Secret Bosses

Secret Bosses in Video Games

Bosses tend to be big, powerful enemies that stand in the way of the player to reaching their goal. But sometimes bosses can be completely skipped over or even have to be sought out to fight. Today on Boss Bosses, I plan on discussing a few examples of secret bosses in video games.

Skyrim:
In the huge land of Skyrim, there was sure to be some hidden gems among the vast landscape. Plus dlc, this included the three bosses to the left; Vulthuryol, The Reaper, and Karstaag. Each of these three are hard to find and need not only the know-how to find them but also the power to defeat them.


Vulthuryol is a dragon living in the deep, dark cavern known as Blackreach. The ancient city houses rare plants, machines way more advanced than the people on the surface have, and even an artificial light source. If the player uses their Fus Ro Dah attack on this light source, the dragon swoops down to battle.

The Reaper resides in the Soul Cairn, a realm where stolen spirits spend eternity, which was included in the Dawnguard dlc. Within this world of the dead, is this executioner inspired boss. If the player travels throughout the realm and collects all the reaper fragments, they can place them on together to summon this powerful guardian.

Karstaag is the spiritual frost giant found in the Dragonborn dlc. The player has to find the skull of this once great ruler of Castle Karstaag, before activating this challenging boss battle begins. But as a reward for defeating him, he can be summoned for your later battles to come.


(images by Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim)


Diablo II: 

This is a good example of a fun boss to find. As of rumor that there was a cow level in the first game, this secret level was added in the sequel. As hilarious this boss seems, the gain from fighting the Cow King and his subordinates is the XP gained. So some players even may run from the boss so that they can continue to get that sweet experience.

(Image by Diablo II)


Pokemon Gold/Silver:
To me, nothing was more surprising for me during my time playing Pokemon: Silver than when I encountered Red. On the summit of Mount Moon was Red, the character you play as in the first Pokemon game. His team had high levels and hard hitters, but he also had the element of surprise. Many players were blindsided by this amazing throw back to the original games.

(Image by Pokemon Gold/Silver)


Here were some of the most memorable secret bosses, but if I missed your favorite let me know in the comments. Feedback helps me put this blog towards the right direction. Next week the topic will be MMORPG's and their boss fights, showing what the power of teamwork will do. Anyway that's it for this post, stay up to date on Boss Bosses for more topics like this one.

My Top 5 Final Fantasy Bosses

This week for Boss Bosses, I wanted to dabble in the famous method of top fives. And a challenging yet broad subject for this top five is none other than the large franchise that is Final Fantasy. Today I will discuss my personal top five Final Fantasy bosses. As to be fair, I will try to do one boss from each game. Also remember; this is just my opinion, from my experience.

5: Odin (Final Fantasy IV & XIV)

                                                                               

Starting off this list is the ruler of the Norse gods himself. Odin is a power boss that if you successfully overcome will actually fight with you as an awesome ally. As a lover of the Norse gods and mythology, I feel a little more at ease with this once foe watching my back.








(Final Fantasy IV: Odin)

4: Ultimacia (Final Fantasy VIII)

A very powerful manipulator and sorceress, her cause is to become as powerful as a god. She possessed an embassy official to further her cause, corrupted Seifer to follow her solely, and took over an entire nation. She is one fierce fem fatale, who plays her cards just right.










(Final Fantasy VIII: Ultimacia)

3: Garland (Final Fantasy)

This boss was sure to be on my list, as the main villain in the first ever Final Fantasy game. He went from normal enemy to true threat once it is revealed to the player that he is the evil chaos. This great evil inspired the many games to come from the series.




(Final Fantasy: Garland)

2: Sephiroth (Final Fantasy VII)

Were you surprised? I knew as soon as I was making this list, that the one-winged angel would be on here. Once on your side, this engineered human went on to ensue large damage to the world and increase the death toll tenfold.





(Final Fantasy VII: Sephiroth)

1: Kuja (Final Fantasy IX)

Another engineered human, with more powerful spells to know what to do with, he wants to get away from his master to freedom making him seem not all bad and even similar to the hero. He has multiple forms, and can heal himself.








Did I miss someone? Make your own list of who was your favorite in the comments below!

Bosses in the 20th Century 



My topic for this stream of posts is video game bosses,  in which I'll discuss the lore, history, and game play involved in the workings of some of the best (or worse) bosses. For my first post, I thought the best topic for boss bosses is to go back, back to the 20th century where it all began. The first ever video game was invented in 1958 and it resembled the famous game Pong which came out around twelve years later. But the first video game with a final enemy or Boss was in a 1975 Role-Playing Game (RPG) called dnd which also was one of the first dungeon-crawler games.


The game featured a dragon guarding an orb, which the player must defeat in order to succeed. This tactic paved the way as a standard in many video games to come, including a famous game in 1987 called Punch Out!!! In the game, your character boxes his way to the top to battle the one and only, Mike Tyson. I enjoy the stories my dad told me about how he played the game during his college days, learning the pattern, not being able to google the answers due to the time. Mike Tyson by some is regarded as one of the best bosses in the history of bosses due to difficulty and the lovely feeling of defeating him.


One of the most popular companies that features many famous bosses is Nintendo. From Bowser, the king of the koopas, to Ganondorf, the evil sorcerer against Hyrule. The company has surely made it's mark on the history of gaming in general as being one longest running companies to date. Nintendo came out to the video game genre in 1974, making it the oldest company compared to other big companies like PlayStation and Microsoft.

As time progressed, video games got more beautiful, more regulated, and even more challenging. But where would the games of today be without the inspiring games of the past. These video games that some grew up with which paved the way for the next generation certainty deserves respect and recognition.