Top 10 Video Game Bosses You Don’t Want to Kill

Why do they have to die?! Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’ll be counting down our picks for the "Top 10 Video Game Bosses You Don’t Want to Kill."

For this list, we’ll be going over the bosses from video games whose deaths and/or defeats we’d rather have avoided.

The pet bird of Mordecai, a former playable character from the first Borderlands game and an ally in the second, Bloodwing is captured and mutated by the game’s main antagonist, Handsome Jack. Being forced to fight against a former pet and ally is tough, and the player and Mordecai attempt to sedate her instead of kill her. However, just when she’s been subdued, Handsome Jack detonates an explosive collar he’s placed around her neck, killing her. Having victory snatched away at the last moment and being unable to stop it on repeat playthroughs can be bad enough, but losing a pet in the process only makes it worse.

Speaking of animals and pets, this boss is possibly even more endearing than the last. Many boss fights in Yoshi games feature an enlarged version of regular enemies; and in this case, it’s one of the fire-breathing “hot” dogs. The woolly pooch leaps around the room and into the background while spitting flames and barking like a dog, making for a rather cute boss fight (though most bosses in Yoshi’s Woolly World are rather adorable). It’s a shame we have to ground pound its tongue because we’d much rather give Bunson a cuddle instead.

A childhood friend of the half-elf Carlie, one of the primary characters you can choose to play as, Heath is a former guard captain and cleric/mage who apparently turns to evil; siding with the mysterious Masked Mage, the primary antagonist in some of the game’s routes. However, it turns out that Heath has been brainwashed to serve the Mage, who is, in fact, his father Belgar. This doesn’t make it any easier for Carlie to face him in battle, though, and he must be killed to reach the final boss. Granted, he’s resurrected later, but having to kill your oldest friend is still rough.

Final Fantasy games have had plenty of sympathetic or charismatic antagonists that we loved seeing, but our pick had to go to Milleuda Folles. A member of a revolutionary group called the Death Corps led by her brother, Milleuda and the rest of the revolutionaries were denied money following their participation in a war because they’re commoners, giving her a hatred of royalty and aristocrats. Although circumstances conspire to pit the protagonists against her, they and the players can sympathize with her cause, so we must cut her down with heavy hearts.

An aristocratic and flirtatious sorceress, Keira Metz is one of several companions, and even romantic interests, Geralt can have on his adventures in the third Witcher game. However, her femme fatale nature leads her to keep secrets that run counter to Geralt’s goals, and, depending on the player’s choices, Keira can also end up being fought as a boss. Regardless of her betrayal, it can still be difficult to kill someone you’ve spent a good portion of the game with, particularly if you’ve been more intimate with her.

Usually we try to restrict our entries to one per source, but we honestly couldn’t narrow this down! Thanks to its complex themes and morality system, Undertale makes it abundantly clear that even though the player is fighting monsters, they’re not really bad people and every single boss is so thoroughly entertaining that you won’t want their fights to be over or to kill them—unless you’re going for a full genocide run. Although, even then, the game is going to make sure “you’re gonna’ have a bad time.”

As we’ve already seen, boss characters based on animals can be tough to fight, and it’s made all the more difficult the more realistic they look… even if this particular one is a giant wolf with a sword in its mouth. Sif is also only fought because they’re guarding their master’s grave, so the huge wolf is hardly malicious towards the player. They’re loyal even after death, which is admirable. Plus, when they start limping because you’ve staggered them, we can’t help but feel sorry for an animal in pain.

Recurring character and ally to Claire Redfield throughout this Resident Evil installment, Steve Burnside was imprisoned on the island the game takes place on by the sinister Umbrella corporation after his father sold their secrets. Plus, they killed his mother. Oh, and they also end up turning him into a grotesque mutant monstrosity that menaces Claire and the player. While you aren’t directly responsible for his death, it’s still sad to see him go after all he went through, and because he was so endearingly goofy, with his extreme Canadian-isms.

The aptly named Boss is the central antagonist for the majority of the third Metal Gear Solid game. A former mentor to the protagonist, Naked Snake, the Boss defects to the Soviet Union, prompting Snake to pursue her. After a battle with the Boss, the player is forced to shoot her while she’s unarmed. As if this wasn’t bad enough, it’s soon revealed that she was not a traitor after all, and was merely acting as a scapegoat so as not to lead to war, making her an unsung hero.

These 16 colossal creatures give Shadow of the Colossus its name; and while defeating them is the main goal of the game, we’re less than enthused about killing them. Players control a young man named Wander on a quest to revive a woman from the dead, and to do so, they must kill all of the colossi as a favor for a mysterious entity. Wander’s gradual corruption and the sad deaths of the majestic beasts make it clear that we’re committing some pretty heinous acts in the name of the deceased woman, and we’re pretty sure he gets what he deserves in the end.