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- #10 Spawn of Oggdo – Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
- #9 King Gleeok [The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom]
- #8 Elianne The Starved [Lords of the Fallen]
- #7 Mysterio [Marvel’s Spider-Man 2]
- #6 Culex 3D [Super Mario RPG]
- #5 Giant Chainsaw Man [Resident Evil 4]
- #4 Fleshomancer [Sea of Stars]
- #3 The Final Mutant [Sons of the Forest]
- #2 Ansur, Undead Dragon [Baldur’s Gate 3]
- #1 Galdera The Fallen [Octopath Traveler 2]
The biggest secret bosses of 2023 are going to kick your butt sideways. We’re looking at a wide range of games from last year and talking about the secret bosses you probably missed. If you found all of these battles, we’re truly impressed. If you won? Then we’re even more impressed. There are still huge secrets to find in games, and we’re going to share 10 we won’t forget in the years to come.
Before we begin, here’s your big SPOILER WARNING. Check out the list of games below to see what we’ll be talking about if you don’t want to be spoiled. Some of these secret bosses are required to unlock true endings. Some of these entries will include big spoilers.
Game Spoilers Featured In This Article
- Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
- The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
- Lords of the Fallen
- Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
- Super Mario RPG
- Resident Evil 4
- Sea of Stars
- Sons of the Forest
- Baldur’s Gate 3
- Octopath Traveler 2
#10 Spawn of Oggdo – Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
In this extremely good Star Wars game, you’ll be exploring the huge open spaces on the planet Koboh – and there are multiple optional fights you’ll encounter. Explore enough early in the game, and you’ll run into infamous monsters like the Rancor. But we’re talking about something far worse than a Rancor.
Exploring the raider fortress deep enough, and you’ll be dropped into an arena with the worst thing we can think of – a rematch with Oggdo Bogdo. The first optional boss from Jedi: Fallen Order returns here in all his aggravating glory. The Spawn of Oggdo is a giant fat frog with an unbelievably wonky moveset. His giant mouth has a crazy hitbox that’s completely unchanged here, making what might seem like a normal enemy encounter into one of the most difficult fights in the game. And it only gets worse from here.
Because defeating Spawn of Oggdo the idiot frog only leads to more pain. By scanning the force aura nearby, you can unlock an additional secret boss in town. This time, Kal has to fight TWO Oggdos. Father and son fighting together. If you thought one of these nightmare frogs was bad, how about two at the same time? This single fight is literally more difficult than anything else in Jedi Survivor. Two derpy frogs are going to rock the greatest Jedi in the galaxy’s world. This is one set of secret bosses we despised in 2023.
#9 King Gleeok [The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom]
Tears of the Kingdom remixes the open-world map of Hyrule and added new mini-boss variants in exchange for the robots in Breath of the Wild. One of those minibosses you’ll encounter – and probably run away in terror from after your first fight – is the Gleeok. They’re three-headed dragons that can wipe out Link if you try to take them on before you’re prepared.
Gleeoks launch waves of tracking elemental projectiles. They’re also extremely tough to damage – their dragon skin protects them from most melee attacks, and getting in too close is usually a death sentence for squishy heroes of Hyrule like Link. All of them are an absolute menace that can really only be safely fought by sniping their weak points with homing arrows. With the right tools, they’re totally beatable.
Until you face off against the King Gleeok. This unique Gleeok is hidden in a far corner of the map that you’d never normally reach unless you really really wanted to punish yourself. Flying to a floating platform in the far southwest, you’ll find King Gleeok on a floating arena that has nowhere to hide. It’s just you versus one of the toughest enemies in the game. This guy has three separate elemental heads, shooting every type of damage – fire, electricity and ice. There’s nothing that will protect you from all three. That’s pretty cruel, and you’ll need to find this guy if you want to finish your statue collection in Tarry Town. That makes this fight even more cruel. I recommend taking a picture and running away.
#8 Elianne The Starved [Lords of the Fallen]
Lords of the Fallen follows the Dark Souls formula so closely there’s a cryptic hidden quest to get the darkest ending. When it comes to Dark Souls, that’s to be expected. But Lords of the Fallen goes the extra mile by including a new remixed final boss fight that’s also skin-peeling, eye-gouging, and hair-pulling difficult – especially if you foolishly attempted this fight on your fight playthrough like we did. Here’s my recommendation. Don’t try this until your second run. Because Elianne The Starved is pure pain.
Okay, let’s rewind. To actually fight Elianne, you’ll need to complete a cryptic series of actions with only the barest of clues to go on. Eventually, you’ll reach a secret area called the Mother’s Lull with a weirdo monster in the far distance. Following the orders of the Putrid Mother god-thing you’ll sacrifice every major character and vendor until nobody is left. Get all that done, and the last boss awaits.
Elianne is essentially a souped-up version of the earlier boss Pieta – except one of her major gimmicks is that she splits into two parts. While her new clone fights you, her true self retreats and continues to unleash screen-clearing magic attacks. And even worse, after taking out one clone, she’ll just summon another. And another. And another.
And she isn’t even the only big secret boss in Lords of the Fallen. By finding very specific memories of the past, you can unlock a hidden door that leads to the Paladin’s Burden boss fight. This boss is the wandering soul of the previous knight – the knight that gave you the ability to reincarnate. He doesn’t look like much. Just another big knight guy. But, he is special. For one, he can actually parry and perform critical attacks on you. He dodges around and heals himself just like the player. If you don’t want to play in PVP, this is the closest thing you can get to fighting a duel against the AI. While not nearly as tough as Elianne, this is still a pretty special fight that I couldn’t get away with not mentioning here.
#7 Mysterio [Marvel’s Spider-Man 2]
The master of magic himself makes a spine-tingling appearance in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. The fish bowl dome, the green suit, the purple cape – yep, this classic villain is faithfully recreated with one spooky addition. Instead of a fully mirrored helmet, this Mysterio has a floating skull in the center. And he’ll attack Spider-Man after luring him into his technological lair. Using the power of holograms, Mysterio drops Miles Morales into a twisted version of New York City. You’ll swing through upside-down skyscrapers and fight swarms of computer-generated bad guys in a giant snow globe, all while a truly massive Mysterio taunts you from above.
This is one of the most visually stunning sequences of the year, and it’s totally optional. The only way to fight Mysterio is to complete all the Mysterium Challenges on the map – and when you’re caught up fighting big villains like Kraven and Venom, it can be pretty easy to overlook those arenas. Take a break from your worries and definitely put an end to Mysterio’s machinations. There’s even a little twist to this story we didn’t expect. No spoilers here. We’re just singing the praises of one more epic secret boss.
#6 Culex 3D [Super Mario RPG]
Super Mario RPG brings cozy adventuring back to the Nintendo Switch. This absolutely fantastic little remake adds more to the adventure after you finish the story – there’s an entire series of post-game bosses that have unique gimmicks you won’t encounter anywhere else in the game. And then there’s Culex. The infamous bonus boss is located behind a locked door in Monstro Town, and beating him was a rite of passage for SNES players back in the 90s. Now he’s been beefed up with an even-more-powerful 3D form. Sure, he looks totally ridiculous, but that’s par for the course when it comes to godlike Final Fantasy style villains. And in the rematch, he’s got all the aggravating powers we hate in RPGs. This is one of the premier secret bosses of 2023.
Culex has instakill attacks, party-wide status effects that turn your people into mushrooms, unblockables, multiple attacks on the same turn, and a devastating timed attack that always hits your party for max damage. Excuse me, max damage minus ONE. The only way to survive is to have your party at full health – and that’s a lot harder than it sounds when four other crystals are bombarding you with attacks each turn.
Culex 3D is a beast in his rematch. To even the odds, we used Red Essence for limited invulnerability, Chero Cola for full heals, and lots of Rock Candy to dish out damage to every enemy on the screen. The crystals are the worst part of this fight. Once they’re down, Culex himself is surprisingly easy. Just don’t let him get you with those instakill magic attacks!
#5 Giant Chainsaw Man [Resident Evil 4]
The Separate Ways DLC for Resident Evil 4 is packed with brand new bosses – but we can’t really call any of them secret. But, if you’re not playing all the new content available, there is one unique enemy you can very easily miss out on. One of my most hated enemies as a kid is finally back in the remake. The Giant Chainsaw Man is here to ruin your day and wreck your Mercenaries runs.
Located on the final unlockable Mercenaries map, the Giant Chainsaw Man is a roaring variant of the regular chainsaw guy we all love and hate. The big difference is that this guy doesn’t have one chainsaw. He has two. When he spots your character, he’ll roar and flail wildly while swinging his double-bladed chainsaw like mad. If this guy catches up to you, you’re dead instantly. There’s no brief moment to dodge. There’s no knife parry. On top of being extremely resilient, he also rarely flinches unless you deal serious damage with the Magnum or explosives. Even explosives don’t always slow him down.
The Giant Chainsaw Man was a creature I never expected to see in Resident Evil 4 Remake. He might not exactly qualify as one of the big secret bosses of 2023, but he counts in my heart. For all the fear he brings, I’m just so happy to see this big lug again. Just don’t let him catch up to you, okay?
#4 Fleshomancer [Sea of Stars]
2023 was a huge year for JRPGs. There are so many I tried to limit myself and not just talk about 10 secret JRPG bosses – but I have to talk about the big bad at the end of Sea of Stars. The Fleshomancer is the true villain at the heart of this throwback JRPG. He’s the villain that’s the cause of all your problems, so naturally you’d expect to fight him as the last boss. Huge spoiler warning here, but no – the Fleshomancer is NOT the last boss. To fight him, you’ll have to fix a big problem earlier in the game. And that leads to one of the biggest secret bosses of the year.
- Did we mention there are going to be spoilers? Skip ahead if you don’t want to learn more. Seriously! This is easily the biggest spoiler on this list.
Late in Sea of Stars, one of your companions permanently dies. There’s a long tradition of JRPG heroes biting the big one, but this example is totally unique. The always-helpful friend Garl takes one for the time and dies before you can fully explore the secrets of your world and travel on the Sea of Stars itself. After completing the story, you can reset and complete a special quest to bring Garl back to life. Yes, really. You’ll have to complete basically every quest in the game to do it, but after bringing Garl back, you can return to the last boss for a rematch.
And instead of fighting the Fleshomancer’s final creation, you’ll fight the Fleshomancer himself. Garl appears and taunts the evil god-like creature, eventually infuriating him enough to break the rules and fight the party himself. The setup for this ridiculous secret boss is so fun, we couldn’t leave him off our list.
#3 The Final Mutant [Sons of the Forest]
If you love big meat monsters, then Sons of the Forest is the game for you. Seriously, this open-world survival game features some extremely gross, gnarly monsters – and the final boss is the grossed, gnarliest one of them all. To reach him, you’ll have to fully explore the vast island, searching secret bunkers and abandoned caves for clues. The main quest in Sons of the Forest is a puzzle in of itself, but the ending is worth it. After finding a hidden path in the back of an underground mansion, you’ll fight through swarms of creepy monsters until you reach the source of all the chaos.
And before you can leave, you’ll have to battle a giant malformed tub of meat. This thing spawns more blind mutants, jumps around with its surprisingly nimble movement abilities, and even collects a crashed helicopter to use as a club. That’s peak Dark Souls boss behavior – and while technically this is the normal final boss of the main game, even getting this far is a cryptic challenge. You’ll need to find keycards, secret underground bunkers, switches in security rooms, golden artifacts and more hidden objectives to unravel the mystery. And we still don’t know what happened. But we do know there’s a big gross blob at the end. And that’s all we really need.
#2 Ansur, Undead Dragon [Baldur’s Gate 3]
There are too many examples of secret bosses in Baldur’s Gate 3 – a game that’s practically built on secrets. But for our money, the most important hidden boss is in Act 3. By following a series of clues to the underground of Wyrm’s Rock Fortress and unlocking a hidden door, you’ll find the path to Ansur. After solving the four trials in an area called the Wyrm’s Way, you’ll fight the beast.
Like a JRPG boss, Ansur charges a powerful electricity attack. The only way to defend yourself is to cast Protection on your party – and he’s immune to damage for periods of time too. He follows all the annoying dragon boss tropes. He flies in the air, making him impossible to attack until raining down deadly elemental energy. Haste or Potions of Speed work great for this boss, and naturally weapons like the Arrow of Dragon Slaying work wonders. And don’t forget about the Myrmidon minions Ansur summons. Defeating the dragon will reward you with the Balduran Giantslayer sword, one of the best Legendary weapons in the game, and progress Wyll’s story.
Finding this boss is cryptic and actually beating him is pretty tough too. I’d call that an ideal secret boss. There’s also additional boss fights that are totally optional – like Grym the untouchable golem in the Act 1 Forge, or Raphael your sweet-tongued devil trying to lure you into a deal. These are all epic encounters, but we wanted to talk about one of the few dragons you’ll really want to fight in Baldur’s Gate 3.
#1 Galdera The Fallen [Octopath Traveler 2]
One of the hardest secret bosses of the year, Vide The Wicked is the True Final Boss of Octopath Traveler 2, forcing you to fight on two separate playfields with two parties that you can swap between, totally changing how you can approach the battle. This fight alone took me about an hour of grinding down – and that’s after about 100+ hours of gameplay just to complete all the side-quests required to access him. Vide is a terrifying final boss, but he isn’t who we’re here to talk about. There’s something much, much worse waiting for players looking to burn their skin off trying to beat an absolute bastard of a boss. Unless you’re willing to prepare over multiples of hours and level up everyone, there’s no reason to even attempt Galdra.
Galdera is actually the true final boss of Octopath Traveler 1, returning this game from a mysterious temple. You’ll need to follow a specific (and secret) series of clues to unlock the hidden temple and enter Galdera’s Lair, and when you do you’ll probably die in a handful of turns. Galdera is back as a spooky wall of souls, screaming to escape its malformed body – and it only gets worse in the second phase. Like the normal, less-super secret boss we talked about earlier, Galdera splits your party in two and only makes things harder.
Real wizards of Octopath can deftly combine skills, ultra magic and character specific boosts to deal crazy damage per turn, making this guy essentially a joke. But for those of us with limited time and no desire to grind for even more hours, you’ll just have to hope and pray you’re tough enough. Seriously, this guy is absolutely insane. The only thing that brings us any relief is that you can fully level up and use dirty build tricks to totally nuke him. Wrecking Galdera sounds like a pretty good career goal.
