7 Video Game Bosses With Three Or More Phases

Highlights

• Fighting bosses with multiple phases is a true test of patience and determination in games.
• Unique bosses like Chef Saltbaker and Derek Simmons offer challenging encounters with varied forms.
• Be prepared for epic battles like with Nyx in Persona 3, which cycles through 14 different forms.

There’s nothing more terrifying in a game than seeing a boss mutate or evolve into a brand-new form. Most of the time, this will result in the enemy gaining all of their HP back, but on some occasions, they can even achieve a few new buffs and abilities to make the fight even more challenging. Inserting a multi-phase boss into a game is always a gamble, since it can cause a fight to go on for very long and will provide a true test of the player’s determination and patience.

When done well, it can result in some of the most epic and memorable boss battles ever seen in a video game. Being able to finally defeat a boss who features multiple phases comes with an incredible amount of satisfaction once they’re down for good, primarily because of how challenging these intense bouts can be. Here are just a few examples of iconic bosses who caught players by surprise with the multiple forms that they change into during their encounters.

1 Chef Saltbaker

Total Phases: 4

Cuphead and its Delicious Last Course DLC are packed full of unique boss enemies for players to take on, but there’s something about Chef Saltbaker that makes him arguably the creepiest of the bunch. For the first stage of the fight, players are tasked with dodging the chef’s cutting utensils by running across his cutting board to avoid taking any damage, but things quickly become more hectic once the chef grabs the player and places them in the palm of his hand.

At this point, there will be four salt and pepper shakers hovering around the screen which will need to be fired at to inflict damage onto the chef who, by this point, starts getting more and more irritated. The final phase is by far the weirdest, as the entire building collapses and the arena turns into some sort of post-apocalyptic salt wasteland. The Chef, who might even be dead by this point, uses the last of his energy to create a salt tornado to try and trap the player in as a last-ditch effort to stop them in their tracks, making for one of the hardest fights in the game, which is certainly saying something.

2 Giant Chicken (Family Guy: Back To The Multiverse)

Total Phases: 4

• Platform(s): PC, PS3, Xbox 360
• Released: November 20, 2012
• Developer: Heavy Iron Studios
• Genre: Action-adventure

Anyone who has ever watched Family Guy will know all too well about Peter’s arch-nemesis, the Giant Chicken. Any time these two lock eyes, they always engage in hilariously long brawls that see them beating the snot out of one another. In Back to the Multiverse, players get to participate in a battle with the chicken which, as expected, is extremely lengthy due to the numerous phases players must get through.

Each time the chicken gets back up from a beating, the fight will move to a different part of the airport, and he will even learn a few new moves to keep players on their toes. The chicken has a total of 4 phases that players will need to overcome, but considering how durable this plucky guy is, defeating him is much easier said than done.

3 Derek Simmons

Total Phases: 3

Bosses mutating into multiple forms isn’t anything new in the Resident Evil series, but Derek Simmons, the main antagonist of the sixth game, takes this to a whole new level. In fact, Simmons transforms into so many random creatures during his boss encounter that he’s become somewhat of a meme among the community, though with that being said, he can still be pretty tricky to kill because of this. His first form is a tiger-like canine mutation which gives Simmons a shell of armor while also making him light on his feet.

After he’s taken enough damage, Simmons will then turn into a tyrannosaurus rex who chases Leon and Helena around the Quad Tower lobby while they pelt him with a barrage of bullets from a gatling gun. That’s not all though, as Simmons will eventually turn into a massive Mega Fly, which is among one of the largest bosses in the entire series. How Capcom came up with these ideas is anyone’s guess, but it results in a long, difficult, and ultimately memorable boss encounter that stands out for its sheer absurdity.

4 Melbu Frahma

Total Phases: 4

Even though Melbu Frahma is technically the main villain of The Legend of Dragoon, his identity isn’t revealed until the last few hours of the game. Despite not being in the actual story for too long, Melbu still has one of the most fascinating boss fights in the series, with some even labeling it one of the greatest of all time for how out-there and unique it is. Melbu has four forms that players must battle with, but each form takes place in a different generation.

This means every time Melbu transforms and gains new powers, the fight will skip to a specific period of the world’s past, and some players have even noticed subtle references to real-life religions within the slideshows that play between each one. Melbu himself grows stronger with each form, obtaining a multitude of new abilities and techniques that will force players to throw out everything they have to stand a chance of making it through the grueling encounter in one piece.

5 Lady Yunalesca

Total Phases: 3

Once Tidus and the other Guardians reach the final stages of their pilgrimage in Final Fantasy 10, they are informed by Yunalesca that someone must sacrifice themselves to become the Final Aeon to combat Sin. In an attempt to try and break this endless tradition of pain and suffering, the group decides to rise against Yunalesca, resulting in one of the most difficult and iconic fights in all of Final Fantasy.

The fight starts easily enough, with Yunalesca using spells to try and shut down the party’s attacks, but once she drops to enough health, she will sprout her tentacles and become much more ferocious. During this phase, Yunalesca can annihilate the party with her multi-target attacks such as Hellbite, which deals a staggering amount of damage, but it’s in her third and final form where things really start becoming intense. This is when Yunalesca will unleash her Mega Death skill which, as the name implies, can instantly kill multiple party members, which can be a real nightmare after already putting in so much time and effort to push her to this point.

6 Sister Friede

Total Phases: 3

Dark Souls bosses can already be challenging enough to beat when they only have a single form, but those who come with multiple phases are often ranked as being some of the hardest to take down in the series. This includes Sister Friede, a mysterious scythe-wielding woman who will show no mercy towards the player when the two first meet. After losing all her health, Father Ariandel will begin to go berserk, burning down the entire building, and surging new life into Friede, leading to another epic duel where the sister and the father act as one single enemy.

Even after all of this chaos and carnage, Friede returns to the fight one final time, now going by the name “Blackflame Friede.” This is by far her deadliest form, with her scythe now dealing much more damage, and the black flames granting each of her attacks a massive AOE radius, which can be hard to dodge. Friede is a truly challenging boss who only the most experienced of Soulsborne fans will be able to take down.

7 Nyx

Total Phases: 14

Nyx, the final boss of Persona 3, has an astonishing 14 different forms that cycle through the different Arcanas that show up throughout the game’s story. As a result, it’s more or less impossible to prepare for Nyx, because of how unpredictable they are. What’s more, each of Nyx’s phases comes with different affinities and attacks, meaning there’s no chance of setting up a specific team to deal with them, since they’re always going to be switching through different forms with unique stats.

Nyx has a total of 1,500 HP for each phase, but during the final one, it will have 7,000 HP in total. As a result, trying to save enough SP and powerful items for the end is heavily advised, even though it can be agonizingly difficult to do this, considering there are 13 phases to go through first. Players will need to make sure they’ve leveled up their Persona and paid a few visits to the police weapon shop beforehand to deal any sort of damage to this behemoth of a boss.