Dark Beast Ganon – The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Everything in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is about your ultimate boss fight with series antagonist Ganon. The “Destroy Ganon” main story objective you get early on provides a poetically succinct mission statement. You can either methodically make your way through Hyrule, freeing all the Divine Beasts in order to power-up for the destined battle, or just go HAM and rush Hyrule Castle from the start. Either way you get to face off with the final boss. Only, as in many games’ “final” boss fights, it’s not quite so final.

See, after you defeat Ganon, he comes back stronger. The only trouble is this new, Dark Beast Ganon is comically easy to beat. Calamity Ganon, the first-round boss, combines moves from the lesser Blight Ganons you’ll encounter if you work on freeing the Divine Beasts. You’ve seen all that before, but Calamity Ganon at least ups the ante. But Dark Beast Ganon is a tired mess. You just soar through updrafts and shoot at him with an unlimited source of arrows. That second-part boss gimmick only works if I’m really spooked by the second half, willing myself to persevere through the challenge with my final scraps of endurance. Instead, Dark Beast Ganon just takes the wind out of my paraglider. — Lisa Marie Segarra

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