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Superboss Fortnight

Howdy folks. Inter-acquaintance and resident Japanophile Prime Hailinel recently completed an entire month's worth of daily blogs detailing notable end of game bosses. To honor this achievement, and because imitation is easier than innovation, here's a list of my favorite superbosses. Superbosses, as we all know, are those optional bosses that a game provides to test the truly worthy. While most are simply non-sequiturs of little import in a narrative sense, there are quite a few ways a game might play around with their unstoppable killing machines.

I don't think there's any risk of spoilers here, but just in case here is a warning: Spoiler warning.

List items

  • A large portion of Tales' superbosses are cameo appearances from earlier Tales games, who are all at the overpowered levels you presumably left them at. It's nice to see all your old friends again, even if they are kicking your ass.

  • The Last Remnant has a pretty odd example in the Fallen (and his even harder free DLC clone, the Lost). On the surface he's your regular enormous eldritch thing that's every bit as overpowered as you'd expect from a superboss. However, on his tenth turn, he'll simply stop floating and touch down to Earth, fulfilling some long-forgotten prophecy that ends the world. The screen will simply fade to white, without any big commotion, and you'll be prompted to reload. Very ominous.

  • Castlevania has some fun superbosses hidden in its more open Metroidvania iterations, such as SOTN's intimidating Galamoth and the fan-favorite "ball o' bodies" Legion. However, Lament of Innocence's Forgotten One - an enormous elder god left to rot in the undercellars of proto-Dracula Walter Bernhard's castle - is bizarre, grotesque and enormous. In other words, the ideal Castlevania boss. Now if only the rest of the game was as good...

  • Illusion of Gaia's superboss is actually a rather major spoiler and fills in a lot of missing details behind the global atrocities you've been witnessing on your journey across an alternate Earth. It requires a lot of work to reach, though thankfully, if perhaps unnecessarily, the instruction manual includes a guide for the entire game in case you get stuck.

  • Other M's big superboss reveal is, like with Tales's cameos, largely a fan service hat tip. The gloriously weird Super Metroid boss Phantoon - a colossal half-ethereal space squid - makes a triumphant return by blasting out the navigation room and trying to squash Samus after she's finally hit 100% completion. Despite the rather dubious things Other M did to Samus' mystique as a character, having the 100% completion bonus be a frenzied cosmic octopus rather than some cheesecake bikini shot seems like a step in the right direction.

  • Perhaps the most important (or at least best known) secret boss is that of Reptile in the original Mortal Kombat. Reaching him requires some rather arcane requirements, such as seeing a ghost pass in front of the moon during the Pit stage and then winning the subsequent fight without getting hit. Then he's just an odd palette warp of an existing character. Still, Mortal Kombat got to where it is today by inspiring discussions in hushed tones about potential hidden features.

  • Of the many small touches that the Legends GameCube port added to Sega's nonpareil in sky pirate shenanigans was the addition of several bosses. Rather than non-sequitur ass-pulls, these bosses either had well thought-out backstories (Piastol), were already recurring NPCs from the original (Blue Rogue Vigoro) or entirely new but entirely germane quirky bounty marks (the "evil doubles"). It's rare that a bunch of bosses shoehorned into a rerelease are handled well (they're generally kind of meh in most of the Final Fantasy reduxes) but SoA:L nails it.

  • Every Wild ARMs, because each game is in a continuous world named Filgaia, has an optional superboss in the entity named Ragu O Ragula. Ragu is actually prophesied to end the world of Filgaia at some point centuries after the stories of the games - Filgaia's already kind of on the way out, as a desert planet where people struggle to survive, so Ragu's job is to just annihilate the place once its time is up. Nothing about this backstory makes him sound like a pushover.

    Beating him, which is possible, grants you the "Sheriff Star" - that one piece of paraphernalia that is always the most desirable prop in any game of Cowboys and Indians. The game clearly knows its audience.

  • tri-Ace games tend to vary greatly in content, not to mention quality, but one constant is the dimension-travelling bonus dungeon known commonly as the Seraphic Gate. Invariably residing in this dungeon are a rather imperious angel named Gabriel Celeste and an overly powerful fairy named the Ethereal Queen. Though neither receives any backstory in any of their appearances, their presence is like a strange familiar comfort and an odd way of dimensionally linking all the tri-Ace properties together.

  • I could fill this whole list with WEAPONs or optional Eidolons, but perhaps one of the better superbosses of the series and a kind of neat easter egg is the ultimate dragon Yiazmat; he of the 50-million-HP several-hours-long boss fight.

    One of the more infamous moments during FFXII's development process was the nervous collapse and subsequent resignation of erstwhile game project lead Yasumi Matsuno. Matsuno was, debatably (you might justifiably lean towards Sakaguchi or Uematsu instead), the greatest talent that ever graced Square-Enix's offices. He created the narratively and mechanically deep Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy Tactics, yet being put in charge of the most important game in SE's development cycle clearly did a number on the guy. Either in respect for his contributions (or as retribution for delaying FFXII's development), the other developers created the strongest monster in the game in his honor and named it Yiazmat - or Yas(umi)Mat(suno).

  • I'm no Sephiroth fanboy. But his unexpected entrance in Kingdom Hearts was nothing short of stunning, with the boss fight that follows being one of the toughest in the game (though I think had more trouble with that damn Big Ben wraith). Making 'N Sync's Lance Bass his VA was odd, considering he had about three lines. Something about that casting decision definitely fits, though.

  • I had to add the Demilich page to Giant Bomb, since apparently floating skull bosses that can instantly annihilate you isn't a big draw these days. No respect for the Tomb of Horrors, these kids. Kangaxx was a crafty lich that convinced you to fetch his bones and his reward for doing so was a quick death (liches aren't generally known for their largess, to be fair). When he becomes a Demilich, he's practically impossible to beat without a Paladin rocking a Holy Avenger sword or some very specific undead-killing spells.

  • Demon Supreme Overlord Baal, whether in his original form or as an overpowered prinny, requires some serious overleveling and many, many hours spent inside your items buffing them up before you can hope to survive his boss fight. Future Disgaea games actually give away that he was inserted into the game to fool people into playing the games longer; the sort of irreverent fourth-wall-breaking joke NIS games are known for.

  • Elizabeth and Margaret, Igor's assistants in Persona 3 and 4 respectively, have a few things in common. First, they're actually sisters. Second, they're the most powerful "Fool" Persona-users in the universe. Both professed to having a romantic interest in the hero, which apparently culminates in a savage beatdown if you let their social link progress that far. Even if they didn't already exist in a pocket dimension with a gnarled butler that can create monsters, they're an odd pair.
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