most frightening final battles

Shigesato Itoi stated that his inspiration for Giygas' speech came from a traumatic childhood experience where he mistakenly walked into an adult movie theatre and caught a glimpse of a rape scene in the 1957 movie Kenpei and the Dismembered Beauty (憲兵とバラバラ死美人, Kenpei to Barabara Shibijin?).[2]

Fuck, no kidding. That intestinal route up to Gygax and it lloks like Ness's face in a fucking GIGER VAG. And the whole having to pray thing, it's all this one transcendent mindfuck.

smb 8-4 really scared me as a kid. like, shivers and everything.

a colleague was explaining to me how the giant snake miniboss fight before sephiroth coupled with seeing another giant snake corpse impaled on a tree or whatever in between that and the actual sephiroth fight was totally fucking hair-raising.

I personally don't have a good answer.

NINJA GAIDEN, the original on NES, without a doubt.

It's not so much the boss itself as the nailbiting situation you're in by the time you get there. Normally, if you die in Ninja Gaiden you just go back to the beginning of the level (ie, 4-3, 5-2, or whatever), unless you lose ALL of your lives, in which case you go back to the beginning of the Act (4-1, 5-1, etc). But on the final boss fight, no matter how many lives you have left, if you die during the battle, you have to go all the way back to the beginning of Act 6. This wouldn't be such a big deal, except that Act 6-3 is like the most frustrating level in videogame history, at least until you memorize how to cut your way through the crows and exploit little glitches in the game.

Anyway, I spent a good 15 years, off and on, trying to beat that final boss, going crazy with nerves everytime. I finally beat it last year, and I'll probably never play the game again.

Act 6-2, I meant, not 6-3. 6-3 is tough but 6-2 is just unfair in all imaginable ways.

Damn man. I hope you skipped over to NG2 at some point. Even though it's a cakewalk in comparison, it was better in just about every respect. NG1 was just too masochistic for me, though I think I beat it... once. 15 years ago. It might've been a dream, though.

terranigma had some scary ass boss fights but it probably helped that the game itself was totally bonkers just on premise.

the final boss in the arcade version of strider was also really creepy.

other than that, I remember a good bit of apprehension at the not-really-the-boss-fight fight at the end of the "last" dungeon in DQ8, where you beat up this little yellow turd with a high voice, who's still kind of vicious in his own right, knowing all the while "yeah this is not actually the boss. at all."

sooooo truuuuue re: ninja gaiden. i'm still working on it (yeah, going on 15 years), i can get to the final boss's 2nd form but just can't seal the deal.

seeing the final boss in Shadow of the Colossus for the first time is a HOLY SHIT moment, until you realize he's just one big platform level/climbing gym.

Jordan: You mean the part where those 2 red orbs float at the top of the screen, left and right, while raining fire down on you, and you're supposed to jump and hit it without actually running into it yourself? If memory serves, that's pretty much the hardest part, if you can get through it. Man, it's all coming back...

Another nailbiter: Super R-Type. shiiiiit.

yup, i think we're talking about the same one. it's a bitch.

i couldn't get the hang of ninja gaiden 2, it seemed harder and more annoying than the first one.

when you meet me in team deathmatch on CoD4 lol

no sephiroth, no credibility

http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/3481/miketysonspunchout2eo7.png

terranigma had some scary ass boss fights but it probably helped that the game itself was totally bonkers just on premise.

^^ this is also true of Soul Blazer and Illusion of Gaia. That whole series just has this really inexplicably crepy atmosphere.

SPACE ACE. ALL OF IT.

but sephiroth was so eaaasy. total anticlimax.

the end of the second-last level in cod4 when you see the missiles go off is pretty scary.

Maybe not scary but FF3 or 6 or whatever had one of the most intimidating boss fights. Mostly it was the music.

I thought the final battle music in FF6 was like an ELO mix of Kefka's theme

the end of the second-last level in cod4 when you see the missiles go off is pretty scary.

Never mind the WTF moment following the next level!

luv u crutis

Megatron in Transformers was utterly impossible, more frustrating than frightening.

Starscream was a lot more terrifying.

I meant ELP

ELP? Really? Not... El-P?

Dancing Mad. Epic.

I am in the mood for a really terrifying final battle right now

talk about asking for it.

The end of Doom 1 where you have to fight the two big Devil guys. RRARRRRR!

oh hell yeah

OG METROID - MOTHERBRIAN

Least frightening - assassin's creed.

i still haven't finished shadow of the colossus - i would imagine the last dude in that is pretty frightening!!

Haven't gotten to the final boss in the first game yet, but the Fatal Frame series is pretty dang scary, given the jump scare sound effects, the sudden appearances of some of the ghosts, and the blind spinning to find the ghost while in camera mode.

Anyone played Fatal Frame III? Only for completists, or worth the purchase?

the cyberdemon in episode 2 of the original doom

CLANK CLANK CLANK CLANK
CLANK CLANK CLANK CLANK

FWOOOMP FWOOMP FWOOMP ... KABOOM! KABOOM!

ARRGGGGGGHHHHHHHH

Least frightening - assassin's creed.

Damnit. As if (a) getting GTAIV last night and (b) WAY too much work to do anything but work wasn't keeping me from the final mission in Assassin's Creed, this message has TOTALLY torpedoed it.

Ah well. On to the hookers and murder of Liberty City.