Awesome Bosses/the Legend of Zelda Series

The many incarnations of Link have faced many awesome bosses during their various adventures in Hyrule and elsewhere.

Ganondorf / Ganon
"Ganondorf:"
 * Ganondorf/Ganon in any game he's in tends to fit the bill. Be warned, as he is always the Final Boss, spoilers may be unmarked:
 * Ganon in Ocarina of Time. Mano-a-mano versus Ganon? Check. Great music to accompany a final battle? Check. Ring of fire around you and Ganon? Check. Zelda actually helps you for once? Check. Top it all off with Link stabbing Ganon right in the head for the finishing blow. Add it up and you get a boss fight worthy to end a classic game.
 * Also, it's so dark you can't really see more than Ganon's silhouette and glowing eyes. That is, until a lighting strikes every now and then and you get to see his blue pig like figure for a fraction of a second while he is swinging his blades and making that noise. That is some epic atmosphere.
 * The battle becomes more epic still if you run out of magic and therefore can't use light arrows to stun him. Cue rolling under Ganon's legs to hit his tail. Talk about a memorable way to beat OoT for the first time.
 * Ganondorf (his human form fought before Ganon) wasn't bad either, especially due to the Crowning Music of Awesome that accompanied the battle.
 * The Ganon battle in Wind Waker takes place and features a kimono-clad Ganon with two swords. And Link finishes the battle by jumping up in the air and ! And then Ganondorf , but not before he utters some of the most epic last words ever:


 * At the end of Twilight Princess, you get to fight Ganon in a one-on-one sword duel. Indeed, the entirety of the final battle in Twilight Princess is one big CMoA -- the first fight against  isn't all that great (he uses the same easily beatable strategy he did back in A Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time), but from there, Ganon takes on his Giant Hell-Pig form, and Link and Midna shoot each other a confident, "Let's-do-this" smirk before engaging in a massive, shapeshifting teamwork free-for-all in which you wrangle a giant charging hell-boar and hurl him onto his side, then wail on the scar on his belly. Then comes chasing him down on horseback while fending off the ghostly hordes he hurls back at you, giving Zelda a clear shot at him. Then comes the final Sword Fight of awesome. You feel like a Big Damn Hero after this, and it's well-earned.
 * Moreover, rather than simply waiting to press the button at the right time, in this battle, you have to constantly try to get a hit in while simultaneously defending from Ganondorf's.
 * You also get to Finish him off when you finally knock him down, with the classic "Ending Blow" move, triggering a seamless switch into Ganon's dying cutscene when you plunge into him.
 * The awesomeness of the final fight is severely mitigated if
 * After the big disappointment with Calamity Ganon in  Breath of the Wild, Ganondorf redeems himself in spades in Tears of the Kingdom, with what is arguably the best Ganondorf Boss Fight in the franchise. First of all, before you can even fight him, you have to deal with the Demon King’s Army, which is like the Monster Forces you’ve encountered previously, but in this case its three waves, but at least you have the Sages to help. Then, a Boss Rush of the Temple bosses appear, but you only have to fight the ones whom you didn't fight before. Finally, Ganondorf appears as the living corpse he was in the opening cutscene of the game, before assuming his true form as the Embodiment of Hate in all his  arrogant and exuberant glory.  A Sequential Boss, of course, the first phase of the fight is pretty direct one-on-one where his attacks are strong, but avoidable. The second isn’t all-that different from Phantom Ganon (detailed below), except in this one the actual Sages are there. In the third phase, however, he KOs all the sages and his appearance changes to a larger version with flames for his hair and beard, looking more like Demise than Ganondorf, and his Life Bar grows until it is literally off the screen. While this part of the fight still seems like a straight-up swordfight, Ganondorf is hard to hurt here because he has Perfect-Dodge and Flurry Attack skills much like Link does and he can use as well as Link can! Naturally, Ganondorf and his minions do Gloom damage throughout this entire fight, which normally would not be a problem at this point of the game (unless you are a true masochist, you’ve stocked up on Gloom Recovery food and elixirs) but in the third phase of the fight, Ganondorf’s attacks actually destroy (not disable) Link’s Heart Containers, meaning the damage his inflicts cannot be healed at all. You get them back at the fourth phase of the fight, however, which is in fact the easiest part of the battle but also the most fun. Ganondorf takes a One-Winged Angel form here, and for once, it is not a giant pig-monster, it is the Demon Dragon. For this fight, Link rides on the back of the Dragon of Light far over the skies of Hyrule and launches himself onto the villain’s back in order to strike the clusters of Malice (not Gloom) again and again until finally, Ganondorf is vanquished. Most awesome of all, when the only remaining weak spot that you have to hit is the Tear on his head, the backdrop changes to the blood-red sky of the Blood Moon as Link closes in for the final blow. A thrilling - and Catharsis-fueled - grand finale to this epic part of the franchise.

The Legend of Zelda

 * The multi-headed dragon Gleeok is one of the hardest bosses because each head you sever catches fire and flies about the room, attacking you; this is also the reason he's the coolest boss, bar none. And the second one you face has FOUR of them. We can only wish Nintendo will eventually bring him back in one of the 3D console installments (he did return in two 2D installments, namely Oracle of Seasons and Phantom Hourglass).

The Adventure of Link

 * After killing the Thunderbird and finding the Triforce, you were likely expecting to simply sit back and enjoy your ending, weren't you? Nope! Instead, the lights go out and Shadow Link makes his first appearance, splitting off from you and going on the attack, complete with his own battle theme to let you know that shit's about to get real.

A Link to the Past

 * Although he also qualifies as That One Boss, Trinexx, the boss of Turtle Rock, is nevertheless an awesome boss whose defeat gives immense satisfaction. He initially appears as a three-headed turtle; the left and right heads spit fire and ice respectively, and must be paralysed with ice and fire before they can be attacked, while the middle head is invulnerable. Once they go down, the middle head retreats into the shell and transforms into a giant snake-like creature which chases Link around the room. As a bonus, when Trinexx is defeated, you are finally re-united with Princess Zelda (in crystal form).

Link's Awakening

 * The Nightmare. It's a Final Exam Boss, but of A Link To The Past's most aggravating bosses, not Link's Awakening. Then you realize: this is no ordinary Nightmare, this is Link's personal Nightmare.

Ocarina of Time

 * The Stalfos enemy makes for some pretty epic sword duels. If there's several in a room, and you Z-target one, the other ones will leave you two alone as you fight to the death.
 * They one-upped that one with the Dinofols, a lizard clutching a similar sword and shield in Majora's Mask. There's two differences: Dinofols is much faster than any Stalfos-- faster than you, as a matter of fact-- oh, and it can breathe fire. Exhilarating!
 * The fight with Twinrova. Using the . And the dialogue when you defeat them is hilarious.
 * Also, Volvagia. It's a giant game of Whack-a-dragon!
 * The music for both this battle and King Dodongo are truly epic; setting the perfect mood for being trapped in a room with something very big and scary that wants you very dead.
 * A mid-boss example from Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask, the Iron Knuckle is easily one of the most powerful enemies in the game, and capable of huge amounts of damage. Their attacks are unblockable as well, and their speed increases when they begin to take heavy damage, which makes it a fun but deadly game of chicken.
 * Though they're pretty easy if you.
 * OR when you.
 * In OoT, casting the Nayru's Love spell is also fun. It costs a buttload of MP and doesn't prevent the monsters from knocking you down, but it makes you completely immune to damage until the spell wears off. (Unfortunately it also interferes with the use of magic arrows...)
 * In Majora's Mask, the Bunny Hood allows you to run rings around those guys, which makes it a rather fun game of 'stab the big guy in the back'.
 * Two words: Dark. Link.
 * Best miniboss EVER. And from the same Temple - Morpha is awesome fun.
 * Two stabs with Biggoron's Sword always works, too. A 10-second miniboss fight? Hell yeah.

Majora's Mask

 * Odolwa, the boss of the Woodfall temple, is pretty fun once you know how it works. You're basically just shooting arrows at a giant in a jungle mask, surrounded by flames, running away from bugs.
 * Also, you can forget the arrows and fight him in a straight-up sword duel. Best done with one of the weaker early swords though; the best one finishes him pretty quick.
 * You can also try to defeat him as Deku. It's pretty fun.
 * Goht is the source of much entertainment. Imagine a giant mechanical bull big enough to make Mickey Gilley crap his pants that you have to chase at high speed around a donut track in order to ram him, all the while evading his attacks. It's a lot more fun than it sounds.
 * To elaborate, throughout most of the dungeon, you're climbing up a tower with various rooms branching off of it. When you get up to the very top of the tower you enter Goht's chamber. Initially nothing seems odd about the chamber, so you go ahead and fire a fire arrow at the thing trapped in a block of ice. A huge mechanical goat bursts out, smashes the walls, and tramples Link before running off. Well then, it's on now, so Link puts on the Goron Mask and starts to roll after Goht. As you roll down the raceway, you realise that this track wraps around the entire circumference of the central chamber. You're using the Goron roll at full power, and there are jars that contain magic powerups so you can keep going without stopping. As you wear the boss down, he'll start throwing rocks, stalactites, and even bombs at you, and after you keep hitting him, he doesn't just collapse, he keeps going until he runs into a wall causing rocks to fall on him. And since he appears in Majora's Mask, you can just keep resetting time, fighting him over and over. And that's why Goht is one of the greatest Zelda bosses ever.
 * Gyorg can come off as a bit bland, if you stay on the platform and try to shoot him as he jumps out of the water, but if you put on the Zora mask you instead play a fast game of chicken where you have to ram him in the side without letting him bite you. After defeating him, you feel like a badass ocean predator.
 * Twinmold, THE biggest boss in ANY Zelda game, and next to impossible to complete without the Giant's Mask. Even Fierce Deity Link is hard to use against these two. Next to the huge descending moon, this boss alone put the Expansion Pack to its limitations and then some.

Oracle of Ages / Oracle of Seasons

 * Anyone who has ever beaten Oracle of Seasons will shudder at the name Dark Dragon. For those of you that haven't, he takes, for a GBC game, a ridiculous time to beat, deals moves that are almost unavoidable, and only appears Suffice to say, one feels like a god after beating him. Of course, if you're on a linked game, you still get to fight Twinrova and . Luckily, you're able to heal beforehand.

Wind Waker

 * Molgera, thanks partially to its theme song.
 * The death of the Helmaroc King has to qualify. The boss (a giant bird) shrieks, begins to fly up into the air, the searchlights catch him in their beams, he reaches the apex of his rise, gives one last scream and pow, all while the victory music plays throughout.
 * More awesome because that bird is the thing that kidnapped Aryll, and you waited to kick its feathered behind for half the game. Sweet, sweet taste of revenge.
 * Phantom Ganon (Wind Waker edition.) You've got several things going on here: first, some impressive cell shading effects on the subboss himself. Then toss in some awesome showdown/fight music. Next, manipulate said music so that it adds, subtracts, or even changes based on what is happening. Phantom Ganon on the ground gives you the simplest version of the music, in the air adds a beat or two, volleying the energy ball changes to a track that tenses up each time you land a succesful swing, and then a dramatic sting when you finally bring him back down. It's quite a rush, and to top it off, he leaves the fight with a sinister laugh, knowing full well that the two of you will be meeting again.
 * Made even better when you realize that you can use an empty bottle to knock back his energy balls so that it looks like Link is punching them. Bad. Ass.
 * As tense as the fight is, it only adds to the awesomeness of your first use of the Light Arrows. You get the arrows, and you are then confronted by another Phantom Ganon. Ready to test the strength of your new Light Arrows, you take aim, let one fly, and let your jaw drop as the first arrow obliterates him.
 * That music? A remix of A Link to the Past's final boss theme. Yes, a miniboss gets a final boss theme. That alone is sheer awesomness.
 * The Gohdan fight. Maybe it's the combination of weapons you need to use, but also the music is awesome. Also, because it's right after Tower of the Gods.
 * Puppet Ganon. First, you beat his normal, vaguely-human-shaped form, and Link begins to jump for joy at having beaten him - but then, the supposedly defeated puppet shudders and turns into a gigantic spider. And after defeating that form, it once again leaps into the air and transforms once again, but this time into a huge snake. The music for the Snake Form is awesome, but best of all is the boss itself, because you've basically got to . Perhaps the best part, though, is the ending cutscene, where Link is practically on his hands and knees, panting and exhausted, then Ganon appears again and reminds him that he's still got one more battle before the adventures over. You can practically FEEL Link go, "Goddammit, why me?" at that point.
 * Gohma. You enter the boss room to find out what has been messing with Valoo. At first, you just see Valoo's tail dangling through a hole in the ceiling over a pool of lava. Then, a massive scorpion rises from the lava, and you have to get rid of its armor by bringing the roof down on it. As the first boss in the game, it's pretty awesome.

Minish Cap

 * Palace of Winds. A High Altitude Battle with the Gyorg Pair, twin flying Manta-like creatures. (Completely different from the Gyorg in Majora's Mask.) What makes it especially awesome is that you fight it on the backs of said Gyorgs, hopping from one to the other while miles in the air.
 * The Final Boss, Vaati (all three stages) was also excellently done.

Twilight Princess

 * Stallord is similar to fight with Goht mentioned above, instead combining rail shooter elements, without the shooting of course. The battle still involves ramming however, but plenty of other Stalfos get in the way, making this one a little more precision oriented. (Or a game of pinball.)
 * It gets better once you destroy his first form, the sand goes away and you have to surf a spinning top alongside rails on the inner/outer walls. Stallord's floating goat head shoots at you? You jump to the other side, until he decides to ram into you. What do you do?, both of you go down to the floor and you slash the heck out of the sword stuck in him.
 * And the entire time you're fighting his second phase, the music playing is a remix of the boss themes of King Dodongo and Volvagia from Ocarina of Time.
 * The battle with Argorok. Picture a battle with a fire-breathing dragon which takes place on top of a large tower which is situated, in the middle of a rainstorm while epic music plays, and after taking some damage, the boss decides to stay airborne and out of your reach... so you go after him. Can you say "bitchin'"?
 * Made all the more awesome when you use ending blow. After grappling onto his back and frantically slashing at his weak spot, you then stand up and plunge your sword to the HILT into his spine.
 * Argorok is Zelda's Crowning Boss Fight of Awesome, or possibly Stallord. Either way, between those two and Morpheel, it's safe to say that Twilight Princess truly raised the bar for boss battles in the series.
 * Also, of the four Twilight Mirror Shard bosses, Argorok is the only one you can Finish, . That just shows how much of a Crowning Moment of Awesome its whole boss battle is.
 * The fight against Zant. His fight is divided into about 6 or 7 phases where he changes the background into that of an older dungeon, forcing you to use the item from that dungeon in some truly unique fashion in order to hurt him, ending in a sword duel in a stylized version of Hyrule Field. Best use of the Final Exam Boss ever.
 * What makes it truly epic is that with each phase, a new element is added to the background music. The music becomes more frenzied and chaotic, accentuating Zant's descent into madness, especially as by the end he has reduced to flailing wildly with his blades and shrieking like a psycho.
 * The fight is also a bit of Fridge Brilliance concerning Zant as a character. The guy, and then he goes and usurps the battle arenas from all the other bosses, proving he has no real power of his own and can't do a thing by himself.
 * The Darknuts. One of the few enemies in the game tough and strong enough to draw out the full extent of the techniques you've learned, you're able to engage them in an extremely epic one-on-one duel in the main quest as you slowly wear down their armor before, like the Iron Knuckle, they become fairly agile without losing a lick of strength or defensive ability, fighting like watered-down versions of . Add in the fact that having to beat three to four of them at once to clear the Bonus Level of Hell is much, much harder than any of the temple bosses if you don't just chuck bombs and run away, and they easily qualify for the most Badass of Ganondorf's forces.
 * Also made awesome by the fact that when you knock off the last bit of armor, the Darknut will leap backwards to avoid you, fling his weapon at you with enough force to make Link stagger even when blocking, and then swiftly pulling out a smaller longsword to fight you with. And now he will do combos.
 * And makes a weird, approving rumble when you do so, making it sound like he considers you a Worthy Opponent.
 * The Death Sword, miniboss of the Arbiter's Grounds. You enter the room to find a ginormous elongated cleaver, tied down to the floor via ropes with prayer strips attached. It just screams "Sealed Demon, Do Not Touch", but of course you have to release it, leaving you to fight a giant floating sword. The music is reminiscent of the Jaws them as it slowly moves towards you...
 * Of course, the thing isn't actually a floating sword; it has a wielder in the form of a seriously awesome, if creepy as hell, demon. But for the maximum effect, use your wolf senses before unsealing the demon, and you can see it there, holding the sword, just waiting for some fool to release it.
 * Twilit Bloat (the giant light bug from nowhere) can be incredibly fun for some players.

Phantom Hourglass

 * Eox. A giant soldier made of stone. To beat it, you stand on a lever, launch yourself into the air with your hammer, and then pound on it until its wooden frame collapses--after which you have to launch yourself onto its still-moving head and take it out once and for all. Also, the first battle against Bellum is enjoyable, simply because it takes place over three floors of a building.

Spirit Tracks

 * Cragma is a giant stone golem residing in a pit of lava, who foolishly grants you access to a mine cart that you ride up and around the chamber, filling his glowing weak points with arrows.
 * Byrne, The Dragon, against whom Phantom!Zelda assists, and she's capable of yanking him right off the pillars he's balancing on. In the fight's second phase, she can grab and wrestle with him when he does a darkness-powered dash attack, allowing Link to strike.
 * Skeldritch, a skeletal totem pole of sorts, in which you can catapult the boulders it throws right back at it.
 * And finally, Malladus itself,
 * And then the music complementing that fight. A remix of the overworld/title theme, with all of the Lokomo's instruments playing a part in the song, that's a perfect continuation of the duet you played with Zelda moments before.
 * And then the music complementing that fight. A remix of the overworld/title theme, with all of the Lokomo's instruments playing a part in the song, that's a perfect continuation of the duet you played with Zelda moments before.

Skyward Sword

 * Koloktos. Topping off the Ancient Cistern, he is a six-armed mechanical torso that seems easy at first. Use the whip to tear its arms off, attack its weak point For Massive Damage. Same old Zelda. Then it stands up, puts a metal cage over its weak point, and pulls out six swords the size of Link. And then it's chasing you around, slicing and smashing everything in sight. Oh, and summoning zombies. How do you beat him? You whip off an arm, pick up that giant sword, cut his other arms and legs off, and smash that cage to bits. He basically marks the point where Skyward Sword stops being great and starts kicking ass.
 * The moment when you realize you can just wield one of those swords is amazing. You target one and get Fi's analysis, and she says that despite their size, Link should be able to wield them. The first thought through your mind is "can I really do this?" And then, when you dismember three arms with one swing, your next thought is "Holy crap! This is really happening!"
 * Tentalus is no slouch, either. A giant, one-eyed, tentacle-haired kraken monster, you fight it at the end of a Time-Shifted Ancient Robot Pirate Ship. Before you do that, however, you have to escape from the ship as Tentalus tears it a new one. You sprint from the lowest level to the deck as the ship shifts from side to side, dodging falling debris and charging your sword to chop through massive tentacles, all while the water rises behind you. By the time you reach the deck, Tentalus has torn the ship in half. You fight it on the wreckage in the middle of a violent thunderstorm. The Holy Shit Quotient just went waaaaayyyy up.
 * Moldarach is also pretty impressive. Between slashing the eyeballs in her claws, breaking free from her attacks, exposing her as she digs under the sand, and dealing with her offspring, you can basically think of her as "Gohma+." A very well-done throwback boss. Also, the same amazing music plays in her battle as does in Koloktos.
 * Scaldera probably one of the most amusing bosses in the series. You're on a long, thin boss stage that continuously goes uphill while Ghirahim throws a tantrum and brings the boulder that almost killed you Indiana Jones-style to fiery, scalding life. You have to chuck bombs into its giant mouth and blast away its exoskeleton until a pulsating, round blob of flesh with a single eye is revealed and you gotta hack that thing apart. All while an extremely addicting track plays. It's the first holy-crap-what-the-fudge-is-that-thing boss. When that boulder first explodes and sprouts thin, scrambling legs, you know shit just got real.
 * Speaking of Ghirahim, all three of his own boss fights qualify, as well. The first one, especially, because he subverts the series-long tradition of having the boss' weakness be whatever item you picked up in the dungeon earlier. Here, the only weapon that will work against him is your sword... that is, if Ghirahim isn't too busy using it to slash you to bits because you telegraphed your moves and let him grab your sword out of your hand. Call him a Sissy Villain if you want, but Ghirahim earns the title of Demon Lord with a vengeance.
 * The game's final boss  is one hell of a throwdown too. You fight him in what looks like a floor made of water in the sky. You sword duel him in a fairly normal matter until you knock him to the ground the first time.   Truly, one of Zelda's most epic final battles.
 * Or you can duel him without relying on the.
 * The Stalmaster is one hell of a Duel Boss.
 * Hell, even the standard Stalfos are always fun to fight. After years of becoming goofier and easier throughout the series, culminating in their slapstick-y antics in Wind Waker, they suddenly Take a Level In Badass here and put your actual sword skills to the test.
 * Then there's Scervo, and his successor, Dreadfuse, who are robot skeleton pirate minibosses. Both battles take place on a plank, where you have to push them back to the edge while keeping them from cornering you against a spike wall. They're certainly tense duels, especially once they power up their swords with electricity, making mistakes more punishable.
 * The Imprisoned can be fairly easy in all of his incarnations, but the second and third battles are awesome for the sheer fact that

Tears of the Kingdom

 * In this corner, weighing in at 110 pounds soaking wet and riding the robotic form of Mineru, Sage of Spirit, Link the Hero of Hyrule! His opponent, weighing in at… a lot, the Scourge of the Spirit Temple, the Seized Construct! Indeed, this boss fight is like a boxing match between two Humongous Mechas in a ring with electrified ropes and a floor made of Gloom, whoever thought this up was a genius.
 * Phantom Ganon, or rather, Phantom Ganons, plural. The confrontation in the main line quest probably won't be the first time you fight one of them (one always spawns if a Gloom Hands is destroyed), but what could be cooler than fighting these shadowy clones of Ganondorf in the decayed ruins of the throne room of Hyrule Castle? What makes it even more awesome is having the Sages’ avatars there with you, making it a five-on-five hero-team-versus-villain-team free-for-all. Only thing that might have made it more awesome is if the Sages were there in person (rather than show up at the cutscene afterwards) but that seems to have been necessary for sake of plot, with the You Are Not Alone theme of the game.
 * Ahem, Master Kohga!. Really! Still a Laughably Evil comic relief villain, but as a boss, much, much better than the big joke he was in the previous game. You fight him four times, and each time he uses a different Zonai-constructed vehicle, first a tank, then a flying machine, then a motorboat (possibly inspired by the one in Live and Let Die), and finally a Humongous Mecha like the one against the Seized Construct. Evil as he is, it’s hard not to say, “Glory to Master Kohga!”
 * As mentioned above, the Gleeox were among the coolest (and toughest) bosses in previous games, and here, they are back with a vengeance. These three-headed monstrosities seem to have taken more inspiration from King Ghidorah than anything else, and come in four varieties, depending on their Breath Weapon: Fire, Ice, Lightning, and King Gleeox, which has all three, one for each head. Their breath attacks are more like Frickin' Laser Beams than a typical dragon’s breath and can burn, freeze, or stun Link if he doesn't get out of the way fast. Of course, they can fly, and given how high they attack from, you will not be able to fight them without proper preparation. (Keese Eyes, preferably of the opposing element and a decent bow are a must.)  Another cool thing about these bosses is that when reduced to about a fourth of their health, they gain a new powerful attack, Fire Gleeox has a giant fireball (kind of like  Goku’s Kamehameha attack) Ice Gleeox cause huge icicles to fall from the sky, and Lightning Gleeox cause a violent thunderstorm to erupt over the fighting area. And again, King Gleeox can do all three. Fighting these beasts are truly an epic experience, and defeating them is very satisfying.