Ever since their appearance in ancient folklore,dragons have been upheld as the ultimate symbols of power, especially in video games. It’s hard not to get hyped when a dragon shows up in a game, whether it’s as a friendly companion or an epic boss battle. Players are just fascinated by these flying terrors who can unleash jets of fire from their gaping maws.

Related

8 Best Dragon Boss Fights In Soulsborne Games, Ranked

These elegant yet brutal dragons make for some of the best boss fights in the Soulsborne series.

Of course, fire isn’t the only element dragons can conjure. Plenty of games love to put unique spins on the classic fire-breathing drake by incorporating other elements like ice, water, and electricity. Pretty much all elemental dragons have awesome power, but the following examples are the cream of the gaming crop.

7 Charizard

Hot-Headed To The Extreme

The Pokemon franchise really likes dragons, so much so that there’s an entire type of Pokemon based around them. There have been plenty of powerful Dragon-types over the past nine generations, including multiple legendaries. However, the Pokemon who best exemplifies the “fire-breathing dragon” trope isn’t among those.

Related

10 Best Dragon-Type Pokemon Designs, Ranked

Dragon-type Pokemon are rare types that are a favorite amongst the community, and these are the best designed ones in the franchise.

Charizard is technically a Fire/Flying-type Pokemon, but don’t get it twisted. If this final evolution of Charmander wasn’t off sweeping gym badges, he’d be guarding princesses locked in towers. He’s an absolute beast to have on any team (except in the anime, where he’d rather roast Ash’s face than take orders), and despite his typing, one look at the guy will confirm that he's a dragon through and through.

6 The Seven Sovereigns

Powerful Through Both Elements And Politics

Dragons are often likened to royalty in games and other media. After all, if the most powerful creature in the world decides to take over, no one’s really in a position to question their leadership, right? But in Genshin Impact, the seven elemental dragons presiding over the land aren’t despots. They have actual positions in government.

Each of the seven nations of Teyvat has a corresponding elemental power, as well as a dragon embodying it. These sovereign dragons used to be the top dogs before the Archons arrived and stole their powers. Today, the Seven Sovereigns aren’t half as powerful as they used to be, but that only begs the question: if they’re still the greatest elemental wielders in Teyvat, just imagine how strong they were in their primes.

5 Spyro

Why Choose One Element When Spyro Can Have Them All?

In most video games, elemental dragons are often color-coordinated to match whatever element they’re supposed to inhabit. Red dragons have fire. Blue dragons have ice, water, or lightning. Green dragons typically have poison or acid. And so on and so forth.

In Spyro the Dragon, there exists another, rarer breed of dragon. The purple dragon, much like the Avatar, is the only one who can master all the elements at once. Spyro himself may still be small, but that doesn’t deter him. This cute and friendly little guy is already well on his way to being the strongest dragon that there ever was.

4 Hræzlyr

An Electrifying Boss Encounter

The God of War series has some of the biggest, baddest boss fights in all of gaming, so when Kratos went off to the Norse lands, gamers knew to start searching the skies. A dragon fight was coming, and it was going to be incredible. What they didn’t know was that this dwarf-turned-dragon wouldn’t spit fire. He spat lightning.

Related

No Matter Where It Goes Next, God of War Should Keep One Ragnarok Approach Intact

God of War Ragnarok's successor should imitate one of Ragnarok's best features to encourage the completion of everything the game offers.

Hræzlyr proved to be an opponent worthy of Kratos’ penchant for violence. He’s fast, destructive, and hits like a freight train. Kratos eventually resorts to using Hræzlyr’s own lightning against him to bring him down. It took more than a regular old knight to slay this beast. It took a god of war.

3 Dinraal, Farosh, And Naydra

The Elements In Harmony

Just because something is powerful doesn’t necessarily mean that it's dangerous. Players saw this for themselves the first time they encountered one of Hyrule’s elemental dragons in Breath of the Wild. Dinraal, Farosh, and Naydra aren’t foes for Link to fight. They simply exist, flying around Hyrule without a care in the world.

Gamers shouldn’t be totally unguarded around these ancient creatures, either. These dragons radiate with elemental power — fire, lightning, and ice, respectively — which can still hurt Link if he paraglides too close. They’re not even trying to hurt him. They’re simply power incarnate, not to be feared, but always to be respected.

2 Ansur

The Waiting Storm

For a video game inspired by Dungeons & Dragons, Baldur’s Gate 3 knew it needed to include at least one epic dragon fight. They really decided to bring the thunder with Ansur, the bronze dragon slumbering under Baldur’s Gate itself. The honor of slaying him falls to Wyll, the most obviously heroic member of the party. But, there’s a twist!

The bronze dragon is already dead. Or rather, he’s undead, and his wrath over his unjust demise has driven this half-rotted, lightning-breathing corpse to madness. Ansur is no longer the city’s noble protector. He’s a deadly threat that needs to be stopped before he electrifies Gray Harbor.

1 Ventuswill

The Divine Wind

Many dragons are described as having godlike powers, but few have the distinction of actually being gods. One of those lucky few is Ventuswill, one of the four Native Dragons presiding over the Norad Kingdom. Each Rune Factory game introduced a new Native Dragon and their respective element, and Rune Factory 4 introduced Venti, the Divine Wind.

A remarkably friendly dragon god, Venti wields elemental winds to protect her subjects. Her power is so great that her life force is tied to the land and its rune power. The life or death of the Divine Wind is enough to either save the kingdom or drive it to ruin. The sheer energy produced by Venti's life force can usher in prosperity across the land, like seeds on the wind.

More

FromSoftware: 8 Hardest Dragon Soulsborne Bosses, Ranked

FromSoftware is masterful at making challenging boss encounters. The following dragon bosses are easily some of the toughest in its games.