Symphonycometh is bought to you by: Life Lessons! Live and Learn! More Gaming News, after the break!
Can anyone here say that they do not get annoyed and/or angry whenever someone not only goes against your opinion, but they make it a point to belittle you because of it? I'm not talking about my method, which consists of me attacking your opinion's foundation and pointing out it's contradiction... if you get angry at that, that's probably just you fearing that I may be right. The type of thing I'm talking about is someone truly looking down at you as a human being. If anyone can say that it doesn't bother them at all when someone does that, I have a television I'd love to throw you in. Because quite frankly, I don't believe that.
Looking down on someone is a fundamental flaw, regardless of who they are. I may blatantly look down on your opinion(s) for whatever well-backed reason, but unlike some, I completely separate your opinion from how you treat me outside of arguments/debates. In other words, your personality alone is what I go by. There are some that either take debates too far and avoid you or they give off "signs" that they think you're unworthy to speak to. These types of people are a huge irritation to me. It doesn't matter what ****you are, how much money you have, what type of gamer you are, or even how extreme your opinions are. You don't compare or treat that individual like dirt because of differences. By that logic, we could essentially flip the situation around, and if that individual hates the feeling, he's a walking contradiction and we all should know how much I hate blind contradictions. If I ever find someone looking down on me or my friends, I will not leave the situation unscathed for that person.
Another thing that angers...well...annoys most of us (with good friends), would be keeping vital pieces of information from each other. The real reason good friendships die is because people have the tendency to take the coward's way out and not communicate what their problem is with said friend. That's right, I went there.
As someone who has taken many blows from situations where friends would keep their animosity for me tucked in their hearts, I do not appreciate the concept of keeping things inside of you like that. It is perhaps the reason why I am dubbed "loud" online and "honest" in real life. I don't like to keep grudges, and I don't like people keeping them on me. Something that could easily be fixed just by explaining what's wrong and working it out becomes to complex to ever save the relationship. If you're one of those people who are holding grudges instead of working/fighting them out, then I am sorry but:
You do not have the right to ignore/hurt/insult the other person if they don't know why you're doing so.
Don't you see, by you not simply talking, you yourself make the situation worse. And if you value that friendship, I would hope you would want that friendship to be the best that it can be. And keeping crap in is certainly not the pathway to do that. Especially if you're going to be a jerk about it. In fact, I could easily go as far as to say that you yourself are on equal footing as the person you're holding a grudge against. Sure that person did something that angered/annoyed you to the point you can't treat him/her with the same kindness you give others, but, if you too are now providing tension in the relationship, explain to me how you're any better in any sort of way? I've lost so many friends and so many potentially great friendships and it stings. Horribly. Almost as much as anyone who doesn't put an asterisk on their post so I know they didn't skim through my blog. And yes, I apologize beforehand for those who feel annoyed at me putting tricks on my blog, but hey, I would like to know who's skimming and who's not. In any case, I can assure you that if you have a problem with a friend and don't fix it, it WILL get worse and that bond will most likely shatter during the worst time. Just talk to that person. Especially if it's me (of course!). If that person values you as a friend, they'll try and work it out. And that my friends, is the first and only "nice" rant you'll receive from me. 
And now, back to Symphonycometh's regular programming... Games.
If you missed the last 4 bosses, shame on you. I'm not even going to link it for you it's so shameful. Anyways, number one is coming right up since everyone is apparently done with the other blog. One last warning, if I think you didn't read all of this, don't even comment. It's better that way. Seriously. Otherwise, you'll just annoy me and I won't count it as you actually making a comment. This boss fight clearly didn't have to be entirely original, or even be the most engaging battle ever, BUT, there is one thing gamers can't control, and that is simply their emotions when fighting bosses, and by far, THIS boss tops all of them. The moment you see the game's title and you don't want any spoilers on it, avoid it because the battle and part of the ending of the game WILL be spoiled for you.
"The moment man devoured the fruit of knowledge, he sealed his fate. Entrusting his future to the cards, man clings to a dim hope. Yes. The arcana is the means by which all is revealed..."
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3: FES~ Nyx's Avatar
The first and only JRPG to make it to the list. And with good reason. Any reasonable and self respecting Persona 3 survivor (yes, survivor) that played this game without a use of a guide or forewarning...and actually made it to Nyx's Avatar did NOT survive the first time around. Those that want to "claim" they did can either feel happy up there all alone in that or they're some childish liars. The Representative of Nyx is practically your bragging rights to the genre these days. Without having beaten him, crying about other final bosses this gen or last seem pretty insignificant. And here's why:
You spend about 70 hours getting to the top of Tartarus. Around 40-50 in training, and 20 in storyline. With that many hours of training, you can bet that your level is higher than normal JRPGs before you enter into a final boss fight. I was level 65 or so when I came to fight Nyx that day. It was a Full Moon. I was full of confidence because every boss before him...sucked. And every Full Moon boss sucks pretty much in Persona 3, right? That's what I told myself while I tried to control my heart/exitement from actually reaching the very peak of the 264 floors known as Tartarus. Our Death Angel came down and basically beat it down my throat that there was no way we could beat him because he was death itself. Just by listening to him, you knew he wasn't going to destroy the world out of malice or anything. He was just trying to do his job as the Harbinger of Nyx (Death). With one semi-final warning to step down and accept death, Nyx's avatar braces himself for combat and we're off into the final battle of Persona 3.
Okay, easy enough so far. One of the best final boss songs to die to started up and the final boss wasn't attacking. I figured Persona 3 had finally gone easy on me. In fact, the boss didn't attack at all...no matter how many turns passed. He would only smile arrogantly. And it about a few moves, his HP was taken down. Anyone could tell he wasn't done. He then starts to actually give a short life lesson. About 10 seconds long, but the best 10 seconds a short lesson I could ever receive from a game. From there, he does something odd. He "switches Arcana" and all the sudden he gains the ability to both attack AND attack twice in one turn. And of course the Arcana switch gives him full HP. Not too bad, he's hurting baby damage to my party, so who cares? We took that bar of HP out and that was that. His 2nd life was gone. He changes Arcana again. Okay, I can expect that. It was too easy.
He can still attack twice and now he hurts a bit more. Kills a party member or two every once in a while. Got it. Still kicked his HP down after a few turns. He changes Arcana again. Okay, now I'm starting to question if his 4th form was the final one. Not only was he doing enough damage to take us down if we wern't careful, but he was still getting 2 attacks per turn. (Bare in mind that if the Main character dies, it is game over.) I was still smiling arrogantly at the battle, thinking this Final Boss was a complete let down...expecting him to officially drop at any time...
4th Arcana is taken down...
5th Arcana is taken down...
6th Arcana is taken down...
At this point, I'm worried that Nyx is screwing with me and when exactly his HP will stay at 0. I took him out 6 times and he keeps acting like we're doing absolutely nothing to his true HP because he surely doesn't make the players feel better by at least acting dead. He stays standing and barely flinching as you give it your all. I'm also worried that I'm doing something wrong...or the hard way...like there's an easy way to beat him. (Zombie meet Phoenix down) Luckily, that wasn't the case. Nyx began using status effects and even death attacks at this point and God forbid you didn't pack some sort of immunity to death...you'd die and it was all game over. And no one wants to die to Nyx after fighting him for half an hour, trying to knock his forms down. I had Throne, so I was immune to death attacks anyways. Heh.
7th Arcana is taken down...
8th Arcana is taken down...
Symphony is taken down....
See, on his 9th form, he not only has an obvious attack/defense raise, but everyone who knows Persona 3 knows that sometimes crap happens. For example, when fighting him the first time, he raised everyone's critical rate up and slashed me specifically. I fell down, so that gave him a bloody 3rd turn based on Persona 3's battle system. 3 turns with Nyx is NOT something you want to have at this point. And you know what? That third turn killed my main character with Nyx's lovable Almighty attack. Which is annoying. That attack is so far off from Almighty and to die to it is pathetic.
Several days of gamer frustrations pass...
I tried again. Died at Nyx's 6th form this time. Annoying. Tried another day after leveling up 2 or 3 times. (In this game, one level up makes all the difference.) And finally, the 9th Arcana is taken down...
By now, I'm realizing that my HP/SP/Items are taking real hits to this boss whose stats just keep on growing every time his gets his HP back. If Nyx didn't leave his HP at 0 soon, I was going to die of natural causes. His other forms I had just BARELY lived through...truly...barely.
10th Arcana is taken down...
11th Arcana is taken down...
12th Arcana is taken down...
And then it came, Nyx finally said something different. Unlucky number XIII revealed his final Arcana. Or in easier terms, Death. His 13th form. That's right, he has a total 13 bars of HP to take down from start of the battle to the end. That can be argued as 13 boss fights without stopping to heal or anything! I was finally happy though. That after about an hour, he reveals his true Arcana and I can actually end this battle. With my confidence that this battle DOES have an ending, I offhandedly did the first strike...and to my horror... his HP didn't even really flinch! Not only did his HP feel like it was tripled from his 12th form, but his defense had to have almost tripled as well. Everything we hit him with hurt 1/3 of our usual damage and Nyx surely wasn't taking it easy with his final Arcana. Bringing his HP down even 1/10th of the way was a boss fight in itself. However, when his HP reaches around 85%, I guess he takes that as a slight threat and decides to introduce the players to a brand new attack. Moonless Gown is what it was called. Basically, if you try to do the slightest physical/magic attack in any sort of variation, 500 of your HP was going down via amplified reflected attack. And of course Nyx didn't feel a single bit of pain. Even at level 99, you're sure to die if you attack him twice, so you can imagine what that would do to a party at a much lower level. There's no way to dispel the attack, you only have to endure it while he attacks you until he lifts the Moonlight Gown on his 3rd turn. (6 attacks.) However, my party were set to go AFTER Nyx used Moonless Gown...so all 3/4 party members dropped dead. And how many important fights have YOU won with one member surviving that was dependant on the other players? That's right, I lost to then and there and refused to touch the game in days. I believe it was even two weeks. That's far more difficulty than I was ever used to in my JRPGs.
Eventually, I tried again after leveling up a bit. I made it to the 13th form easier...sort of, and even survived his frequent Moonless Gown attacks. We took him down to his 30% HP range and I was feeling confident again. After all, how many final bosses had a secret move on top of a secret move, right? Right?!!! And then he used it...the infamous Night Queen!
"Let us finish this! It is the path of your choosing!"
He finally seemed to be getting annoyed at standing around taking 13 rounds of beatdowns. So he handled me...and handled me well. Night Queen will either kill your party or at least make your party just about dead. But of course that couldn't be it. He inflicts status ailments on your party...and quite naturally, one of the status ailments can make you heal your enemies. One of my party members became inflicted with THAT specific ailment and cured Nyx 100% of his health. (6000 HP) Now if I'm only doing 50-100 damage and fighting nearly on empty, and I cure Nyx 100%???? You can bet that I simply gave up. I stared at the screen in pure disbelief and knew that my little Throne and Surt couldn't take on Nyx at our state. We had no items and our SP was about out. We lost. And with nothing to show for it. I had everyone attack Nyx until we died. There was truly nothing I could do at that point after fighting the beast for an hour.
A few more days pass and for some reason, the music of the boss fight compelled me to turn the darn PS3 on and try it again. This time I beat him...only because he didn't charm anyone this time. At level 77, we scrapped by and took the fool down! The moment he finally kneeled down and made a humble grunt of defeat, that was the closest I was ever was to screaming out in sheer victory. Humor enough, after the battle, Nyx's Avatar got back up. He might as well just have dusted himself off as if everything we did was nothing short of throwing dust on him. The anime scenes that followed after... cleanly represented the hardships and determination I felt during my 77 hours of play (yep). Heh, they represented the hardships and trials of the Nyx Avatar battle alone! It's worth a look for those who have no interest in the game because it had the nerves to be on a PS2.Whoever used that cheap Armegeddon move to take down Nyx is being cheap and cheating themselves out of a great experience, by the way.
Never before has a boss presented me with a challenge that frustrated me to the point where beating it will prove to myself that I can beat him as well as feel a true sense of accomplishment. Those that don't agree with number one, please bare with me and understand that Nyx is the only boss that actually put up such a fight. It's a true pity that on the 2nd playthrough, they didn't up Nyx's difficulty. I would love to have that sort of challenge again sometime in my gaming life, and let me tell you, regardless of how unique the other fights were in comparison, accomplishment that high is something none of the games can accomplish gameplay wise to me. Nyx and Persona 3, congrats on making it to number one! Nyx, congrats on having perhaps the biggest sword in gaming! And there's my top 5 Boss Fights everyone!
If you missed numbers 4 and 5, that's fine, just don't go whining about how I somehow "missed" your blog. K/tnx. (Okay? Thanks.) For everyone else, we have the next two bosses lined up and ready. But believe me, picking something for number 2 was a heart-tear. Anyways, if you recognize the game title, but don't want to hear spoilers on said title, stop reading ASAP.
#3: Metal Gear Solid 4~ Old Snake Versus Liquid Ocelot
Once you're fighting your brother, you once again get to see exactly why the PS3 is no longer a graphical joke. You also can't help but feel the need to say "I want to see the 360 do this!" And with good reason! Quality that is far too close to CG and far too good to just "download". It has to seen in HD, in real-time, and not on your computer. You miss what PS3 owners are talking about if you do that. Period. Anyways, the graphical presentation was a grand bonus of course, but the real meat of the matter is that you're bought into the battle under the most dramatic (good) music and fight scene this generation has seen thus far, but apparently Kojima didn't want to end the "epic" feel of the fight just because the player took control. Oh no. It's far more than just randomly mashing buttons to hit Liquid. Forcing the player to master a near new control scheme on the fly had its rewards as every "good" hit you landed on Liquid naturally turned into a 1-2 second camera change, again showing off that the graphics were all real-time, and continued the fight as if you were kinda/sorta directing the very last battle yourself...again...kinda/sorta.
You could still die and only those youtube-MGS4-fanboys could perfect that battle. And lets not forget that Symphony loves when he can figure things out himself...and that's exactly what I did when I noticed the camera angle took a final change for you and Liquid to exchange final blows. It LOOKED like a cutscene, camera angle and all, but it wasn't! The boss fight was still on and just like The Boss battle from MGS3, you had to finish the fight after learning that you still control Snake's hands. In my entire gaming life, THAT, has never been done before, and quite frankly, if anyone mastered what was done here for an entirely different game, it would have my support. What kept this game from being number 2 or 1? Well, let's just say that you don't ruin my gaming experience by having QUICK TIME EVENTS during such a great fight! It ruins everything I just said!
#2: Shadow of the Colossus~ Delta Phoenix "Avion"
Most of you HAD to have know Shadows of the Colossus had to be somewhere on here, right? The big question was, which of the 16 Colossi was I going to pick from?
If you're wondering how an oversized bird actually beat out "TEH GREAT LIQUID", let me tell you. Both fights were unique to me, but come on... in terms of originality, SotC has it beat. From the moment I walked into Avion's lair and saw the beast, my heart instantly started beating in amazing fear. "How am I going to take out a flier"? I told myself. Up until I saw it, all of the bosses were slow and grounded somehow. Out of confidence of being surrounded by a cage, I shot an arrow at the beast and gave it an arrogant smile....before it flew near me and simply used its wings to blow a gust of wind at me. I flew off into the lake and started panicking. That thing was flying around and angry that I threw an arrow at it and I was blindly swimming -1mph, hoping to find some type of ground nearby. To my happiness, I found the famous square patch found floating on the water and climbed up it. After hitting the thing with my feeble arrows once more, I noticed that this time, it was aiming to tackle me down with it's entire body this time. I was too panicked to actually "look" at Avion. I actually jumped back in the water several times before my mind actually picked up that it had grass growing on it's wing...meaning it was climbable. I just had to jump at the right time...and in the right place. Naturally, I missed my chances several times, but man! What a heart-jumper that was to actually clench on to it's wing. And the moment I grabbed on, I knew I was going to remember this boss battle for a long...long time.
The new music played, (Heart pump) and Avion flew quickly through the area, having the wind push against poor Wander while he was trying to hang on for dear life, WHILE Avion was trying to force him off via air spins. Heart pumping. (It should be noted here that Wander is the predator here. Avion is just trying to live...apparently in peace.) God forbid you don't have the strength to hold on to the monster's wing...you're just out of luck and down you fall. In this battle, you had two ways to win... You could be like me on my first go and crawl your way to the wings and then the tail to stab all its weak points, or you could do what the pros do and use the game's gravity mechanic and drop from one wing to the other when Avion does those amazing flips in the air. For those who arn't used to playing gems or are too used to action games, none of this was done with Quick Time Events. You had to jump, climb, survive with your own skills and merit. This was the first time in my gaming life that I felt bad for killing a boss, not only because it was 100% innocent, but because the boss fight was actually a blood-rush for me. Think back to that one generic cutscene some of you may looooooooooove so much. Take that, and amplify it and that's how I felt.
Sand Tiger "Dirge", (The Sandworm) as well as Trail Drifter-Phalanx (Sand Dragon...it flies) were the ones I was debating over for 2nd place. Using the horse in a way most would expect to use it in those annoying quick time events was nothing short of gaming brilliance and it is a darn shame that most of you readers haven't experienced the thrill of riding a horse during a tense and quick boss fight and (manually) spinning around while you controled your horse, (manually) aimed your arrows at a boss' eye, and (again, manually), riding your horse up to a flying creature trying to fly upwards to the sky and aiming/jumping to the wing before the Colossus can take off.
Do you all seriously still wonder why I'm so hard on boss fights in other games? Or games in general? The last game is probably unpredictable, because considering my list, you would probably be lead to believe that this boss fight had to top SotC's AND Metal Gear Solid 4's boss fights. To be fair, the top boss fight is questionably the least original boss fight on this list, but the feelings and determination that followed before/during/after sure gave it top boss fight for me. So have fun guessing and I hope you all at least read the Shadows of the Colossus winner!
