My Top 20 Bosses of 2025
2025 Gaming Retrospective
When it comes to boss fights in video games, I don’t just focus on combat techniques and difficulty. I also like to focus on spectacle, as I’m a big believer that a boss battle is as much spectacle as it is a fight. So, I have put down my top 20 favorite boss fights of 2025. This was not easy, and quite frankly, only the top 5 are the ones I feel confident in ranking. So sit back and relax as I talk about my favorite boss fights of the year.
There will be MAJOR SPOILERS.
20 - Hugging Molly
South of Midnight
“Molly, Molly the woman in white”
Hugging Molly is teased throughout a good bit of South of Midnight, so when I got to her, I was expecting a big fight. Molly uses her hands to do damage, and you’ll have to use strands to attack back. Now and then, you’ll chase her while her song plays in the background. This is a spectacle boss, and South of Midnight is filled with them. The song is pretty catchy and the chase scenes are just as good as the fight itself. The finale of the fight marks a major turning point in the story, making it an important fight.
19 - The Kitsune / Dojun
Ghost of Yotei
“How, how are you resisting?”
This may not be the Kitsune Atsu wanted to take down, but it is the Kitsune nonetheless and essential to taking down Saito. The fight is in a misty area, with the Kitsune throwing poison and everything he has to take you down. If you’re not careful, you can get taken care of pretty fast, so it’s a fight that requires you to be on your toes. The mist and use of poison to mess with your mind make this one memorable fight in Atsu’s quest for revenge.
18 - Sylux
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond
“I’ve been waiting for this”
The big bad of the game is the final boss, and it’s a pretty epic feeling. You’ll team up with the Federation Troopers at first before Sylux throws Samus into a portal through space. You’ll go face-to-face, dodging his beam attacks and even a freaking mini black hole. Similar to the first Prime game’s final encounter, you’ll use every one of your special abilities to take Sylux down. While I wish we got more of him, the final boss encounter makes up for it.
17 - Prince Ahzrak and the Witch
Doom: The Dark Ages
“No!!!”
The Demon Prince Ahzrak has a multi session fight that includes a fight against an enhanced version of himself. However, the final fight has you against both him and his trusted advisor, the Witch. Despite being attacked on both fronts, you’ll have your speed and experience to take them both on and finally get your revenge. The Doom Slayer, using the flail to bash Ahzrak’s head in, finishes it off.
16 - Lord Saito
Ghost of Yotei
“You think you’ve changed, but you’re still an Onryo”
Taking place where it all began, Atsu and Saito finally have their climactic battle at the site where the Night of the Burning Tree massacre took place. Saito is hyped up as a master swordsman who can use multiple techniques to fight, and it shows in this final boss fight. Saito throws everything he has, which is based on several techniques and stances you learn throughout the game, and you have to make sure you’re not being blindsided as you wait for perfect moments to attack. During the fight, Jubei joins despite being weak, leading to his death. An angered Atsu fights him as she sees the visions of the fire surrounding her, and then finally the disarm and final plunge, which feels so satisfying to end her quest for revenge.
15 - Renoir (The Monolith)
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
“If saving you, means losing you… then so be it”
You fight Renoir in Expedition 33 several times, but this is one of the two boss fights with him I remembered the most. At the Monolith, as you brace to fight the Paintress, Renoir tries to stop you, or at least the painted version of Renoir as we would come to find out. Not only does this fight have everything you expect in an epic fight in the game, with the combat, parries, and music, but it also unleashes a lion-like beast that adds to the spectacle of the fight. Truly a “here we go” moment in the game.
14 - Abracajabya
Donkey Kong Bananza
“Use the vines to get across!”
The toxic plant monster, Abracajabya, has that Nintendo boss feel I love in a boss fight. Surrounded and protected by a lake of toxic sludge, DK has to wait for the monster to throw down its vines and then get to the boss as fast as possible, dodging other dangers to get some damage in. Most of the boss fights in Donkey Kong Bananza tend to have a familiar feel, so I was happy to get something different with this one.
13 - Renoir (Final Fight)
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
“Life keeps forcing cruel choices”
The final story boss (not counting the choice of the ending fight) of Expedition 33 is against the real Renoir, who proves to be a tough battle. He throws everything at you, and parrying is essential to have a chance against him. He also has some moves that practically kill you or nearly one-shot you. Throughout the fight, you’ll get some epic cut scenes that include past bosses who fight the Paintress (Aline) as she wants to help knock Renoir out of the painting. The fast-paced, tough fight is enough, but the music throughout the entire boss phase is what makes it for me. In what is extremely high praise if you know my view on video game music, the song played here, Une vie a Peindre, is, in my opinion, right there with Dancing Mad from Final Fantasy VI as one of the greatest video game songs I’ve ever heard.
12 - Trobbio
Hollow Knight: Silksong
“TROBBIO!”
As I’ve said, when it comes to bosses, I like story and spectacle more than anything, and Trobbio has that. Trobbio isn’t a villain or a fight; you’re essentially playing as part of his play. The eccentric actor is a tough fight, like most Silksong bosses, but what I loved about him (despite ticking me off several times) was the way the battle ended. The actor pretends to die in a silly, dramatic fashion and falls to the floor. From then on, you see him looking up, but when you approach, he immediately puts his head down to continue to act dead. This man takes his job seriously.
11 - Sirene
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
“She who plays with wonder”
Sirene is everything you want in a boss fight that screams spectacle and epic. The dancer’s fight feels like you’re inside an opera, and the parries and attacks mimic it. While she can get pretty tough if you don’t learn her attacks well, the music and fluency of her movements make up for it, so much so that after I beat her, I looked up a video to re-live the performance. This isn’t just a fight, but like Trobbio, you’re part of a performance.
10 - Phenoros
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond
“Samus you better hurry”
Metroid Prime 4 has great bosses, but in the end, it was Phenoros, the lava snake monster, that felt the most like a traditional Metroid boss fight. When you enter the large cavern he lives in, you’ll have to use your bike to damage his armor and then you’re placed in a fight against him head on, dodging boulders and fire breath as you damage his armor similar to classic Metroid Prime bosses. This was a boss that I audibly was excited about, and I think he’s going to go down as the most popular boss in the whole game.
9 - Cogwork Dancers
Hollow Knight: Silksong
“♫”
There’s a surprising beauty and tragedy to fighting the Cogwork Dancers. The best part, unlike most Silksong fights, this one feels more fair. As long as you keep your reaction time up and learn their moves, the Cogwork Dancers didn’t feel cheap to me like so many of the other bosses in the game. The tragic beauty comes in the end after you take down one of the dancers. Throughout the fight, they’ll embrace before attacking. After one is out, one will go to embrace, but their partner won’t be there, leading to their death. It’s beautiful and tragic at the same time, something different in boss fights.
8 - Takezo the Unrivaled
Ghost of Yotei
“It’s been decades since I felt challenged by anyone”
Tazeko is considered the hardest boss in Ghost of Yotei, and I can confirm that holy crap, yes, he is. Luckily, he’s an optional boss, but that didn’t stop me from wanting to face him. The journey to Tazeko is filled with numerous quests and a fight against him. The undefeated warrior seeks someone to be able to beat him, even if he dies. Atop Mt. Yotei’s cold peak, you’ll fight an unpredictable warrior, as the blizzard and lightning damage you. It’s a hell of a tough fight, but when you pull it off, you feel incredible, and Takezo accepts his fate and dies happy that someone could finally defeat him.
7 - Shroud
Dispatch
“Give me my Pulse and no harm will come to your stupid dog”
While it’s true that the final battle against Shroud and his version of a Mechaman suit is a QTE fest, it doesn’t make the final fight any less exciting. For starters, you can still screw up the command prompts pretty easily. Also, the fight itself is action-packed, and you can feel the tension and stakes. What finishes everything off isn’t a fight but a decision you have to make regarding the Astral Pulse and whether to give it to him, as he holds your dog hostage. Considering everything that happens and having Robert beat the crap out of him, Shroud is definitely one of the most memorable boss fights of the year.
6 - Two-Toed Tom
South of Midnight
“Oh, that’s Two-Toed Tom… big gator”
Leading up to South of Midnight’s release, I was the most pumped to see Two-Toed Tom because the idea of a giant alligator seemed so cool, especially as a Floridian. The lead up to Tom has you learn about Tom’s origins in a dirty swamp, and you can feel the start of the song every time you enter another chapter, with the score’s upbeat theme going higher until it’s time to fight the big gator. As you listen to the Tom’s song (which is a banger), you’ll dodge a tower bell being thrown at you, tail swipes, and ultimately have to go inside the gator to take him down. Tom felt like a special monster, and I loved every minute of it.
5 - Grandmother Silk
Hollow Knight: Silksong
"Our silk, our strength, our nature."
When I reached Grandmother Silk, I was ready for an annoying boss fight that would have me rage quitting the way bosses in Silksong like Widow, The First Sinner, and The Last Judge me, but instead I got a surprisingly fun boss fight. For starters, the theme and score during this encounter are just incredible and gave me some flashbacks to the theme during the final Bowser boss battle in Super Mario Galaxy 2. Second, like Cogwork Dancers, this is one of the few Silksong bosses I didn’t think had any cheap moves. That’s not to say she can’t be tough, but once you get her moves down, it’s all up to you. It blends a tough fight, epic music, and a sense of high stakes into one.
4 - King K. Rool
Donkey Kong Bananza
“The End?”
The surprise of King K. Rool’s return hit me in a way I haven’t been pleasantly surprised since Godzilla ended up as the hero when I went to see the 2014 film in theaters. Not only that, but the boss fights against him makes up one of the more memorable moments in the year. Now, I’ll be the first to admit that K. Rool does overstay his welcome and has too many phases, but I can’t deny that I was smiling from ear to ear the entire time. The best part of the entire fight is when they take a page out of Donkey Kong Country’s infamous fake ending and redo it for this game, theme song and all! I’m so happy I stayed away from spoilers with this one, because it’s a moment and boss fight I won’t soon forget.
3 - The Paintress
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
“She’ll never paint again”
The Paintress stands as the big bad of Expedition 33, all the way to the end of Act 2, before the plot twist that sets up the third act. After fighting to get to her, we have an epic boss encounter, something Expedition 33 is just really good at. You can feel like you are fighting fate with every action you take, and you’ll be using everything you’ve learned up until this point to take her down. There’s also a sense that you’re doing something wrong as you get closer to winning the fight, signaling that everything is not what it seems. The final battle with Renoir is pretty darn epic, but it was this fight with the Paintress that solidified Expedition 33 as having some of the best boss fights in the genre.
2 - Dualliste
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
“Ready?”
Out of all the incredible boss fights in Expedition 33, it’s Dualliste who has consistently lived rent free in my mind. This is when I really started to click with the combat and parrying system, and Dualliste proved to be an epic encounter that showed I was fully getting it. To go along with that, the Dualliste boss theme is one of my top five favorite songs of the year and is so darn catchy. The fight against this boss feels like an epic sword fight, and the cinematic ending was a chef’s kiss. If I could go back and replay boss fights, I would refight Dualliste over and over again.
1 - Higgs Monaghan
Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
“Kept you waiting, huh… You and me…”
Death Stranding 2’s bosses are good when it comes to spectacle, but combat makes them feel iffy personally, and some of them are random depending on how well you can avoid BTs. Luckily for this game, however, my all-time favorite 2025 boss is hands down the final fight against Higgs. If you want a symbol of everything that Kojima is, the finale of Death Stranding 2 is that. The final encounter has Higgs unleash a huge BT against Sam, which you take down with a guitar that shoots lightning out of it (no folks, that is not a typo). From there, you and Higgs have a final clash, guitar versus guitar, sometimes hitting each other, and sometimes just getting into a guitar riff battle. It sounds ridiculous, but it was so f****** awesome. Only Hideo Kojima can use a guitar and rock music in a boss fight.
This is such a good collection! While I haven't experienced many of these myself (maybe only the Silksong ones) I do agree that the cog work dancers were just great! So beautiful while fighting for your own life.
Trobbio was a whole other spectacle! haha!