While many other games in the Metroid series certainly have their difficult moments, Metroid Dread is packed full of them, usually manifesting in its many boss fights. Despite the newfound challenge that they bring to the series, Dread's bosses are the absolute highlight of the game, with each encounter being unique and memorable in its own ways. The absolute standout fight in the game, however, is the final boss Raven Beak, the mysterious Chozo Samus has been preparing to fight for the entire runtime of the game. Spoilers for Metroid Dread ahead.
As Metroid Dread is the final episode in the story started by the original Metroid in 1986, there were bound to be some major story beats at its climax, but the shocking reveal that Samus has fully turned into a Metroid paired with the revelation that Raven Beak is her father make for an emotionally heightened boss fight with the Chozo. Those story moments alone are enough to make for a good narrative conclusion following the battle, but the fact that the fight itself is perfectly designed makes for one of the most outstanding final boss fights in recent memory.
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Raven Beak is Metroid Dread's 'Final Exam'
A good final boss fight should feel like a test on everything that the player has learned up to that point in a game. Managing the difficulty curve of a title isn't something easily done, but Metroid Dread's studio, MercurySteam, did a great job at letting the game's challenge come to a boil for the final fight. As Samus regains more and more of her abilities over the runtime of Dread, the bosses that she encounters begin getting much more complicated and lethal, requiring the player to make use of each new ability that they've found up to that point.
By the time the player begins the final fight with Raven Beak, they've got a pretty diverse loadout, meaning that the fight can't make good on using every single item discovered in the game - but the ones that it does use are some of Metroid Dread's core mechanics. By necessitating the use of abilities like the Storm Missle, the Power Bomb, the Space Jump/Screw Attack, the Flash Shift, and more, the fight truly feels like the accumulation of all of the skills that the player has been honing over the course of the game.
Earlier enemies even help the player prepare for the final fight in some interesting ways. The EMMI teach the player to constantly be on the lookout for ways to avoid attacks and openings that are just big enough for Samus to slide through, as sliding underneath Raven Beak is an essential part of staying alive for the encounter. Additionally, the several Chozo soldiers that the player battles, both robotic and not, feature some altered versions of Raven Beak's moveset. This means that, by the time the player begins the fight with Samus' father, they already have a little bit of knowledge on how to handle him.
Just because the player has been prepped a little bit ahead of time doesn't mean that it isn't the most challenging battle of the entire Metroid series. Raven Beak's four forms are tough and push the player to their limits, as beating him requires split-second decisions and a true mastery of Metroid Dread's mechanics. He's the perfect amalgamation of what the game is about at its core when it comes to the literal sense of its mechanics as well as its narrative beats. Because he's the last major enemy that the player deals with, he serves as a spectacular send-off for Metroid Dread.
Metroid Dread is available now on Nintendo Switch.