Video game composers have a hard job: they have to make us feel emotions through music about a pre-written story. Final bosses are always presented as the biggest hurdle for the protagonist,even if that’s not always the case. A moment of such intensity demands some truly epic fight music.

A good final boss theme is the difference between a culmination of the entire game and an awkward, anticlimactic battle. Some final boss themes are better at giving you goosebumps than others. By reusing leitmotifs, conveying the gravity of the battle, or giving you hope, these tracks are the best at it.

Wesker’s final form at the end of Resident Evil 5, showing him transformed into a B.O.W.

Performer

Hollywood Studio Symphony Orchestra

One of the greatest rivalries in gaming is that of Chris Redfield and Albert Wesker. The one-time coworkers went their different paths when Chris decided to walk the line, whileWesker opted for world domination. Unlike many rivalries that seem never-ending, this one came to a definitive close in Resident Evil 5, closing one of the saga’s biggest chapters.

As Chris punches through boulders and Wesker rants about his grand designs, the track you’ll hear is Deep Ambition: a suffocating, grandiose piece that conveys the true darkness of Wesker’s heart.

Neku with his hand on CAT wall art in The World Ends With You.

Sawa Kato

Thealternative soundtrack of The World Ends With Youis integral to the game. Music is how Neku chooses to hide himself from people, refusing to socialize and shying away from human contact. The soundtrack is what he’d be hearing in his headphones as an angry teenager in the 2000s: a mixture of rock, hip-hop, and nu-metal.

When he’s ready to leave his self-defeating philosophies behind and fight for the friends he’s made, a remixed version of the game’s opening theme plays. This is one of the coolest moments in the game: Neku’s journey has come full circle and he’s ready to expand his narrow worldview, set to the same song it all started with.

Fio and Eri shoot dual Uzis at the skull-shaped torso of the final boss in Metal Slug 5.

Different bosses in each entry

Various performers in each entry

Nyx Avatar descending from the moon before the final boss fight in Persona 3 Portable.

If your favourite run and gun series of all time isn’t Contra, it’s Metal Slug. The gameplay is so chaotic and the pixel art style is so gorgeous, but SNK added another ingredient to the concoction: superb music. One of the most iconic Metal Slug themes is Final Attack, which plays during the final boss.

While it shows up with different instrumentation in each entry, the best version by far is that in Metal Slug 5. With its heavy metal arrangement, the song hits harder and is sure to make your hair stand on end. It’s so epic that you might not even wonder where the random final boss came from.

Genesis Rhapsodos from Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 Reunion.

Yumi Kawamura and Lotus Juice

It’s guaranteed that Persona 3 will eventually be viewed as one of the most influential video games of all time. Its social simulation and dating sim aspects might not have been the first, butit popularized the concept of JRPGs. Yet at the end of such a journey centering on high school friendship, Persona 3 remembers what it is: a turn-based RPG that needs a truly epic theme for its final fight.

Armstrong smoking a cigar in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance.

Persona 3 Reload updates the instrumentation, reflecting how popular music tastes have changed in the 18 years since. It’s a good deal more danceable, but something has been lost in the guitar sound. Whichever version you pick, however, this theme truly lives up to the gravitas the story demands.

Genesis Avatar and Genesis

A cutscene screenshot of Lita and Eddie in Brutal Legend.

Takeharu Ishimoto

If we wanted to, we could fill this entire article withjust Final Fantasy themes: Nobuo Uematsu isn’t one of the most revered video game composers for nothing. But you’ve already heard Dancing Mad and One-Winged Angel enough times, so we’d like to highlight the work of Takeharu Ishimoto.

Ishimoto had been collaborating with Uematsu since Final Fantasy 10, but for Crisis Core he took on the job solo and delivered one of the most stirring soundtracks to a video game ever. The final boss tracks are incredible: one is a breakcore rocker, while the other plays when Genesis finally acknowledges Zack as an equal. We know it’s two songs instead of one, but just like the boss himself, Crisis Core’s final battle track has multiple phases.

Asriel Dreemurr in his God of Hyperdeath form during his boss fight in Undertale.

Jimmy Gnecco

Senator Armstrong will forever go down in history as one of the most charismatic gaming villains, and he doesn’t even show up until the end of the game. After espousing his motives, he engages Raiden in mortal combat.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance’s final fight is an epic battle even in its conceit; it’s a fight between the poor and the rich, the hungry and the overfed, the underprivileged and the elite. True to form for the entire game, it’s backed up by an incredible track. The lyrics could be taken to be from either Raiden’s or Armstrong’s perspective, further highlighting that some villains aren’t doing it just for fun.

Sonic and Shadow leaping through the night sky with the moon in the background from Sonic Adventure 2 Battle.

Judas Priest

Unlike most boss fight themes here, Painkiller wasn’t written with a video game in mind. Instead, the video game was written with the music in mind: Brutal Legend is an incredibly fun and heartfelt love letter to heavy metal. What better song to round out the game’s soundtrack than Judas Priest’s Painkiller? It’s heavy, it’s brutal and it’s intense.

In 1990, Painkiller served as a reinvention for Judas Priest which kept them one of the freshest long-running metal bands. In 2008, it served as an incredible final boss song for Brutal Legend.

A close-up of Grand Prince Maximilian in Valkyria Chronicles.

Toby Fox

An oft-repeated joke about Undertale is that despite its hundred-song soundtrack, Toby Fox was done composing after writing just four musical motifs. In that case, we applaud him: his use of those themes over and over in Undertale, with different arrangements for each boss, is nothing short of genius.

The final boss of Undertale is Asriel Dreemurr: he’s confident in his triumph, and for most of the fight, he has reason to be. It’s the end: what chance do you have against him? Just the fact that you’re carrying the hopes and dreams of every critter in the Underground. With that on your side, there’s no way you can lose; Hopes and Dreams is an amazing track that inspires you to refuse defeat.

Crush 40

Crush 40 was Sonic the Hedgehog’s house band for several years: led by Jun Senoue’s powerful guitar riffs, the group provided various theme songs for Sonic games that continue to be celebrated by fans today. Out of all the Crush 40 tracks, Sonic Adventure 2’s Live and Learn is the best.

While it retains a bit of the cheesiness that makes Sonic songs so entertaining, it’s a truly inspiring and anthemic track that makes you feel like you, too, can beat up a giant lizard aboard a space station.

Eminence Symphony Orchestra

Valkyria Chronicles ends aboard a ship with one man facing your entire squad. Even in defeat, Maximilian refuses to give up his villainous ambitions and transforms himself into an artificial Valkyria. It’s up to Squad 7 to stop him and save Gallia.

Final Decisive Battle is an amazing orchestral piece. It starts in a minor key and makes you feel fear and oppression. But when the trumpets come in, you feel ready to answer the call: using all your knowledge of the game, you will take down a Valkyria. The theme is so iconic that it ended up being reused in all the Valkyria Chronicles games and makes you feel patriotism for a country that doesn’t even exist.