Spoiler TotK final boss is underwhelming

[GZ Zelda]

Major spoilers obviously, leave now if you haven't played the boss.

I decided to beat the final boss of TotK today and it was shockingly underwhelming. Going into the final fight, I had probably over-prepared: I got the Master Sword very early on as I did the Geoglyphs first, I fused a White Lynel Horn I got from the Floating Coliseum to the Master Sword for the Akkala sidequest, I used the white lynel's Mighty Lynel Bow, and came in with 20 Gibdo bones).

My Master Sword with a White Lynel Horn fuse took, like, 8 hits to kill him, 4 hits per combo. The second phase took 12 Lynel multi-shot Gibdo-bone fuses with some occasional Master Sword swinging. And the final phase is epic but no harder than Dark Beast Ganon. I guess I was just expecting an intense 4-phase extravaganza like the end of Twilight Princess. Or a "I hope you mastered the perfect parry, you're screwed otherwise" like Calamity Ganon. Instead, I just beat the final boss in about 5 minutes, losing maybe 5 hearts.

It also felt shockingly isolating for a game that was all about community. My friends showed up to help fight the army, which was the best part of the fight, and came for the first 6 shots from my bow for the second phase of Ganondorf, but then I was completely alone with a monologuing and smack-talking Ganondorf who was completely devoid of character, who then randomly ate his stone after I shot him twelve times with some bones I got from the desert. And then a lifeless shell flew me around so I could land on a dragon who just...had weak points built into his body? No "Zelda opens the weak points from within the beast," just, massive clumps of malice eyes sitting in, like, the festering wounds of the dragon? Zelda and I weren't talking cuz she wasn't Zelda, all of my friends were in the pit passed out deep below Hyrule Castle, Dragon Ganon was spending a lot of his time floating completely still so I could walk on him.

It didn't feel like a culmination of my experience. There were no Zonai devices used, none of the abilities in my hand besides Fuse I guess, none of my sage abilities, no elemental attacks or defenses. His plan wasn't really explained, his ambition wasn't outlined, he reminded me of the disappointing Yunobo fight in his stakes and his gravitas. And the Demon Dragon phase, while obviously epic, had no stakes to it. It wasn't shooting a massive laser and scorching Hyrule field, he was loosely floating thousands of feet above everybody shooting little red balls of goo and suffering from tumors. I preferred BotW's horse-back archery climax to TotK's sky-diving and swinging-my-sword climax. And I preferred Zelda escaping from the malice clump, using the Triforce and completely obliterating him, rather than the breaking of the secret stone turning Ganon into a nuke that explodes because...I literally couldn't tell you why he died. And I preferred Calamity Ganon to Demon King Ganondorf, and the Gloom's Approach/Demon King Army was super disappointing compared to BotW's Hyrule Castle.

And it didn't feel rewardingly easy either: Calamity Ganon was an unfinished force of nature trying to use technology to scrape together some semblance of a body before getting obliterated in the face of that technology (and Link's superior parry skills); Ganondorf has a brain, is a trickster, should be able to outmanuever my 8 sword swings and 12 arrow nocks. It wasn't like "oh, I brought in the best gear and I got the best stuff and so the final boss fight was easy, I feel so good" it was "I used the Master Sword, I fused the best thing to the Master Sword, I had the best arrow tips and a good bow, any normal player would have what I have and thus the boss should be balanced to that, right? It shouldn't feel like I put the game on assist mode by having the best sword for the final 1v1 sword duel with Ganondorf.

Maybe it was just that my gear was the best, apparently he had 5000 health? Absolutely no way, Silver Lynels have 5000 health and they did not die as easily as the second phase of the Ganondorf fight (and definitely not as easy as the first)

TL;DR There were no Zonai devices incorporated, no hand abilities, no sage abilities, no abilities that required any counter-abilities, and by fighting an actual guy, it just showed me how weak, unintimidating, and pathetic of a villain Ganondorf actually is in Tears of the Kingdom. He's a 20-hit boss; he's as hard as a Silver Bokoblin. It felt like I was fighting a Silver Bokoblin as the final boss, except one who quips about how evil he is and calls me disappointing. The final phase, while epic, was not thematically or mechanically satisfying, and the two ending cutscenes had absolutely no pathos (unrelated but I'm grumpy).

Idk if this is a popular take or not, but I finally understand why some people were disappointed with BotW's final boss because I actually can't believe what I just played and how simple it was.

 

[Azure Sage]

Damn. I had the exact opposite reaction; I thought it was the best final boss fight in the series, and one of the best ending sequences in any game I've played right up from when you first go into that chasm under Hyrule Castle all the way to the post-credits scene.

The Demon King's Army battle was wicked awesome. I already love the fact that the Sages fight with you any time you want through avatars more than life itself, but then bringing them all down in person for an all-out brawl felt extremely satisfying and is exactly what I was hoping for. I do wish they'd have been more involved with the Ganondorf battle itself, but I do love my one-on-one swordfights in Zelda. This one was fantastic, too. Good rival for WW Ganondorf, which was my previous favorite final boss fight. The fact that Ganondorf can perfect dodge you, even when you are doing a flurry rush, was a really satisfying way to up the ante of the right. His super gloom that *permanently (until the fight is over) deletes a heart instead of just breaking it like regular gloom made him a good threat, as well. You mentioned just cheesing him with gibdo bone headshots, but I didn't even use my bow at all. Just solo'd him with the Master Sword (which does not break during this fight, it gets infinite durability when you're near him). And as for not needing Zonai devices, there was nothing stopping you from summoning your own autobuild creations to mess him up. I personally didn't do that, but now that I've made some of my own, I can certainly try it next time I feel inclined to go at him.

Demon Dragon was like BotW's Dark Beast Ganon fight but more fun and more visually impressive. More like a "hell yeah you're awesome" interactable cutscene than a fight, which is fine. The rest of the fights were already satisfying enough. Finishing him off with a visual treat was a good way to end him. And my god did it look awesome. My jaw was on the floor the entire time. It also made me extremely emotional and happy that Zelda came to help you. I was hoping she'd bust through the ceiling while you were down in the depths to bite the **** out of him, but this was better. Even when she has lost herself, a part of her still knows what she has to do. **** was great.

I don't agree at all about your point of characterization on Ganondorf. He had more of it here than he has in quite a while. To borrow someone else's words because they put it better than I ever could:

I wouldn’t say it’s super noticeable at first, but yeah that’s one of the three types of villains he apparently is in both this game, a “Mandate of Heaven” type of tyrant, a force of destiny, and a chaotic & destructive individual. As for how he’s considered chaotic, aside from just trying to ruin the world, it’s also because of how inherently destructive his view on how the world should be is
Despite having also having the “Mandate To Heaven,” other Ganondorf incarnations would at least like an actual kingdom with people to rule over.
TOTK’s Ganondorf is just like “back in my day we fought Molduga’s with our bare hands and ate them for breakfast. If you can’t handle an apocalypse, then die.” Like he takes the whole strength is everything mentally to a WHOLE new level, and the fact that his direct beef wasn’t just at ancient Hyrule, but it also was directed at the more peaceful, Post-Calamity, Modern Hyrule. The guy does not want any kind of order or peace, no matter who’s bringing it to the table, he’s pro war and pro survival of the fittest, and thinks it all justified. [quote source]

I really like this for Ganondorf. It just suits him for what he represents and has represented for the series. He's the poster boy for campy video game villains and he hams it up really well here. This is what I want to see out of Ganondorf. Some people want him to be a "misunderstood villain with good intentions" but that just really has never seemed fitting for him to me. Idk if that's what you wanted to see or not. But overall I don't have too much room to complain here. I'm very happy with like... all of it. My biggest point of contention was that I think Link should have either kept Rauru's arm or permanently lost it instead of it just getting magicked back to normal. (I didn't mind Zelda returning to normal because it made me cry. In a good way.)

 

[BloodyKun]

I don’t know…I found it to be the most challenging Ganondorf fight in the series, especially considering he can essentially take levels away from you a la King Allant. Guess I just didn’t try to cheese with OP arrows, but I had a hard time getting down his parry windows, and when he started doing the same dodging we can do it was hard to anticipate the timing there as well.

Sure the dragon fight is easy, but I’ll take that spectacle over riding around Hyrule field any day. There’s a lot more that’s culminative there with the scope of things. And who’s to say what he would have done to Hyrule after he was done taking out Link and Zelda?

I’ll still hold both Majora’s Mask and Skyward Sword’s final bosses over it, and although Wind Waker’s was a bit easier, I find the story there more interesting, but I was not really disappointed much in it. Better than OoT or especially TP any day with how brain dead and hum ho it felt.

 

[Fun Link]

I don‘t know either…i Liked the different stages of the ganandorf fight, but yea it wasn’t that hard. I did also feel like dragon Ganon could have had 1 less of those eye buldge thingies (I thought they were a bit annoying). When it was all over I liked how cinematic it was, but I didn’t really feel like it was a big accomplishment (Wa-wa).

i remember my first time fighting calamity Ganon in botw…I died. i Leveled up a bit got some better gear and tried again, it still took everything I had, like, I barely survived. I felt like I earned it, and it was cool seeing Zelda just be like, ”oh right…this… triforce!”

overall I just hoped for a little more insight into ganondorf, or a little more depth to his character, it was such a cool intro, but basically he just amounted to a micheal bay villain: “I do bad stuff cause I’m bad, and I’m bad cause I do bad stuff”

could have been so interesting like he knew he was a part of demise’s curse and wanted to stop it, but the only way was to destroy himself, Zelda and link all at the same time, maybe? Idk

anyways I also thought it was weird that rauru’s arm gave link the reverse time power? Wasn’t that Zelda’s/sonias?

but I guess its Important to remember that while this is its own game, it’s still a sequel. I played through botw fully 3 times, once on normal, once on master mode then another time on master mode never using the map/fast travel functions. So I had a fairly strong foundation going into this. If you hadn’t played botw, the end game boss experience might be different.

 

[thePlinko]

I thought that the first two phases were awesome if only because it was the first time the game actually rewarded you for actually learning how combat works. It was the first time I even attempted to parry with my shield the entire game. It was the first time the game’s combat wasn’t completely negated by the fact that it was designed to be cheesed. The first time the game actually rewarded me for exploring its combat mechanics instead of avoiding them. The first time the combat in a video game started to feel like something that you would find in an actual video game. It was exhilarating, because for once I was actually starting to have fun with the swordplay in this game.

And then the second phase ended.

Of all of the crap that this game pulls, the last phase of the final boss has to be the most insulting. This phase makes Dark Beast Ganon in BotW seem actually well-designed. It makes the climax of TP actually feel impactful. It makes every other final boss in the series look like it was made with a shroud of dignity. There isn’t a single redeeming quality to this trash heap of a final boss. It’s that bad.

 

[MW7]

I thought the atmosphere and music were excellent and made for a very epic ending to the game. The gameplay wasn't anything special though. Ganondorf being able to parry attacks is cool, and the final dragon fight was neat. I don't really have high expectations for bosses so I wasn't disappointed or blown away.

 

[Dr.Luigi]

I had never died in the game and the second phase got me a couple of times. I liked the final boss so much I didnt even mind that the final phase was the easiest thing in the world, He didnt hit me once.

 

[Uwu_Oocoo2]

I liked the boss fight a lot but I can agree it had its flaws. Like the final boss in BotW it was definately built with the assumption I can do parrys and perfect dodges. I cannot. I also would've really liked some incorporation of the hard abilities (or for the sages to be helpful at all, really). The game set up some really big expectations with the whole "all the sages and Rauru rallied together... but were unable to even faze him" bit. They set him up to be a lot more powerful than he was. But the actual fighting aside the fight hit all the right cinematic and epic-ness notes for me.

 

[thePlinko]

Like the final boss in BotW it was definately built with the assumption I can do parrys and perfect dodges. I cannot.

It’s almost as if building your games entire combat system around giving the player the option to skip core features in favor of cheesing each enemy with a physics engine whenever they feel like it is an objectively stupid idea.

 

[Bestardo777]

Omg I completely agree with you
Just yesterday I beat the game, and I could not agree more with you
I literally went searching for someone in the internet who thought that same thing. The game hyped me up with this by that seemed to shatter the master sword, smd by doing so, Shattering my perspective of the master sword, with what seemed to be 1% of his full power.
And at the end, we are expected to believe that it isn't much of a fight, even though the master sword *is statistically weaker* (without fusing of course) than the master sword from breath of the wild? I was quite disappointed by this fight, which was basically just a harder version of phantom ganon that we find literally everywhere around the game.
Maybe it was the fact that because I thought the fight would be a hard one, I collected all the shrines, all light roots, and spent 130 hours grinding in the game, and became too powerful for the boss fight
While this could be true, this didn't happen in breath of the wild. It seems like no matter how well prepared you are, calamity ganon always seems to put up a decent fight, and just like you mentioned, relying on your skills as a player, and not how much you spent in-game to achieve resources, to defeat the boss.

 

[Bestardo777]

Omg I completely agree with you
Just yesterday I beat the game, and I could not agree more with you
I literally went searching for someone in the internet who thought that same thing. The game hyped me up with this by that seemed to shatter the master sword, smd by doing so, Shattering my perspective of the master sword, with what seemed to be 1% of his full power.
And at the end, we are expected to believe that it isn't much of a fight, even though the master sword *is statistically weaker* (without fusing of course) than the master sword from breath of the wild? I was quite disappointed by this fight, which was basically just a harder version of phantom ganon that we find literally everywhere around the game.
Maybe it was the fact that because I thought the fight would be a hard one, I collected all the shrines, all light roots, and spent 130 hours grinding in the game, and became too powerful for the boss fight
While this could be true, this didn't happen in breath of the wild. It seems like no matter how well prepared you are, calamity ganon always seems to put up a decent fight, and just like you mentioned, relying on your skills as a player, and not how much you spent in-game to achieve resources, to defeat the boss.

I will say tho
The demon dragon fight was pretty sick
And although I don't agree with the fact that it just is born with weak points, I really enjoyed the fact that it's malice blasts didn't just temporarily take a heart, but full on deleted it from you. I was really hyped up on a good way when that happened, especially since the fact that I was diving towards it's secret stone, and i was nearing the end.

 

[Bowsette Plus-Ultra]

I quite liked the final boss.

Prior to this, my favorite iteration of the Ganon boss fight was the final phase of his fight during Twilight Princess: two guys trying to kill each other with swords. No frills. The first two phases of TotK's Ganon fight give off similar vibes, if significantly more difficult. This version of Ganon actually feels like he might kill you.

The dragon phase is what I like to dub the spectacle fight, meaning that the real final boss has been beaten and this is just a ride through Coolsville with whatever cool thing the developers could come up with. I found the dynamic of diving and landing on Ganonzilla to be cool, even if I first thought you were meant to shoot the glowing weak points at first.

Heck, I enjoyed the fight enough that I won't even complain about the obnoxious glowing weakpoints.

 

[BokoblinBrad]

Well, I'm struggling because I only have 7 hearts unaffected by gloom and no more sundelions to cook and I'm not able to teleport out before the final fight

 

[BokoblinBrad]

Sorted it. Thought it was a decent battle and ending to the game.

 

[Zettafleya]

First two Ganondorf fights were decently hard, at least at first.
Dragon fight way too easy, but it did look quite good, much better than BotW.