Typically, if you wanted to give a boss fight a little extra thematic impact, the way to go would be toensure that you lose. Nothing makes you feel more outmatched than a metaphorical wall you literally cannot surmount.
10 Easy But Impactful Boss Fights
Sometimes, gimmicks and spectacles are just as memorable.
However, games will sometimes take things in the other direction. Rather than a boss fight you absolutely cannot win, you may encounter a boss that is impossible to lose, or at least borderline impossible without a concentrated effort to do so.
This can sometimes be used for a similar level of dramatic impact as an unwinnable boss, though it’s just as likely to be played for laughs.
10Bob The Killer Goldfish
Earthworm Jim
The fifth level of Earthworm Jim, “Down the Tubes,” sees our wormy hero navigating an underwater maze while under constant threat by muscled-up mutant cats and perilous pufferfish. It’s a truly insidious gauntlet, ruled over by an equally insidious leader: Bob the Killer Goldfish.
At the end of the level, Jim finally comes face-to-face with Bob at the center of the underwater base, the horrible sea dweller glaring at him from within his glass fishbowl.
Unfortunately, being stuck in a fishbowl, Bob can’t actually do anything to hurt you. As soon as Jim shoots, whips, or even just walks past the bowl, it falls onto the floor, leaving Bob to flop around harmlessly.
9Zote The Mighty
Hollow Knight
Over the course ofHollow Knight, you repeatedly encounter Zote, a quote-unquote “knight of great renown” who comes to Hallownest seeking glory.
Assuming you don’t leave him to die when encountering him in the wilderness, you’ll finally get a chance to cross nails with him in the Colosseum of Fools.
Unfortunately, despite his constant boasting, Zote couldn’t fight his way out of a wet paper bag. His “nail” is just a knock-off made of wood that can’t even knock you down, much less hurt you. Just smack him around a few times, and he’ll be defeated.
While Zote himself is incompetent, the version of him in Bretta’s imagination, Grey Prince Zote, isquite a tough customer.
8The Handsome Men
The fifth mission ofKiller7, Alter Ego, pits the Smiths against the Handsome Men, a team of Super Sentai heroes turned terrorist assassins. After confronting the group in the Dominican Republic, the Smiths are challenged to a formal showdown on Broadway.
One-by-one, each member of the Smiths is matched up against a member of the Handsome Men using the same guns and techniques. While this seems like a climactic tournament, though, the entire sequence is scripted.
The wins and losses will be the same every time, no matter how good or bad your aim is. The whole thing ends as Garcian confronts Handsome Pink, who reveals herself to be a hacker who orchestrated the whole farce. It’sjust as bizarre a scenario as it sounds.
7Professor Nakayama
Borderlands 2
In theBorderlands 2expansion Sir Hammerlock’s Big Game Hunt, your main antagonist is Professor Nakayama, a super fanboy ofthe late Handsome Jackseeking to clone his idol.
As the Vault Hunters fight their way to Nakayama, he’s constantly on the radio screaming about how scared he is.
When they reach him, he manages to steel himself for one last climactic showdown and descends his digistructed staircase.
He then promptly trips, falls face-first on the stairs, and drops dead. The moral of the story: if you want to digistruct stairs, add safety railings.
6Professor Calvert
In the Point Lookout DLC ofFallout 3, the main questline involves settling a longstanding rivalry between ghoulified scientist Desmond Lockheart and the disembodied brain of Professor Calvert.
After Calvert inadvertently reveals his position to Desmond, the two of you go to confront him. While Calvert’s hideout has strong security, he apparently forgot to shore things up around his brain tank.
His chamber is only guarded by a handful of malfunctioning Protections that won’t even shoot at you. All you have to do is shoot his brain tank a few times, and he’s history. Odds are good that even if you don’t shoot immediately, Desmond will do it for you.
5Mettaton NEO
In the Genocide run ofUndertale, most of the boss encounters are replaced with alternate, oftenmore difficult fights, such as Undyne the Undying.
This seems to be the case again as you make your way through Hotland and the Core and are confronted by Mettaton at the elevator to the city.
Resolute to stop your rampage, Mettaton transforms into Mettaton NEO, an even more advanced body than his usual upgraded form.
Undertale: All Bosses, Ranked
A memorable design, catchy theme, and relentless attack strategy make the blueprint of a perfect Undertale boss.
Unfortunately, you’ve become such a force of destruction at this point, it only takes one casual swipe of your knife to scrap Mettaton completely. It’s less a fight you may’t lose, and more a fight he can’t win.
Final Fantasy X
Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster
In the climax ofFinal Fantasy X, the party successfully defeats the final Aeon and confronts the original creator of Sin: Yu Yevon.
While Yu Yevon is some kind of big magic tick, he is still a powerful spellcaster, constantly pummeling the party with Gravija and healing himself with Curaga. The problem is that, for story reasons, the entire party has a permanent Auto-Life cast.
Nothing Yu Yevon throws at you, up to and including corrupted Aeons and casting Ultima, can stop you. The only possible way to botch this encounter is to somehow petrify yourself. It’sa rather underwhelming endto an otherwise epic story.
3The Electrocutioner
Batman: Arkham Origins
InBatman: Arkham Origins, a gaggle of B- and C-list villains are after the Caped Crusader’s head on the orders of mob boss Black Mask. One such thug is Lester Buchinsky, AKA the Electrocutioner.
Buchinsky confronts Batman in an underground fighting pit, bolstered by the cheers of a crowd of crooks.
He stands around posturing for a bit, bragging about how badly he’s going to fry the Batman. Unfortunately, as soon as you attack once, Buchinsky is instantly downed by a swift boot to the head.
Batman then swiped his electrified gloves and began putting them to good use. Buchinsky only shows up one more time in the game, where he’s kicked out a window by the Joker and falls to his death.
In the penultimate dungeon ofOkami, your targets are the twin demons Lechku and Nechku, the ones responsible for enveloping Kamui in a perpetual blizzard.
The demons are a pair and usually stay together, though the first time you encounter them, it’s just Nechku by its lonesome.
While Nechku would be a credible threat one-on-one, in this particular circumstance, you’re aided by Amaterasu’s previous incarnation, Shiranui. As a version of the Sun Goddess at her peak, Shiranui is quite literally a force of nature.
You don’t even have to do anything; you may just let Shiranui handle the whole encounter. Of course, after Nechku is defeated, a second fight with Lechku by its side begins, but that’s a separate matter.
1Mist Noble
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
InSekiro: Shadows Die Twice, the Hidden Forest area of the Ashina Depths is completely enshrouded in a bewildering mist.
The culprit behind this mist is the aptly named Mist Noble, a draconic creature hiding in an abandoned temple at the center of the area. Once you make your way into the temple, you can drop down from the rafters and kill it instantly.
Even if you just drop down and reveal yourself, though, the Mist Noble has no combat prowess to speak of.
It’ll just swing its arms at you randomly, dealing slow, negligible damage. It could technically kill you if you left it for like 30 minutes, but you’d probably get bored and just stab it before then.
10 JRPG Bosses Harder than the Final Boss
JRPGs have some of the most iconic fights in gaming and while most are manageable, there are always a few in each game that give gamers chills.
