Best Boss Battle Music you've had

[Note: This thread may contain spoilers for various games.]

I recently had one of those Asmongold reaction videos playing in the background and heard him mention boss battle music. It's something I've also felt pretty strongly about in regards to a boss battle experience.

So: What boss battle music can you still hear playing in your head that either haunts your dreams or pumps you up for a fight?

Also bonus: If Ashes were to add in custom music for boss battles where do you think the limit should be? Only certain big lore bosses like ancients? Or maybe just world bosses? Or dungeon bosses too?

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Inixia

final fantasy has so many good ones, but I could go into too many songs in that franchise. Its not quite a boss song but one song from the actual mmo genre I was really impressed with was the title track of Age of Conan The Dreaming pretty powerful stuff

Vhaeyne

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFRhYuB93qk

You have to understand...
Let me explain...

FFVI was my first RPG. It is my favorite single player RPG.

While I think they could have done a lot more with the fight, and the arrangement. I love this over all.
Some people don't like when FFXIV uses other FF bosses for no great reason, but I love Kefka so much I don't care.

Fighting Kefka was special on the SNES as a child and special on the PC as an adult. For me it really doesn't get much better than this.

True story. I seen Nobuo Uematsu play live in his Earthbound Papas band. He started to play the opening to One Winged Angel and the audience started to go nuts. A few measures in they shifted it into Dancing Mad. A different part of the audience went nuts, but he actually finished the whole song. Which reaffirmed for me that Nobuo likes FFVI best. He has said it before. I say it all the time.

TriggerTec

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U84zAfb4b58

Anyone would be crazy not to include Fight On from FFVII

Tacualeon

I have been into multiplayer pvp for the last ten years.
Music is the only thing that makes me follow something scripted. This music man.

The Painful Way

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqKoFKVxTYM&list=OLAK5uy_mmsY7B9giHIXRb5aPnpgYFWBUWvItQlpA&index=8

Scourge of the Furies

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXgeGHiZnBE&list=OLAK5uy_mmsY7B9giHIXRb5aPnpgYFWBUWvItQlpA&index=15

River of Flame

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIY3NzFpyzA&list=OLAK5uy_mmsY7B9giHIXRb5aPnpgYFWBUWvItQlpA&index=18

Mouth of Styx

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noGnHGfLxC4&list=OLAK5uy_mmsY7B9giHIXRb5aPnpgYFWBUWvItQlpA&index=11

Composed by Darren Korb. I wish Intrepid could seduce him

ViBunja

Every game has great music, but eventually they bore me and I just turn off music completely and just return to the same old music made by Hans Zimmer. I swear you could make the worst game ever and hire Hans Zimmer to do the soundtrack for every fight, and people would play that game for fights so they could experience what Hans Zimmer made for that exact fight and still be happy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3zvVGJrTP8

maouw

ViBunja wrote: »

Every game has great music, but eventually they bore me and I just turn off music completely and just return to the same old music made by Hans Zimmer. I swear you could make the worst game ever and hire Hans Zimmer to do the soundtrack for every fight, and people would play that game for fights so they could experience what Hans Zimmer made for that exact fight and still be happy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3zvVGJrTP8

Yes, love me some Hans Zimmer! But mainly for Epic type music, not so much for memorable melodies.
More than once I've been like "I like this music, who composed it? ... oh of course it's Hans Zimmer"

In games though, I honestly prefer music with a long melody line and switch ups. If the music is too bland, I get sick of it if I have to spend a few hours in the area.

Nagash

I have to say these are some of my most loved boss fight songs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSYGILOL-tg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iz2sfBKVwI

Sunboy

Don’t know if this counts but the final lap of a Mario Kart track when the the music speeds up and your in first place really gets me pumped.

Khronus

The fight against Lavos in Chrono Trigger. Oh...my...god. For context, and ***spoilers***, Lavos hit the planet 65 million years ago and laid dormant until 1999 (the day of lavos) and nearly destroyed the entire planet. You spend the entire game traveling through time to save your friends and ultimately fight lavos who is a representation of most of the bosses you faced through the entire game in an easy to hard format. Once you defeat him you realize it was only his shell and his true form is inside. As a kid, this blew...my...freaking...mind. It does the same as an adult considering very little can compare even today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0uQZFb0KpY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_lJQFhNXZ4

Marcet

The prison boss in Hotline Miami 2

maouw

Pokemon Champion Cynthia's music gave me chills the first time the battle started.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXefFHRgyE0

Combination of the intro doing that weird tempo swing and taking a while for the song to get started, plus the way it's a variation of the normal battle music and is unique to Cynthia, also highly percussive stuff always gets the heart pumping.
Chromatic wavering (some microtonal stuff too), off-beat rhythms, bass switching between a stable open fifth to an super quirky pattern with heaps of dissonance with the melody - weird sound library but it worked, haha.

They also cheated by having dead silence when you first walk into the room with Cynthia standing in the middle.

Roussynator

https://youtu.be/yuvX26LfjGg

always enjoyed gregorian chant in my boss music, this is best boss music , you know when there is people singing in latin , shits going down.

Asgerr

Not to be a FFXIV mark but:

BOW DOWN OVERDWELLER !!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnmXeIyyvsg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdV_bzJgRxE&list=PLt7GeuOmE_FgbCVZeT51Vrv5qsOLTHLnS&index=17

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqmlXC4aodw&list=PL9h6hneE8IQq3Hh7aYPej46wdfFMrjinI&index=4

Nagash wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSYGILOL-tg

But also:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkHm13tXMlY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m16n2MpYeI8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EQkv7GOjD0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDgQdr8ZkTw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJ2KB5LVdqA&list=PLfAiSIz0Ita9W47VJB7wNKKwL7kBCbew-

Sunboy

Also

https://youtu.be/yMBFdtRbFD0

Khronus

@ViBunja It might be the timing in my life that it influenced me but Chrono Trigger music can be played in my head literally every minute of the day and it doesn't get old. The fact that some of the music was made from the composers dreams just melts my soul. Nobuo Uematsu is my artistic man crush.

Hanz Zimmer is also amazing! I really enjoyed his piece "Time" and made a list of songs for when I used to play MTG that started with it. You should check out "Mind Heist" by London Music Works https://open.spotify.com/track/2kgwLTmFWUi2bSxVJFPBKq?si=a39578e9653a462f This caught me off guard with how much I enjoyed it.

Yuyukoyay

Final Fantasy, Touhou, Pokemon
Those are my favorites music wise for boss fights.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmlXXPVxQ3Q

Touhou has a very unique take on music in their series in that it is part of the story. Since the games are shooters, the stages are also always timed to be at the same part of the song every time you play. So you can use it as an indicator how far in the game you are as well.

There are over 100 characters in Touhou and every single one of them have both a boss theme and a stage theme. Except the few that were either never a mid boss or never a boss. The theme matches every character very well. Though stage themes are more for atmosphere. Boss themes are the actual themes for the characters themselves.

There is no other series where I can say I like every single song in a game series. Touhou is number 1. xD
Between beating up vampires under a blood moon, Going to the netherealm so the world isn't in an eternal winter, or going to hell itself to fight a nuclear hell raven. Not many game series can match the atmosphere it's songs have as well. =3

Ramirez

Imlerith boss fight

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBDoI1Oci20

Tyranthraxus

Music from the fight over the sarlaac pit-scene in ROTJ. SWTOR has it for the final boss in one of the longer raids.

Can't wait to hear what Bear's got in-store for us, for action/combat music encounters!

Vhaeyne

Yuyukoyay wrote: »

Final Fantasy, Touhou, Pokemon
Those are my favorites music wise for boss fights.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmlXXPVxQ3Q

Touhou has a very unique take on music in their series in that it is part of the story. Since the games are shooters, the stages are also always timed to be at the same part of the song every time you play. So you can use it as an indicator how far in the game you are as well.

There are over 100 characters in Touhou and every single one of them have both a boss theme and a stage theme. Except the few that were either never a mid boss or never a boss. The theme matches every character very well. Though stage themes are more for atmosphere. Boss themes are the actual themes for the characters themselves.

There is no other series where I can say I like every single song in a game series. Touhou is number 1. xD
Between beating up vampires under a blood moon, Going to the netherealm so the world isn't in an eternal winter, or going to hell itself to fight a nuclear hell raven. Not many game series can match the atmosphere it's songs have as well. =3

Agreed.

Here is my favorite!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TP_209Y54co&list=RDGMEM_v2KDBP3d4f8uT-ilrs8fQ&start_radio=1

Gubiak

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C37PAE0CzTg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9O5-yJjJpZ4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFRaZs6ri7s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DE5w_qW2S4E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mVIJBwbjzE

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