10 Best Video Game Final Bosses Of All Time

What makes Shadow of the Colossus stay in the heart of an entire generation of gamers - besides the epic scale of its boss fights - is how it uses those boss fights to tell one of the most nihilistic fables in gaming history. And it all culminates in the final Colossus: Malus.

Malus is easily the largest Colossus in the game, quite literally looming over everything else across the land. A great tower that's grown a face and come to life; Wander has to kill it to see his lover again.

This leg of the journey is when the game starts taking things away from Wander, starting with his horse. Wander can only watch as his beloved steed falls down a dark chasm to its death. That bleak opening note, combined with the oppressive tone of the entire area, makes the doubts the player has had about this mission ring louder and louder as they have to then climb up this nightmarishly large but ultimately harmless creature to murder it.

The climbing is at its most harrowing, and while the creature is ultimately harmless,  that does not mean it is incapable of defending itself. And as Wander drives that last blade into its skull, there is no sense of triumph, despite the odds overcome. Only the sense that the player has done something that cannot be undone.

This might not be the hardest or most visually striking boss in the game, but in terms of narrative theme, this is when the story really crystallizes how dire things are.