9 Final Video Game Bosses That Required Incredible Skill
Putting the biggest roadblock at the very end.
For a little while there, it really felt as though boss battles - and the art of designing them - was going to the wayside.
With such a post-2013 push towards narrative-heavy titles, the likes of what The Last of Us and Gone Home set in motion tended to skew away from life bars, huge health pools and reading animations to know when to attack.
The very idea of a "boss battle" felt like it belonged to a bygone age - an era of video game mascots, snappier arcade-style gameplay and graphics that forwent detail for punchier character models and art directions.
In short, during all the conversations about the gaming industry "maturing" out of these various tropes, it was ultimately undone by the indie movement, and just how much FUN a boss fight can be.
Cut to a final boss though, and what about titles that save their biggest roadblocks for the closing few moments? Real guardians of credit sequences that demand you up your game, or get flattened just before snatching that ultimate victory?