5 Best Video Game Bosses of 2019 So Far

G-Birkin (Resident Evil 2)

We’re cheating a little bit here, considering that you face Birkin a number of times over the course of your playtime in Resident Evil 2, but he’s easily one of the most satisfying video game bosses to take down in 2019 so far.

His first appearance in the Resident Evil 2 remake is utterly terrifying, as he relentlessly chases you around a small confined space. His subsequent appearances in the game get increasingly intense, as you can clearly see the G-Virus slowly taking over Birkin’s body, and he becomes more and more mutated.

Birkin’s transformation is so warped that by the time you get to the game’s true ending and he comes back for one last scare, he’s literally a giant blob of disgusting, sinewy flesh that’s being controlled by a giant eyeball. Resident Evil 2’s boss designs are honestly quite beautiful in a gross way, and taking down G-Birkin is incredibly satisfying.

Aqua (Kingdom Hearts III)

The Kingdom Hearts series isn’t exactly known for its well-designed boss fights, and while Kingdom Hearts III may have been a disappointment to some fans, it finally delivered the boss fight that fans have been waiting on for years.

The fight against a Darkness-engulfed Aqua is one of the most emotionally cathartic sequences in the series, simply by virtue of how long you know she’s spent in the Realm of Darkness and how much she’s struggled over there.

The encounter itself is actually really good too, as Sora is engaged in a 1v1 showdown with this Keyblade master, and the game truly tests your capabilities against this iconic character and all the moves you’ve gotten to know from Birth By Sleep and Fragmentary Passage.

Fighting and beating Aqua is a matter of memorizing her patterns and knowing exactly how to dodge or jump over her devastating ice blasts. Pro-tip: if you’re running a magic build on Sora, the Ever After Keyblade is insanely useful.

Genichiro Ashina (Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice)

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is full of awesome, amazing boss fights, but if we had to pick only one to feature in this article, it’d be Genichiro Ashina.

He’s not even close to being the toughest boss you’ll face in this game, but he sure as hell is one of the most technical ones that will beat the game’s combat mechanics into you until you really get it.

Getting past his first phase is a matter of reading his Perilous Attacks and learning which ones you can counter and which ones you need to jump over. Then, you’ll need to practice getting perfect parries on his combo strings, learning how long each different string is, and knowing when it’s actually safe to attack.

And then, you get to his second phase, and it’s an electrical fight where you’re constantly on your toes as you have to get used to a couple of new moves and a completely new mechanic that you’ll be using a lot more later down the line.

Plus, it’s Genichiro. He’s basically Wolf’s rival for the entirety of the game, which makes this fight way more satisfying than it should be.

Baby Bowser (Yoshi’s Crafted World)

While not exactly the toughest or most demanding video game boss we’ve faced in 2019 so far, Baby Bowser’s final fight in Yoshi’s Crafted World is certainly up there as one of the more enjoyable ones.

After Baby Bowser finally gets his hands on all the gems, he transforms into this stunning-looking paper robot version of himself and starts wrecking the stage. The phases are all fairly easy to read, and considering how forgiving of a game this is, most players should be able to clear it in just a couple of tries.

Even so, it’s definitely a spectacle of a fight as Baby Bowser’s moves get increasingly insane with each phase, until you finally force him out of his robot and jump on his head a couple of times. As one usually does in these Nintendo platformer games.

Vergil (Devil May Cry 5)

Devil May Cry 5 is already full of spectacular boss fights, but none of them come even remotely close to the level of awesomeness that we got from the final encounter against Vergil.

The fight starts off as a classic clash between red and blue and Dante and Vergil are engaged in battle, playing around with transformations. Vergil’s second phase transformation definitely highlights the beauty of the RE Engine and shows off the scope of the arena as the camera zooms out to show the destruction that Vergil has wrought.

However, things don’t end after bringing his life bar down. In epic fashion, Nero arrives on the scene to give Vergil his comeuppance as well.

The fight against Vergil is stylish and technical, as the game gives you free rein to make use of all the cool skills you’ve acquired so far, yet it’s also a little cinematic at some points to give the significance of this encounter a little more emotional brevity.