Ask Lemmy

Probably Monster Hunter World's Fatalis. That's the only fight I've ever had to genuinely grind for multiple days to beat. It was 100% worth it though, the feeling of bringing him down for the first time was unmatched.

Probably Malenia, but she's beatable. Definitely had a tougher time learning her than Freide, Gael, Artorias, Manus, Fume Knight, or Ivory King etc.

For me it was Psycho mantis from Metal Gear Solid. The reason being that I didn't understood English at the time, so it was literally an impossible boss. I got frustrated with it and abandoned the game, until I found a translated version of it and replayed it and he's actually very easy if you know what you need to do.

Dunno if I ever beat Mike Tyson

Messmer the impaler from Elden Ring SOTE.

I love this boss, it's not bs, just pure skill... Shame I lack any of it. Still beat him eventually.

Ornstein and Smough from Dark Souls. The series have plenty of difficult boss fights but this one is earlier than most and the biggest difficulty spike in the entire game IMHO.

Outside of the Souls games, there's Lil' Hunter from Nuclear Throne. I tried to beat this little trashcan SO many times and succeeded only once. It's insane.

Also shout-out to Hush from the Binding of Isaac for almost giving me a heart attack when I was fighting it as the tainted lost. Never again.

For me, it was in Last of Us, >!when you walk through the door and get caught in the rope trap, then have to shoot the zombies upside-down.!<

I had to go through that entire animation over and over and over. It made me hate the game. I played a little bit more after finally making it through, but my heart wasn't in it and I just stopped after a while.

Great Wolf Sif because I can't bring myself to kill a loyal pupper who is trying to save me.

Sword Saint Isshin is not the hardest fromsoft boss. IMO he's not even the hardest boss in Sekiro. But he might just be the boss design GOAT.

MCP from the Intellevision version of Tron.

Fume Knight from Dark Souls 2

In Chrono Cross, when entering Time Fortress Chronopolis, you immediately encounter the PolisPolice. This isn't framed by the game as a boss encounter, but it is.

There is a design problem with this boss that you probably wouldn't see in a more modern RPG. To survive its big attack, you need the White Plate to absorb white-based magic attacks. You get the White Plate by stealing it from the Sky Dragon. If you already fought the Sky Dragon and forgot to steal at the time, you are hosed. The game doesn't let you go back and redo that, and the PolisPolice encounter is about 2/3rds of the way through the game--very late to be starting over again.

I replayed that encounter 20 times before I finally lucked out on the attack cycle to keep the party alive. Then I encountered the actual hardest boss: a disc scratch that prevented the game from continuing towards the very end.

Maleficent in Kingdom Hearts 1.

Oh my god. I tried everything. Every potion combo, every magic combo, every adjustment of Donald and Goofy to make them heal or damage. Never beat her. And never beat the game.

And before that is the fight against Riku with that hours long unstoppable cutscene. "You'll never take Kairi's heart!"

Saving the VIP on Veteran at the end of Modern Warfare. I spent 4 hours, 4 HOURS trying to save that guy. Not a traditional boss but a boss nontheless

Okay, i'm gonna name one that might raise some eyebrow.

Halflight, Spear of the Church from Dark Souls 3 Ringed City. I know i know, but i can explain. I'm doing a knife only, no summon run, i mainly use Brigand Twindagger for everything, and occasionally Bandit's Knife for anything susceptible to bleed, and it's quite a good run, beating anything with varying difficulty, and even Demon Prince were defeated with a knife, then comes Halflight, Weeb of the Church. Technically it isn't a hard one because it's basically vs an npc invader, but the difficult came from the constantly spawning Guardian that's also do healing and also using a knife, and also the long reaching and parrying weeb sword of Halflight. I couldn't get past this one no matter how much i try, it's the most difficult "easy" fight i've ever did on this run, where the second most difficult one is...Deacon of the Deep.

Vermivorous the Invincible in Borderlands 2. First of all getting it to spawn...

For me it was Sword Saint Isshin from Sekiro. The ape already took me days to beat, but Isshin was weeks and hundreds of attempts. But it felt so fucking good - especially since it was easy to no-hit Genichiro by the end. God, he must have been pissed off.

Radagon and Elden Beast at rune level 1. The area of effect attacks and the tracking projectiles are brutal. I was able to get a strategy that clobbered Radagon in <1 minute without taking any hits but it required really intense concentration and timing. Not being able to practice just the Beast was the worst part, I hated having to slog through Radagon every single time to attempt it.

Also Sister Friede at level 1 is a strong contender. I don't remember which took me longer to complete.

As a kid I beat the vampires in Illusion of Gaia as Will. Didn't realize you could change.

Moldorm - The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past (https://www.zeldadungeon.net/wiki/Moldorm_(A_Link_to_the_Past) )

This f'ing guy was hours of work to beat. Still the most annoying game boss ive ever encountered!

Lies of P - nameless puppet. I choose the other ending on my first run, so my first time facing him was in ng+. Not sure if that made it harder, but yeah, that one was rough

Artorias.. hardest one SO FAR

The striders towards the end of Half Life 2 episode 2.

Lavos. :(

The guy at the end of Hotline Miami was pretty tough.

Still haven't beaten Owl in Sekiro. Only Fromsoft game in the genre I haven't finished because I can't kill my fuckin' dad. 😭

Not the hardest over all, but the one that instilled the most fear:

The butcher

Those lyonel from BOTW and TOTK are some real fuckers

Mushihimesama Futari's final boss. I felt so proud of myself when I beat it and this is the game that got me into playing Touhou on lunatic mode for fun

It's been a long time since I played so my memory may not be totally accurate, but the final boss in fatal frame 2. I rage quit it because it was a one hit kill, and before you get to them, you had to walk down a long hallway avoiding other enemies. It was like 5 minutes of work to get to the final boss only for him to hit you once and you have to start all over. So infuriating. The rest of the game was so much fun.