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RPG bosses that have specific battle themes just for them (that aren't final bosses)
- Thread starter SolVanderlyn
- Start date
Zed from Wild Arms.
He fulfills none of the criteria in the OP, and yet he gets the best theme in the game.
He fulfills none of the criteria in the OP, and yet he gets the best theme in the game.
Gonna quote myself because anyone who doesn't know the plot of Bravely Default and never plans on playing it really needs to know this, so uhh major spoilers.
The main character Tiz is the only survivor from a village that is completely wiped out by a giant chasm opening and swallowing everyone else. He meets Agnes, who has a fairy companion named Airy that is guiding her on a quest to help stabilize the world by purifying the 4 elemental crystals from a consuming darkness. So for the first four chapters, Tiz, Agnes, and two to other party members do just that. When you finish with the fourth crystal, Airy guides you to a column of light that is coming out of the great chasm after purifying the last crystal. You'd think that this would be the end of the game, but after you head to the column of light, you reset back to when Tiz first wakes up after escaping the chasm in the beginning of the game. Everything is back to the state that it was in the beginning of the game, except some things are different.
Various different enemies that were working together change up their groups and some switch sides. Events still play out mostly the same, but it's clear that this is not only a travel back in time, but to a parallel universe, which the game already established in a thing at this point by having this friend mechanic where you can call in someone playing the game from your Nintendo 3DS friend list to do one quick super attack, but up until this point it didn't seem like this was story critical.
Airy convinces the team to just rush to all of the crystals and purify them again, so you do that. Then the world resets again.
And again.
And again.
And again.
Now there is a bad ending that you can get tied to the crystal purifying mechanic. The game asks you to mash a button until Airy asks you to stop, except you can keep mashing. You can keep mashing until the crystal breaks, and then the twist can be revealed then and there, which leads to a bad ending, but if you go through this process about 5 times (if I recall correctly), you'll still get the reveal but you continue toward the true ending.
Airy reveals herself to have been setting you up to revive her dark overlord Ouroboros, who is a devourer of worlds, and she had been fooling several adventurers into doing this across multiple parallel worlds. If you are perceptive, you can even notice that there are symbols on her wings counting down how many more times this process needs to happen for Ouroboros to be fully revived.
So in short, this is the boss music for the fight against Airy.
One really fun gimmick that the game uses here is the title screen. As you are first playing through the game, this is how it looks:
And then when you get to this plot twist, the two Fs get removed and it becomes:
Various different enemies that were working together change up their groups and some switch sides. Events still play out mostly the same, but it's clear that this is not only a travel back in time, but to a parallel universe, which the game already established in a thing at this point by having this friend mechanic where you can call in someone playing the game from your Nintendo 3DS friend list to do one quick super attack, but up until this point it didn't seem like this was story critical.
Airy convinces the team to just rush to all of the crystals and purify them again, so you do that. Then the world resets again.
And again.
And again.
And again.
Now there is a bad ending that you can get tied to the crystal purifying mechanic. The game asks you to mash a button until Airy asks you to stop, except you can keep mashing. You can keep mashing until the crystal breaks, and then the twist can be revealed then and there, which leads to a bad ending, but if you go through this process about 5 times (if I recall correctly), you'll still get the reveal but you continue toward the true ending.
Airy reveals herself to have been setting you up to revive her dark overlord Ouroboros, who is a devourer of worlds, and she had been fooling several adventurers into doing this across multiple parallel worlds. If you are perceptive, you can even notice that there are symbols on her wings counting down how many more times this process needs to happen for Ouroboros to be fully revived.
So in short, this is the boss music for the fight against Airy.
One really fun gimmick that the game uses here is the title screen. As you are first playing through the game, this is how it looks:
And then when you get to this plot twist, the two Fs get removed and it becomes:
So yeah, hope that context makes listening to that song more enjoyable.
In Xenoblade 2, some bosses of the same faction have the same boss theme. And it is awesome.
Anyways, Xenoblade 2 soundtrack is superb.
Anyways, Xenoblade 2 soundtrack is superb.
Well, he joins the party in the PS2 remake, so he technically does fulfill the criteria! He's just playing the long game.
The strength of FFXIV's OST is the same as the rest of the game's content: the sheer range of it all.
It also helps that, in addition to the new stuff, it can pull off pretty darn good versions of old songs, too. Since this thread loves fisticuffs on big bridges:
Yeah, but he has a different track in that, so it only partially counts.
Miror B from Pokemon Colosseum!
The best examples, both songs are total bangers.
Reading the thread Black Wind Howls(Magus Battle) and J-E-N-O-V-A are also fantastic examples
I don't think MH counts because plenty of these are final bosses or extra bosses from other MH games.
I can't remember if this plays elsewhere but it shows up in a side quest boss battle in Xenoblade Chronicles.
For a slightly less known one, here's Phantasy Star IV's Laughter, which plays during Zio's battle.
Toby Fox is a god among men. Such a multidisciplinar genius, and yet among all his talents, his musical ability manages to stand out.
Asgore's theme hits particularly hard because midway through, it incorporates
Toby Fox is a god among men. Such a multidisciplinar genius, and yet among all his talents, his musical ability manages to stand out.
Asgore's theme hits particularly hard because midway through, it incorporates
Toriel's theme, which is unexpectedly dramatic, even epic, to go with the sudden change in narrative tone. The player may not even be aware of that, considering Toriel's fight theme only plays there, at the very start of the game, but it makes such an emotional, subconscious impression that the player may feel Asgore's resonating with them and bookending the game without exactly knowing why.
Atma Weapon gets its own theme in FFVI to let you know it means business
Yes this is the right answer. Totally blown away as a kid when I fought this mofo
This is essentially "Kingdom Hearts: The Thread", because a big portion of bosses in KH games, if not almost all of them, have their unique themes. Though some motifs do start to get repeated in latter games with some boss fights that are somehow connected to earlier ones.
Doubt that people who haven't played and don't plan on playing Bravely really give a crap about the story. Wicked Battle is indeed dope though. The part at 1:20 and on = hype intensifiedGonna quote myself because anyone who doesn't know the plot of Bravely Default and never plans on playing it really needs to know this, so uhh major spoilers.
The main character Tiz is the only survivor from a village that is completely wiped out by a giant chasm opening and swallowing everyone else. He meets Agnes, who has a fairy companion named Airy that is guiding her on a quest to help stabilize the world by purifying the 4 elemental crystals from a consuming darkness. So for the first four chapters, Tiz, Agnes, and two to other party members do just that. When you finish with the fourth crystal, Airy guides you to a column of light that is coming out of the great chasm after purifying the last crystal. You'd think that this would be the end of the game, but after you head to the column of light, you reset back to when Tiz first wakes up after escaping the chasm in the beginning of the game. Everything is back to the state that it was in the beginning of the game, except some things are different.
Various different enemies that were working together change up their groups and some switch sides. Events still play out mostly the same, but it's clear that this is not only a travel back in time, but to a parallel universe, which the game already established in a thing at this point by having this friend mechanic where you can call in someone playing the game from your Nintendo 3DS friend list to do one quick super attack, but up until this point it didn't seem like this was story critical.
Airy convinces the team to just rush to all of the crystals and purify them again, so you do that. Then the world resets again.
And again.
And again.
And again.
Now there is a bad ending that you can get tied to the crystal purifying mechanic. The game asks you to mash a button until Airy asks you to stop, except you can keep mashing. You can keep mashing until the crystal breaks, and then the twist can be revealed then and there, which leads to a bad ending, but if you go through this process about 5 times (if I recall correctly), you'll still get the reveal but you continue toward the true ending.
Airy reveals herself to have been setting you up to revive her dark overlord Ouroboros, who is a devourer of worlds, and she had been fooling several adventurers into doing this across multiple parallel worlds. If you are perceptive, you can even notice that there are symbols on her wings counting down how many more times this process needs to happen for Ouroboros to be fully revived.
So in short, this is the boss music for the fight against Airy.
One really fun gimmick that the game uses here is the title screen. As you are first playing through the game, this is how it looks:
And then when you get to this plot twist, the two Fs get removed and it becomes:
So yeah, hope that context makes listening to that song more enjoyable.
In a similar spirit, Breath of Fire 3 has IIRC 2 battle themes (a generic boss one and an important story boss one, though it's inconsistently used). Then there is this theme for the penultimate boss battle:
Again knowing the story behind this battle makes it that much more sadder and ominous, but that's obvious endgame spoilers.
Tell me about it. The final phase of the Alexander raid fights goes fuckin hard!
SOOONIIIC BOOM!
Well I myself will sometimes go into a thread or watch a video to see about some spoilers for something that I had no intention of playing or watching and then leaving actually wanting to play the game or watch the movie/show, so I figured why the hell not.
Plus, the twist for Bravely Default is so batshit insane that everyone should at least know about it.
OP
OP
Not really, you fight your party members for a lot of reasons in RPGs, some of which are just friendly duels or heart to heart fighting with fists. Kratos has like a billion layers to his backstory and this does actually play in a duel-like fight
Well, Yakuza 7 has (spoilers for several later game bosses):
Mabuchi (though I suppose he might not count as he gets a clone character in the battle arena with the same theme - but its a clone of Mabuchi so...
Majima & Saejima (remix of Majima's theme from Yakuza 1)
Kiryu (remix of the main Receive You theme)
Sawashiro (I think he actually gets two boss themes)
Tendo
Then you have some optional bosses that also get unique themes like Amon (again, remix of his main theme from previous games)
I actually forget if the other Omi lieutenant (Ishioda?) gets his own theme.
Majima & Saejima (remix of Majima's theme from Yakuza 1)
Kiryu (remix of the main Receive You theme)
Sawashiro (I think he actually gets two boss themes)
Tendo
Then you have some optional bosses that also get unique themes like Amon (again, remix of his main theme from previous games)
I actually forget if the other Omi lieutenant (Ishioda?) gets his own theme.
That one Yakuza boss that I was tired of beating already in Yakuza 0.
Also, I think most bosses had their own themes but the Hornet's theme in Hollow Knight stood out, maybe because we fought multiple times. The DLC version is great too.
Also, I think most bosses had their own themes but the Hornet's theme in Hollow Knight stood out, maybe because we fought multiple times. The DLC version is great too.
Man, Paper Mario is so good.
Really hope the rumors of a new Paper Mario game being a return to form are true, I really miss these games.
I think LISA the Painful and its DLC did this a lot but I've only played them once through so I don't remember specifically which bosses got unique themes (and which tracks in the OST they were). I'm pretty sure all the bosses in the DLC had their themes though.
But I am pretty positive the Calcabrina fight has a fairly unique battle theme. Although it might have been re-used for the rare Pink Puff fight on the moon?
But I am pretty positive the Calcabrina fight has a fairly unique battle theme. Although it might have been re-used for the rare Pink Puff fight on the moon?
I was going to mention that as well, god I miss Baten Kaitos.
I can't believe no one mentioned this (or at least a quick browse/ctrl + f didn't show up anything). One of those video game tracks that I could imagine putting as the absolute #1 best battle/boss/overall theme in games ever, even though generally I see that kind of listing pretty pointless (there are just so many themes that one could argue should get that honor).
EDIT: Of course right after I posted I noticed someone had posted this. Oh well. 🤷♂️ 🤷♀️
EDIT: Of course right after I posted I noticed someone had posted this. Oh well. 🤷♂️ 🤷♀️
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Came to post this, such an awsome song. You just knew you were about to get destroyed when this started playing.
Whew, this one's both epic and a banger, really gets you hyped up for a final confrontation with Seymour (though admittedly, it is a letdown after the grueling battle at Mt. Gagazet difficulty-wise).