What makes a boss?

So I was wondering- when you fight a boss in a Zelda game, what goes in to making it exciting, engaging, and fun? What do you notice about your favorite bosses that makes them so fun to fight? What does a good boss look like, and why? With Ignis' lupus Boss contest coming up, I think it's a good idea to discuss exactly what makes good bosses good.

Here's what I look for:

First, there's the design. I mean come on. That's the first thing you look at. Is this boss intimidating? Creepy? Or does he look like an idiot who's gonna clown around?

Second comes the fight itself. Music plays an important role too. The boss needs to have threatening, explosive attacks, attacks that will startle you and then make you sigh with relief once you find out you're still alive. The boss fights also need to have a certain level of diffculty. It isn't fun if you're not on the edge of you seat, trying to avoid the attacks with your life. Another thing would be their attacks would HAVE to cost you something. An attack that would actually have you go, "Oh ****" everytime you get hit. This was severely lacking in TP.

Third to me would probably be the fun. It's an epic game, boss fights weren't designed to BE fun. If it happens that fighting them is fun, so be it. But it's kind of stupid if you don't like a boss because it isn't fun.

I think it's fun to fight boss's that look physically scary, because it get's your heart going and adrenaline pumping

You know, I usually love the antagonists. (LoZ is acually an exception, because I don't like Ganon - oh well - but I do love Vaati) And I think what makes an antagonist interesting is if you know the story of him/her. (Generally 'he', so I'll use that, because I'm simple clever. ) If you know something personal about the antagonist, that makes him a bit more "human" - even if he is not a human. If you fight against a boss, and all you know about him is that he wants to rule a kingdom, that's not enough for me. If he wants to rule the world, then I want to know, why? And if I know, I'll like/dislike his reasons, and thus like/dislike him. I have that opinion of the world that everybody is born good, and that includes thr evil characters of a game or book or movie. And if he turns evil, I'll think about his reasons, and probably I'll sorry him, because I want to kill/or do something not good with him - and that's the sign of that I do love him. And I especially enjoy boss battles, if I love the enemy.
The perfect explain is Vaati: we know his past, his reasons to be evil, and his goals. And he is my favorite LoZ enemy, so there we are.

Of course, we have the just-one-battle enemies (for example, in MM): then the music, the design, and its first appearance. If I'm excited and/or scared, then it's a good thing, and it'll be an enjoyable boss battle.

To me bosses need a good design and look scary/intimidating. Also being very powerful helps in making that and is usually what makes a boss a boss.
Demon Souls Boss


Resident Evil 5


God of War 2


God of War


Their backstory and what they have done/will do if not stopped truely make them an epic and memorable boss.

~~Spolier~(resident evil 5)





Wesker flew a nuclear bomber over russia so in turn they will shoot it down and think it would be a US attack except the nukes where filled with Uroboros. So when shot down it would saturate the world with the very contagious Uroboros virus infecting the whole world.

End spoilers

Wesker is one of my fav bosses and I remember all his sayings Same with Ansem from KH. Atleast thats wha i loo kfor with a boss, having cool boss music helps too(WW had awesome mini-boss music)


When you fought Ganondorf in Wind Waker as the world around you was being flooded in. That was awesome and very memorable and when he slapped Zelda haha

Also Majora's Mask boss fight was pretty intense too as the moon was coming closer to the earth even when your inside the moon, I still thought I was being timed at first haha So those tyeps fo boss fights make the boss fights better overall I find.

A great memorable boss is one that looks epic, doesn't just stand there, and has instant death attacks that are really hard to dodge

I love a boss that's physically intimidating, strong and/or fast with attacks, and simply engaging.
The music does add to the fight. A boss must have fitting music that is still appealing to the ears.

What I think is a good example of an intimidating boss that's engaging, is Stallord. I had a blast spinning around, trying to catch him. But that battle lacked good music and strong or fast attacks.

Personally, I think that No More Heroes was great with it's bosses. The music was addictive, most bosses were fast and strong, and they were fun to beat down.

If Zelda could incorporate the addictiveness of these battles, combined with awesome music and hard-hitting attacks, it would master the art of a boss fight.

This is what makes a great boss for me:

1. The knowledge that if he isn’t stopped terrible things will happen.
2. Needs to be intelligent enough that you have to consistently adjust your strategy.
3. Have attacks that are hard to avoid and devastating to get hit with.
4. Finally the appearance. I don’t necessarily think a boss has to have a terrifying appearance. I actually think it would be much worse to face a boss whose appearance makes you underestimate him.

The epic bossfight that we don't have any more. That's what it takes.

A little more difficulty. I thought that TP had some of the best bosses in the whole series, especially Stallord and Argorok. If they only dealt more damage, and required more hits to defeat them, then I would say they were perfect.