Top Five Final Bosses

Top Five is a show where the hosts categorize, rank, compare, and stratify everything… from cars to gadgets to people and movies. From stuff that is hot, and things that are not nearly as interesting – it’s Top Five.

This week, the worst of the worst are upon us, as we run down our top five final bosses.

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Charles Bryan on October 1, 2016 11:53 pm

5- Bowser, Mario series. Probably the most iconic of all video game bosses, it’s hard to not give him his due.

4- Cynthia, Pokemon Diamond, Pearl, & Platinum. My personal favorite character in the Pokemon series. With a balanced team of awesome, high level pokemon, the best artificial intelligence in the series to date, an awesome personality, great character design, and a kick butt battle theme, Cynthia is easily the best champion in the various Pokemon games in my opinion.

3- Izanami-no-Okami, Persona 4 (both the game and anime). Izanami is a challenging and intimidating (both in character and mechanics) boss. And she’s very well designed in all of her forms. But the best thing about her, the thing that makes her so memorable for me, is the amazing character moments that the main character goes through in order to gain the power to finally defeat her. I won’t spoil them here, but those scenes moved me to tears and left me highly satisfied with everything that had happened in the game to that point. And the anime version is actually a bit better, with more creative freedom to shape the hero who was silent protagonist in the game.

2- Nyx Avatar, Persona 3. Not much I can say here without some huge spoilers. But let’s just say it’s very intimidating and very well built up over the course of the game. Not to mention the awesome battle theme.

1- Ultimecia, Final Fantasy VIII. You don’t get to see Ultimecia in person until the very end of the game, and you don’t even know she exists until the last quarter or so. And there are some people who didn’t pay much attention to the story who think she just popped up out of nowhere. But she was there the entire time, controlling other characters (literally in some cases), manipulating everything from behind the scenes to fit into her plans, and constantly trying to kill you from the very beginning of the game. All without the characters and player even knowing she existed. Just getting to see what she looks like is a huge pay off. Then to actually take on this insanely powerful character who’s been built up so well is insanely satisfying. On top of that she has a great and tragic backstory that she more or less flat out tells you herself long before you’re even aware of her existence. She was basically a tormented child who grew up to lash out at a world who rejected her. She literally wants to eliminate all existence other than herself just so everyone will leave her alone, which is strangely understandable. Despite all the terrible things she does and how satisfying and fulfilling it is to beat her, I still can’t help but feel at least a little bit sorry for her. Also, her battle theme is fantastic (if you can’t tell, that’s an important factor for me).

6 Comments

Malone_hasco on September 22, 2016 11:34 am

Ha, there’s nothing sketchy or cheating in Mike Tyson’s Punch Out. Its about timing and knowing the patterns. I did it as a kid and still can. There’s also nothing random about it, I’ve seen a guy do it blindfolded. :P

Toric on September 22, 2016 8:33 pm

5. Gideon from Scott Pilgrim, both comic and film. He’s a great example of the smug chump at the top of the pyramid.

4. Sauron from Lord of the Rings. He has no physical body, but he still poses multiple threats to the heroes through both skilled tactical movement of troops and sabotage via the Palantir.

3. Harbinger from Mass Effect 2. He’s essentially Space Cthulu with an entire race of mindless cultists, and he can possess any grunt to instantly turn it into a miniboss. And he does all this while still years of travel away from the Milky Way galaxy.

2. Irenicus from Baldur’s Gate 2. He follows the Evil Overlord Checklist pretty closely and thus is two steps ahead of everyone for all except for two moments in the game, and he has a somewhat tragic backstory that might evoke a lot of sympathy. Plus he has a great voice actor.

1. Kefka from Final Fantasy 5. First he’s a psychotic clown in charge of an army, who commits war crimes for no more reason than loving to see people suffer. Then he attains godhood and, well, he doesn’t have Batman to focus on like Emperor Joker so the whole world is screwed. He’s both hilarious and terrifying the whole game through, and his motives are both insane and internally consistent. Kefka is by far my favorite final boss.

- Toric on September 22, 2016 9:32 pm
  
  Correction: Kefka from Final Fantasy 6.
  
balouie on September 23, 2016 6:30 pm

how does no one include Shodan? What she does is just terrifying.

- Matthew Peterson on September 24, 2016 10:55 am
  
  Never played System Shock… Sorry! :)
  
Charles Bryan on October 1, 2016 11:53 pm

5- Bowser, Mario series. Probably the most iconic of all video game bosses, it’s hard to not give him his due.

4- Cynthia, Pokemon Diamond, Pearl, & Platinum. My personal favorite character in the Pokemon series. With a balanced team of awesome, high level pokemon, the best artificial intelligence in the series to date, an awesome personality, great character design, and a kick butt battle theme, Cynthia is easily the best champion in the various Pokemon games in my opinion.

3- Izanami-no-Okami, Persona 4 (both the game and anime). Izanami is a challenging and intimidating (both in character and mechanics) boss. And she’s very well designed in all of her forms. But the best thing about her, the thing that makes her so memorable for me, is the amazing character moments that the main character goes through in order to gain the power to finally defeat her. I won’t spoil them here, but those scenes moved me to tears and left me highly satisfied with everything that had happened in the game to that point. And the anime version is actually a bit better, with more creative freedom to shape the hero who was silent protagonist in the game.

2- Nyx Avatar, Persona 3. Not much I can say here without some huge spoilers. But let’s just say it’s very intimidating and very well built up over the course of the game. Not to mention the awesome battle theme.

1- Ultimecia, Final Fantasy VIII. You don’t get to see Ultimecia in person until the very end of the game, and you don’t even know she exists until the last quarter or so. And there are some people who didn’t pay much attention to the story who think she just popped up out of nowhere. But she was there the entire time, controlling other characters (literally in some cases), manipulating everything from behind the scenes to fit into her plans, and constantly trying to kill you from the very beginning of the game. All without the characters and player even knowing she existed. Just getting to see what she looks like is a huge pay off. Then to actually take on this insanely powerful character who’s been built up so well is insanely satisfying. On top of that she has a great and tragic backstory that she more or less flat out tells you herself long before you’re even aware of her existence. She was basically a tormented child who grew up to lash out at a world who rejected her. She literally wants to eliminate all existence other than herself just so everyone will leave her alone, which is strangely understandable. Despite all the terrible things she does and how satisfying and fulfilling it is to beat her, I still can’t help but feel at least a little bit sorry for her. Also, her battle theme is fantastic (if you can’t tell, that’s an important factor for me).

Top Five Final Bosses