Most Disappointing Final Boss Fights: Why are the Fights Disappointing?

That swelling sense of satisfaction you get when an excellently designed boss fight caps off a video game is one of the greatest parts of the gaming experience, but not all final bosses live up to their billing. Failing either from a storytelling perspective, or from a visual design perspective, or from a lack of challenge, or all of the above, final bosses that fall short of expectations can leave a sour taste in your mouth that’s not easy to forget. Here, we’re going to talk about disappointing final bosses.

10 Most Disappointing Final Boss Fights

The Destroyer (Borderlands)

The original Borderlands game will forever be remembered by fans, but, unfortunately, so will its final boss battle. In a game where you tear down psychos, bandits, and aliens, the final boss, known as The Destroyer, isn’t that amazing.

It boils down to either being a bullet sponge, or an easy kill if you are overpowered enough. Gearbox changed the boss in the remastered version of the game, but it fell short, as well. They made some tweaks, added some new attacks, but it functioned mostly the same. Good on them for trying, though.

Calamity Ganon (The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild)

Breath of the Wild was an amazing accomplishment for the Zelda franchise. It finally offered an open world to explore, new enemies to fight, and new mechanics to enjoy. It’s a real shame, then, that all of that hard work wasn’t reflected in the final boss fight.

On your journey through Hyrule, you can choose to take down the four pieces of Ganon to make the final boss easier, as doing this depletes Ganon’s health bar and takes away four additional fights. You can also choose to just run straight for him and probably end up beating him. The boss fight is so easy that people have been able to beat the game in under ten minutes. Maybe Ganon will do better in his next reincarnation.

Hoyt (Far Cry 3)

Far Cry 3 will remain in the hearts of every gamer who has played it. It will also be remembered as perhaps the best game in the Far Cry series. The only disappointing part of this game was the final boss fight.

Hoyt really comes out of nowhere, and you enter into the fight and take him down through quick-time events. What can be more disappointing than that? Well, not much. Ubisoft should have stuck with Vaas, as every gamer knows that he was the true villain of the game.

Gwyn, Lord of Cinder (Dark Souls)

Dark Souls Offered an easy final boss fight after hours of torture.
Dark Souls is one of the most challenging games out there. With a tagline like “prepare to die,” difficulty is to be expected. What wasn’t expected is how much of a pushover Gwyn is. The path leading up to him is filled with Black Knights that make the final boss feel even easier in comparison.

Fans became disappointed when Gwyn could easily be defeated by parrying his attacks. That seems a little easier for someone who is made out to be a huge threat. He is supposed to be a god, right? Well, the ashen remnants of one, at least.

The Joker (Batman: Arkham Asylum)

The Joker is a fan-favored villain of the DC Universe, and no amount of bad interpretations have changed that. This was true until fans fought the Joker in Arkham Asylum. The Joker downgraded himself to a Bane look-alike that didn’t fit his character.

The final boss fight was so bad that the Joker’s goons were a tougher fight. That’s right, the enemies the Joker throws at you posed more of a threat than the hulking beast of a former man. That is sad in any game, and it felt like a mockery of Batman’s most iconic baddie.

Rodrigo Borgia (Assassin’s Creed 2)

The final boss fight off Assassin’s Creed 2 was a disappointing fistfight
Rodrigo Borgia and Ezio finally go at each other at the end of Assassin’s Creed 2. So much has built up to this moment, and what happens? A fistfight. That’s right, Ezio spends the entire game using his assassin’s tools and killing off those who have him wrong, and he is ready to take down a man who has weaseled his way to becoming the pope, and it ends in a fistfight. What’s worse is that you don’t even kill Rodrigo at the end. We understand that Ubisoft wanted to remain historically accurate, but… well, come on.

The Hivemind (Dead Space)

The Hivemind in Dead Space was a poor boss fight with a lot of build up
Dead Space was one of the most amazing horror games to release in the past 20 years. The Necromorphs still haunt our dreams, but the same can’t be said about the Hivemind. That abomination was the easiest part of Dead Space, which makes it all the more depressing.

The Hivemind features easy-to-hit weak points that burst when they are destroyed and attacks that could easily be dodged. If you happened to get grappled by it, you could easily shoot your way out. Nothing about the Hivemind made it seem like it was menacing enough to be a final boss. What a shame.

Frank Fontaine (Bioshock)

Too many fans can agree that Frank Fontaine made for a terrible boss. Bioshock was an amazing game, but no amount of good can outweigh this lazy excuse for a finale. The whole boss fight is nothing more than a game of cat and mouse.

You shoot Frank, dodge, and then attack again. It’s an annoying rinse and repeat that fans still argue about to this day. The creators of Bioshock had an opportunity to put in something more unique, but it ultimately failed.

Navarro (Uncharted)

Navarro didn’t even seem to be the main antagonist of Uncharted, which might be the reason that this final confrontation is so poor. The whole fight has you chasing down a man with a shotgun. His goons will come out, and they pose more of a threat than Navarro.

When you finally reach the helicopter, you can easily dodge all of the shotgun blasts by hiding behind boxes. Even when you knock the shotgun out of his hands, Navarro will go after it, but you can easily get to him before he retrieves it.

Human Reaper (Mass Effect 2)

Mass Effect 2 is another game that will rightfully be considered the best in its series. Everything about this game was as close to perfect as you could get at the time… well, everything except for the final boss fight against the Human Reaper.

This boss fight felt weird, especially since the boss resembled the Terminator. The look of the boss wasn’t the only thing fans didn’t like. The combat felt more like the Hivemind fight from Dead Space with allies to heal. The boss was easy to dodge and had multiple weak points to hit.

What is the hardest Kirby final boss?

Dark Matter, the true final boss of the game, is absurdly hard, even by Kirby standards.

What is the boss before the final boss called?

A superboss (sometimes ‘secret’ or ‘hidden’ boss) is generally much more powerful than the bosses encountered as part of the main game’s plot and is often an optional encounter. A final boss is often the main antagonist of a game’s story and the defeat of that character provides a positive conclusion to the game.

What is a true final boss?

The Final Boss is your main character fighting against his friends trying to snap him out of making a Heroic Sacrifice. The only way to fight the True Final Boss is to increase one character’s Relationship Values with the main character to maximum, releasing him from the hold of his powers.

What boss has the most phases?

Nyx Avatar had fourteen phases that needed to be beaten and each one had little tweaks and variations to how the boss fought the party. In her final form, she could reflect damage, dish out high numbers on her own, and charm one of your party members into healing her.