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Nothing makes the game stand out like a good boss fight. After fighting through hordes of their minions, evading traps, and solving their puzzles you finally get to face them. But just making the list of what the best boss fights are isn't quite enough. Instead, today we're going to talk more about why the best boss fights you find in video games work so well and what makes them so memorable. Let's get started!
Best boss fights of the Batman Arkham series
The Scarecrow boss battle from Batman: Arkham Asylum is probably one of the best designed boss fights in the series. It's also proof that great bosses don't have to be physically strong. Scarecrow's strongest weapon is instilling fear into you.
What makes this boss fight work is that it actually starts before you know it. You're poisoned by the fear toxin and start feeling all kinds of funky. And not in a good way. The effects of the toxin create a manner of visions for you. Including the collosal version of the Scarecrow that can wipe you out with one strike. But more importantly, it has you fight Batman's fears. Waking up in your own grave which you have to break out from is a horror story on it's own, let alone having to face rows of insane Batmen before reaching the only point of light that gives you hope – the Bat-Signal.
What follows is a few stages of fighting, but after each one Scarecrow manages to inject more toxin inside of you. And by the end we see another thing that makes this boss fight so great. After fighting through all hallucinations and prevailing every single time Scarecrow begins to question if you're even human. „You've ingested enough toxins to make ten men insane. What are you?“ That quote proves you struck permanent fear into him, without the need of the toxins. And that makes you more scary in his eyes than any hallucination that he can create. That's what makes this one of the best boss fights in gaming – it makes you feel awesome.
You can't talk about best boss fights without mentioning Dark Souls
Did you think I'd make it through this without bringing up Dark Souls? And I know what you're thinking, this is going to be more talking about Ornstein and Smough. Don't get me wrong, that's a great boss fight. But it's not the one I want to talk about today. Instead, I'd like to talk about Artorias the Abysswalker boss fight.
Artorias the Abysswalker is a boss fight added in the DLC. It is everything you want from a Dark Souls boss design. He's a tragic character. Once one of the four Knights of Gwyn who had to sacrifice his greatshield to protect Sif, his young wolf companion, and was defeated by Manus. With time he became corrupted by the Abyss. And at one point you travel back to the past and have to fight this once great champion of light.
But the lore behind his character isn't what makes him one of the best boss fights you can find. It's the fact that his fight design is at the same time both different and keeping in the tone of the other Dark Souls bosses. Unlike most other bosses which are slow and hulking creatures, Artorias is much more like you. He's smaller in size, faster, and has a whole lot of intimidating moves. Much like the player, he can roll, evade, swings his greatsword like you would, and overall uses all tools available at his disposal to win the fight. Sometimes that includes harnessing the corruption within. It is this breaking of pattern and familiarity of the fighting style that make him stand out. Not to mention the sheer difficulty of the fight itself.
Darksiders boss that remains memorable after all these years
Darksiders is an amazing franchise spanning a total of four games in which you can play as each of the horsemen of the apocalypse. There are many memorable moments, characters, and most importantly, bosses. But with so many games and so many great bosses providing you with some of the best boss fights you'll ever find in games it becomes difficult to pick one to showcase. But after a lot of consideration I came to the conclusion that Tiamat boss fight is one of the best in existence.
Tiamat does one thing best – having the player use all the skills at their disposal. That's a thing that used to be a staple of boss fights in the early days of gaming all the way until 2010 or so. It is still present but it has become less and less important unless it's a specific genre of game. Darksiders' Tiamat fight makes you use the bombs for long-range combat, all the flashy sword moves you have, and test your evading skills to the fullest. But all of that wouldn't be enough if Tiamat wouldn't look like she does. Tiamat's form follows her function. And that's the golden rule of visual design for bosses. Both of these things are combined in order to make Tiamat one of the best boss fights ever.
This was just a little sneak-peek behind the scenes of how the best boss fights work. Of course, there is plenty more examples but there is no way all of that can fit into one article. I hope you enjoyed it, and I'll see you next time.
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