2024 saw players battling everything from smoky-headed world-enders to really, really big snakes.
2024 has seen the release of several classic game remakes, along with some incredible DLC expansions, long-awaited sequels, and engaging new IP. While quality storytelling and beautiful graphics certainly play a part in a game's reception, the base upon which many of the best games are built is fun, engaging gameplay. Boss battles are an integral part of this formula, and 2024 saw players fighting some seriously good big bads.
From iconic characters like Masamune's terrifying owner to a comically cartoonish cobra from PlayStation's recent bot-based nostalgia trip, here are the best boss fights of 2024. For more, check out our picks for the 10 best games of 2024 and our favorites that didn't make the top 10.
Lady Venomara (Astro Bot)
Plenty of Astro Bot's bosses are large, but Lady Venomara's colossal form makes the player feel bite-size in comparison.
Astro Bot is full of delightful surprises both big and small, and the final boss of the Serpent Starway nebula falls firmly into the former category. The golden cobra known as Lady Venomara is absolutely enormous, and despite the game's kid-friendly vibe, Lady Venomara offers a genuine challenge, with a variety of attacks that test players' mastery of the game's mechanics.
This sophisticated serpent throws everything she has at the player. She regurgitates eggs full of enemies into the arena, swipes at players with her enormous tail, and knocks down rocks from the ceiling before covering the floor with purple venom that will kill players on contact. The biggest challenge isn't fighting Lady Venomara--it's surviving long enough to get a punch in.
This boss fight is also elevated by the fact that players get to navigate it with help from a chicken-powered jetpack.
Scylla and the Sirens (Hades 2)
She may seem harmless at first, but this underwater songbird has some deadly powerful vocal cords.
Scylla and the Sirens are an oceanic musical group and a trio of extremely tricky bosses who players will face when navigating through Oceanus in Hades 2. In addition to Scylla herself, players must also take down her Sirens: The Drummer and The Guitarist. The fight itself is enhanced by the delightful soundtrack, which in this case includes some of Scylla and the Sirens' greatest hits.
During the fight, Scylla will attack players who get too close, shoot spike-covered projectiles at players who get too far away, hit players with a series of four rotating beams, and "sing" (read: scream) at players to cause damage. Meanwhile, The Drummer and The Guitarist will use red casts and other AoE moves to keep Scylla's target on their toes. There are also bubbles containing musical notes that cause damage if touched, and a variety of other deadly environmental risks in the arena. If there's one thing you want to avoid doing in this fight, it's standing in one place for too long.
On the bright side, these seafaring songbirds all share hitpoints, so damaging one of them damages all three of them. The best strategy is to focus on attacking one band member at a time while avoiding the multitude of attacks being flung your way. Taking Scylla and her Sirens down for good requires patience, planning, and practice.
The Sphinx (Dragon's Dogma 2)
Nobody's head should be able to tilt that far.
Dragon's Dogma 2 is full of unique (and often disturbing) enemies for players to challenge in battle, but the Sphinx--an optional boss that can be fought after correctly answering 10 of its riddles--definitely stands out from the crowd.
The ensuing boss fight sees players taking on a frightening (yet undeniably beautiful) creature with a mouth that opens just a little too wide, irises that inexplicably dilate along with her pupils, and a head that tilts a tad too far. Every inch of the Sphinx's design teeters right on the edge of the uncanny valley, and even her boss fight itself is a riddle. If players don't fight her "correctly," she'll go flying off into the sunset after growing bored with the player's lackluster moves.
The key to beating the Sphinx is attacking her non-human body parts. After solving her final riddle, players are given a brief moment in which they can attack. Leaving her face and upper body untouched is key here, as the only way the full boss fight can be triggered is by ignoring her human features and and instead focusing attacks on her hind legs, tail, and wings. Manage to hit her in the right spot before she flies off, and the true fight will begin. Again, players can only succeed if they continue only attacking the Sphinx's animal body parts. Even one hit to her face or chest (be it with weapons or magic) will see her flying off and abandoning the fight early and leaving the player lootless.
Liv (Tactical Breach Wizards)
This turn-based battle will leave you with sweaty palms.
Tactical Breach Wizards spends the entirety of its runtime building up a set of rules and obstacles to tangle with. While there are enemy types that can upend the player's usual approach, it's usually one single challenge that can be overcome, and the game's difficulty tends to come from the combination of these enemies being presented. At one point, players face off against Liv, who possesses such overwhelming power as to appear invincible: Take her out, and she simply comes back to life, only stronger. That first encounter with Liv is ultimately a gimmick fight, but she returns in the final level, and this time the situation is even more extreme.
In this fight, Liv not only can self-revive (albeit a limited number of times), but she'll swap position with another object or even one of the player's allies when she's attacked. That means the player has to work out a way to effectively attack both the spot where she is currently and where she's going to end up, ideally without knocking out a teammate. This creates a wonderful dynamic that pushes the player to leverage every lesson and bit of mastery of character abilities that have been developed over the course of the game. Completing the fight feels like a real accomplishment, in addition to the satisfying narrative implications of dealing with this threat to the world.
Erlang Shen (Black Myth: Wukong)
Dat axe, though.
Erlang Shen is a secret boss in Black Myth: Wukong, and finding him is (literally) half the battle. Erlang can only be fought after players have found and completed the secret area in each chapter of the game (excluding Chapter 3 and Chapter 6), finished the Treasure Hunter's quest (Chapter 3), beaten the Great Sage's Broken Shell, and located the Great Pagoda. After interacting with a wall at the Great Pagoda Keeper's shrine and triggering a cutscene, players will find themselves fighting Erlang on Mount Mei's snowy banks.
Erlang is no slouch, and the ensuing battle is a difficult one. Erlang can summon a spectral hound, shoot swords at the player, and deal thunder damage that will leave players suffering from the Shocked status effect if hit. As the fight progresses and players chip away at Erlang's stance bar, he'll introduce different, difficult-to-dodge moves. One sees him soar into the air, manifest a comically huge axe, and fling it directly at the player's face. Taking a hit from this thing is far from comical, though players who successfully dodge it will have an opportunity to damage Erlang in the moments after the oversized weapon hits the ground.
Between the fight's setting, the game's satisfyingly smooth combat, and the sheer spectacle of a guy throwing around an axe the size of a small house, the secret battle with Erlang makes for a fight that's both challenging and fun.
Imurah and the Chaos Demon (Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2)
Sure, you've fought Imurah before... but have you met his little friend?
By the time Space Marine 2 players encounter this boss fight, they'll have already faced Imurah once. But at the end of the game, Imurah wants a rematch, and decides to shuffle the board in his favor by opening the Warp and summoning a Chaos Demon that can quickly flatten players who aren't prepared to face it. Taking down Imurah may not sound that hard--after all, players have already beaten him once by this point in the game--but surviving the Chaos Demon's attacks long enough to deal damage to Imurah takes some serious skill.
The Chaos Demon has some extremely difficult-to-dodge attacks that include balls of lightning, columns of damaging light that move toward the player, and a ground-shattering spear attack (yes, this enormous creature is wielding an enormous weapon) that causes a shockwave effect players must avoid. Players who survive the demon's onslaught will get a chance to attack Imurah before being transported back to the Chaos Demon again for some more death-dodging.
Eventually, one of the Chaos Demon's eyes will glow red as the ground beneath the player's feet begins to explode. Damage the eye enough and the demon will back off for a little while, though Imurah's tactics grow more aggressive each time you encounter him.
Ultimately, this boss fight leads into the final scenes of the game, so we'll spare you the spoilers, but suffice it to say that Imurah and the Chaos Demon are some of the most challenging bosses players have battled in 2024.
Belial (Stellar Blade)
Stellar Blade is full of phenomenal bosses, but this eldritch horror gets our vote.
Stellar Blade has no shortage of challenging boss fights (looking at you, Raven), but the creature's organic-alien-meets-military-murderbot design makes it truly stand out. Described in-game as Orca Aerospae Company's "flagship combat robot," Belial "served as the sword of humanity on the battlefield." But its sacrifices were seemingly forgotten by humanity, and Belial was left to rot among the corpses of its fellow fallen Naytiba.
Belial, understandably, wasn't pleased with this fate, and it rose from the ashes like some sort of horrifying robotic phoenix. Appearing to subsist solely on a diet of unfiltered rage, Belial makes for a challenging foe on the battlefield, combining agility and strength to decimate its opponents. Belial dual-wields a pair of swords (one organic, one made of metal), which it sometimes fuses together to create a horrifying chainsaw-like contraption that can deal devastating damage.
This boss's lore, design, frightening agility, and incredible theme song make for a challenging fight to the death as players work to chip away at Belial's four(!) health bars
Louis Guibern (Metaphor: ReFantazio)
Metaphor: ReFantazio's main antagonist makes for a truly formidable opponent in combat, and players will battle him more than once as they progress through Metaphor's main storyline. Most of the enemies players face throughout the game have vulnerabilities to specific types of damage, but Louis isn't one of them. Additionally, he favors an attack called Royal Coercion, which lowers the player's damage and defense, making an already difficult opponent even more challenging. But on the bright side, Louis also has no resistances to specific types of damage, so players have a bit more leeway when it comes to taking him out.
When players approach Louis again at the end of the game, they'll be met with an arduous three-phase fight, but this boss fight also has a hidden surprise for players who relish a challenge. Prior to the final fight showdown, players will be directed to destroy a series of Melancholia Crystals. Each destroyed crystal will weaken Louis and make him easier to face in combat, but declining to destroy the Melancholia Crystals will see players facing Louis in a more brutal form, and beating him without shattering the crystals will also unlock the Star Shatterer achievement.
Still, there's a price to pay for leaving those Melancholia Crystals intact. Your party members won't be able to use their Archetypes' most powerful weapons in this fight, lowering the party's overall damage output. Even worse, Louis will be far stronger, with more health and way more potential for destruction. Those un-shattered crystals mean Louis will have eight Turn Icons per round in the final battle, and he will always use Soul Scream on his last turn, giving him an additional four moves and resulting in a staggering total of 12 turns per round. Needless to say, this is a fight players will want to prepare for.
Sephiroth (Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth)
Sephiroth's iconic One-Winged Angel theme song makes this fight delightfully nostalgic.
Fighting the One-Winged Angel is (and has always been) a difficult task. When players face Sephiroth at the end of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, they'll soon discover that he has no vulnerabilities yet plenty of resistances. He can't be stopped, slowed, poisoned, silenced, petrified, or put to sleep. Berserk, Debrave, Defaith, Deprotect, Deshell, and Proportional Damage also have no effect on him, and the fight is a long one. Square Enix does show players some mercy in the form of checkpoints, so there's no risk of having to start entirely from square one if you fail, but facing Sephiroth is no small task. Initially, players will have Zack at their side, but after successfully finishing the initial phase of the fight, the two will be separated, and Cloud will be forced to face this bewinged baddie's final form--Sephiroth Reborn--without Zack. Thankfully, another friendly face will appear to fight at Cloud's side.
Sephiroth's weapon of choice, the iconic Masamune, is as deadly as ever. Although a couple of swipes from his blade won't do you in, Masamune has some serious reach, and it can be easy for players to find themselves trapped on the receiving end of one of his HP-decimating combo attacks. Sephiroth has a multitude of moves in his arsenal, and they're all best avoided if possible. His "Skewer" move can prove to be particularly troublesome, as he'll disappear from sight before reappearing close to the player and promptly giving them the Aerith treatment.
The key to surviving this fight is staying close enough to Sephiroth to deal damage, but being ready to dodge at any second to avoid getting turned into a shish kebab. His relentless attacks, the fight's fantastically nostalgic soundtrack, and the tear-jerking cutscenes players witness leading up to (and during) the fight make Sephiroth one of the best boss battles of the year.
The Witness (Destiny 2: The Final Shape)
Despite The Witness appearing to consist mostly of smoke, guns will still do the trick here.
This boss fight marked the end of Destiny's 10-year Light and Darkness Saga, finally allowing players to go toe-to-toe with the biggest bad in the game. Seeing so many of Destiny's familiar faces joining together (including former enemies, like Savathûn) to take down the ultimate threat adds a touch of nostalgic joy to an otherwise intense fight.
The Witness fight starts out as the final (and very challenging) encounter of The Final Shape's raid, Salvation's Edge. But to actually finish the fight, the action concludes during a special 12-player mission--a first in the series' history, and an approach that lets anyone see the story through, even if they can't complete the raid. Players must first fight their way to The Witness, then focus on taking out its various minions--referred to as Omens of The Witness--while avoiding devastating attacks from The Witness itself. Despite the fact that The Final Shape's final boss looks like a cloud of e-cig vapor in a fancy coat, The Witness is surprisingly sturdy, and its attacks pack a serious punch.
Destiny's biggest big bad is absolutely enormous in size, and stays fairly stationary throughout the fight, manifesting giant hands that reach down from the sky to flatten unsuspecting Guardians and summoning deadly projectiles that effectively turn the arena's entire surface into an AoE nightmare. Maintaining cover while also knowing when to abandon that cover to avoid serious damage is vital to surviving the encounter.
Once The Witness's minions are dealt with, players hop onto a platform right in front of their massive foe and finally get to square up with the smoky-headed creature. Not unlike Lady Venomara, the main challenge isn't dealing damage; it's managing to survive The Witness's bone-shattering attacks long enough to have time to deal damage. The Witness fight marks the end of an era for Destiny players, and though Bungie has plans for the game's future, The Witness will be a hard act to follow.
Messmer the Impaler (Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree)
This fight is as mes(s)merizing as it is horrifying.
Elden Ring's 2024 expansion, Shadow of the Erdtree, introduced 10 new bosses to From Soft's 2022 fantasy RPG, and while all of them bring something special to the table, Messmer The Impaler is a definite standout. Like the Sphinx from Dragon's Dogma, Messmer's appearance blends beauty with horror. The son of Queen Marika is a demigod clad in gorgeous regal armor and has a relatively normal face, but his limbs are unsettlingly long and wiry, his nails look more like claws than human fingers, and there's a two-headed abyssal serpent living inside his armor--a gift from his mother, who later removed one of Messmer's eyes and replaced it with a protective seal to prevent the serpent's powers from potentially being used against her.
True to his title, Messmer wields an enormous spear, and he isn't shy about using it. He also wields fire magic, and is immune to both Sleep and Madness. Naturally, players will want to be as fire-resistant as possible, but the first phase of the fight is fairly straightforward. Messmer's early spear attacks make it fairly easy to dodge behind him and get a few hits in.
The real challenge starts when players deplete Messmer's health to 50%. At this point, he'll take a quick break to apologize to his mother, pluck out his artificial eyeball, and crush it in his hand, destroying the limits Queen Marika placed on his powers in the process. When the fight picks up again, players will be facing Base Serpent Messmer, a horribly corrupted version of the demigod that is effectively a sphere of horribly bent limbs and ruined flesh. His spear attacks become even more unforgiving, forcing players to choose between healing, hitting, and getting the hell out of the way. When all else fails, Messmer will briefly turn into a gargantuan snake that can breathe fire and dive fangs-first at the player.
Despite Messmer's viciousness in battle, his increasingly frightening physical appearance, and the sheer amount of frustration FromSoft's boss fights can sometimes elicit, it's hard to finish this one without feeling a little bit bad for the monster Marika turned her son into. Messmer hesitates briefly before plucking out his replacement eye--indicating that he's not some sort of senseless being that can't feel pain. In a blink-and-you'll-miss-it shot of his face, the writhing scales of a serpent can be seen in the empty socket. Much like the abyssal serpent itself, this unforgettable boss fight is one that worms its way into the player's head.
Eddie Dombrowski (Silent Hill 2)
The Silent Hill 2 remake turns a once underwhelming fight into a haunting, heart-pounding masterpiece.
In the original 2001 game, this boss fight was fairly underwhelming, but Bloober Team's 2024 remake of Silent Hill 2 reworks a once-uninteresting boss fight into something truly special. The original fight was essentially two people standing in a room and clumsily shooting at each other, but the 2024 remake changes the setting to a foggy walk-in freezer with sacks of raw meat hanging from the ceiling. The meat sacks provide some amount of cover, but also prove to be an obstacle, especially with the fog obscuring the player's view of Eddie. The room is dimly lit, with the flash of Eddie's gunfire serving as the only visual indicator of his position for a large portion of the fight. He's not pulling his punches, either--Eddie can very easily kill the player in just two shots on Hard Mode.
While the improved level design and combat mechanics play a huge part in making the fight a terrifying one, this deadly game of cat-and-mouse is made all the more unnerving by the differences in Eddie's characterization. The original game painted him as an insecure jerk and not much more, but the remake gives players deeper insight into Eddie, his motivations, and who he is as a person. Watching his mental state slowly unravel over the course of the game makes every cutscene he's in feel extremely tense, like there's an invisible thread in Eddie that's one wrong look away from snapping. Ultimately, it does snap, and both the game's protagonist and the player themselves are forced to grapple with what it means to take a life. While Eddie certainly isn't any more likable than he used to be, Bloober Team's take on the character does make him more believable and three-dimensional. When he finally falls to the floor at James' feet, his baseball cap falls off, revealing a head of blond hair that looks quite similar to James' own. The message is clear: Yes, he's a jerk. But he's not any more or less of a person than James is, and although he forces the player into combat, it's hard to finish the fight without wondering if there could have been another way.
The obvious effort Bloober Team put into improving the Eddie fight is deserving of praise in itself. Turning a formerly snooze-worthy opponent into one that arguably surpasses the likes of Pyramid Head is no small task, and the heart-pounding tension of this battle combined with its surprisingly emotional conclusion is what makes it our favorite boss fight of 2024.
More Best Of 2024:
- Our Favorite Games That Didn't Make The Top 10
- Best PS5-Exclusive Games Of 2024
- Best Switch-Exclusive Games Of 2024
- Best PC-Exclusive Games Of 2024
- Best Xbox Games Of 2024
- Best-Reviewed Games Of 2024
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