The Hardest Boss Fights Of The 2000s, Ranked

The 2000s was a time when games truly began to experiment with more risky structures than the 90s, leaving traditional, child-orientated games for more diverse genres and topics. Games had more variety to showcase with the constant improvement and rapid development in graphics.

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Alongside this, difficulty began to take new approaches to what consisted of a challenge, and the most common factors of high health and fast reaction timing were joined by bosses that required hugely varied tactics, or delicate playstyles that were the only routes to success.

10 Darth Malak

Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic (2003)

Appearance Conditions:

• Board The Star Forge and reach its heart

The big bad of Bioware's legendary RPG, Darth Malak forbids players from using many of the simpler strategies they could employ throughout the game, relentlessly pursuing them around the map and during phase two, healing from the numerous Jedi corpses around.

What makes Malak even more challenging is the lack of support players have; their party remains behind during the confrontation, and so, for better or for worse, players must face The Dark Lord of The Sith alone. With enough preparation (and medpacs), Malak can be overcome.

9 General Raam

Gears Of War (2006)

Appearance Conditions:

• Complete The Game

The original Gears of War pits Delta Squad against the First Lieutenant of Queen Myrrah at the conclusion of the campaign, deceptively reassuring gamers that because they've been immensely powerful the whole game, Raam will be a pushover.

This false safety hides one of the first-person shooter genre's hardest enemies. With a portable turret, relentless aggression, and armor that has to be individually shot off before damage can truly be done, Raam is a force to be reckoned with.

8 The End

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (2004)

Appearance Conditions:

• Retrieve the SVD at Ponizovje before The End arrives to deal with him early
• Alternatively, arrive in Sokrovenno

A member of Cobra Unit designated 'The Father of Sniping', The End is a deceptively ancient individual who acts as one of the Metal Gear franchise's hardest bosses. Eagle-eyed and deadly accurate, The End will instantly kill Snake the second he spots him.

The randomized starting location, attention to detail, and dense forestry make spotting The End a monumental task. His difficulty is so great that players will likely resort to one of his 'shortcut' deaths, such as at Ponizovje or by waiting a week for him to die of old age, but if they desire a real challenge of stealth, there is none better than The End.

7 Alma

Ninja Gaiden (2004)

Appearance Conditions:

• Playthrough Chapter 9: Hidden Underground

Alma, widely regarded to be one of the most difficult bosses from the first-generation Xbox, is not just a study in good boss design. Poor camera and potion rationing cause the player to lose some advantages they may otherwise have, giving Alma the step-up in this encounter from the get-go.

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Combined with her capacity to dive-bomb, high mobility, and overall powerful attacks that can kill the player in one or two hits, Alma is a force to be reckoned with. With every tool at the players' disposal, they are not quite powerless, but Alma still puts up a frustrating fight.

6 Maneater

Demon's Souls (2009)

Appearance Conditions:

• Final boss of Upper Latria

One Maneater by itself is not the biggest problem in Demon's Souls. Though it has challenging attack patterns and a tendency to punish over-eager melee players, the true difficulty of Maneater comes from something else entirely.

During a lull in combat brought on by damaging the Maneater, a second will come to the first one's aid, and players will have to be content with dual monsters with the same ruthlessness. Without care, a casual player will immediately be ripped to shreds by the two Maneaters.

5 T-078 (Plane Tyrant)

Resident Evil - Code: Veronica (2000)

Appearance Conditions:

• Faced in the cargo hold during the campaign

The 'plane Tyrant' as it is commonly known, appears very shortly after The Redfields have dealt with a similar monstrosity on the ground, and it is easy for players to reassure themselves given the successful dispatch of the latter.

However, the cramped environment, deceptively fast boss, and large health pool make this beast a far different encounter, where time and careful maneuvering are all that save players from the one or two-hit attacks of the T-078.

4 Sephiroth

Kingdom Hearts 2 (2005)

Appearance Conditions:

• Restore Hollow Bastion into The Radiant Garden, and venture into the Dark Depths

What was a fairly difficult, but manageable encounter in Final Fantasy 7 becomes a challenging feat of patience, strength, and skill in the crossover game Kingdom Hearts 2, taking the form of an optional encounter barring Sora's access to the Fenrir keyblade.

In a one-on-one encounter where nobody can help Sora, Sephiroth has high health and abilities that increase in magnitude the more damage he takes. As an optional encounter, Sephiroth can be avoided, but for the ultimate challenge in Kingdom Hearts 2, he's worth the fight.

3 The Reaper

Persona 3 (2006)

Appearance Conditions:

• Explore Tartarus and take a long time to exit an area

A random encounter that can trigger endless times, The Reaper, housed in the multi-leveled dungeon of Tartarus, is a late-game enemy that can be defeated around level 75 onwards. This might make him seem manageable, but the big issue surrounding The Reaper is when he first appears.

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The Reaper can spawn from as low as level 20, potentially decimating the party if they try to fight him. As a result, the early-game Tartarus in Persona 3 is something of a nightmare if players want to farm shadows; if they take too long, the dreaded Reaper will arrive to wipe them out. For the low-level player, The Reaper is something to fear.

2 C'Thun

World of Warcraft (2006)

Appearance Conditions:

• Reach the end of the 'Temple of Ahn'Qiraj' raid

Playing against C'Thun in the modern World of Warcaft is far simpler entertainment than what was available to players upon the launch of Temple of Ahn'Qiraj in 2006. Despite pitting C'Thun against 40 players, this old god utilized a mass of abilities, most notably swallowing players and spawning deadly tentacles that made short work of experienced raiders.

It was so bad that Blizzard eventually patched the beast, and shortly afterward, he was finally defeated. For a short while, however, C'Thun was vulnerable for only 45 seconds at a time and played so mercilessly that this encounter has gone into Warcraft legend.

1 Absolute Virtue

Final Fantasy 11: Chains of Promathia (2004)

Via: Twitter (@Nova_Crystallis)

Appearance Conditions:

• Defeat The Jailer of Love

Absolute Virtue, one of the Notorious Monsters in MMO Final Fantasy 11, was designed to be a challenge, and this idea was so important to Square Enix that they patched out any 'illegitimate' solutions that players discovered during the course of the battle.

With regeneration, a huge number of abilities, and a painstaking list of tasks, players must complete before facing it, the lead gamemaster stated that the battle with Absolute Virtue should last anywhere from 18 to 30 hours. With such timing in mind, Absolute Virtue becomes a marathon to face in combat, and resultingly, one of the hardest bosses of all time.

MORE: Hardest Boss Fights In Final Fantasy