I've given up on a few optional bosses, but no, the worst thing for me is giving up on a final boss. Only once I can think of, at the end of Shin Megami Tensei: Soul Hackers on 3DS, I just could not beat the end boss. For whatever reason, it just kept kicking my ass, and I gave up and shelved the game. I wonder if I was just done by then, or what, as I'd assume like most games of it's type I could just grind to a crazy level and go back and stomp it. But yeah, it's the only time I've just quit a game at the literal last encounter. Feels pretty shitty.

Fume Knight is my favorite boss in Dark Souls 2, and one of my favorites in the series. I won't lie, it took me dozens of tries to get there, but once you get the timing down for your dodges the rhythm of the fight becomes quite enjoyable. I've beaten Fume without taking a hit. Nameless King is very similar, though I found him more challenging overall. Ancient Dragon is the only Dark Souls boss I haven't beaten solo, but I think that's just bad design.

The boss that immediately comes to mind as one I've given up on is the last boss of Salt and Sanctuary. I bet I could get the timing down the way I did with Fume, but I can't stand the platforming involved in getting back to the fight after each death. Knowing it's the final boss, and that there isn't any new content to explore, also kills my motivation to keep trying.

Fume Knight in dark souls 2. Only boss I summoned help for in that entire series. He broke me...

Super pro-tip: flicking the stick in line with the desired slice (so quickly move the stick out in line with the blade slice and just releasing it so it snaps back to neutral) literally results in a near 100% accurate hit rate. This turns the blade time moments into a cake walk.

I made it to the end of Alpha Protocol (which I enjoyed!) and I just could not get past the ending sequence. Not sure if that counts as a "boss" per se but I played that entire game putting my points into stealth and the last sequence I remember having to run from all kinds of enemies and missiles. It was just too overwhelming and I gave up entirely. So wanted to finish that game.

1st boss in Nioh. That game is good and cool but fucking hell that thing isnt fucking around. I spent 5-10 hours grinding in the first area buffing my stats (I'd gone with a staff because the stats to make it stronger gave you more health) and he would still 1-2 shot me no matter what I did. Gave the game away and never looked back but the pc version with cheat engine... I may dip back in.

Super-super tip: you can completely avoid the blade-moments when he throws the wreckage at you. Just run forward as soon as you have control and it won't hit you. I played on PC and I'm assuming there isn't a difference from the console versions. Worked 100% of the time.

And to actually answer the question, I can think of a few bosses where I either gave up or exploited them. In Lords of the Fallen I couldn't for the life of me get through that last boss with my weak-arse build, so I used a common exploit which renders him immobile and inactive. Crappy way to end a game, but I was frustrated and wanted to see the game ended. I also used a trainer in Underrail because I was poorly specced for the fight with the underground monster thing whose name I've forgotten. I don't feel particularly bad about that because that last part of the game is simply ill-designed and a chore; Underrail is great until you reach the caverns part.

Same, dude. Same. I guess I just couldn't get a grip of those fucking delayed attacks.

Yeah, those delayed attacks are really rough. Interestingly enough, when I was banging my head against Nameless King I had a moment where he reminded me of fighting Mike Tyson in Punch Out! When I adopted the mindset that I needed to fight him like I fought Mike (don't let him scare you into dodging too early), I beat him my first try. I still think it's pretty funny that I drew inspiration in that moment from a game that's so different.

A lot of people bringing up Dark Souls, and I have several instances where I said "fuck this" to a boss fight and didn't even bother in those games. The first is in the Dark Souls 2 DLC. I've come around, and I actually find the DLCs to be very enjoyable, probably some of the best Dark Souls content out there. That being said, they also contain these areas that are meant to be played with other people, and the bosses in these areas are the worst things in the game. The Gank Squad, Magic-fire demon thing, and the two giant cats can ALL go fuck themselves. They are all terribly designed bosses that are a fucking nightmare to solo, and are even difficult with friends because it inflates their HP pool so massive, not to mention the path to GET to these assholes is ridiculously hard as well. When playing these DLCs, I HIGHLY advise you stay as far away from the optional bosses as possible, none of them are worth the trouble (with the exception of Sir Alonne, he's an excellent boss). The other DLC bosses are all difficult, but very fun, Sinh is particular is probably my favorite boss fight in the entire game, but the Fume Knight is super fun as well.

The second instance isn't really the boss, which I find to be super easy, but more of the area he is in. Amygdala is a boss in this area called the Nightmare Frontier, and it's easily the worst area in any Soulsborne game I think. Poison swamps that slow you down, stupidly one-sided PvP, giants that throw rocks at you from across the map that nearly one shot you, and the worst enemies in the game reside here - the Winter Lanterns. The name of the place is very fitting, because going through it really is a nightmare. It's the only boss I intentionally skip whenever I replay the game, just because I don't like dealing with that area.

The final boss run of Shovel Knight. I just couldn't do it, so I put the game down. I really enjoyed that game and didn't want to ruin that experience. Sometimes it's best to put the game down.

God I had to give up on the good ending of that game not because of a boss but because of the last orb I was missing, the sierra morena one. After so many tries i just surrendererd; the memory of it still makes me hate with a passion those tiny fucking disappearing platforms

I gave up on Ludwig in the Bloodborne DLC.

Bloodborne was my first Soulsborne game, and I struggled greatly on my first playthrough. I was having a hard time beating the easier bosses, and got stuck on Father Gascoigne and Vicar Amelia so badly, I had to put the game down for several days to keep from getting too frustrated.

Anyway, I got finally made it to the base game's final boss, but decided to complete the DLC first since that was the recommended order. I barely made it to Ludwig, and when I did get to him I got wiped out so many times that I just wasn't having fun. I only saw his second form twice and died almost instantly after seeing it.

After a while I just said "screw it", beat the main game and wrote off the DLC as a wasted $20. From what I've heard about the rest of The Old Hunters and its bosses, I doubt I'll ever complete it.

I've never beaten the last boss in Final Fantasy III or Final Fantasy XIII. In both cases, I got the that last fight, felt like I'd seen everything in the game already, didn't feel like grinding, and so let it go. JRPG pacing can be a minefield -- a good game makes grinding feel like exploration, with another treasure chest always on the horizon until you're strong enough to beat the game. FFIII and FFXIII got this totally wrong, with massive difficulty spikes that only dull repetition could overcome.

In Mass Effect. I had gotten to the queen. I had just one save. Right before the queen. No way back. I fucked up. Too low level to kill her. I never played mass effect ever again.

I gave up a lot as a kid. Bosses in final fantasies and devil may cry come to mind. But I've gone back and retroactively banished those demons later on. I can't really think of anything anymore. I'm sure I've quit games on a boss fight the last couple of years, but that's just lack of investment at that point. Those old memories were bosses I tried to fight but gave up on, which is distinctly different.

There was some huge tower thing in Final Fantasy VIII that I got too and couldn't beat the boss of. That's probably as far as I ever got on my only playthrough, and probably the only boss I can think of that I honestly just couldn't beat.

Edit: That makes me sound like I've never lost to another boss haha. Generally I stop playing and move on if a game is too hard, but sometimes it comes after finally beating a boss that was hard and not coming back to it. I did that in Ninja Gaiden Black and some of the Souls-like games.

Final boss in Heavenly Sword.

Lots of dark souls mentions in this thread so far. I have come close many times in that series on giving up on a boss, but so far have always been able to get passed them either by grinding enough to be OP for the boss and/or summoning help.

I'm currently playing through Dark Souls 3, and about to give up on the Gravetender boss in Ariendel. I have tried summoning help, but no signs have shown up so far [1] and I don't want to keep wasting embers. I feel Dark Souls 1 and 2 had more NPC summons for the bosses where I needed help, so meh.

[1] I know I'm a bit late, playing Dark Souls 3 in dec 2017,... but I've had some really nice help with some of the other bosses in the game in the past weeks.

The only real answer I have for this question is the final boss in Deadly Premonition , I just couldn't beat that, even after watching some youtube videos. I loved the game otherwise, so it's really frustrating.

Alos, I couldn't beat the final level of Super Mario 3D World, I guess that's not technically a boss, but it's similarly frustrating in that I finished everything else in the game why did they make just a tad too hard for me to finish the entire thing? (I'm more forgiving of this mario example, if only because the game far more is able to make you feel *you* fucked up. And obviously by this time I've already "finished" the game, because I saw the end credits scroll by :)

Zone of the Enders 2. The second fight against Anubis.

Spend quite a lot of time on it until I just decided it wasn't worthy...