Video game bosses generally tend to be a test of everything the player has learned up till that point, forcing players to employ the most powerful tools in their arsenal even to stand a chance against these intimidating foes. It's a chance for developers to craft a spectacular encounter that fans will remember long after they're finished playing the game.

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The best tutorial bosses go beyond teaching a game's basic controls and introduce players to the scale of the game they're embarking on.

However, there are times when players are railroaded by combat encounters that are ridiculously challenging to an unfair degree. Some of these bosses have forced many players to give up instead of trying to circumvent an impossible fight, to the point where developers had to update the game's content so that these bosses are easier to deal with and don't cause most players to tear their hair out.

1 Absolute Virtue

Final Fantasy 11

There's no denying that most MMORPGs attract a crowd obsessed with min-maxing and forming a party that's capable of taking out the game's toughest threats without breaking a sweat. So, it says something when a game releases a boss so ridiculously challenging that even its most dedicated players can't find a way to circumvent the boss fight. Such is the case with Absolute Virtue, one of the most infamous bosses in Final Fantasy history.

Many gamers experienced sleepless nights trying to best this foe, which ended up being a huge issue at the time. There were massive controversies prioritizing player health when this boss was introduced in Final Fantasy 11, and Square Enix had to release a patch that nerfed this boss so that they wouldn't be blamed for forcing players into becoming obsessed with the game to the detriment of their health.

2 AAP07: BALTEUS

Armored Core 6

Armored Core 6 is a FromSoftware game that is very much unlike any of their previous Soulsborne games. The mecha-action game is a callback to the Armored Core series, getting players invested in micro-managing every aspect of their mech so that they can tackle tougher foes with ease. Some bosses in the game will force players to rethink their build, with Balteus being a massive pain for players who struggled against him repeatedly.

This tough battle forced players to change their build to tackle the foe, so players were disappointed when the studio nerfed this boss in a later patch to make the game easier to handle. It beat the point of what Armored Core is all about — circumventing roadblocks by optimizing a player's build to attain victory.

3 Starscourge Radahn

Elden Ring

Elden Ring is a game notorious for its wealth of challenging boss fights, even if some people felt like encountering the same boss in multiple locations nullified the impact of these encounters somewhat. Still, the game is an achievement that shows just what Soulsborne titles are capable of when paired with a massive and interesting world.

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Some of its bosses were particularly tough to deal with, and Starscourge Radahn is a boss that will cause players a ton of issues because of how challenging this encounter is. The hitboxes of this boss were considered to be so unfair that Radahn's attacks were nerfed in a later patch so that it didn't have an invisible hitbox, which can be interpreted as more of a fix instead of a nerf depending on the player's viewpoint.

4 Simon Manus, Awakened God

Lies Of P

Lies of P is easily one of the best Souslikes fans can check out for themselves. The unique story utilizes Pinocchio's fairy tale to craft a wonderful world that feels like an unofficial Bloodborne sequel at times. The aggressive combat makes this comparison more obvious, with some fans feeling like the bosses were too self-indulgent for their own good.

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Most major encounters had two phases and were ridiculously hard. Clearly, the studio understood that boss fatigue could be a real thing, and nerfed some of the bosses in the game to make these battles less irritating to get through. One boss that was nerfed pretty heavily is Simon Manus, an encounter that could be pretty grating to get through. Both his HP and damage are reduced, with players being able to break his stance more easily than ever before too.

5 Hephaistos

Final Fantasy 14

It's only fitting that an MMORPG would feature a boss so ridiculously hard that developers would be forced into nerfing the encounter. Such is the case with Hephaistos, an infamous encounter in the critically-acclaimed MMO, Final Fantasy 14.

The developers who playtested this boss were so good at the game that the boss' difficulty was inadvertently heightened, as a result. It didn't take long for players to correct this mistake, letting them enjoy a balanced encounter that was pretty epic in its own right.

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