The Assassin's Creed franchise has been a staple of the gaming industry for more than a decade now. It has also gone several major facelifts and gameplay design changes to the point where it's starting to become unrecognizable. That's isn't necessarily a bad thing since the most recentAssassin's Creed game, Odyssey, has proven to be quite successful.
Such changes have also made for some interesting new mechanics, particularly in boss fights. That's isn't to say the boss fights in previous Assassin's Creed games were uninteresting. While they lack the better gameplay of the latest AC games, they more than make up for it in the threat they pose to the world and their compelling characterization. Here's 10 of them to remind us all how dangerous the Templars can be.
10 Crawford Starrick (Assassin's Creed Syndicate)
Crawford Starrick was born to be a Templar. He was of British royalty and was born to a wealthy and powerful family. From the moment he could talk, he was taught to compete, and compete he did. At a young age, Crawford learned that there were only two people in the world; those who served and those who ruled, an epiphany fitting of a Templar.
It was only a matter of time before Crawford was exposed to the Templar Order, and when he did, he quickly rose to power and became a Grand Master and a grander audience. While the fight with Crawford was somewhat disappointing and poorly designed, at least he died fighting assassins instead of being chased by them.
9 Al Mualim (Assassin's Creed)
The first final boss of the very first Assassin's Creed, this fight brings back memories. Al Mualim is supposedly an Assassin Brotherhood Mentor, but the power of the Apple of Eden was too much for the old man to resist. It made Al Mualim work with the Templars and betray the very students and order he taught to fight against them.
The final fight with Al Mualim is quite brief and even embarrassing for a man of his stature and tenure. However, it's his influence which made him powerful. Even as his betrayal had become too blatant, his assassins still stood by his side, believing him to be in the right.
8 Francois Thomas Germain (Assassin's Creed Unity)
Germain is the final boss of the Assassin's Creed Unity and for good reason. He was initially a Templar Grand Master, but they deemed his methods too extreme, so they exiled him. For that to happen to a Templar, he really had to be threatening and twisted. Germain's plan was to use the Sword of Eden to establish a capitalist society in a revolution-torn France so that the Templars could control everything more easily.
He was so determined and crafty, that he caused a splinter the Templar order and created a faction within the said ancient faction. It's not only his ambition which is worrying; the fight with Germain can be intimidating since you have to spend most of the time hiding.
7 Lucius Septimius (Assassin's Creed Origins)
After what seemed to be a long and tiring goose chase of a plot, Aya was finally able to track down her son's killer. It turned out to be a Roman Legionnaire named Lucius Septimius a.k.a. The Jackal. Apart from being a suspiciously huge Roman, Septimius can also prove to be a tough boss.
However, it's not the final fight with him that was painful—it's the fact that you spend the whole game chasing him. Such a slog can take 30-40 hours with Bayek and Aya raging and aching over their son's death that the fight with Septimius was more exhausting than exciting. Did we also mention he was able to manipulate Julius Caesar and Cleopatra?
6 El Impoluto (Assassin's Creed Black Flag)
"El Impoluto" is not exactly a single character or human. It's actually a ship, and a daunting one at that. The El Impoluto is one of the five legendary ships in Assassin's Creed Black Flag and can be considered a boss due to how nightmare-inducing it is in a naval fight.
Its biggest and hardest-hitting weapon is a naval ram which can rip the Jackdaw to mere splinters in one hit. Avoiding it is even more difficult due to its speed despite its huge size. It's frustratingly faster than your smaller ship and can easily outmaneuver you. For many, El Impoluto is a one-way trip to Davy Jones' locker and is generally avoided.
5 Jack The Ripper (Assassin's Creed Syndicate)
The infamous Jack Ripper was introduced as downloadable content in Assassin's Creed Syndicate, and he is one of the most interesting bosses in the game. Apart from the fact that it's the very same Jack the Ripper who terrorized London in the late 1800s, he also nearly killed Jacob Frye.
The game made it so that Jack was once a member of the Assassin Brotherhood who went rogue. His mentor was none other than Jacob and he was displeased with their methods, so he sought to overtake the British branch of the Assassin Brotherhood. He proved to be a threat bigger than the Templars since he nearly exposed the hidden organization and made himself known to London as a nightmare.
4 Minotaur (Assassin's Creed Odyssey)
The Assassin's Creed games have prided themselves as semi-historically accurate up until the blatant fantasy and mythology elements were introduced in Origins and Odyssey. Still, it wasn't all that bad. In fact, these non-human boss fights proved to be a breath of fresh air for the aging formula.
The Minotaur was by no means a boring fight. He was scary, huge, and gave out good rewards compared to the previous final bosses above. Moreover, the fight mechanics for the Minotaur was exciting and threatening—two emotions you don't usually feel in Assassin's Creed boss fights.
3 Medusa (Assassin's Creed Odyssey)
Continuing the trend of epic monster boss fights in Odyssey, the Gorgon Medusa outranks the Minotaur when it comes to how powerful bosses can be. Against Medusa, you have to be more careful since being aggressive will turn you to stone. Apart from her rock-hard gaze, she also has several more tricks up her sleeve.
She can summon stone statues to fight for her, turn invisible, and teleport around the battlefield. In terms of capabilities, she's easily the most powerful boss in this list and could probably take over the game world if she wanted even without a piece of Eden.
2 Deimos (Assassin's Creed Odyssey)
Since it's set in ancient Greece, there just had to be a Greek tragedy in Assassin's Creed Odyssey. That came in the form of Deimos, your own sibling which could be Kassandra or Alexios depending on which character you choose to play. Deimos serves as one of the main antagonists of the whole game.
It's up to you to decide what you do with Demios, but therein lies another problem; he/she is better than you (at least until the late game). Also, Deimos apparently joined the very organization which ruined your family and is pretty much the progenitor of the Templar Order. So, you have to fight your sibling as the final boss, powerful dramatic stuff right there.
1 Cesare Borgia (Assassin's Creed Brotherhood)
It's not one's capability in combat which makes them powerful, it's actually their ambition and their feats. Cesare Borgia, despite being a mere man, has caused more damage than most final bosses in this list. He corrupted the Catholic church (his father was Pope), he put Europe through many wars, and he's killed those closest to Ezio Auditore and burned his home.
Moreover, Cesare was fearless, incestuous, and arrogant. In a game where you play as an assassin, Cesare was a villain you truly want to assassinate without regrets or boredom. He was a fitting enemy and a worthy opponent to the Assassin Brotherhood. Cesare's a villain you love to hate; he's hit so many nerves and ruined so many lives that ending him felt the most satisfactory out of all the Assassin's Creed bosses.