To go hand-in-hand with a recent article about rivals, I've put together a list of famous duels in video games. The "duel boss" is a fairly common video game trope, so I've narrowed it down to ten that have some significance to not only the games they appear in but the gaming medium overall. Lofty stuff indeed?
Duellers: Kirby and Meta-Knight.<br><br>Even without the use of dialogue, Kirby games manage to infuse a lot of personality into the oddballs that stand in the pink puffball's way. Most notable among the non-Aptenodytes patagonicus antagonists is the Meta-Knight, Kirby's self-styled antithesis, who patiently waits for Kirby to pick up a nearby sword so they can honourably duel on equal grounds. Dude clearly went to the Boba Fett school of being an enigmatic badass.
Duellers: Cecil and, uh, Cecil.<br><br>Finally reaping what he sowed, Cecil is chewed out by a village he once put to the torch as a lackey of the expansionist Kingdom of Baron. To atone, he travels to the top of Mt. Ordeals, which already sounds like a picnic, and defeat his darker impulses in a symbolic duel. Like all the best duels, the fighting isn't what matters so much as what that fight represents. It is a little on the nose in this case, granted, but it's an interesting narrative use of the "boss fight" mechanic.
Duellers: Frog and Magus.<br><br>
To err is human (or Zealean, or whatever); to forgive, divine. But sometimes a player cannot forgive, especially when the forgiveé in question is casting aspersions to the recently deceased. Should the player choose to fight the contrite former archvillain, Frog will stand alone against his old sworn enemy in a duel to the death. Depending on your point of view, it's either a cathartic release for the amphibious knight-errant or a waste of a powerful and misunderstood ally.
Duellers: Yuri and Flynn.<br><br>
In another matter of catharsis, two best friends who have long since grown apart in their ideologies duel it out to resolve which is in the right. Ultimately, it doesn't matter, as they both realise they have their own separate paths to walk. The vigilante criminal Yuri Lowell and the paragon white knight Flynn Scifo may seem like complete opposites to any outsider, but they understand each other better than anyone around them. If only they localized the updated PS3 version where that overpowered boy scout was playable.
Duellers: Cloud and Sephiroth.<br><br>
To perhaps unnecessarily demonstrate that the troubled Cloud has finally emerged from Sephiroth's shadow after he and his team take down a bevvy of Jenova-enhanced Sephiroth bosses, a short duel between the two ends the game. Cloud will instantaneously Limit Break and shred Sephiroth's pasty ass into ribbons with an egregiously overpowered Omnislash. It doesn't appear to have much to do with anything, until you consider that the fight is entirely within Cloud's psyche and simply represents the purging of the infused Jenova cells (which commonly appeared to Cloud in the guise of the former Shinra prodigy) that have been controlling his actions since the beginning of the game. Or maybe not. It's a trippy sequence regardless.
Duellers: Link and Shadow Link.<br><br>
Like the earlier Cecil duel, this is a fight against one's own evil doppelganger. Unlike that struggle, this is less a symbolic purging of one's own demons and more that Ganon's forces had the bright idea of putting Link up against a stronger, better Link with an unfathomable weakness to knee-chopping.
Duellers: Tir McDohl and Teo McDohl.<br><br>
The core Suikoden games will have the occasional duel, usually governed by a completely different system than the occasionally-simultaneous turn-based RPG system the group battles use. It's more a rock-scissors-paper presentation, defined by comments your opponents make before attacking. While it's an interesting enough departure on its own, the fight between the no-nonsense, utterly loyal Imperial general Teo and his wayward son (and protagonist) Tir who is leading the rebellion against the same Empire is heartbreakingly inevitable: Tir is given no other recourse than to strike down his own father or be killed.
Duellers: Ramza Beoulve and Wiegraf Folles.<br><br>
This fight is important for two reasons: First, it's the most difficult battle in the game. If you are unprepared for it (and if it's your first jaunt through the game, that's likely) it'll be almost completely insurmountable. Second, it's a landmark battle for Ramza: Up until this point, it's likely the player developed Ramza as a support role, as he has access to some very nice unique buff abilities. As such, he has always won his fights due to the support of others and has subsequently always fallen short when compared to the knightly heroes in his life, such as his friend Delita or his brother Zalbag. Defeating his old nemesis Wiegraf by himself on his own terms is a vital step towards becoming the formidable hero he needs to be to see justice done.
Duellers: The Grey Warden (or their chosen champion) and Teyrn Loghain Mac Tir.<br><br>
After successfully revealing the duplicity of the well-intentioned but ruthless rogue Teyrn to Ferelden's Landsmeet, the player can instead opt for a one-on-one duel instead of an all-out battle between their group and Loghain's supporters. What happens next is up to the mercy of the player (or the non-mercy of Alistair, as the case may be). Actually reaching the duel is an accomplishment in and of itself though, and a fine example of a game rewarding the player with a more satisfying narrative resolution for a job well done.
Duellers: Ken Hayabusa and Bloody Malth.<br><br>
Not all duels are playable, and the impressive (for the time) ninja duel in the opening movie of the original NES Ninja Gaiden ends with the death of protagonist Ryu's father Ken Hayabusa, setting up the story of the game. Of course, the truth is not as it seems, as Ryu would eventually discover after fighting approximately every single bird with a grudge against mankind, ever. If those birds could talk, I assume they'd say "objective updated!" every time they knocked Ryu down a hole to his death yet again.
