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Frightening bosses in non-horror games (Also no Soulsborne. They're all pretty scary)

SolVanderlyn

SolVanderlyn

I love pineapple on pizza!
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Oct 28, 2017
13,507
Earth, 21st Century
Don't just list names, and mention the game it's from, please

This isn't my number one choice, but it's the most recent one I encountered. The God-beast of the Dark Mana Stone in Seiken Densetsu 3, Zable-Fahr, is a pretty scary looking... thing.

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Two towering demon heads with a third, female head popping up midway through the battle.

I think what really sells this boss isn't its appearance, though. It's the only God-beast directly mentioned before the eight of them are set free, and it's mentioned as having tried to destroy the world in the past, causing its stone to have to be destroyed. The narrative immediately places it as especially threatening compared to the others, who are already powerful, world ending threats in their own right. And while you can tackle the God-beasts in any order, Zable-Fahr must be the last one you fight. The other God-beasts all have a proper buildup to their fight, but this one takes you by surprise in the middle of a dark cave, transporting you to some sort of hell dimension while you fight it. The music during the fight is also incredibly ominous.

There are a lot of Satan-esque analogues in RPGs, but this one stood out to me because of its buildup and presentation, not only its appearance.
 
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HardRojo

HardRojo

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
26,125
Peru
The big skeleton dude from SNES Contra scared me as a kid.

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Nightmare from Metroid Fusion can be a bit scary too.

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On mobile right now, will add pics in a bit.
 
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Karak

Karak

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
2,088
In Space Harrier one of the bosses is just a bunch of floating stone heads. And for some reason as A kid it creeped the fuck out of me
 
Pascal

Pascal

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The Fallen
Oct 28, 2017
10,241
Parts Unknown
And shout-out to Andross from Star Fox 64 for scaring the shit out of me as a kid and making me turn the N64 off in fear.
 
jonjonaug

jonjonaug

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,674
Andross in Star Fox 64 scared the crap out of me as a kid and it took me an incredible amount of playthroughs before I could make it to the end of the game without turning off the console
 
lvl 99 Pixel

lvl 99 Pixel

Member
Oct 25, 2017
44,694
jonjonaug said:
Andross in Star Fox 64 scared the crap out of me as a kid and it took me an incredible amount of playthroughs before I could make it to the end of the game without turning off the console
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The robot head was intense enough. When the tentacle brain with eyeballs showed up I think I just noped out and turned it off.
 
Baron Von Beans

Baron Von Beans

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,176
First boss in the first dungeon as adult link in oot. The dude that ran through the paintings. That spooked me a little
 
DeadMoonKing

DeadMoonKing

Member
Nov 6, 2017
909
Myria in BoF III. It was this creepy-ass body horror thing. In her attack Holocaust, her face would melt off and then blast you. (Awesome 2D animation though!)
 
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Temtastic Muns

Temtastic Muns

Member
Apr 19, 2018
6,818
Not a boss per se, but my earliest memory of being freaked out by a video game was from Space Fury on ColecoVision. Particularly by this scary-ass mofo:

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Other than that, Final Fantasy V's Exdeath (in tree form) is pretty gnarly:

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Chumunga64

Chumunga64

Member
Jun 22, 2018
14,264
Something about Unknown from Kingdom Hearts Final Mix always creeped me out.

Maybe because his dialogue just flashed in the screen instead of spoken like everyone else.

Of course, once his identity was revealed in the second game you can't help but laugh at his hammy voice acting.
 

Deleted member 18407

User requested account closure
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Oct 27, 2017
3,607
The final boss from the old Sega Genesis game Skeleton Krew scared me as a kid. You have to blow off his legs and some blood starts spraying out and that REALLY bothered me back then too. I still haven't shaken that feeling I got from that boss 20 years later. Pulling up a video of it now, the blood is minimal and not bad at all. I kinda wish I could be that naive kid again.

Should be timestamped but if not, the final boss shows up around 4:11 in the video.
 
Zoantharia

Zoantharia

Member
Oct 30, 2017
1,860
Star Dream from Kirby Planet Robobot

Don't get me wrong, it's not scary in the conventional sense and it's an awesome boss, but once you know what's actually happening during the battle it does start to get quite... unsettling. On a conceptual level

A machine slowly consuming and overwriting the soul of the broken man trapped inside it until there is nothing left. A machine that Haltmann himself created in the hope of getting his daughter back. You can hear his ghastly screams during the battle itself.

Also, honorable mention for Star Allies, which features ritual suicide and a final boss who attacks you by using the corpse of his lover as a projectile
 
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squall23

squall23

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,777
Kumikomical said:
Star Dream from Kirby Planet Robobot

Don't get me wrong, it's not scary in the conventional sense and it's an awesome boss, but once you know what's actually happening during the battle it does start to get quite... unsettling. On a conceptual level

A machine slowly consuming and overwriting the soul of the broken man trapped inside it until there is nothing left. A machine that Haltmann himself created in the hope of getting his daughter back. You can hear the ghastly screams during the battle itself.

Also, honorable mention for Star Allies, which features ritual suicide and a final boss who attacks you by using the corpse of his lover as a projectile
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It's following the old anime tradition of giant robot versus philosophical horror, which is great.
 
Snormy

Snormy

I'll think about it
Moderator
Oct 25, 2017
5,122
Morizora's Forest
I can probably list several enemies in Monster Hunter. It is unfortunate that in MHW I didn't any of the same sort of intimidation as seeing some of the new monsters in the older games, perhaps Nergigante at some points or even Bazel the first few times.

Rajang probably terrified me for the longest time in MHFU. He is a big, angry bully that can be intimidating as hell. Pretty much purely muscle and if jho is always hungry then Rajang seems like the Hulk, always angry but can also get angrier.
 
RoboPlato

RoboPlato

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,808
The alien in Echo the Dolphin scared the crap out of me as a kid. I was not expecting anything like that in a seemingly innocent and cute game about a dolphin.

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h8bit

h8bit

Member
Oct 26, 2017
1,167
Brooklyn, NY
Vamp from MGS2 freaked me out with how fast he was as well as his voice acting.

In MGS3 The End was more of a tense scary and The Sorrow. The Sorrow was definitely creepy.
 
Green Mario

Green Mario

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Oct 27, 2017
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760e7500bb177e7275aeb2a6ebeeb4cf9190d4c1_hq.gif


Undertale. Not going to name the boss because you should find out for yourself.
Like, what the fuck.
 
Phendrift

Phendrift

Member
Oct 25, 2017
32,300
I see a lot of people mentioning Nightmare but honestly I wouldn't blame anyone for actually considering Metroid Fusion a horror game.

Like, damn, the sense of dread that game made me feel even as a GBA game....
 
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