Best set ups for a boss fight

[Turbo Kid]

I'm talking about anything that gets you excited for an upcoming boss fight, or maybe makes you tense and actually dreading it. It could just be a cool setting, tone, sequence of events, or atmosphere that the game creates to really make you feel a certain way just before you go "Why do I hear boss music?".

Resident Evil Requiem - This whole sequence is one of the high lights of the game and leads up to one of the very few legit good boss battles as most of the other ones suck in this game

Spoiler: gameplay

I love the cutscene before Zero's final battle in Rockman X4

Spoiler: cutscene

The Pathless is a great example. In fact, bosses will actively stalk you before you even have a chance to fight them

 

[Isegrim]

Castlevania's obligatory staircase scene just before you fight the big bad vampire. There was a staircase in Ocarina of Time as well and I really liked how Ganon's theme gets louder and louder as you go up to face him.

 

[Ikagura]

When there's a room before the boss with its own custom music.

 

[Rocket2049]

castlevania is iconic with this

 

[HydraSavior]

I feel like there should always be some kind of "build up" to a major boss. To use an example, Metroid Fusion's "Nightmare." You get told how dangerous this thing is, that it could destroy the space station you're on, and while you're heading to the boss room you see a shadow of it and the destruction it has caused while you were away. Then the actual boss happens and you are PUMPED UP.

I never got to the end of FF9 (I have some kind of problem with "finishing" Final Fantasy games, always feeling like I should level up more before the final dungeon), but I hear the "real" final boss just kinda...comes outta nowhere, when they *had* a powerful villain that had been built up throughout the game. I woulda been disappointed with that, for sure.

I also enjoyed Lavos from Chrono Trigger. There's a few different ways of fighting him, and I always felt like having those options just made him a lot cooler. You can go through the Black Omen to get to him, you can use the bucket at the End of Time, you can use the Epoch to bash through the *entire first phase*, you can (theoretically) beat him when he's a You're Supposed To Lose To This boss, and then there's the New Game Plus secret method. Having all those methods of confronting Lavos just...makes him feel bigger, somehow. Like "all roads lead to Lavos."

 

[ArchienineZXAdventArchienineZXAdvent's icon]

Mega Man 1 and 2 also create the ambient pretry well with eerie music

 

[TruthandConsequence]

I think a good pull up, from either you or the boss, or both is what really gets me. I've set away my hatred for Fromsoft games, and started playing the Souls games, and they have some cold ass pull ups.

I really liked the final boss of Dark Souls 1, and the main boss of DLC1 of 3 so far, they are menacing as hell, and the music that goes along with them is awesome too.

As much as I hated these games for so long. I've always thought FromSoft would be able to make a fire Castlevania game. I think Konami should get them to do a game one day. But our current gaming landscape could never be at that level of badassery at the moment.

 

[BejitabroFZ]

I feel like there should always be some kind of "build up" to a major boss. To use an example, Metroid Fusion's "Nightmare." You get told how dangerous this thing is, that it could destroy the space station you're on, and while you're heading to the boss room you see a shadow of it and the destruction it has caused while you were away. Then the actual boss happens and you are PUMPED UP.

That's not even mentioning the music that plays when you approach a boss, or just the SA-X in general. Pure masterclass at making you feel dread for the enemies you have to face, and the satisfaction that comes when you're actually strong enough to take them on.

 

[SamanthaSamantha's icon]

Some of the boss battles in "Borderlands" (the original) are really, really well thought-out and set up.

Especially that little one inside the dome.

Final boss, though? I can hardly think of any — most games have this annoying tendency to just point you in the general direction of the big baddie and that's sorta it.