• He/Him/His

Part Dragon, Part Possum, 100% Tired.

Furry Trans Guy who plays FFXIV and vibes.

Ask me about my WoL!


ravingsockmonkey
@ravingsockmonkey

I hope you don't mind several, because I can't pick just one.

It's fitting that a Final Fantasy game that doesn't fit in with the way Final Fantasys usually are has boss music that feels more... Capcom<?> in a way than Square, but this one rocks.

Can't have old school Square without having Enix, so here we go:

7th Saga was certainly a game that liked to kick your ass. Whenever this theme played you knew you were likely going to be in for a brutal fight.

Taking a break from RPGs for a moment, fighting games can have some pretty hot jams too.

Samurai Shodown 2's "Wicked Heart" for the Mizuki fight gets my blood pumping.

I'm also a fan of some of the boss themes from the Battle Arena Toshinden series:

Can't pass up "Full Bore" which is Fulgore's theme in Killer Instinct:

Switching back to RPGs

This is the music to which Cynthia taught me that my best was simply not enough. Beating her felt like WORK.

Breath of Fire is one of my favorite non-FF RPG series, and I remember searching forever for this song as soon as I had the capability of looking:

Both III and IV deserve re-releases on modern consoles:

I remember this track mostly from the phoenix fire druid fight in WoW, but it may have played elsewhere?

And lastly, because I promised myself I'd only post one FF XIV song:

It's not THE Alexander boss theme, but it is SO GOOD.


You must log in to comment.

in reply to @Lizstar's post:

specifically the transition of Octopath Traveler's For Treasure ~ Decisive Battle 2 from the preamble into the battle theme is still just incredible

Reach For The Moon, Immortal Smoke is always so cool, even though i have never been able to get to this battle in person. it feels surprisingly bright? i love touhou...

and then there's I'll Never Falter from the last Get In The Car Loser DLC... the haunting vocals and the HEY, HEY chorus hits, and how it's wrapped up in a highly emotional boss fight, it just rules

https://youtu.be/gmh4Qs20DZA classic yoko shimomura banger (someone else just posted this)

https://youtu.be/yZUbP8vZZrs lots of good battle tracks in SMT5 but this is the one that's stuck with me the most

https://youtu.be/xOeb7StJlRc this is a "Unique Monster" battle song but those are kinda like bosses and this song kicks ass

https://youtu.be/D8dDZ6S__70 here's a fun FFXIV song from savage raiding. (Pandaemonium 8 savage)

I can think of quite a few, honestly; I'll start with Tor, the final battle track from Iji ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86IxmklUgEM ), an excellent theme for a final decisive battle

There's Lady Luctopus from Psychonauts 2 ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lfM-d5j86I ), a jazzy theme for the gambling based first boss

Jet Black from Iconoclasts ( https://konjak.bandcamp.com/track/jet-black-vs-black ) has a good mix of ominous and somber parts that fits Black's character nicely

Disclaimer, I haven't played Skeleton Boomerang so I don't know the full context to Calcium Defiency ( https://plustek.bandcamp.com/track/calcium-deficiency-true-final-boss ) but it's another great mix of tense, triumphant, and sad pieces arranging earlier themes from the game

Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass has Gut Punch ( https://kaseyozymy.bandcamp.com/track/gut-punch ), a chaotic and dramatic metal-inspired piece that serves as the unique battle music for one of the key bosses

Lenna's Inception has The Usurper ( https://joelbaylis.bandcamp.com/track/the-usurper-32-bit ), its own final battle theme rearranging the main theme and standard battle themes into a climactic track

And I'll cut myself off with Cassette Beast's Same Old Story ( https://joelbaylis.bandcamp.com/track/same-old-story ), the battle theme used by it's Archangel bosses, and which doubles as the theme used in trailers to make it one of the game's main themes overall

the Chicory OST by Lena Raine has amazing boss tracks, and they stand out more by being such a contrast with how comfy the rest of the game is

When I'm playing ALttP Randomizer with my Chicory music pack and Probably Ancient Evil comes on, often people in my chat are like holy shit how is this suddenly going so hard

though my favorite boss track from it would be the final one, Do the Impossible

I could post boss themes from FFXIV until the sun comes up. There's so much musical range in that game (big spoilers, obviously, if you haven't played and intend to someday):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oG8op2o8omQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njYgggITz2g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bb_-bGLLhn0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEZVfZmMFDQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nih4x5hv89Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORaWo4RMcjc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoHo_Sju-X0

Yakuza 0 has some absolute bangers, notably [redacted]'s theme:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApreCAQiZ4w

Dicey Dungeons has some fun ones:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVPEgJxzjpc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jb-HswVr0bs

Speaking of Chipzel, I also love the boss theme from Interstellaria:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12mwOpTTWQw

Guilty Gear Strive's arcade mode boss theme goes so hard that for a while I just assumed it was Nagoryuki's personal theme (it's not—he gets two songs, lucky fellow):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBZJbDctJzo

For a more obscure pick, here's the boss theme from Deep Fear:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PApmd1wx84Y

Here's some nineties shmup goodness—one of the boss themes from Einhander:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luwi50FwRlg

I've also gone wild for the old Armored Core OSTs lately... but since I haven't actually played more than the first few missions of AC1, I can't tell which tracks are boss themes. Oh well!

For me it's Hiroki Kikuta's work on Secret of Mana, Danger is iconic in just how cacophonous it is in the outset before it rushes into a badass Mana Theme leitmotif before transitioning into something lighter before looping back to the opening.

By far, the Mana Beast final boss is more focused and feels like an epic battle, but it's the normal boss music that really got memorable by sheer repetition initially and then later the complexity it has as I studied it more.

AXE BURSTS THROUGH WALL DID SOMEONE SAY BOSS THEMES

Okay, off the top of my head! I desperately wish Rise of the Third Power's soundtrack had a higher quality upload literally anywhere, because I'm a sucker for violins enhanced violence

Also a huge fan of Loop Hero's boss themes, but Cosmic Temperance is my favorite from it

From the megamans, there's Cannon Ball from MMZ3, Battle Spirit from Battle Network 2, the very creatively titled Boss Battle! from Battle Network - there's SO MANY good ones from Battle Network! -, Rockman & Forte's boss theme, and while I'm on the megamans, I'm gonna cheat and include this track from the 30XX soundtrack.

Honorable mentions go to C'thulhu Saves the World's final boss theme which goes shockingly hard for a comedy shitpost game, Ara Fell's Moonstone Dungeon Boss theme, Chroma Squad's second boss fight theme, and Bahamut Lagoon's boss theme despite the fact that you only ever hear about 10 seconds of it at a time.

Everyone on this website has good taste because almost all the themes I want to post are here!
"I'll post some Megaten... oh, there's four Megaten songs"
"What about Chicory? Oops, already there"
"Dicey Dungeons? ...taken!"
"Cassette Beasts has good music! ...wait, the OP replied with Cassette Beasts"

That being said, Everhood is kind of cheating since it's a boss-rush adventure game with rhythm elements in the fights (so the songs have to be good), but some of the encounter songs in that game go super hard. Examples:
Demondelic Inc.
Why Oh You Are LOVE
The Final Battle (disclaimer: not actually anywhere near the final battle)

Definitely one worth checking out

Also on the topic of Megaten music I would be remiss not to mention Fierce Battle which is pretty much "the video games are corrupting our children" distilled into song form. The weird distorted shouting is actual lyrics and they're unbelievably metal. Drink of the wine of the wrath of God!

Oh, this is the kind of stuff I live for. Let me dig through my collection...

MO: Astray is a fantastic hidden gem. Sadly, it's so hidden that OST uploads online are sort of... fragmented? Maybe you'll have better luck, but if you can handle some SFX + gameplay going on, maybe this Boss Rush video someone did will sell you on this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WikTSMDHp-4

Solar Ash has an overall amazing OST I cannot recommend enough (such an amazing game), but it's first boss, Crater Ouroboros, has probably my favorite mix of the bunch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5w8L_tLVvDE

Hollow Knight... well, you probably know Hollow Knight. The adaptive OST for the "postgame" boss rush arena is amazing, and is probably one of my favorite tracks in the game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjBTtNU27Ec

Pikmin 3, and the Pikmin series as a whole, has some fantastic adaptive soundtracks. The Titan Dweevil, the Man-At-Legs... since I can't send you, like, all of them, instead I'm liking a funky and cute little video on how the adaptive boss music of Pikmin 3 works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaBJ2C7Am6E

Patapon... oh man, Patapon. A marvelous rhythm-game trilogy. Still, probably the final boss of the first game, Gorl/Goruru, has one of the most intense themes of the whole game (excluding it's rock-and-roll remix in Patapon 3). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q647xGW2HjQ

... I'd send tons and tons more, as you've hit me right in the hyperfixation, but here's a nice-sounding 5 so I don't, like, bury you in recommendations. I have a whole collection of bangers I listen to on the regular, so... if you ever crave more, I'm happy to oblige!

Dire Miralis, the last LAST hunt of Monster Hunter 3U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDC_NYX4NNU

It took me A MONTH to beat this fucker solo when I was still learning the game, also shoutout to the misheard lyric "Hope is bleeding" because it's extremely accurate!

Also Dancing Mad is an inevitable entry https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSEI7tkA0_k

Ys 6 MIGHTY OBSTACLE! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DfzxdyfRO4

And last one i'll drop here, bldkgt from Arknights. Seriously, look up this goddamm TOWER DEFENSE gacha's soundtrack, it's phenomenal https://youtu.be/IuC4oAzJqWw?si=iCOZ67ARE_aXsep6