MoonlitBow

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,921
Pretty much all of Dark Souls 2 except maybe Duke's Dear Freja. Most of the bosses were either ones with very simple behaviors and attacks that seemed very like they were built from a template or was a monster that was too trivial to really appreciate. Then there was Royal Rat Vanguard and Royal Rat Authority, bosses that both relied on rat enemies with the former's gimmick being that you had to hit the correct rat and the latter's gimmick being that it was a large boss guarded by rats that instantly inflicted toxic- the actual boss was much easier than the minions guarding it and they were already regular enemies in the level leading up to it.

Bed of Chaos is the worst boss in Dark Souls 1, but at least it was an attempt to create a unique challenge that went a bit too far and could've been something tolerable if it was playtested and adjusted just a bit more.

Plesioth in Monster Hunter games is usually not very well in games that lacked underwater combat. Other than its laser beams and a bit that puts you to sleep, it just has a few attacks making up a basic moveset but they all have fast start up and the monster itself is so large that it easily hits you with them even it towers over your hunter. Its cousin, Cephadrome sucks too since it's basically the same monster but smaller and moves through sand.

Kirin in Monster Hunter World that everyone hates is actually a better version of the fight if only because it has a better variety of attacks. It was always a monster that mostly just ran around with a hard to hit weak point regardless of the game it was in.

Zorah Magdalos is kind of an opposite case of Bed of Chaos, where Bed of Chaos was an attempt at trying something cool with environmental challenge but it ended up being too annoying, Zorah was a fight where you were trying to take down a monster by literally being able to climb all over it but they went too far in making sure most players could clear it so it was possible to just stumble through the fight and run around not doing anything especially when one of the objectives becomes cleared on its own. The arch-tempered version did improve the fight at least, putting it on a stricter timer and requiring you to understand the mechanics and driving away a monster that now no longer leaves on its own before Zorah will decide to continue moving to the next phase of the fight, and the final area can lead to a loss if you don't use the binders. So while it's still a gimmicky fight in the end, it's one that you can't AFK to win anymore.
 

JJH

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
2,881
Arkham Asylum
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DrArchon

Member
Oct 25, 2017
15,485
Unlike the Katakis or Parodius examples this guy takes like 20 minutes to beat.
It's not just that he takes a long time to beat, it's that you can't speed it up no matter how much you try. There is a set amount of time that you spend on Zorah's back fighting magma cores and no matter how much damage you do to them or how quickly you drive off Nergigante, you have to spent the full amount of time on its back.

Which leads to a lot of standing around doing nothing while you wait to get teleported to the barrier if you blew up the cores with endgame weapons. It's awful.
 

JangleLuke

Member
Oct 4, 2018
1,607
I don't know if I would call it "objectively badly designed", but this is the only similar example I could think of (and which really ticked me off):

The room with the 2 Frankensteins (or, "The Creature") in Castlevania Portrait of Ruin's Nest of Evil (the secret enemy gauntlet)

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If you couldn't remember, the Creature is an area Boss in the latter half of the main playthrough, and he sucks. And now, there's TWO OF THEM.
I won't go in detail over his attacks, but consider that the suggested strategy for beating this particular room is to take advantage of the game's pity and survive for 1 minute until the next door opens automatically.
To add insult to injury, this is the FIRST AND HARDEST of 6 consecutive rooms that you have to beat in 1 try.

I only managed to kill one of them and then bail out. This room can heck right off.
 
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Cort

Member
Nov 4, 2017
4,379
Spine of deathwing while it was relevant was one of the most soulless, headache inducing fights I have ever had the unfortunate privelage of being a part of. It was a 10 minute fight to. One big trash pull. Absolutely terrible.
 

Apopheniac

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,660
Y2UaFM1.jpg

it's Pokemon so you can always just grind or do something cheap like Sturdy Toxic and then spam heals, so it's your own fault if you get stuck I guess, but it's a shitty fight in that it doesn't really leave room for you to fight it in a more reasonable/traditional manner

it's a level 60 legendary with stats higher than Mewtwo's, and they're boosted to be twice as high as normal. most teams of average level not running a Steel-type or Zoroark will just get one-shotted consecutively.
 

Rotobit

Editor at Nintendo Wire
Verified
Oct 27, 2017
10,196
Someone's mentioned the Imprisoned in Skyward Sword and I've always found him inoffensive in that game, just repetitive. The real worst Imprisoned fight is this one...

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Sure you can raise your level to make it easier, but I wouldn't be surprised if this mission is where most everyone gives up with Hyrule Warriors' Adventure Mode.

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Good luck trying to beat him as he's just broken due to the game being unpolished.

It's no use! ... TAKE THIS! ... It's no use!
 

Palazzo

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,009
Boring answer, but Bed of Chaos stands out as being the biggest dip in quality in an otherwise brilliant game for me. Ninja Gaiden II 360 has some real stinkers too in Gigadeath and Dagra Dai who just can't be reasonably fought without lame tactics on the game's hardest modes.

King of Fighters bosses border on impossibility when playing like a normal person, so that counts as a bad design to me.

But that AVGN episode was correct, this brings me PTSD

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I think Jaquio is the only truly good boss in that game, actually. Really like how his fight promotes preparing an exit strategy every time you go in to attack.
 

Auron.90

Member
Dec 3, 2017
770
Yakuza Kiwami Jingu Boss fight.
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When I played on hardest difficulty this was really annoying battle. Enemy using Guns all the time ffs

Rogue Galaxy Boss
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Very annoying and boring battle. Just curing yourself all the time while attacking.
You forgot to mention:
- you don't control the entire team during the second phase;
- you must control single characters (hoping you have decent weapons to speed things up);
- since there is no team, there are no revives, so you have to start from the first phase if you die.
 

KushalaDaora

Member
Oct 27, 2017
7,838
Not really the worst ever, but Zorah Magdaros probably the worst gigantic monsters boss fight in the series. Yes, even worse than Lao Shan Lung from original PS2 Monster Hunter.
 

hydruxo

â–˛ Legend â–˛
Member
Oct 25, 2017
20,620
The first boss in Yooka-Laylee was dumb as hell. It was a fucking ramp named Rampo that you had to keep rolling up and down while logs were falling down the ramp towards you. If you got hit you slid all the way down every time.
 

Arkanim94

Member
Oct 27, 2017
14,315
I feel like every final/super boss is like this in KH the way healing works. I have only ever finished the first game because of how it is.
You can dodge/parry every attack of lingering will in KH 2 and not use cure once even with normal reflexes and practice.

MF is a clusterfuck of abusing invincibility frames and once more/leaf breacer + heal when thy fail you.
 

Aexact

Member
Oct 30, 2017
3,315
That one NieR automata boss in the desert at the beginning of Route C

Edit: Hegel

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What the fuck was this shit. Only time I put on easy mode/auto battle or whatever
I didn't have a problem with the boss fight proper but I lost twice at the end because the countdown was very strict and you're in the midst of a low visibility sandstorm. So that was a bummer.

Anyway my pick is The Queen of the Dead from Odin Sphere. Not really because it was poorly designed but because the poor PS2 couldn't handle it. Like trying to dodge in a slideshow.
 

Rikucrafter

Chicken Chaser
Member
Oct 28, 2017
908
Australia
The last few main story bosses of KH Dream Drop Distance astound me. The AI goes absolutely berserk undodgeable bullshit if you have more than a few cure commands in your deck.
 

Deleted member 34949

Account closed at user request
Banned
Nov 30, 2017
19,101
Knew this was going to be about Mysterious Figure. Kingdom Hearts superbosses were kinda trash for a straight decade after KH2FM. Thankfully, Zodiac Phantom Aqua in 0.2 is actually pretty good.

KH1 has a similar secret boss (I think he's also entitled something like "Mysterious Figure"?) and he's just no fun to fight what so ever. Its the instant kill move, you can have him down to one hit but if he goes for his instant kill move and you don't break free of it in time you have to do the entire thing again. I just spammed one move over and over in the end, no fun what so ever but it was just easier than even trying to fight him "fair".
I think KH1 Unknown is one of the better bosses in the series, actually. The seal attack is his nastiest move, but Leaf Bracer actually protects you from it altogether since it gives you invincibility frames while casting it so using Cure after landing a finisher on him or after he does a long winded attack (which is when he's most likely to break it out) is the best way to get around it.

Also, if he does catch you with it, in the brief bit of time before the command menu roulette starts, navigate to Magic on the command menu and mash the attack button. It breaks you out of the attack.
 

gordofredito

Banned
Jan 16, 2018
2,992
I love Final Fantasy X to death, and the concept of the final boss is AWESOME, everything you've done comes back to fight you (your aeons) and if you got the extra ones, they fight you too.
It's a rough battle to the end... but you can't die lol. So it just becomes a pretty boring fight. Yu Yevon is one of the most boring fights in the game
 

Arozay

Member
Oct 29, 2017
326
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Ys Origin - Sand cunt: The mechanic was just tedious.

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La Mulana 2 - Surtr: aka Death-pitts McGee.

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I wanna be the Boshy - Cheetahman: Lord of RNG
 

shadowman16

Member
Oct 25, 2017
32,668
Knew this was going to be about Mysterious Figure. Kingdom Hearts superbosses were kinda trash for a straight decade after KH2FM. Thankfully, Zodiac Phantom Aqua in 0.2 is actually pretty good.


I think KH1 Unknown is one of the better bosses in the series, actually. The seal attack is his nastiest move, but Leaf Bracer actually protects you from it altogether since it gives you invincibility frames while casting it so using Cure after landing a finisher on him or after he does a long winded attack (which is when he's most likely to break it out) is the best way to get around it.

Also, if he does catch you with it, in the brief bit of time before the command menu roulette starts, navigate to Magic on the command menu and mash the attack button. It breaks you out of the attack.

Where were you when I was having problems with this boss ;) That is some solid advice, if I ever replay the game I'll definitely keep that in mind :) Cant see that happen anytime soon though, I still need to clear the data fights against the Org XIII members that have been kicking my ass (I'm really under equipped for the fights, but I do love that game so much that I gotta try again).

Oh, and I gotta mention an SNK boss (feels wrong not too) - KOF 2001's Igniz. This isn't really a comment on "SNK Boss syndrome" as I can usually beat them after a few tries, but this one was cheaply designed like no other - he actually performed an infinite combo on me so I had no way of damaging him. Seeing as I really dislike 2001, that just killed my interest all the more.

Oh, and most DMC2 bosses. Those were just damage sponges that were shockingly badly designed. And since the game has basically no difficulty (especially when compared to 1 and 3) it gets really boring really fast.
 

Pendas

Member
Oct 28, 2017
4,768
Piggy backing off an earlier post on FFXI and Absolute Virtue but also throwing in Pandemonium Warden. Both bosses were supposed to take *18 HOURS* to beat. It was specifically designed this way by Square Enix. There's a pretty amazing story behind a Linkshell that got to the last phase of Pandemonium Warden after 18 hours, they started passing out, throwing up, getting physically ill from exhaustion because of how long they were playing, and they had to stop.

https://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/85639-18-Hour-Final-Fantasy-XI-Boss-Induces-Puking

The backlash was so bad, SE nerfed both of them and time gated the fight to 2 hours. I can't imagine thinking that an 18 hour long fight that requires dozens of people was a good idea.
 

DaciaJC

Banned
Oct 29, 2017
6,685
Loran Darkbeast in Bloodborne's lower loran chalice dungeons. I gave up trying to fight that scum. Can't lock onto him because the camera will have a seizure. Go unlocked and slash at his legs, but they are made up of literally think bones and 50% of the hits miss because the hitbox for his legs are non-existent. fuck the darkbeast

I remember the framerate also went to shit fighting him.
 

Grimsey

Member
Nov 1, 2017
539
I really don't understand why people hate Bed of Chaos so much.

Centipede Demon, now there is an uninteresting and poorly designed boss.
 

Dyashen

Member
Dec 20, 2017
5,219
Belgium
I loved Quantum Break, but that final boss fight was atrocious.

Not sure what Remedy was thinking when designing that boss fight.
 
Nov 11, 2017
1,041
Maybe not the most badly designed, but for how big and influential a game it was, I always thought the last Bowser battle in Super Mario 64 was bullshit. You basically had to throw him perfectly to hit the bomb, which really just came down to luck.
 

Barn

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,137
Los Angeles
In Metroid: Other M, the only way to finish off the final boss, the Queen Metroid, is to use your Power Bomb. The thing is, you don't collect upgrades in Other M like you do in other Metroid games; Samus' daddy dom, Adam, has to "authorize" the weapons and abilities she already has before you can use them.

But the game doesn't bother to tell you that the Power Bomb has been authorized, right then at the very first time you need to use it. It just straight up gives you no indication whatsoever that you magically have the Power Bomb, which is the only way to end the fight. It is fucking asinine, like the rest of this game.
 

aspiegamer

Member
Oct 27, 2017
10,491
ZzzzzzZzzzZzz...
Absolute Virtue was a garbage fight. As intended, it required some timing precision that just was never going to happen with how laggy FFXI was/is. Nobody beat it back in the day without glitching some black mages into a wall.



Eventually Square put out a "look dummies this is how you do it" video and it didn't help, lol. Now he's not really a threat, but hey.
I'm not going to outright excuse the absurdity (it was super bad even compared to other hard stuff of the time), but this is sorta the point of massive MMO bosses. FFXI in particular was king in terms of "we're going to throw crazy and unfair shit at you and let players figure out ways to win that we never would have thought of on our own," and that endgame difficulty is a signature of the game that persists through to today even.
The backlash was so bad, SE nerfed both of them and time gated the fight to 2 hours. I can't imagine thinking that an 18 hour long fight that requires dozens of people was a good idea.
That incident convinced me that none of the endgame stuff was ever tested for difficulty, and/or the development team made broad assumptions about players that weren't true. On the bright side, gating difficult fights on timers became a good staple of future combat for the game.
 

Dary

Member
Oct 27, 2017
8,443
The English Wilderness
Pretty much all bonus bosses from KH that you can't just overpower. When you're visually impaired and don't - can't - have the reactions some of them demand, it's like the developers are simply mocking you.

"Hey, want to see the secret ending? Haha, tough, you're too disabled!"
 

Syril

Member
Oct 26, 2017
5,895
Not really the worst ever, but Zorah Magdaros probably the worst gigantic monsters boss fight in the series. Yes, even worse than Lao Shan Lung from original PS2 Monster Hunter.
MH1 Fatalis was worse. All of its attacks would 1-hit kill unless you were wearing its own armor, so the only sensible strategy was to spend the entire fight shooting cluster bombs.
 

harry the spy

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,127
The egg in saga frontiers 2. If you don't have the right team when you get to the last chapter you'll never beat it. It has an attack that has a chance of killing your whole team at once, can't be parried
 

ugoo18

Member
Oct 27, 2017
153
Ancient Dragon in Dark Souls 2, an absolute pos boss. Let's have a boss that you either need an obscene amount of hp to deal with its almost guaranteed ohko fire aoe move that it likes to spam or go find that ring to protect your back so you don't die everytime you're running away from its massive aoe flame attack. The boss basically encourages you to become the biggest glass cannon you can be because you'll die anyway from its aoe fire move if you don't have immense hp and fire resistance. Not to mention its huge health pool.
 

Deleted member 2793

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
15,368
Hard disagree on the Splatoon 2, Diggernaut and the Crab from Order of Ecclesia mentions. All these range from ok to great.

Some other bad boss fights in popular series:

Street Fighter III's Gill. Besides the usual fighting game final boss cheapness, he has Resurrection, a dumb move for a timed battle as it means every roun you take Gill down he'll come back once recovering his health (as long as he has a super meter). At this point I feel like it's better to just take him down to low health, try to survive and win by timeout. There are many boss fights in fighting games that are more cheap or harder, but Gill is a Street Fighter boss -- SF should be standarnd, simple and fair, so Resurrection sticks out as badly designed move that doesn't fit its series at all.

Zelda Majora's Mask's Gyorg. MM boss fights are kinda rough in general, but this fight in the water dungeon takes the cake -- it's awful. You basically need to fight a giant boring fish in a small room filled with water ("oh yeah, I love underwater Zelda fghts!!!" said no one ever). The stage has a small platform in the middle where you need to go to aim your Zora boomerangs at Gyorg to incapacitate it... except the camera is so bad most of the time you're only seeing the ground while targetting the boss, most of your moves will just hit the platform instead of the enemy and make a strident metalic sound to make sure to piss you off. Gyorg's attacks all become scarier and more annoying thanks the terrible camera and low visibility in the room, you'll be hit by small mob enemies, get eaten underwater without seeing him at all before, be knocked out of the main platform, etc. It sucks. Also, they "fixed" this fight in the 3DS version by adding a whole second form where the giant fish spawns bombs all over the map and you're forced to fight underwater -- so yeah, they didn't fix it, just made it annoying in a different way. There's no way to fix such a badly designed boss.

Mega Man 7's Wily Capsule 7. "What if we made the final boss stay most of the fight invisible/invincible, have him spawn at high places that will make most of the player's attacks to miss unless they use a specific weapon everytime in a somewhat short vulnerability window before the boss disappears again, and have at the same time the players needing to constantly dodge four homing beam attacks that are like half the size of our giant Mega Man's sprite"
 

nanskee

Prophet of Truth
Member
Oct 31, 2017
5,075
For me, it's Ancient Dragon in Dark Souls II (vanilla, not SotFS edition).

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A supremely tedious and boring fight because he has a ton of health and a very simple moveset yet can nonetheless one-shot most players with his AoE fire attack. The whole experience is made worse by the long gauntlet of Drakekeepers and Dragon Knights you have to run past on every attempt.

He's a lot more reasonable in SotFS, but man, vanilla AD was just an awful experience.

Is this an optional boss? In scotfs he's just sleeping or something and I think he's an NPC?
 

Deleted member 18021

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
4,000
I'm not going to outright excuse the absurdity (it was super bad even compared to other hard stuff of the time), but this is sorta the point of massive MMO bosses. FFXI in particular was king in terms of "we're going to throw crazy and unfair shit at you and let players figure out ways to win that we never would have thought of on our own," and that endgame difficulty is a signature of the game that persists through to today even.

Oh, I agree, but there's a limit, and FFXI trotted well past it regularly. AV was just the one that was around when I was most actively playing, and so it's the one that sticks out to me. For AV, as I recall, people figured out the idea of the lockouts somewhat quickly, it was just the actual execution of it, along with the network being what it was, that was problematic.

Neat idea, but not really designed with the reality of the game in mind. PW was also very stupid, yeah.

Something like Thordan EX is the gold standard of modern MMO boss design, and I'm fine with that, lol.