Video games bring us excitement and satisfaction through countless mechanics, but there are few as effective as a good boss fight. Truly great boss fights encapsulate everything that we love about a particular game, condensed into one memorable encounter, often sticking with us long after completion. The best boss fights of 2025 fulfilled that duty in spades, offering us everything from spectacle-laden battles to tough-as-nails duels that pushed our skills to the limit. Considering just how many amazing games were released in 2025 and the countless bosses within, I’ve decided to only include boss fights I’ve personally experienced. Listed in order by game release date and limiting one boss per game, here’s my list of the best boss fights of 2025.
Note: Though avoided where possible, this list contains spoilers.
The Best Boss Fights of 2025
Split Fiction – Rader
Split Fiction is a game that’s absolutely packed to the brim with amazing boss fights, but we had to narrow it down to just one. While The Overseer, the Dentist, and several others are just as deserving of a spot on our list of the best boss fights of 2025, the final battle against Rader is one for the ages. In the game, you and your partner are trapped in a simulation, and Rader is essentially the God of said sim, leading to some crazy visual effects and attacks.
Shifting between a third-person shooting fight, a top-down platformer, and more, this fight lasts several phases, and the simulation becomes more unhinged with each passing phase. As your surroundings constantly shift between sci-fi and fantasy worlds, Rader manipulates the reality around you, keeping you on your toes and constantly fighting for survival. A spectacle through and through, the Rader battle is a perfect punctuation to the rest of the game, and one of the most visually impressive boss fights I’ve seen this generation.
Clair Obsur: Expedition 33 – Renoir
If this were a list of the toughest boss fights of 2025, Expedition 33 would have quite a few contenders, but in my opinion, the game’s best bosses are also its most extravagant. In that regard, few are as explosive and cinematic as the final duel with Renoir, housed in the bones of a crumbled Lumiere. The climactic battle on your long journey, this fight carries all of the emotional weight of the narrative before it, while capping the adventure off with some major fireworks.
At the start, Renoir isn’t too intimidating, apart from his high-damage attacks and chunky health bar. However, after a while, he summons the two massive Axon bosses to serve as his support, constantly shielding and healing him. To even the odds, a surprise entrance from the Paintress shakes things up as she goes toe-to-toe with the Axons, giving your party enough time to pile on the punishment. As the amazing battle theme roars in the background and you dodge Renoir’s crazy attack strings, it’s easy to get lost in the spectacle. Assuming you’re not severely weak or overpowered, this is a well-tuned fight that offers a perfect amount of challenge to wrap up the experience, combined with an appropriate level of visual splendor.
DOOM: The Dark Ages – Kreed Makyr
DOOM: The Dark Ages mixes up the standard formula with its large, open levels and unique parry system, but it still delivers some crazy satisfying bosses. Of them, Kreed Makyr is by far my favorite, a big ‘ol fatty who betrayed and imprisoned The Doom Slayer, making his death all the more satisfying.
Despite his hefty size, Kreed Makyr is exceptionally fast, darting around the arena and pelting you with projectiles aplenty. In comparison to most standard enemies in The Dark Ages, Kreed Makyr requires you to have your neck on a swivel, and this quick pace only increases in his second phase. Eventually, he spawns massive damage walls, shoots out ground tremors, and continues to shoot at you, making this boss fight more a matter of avoidance skill than anything else.
Elden Ring Nightreign – Heolster, The Night Lord
The final boss of Nightrein, Heolster is a true menace, even by Elden Ring standards. By the time you approach this climactic battle, you’ve already dealt with some ridiculous boss fights, and this one will push you further than all before it.
Impressive both in spectacle and mechanics, Heolster will crack your head open at a moment’s notice, effortlessly dancing around and flaunting his mastery of the sword. Upon downing him for the first time, you’re in for a rude awakening, as he rips the world asunder and starts showering the arena with cosmic skyfall and magic spells. Flooding the party with area-of-effect attacks and then barreling down on one unlucky squadmate, Heolster forces the 1v1 as often as possible, cutting down any weak links in your party. Equally majestic as the jellyfish-like Maris, but with all the intensity of a fight like Fulghor’s, Heolster is an excellent final battle and earns his spot on our list of the best boss fights of 2025.
FBC: Firebreak – Sticky Ricky
FBC: Firebreak is not a good game (some might call it one of the most disappointing games of 2025), but it has one saving grace: Threshold Entity 14-N, better known as “Sticky Ricky”. A massive sentient blog of office sticky notes, Sticky Ricky made me laugh immediately upon appearance, and lowkey saved this game from being a complete waste of time.
For the most part, the gameplay mechanics of this squad-based extraction FPS are extremely simplistic. However, in the fight against Sticky Ricky, your team is forced to work together, as he’s immune to conventional weaponry. Instead, you’ll have to take turns soaking the boss with fluid, then electrocuting him, adding a small puzzle mechanic to the fight rather than it being a pure bullet sponge battle. Best of all, the Sticky Ricky fight leans into the sillier side of the game’s universe, making it far more memorable and charming than 95% of the experience.
WUCHANG: Fallen Feathers – Gluttonous Monstrosity Lu Hongliu
There are several spectacular bosses in WUCHANG: Fallen Feathers, but the Gluttonous Monstrosity Lu Hongliu is seared into my memory over the rest. One second, you’re strolling around Shu Sanctum like it’s a lazy Sunday, until you stumble into an arena at the top of a hill, and a giant, disgusting, gory monster lady falls right on your head.
The bosses leading up to Lu Hongliu are intense enough, but none are quite so bloody and morbid, making it immediately intimidating. Pouncing around the arena, Lu starts spewing blood from her distorted face, swatting you in the face with her massive mitts, and making a mockery of your perceived skill. I love it. It’s so fiercely Bloodborne-coded, and I have to respect it as one of the best boss fights of 2025. Even though she’s incredibly tough, especially if you fight her as early as I did, Lu Hongliu is one of my favorite bosses in the entire game. Hopefully, the devs don’t patch the game and ruin this boss fight like they did so many others.
Hollow Knight: Silksong – Phantom
Seeing how Silksong is absolutely overflowing with awesome bosses, I was spoiled for choice here, and making a decision was super tough. Though I absolutely loved bosses like Fourth Chorus, First Sinner, and the Cogwork Dancers, something about Phantom stuck in my mind. To reach this secret boss, you must trek through countless zones of frustration like Bilewater and The Mist, solving a few environmental puzzles along the way. Trudging your way through a series of pipes, you eventually fall into Phantom’s arena, where he sits over his organ, providing the musical accompaniment you’ve heard on your journey so far. Unfortunately, they seem less interested in spinning you a tune and more interested in ripping off your head.
Silksong is a very tough game, and apart from its platforming sections, that challenge is no more evident than in its boss fights. Leading up to this moment, bosses will test your combat prowess, but Phantom feels like a true skill check. Dashing around the stage, he barely gives you any time to think, chucking his needle at you and teleporting away in the blink of an eye. Even once you learn the fight and gain some confidence, Phantom can be hard to beat, taking more than a few attempts if you’re not prepared. What results is a lightning-fast back-and-forth, where you exchange quick jabs with Phantom as the organ blares in the background, providing an intense orchestral score to the battle. Due to its sleek animation, surprise factor, amazing music, and the feeling of accomplishment that comes from defeating him, Phantom remains one of my absolute favorite boss fights in both of the Hollow Knight games.
Ninja Gaiden 4 – Cetus
I love big sea monster bosses. Preferably, not fought underwater, but in some sort of reason space where I can bounce around and beat their ass without fear of drowning. That’s exactly what Ninja Gaiden 4 offered in the form of Cetus, a mid-game boss fight that surprised me with its ridiculous level of spectacle and happily plops down on our list of the best boss fights of 2025.
When you first lay eyes on Cetus, this hulking shark-fiend gobbles up the beloved rope-wearing waifu Seori and dips out. After spending most of the subsequent chapter chasing Cetus through a tunnel system like it’s the sewer level in TMNT IV: Turtles in Time, you’re more than ready for the fight. In a hilarious twist, this entire boss battle takes place in a rave-like arena, where you can swoop around on your surfboard, dodging attacks while skimming along the water’s surface. When compared to some of the other bosses on this list, Cetus isn’t all that tough and can be beaten in just a few attempts, but it’s a flashy fight against a massive shark ghost that’s super fun to play, and that’s good enough for me.
Like this list? Check out our other list articles, including the Best Games of 2025 and more.
