Top Ten Boss Battles

#10
Olrox
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - PSX
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOiTxTnAFzo
Though not the hardest fight in the game by far, or the coolest looking, this one
definitely lingered the best in my mind. From the cordial way he invites you to
sit across from him, to the fact that he's possibly the only other Vampire Lord in
the Castle in this game, the fight just sticks out. Add to that the fact when you
think he's beat, phase two starts up, and is strategically the exact opposite of
the first part. Just barely made it past Legion from the same game being on the
list.

#9
Ghost Train
Final Fantasy 6 - SNES
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57S0q4lUsTY
Treking through a train of the damned... Eagerly awaiting what kind of spooky boss
is at the end... Will it be a ghostly conductor? A zombie engineer? Nah man, that's
elementary... You get to fight the train itself!!
What made this fight something of an RPG legend was the ability (sadly not shown in
the video) to suplex the train, forever becoming immortalized via video game memes
a good decade after its release.

#8
Artorius of the Abyss
Dark Souls - PS3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctW277Kpcv0
An epic encounter with a man referred to in passing throughout the game for his
legendary prowess. The classic bait-and switch of presenting an enemy before the
TRUE boss dispatches it... The fact that he schools your ass even though he has
very blatantly lost the use of one arm. All these tropes are common, but only this
one puts them all together so well.

#7
Old King Allant
Demons' Souls - PS3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qn3st_j21I4
Compositionally the pre-cursor to Artorius, this pre-endgame boss takes you to the
limits in a way that you havent encountered yet so far. Giant demon enemies and
dragons larger than the area you can walk on took center stage... until this
unassuming, regal swordsman pushes the game's difficulty to 11. Several tries
later you curse your lack of skills, after all, his pattern is SO blatant... But
you just can't get it right. Until you do, and proceed to feel like the biggest
badass on the block.

#6
The End
Metal Gear Solid 3 - PS2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YQKNpt-Idw
Re-defining what a boss battle could be, this open-field sniper duel took
everything from the MGS Sniper Wolf battle and turned it up a notch. No video out
there will properly convey the "Wait and see", "Slow and steady" nature of this
battle against a looming, invisible reaper. The fact that you could, in classic
Kojima style, set your PS2 clock ahead and win via The End dying of old age?
Incredible.
#5
Jetstream Sam
Metal Gear Rising - PS4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3WXV3bzR4s
The fact that this game is pretty much ALL about the epic boss battles made me
limit myself to what I considered the best. Metal Gear Rising made no attempts at
pretention or obfuscation. It was a game about dueling cyborg swordsman manically
slicing things 10,000 times and kicking the pieces. And it delivered. From the
timed boss music that looped perfectly until just the right time to go into
overdrive for the finale, to the awesome mechanic of aimed sword slices and
perfect-timing parries, everything clicked marvelously. Aiding to the rule of cool
is the post-battle revelation that the guy who just pushed you to the limits was
100% Un-augmented, while you were cranked up to maximum overdrive via cybernetics?
Excellent.

#4
Magus
Chrono Trigger - SNES
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQtv2KEGvsw
The lead up to this one still gives me goosebumps. The epic 16-bit music and
ambience... The battle that pushes you to either manic patience or strategic
brilliance... Or the fact that you learn afterwards that this not only WASN'T the
end boss; it was barely the HALFWAY mark of the game. So many factors pushed this
into the top 5. Icing on the cake is further down the line when the boss becomes a
PLAYABLE CHARACTER. Chrono Trigger was unmistakeably ahead of the rest.

#3
Psycho Mantis
Metal Gear Solid - PSX
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWsFYSn7Gtg
Mother of all mind-fucks. The sudden twist into the surreal gives you goosebumps;
the following 4th wall shattering leaves you enthralled. The gimmicks that Mantis
pulls off are unheard of - reading your memory card and commenting on what kind of
games you have played, making assumptions based on how you've played the game so
far... READING YOUR CONTROLLER'S INPUT, thus forcing you to change controller ports
to win. All this and a delightful slew of other telekinetic chicanery makes this
boss prime top three material.

#2
Luca Blight
Suikoden II - PSX
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdNNRBp28O0

#1
Grigori
Dragon's Dogma - PS3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPFJO28x3AI