The first RPG I ever played was "Chrono Trigger," when I was about 10. The game absolutely blew my mind -- and it was topped off by one of the most incredible boss fights I've ever encountered, before or since: Lavos.
A huge, cosmic creature, which fell to earth as a meteor and burrowed underground, only to emerge two thousand years later and lay waste to the world and bring about the apocalypse. And you had to stop it. Armed with a katana, a couple friends, a robot and a frog-man.
The fight started with you attacking Lavos' outer shell. It was huge and spiky, with a tiny triangle-shaped head. Oh -- and it could mimic every boss you'd fought up to that point. Every. Single. One. And it made sure to beat the snot out of you.
If you managed to kill the series of every boss you'd ever fought, you destroyed that little head. But Lavos wasn't dead. You had to go INSIDE it and kill the interior. The outer shell was just a sort of SHIP.
Inside was a massive metal exoskeleton, wired into the walls. This thing was even more incredible. The interior being had powerful attacks that could do epic damage to your teammates. Sweeping lasers that tore through your flesh, energy weapons that rained down death from above you. You needed to make sure to bring lots of healing tonics.
If you killed THAT, then Lavos revealed its true self -- a creepy alien thing with two little minions that didn't look like much, but coupled with its buddies, was able to stomp you repeatedly.
Together, the fight took something like forty-five minutes. You could only take a party of three into the battle, so you had to choose wisely. A miscalculation could cost you the entire battle, all the time you'd invested, and the fate of the world.
Not only the was the battle difficult, especially for me at 10, but it was challenging. It never felt insurmountable and I never thought I didn't have a chance. But at the same time, the dread of defeat, the constant peril, was exhilarating. Not many games can balance their boss fights. The boss battles in "Dead Space," for example, are epic and yet easier than most of the fights you get into on a regular basis.
Meanwhile, "Chrono Trigger" tested you to your breaking point, but it never just pulled some ridiculous BS like, say, "Xenosaga" and threw something at you that you'd never have a chance to handle. Lavos was that perfect battle.
Simply awesome.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0uQZFb0KpY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EguV0XdJ3jo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_lJQFhNXZ4

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