Ranking Skyward Sword HD’s Bosses (Legend of Zelda)

this video is sponsored by genchin impact a game some of you may have heard of i actually got the chance to play genchin impact way back at pax east 2020 and was immediately flawed by just how good this game can look in case you're unaware gentian impact is an open world rpg and you can play it on pc ps4 and 5 or even mobile which runs really well and looks way better than a mobile version ought to gentian impact has just launched its 2.0 update known as the immovable god and the eternal euthemia which includes a brand new huge region in azuma ruled by the electro archon bar god of eternity innozuma is an archipelago rich with history in fact its westernmost island yashiori is cleaved in two by a huge rift this canyon was created when the god of eternity fought a huge serpent baal defeated it with a thunderous slash so great it not only killed the serpent on the spot but tore the island itself apart gentian impact's world is huge and fully explorable in fact right now the game's only made up of two of the seven planned major nations of tavats well three including the brand new innozuma and it's still absolutely massive you can run climb or glide freely around the world there are gacha elements which isn't personally my thing but you're able to play genchin impact completely free if you choose to so start your adventure by clicking the link in the description down below [Music] so skyward sword hd released last week and i've just finished my first full playthrough of the game that wasn't just to grab footage for a video in nearly 10 years i did grab footage though so let's make a video skyward sword is a mixed bag when it comes to zelda bosses it's known for some of the absolute best in the series but also has some that are nearly universally hated i've made boss ranking videos before but never given my opinion on all of the bosses in a single game so as i've just finished skyward sword hd let's rank the boss battles subscribe if you haven't already for more zelda content and let's get into it here's the one most people expected the imprisoned is my least favorite skyward sword boss but it really shouldn't be the concept is incredibly cool it's the abominable tormented form of a godlike demon king bound by an ancient seal slowly crawling its way out of its pits to bring the worlds to an end but the problem with the imprisoned is that the boss is fought three separate times and the fights all follow the exact same formula the same setting the same goal the same stakes the individual fights are all so slow too the imprisoned waddles along on little stunted legs and cutting it down is tedious and repetitive each time the imprisoned breaks free the fight adds new mechanics in the first round link either needs to run ahead and land on the imprisoned or stay grounded and cut at his toes both with the same goal of hammering the ceiling spike back into the beast's head the second round gives the imprisoned arms and this time link isn't alone he's joined by gruese with his bomb launching device the gruesonator the boss tries climbing the ledges of the pit which can be stopped with bombs but other than that the boss fight is pretty much the same as the first the third imprisoned boss fight gives the big guy the ability to levitate it'll spawn an admittedly awesome looking halo and ominously begin to ascend from the pit this fight is by far the best of the three you need to stun the imprisoned with bombs to land on its head and midway through the fight groose loses access to them so he instead can fire you at the boss if the third fight against the imprisoned was the only fight against the imprisoned i'd rank it slightly higher on the list i mean you could argue that there should be three entries on this list one for each encounter but while it is three boss fights it's all the same boss the final fight would obviously rank higher than the second which would rank higher than the first as mechanics are progressively added to the recurring boss fight as you progress through the game so by the time you're on the third encounter it's genuinely not a bad boss fight it's still slow but it has a few fun mechanics it's just by the time you get to the third round you've already had to slog through two encounters already by the third it doesn't feel like you're facing off against a demon king it's just a chore skoldera is in my opinion the game's most forgettable boss the fight isn't particularly bad or unfun it just isn't good or fun and it doesn't help that it suffers from the same problem that the imprison does in my opinion a problem shared by the next entry on this list too that the boss's design just makes it really hard to take seriously after traversing the earth temple just before exiting into the earth's spring and finding zelda link enters a huge final chamber as he steps into the room a stone ball rolls through a giant skeleton off into the distance the hero makes his way up a path shaped like the body of a dragon until he stopped by girohim standing atop the beast's head the demon lord explains that his minions assured him that they had captured zelda we even see the chain that bound her in this chamber but to girohim's fury she escaped with the help of impa to vent his burning anger the demon chooses to introduce link to his friend a few moments with whom he assures he'll burn the hero to a crisp the dragon's head opens and the stone ball from earlier rolls to the bottom of the path it sprouts flaming legs and opens its mouth into a scorching roar the pyroclastic themed skuldera the fight against skuldera isn't particularly interesting the earth temple's item is the bomb bag so blowing the boss up and then feeding it more bombs reveals its weak spots and eye over the course of the fight scalder will lose its rocky armor plating and will try and attack link by rolling into him or throwing fireballs but it doesn't put up too much of a fight like i said it's not a bad boss it's just underwhelming but at least the fight is relatively quick and it's only fought once the sand chip is one of the series most creative dungeons instead of a dark subterranean complex it's as its name suggests a ship once piloted by ancient robots tasked with guarding nehru's sacred flame at some point in the distant past the ship was seized by pirates led by scurvo a fearsome mechanical buccaneer who still pilots the sandship in the current age the dungeon makes heavy use of what is perhaps my favorite mechanic in skyward sword the time shift stones which when activated rewind time for their immediate surroundings a central time shift stone embedded into the ship's mast means that the entire dungeon switches between past and present leading to some really creative puzzles and it's in this distant era that the dungeon's boss is fought after finding the squid carving and entering the captain's quarters the ship is attacked great tentacles tear through the hull the writhing arms of some unseen leviathan below link desperately runs through the flooding corridors dodging rolling barrels until he reaches the deck amidst a raging storm the beast reveals itself the abyssal leviathan tentalus i've talked before about just how much i hate this boss's design so i won't dwell on it too much here but suffice to say i think this could be the most underwhelming boss reveal in zelda history it's one of the best build ups to a fight in the series a frantic escape through a ship under attack but tantalus itself looks more like a plushie than an eldritch horror from the deep the fight itself is pretty straightforward but isn't actually too bad at all the first phase involves using skyward strikes to cut through the tentacles that burst through the decking causing tantalus to surface and can then be damaged by targeting its eye after taking some hits it'll attack the ship which knocks down a block and allows access to the upper deck this begins the second phase which is much the same as the first tantalus will attack with its tentacle hair but again can be brought down by targeting its eye i'll admit that i'm biased against tantalus as i just feel that it's a letdown after one of the game's best dungeons but i just can't place it any higher than number six on my list levios is the great warden of the skies a duty given by the goddess hylia long ago recently however levias isn't the same he attacks anyone who gets close and his eyes are full of malice link discovers that this is because he's infected with a demonic parasite bilasite the atmosphere of this battle is brilliant levias and bilasite are thought as an overworld boss of sorts in the thunderhead an area of the sky caught in an eternal storm the first phase of battle is fought while airborne requiring link to maneuver his loft wing and charge at the parasitic eyeballs sprouting out of the deity when they've been destroyed bylecite's head emerges from the whale's blowhole and link lands on its back the second phase of the battle is a game of dead man's folly a zelda staple instead of just getting progressively faster though bilasite instead forces you to bat back its projectiles in one of three different directions first to hit its frills and then as it ducks left or right the battle against levios and bilasite has great atmosphere and music and the designs of both of them are brilliant but the fight itself is pretty simple the lenairu province is by far the most interesting area of skyward sword's surface a barren wasteland forgotten and empty la neru's ancient ruins bake under the desert sun however the province wasn't always this way la neru was once lush and green full of vibrant flora and fauna and its inhabitants prospered a mysterious powerful society of ancient robots once called la neru home and its green fields were the foundations for factories temples and mines one such place was the la neru mining facility a complex presumably once used to refine time shift stones in the past it was incredibly advanced it featured engines and conveyor belts and was defended by powerful automata in the present however the facility is decrepit it's buried under thick sand that's built up over the centuries and is crawling with araka tiny cyclopean scorpions said to live for a thousand years the mining facility's boss is fought in the present disused version of the factory bursting out from the sand below moldarak the thousand-year arachnid it's an araka that has survived its millennium long larval stage and is now fully grown the fight against moldorak isn't particularly difficult link must take out the arachnids pincers by slashing the eyes at the right angle occasionally the boss will submerge itself in the sand requiring link to use the dungeon item the gust bellows to force it back out once declawed a few stabs to its single remaining eye will finish it off another mulderarch is fought later on at the shipyard after fee tells link to use the gust bellows to look for clues in the sand he accidentally unearths a second thousand year arachnid which is a cool surprise boss fight i love that we can see the boss's larval form infesting the laneru province reminiscent of gomer's lava but overall mulder arc doesn't stand out too much its design is very simple but effective and the fight itself is the same the demon lord girohim travels on much the same quest as link just one step ahead he appears at the end of many of the game's dungeons to either set the dungeon's boss on link or to fight him himself delivering some of the game's best dialogue as he does so every line girohim has is brilliant he manages to tread the line perfectly between funny and downright terrifying like the imprisoned he's fought three times throughout the game once at skyview temple then again in the fire sanctuary and finally just before the showdown with demise but unlike the imprisoned each girohim boss battle is quick challenging and fun girohing fights are jewels they test your skills with sword and shields and nothing else throughout the battles we see girhym's transformation from a conceited demon lord into a brutal weapon the first fight sees the demon lord shed his cloak for battle fighting in simple white clothes by the second his skin has become cracked and marred and his arms are black and hard as steel and before the third girohim transforms all pretense of civility gone his form is smooth his skin like cold metal a weapon without mercy as his appearance changes throughout the fights so do the fights themselves the first introduces the idea of fooling girohim into blocking in one direction and then striking in the other and during the second phase he'll draw a thin blade to use against you as well as throw small needle-like projectiles which can be deflected with the sword the second fight builds on this giving girohim two blades and adding small red hazards to his defenses the third fight however is by far the best in his new metallic form girohim is fought atop magical platforms high above the sealed grounds the master sword harmlessly bounces off the demon's armored skin but link's attacks will push him back eventually knocking him onto a lower platform allowing for a fatal blow to his chest a few rounds of which will see both link and girohim on solid ground for the final duel as with the previous fight skirahim draws a thin black sword and the battle begins while he's still largely unaffected by link's sword the series of fatal blows have left his chest exposed by shield-bashing the demon's attacks or reflecting projectiles back towards him link can create openings to stab at this weak point though he recovers quickly the final phase of the fight sees girhym conjure a great sword swinging it violently at link as well as using it to defend himself link can damage the sword by swinging his own at it girohim will repair the blade but if enough damage is dealt quickly it will shatter opening the demon lord up for another stab to the chest enough of which will finally bring the fight to a close girihim fights are only about your sword and your shields nothing more the reason for this is obvious once the twist at the end is revealed girohim is a sword in the same way that fee is he's the spirit of demise's blade as he puts it a weapon without mercy so it makes sense that his fights are only ever clashes of swords the imprison stays pretty much the same throughout its three encounters save for it growing arms for the second and the ability to levitate for the third while girohim on the other hand descends further into madness the more he loses to link he loses his identity as the cruel confident demon lords and embraces his role as demise's weapon demise is the source of hyrule's eternal torment a being of unknown origin a demon bent on bringing the world to its knees a warrior fueled by hatred for the goddess and her people it was demise who had challenged tyler in the ancient past tearing through into her peaceful realm from a rift alongside an army of demons and was narrowly defeated and imprisoned in a battle that gravely wounded the immortal goddess even though i'm not a fan of the imprisoned boss fights they do serve to show just how powerful the demon king is even while trapped in a monstrous form and sealed by the goddess herself demise is still powerful enough to bring the world to an end if allowed to escape the sealed grounds so when girohim escapes with zelda to the distant past and uses her divine soul to resurrect his master the weight of the showdown against him is overwhelming demise wields a colossal twisted mockery of the master sword just like fee is the spirit of the goddess his sacred blade girihim is the spirit of the demon king's sword link's bravery surprises demise who has never before seen a human do anything but cry at the sight of him and cling to the goddess but the hero stands against him barring his entry into the world of the living a final obstacle between the demon king and the triforce because of this demise allows link to challenge him in single combat a jewel which will decide the fate of everything and so creates a portal to a different dimension where he awaits his challenger the demise boss fight is in my opinion the most difficult final boss battle in a 3d zelda like with girohim the battle is fought purely with the master sword the only weapon capable of damaging the demon king for the first phase it's a straight jewel though demise is quick enough to block most attacks countering with massive swings of his own his attacks are slow and easily avoidable however so dodging or shield bashing his strikes creates openings where link can deal damage eventually bringing demise to his knees hitting him enough times will bring on a thunderstorm rain begins to fall and lightning crackles in the air as the second phase begins this phase is far more difficult demise will raise his sword to the skies and catch bolts of lightning electrifying his blade he can use this lightning either to power up his own swings or to throw skyward strikes towards link but most importantly his blade now damages link if their swords collide even when shield bashing demises powerful attacks to create openings link needs to be careful not to clash with the demon's blade or else he'll take a full heart of damage it's possible to charge skyward strikes with a master sword filling it with lightning in the same way that demise does but it's difficult to find the time to do this while avoiding his attacks after some time demise will fall and the prompt for a fatal blow will appear though the demon king narrowly avoids the strike but when knocks down again he isn't quick enough link leaps into the air catches a lightning bolt with a master sword and plunges the electrified blade of the goddess deep into the demon's chest with a final curse demise is defeated his body evaporated his consciousness sealed within the master sword the fight against demise is great it's climactic and challenging and is one of my favorite boss fights in the series the reveal that girohim is simply demise's sword sets the demon king up as link's polar opposite the darkness to his light and the battle against him is the perfect end to the game's story [Music] the ancient system is without a doubt skyward sword at its absolute best it's a strange heavenly shrine with puzzles based around water that has a strong theme of inversion the dungeon item the whip will flip over certain objects to reveal their undersides and the temple's peaceful top level hides a hellish sinister underground floor it's my favorite dungeon in the game and it's one of my favorites in the whole series topped off with an absolutely incredible boss after descending into the bowels of the system and braving the horrors of the cursed pokoblins link ascends through the dungeon's ceiling into a hidden top floor here he finds a small chamber empty save for a golden construct in the center and the demon lord girohim just like in the earth temple girohim chooses not to deal with link himself instead girohim suddenly vanishes and the machine beneath him spurts into life according to fee coloctos was designed and built as a guardian for the ancient system forged to eliminate intruders however giroheim's cursed energy powers it far beyond its conventional limits and takes control of its mind at the will of the demon lord the ancient automaton brings its full sacred might to bear against the hero which interestingly might be an early example of malice corrupting technology an idea we see explored heavily later on in breath of the wild during its first phase colloctos is immobile with cursed magic spewing from its joints the machine throws curved blades at link with two of its six arms attempts to crush him with another two and uses the last pair to protect his exposed chest the fight makes great use of the dungeon's item the whip which link must use to sever the automaton's arms from its core allowing him to attack its weak spots after enough damage has been dealt colloctos literally steps it up the machine tears itself free of the ground revealing two legs locks its weak points behind a cage and then pulls out six massive scimitars koloptos in this stage can deal a lot of damage with each swing but link can again use the whip to rip its arms from its body this time though the weak spot is protected so link has to pick up a discarded sword and go to town on the ancient robot with its own weapon attacking coloctos with its own scimitar is so satisfying you can really feel the weight of these swords and with them link can not only break apart the automaton's remaining arms but destroy its legs and smash into the cage on its chest and hammer at its weak spot kaloctos will recover and occasionally spawn cursed becoblins but a couple of cycles of using its swords to attack its chest will finish the boss off with a really creepy child's laugh the cursed energy that powers it is expelled and the machine falls lifelessly to the ground in my opinion colloctos is one of the best zelda bosses not because it introduces anything particularly new but because everything it does it does so well its design and backstory are unique and interesting the boss theme it shares with moldorak is brilliant it makes great use of the dungeon's main item and it makes you link feel powerful by using its own massive weapons against it it's my favorite boss in the game and it's one of my favorites in the entire series [Music] so there's my ranking of skyward swords boss fights this video is obviously subjective you might agree with my placements or you might think completely differently let me know what you think of the game's bosses in the comments down below a huge thank you to genchin impact for sponsoring the video be sure to check the game out with a link in the description down below cheers guys and i'll see you next time [Music]

Channel: Zeltik

Views: 343,620

Keywords: Zelda

Id: PeKgw4PT95A

Length: 24min 39sec (1479 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 22 2021