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However, there are times when boss fights feel rather underwhelming and not up to the mark. This can lead to a rather unsatisfying experience, especially if these bosses have some fascinating lore as well! To have to deal with a disappointing boss fight after such a massive buildup can be disheartening, and the following fights are examples of such cases.
10 Dark Sun Gwyndolin (Dark Souls)
Dark Sun Gwyndolin is a hidden boss that most people probably won’t encounter in their first playthrough of Dark Souls. However, people who know what they’re doing can duke it out with one of the most important figures in the Souls series.
However, the fight against the last-born son of Lord Gwyn is fairly underwhelming. Players just need to dodge projectiles and catch up to a fleeing Gwyndolin. Hitting him a few times is enough to secure victory.
9 Nihilanth (Half-Life)
Half-Life is a game where the mysterious Xen forces invade Earth after a science experiment goes wrong. At the end of the game, Freeman goes through the planet of Xen and faces off against Nihilanth, the leader of the Xen who caused no end of problems for Earth and indirectly let the Combine know about the existence of this planet as well.
However, the fight against Nihilanth is pretty easy. Players just need to hit his weak spot a few times, making him the textbook example of an oversimplified final boss.
8 Moon Presence (Bloodborne)
The Moon Presence is the final boss of Bloodborne’s true ending. He’s an imposing Great One who oversees the Hunter’s Dream, and is the figure responsible for imprisoning Gehrman in a dream that he had no hope of escaping!
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If the player ingests three one-thirds of the umbilical cords present throughout the game, then they’ll unlock a new ending where they have to face off against this beast. It’s a pretty underwhelming fight, mainly due to the Moon Presence’s low HP pool.
7 The Joker (Batman: Arkham Asylum)
The Joker is one of the most fascinating characters in Arkham Asylum. He constantly hounds Batman at every step of the way — as is the norm — and However, it’s a shame that the battle against him feels so gimmicky and uninteresting.
Fighting the Joker basically amounts to dealing with waves of enemies while he takes on the AI of a Titan enemy. It’s a highly underwhelming boss fight and doesn’t do justice to the brilliance that preceded this encounter.
6 Frank Fontaine (BioShock)
Speaking of poor final bosses, it would be hard to not talk about Frank Fontaine from BioShock. The way in which he tricks the player by posing as Atlas is pretty convincing, and it still angers many to this day. This criminal mastermind used his smuggling ring to gain untold power in Rapture and became Andrew Ryan’s rival in the process.
Unfortunately, the fight against Frank is pretty barebones, with players having to deal with several elemental versions of this villain. After going through all three forms, Fontaine will be down and out for the count.
5 Yhorm The Giant (Dark Souls 3)
Yhorm the Giant is one of the Lords of Cinder, which would make him a pretty imposing antagonist indeed. His lore is pretty great, painting him as a noble warrior who sacrificed his own sanity to protect his people from the horrors of the Profaned Flame. However, the boss fight against him turns out to be nothing more than a gimmick.
Dodging his attacks is pretty easy, and the Storm Ruler greatsword near him gives a free ticket to unleash a ton of damage on him. In a game full to the brim with brilliant boss fights, Yhorm the Giant sticks out like a sore thumb.
4 Calamity Ganon (The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild)
Throughout Link’s journey in Breath of the Wild, he is told about the threat of Ganon time and time again. Players prepare extensively for this final fight, freeing the Divine Beasts in a bid to weaken this foe. After all, Calamity Ganon had taken over Hyrule Castle and was powering up all the threats that plagued this world, so it was clear that his power was not to be trifled with.
Turns out that freeing all the Divine Beasts and unlocking the Master Sword essentially turns the main fight into a complete joke. Calamity Ganon seems pretty intimidating at first glance, but it’s pretty easy to stun him and drain his life bar considerably if players know what they’re doing.
3 Bed Of Chaos (Dark Souls)
The Bed of Chaos is reviled by many Dark Souls fans as one of the very worst in the series. FromSoftware hasn’t shied away from its fair share of puzzle bosses, but the mechanics involved in the Bed of Chaos boss fight are laughably bad.
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Players have to move around endless death pits as they destroy the boss’ weak points, following which they need to jump to its core and destroy the Chaos Bug at its heart. The fact that this lame boss is supposed to be the morphed body of the Witch of Izalith makes this encounter even worse, somehow.
2 Zhao Yun Ru (Deus Ex: Human Revolution)
Deus Ex: Human Revolution is the poster child for how not to integrate boss fights in a video game. The fact that players had to kill these bosses regardless of whether they were doing a pacifist run or not was pretty silly.
The final boss is a great example of this. Zhao Yun Ru is the CEO of Tai Yong Medical and a member of the Illuminati as well. Ideally, she should’ve been a force to be reckoned with after skillfully betraying Adam Jensen and fusing with the Hyron Project… but the boss fight is nothing more than another gimmick that ends pretty abruptly instead.
1 Futoshi Shimano (Yakuza Kiwami)
Yakuza Kiwami is a pretty decent remaster of the first Yakuza game, although it does phone in a bit when it comes to the bosses. Nowhere is this more apparent than during the first confrontation against Shimano. As the head of the powerful Shimano family who had skilfully manipulated Majima during the events of the previous game, most people expected a lot from his boss fight.
Unfortunately, the developers gave this powerful mob boss the same moveset as Mr. Shakedown from Yakuza 0. As a result, Shimano can knock down players with ease and can barely be damaged, which is going to annoy a new Yakuza player to no end.
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