Tears of the Kingdom has the sweetest Dessert Course Final Boss Phase

tldr: After Ganondorf's very difficult second phase, you are treated to an almost-unfailable final phase. This works very well and felt very good to play.

Tears of the Kingdom has a very good final boss. See here.

note: I can't see YouTube videos, only the titles and thumbnails, so let me know if this link is bad.

In the penultimate phase, Ganondorf is a fucking wall who you will die to time and time again. Ganondorf has satiated any "Soulslike" boss craving I've had for two years now. Your sword whittles at his comedically long healthbar while his cuts through yours like jello. As it reaches zero, you're dreading another phase, wondering what's going to come next.

Your nerves are primed, your heart is pumping, it's the furthest you've come in the boss fight and you're trying to be ready for anything.

... Then he turns into a fucking dragon! You're flying high in the air, dragons fighting dragons. You might not hear the overture past your own heartbeat, you might only glimpse the spectacle of it all from the corner of your eyes.

For me, I was taking so much care not to fail that I didn't realize that the game was doing its best to make sure you can't actually fail at that phase. You might not realize it's an "easy phase" at first, they even disable fall damage.

The boss battle theme turns into an overture while Hyrule's lands revolve below you, the blood moon rises, and the "clap" instrumentation that's so fundamental to TotK's musical identity becomes diegetic with your final action in the adventure.

I imagine that sound must have been replicated as everyone at Nintendo gave eachother high-fives, as that boss fight was a very well-realized series of ideas which capped off a very well-realized series of ideas.

Of all the games I've played, Tears of the Kingdom has the very sweetest of what I'm calling the "dessert course" final boss.

Undertale had it too

tldr: You can't die in the final final final boss. This is good, because it keeps the momentum going. This makes Asriel as "dessert course".

YouTube video, same caveat as above, but this one was in my bookmarks for awhile.

By the time you've reached the end of Undertale's true ending, you've faced a number of truly difficult bosses in the way of Undyne and Asgore. There's something to be said about Undertale's wholesome-maxxing "you can save everyone" storyline that somehow feels mature, rather than cheap. It feels earned and good.

You have the happiest ending at hand!

But then that fucking flower appears. And he's, uh, a bunny boy?

The Asriel fight maxxes out the motifs, animations, and colors. This kind of production quality is easy to take for granted if you started with Deltarune. There's momentum as the final plot-threads come together.

Toby was able to put a few notches of difficulty onto this boss fight, by making you unable to die. Your heart splits in two. You're supposed to die,

* But it refused.

In a game with an ending that comes full circle in myriad ways, it's fitting that you're unable to die, like the Toriel battle. It's also fitting you're treated to another pun. Get it? Your heart re-fuses. Haha.

Honorable mention - Super Metroid

Super Metroid has something like this, this twice. Crocomire is a final boss which appears with a second form which promptly crumbles, and the final boss Mother Brain's third phase is easily defeated with the new Hyper Beam.

That doesn't explicitly count, since it leads to a difficult escape sequence that keeps the tension high.

pls suggest more

Tears of the Kingdom has the very best "dessert course" I've played. I'm sure it is not the only "dessert course" final boss. Please post recommendations for games with good Dessert Course Final Bosses.

I'm quite surprised this isn't a trope on TV Tropes!