Top 10 Boss Fights That Never Made It Into the Game

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the Top 10 Boss Fights That Never Made it Into the Game. For this list, we’ll be looking at video game bosses that were cut from the final version of the game. Some of these missing bosses might contain spoilers for the ones that managed to stay until release day, so consider this a spoiler warning. Which one of these bosses would you love to fight? Let us know down in the comments!

“Sonic Adventure” (1998)

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What could possibly make an aerial battle with Dr. Eggman more exciting? What about a giant mechanical dragon? Sonic and Tails would have had to fight this mechanized monster when they chased after Eggman with their biplane. The developers couldn’t make it happen due to its difficulty and deadlines closing in, so players can never face this flying foe. He just flaps his wings and doesn’t do much else. If you can hack your game, you can catch him taking a back seat during this boss battle. Only his flying animation was completed and nothing else, so you can’t attack him and he can’t attack you, making it a great opportunity to just get to know him.

“Mass Effect 3” (2012)

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The controversial way this epic space opera ends when you confront “The Illusive Man”, left a bitter taste in the mouths of most fans which led to a huge backlash. There was an arguably more enjoyable ending which might’ve sweetened it a bit. BioWare, the developers, had planned to make a horrifying hybrid between a reaper and The Illusive Man which would serve as the final boss. This idea was scrapped because they believed that this version of the boss fight wouldn’t fit with the rest of the game and the player’s role in the story. A patch with an edited ending was released right after but that giant reaper-human-sized hole in our hearts will never be filled.

Development of the sequel to the monumental “Half-Life” was hectic, to say the least, with plenty of delays and several major changes. One of them was the choice to remove the “Hydra” creature that was featured in their E3 2003 trailer. You would’ve come across it in the underground levels in City 17 and in certain parts of the canals. If you weren’t careful, it would impale you with one of its three neon blue tentacles. There was something about this eerie entity that caught the eyes of several fans but sadly it was discarded because it supposedly wasn’t fun enough in first-person.

“Fallout: New Vegas” (2010)

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The people of New Vegas can sleep soundly knowing that they only have to deal with Feral Ghouls, Super Mutants and Deathclaws because the real terror is hidden in the game files. It’s Gojira! Created as a joke by the animators, they would often send it out to wreak havoc in the wasteland. It’s basically a regular “Fire Gecko” but with just a few tweaks. It is around the size of a Super Mutant Behemoth with stats that would make even the toughest enemies in the game tremble. Anything you place in front of it will get slashed, bitten and burned to a crisp.

“Shadow of the Colossus” (2005)

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Fumito Ueda and the rest of Team Ico worked tirelessly to bring all 16 colossi to life in the game but during its development, they had created a whopping 48 or so concepts for colossi. This slowly narrowed down to 24 and eventually to the 16 that you can fight in the game. These monsters went through numerous stages of planning and iteration with some even making their way into game demos. Maintaining the flow of the game, a lack of time and hardware limitations are the main reasons for whittling the list down to a third. Maybe a sequel could shine a light on these forgotten creatures.

“Silent Hill” (1999)

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The enemies and bosses you face in Silent Hill are equal parts cryptic and creepy. What if we told you that there were a few animal-based bosses that didn’t make the cut. These are early 3D models of beasts that players might have run into like butterflies, frogs, monkeys and even a chicken. You play as Harry Mason, a man in search of his adopted daughter, Cheryl. Harry has to deal with all the horrors of a town called Silent Hill, which would have included a boss battle with a very grotesque and meaty chicken without any skin. This chicken would be a handful for Harry, or even a bucket full, and would have given the ones from Hyrule a run for their feathers.

“Dark Souls” (2011)

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FromSoftware’s perfectly crafted boss fights have lead to many broken controllers and keyboards. Although many unfinished bosses never made it into Dark Souls, the Undead King Jar-Eel persists. He can be found in the game files and comes complete with dialogues and a killer set of moves. You can release him from the game files with mods and you can then find him in the place of where another boss would have been. With wild swings with his giant curved sword and the ability to steal soul levels, we’re sure that Jar-Eel would have become famous, or rather infamous among Souls fans.

This game has more than its fair share of ghastly bosses but maybe adding just another one, another “Great One” wouldn’t hurt. The Great One Beast exists in the game files and will occupy some space in your nightmares for a while. It is a gigantic wolf with crimson eyes, long claws and an almost unrelenting pace. The Great One Beast can be found in an unnamed part of the Chalice Dungeons, which are intricate underground ruins that lie beneath the city of Yharnam. The best way to fight it is to play defensively and beware of glitches since he’s technically not meant to be there.

Rumours play an important role in the world of Persona 2. A few words can influence people and change reality. This happens when Joker, the antagonist, is called an ‘angel’ and then later a ‘devil’. Players see Joker transform into his ‘angel form’ but his ‘devil form’ is suspiciously missing. Well, the sneaky devs ditched his devil form but a sprite of it is still in the game files. There’s also concept art of what ‘Devil Joker’ would’ve looked like up close. Even though he was scrapped, he still has a full stats line and spell list. Maybe if we say it enough times it’ll come true… Do YouTube comments count as rumours? Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.

“Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver” (1999)

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Crystal Dynamics, the developers of the series, ran into more than a few bumps while making this game. Several chunks of it were cut out to meet deadlines and to save some content for the next game. This is why players never fought the “Priestess”. You can find and fight her in the alpha build of the game. The Priestess is supposed to stand on a pedestal and summon waves of vampires for you to deal with. Unfortunately, this doesn’t happen as she spawns on the floor, which makes her vulnerable and she can only summon vampires one at a time. It’s safe to say that fans would love to sink their teeth into a finished version of this boss battle.