13 Most Annoying "That Bosses" In RPGs (Part 1)
Though I have not played every JRPG out there (I mean, who has), I have played some games with insufferable and annoying bosses! This will be a Top 13 article that I turn into a long-lasting article series, and I will be updating it each time I beat 13 new RPGs! And before anyone asks, I chose 13 because it is an unlucky number and because top 10 lists get boring every now and then! Two last things: 1) this does not include final bosses or superbosses and 2) this will be in order of release date, not in order of how annoying they are. Now without further ado, RPG Ranked presents... Top 13 Most Annoying "That Bosses" from RPGs (Part 1)!
Final Fantasy - Piscodemons
The boss itself isn't the hardest part about this boss. You may be thinking I am high or something, but let me explain. Due to the Marsh Cave being a long and arduous dungeon, you will most likely be low on health and potentially be poisoned or even have one of your characters out for the count. If you get attacked by just one Piscodemon, you should be more than okay. However, if you get unlucky and the game ambushes you with four of them? This could potentially wipe out your party. Sure, this isn't that hard of a boss, but none of the bosses in the original Final Fantasy are all that difficult, and overall, I personally found this one to be the most annoying of the bunch.
Final Fantasy III - Garuda
This boss is a huge difficulty spike from the last boss, and almost requires that you use at least two Dragoons to beat it... but if you want to guarantee a win, you basically are required to change all of your characters to Dragoons. Then you have to fight enough battles to get rid of the job switching penalty and job level them enough so they don't suck. But even still, this boss is anything but a pushover, and can steal deal tons of damage to the party. Compared to all the other bosses in Final Fantasy III, this is just incredibly hard. I can't wrap my head around what the developers were thinking here—this was easily the most annoying boss in the game.
Final Fantasy IV - Calcabrina & Golbez
Not only are they two of the hardest bosses in the game, but you have to fight them back to back? This is insane. Some people say the Dark Elf is the hardest because of your terrible party at the time. And some people argue that Dr. Lugae is hardest, but at least you can cheese that fight since he is undead. But in the 3D remakes of Final Fantasy IV? This boss was easily the most annoying for me. I had to grind like 15 levels to kill Calcabrina and Golbez. Overall, if they were alone, they'd probably not be that annoying, but these bosses are just incredibly stupid to fight back to back.
Final Fantasy V - Exdeath
This boss is a lot like Garuda. It basically requires you to use some stupid strategy to win. You either have to throw all of your Gil into the dumpster and spam Zenigage to beat the fight, or you have to waste your time switching all your characters to Beastmasters and capture a bunch of Yellow Dragons... this was just such a frustrating fight to me in a game full of awesome bosses that were not frustrating at all. I wasted a lot of time and resources in preparation for this boss, and although I'm sure I could come up with a better strategy these days, 10-year-old me just wanted to quit the game because of this. Overall, I just hate this boss with a passion. Luckily, the scripted Exdeath fight and the final boss were both fantastic, so I'm not that mad.
Live A Live - Mammoth King
Though this is an optional boss, I wouldn't say it is quite a superboss. This might be cheating, but I think it is eligible enough for this list since you fight it near the beginning of the game. This boss just has so much RNG, and unless you move your characters around perfectly and get very lucky with his attack chain? You will most likely die multiple times before even figuring out how to deal decent damage to him. This is probably my second favorite boss on this list though, because although it was annoying, it was still very fun once I got the hang of it. Overall, this boss is just very hard to beat unless you get lucky, and therefore, I believe it deserves the title of a "that boss."
Paper Mario - Huff N. Puff
This boss just has so many weird mechanics that none of the other bosses in this game have, so many people absolutely hate this boss and find it to be the most annoying boss in the game. Personally? I loved this boss fight, and it is my third favorite boss on my list after the Mammoth King and another future entry on this list. However, I will speak for the majority here and say that this is the "that boss" of the original Paper Mario. It just is very hard to get used to, and unless you use Double Dip and spam Shooting Stars (yes, that's what I did, I just happened to come into the boss with a ton of Shooting Stars), killing the minions he has can be quite rough. Also, blocking his attacks is really, really hard for the uninitiated. Overall, this is a fun boss for me, but a very annoying boss for many people I know, so I put it on this list.
Final Fantasy X-2 - Angra Mainya
Another boss that is kind of cheating because it is kinda optional, this boss is absolutely insane. Though I wouldn't count it as a superboss because you will probably run into it on accident if you are just playing through the game, this boss is just crazy. It has tens of thousands of more health than previous bosses, and it is easily one of the hardest bosses in this game. Get ready for a long fight... get a nice soda and a snack before you attempt to kill this boss, because you will be in for the long haul. Overall, this boss is quite annoying because it is a huge step up from previous bosses and is a wall of HP, but as long as you have a half-decent strategy and some healing items, you'll most likely be fine. Though I'd call this a "that boss," truly, FFX-2 is quite an easy game as a whole, and the Fiend Arena and Via Infinito are the only true challenges this game has to offer.
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door - Cortez
With three unique forms that deal quite a bit of damage and have multiple targets, there are a lot of things going on in this fight. This isn't just a fight you can Power Bounce and win right away... there are tons of targets, and therefore you have to actually strategize. Switching between Power Bounce, your hammer and/or Koops, and Madame Flurrie's Gale Force? This battle is quite a bit more complicated than any other boss in the game save the final few bosses that are exempted from this list. Overall, though Cortez is still relatively cheesable due to how broken this game is, I found this to be the TTYD boss that stood out the most to me as a "that boss."
Blue Dragon - Heat-Wave Sai
Just a quick disclaimer: I typically play this game in Hard Mode, so while I would not choose this boss as the "that boss" in Normal Mode, I definitely would for Hard Mode. Since I find Hard Mode to be the superior way to play Blue Dragon, that is what I will be accounting for on this list.
Anyway, with that out of the way, I will now explain my opinions on this boss fight! If you don't come into this boss super overleveled, you will most likely die over and over and over trying to beat this boss. The most annoying thing about this boss fight is that, not only is it as tough as nails, but if you aren't adequately leveled, you literally have to trip the alarm system unrelentingly to fight additional enemies. The biggest issue? These enemies drop barely any SP, so you basically just have to grind forever. This was literally eight hours of grinding for me, which I guess is not that much compared to some other games, but at least you don't have to keep triggering an alarm system in those games. Overall, this was easily the most annoying boss on this list for me, however, due to that, I don't know if I've ever felt more accomplished beating a boss before... alright, I lied. The Dark Aeons in FFX were so cool to beat. But this was a close second.
Lost Odyssey - Bogimoray
Even though this is literally the second boss in the game, it is also the hardest boss in the game. Like Huff N. Puff and Mammoth King, I actually personally enjoyed this boss, but like those bosses, I'm trying to account for the majority here. This is actually one of my favorite bosses I have ever fought, because not only does it have multiple phases, but it also requires a lot of strategy without requiring excessive level grinding or obscure tactics to beat. It is super fun to wreck all the minions with Jansen's Prism spells, and this is one of the few bosses in the game where I felt like I actually had to utilize healing magic with my physical attackers. Overall, I understand why many people hate this boss because it is definitely the "that boss" of this game, but it is definitely my favorite boss on this list, and also one of my favorite bosses in Lost Odyssey.
Tales of Vesperia - Alexei
The fact that this was the only boss in the game that I couldn't beat in Hard Mode is a testament to how hard this boss fight was for me. This boss literally took me three times to beat in Easy Mode. Hated this boss fight so much, like I feel like it should not have been this hard, but it just was. I know that like 99.9% of people would say that Gattuso was the hardest boss fight for them, but for some blasted reason, I thought that boss was quite easy. Maybe I just got lucky, I really don't know. Overall, although this boss was awesome and well made, it drove me absolutely insane, and I was so glad to finally beat it! It was so much harder than the Duke fight... which is honestly a little sad.
One thing to add though: I will say, the second Zagi fight, the Clint fight at the Labryinth of Memories, and the Yeager fight? Those all pissed me off. Were they as hard as Alexei? No. But they were still so frustrating. Just wanted to give some honorable mentions, as though this game has a lot of amazing bosses, it also has some terrible ones as well.
Tales of Xillia - Nameless Anomoly
So many people say this is an easy boss... this is like the opposite of Huff N. Puff here. This was the only boss in the game I had to go into Easy Mode for, and though I am not quite sure what was hard about this boss (I played this game when I was like eleven, it has been quite a while), I just remember fighting it five or six times in Easy Mode before I could finally beat it. I literally have no recollection of why it was hard or what was making me hate this boss, I just really did not like it. I am going to replay this game soon... and who knows? Maybe this will be a pushover next playthrough! Okay, I've got nothing else to say, let's move on.
Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch - Royal Jelly
It was tough to pick between this, Porco Grosso, Al-Khemi, Khulan's Nightmare, or the zombie boss fights, but since this is the most widely agreed on "that boss" in this game, I decided to include this one on the list. This is one of the few bosses in this game that has an insane number of targets that you have to be dealing with, as well as a boss that has a lot of health and can deal a lot of damage. The only other bosses that have this are the final boss, the upgraded form of the final boss, and the upgraded form of this boss. However, at this point in the game, you are not really adequately prepared for such a boss, so it can take you a few tries to kill him. Sure, I really don't think this game is that hard as long as you are using the right familiars, but overall, this is widely recognized as the hardest boss fight in the game.
Don't fret if one of your favorite games did not make it onto this list! There will be MANY parts to this series, and I will cover the "that bosses" of every single RPG that I have played in a ranking just like this one! It'll only be a matter of time before a Part 2 comes out for this article, so keep your eyes peeled!