce these mechanics earlier in the game, but they might have been cut for some reason or another.

Click to shrink...

Spoiler

You were supposed to sword fight Sam in the flashback where they sneak into the mansion, but that got cut. Can't recall why.

 

[Regiruler]

I haven't played it myself because of reasons, but ZeroRanger:

Spoiler

Requires you to give up all your permanent progress, thus giving you only one chance, to fight a boss that

Spoiler

Only takes damage from a new melee-range ability

 

[matrix-cat]

Uncharted 4's final boss would have been great if the game hadn't had like four different one-off melee fights with different control schemes over the course of the game. The two different fights in the Panamanian Jail, fighting Nadine, regular melee in gameplay and the Rafe fight are all different; sometimes you can counter, sometimes you can't, sometimes you can dodge, sometimes you can't, and the Rafe fight splits you into left and right attacking/blocking. If they'd kept the same melee system through all of these moments and steadily increased the challenge until the final boss it would have been an amazing climax, instead it ends up forcing you to learn a whole new set of mechanics ten minutes before the credits roll.

(I still think it's a cool moment, though)

 

[reclaimerzzzzz]

You're correct for uncharted 4.

Spoiler

the sword fight was supposed to be featured when you break into the manor as kids.

Spoiler: Video from Neil

https://youtu.be/obA9MI6YmJ0

 

[LDigital]

Metal gear rising was like this for me. It was a while ago but I vaguely remember having to Read up and learn combat mechanics and techniques that I wasn't even aware of until that point to make a dent.

 

[zoodoo]

Lost Planet 1 is a third person shooter where you're either on foot or using a mech that move only on the ground. You are always shooting things. Suddenly the last section of the game, including the final boss, you are controlling a flying mech that uses swords. It felt so weird and out of place.

 

[Admiral Woofington]

tbh the uncharted 4 one is annoying, but I'll take that over the fucking bullet sponge i have to keep running away from

 

[reclaimerzzzzz]

Spoiler

You were supposed to sword fight Sam in the flashback where they sneak into the mansion, but that got cut. Can't recall why.

Click to shrink...

Ran out of time. I posted a video about that section from Neil in my previous post.

 

[Decarb]

MGS4 where it just turned into Smash Bros X Tekken for some reason.

 

[SunBroDave]

Uncharted 4: A Thief's End
Again, this feels like a bad concept for the fight. In this case, it feels like there was a plan to introduce these mechanics earlier in the game, but they might have been cut for some reason or another.

Click to shrink...

Yep, Druckmann has said in interviews that the sword fighting mechanic was originally supposed to be introduced in the second kid Nate flashback, when him and Sam are going through the mansion looking for their mom's journal, but the sequence was cut because they just ran out of time to work on the game.

Edit: nvm I see several posters have already mentioned this

 

[Asklepios]

Wolfenstein: The New order

 

[____]

Holy shit that fist fight took me way too many attempts lol. Super obtuse.

Click to shrink...

Y'know, I didn't feel I remembered it that way but thinking back....yeaaaa I actually do remember having to retry probably 50 times before actually pulling it off and being super frustrated as a kid lol.

 

[Scruffy8642]

Gonna say Dark Souls 1, with regard to parrying. Pretty rough time if it wasn't a habit when you face the boss.

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As someone who has gotten the platinum trophy for Dark Souls twice and played it about 8 times in total (along with about another 8 playthroughs between 2 & 3) - you're supposed to parry him? Lol I've never really bothered with the mechanic so it didn't even crossed my mind. No wonder he's always a bitch...

 

[NeonZ]

Quite a few Kirby games have final battles that partially become side-scrolling 2d shooters or even on-rails/3d shooting games for more recent ones.

 

[whiteninja]

Solar Jetman
Not so much a boss but a whole level
Most of the game revolves around fling a small pod and towing stuff back to your ship. The final level on the other hand is a sidescrolling shmup. The controls are completely different as well, the pod moves by changing it its direction and firing the thruster but the shmup ship controls like a typical shmup. You dont have any lives either so if you die just once its game over and you have to restart back on the last planet from a password (meaning you gotta do the whole last planet again). I dont think I ever beat the game without savestates.

 

[Tuck]

Gonna say Dark Souls 1, with regard to parrying. Pretty rough time if it wasn't a habit when you face the boss.

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And a complete pushover if it was!

 

[OsramTaleka]

Final Fantasy 9 is definitely a strong example of this!

 

[Xiaomi]

As someone who has gotten the platinum trophy for Dark Souls twice and played it about 8 times in total (along with about another 8 playthroughs between 2 & 3) - you're supposed to parry him? Lol I've never really bothered with the mechanic so it didn't even crossed my mind. No wonder he's always a bitch...

Click to shrink...

He's extremely easy via parries, even moreso if you realize drinking estus usually (always?) baits the same move. So at least you can feel that you beat the harder version of the fight!

 

[SenseiX]

Sekiro.
Final boss somehow gets a gun when he power ups.

 

[Chopchop]

Metal gear rising was like this for me. It was a while ago but I vaguely remember having to Read up and learn combat mechanics and techniques that I wasn't even aware of until that point to make a dent.

Click to shrink...

This is my vote too. I'm pretty sure the game never asks you to slice specific lines in quick succession like that until the final boss. Not only is that a new mechanic, but the game also hurts you a lot if you fail it.

Plus there's the self heal, which also came out of nowhere.

The final boss is a big jump in difficulty, and would probably be absolute horseshit if the guy's entire introduction sequence wasn't so memorable.

 

[Noema]

Death Stranding

Spoiler

All of the final confrontations (against the giant BT with Troy Baker, the punching match against Troy Baker, final showdown against Mads in BT Vietnam and then the final tar Whale BT) were frustrating and disappointing to me. Frustrating because the game trying to be a third person shooter never sit right with me and also because each of these felt like the actual final boss and then it turns out it wasn't. Disappointing because in a game with such unique mechanics such as using item burden into an actual central game mechanic, it felt like a wasted opportunity to have an actual challenge using said mechanics. Like, hey bring 1000kg of cargo to the top of that mounting. You'll have to use all your tools and all you've learned. The terrain is the actual final boss. That'd have been awesome.

But no. It had to end with you punching Troy Baker to death and then shooting blood rockets at a whale.

 

[Snagret]

FTL's final boss basically requires you to spec a certain way in order to beat it, with very few viable strategies outside of that. A good final boss of a roguelike should challenge you to operate at peak proficiency with whatever build you choose, and in that sense I've always found that final ship battle to be a bit of a failure of design in that sense (just imo)

 

[RIghteousGlory]

Man I LOVE uncharted 4 and am usually pretty forgiving for random shit like this but that ending really pulled me out cause I failed it SO MANY TIMES

 

[Dice]

Wild Arms 3

It has TEN FORMS, the 3rd which can reset the fight, and basically needs to be wailed on with different tactics in each form. Wild Arms 3 bosses generally had unique/amusing gimmicks for each boss (taking the game's core "puzzle dungeon" concept even into fights), and this final boss is a culmination of that..... and then there are secret bosses which are EXTREME forms of this in both difficulty and matter needed to fight them (the final final challenge is a 100 bullshit floor dungeon to fight the hardest boss for...well, the best item in the game...butt fuck it, it's a waste of your precious life on this planet).

 

[Delriach]

Gonna say Dark Souls 1, with regard to parrying. Pretty rough time if it wasn't a habit when you face the boss.

Also MGS1, with the Liquid Snake fist fight. Nobody's been punching dudes the whole game now, come on.

Click to shrink...

eeh I dunno about MGS1, I beat the shit out of Cyborg Ninja and Mantis with my fists (landing a final blow with a melee vs Mantis feels super satisfying when he flies off lol)

 

[Lobster Roll]

Final Fantasy IX. Hope you have the right equipment / abilities! But seriously that game's final three bosses are a journey to get through in a first play through.

 

[CaptainK]

Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors ... in a way. It has object/environment/interaction puzzles typical of a point-and-click adventure game, but the final puzzle is something else.

 

[GarudaSmiles]

FF Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers

Spoiler

The final boss suddenly turns the game into Jet Force Gemini.

 

[Nachos]

Sekiro.
Final boss somehow gets a gun when he power ups.

Click to shrink...

I just beat him today, and I don't see how your spoiler tests you in a way that you hadn't dealt with at that point. Plenty of bosses have ranged weapons, and plenty of normal enemies have the final boss's weapon, too. Plus, the attacks that use it are really telegraphed, so it's easy to deflect them.

 

[LDigital]

I thought this too. I have platted all the soulsborne games except ds3 and dont really use parry. I didn't realise this was how most people did that boss

 

[KushalaDaora]

The Witcher 3.

The final boss should have been Gwent tournament against Eredin.

 

[Deleted member 28386]

I just beat him today, and I don't see how your spoiler tests you in a way that you hadn't dealt with at that point. Plenty of bosses have ranged weapons, and plenty of normal enemies have the final boss's weapon, too. Plus, the attacks that use it are really telegraphed, so it's easy to deflect them.

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That was gonna be my reply as well, cheers.

 

[DarkLordMalik]

Fire Emblem Fates for me.

 

[Daddy JeanPi]

Final Fantasy 9 is definitely a strong example of this!

Click to shrink...

How so? It comes out of nowhere but it still follows the same formula and doesn't dhske the gameplay.

 

[SenseiX]

I just beat him today, and I don't see how your spoiler tests you in a way that you hadn't dealt with at that point. Plenty of bosses have ranged weapons, and plenty of normal enemies have the final boss's weapon, too. Plus, the attacks that use it are really telegraphed, so it's easy to deflect them.

Click to shrink...

Of course it was nothing new gameplay wise, but having to deal with him having all that fire power is EXTREMELY exhausting. Only Souls boss I've yet to defeat...

 

[Fauve]

Recently beat Trails of Cold Steel, so this is fresh in my head:

Spoiler: ToCS1 and 2 Final Boss Spoilers

The final boss is a mech fight, something that was never introduced or hinted at whatsoever through the previous 99% of the story. It has it's own mechanics that the game tries to explain to you in the literally last 10 minutes of the game lol. And it really felt like just an annoying trial and error kind of fight. You basically have to attack the right part of the boss's own mech to "break" him and use a follow-up attack, which is the main way you do damage in the fight. But the game doesn't tell you which is the right part and the boss punishes you for guessing wrong by evading and hitting you with a counter. I had to look up his tells to see what his weak points were, since I was getting demolished by his counters. I lost like 10+ times because your own mech's stats are based off of Rean's (the MC) level and I was slightly underlevelled. And there's the fact you can't heal either, so you have to have good RNG to survive by getting lucky on breaks to kill him ASAP. It wasn't a good introduction to the mech fights but they fleshed it out in the next game (I've only played CS2 so I don't know if they improved it in the next 2 games) by giving you partners with their own abilities and an ACTUAL WAY TO HEAL, so I enjoyed the fights way more in the sequel.

As for CS2, I'm not sure if this counts, but the true final boss is the only one immune to delays which was my main way of fighting bosses throughout the entire games. So I had to shift my gameplay strategies around to accommodate for that. Was really unexpected since the game conditions you to believe that delays would help you break anything the game tries to throw at you.

 

[Antrax]

I can't think of many examples. Jade Empire kinda has this where the final boss has a mechanic you've never faced before, but it isn't the craziest new thing ever.

Spoiler

Master Li taught you Focus Mode, where time slows down but drains your focus. He uses it himself and you have to enter Focus Mode yourself to cancel it out, costing you quite a bit of focus in the process. No other enemy can use Focus Mode.

 

[retroman]

Moonwalker is a Shinobi-style action platformer.

But when you reach the final boss, the game suddenly turns into a first-person space shooter...

 

[DiipuSurotu]

Chrono Cross requires you to look up what to do on GameFAQs or a guide book

 

[niaobx]

Enter The Gungeon has The Resourceful Rat boss fight that I absolutely despise

Spoiler

It's based on Punch-Out!!. I haven't played it and this fight is one of a kind in the entire game. Hardest thing in the game to master imo as you can't use any equipment or guns to make it easier. It's also rather hard to get to this point in the game so you can't really practice it easily

 

[AquaRegia]

Chrono Cross requires you to look up what to do on GameFAQs or a guide book

Click to shrink...

That's only for the secret ending, and even then the boss will eventually do the correct thing for you. The real trick is even having the correct Key Item.