8 Boss Battle Difficulty Spikes That DESTROYED Players

It’s understood that a boss battle is going to up the ante when it comes to difficulty. No matter what the general challenge of the game so far has been, you know a boss is really going to put you through your paces and make you prove mastery of the game’s combat mechanics and systems.

Of course, not all boss battles are made even, and the following bosses had even the most seasoned of players baulking at the disparity between the steady growing difficulty thus far compared to the wildly tricky boss you were now expected to take down.

If you came up against any of these guys, chances are you remember it and apart from the wild relief of finally knocking them down–assuming you did–you’re probably not remembering them all that fondly. 

Not every game on this list is a game that is already supposed to be super hard, in fact in order to facilitate the highest possible deviation in difficulty to represent what we are colloquially referring to as a ‘spike’, most of them are, on the whole, not terribly taxing. This is not one of those games.

Since we’ve explained mathematically why there are no Souls games on this list and in case that bums you out, Bloodborne’s Ludwig, Dark Souls 3’s Nameless King, and Ornstein and Smough are absolutely spikes, we’ve decided those guys have had their time in the WhatCulture sun. It’s time to pass the mic for a bit and who better to grab it than the first Greater Fiend you can sink your blade into, Alma. Sitting well above and beyond your boss encounters so far, the first time you face Alma is particularly lethal due to her mobility, grabs, and ability to pelt down your health bar from across the room. You have to get your hits in however and whenever you can so you’ll be praying to RNJesus and all the Gods of video game protagonists for a little relief.

Instant death is a legitimate concern, as is getting the health bar zapped out of you, and whenever you do best her, if you didn't give up on the game entirely, you get to rest uneasily knowing Awakened Alma is on her merry way.

She telekinetically chucks things at you when she’s not blasting away with energy projectiles, has a brutal dive attack to unleash when you’re at midrange, and has a bunch of kicks and punches for good measure if you opt to get in close. The gap between Alma and what you’d been used to with the likes of Bone Dragon makes Alma seem like she’s ripped out of a totally different game. Standing as a definition of a skill check, Alma has a tonne of grapples, can pick you up and crush you back down, and your only real hope is to knock her on the floor and just start wailing on her.

At least you have a pretty stained-glass window to look out of while you die. Again.