The most difficult boss encounter in a CRPG.

[Zed]

^topic

I remember some turbo-lich in BGII but he wasn't really that tough. You could aoe exploit all bosses anyway.

 

[Luzur]

Mega-Dragon in MM2.

 

[Melcar]

I don't really know of any. The hardest time I had with a boss fight was BG2's supped up Ascension final battle. Distant second would have to be ToEE, but that was with my "balanced" party (lame point buy generated characters) since my uber party (rolls in the 2k range ) walked through that encounter. All fights are hard when you first encounter them without prior knowledge (reading faqs/guides before hand is cheating).
As a kid playing JRPGs the hardest boss I ever fought was the Emerald Weapon in FF7. A bunch of lvl 60 characters with no Master materia or uber Summon spells (best Summon materia I had I think was Neo Bahamut).

 

[Chaotic Lulz3r]

Icewind Dale 1, vanilla without extra XP, loot and spells from the expansions.

 

[SuicideBunny]

many as one in torment....

 

[thekdawg21]

Beast of 1000 Eyes Wiz 7.

If you don't develop a party specifically to kill this creature, you won't win.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkwJ8RtmUco

 

[Chaotic Lulz3r]

On further reflection, the final boss in Siege of Avalon was a bitch too.

We all know how bad Might and Magic 9 is, and I don't remember it too well, but there is an optional fight with a gold dragon that is nearly impossible to beat without a party with two uber leveled healers.

 

[Elzair]

I wonder if any old timers will mention the final battle of Pools of Darkness. I never played the game myself, but I have heard it is hard. How does it stack up to the other battles mentioned.

 

[Nael]

That stupid fat demon bitch at the end of NWN2: Mysteries of Westgate

 

[Wyrmlord]

Mega-Dragon in MM2.

What about the Mega Dragon in MM5?

 

[Jaesun]

Beast of 1000 Eyes Wiz 7.

If you don't develop a party specifically to kill this creature, you won't win.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkwJ8RtmUco

fuck yes... I don't think I ever beat that guy. That and I was never able to defeat the beholder core in... curse of the azure bonds?

 

[bgillisp]

I wonder if any old timers will mention the final battle of Pools of Darkness. I never played the game myself, but I have heard it is hard. How does it stack up to the other battles mentioned.

I think they want fights that are beatable with strategy, not luck. Even the guides for that game say to lower the difficulty and pray

 

[oldmanpaco]

I wonder if any old timers will mention the final battle of Pools of Darkness. I never played the game myself, but I have heard it is hard. How does it stack up to the other battles mentioned.

I think they want fights that are beatable with strategy, not luck. Even the guides for that game say to lower the difficulty and pray

Didn't they chain the final fights together so you couldn’t save between them? PoD was the only one in the series I didn't finish. I can’t remember why though.

 

[roll-a-die]

Hm the Plague-bearer leader in VtM;B mainly because my character was mainly social at that point. Died around 70 times before giving up.


Uh JRPG wise the Fiends in SMT nocturne. Anyone of them.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

I wonder if any old timers will mention the final battle of Pools of Darkness. I never played the game myself, but I have heard it is hard. How does it stack up to the other battles mentioned.

I think they want fights that are beatable with strategy, not luck. Even the guides for that game say to lower the difficulty and pray

IIRC, there are ways to reduce or even remove large groups of monsters from that fight by doing certain quests beforehand.

And even if you win, there's always Dave's Challenge.

Tough fights I remember? Demogorgon in BG2 and the Mulmaster Beholder Corps in CoAB immediately spring to mind.

The Megadragon in the M&M games, whenever encountered, is supposed to be a tough fight, but in M&M5 (or WoX) I don't recall him being that tough to kill.

Speaking Of Xeen, I recall that the whole Swords of Xeen game was one tough fight. Which makes sense, as my party was only about level 35-36 when I completed the game.

 

[GarfunkeL]

Library in Pool of Radiance. Your party can easily be all level 1's by that point if you are unlucky and every other monster so far has been either orcs or goblins. So the lovely surprise of having a basilisk jumping out behind a bookcase and petrifying half of your party was wonderful. And let's not forget the Guardian which emerges when you try to leave who is immune to normal weapons - what are the odds that you have even single magical weapon at that point or that your mage has any spells left? Hopefully you have a savegame nearby :D

 

[DaveO]

I've seen that Megadragon in MM2 can be taken down by Frenzy and then Disintegrate. As far as MM5 Megadragon, it might be a bit more difficult but not a really tough fight. Optional tough fights in SSI games in my opinion would be Zeus in Phantasie I and the Demon Overlord Anawt at the end of Eternal Dagger(I'd say this fight might be winnable, but you're going to need to Pray with your Priests and use Quick Cast to keep nuking the opposition with Magic Blast).

 

[Mackerel]

Beast of 1000 Eyes Wiz 7.

If you don't develop a party specifically to kill this creature, you won't win.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkwJ8RtmUco

Entered the thread to write this.

 

[Black Cat]

@ Topic

The last three or four battles in some of the paths you can take in Devil Survivor are incredibly hard. Belzebuth can use a skill from almost the entire map away that poisons your characters, kills them after a turn, and turns the body in a swarm of evil demon flies sporting lots of immunities and high level spells. Belberith can attack with its full power against parties in any place of the map without needing to move, and most of your forces will not be able to reach its location without first running around all the map pressing switches, closing abyssal portals, and fighting evil cultists. And the next battle in that path has you fighting two bosses and their armies, and at least half the demons in that battle have spells or skills dealing Almighty damage, which can't be resisted nor blocked by any means, and there are four abyssal portals spawning and endless amount of enemy parties until you close them, too. Fun.

Then some of the previous chapter bosses are also unfair: Belial is only weak against ice, and ice powers are usually only found in demons weak against fire. Belial is a fire demon, with an entire army of fire demons that will receive another full army of fire demons as reinforcements after suffering heavy losses, and who after losing a third of his health will summon a firestorm that will hit all your parties around the map for fire damage each turn. And if a certain NPC dies during the battle you lose, too.

Keeping with the Megami Tensei theme the fiends and Lucifer from Nocturne all qualify, too. In Shin Megami Tensei II the two "divine" bosses and Lucifer would also do, since they are between insanely hard and imposible if you didn't put thought in how to build a good high level party.

 

[Jaesun]

WTF?

 

[Damned Registrations]

Hmmm, I'd say One-Eyed Sam in Slash'em. Sure, you can cheese him to death, but an actual straight up fight against a dude with a humanoid slaying VORPAL sword? Yeah.... fuck that. That makes the Demogorgon look tame. Also of note: The Demogorgon in Nethack.

 

[Black Cat]

@ Jaesun

The topic is about dificult bosses in role playing games. And i, like, mentioned dificult bosses in both role playing games and tactical role playing games. What's so WTF about it?

 

[roll-a-die]

You mention JRPGs as more than a passing note.

"Shun the non-believer. SHUN, SHUN. SHUUUUUUUNNNNN"

 

[Xor]

I don't think I've ever played an RPG with a boss I considered hard.

I remember dying to Frank Horrigan and critical hits bypassing armor a bunch in Fallout 2 before I figured out how to disable the turrets in his room, but that fight was never really hard.

 

[Melcar]

I think JRPGs have the toughest bosses, although 99.9% of their difficulty is due to pure cheese. Bosses is western RPGs tend to be more "by the rules" characters with more believable abilities.