Vergil – Devil May Cry 5
The Devil May Cry series features the best combat system I have every experienced in a game with protagonist Dante. Sporting a wide arsenal of both close and long-ranged weapons, this half-demon devil hunter provides the player with so many ways to take down enemies, while rewarding players for how “stylish” they are in doing it. There are dozens of bosses across the series that deserve a spot on a list like this, but none showcase the depth and complexity of DMC’s combat quite like Dante’s battle with his brother Vergil do.
Choosing just one encounter with Vergil for this list was a tricky one, but in the end, I had to go for the Dante’s fight against him from Devil May Cry 5. The battle against him in DMC 3 is so riveting, from a narrative, aesthetic and gameplay standpoint. But what puts his fight in 5 at the top for me is just how climactic the battle feels. Watching him and Dante interact for the first time in 14 years, standing atop the Qlipoth as they recall their days as children, smiling, is so strangely cathartic.
Vergil grows in power across the course of the battle, activating his Sin Devil Trigger once his health gets low enough and spawning in a doppelganger at an even later stage. He boasts such a variety of attacks, but with the number of weapons at Dante’s disposal the possibilities for countering them seem endless. He’s absolutely relentless, but with enough practice you can dodge, block or deflect anything he throws at you, all while pulling some insane combos yourself. It’s a battle that keeps on giving, and six years later I still find myself returning to it to try and win in the most ridiculously stylish way possible.
Sisters of Fate – God of War II
One of the most important things in making a boss battle feel memorable to a player is giving it a sense of significant. A well-designed boss battle on its own will always be fun, but what truly makes the best of the best bosses is the atmosphere; the presentation; the narrative significance. Kratos’ fight with Lahkesis and Atropos in God of War II nails all three of these elements, making for an unforgettable fight on all fronts. Kratos’ driving motivation in the plot is to find the Sisters of Fate to change his destiny and get his revenge against Zeus. And throughout his journey across the Island of Creation, Kratos encounters and defeats many foes who seek the sisters themselves, including Perseus and Icarus.
The fight is split into three phases, starting with Lakhesis battling Kratos at the Throne of the Fates, who takes to ground and air to dish out both melee and ranged attacks. Atropos then drags him through a mirror, travelling back in time to his battle against Ares and threatening to destroy the Blade of the Gods, rewriting his destiny. The fight plays with the powers of the sisters in such an interesting way, using their powers to harken back to such an iconic moment in the series.
The fight then ends with the sisters teaming up in a desperate last attempt to take the God of War down: Atropos reaching through mirrors while Lakhesis battles Kratos back at the throne. Despite not being the game’s final battle, it truly feels like it’s what the whole game has been building up to. And it ends in typically ruthless Kratos fashion. After stabbing Lakhesis in the head, Kratos traps her in the mirror with the sister and shatters the glass, sealing the two away forever. For all the brutal ways Kratos has managed to kill his enemies, he somehow provides the sisters with a fate worse than death.
The Burst – Furi
Furi is one of the most interesting indie games I’ve ever played, fusing the combat of hack ‘n’ slash and shoot ‘em up games for a dynamic and entirely unique style of gameplay. If you haven’t realised yet, the kind of bosses in video games that get me hooked are the ones that boast an incredible sense of scale. Enemies that evolve, use a variety of attacks, and test players’ skills in creative and challenging ways engage me like nothing else. So naturally the six-phase epic battle against The Burst is my favourite fight in Furi.
The Burst is the most versatile enemy in Furi by a long shot. Her main form of attack – her sniper rifle – is the only attack in the game that can destroy the player’s health bar in a single shot. She uses her invisibility to escape across the enormous arena, firing at the player from range with only a few wall-like structures scattered across the arena to defend themself. That’s not to say that The Burst is afraid of close-range combat either, though. As the fight progresses into later phases, she uses her invisibility to attack from unexpected angles, demanding the quickest of reaction times.
The majority of Furi’s fights end with a bullet hell phase, with bosses firing an overwhelming array of projectiles at players requiring the most precise of movement to dodge. The Burst adds an extra layer of difficulty to hers by firing her one-hit sniper shots at the player simultaneously, ramping up the tension to the max. And just when the player thinks it’s all over, The Burst doesn’t give them a second to breathe, trapping them in one last close-combat phase for which she goes entirely invisible. It’s ten minutes of non-stop action and unpredictability, and it makes my hairs stand on end every single time.
Senator Armstrong – Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
In all honesty, this list could have consisted entirely of bosses selected from this one game. It’s one of the only games I’ve played where every single major fight is unforgettable, with each antagonist offering exciting combat, phenomenal theme songs, and truly memorable characters with distinct personalities and motivations. Choosing just one feels like a disservice to just how good they all are, but if I had to explain my love for MGR:R through just one battle, it would have to be the final boss fight against Senator Armstrong.
Before I dive into what makes this fight so special, I have to talk about the song that plays over it. All other vocal themes in Metal Gear Rising are told from the perspective of the corresponding boss, giving players an insight into their beliefs, ideologies and motivations for battle. But “It Has To Be This Way” is the only song where the perspective from which it is told is indistinguishable, perfectly matching both Raiden and Armstrong’s mindsets in the heat of the battle. It’s the perfect theme to unite these two and cap off the game, acknowledging the inevitability of conflict in their world and their shared duty to fight, no matter how far apart their worldviews may be.
Standing here, I realize you were just like me trying to make history
But who's to judge the right from wrong?
When our guard is down, I think we'll both agree
That violence breeds violence
But in the end it has to be this way
Jimmy Gnecco - It Has To Be This Way
Beyond this track and all the cutscenes sprinkled between each of Armstrong’s phases, the fight itself is incredible. The battle truly begins once Raiden obtains the HF Murasama Blade, the only thing capable of breaking through Armstrong’s nanomachine augmentations. Armstrong will do everything he can to stop you from gaining the upper hand; punching you from close-up, charging at you from a distance, hurling broken parts of his Metal Gear at you and making fire erupt from the ground with sheer force. He’ll even try and knock the blade out of Raiden’s hands, forcing you to retrieve it before getting stuck back in. He taunts, threatens, and even complements you throughout the battle. As despicable of a villain as he is, Armstrong’s love for war is what truly makes his fight so enjoyable, shouting “this is the greatest fight of my life!” while his body is torn to shreds by Raiden’s blade. 12 years later, Senator Armstrong still stands as the gold standard for how to do a final boss battle, and I can’t see it losing that title for a good while longer.