Top Ten Tragic Boss Battles (Part 1)

Oh warning spoilers are everywhere literally everywhere there is a seemingly infinite amount of topics that we could choose to write about when it comes to our favorite artistic medium but we seem to keep returning to boss battles best boss battles worst boss battles difficult easy funny frustrating and so on this is because in one way video games are a sequence of scenes or chapters that we experience and the bosses are often the more standout dramatic moments if video games were like Broadway shows boss battles would be the big musical numbers they test our skills break up the tedium of a long level reward the player for their hard work and can convey feelings of accomplishment exhilaration or in today's case tragedy today we'll be looking for those bosses that make us well up inside conveying sorrow and regret but also give us an emotional catharsis that makes us look back at the moment pleasantly as a great and memorable story element but it's not enough just a big boss fight because it's sad what is it that truly makes something tragic for that we need to think theatrically for a moment and look back at the man who practically invented tragedy this is Sophocles ancient Greek playwright who penned Oedipus Rex which in most literary circles is considered to be the defining example of tragedy using his principles I did my best to make up a four category rubric for judging tragedy in a boss encounter a boss with one of these following qualities is sad but a boss with two or more becomes a tragic figure the criteria is pretty complex so here's a quick summary one inevitability in a tragedy it is often preordained that things won't end well for its hero in a tragic boss fight as soon as the battle starts you know win or lose the results won't be preferable the pain is worsened when you see it coming to likability tragic figures are often characters we like admire or want around what makes them tragic is that due to some kind of flaw they bring about their own downfall but we still don't want to see them go oftentimes these characters are ones who have previously been established as help or friends to the hero but now for whatever reason they're locked in combat with them three set up a boss fight is generally the climax of some event be it a level a story arc or the entire game in many of these entrants the scene preceding the battle in question is just as pivotal to the boss itself and pushes the hero or the villain to a breaking point that allows the battle to occur this way the hero isn't just as tragic a state as the opponent for atmosphere though not necessary by definition a well-written tragic moment would be squandered if not for the kind of music visuals and scripting that help it play out and resonate with the player atmosphere alone can make something sad but when combined with one of the three previous aspects it becomes tragic we could persist even further but let's just end on the fact that while tragedy can be defined it cannot be empirically ranked this is a personal list and a moment that really resonated with me might not have as much of an impact on you or vice versa still please don't be afraid to discuss your own preferences in the comments so get your tissues in your favorite brand of ice cream ready it's time to count down the top 10 most tragic boss battles in video games you considering that it was made entirely by one brilliant programmer cave story is a pretty spectacular game particularly for its tone the entire game is just kind of melancholy triple-a titles often try to achieve this tone by washing out all the colors and keeping everything realistic but despite its generous colour palette and adorable bunny characters there's just this indescribable bloom that pervades through the tale and the gameplay itself you begin the game confused and alone the stage hazards are fair but unforgiving nobody seems to trust you and early on you get only the narrowest view of the game's overarching plot you wander around performing tasks for Susan being treated like the Willis robot you are when about halfway through the game you walk in on this decisive moment and the story starts to gain some palpable stakes we see the evil doctor and one of his cronies misery in a warehouse full of the dreaded red flowers the doctor wants to use these red flowers to turn them amigas a race of adorable bunny people into an army of mindless berserkers to test this they bring in yah taroko at the beginning of the game this little cutie was the only person nice enough to protect Susan her reward for this is to be kidnapped and have the red flowers force-fed to her who should come to the rescue but King the leader of the mamita village he's surprisingly badass with a sword but his heroic moment fades just as suddenly you arrive on the scene just in time to see the doctors crew escape and taroko turned into a snarling Jabberwocky because your first introduction to this world was the cute unsusceptible mum migas this two-in-one kill off hits you on a much more personal level when you start off the battle it's not even certain that you're killing taroko in other games when a friend gets possessed or enraged you just have to beat the evil out of them until they go back to normal as is the case with King Dedede nabooru or Riku so when you finally take down this floppy eared wookie you might dare to hope that she'll make it through but no poor taroko she was a completely innocent person and did nothing but be nice and cute not only did she die but King was roped in and had to pay his life as well just goes to show that when hundreds of amigas are killed it's a statistic when to die it's a tragedy Wow if that's how long you're going to talk for only number 10 we're in this little long haul aren't we yep may want to make some popcorn for this one I'm feeling long-winded today if you're looking for sappy the Kingdom Hearts franchise is a pretty great place to start with a ludicrously complicated story line that runs on pure emotion combining the strength of the heart and the power of friendship with a dash of dizziness Salcha some love it some hated and it's not hard to see where either side is coming from among the unintentional comedy created by the wonky translation and stilted voice acting there are some genuinely touching moments particularly around Roxas a boy who wishes to be his own person but his entire existence is a pawn to others but for the absolute best we need to delve into the PSP title birth by Sleep writers this is how you make a prequel taking place ten years before Kingdom Hearts 1 & 2 it not only explains the lore that leads to the games we know it sets the stage for the franchise's future if Kingdom Hearts 3 will come out already sorry I keep getting off track but that's kind of how Kingdom Hearts is nonlinear and convoluted even so as a prequel you know going in that things are probably going to end pretty badly the game stars three new heroes none of whom are still around for Kingdom Hearts 1 so it stands to reason that fate isn't on their side by the game's finale there's generally just a lot of craziness going down ventus's teacher Erica Stearns on him Tara is alienated from his friends more and more zillion or turns Ventus into a popsicle and tosses him off a cliff where the kid combines with his dark half and becomes the ultimate weapon of destruction and in the three campaigns and three final boss battles our heroes all end up sacrificing themselves not even successfully saving the world just doing what little they can to delay the worst that Xion or can do this finally brings us to Terra's battle with Zane ort think about Terra's mindset here this old geezer has deceived him using a a puppet for the entire game then the last thing he sees is his innocent friend vent is practically a younger brother to him being tossed off a cliff yeah Tara's mad you fight Master Xehanort and Vanitas together for a bit then when Vanitas runs off to fight aqua you Duke it out with just a master it might be at this time that the horrible reality dawns on you that portrait of apprentice Zane or that you see in Kingdom Hearts 2 looks a lot like Terra yeah as the light shines from below signifying the formation of the keyblade and the fruition of the villains plan the Norden axes final gambit and possesses Terra whose heart at this point is so full of darkness and turmoil that he makes the perfect vessel for the aging Xehanort this looks like the end of our hero and it kind of is but the game throws you one last segment in a meta reality within Terra's mind you control Terra's armor which has been imprinted with Terra's will to live on and battle your repossessed body in a futile attempt to win it back it's a satisfactory battle but it raises a tough question what was the point win or lose Terra can't get his body back Xion ort lives another day with a new young body and will proceed to form his own nobody in heartless and spin all worlds into chaos and darkness and it's exclusively Tara's fault for letting himself be used acting out of pride and turning his back on his friends who really cared about him just because he was ashamed aqua beat him in the mark of mastery test he reminds me of a certain Jedi that they wouldn't let join the Jedi Council it's the very essence of a tragic hero one who has everything but loses it all due to his own hubris finally giving himself up to try and set things right in the end all three heroes and birth by sleep fight their hardest and sacrifice themselves Ventus is in a deep slumber aqua is trapped in the world of darkness and Terra is possessed slowly losing an ongoing war for his own mind their actions are enough to suspend the villains memory for a while and prevent immediate world destruction and thanks to their heroism sora and riku can eventually set things right but these three are still lost and until Kingdom Hearts 3 comes out there's still no end to their suffering it's been 15 years for them Sora hurry the hell up now is not the time to be playing with animals not that we even need to but let's talk about Shadow of the Colossus more so than any other game on this list this game is a tragedy good intentions are punished innocent gentle giants are slain even the color palette of the game is brutally dismal but specifically we need to talk about the final boss malice the 16th Colossus the setup is definitely here wander is tired the other colossi are all dead and aggro his only friend just fell down a ravine it wouldn't be so bad in another game but aggro was really all he had in a world populated only by salamanders and we all know the payoff by now when wander returns after slaying the last giant doorman alters the deal and overtakes wanders body you run to your girlfriend in vain are killed by soldiers and in a cruel twist of irony doorman actually did resurrect mono but wander isn't able to be with her the way he wanted that's what happens when you challenge fate kids but the battle with malice really sticks the landing with sheer gameplay and atmosphere malice spots you from several yards away so the slow approach towards your target begins with you taking cover from energy blast that can level a city block though the music in previous battles was thrilling and climactic the track here is as cold and heavy as the game's color palette the trudge up to malice is long and difficult and you can almost feel wanders fatigue before he even tries climbing malice with the slow choral dirge it's almost as if the soundtrack is still mourning a grouse death and the once energetic score is giving up on your adventure you know by now that doorman isn't being entirely honest that many of the colossi you've slain were just gentle giants and that you may be doing more untold damage to the world for a comparatively meaningless payoff malice is Hugh and the long climb up gives you just enough time to reflect on all of this before the real struggle to Klingon starts the controls as in the rest of the game are perfect in communicating your sense of smallness your toppling a monster the size of the Sears Tower you should feel like a badass but the controls always remind you of what an insignificant ant you are the slightest movements below cause you to tumble all about and it's all you can do just to hold on for dear life in the earlier battles the difference in scale was empowering but in this case combined with the music and narrative circumstance it has the opposite effect you'll have to make some daring near suicidal jumps from body to hands to get up to malice as higher weak spots and when you're finally in place you may find yourself screaming at the TV in childlike fury as wander angrily stabs the monster as if it will bring back his girl and best friend oddly enough mono and agro both come back and even wander survives though now dee formed into a horn baby the game could have easily dropped you on your face by having all three still dead at the end but that would actually lessen the tragedy like in the works of Sophocles and Shakespeare the end is largely sad but still keeps that faint almost invisible glimmer of cautious hope that little thing that makes you dare think that things could still turn out for the better for these characters someday and wander may have lost everything he holds dear and nearly brought about the rise of an antichrist but now we have ICO which is a pretty good if equally glum game sorry malice we didn't really want to kill you but a scary voice said we had to No More Heroes and its sequel get a lot of attention out of our YouTube community at times this franchise seems like a lazily coded hack and slash and other times it seems like a brilliant piece of art Travis is kind of a dynamic character but it's hard to take him seriously when he enters into the second game practically forgetting everything he learned in the first all on a quest for revenge but hey some of the best tragedies of all time have revolved around revenge Hamlet anyone the tragic element here isn't just for Travis however as we get deeper into the sequel Travis is forced to slay some respectable it kind of diluted human beings there's a silent honor boundary ug Margaret who gave up her climb to the top purely to punish others who would kill for glory and Captain Vladimir a confused Soviet astronaut who only wanted to come back home now too neurotic to realize that he's been on earth all along from these encounters Travis starts to really question his actions and his breaking point is in his duel with Alice Twilight it's important to note that this battle takes place at sundown because Alice noon wouldn't be a very good name would it filmmaking 101 seems set during a sunset make good turning points because our minds already subconsciously look at the time of day as a transition from one thing to another in this case we see Travis make his last steps from bloodthirsty joy killer to empathetic anti champion unlike other boss fights in the game this battle is free of gimmicks it's just two assassins evenly matched in abilities and skill crossing blades at first it seems like Alice's weapon a menagerie of beam katanas and robotic arms might give her an uncouth advantage but unlike a later boss that shall remain nameless she doesn't pull any cheap tricks that said her weapon is pretty cool kind of like General Grievous with pink hair but where does the tragedy come in well to paraphrase the autarky it's Alice's startling humanity that brings us fight home it implied that her journey has been just as harrowing as our heroes and that she might have a compelling story to tell if she had the time but we'll never really know she's just finished burning all of her photographs and she's accepted that she's going to die on this rooftop at the hands of Travis having wasted all of her life in the UA a for nothing the closest person she has to share this width is the person who's come to kill her does she have a family or friends does she even have a home or does she live on this rooftop we'll never know the tragic irony is that she has come to terms with her termination but Travis has it and he is not emotionally prepared when he finally cuts this woman down despite her cooler weapon and more supple physique - Travis it's like looking in a mirror because what does Travis have his best friend is dead he lives alone in a crappy motel with only his Katniss creepy anime the love of his life at this time only seems to be toying with him his brother wants nothing to do with him his parents were murdered and he ruined whatever he did have with Shinobu because he can't help but being a dick and alienating everyone around him all he has left is to keep chasing his revenge after a beautiful final blow and an emotionally raw outburst at Silvia travis claims to stick to his duty to be number one but now it's not about continuing a cycle of revenge it's to put an end to the you a a once and for all maybe then Alice and the other is one of died in vain it's too bad Alice wasn't the final boss but hey there's a special cheat code for that after you beat Atlas put the controller down and stop playing the game that way you can end the game on ambiguity rather than uncertain failure no need to make this any sadder than it already is I'm I right yes Jasper is a whole new kind of tragedy Hades I said we weren't going to mention him oh come now you just can't pretend but Jasper doesn't exist terrible as he was I admire his bossfights ability to ruin a perfectly good setup Hades don't you have some peppy little angel that you need to destroy or something oh my sweet little stinging scorpion everyone needs a hobby this is just what I do during off-hours when I'm not trying to take over the world Hades just just go home already will you my my someone's grouchy wonder how Alex puts up with him infamous is a 2009 sandbox game about Cole MacGrath a man who through a freakish epidemic contracts superpowers over all elements of electricity more notable it's remembered for a limited but well implemented morality system that basically made you choose to be good or evil then comes the sequel infamous 2 which keeps the morality two-sided but raises stakes significantly in your attempt to combat a deadly plague and a horrible creature called the Beast you lean in either a heroic or chaotic direction you form a tight-knit team of yourself quo the cryo mansur nix the Pyromancer and Z Dunbar your helpful engineer quote tends to help you more in the good missions while Nix tends to be more out for herself and Zeke well he's just Zeke a little apart at the end of the game Cole has an ultimatum he meets the beast who is actually a conduit a superpower of being like Cole and goes by the name of John White John is using his powers for what he considers good it kills most but one out of every thousand will be saved and turned into a conduit not the cleanest solution but one he considers the best option for surviving the plague Cole begins to consider siding with him but then a useful gadget falls into their hands the Rayfield inhibitor if this were charged up enough it would send out a pulse that would eradicate the plague all over the world but would also kill all conduits including Cole and his friends despite the good and evil labels it's a pretty complicated predicament using the RFI may kill thousands but it would save millions and though Cole Kuo and Nix could survive by siding with John White Zeke a normal human who has already been infected would be dead and we can't lose Z can we well let's assume we take the evil option and join the Beast as you can expect this means a boss fight with one of your companions but surprisingly Kuo is all for your decision for all of her usual lecturing she is not ready to lay down her life and would rather go for the sure thing to save thousands than trust the RFI it's actually Nix who steals the RFI and uses it in the last-ditch attempt to take hold down the battle ensues with Cole chasing Nix across New Marais and use the beasts power to raise a landscape Nix holds the distinction that even in the other ending she ends up dying but here it's not self-sacrifice it's murder and Cole's hands she puts her life down for what she believes in and her sacrifice is in vain but that's not even the tragic part as the RFI rolls across the rooftop it's picked up by oh no not Zeek half of long twice as bright I got a try I know if you haven't played the games you have no idea how hard this is Zeke was Cole's best friend his sidekick they had their rough patches in the first game but he always returned to Cole side he was always helpful when Cole became a conduit Zeke put his mechanical skills to good work and helped him learn how to survive when Cole lost his girlfriend Trish Zeke was there to console him even the first time Cole tried to use the RFI it was Zeke who batted it out of his hand because he wanted to make sure that it was the only way but seeing what his best buddy is going to do to the world Zeke takes a stand this is the only optional fight on this list and by far the most one-sided with Alice Twilight it was a battle of equals two warriors fighting for their meaningless lives because it was all they knew how to do here Zeke knows he doesn't have a chance to take on Cole who has now reached godlike power but he tries anyway and just to make sure you feel like the evil bastard you are the game makes you kill him yourself not in a cutscene but in one of the most pitiful murderous acts in videogame history you press the trigger and you watch your best friend fall to his knees doing everything he can to stand back up before you blast him again there's even this quiet Understanding between them as soon as they lock eyes they know how this is going to end it's so bad that even John White after witnessing it decides he can't bear to kill anymore and passes the power of the beast onto you if you ever want to feel like a terrible person in a video game pick the evil option in infamous 2 you

Channel: The Green Scorpion

Views: 75,565

Rating: 4.9813828 out of 5

Keywords: yt:stretch=16:9, greenscorpion64, The Green Scorpion, Top Ten, Tragic, Boss Battles, Tragedy (TV Genre), Sad, Epic, video games, gameplay, commentary, review, countdown

Id: SpbwnqYqb8Y

Length: 23min 36sec (1416 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 02 2015