Well, that’s how you do a final boss!
Forgive me for being a prisoner of the moment, but I cannot stop thinking about the final battle with Ganondorf in the Twilight Era. Amid all the craze, murmurs, and the dirty googly eyes (you know who you are) about the return and look of Ganondorf in Tears of the Kingdom, I was playing and finishing up Twilight Princess for the first time. After a few months of picking it up and setting it back down due to a pesky thing called “life,” I finally made it to the end. Everything about the final fight was everything I could have asked for. Dare I say, it is one of the best boss fights I remember playing in a long time.
The way it starts with Ganondorf possessing Zelda was definitely something I did not have in my Twilight Princess bingo card. A very cool yet eerie surprise, having to defeat the princess you always seem to try and save. I was horrified yet excited. I thought it was such a neat twist to the game. It was so refreshing. Sure, it was playing magic tennis again with the way to defeat the possessed Zelda with the same way you defeat Ganondorf in Ocarina of Time, but it was such a great call back to a game that is still recent in my mind.
After I embarrassingly spent way too long defeating Dark Beast Ganon and then finally trying to chase him down with Zelda on the horse, the final showdown with Ganondorf was everything I could ask. No Bokoblins to help him out, no scenario where you strike him down only for a wave of enemies to come out of nowhere — none of the shenanigans you see nowadays in video game boss fights. It was just Ganondorf vs. Link in a sword fight. And it was awesome.
It is exactly what makes Ganondorf a perfect threat to Link. He is calm, frightening, intimidating, ruthless, and brutal. And his strikes are calculating and deadly. It always felt like one swing of his sword would be the end of the fight. As I engaged in battle with him, all I could think of was how much fun it was. This is exactly what a boss fight should be. And when I finally defeated him, all I could do was smile. Not because I defeated him, but because it was one of the most engaging boss fights I have ever played in a video game.
And as the hype revolves around Tears of the Kingdom and the return of Ganondorf, I can only hope the final fight between him and Link will be able to match the intensity of Twilight Princess.
I can’t wait to find out.
