Boss fights . . . why do most of these genuinely blow

First off, I'm not saying "all" boss fights suck, everything has exceptions yes I know blah blah blah spare me.

The majority of boss fights in video games blow imo (so that if it wasn't clear before, I'm speaking from my personal experiences).

When I think boss fight, I think of a challenge that requires you to use your entire arsenal of skills to overcome a difficult adversary. Something that requires the player essentially be at the skill level the game requires of him/her to successfully meet upcoming challenges. The vast majority of games I've played actually blow at this. Boss fights become "hit stupidly obvious weak point" rinse and repeat" or, "now you are playing a puzzle game, have fun". Hell sometimes its "do exactly what you were doing on every other enemy before except heal more and hit it longer than a normal enemy". Now I understand for some games this is alright (context is everything right?) but far too many games and developers just suck ass at creating engaging boss fights. Its better to have no boss fights than shiitty boss fights 9 times out of 10. (you all know what games I'm talking about) I'm also not insisting that the fight needs to be "hard", it just needs to engagae the player and have them employ tactics to a higher degree than the challenges before it. Discuss.

* See Repetitive Pattern * Follow Repetitive Pattern * ???? * WinStevo_the_gamer

Pretty much :P

So true, there are so many boss fights that are unnecessarily hard or just don't feel fresh. One example being the Uncharted boss fights where you're engaging in a QTE 80% of the timeor doing the same thing over and over again. It has nothing to do with the skill you've accumulated from playing the game.

I'd say that Demon's Souls and Dark Souls are two current gengames that do boss fights right. You are forced to develop tactics for each boss and use weapons and resistances to take them down, it's challenging and requires skill. That's how boss fights should be like.

But that would make less people buy the products out of difficulty.... and we cant have that now can we :roll:MBirdy88

As I said in the opening, the fight doesn't have to be hard. The point is that the boss is suppose to have you use tactics you should have developed by playing the game (if the game had you playing right). A child's game or a game aimed at everyone can be easy but still have great boss fights. Good boss fights don't equate to deep gameplay.

If you are only investing your time in Nintendo bosses, than I can see how you would feel this way. Might I suggest your try your hand at some...

Metal Gear Solid

God of War

Demon's/Dark Souls ...bosses, just to start off with.

Or...Shadow of the Colossus. Every fight is an epic boss fight.

Excluding God of War 3, most of the boss fights from this gen are forgettable.

I just recently replayed the Megaman Zero games, and I got a quick (read: brutal)refresher lesson on what a boss battle is supposed to be.

Damn good games.

If you are only investing your time in Nintendo bosses, than I can see how you would feel this way. Might I suggest your try your hand at some...

Metal Gear Solid

God of War

Demon's/Dark Souls ...bosses, just to start off with.

Or...Shadow of the Colossus. Every fight is an epic boss fight.

ispeakfact

If you are only investing your time in Nintendo bosses, than I can see how you would feel this way. Might I suggest your try your hand at some...

Metal Gear Solid

God of War

Demon's/Dark Souls ...bosses, just to start off with.

Or...Shadow of the Colossus. Every fight is an epic boss fight.

ispeakfact

Yeah I'd say all of these games have some amazing boss fights.

Demon's/Dark Souls, God of War 3, Bayonettta, MGS4, DMC4, and Ninja Gaiden have definitely had the best bosses this gen

If you are only investing your time in Nintendo bosses, than I can see how you would feel this way. Might I suggest your try your hand at some...

Metal Gear Solid

God of War

Demon's/Dark Souls ...bosses, just to start off with.

Or...Shadow of the Colossus. Every fight is an epic boss fight.

ispeakfact

GoW boss fights are not all that good though they are above average. I've played SotC, (its one of my favourite games though it runs like a piece of crap on the PS2) and I agree its has amazing boss fights though I hardly count it because that's the entire games point. Its nothing without those, like actually nothing. I refuse to touch Mehtal Gear Solid with a 10 foot pool, not for me. why everyone thinks I only ever play Nintendo games I'll never know.

[QUOTE="ispeakfact"]

If you are only investing your time in Nintendo bosses, than I can see how you would feel this way. Might I suggest your try your hand at some...

Metal Gear Solid

God of War

Demon's/Dark Souls ...bosses, just to start off with.

Or...Shadow of the Colossus. Every fight is an epic boss fight.

Demonjoe93

SMG1 had pretty good boss battles, its not suppose to be hard but they did challenge your abilities which is the point. The problem with the SMG series as a whole with boss battles is how you fight the same version of bowser 3 times. Its unnecessary. Change it up or do it once. SMG2 improved one the general boss battles besides the bowser repetition thing. Gobbleguts for example was a good example of what I'm talking about. Mario series as a whole has trouble with boss battles, which is why Yoshi's Island is still the best in the series regarding bosses.

[QUOTE="ispeakfact"]

If you are only investing your time in Nintendo bosses, than I can see how you would feel this way. Might I suggest your try your hand at some...

Metal Gear Solid

God of War

Demon's/Dark Souls ...bosses, just to start off with.

Or...Shadow of the Colossus. Every fight is an epic boss fight.

ActicEdge

GoW boss fights are not all that good though they are above average. I've played SotC, (its one of my favourite games though it runs like a piece of crap on the PS2) and I agree its has amazing boss fights though I hardly count it because that's the entire games point. Its nothing without those, like actually nothing. I refuse to touch Mehtal Gear Solid with a 10 foot pool, not for me. why everyone thinks I only ever play Nintendo games I'll never know.

Interesting. I've heard gamers say Kratos is emo, annoying, hack and slash is repetitive. But, I can't say I've ever heard someone say that the bosses weren't good, but to each his own. Have you played all the games through? I'd like to hear your take on some of the bosses.

All of the crappy boss fights from this generation were made up for in 1 game.

God of War III.

[QUOTE="Demonjoe93"][QUOTE="ispeakfact"]

If you are only investing your time in Nintendo bosses, than I can see how you would feel this way. Might I suggest your try your hand at some...

Metal Gear Solid

God of War

Demon's/Dark Souls ...bosses, just to start off with.

Or...Shadow of the Colossus. Every fight is an epic boss fight.

ActicEdge

SMG1 had pretty good boss battles, its not suppose to be hard but they did challenge your abilities which is the point. The problem with the SMG series as a whole with boss battles is how you fight the same version of bowser 3 times. Its unnecessary. Change it up or do it once. SMG2 improved one the general boss battles besides the bowser repetition thing. Gobbleguts for example was a good example of what I'm talking about. Mario series as a whole has trouble with boss battles, which is why Yoshi's Island is still the best in the series regarding bosses.

I think my all time favorite boss fight has to be the fight with The End in Metal Gear Solid 3. Its one huge game of cat and mouse where you have to hide and search using all your gear. The best part is all the awesome little secrets, like being able to hold him up or catch his parrot or use a directional microphone to find him. Plus its also extra shameful that being shot down means not dying, but spawning in a jail cell and having to work your way to his area all over again.

If you are only investing your time in Nintendo bosses, than I can see how you would feel this way. Might I suggest your try your hand at some...

Metal Gear Solid ispeakfact

MGS1 and 2 had some great boss fights, 3 had only a handful, and 4's only good boss fight was against Liquid Ocelot. Not to mention the way to beat each boss is straight up told to you by using your Codec, and from then on it's repeat pattern until boss am ded.

[QUOTE="ActicEdge"]

[QUOTE="ispeakfact"]

If you are only investing your time in Nintendo bosses, than I can see how you would feel this way. Might I suggest your try your hand at some...

Metal Gear Solid

God of War

Demon's/Dark Souls ...bosses, just to start off with.

Or...Shadow of the Colossus. Every fight is an epic boss fight.

ispeakfact

GoW boss fights are not all that good though they are above average. I've played SotC, (its one of my favourite games though it runs like a piece of crap on the PS2) and I agree its has amazing boss fights though I hardly count it because that's the entire games point. Its nothing without those, like actually nothing. I refuse to touch Mehtal Gear Solid with a 10 foot pool, not for me. why everyone thinks I only ever play Nintendo games I'll never know.

Interesting. Can't say I've ever heard someone say that before, but to each his own. Have you played all the games through? I'd like to hear your take on some of the bosses.

Played 1 and some of 3. I am still on the side that thinks GoW just doesn't have good enough combat for its genre. Compare GoW to something like Ninja Gaiden, DMC or Bayonetta and I think the combat hold it back. I suppose though, I should say they are good but could be better. GoW bosses atleast are interesting. (Zeus at the end of 2 was pretty epic and fun and I liked the hydra thing in 1)

It is nice when a boss fight is actually challenging, but unless the boss fights are downright bad (ie broken like I hear they are in deus ex hr), then they're still at least fun if for no other reason than looking cool and breaking up the pace of the game a bit.

So true, there are so many boss fights that are unnecessarily hard or just don't feel fresh. One example being the Uncharted boss fights where you're engaging in a QTE 80% of the timeor doing the same thing over and over again. It has nothing to do with the skill you've accumulated from playing the game.

I'd say that Demon's Souls and Dark Souls are two current gengames that do boss fights right. You are forced to develop tactics for each boss and use weapons and resistances to take them down, it's challenging and requires skill. That's how boss fights should be like.

XVision84

[QUOTE="ActicEdge"]

[QUOTE="Demonjoe93"] Super Mario Galaxy's bosses werent very good (except for that shadow thing in SMG1), but Twilight Princess had some pretty good bosses, like that dragon.Demonjoe93

SMG1 had pretty good boss battles, its not suppose to be hard but they did challenge your abilities which is the point. The problem with the SMG series as a whole with boss battles is how you fight the same version of bowser 3 times. Its unnecessary. Change it up or do it once. SMG2 improved one the general boss battles besides the bowser repetition thing. Gobbleguts for example was a good example of what I'm talking about. Mario series as a whole has trouble with boss battles, which is why Yoshi's Island is still the best in the series regarding bosses.

Its pretty much my favourite game ever since Yoshi's island but that aspect is annoying. You go through this amazingly designed level to fight a barely altered version of bowser.

Didn't Edios outsource the bossfights in Deus Ex: HR?

I've never really seen a good bossfight in a shooter, or most other genre... but beat 'em ups do pretty well on them, 'least DMC 1, 3, 4 and Bayonetta

[QUOTE="ispeakfact"]

If you are only investing your time in Nintendo bosses, than I can see how you would feel this way. Might I suggest your try your hand at some...

Metal Gear Solid princeofshapeir

MGS1 and 2 had some great boss fights, 3 had only a handful, and 4's only good boss fight was against Liquid Ocelot. Not to mention the way to beat each boss is straight up told to you by using your Codec, and from then on it's repeat pattern until boss am ded.

All of the crappy boss fights from this generation were made up for in 1 game.

God of War III.

arkephonic

Edit: Whoops! Misread your post. :P Sorry about that. My bad.

[QUOTE="ispeakfact"]

[QUOTE="ActicEdge"]

GoW boss fights are not all that good though they are above average. I've played SotC, (its one of my favourite games though it runs like a piece of crap on the PS2) and I agree its has amazing boss fights though I hardly count it because that's the entire games point. Its nothing without those, like actually nothing. I refuse to touch Mehtal Gear Solid with a 10 foot pool, not for me. why everyone thinks I only ever play Nintendo games I'll never know.

ActicEdge

Interesting. Can't say I've ever heard someone say that before, but to each his own. Have you played all the games through? I'd like to hear your take on some of the bosses.

Played 1 and some of 3. I am still on the side that thinks GoW just doesn't have good enough combat for its genre. Compare GoW to something like Ninja Gaiden, DMC or Bayonetta and I think the combat hold it back. I suppose though, I should say they are good but could be better. GoW bosses atleast are interesting. (Zeus at the end of 2 was pretty epic and fun and I liked the hydra thing in 1)

[QUOTE="arkephonic"]

All of the crappy boss fights from this generation were made up for in 1 game.

God of War III.

nintendoboy16

[QUOTE="arkephonic"]

All of the crappy boss fights from this generation were made up for in 1 game.

God of War III.

nintendoboy16

Lol, I found it that it was annoying because it was repeated. The first fight with Bowser in SMG is epic and same with 2, the following like 3 times aren't.

[QUOTE="princeofshapeir"]

[QUOTE="ispeakfact"]

If you are only investing your time in Nintendo bosses, than I can see how you would feel this way. Might I suggest your try your hand at some...

Metal Gear Solid ispeakfact

MGS1 and 2 had some great boss fights, 3 had only a handful, and 4's only good boss fight was against Liquid Ocelot. Not to mention the way to beat each boss is straight up told to you by using your Codec, and from then on it's repeat pattern until boss am ded.

[QUOTE="nintendoboy16"][QUOTE="arkephonic"]

All of the crappy boss fights from this generation were made up for in 1 game.

God of War III.

ispeakfact

[QUOTE="princeofshapeir"]

[QUOTE="ispeakfact"]

If you are only investing your time in Nintendo bosses, than I can see how you would feel this way. Might I suggest your try your hand at some...

Metal Gear Solid ispeakfact

MGS1 and 2 had some great boss fights, 3 had only a handful, and 4's only good boss fight was against Liquid Ocelot. Not to mention the way to beat each boss is straight up told to you by using your Codec, and from then on it's repeat pattern until boss am ded.

I think my all time favorite boss fight has to be the fight with The End in Metal Gear Solid 3. Its one huge game of cat and mouse where you have to hide and search using all your gear. The best part is all the awesome little secrets, like being able to hold him up or catch his parrot or use a directional microphone to find him. Plus its also extra shameful that being shot down means not dying, but spawning in a jail cell and having to work your way to his area all over again.

SPYDER0416

[QUOTE="ispeakfact"][QUOTE="princeofshapeir"]

MGS1 and 2 had some great boss fights, 3 had only a handful, and 4's only good boss fight was against Liquid Ocelot. Not to mention the way to beat each boss is straight up told to you by using your Codec, and from then on it's repeat pattern until boss am ded.

AcidSoldner

Raging Raven was pretty good too. The boss fights were okay, but they were nowhere near the level of the previous games. They lacked that real emotional, epic feeling, and all of the Beauty and the Beast corps are annoying and silly antagonists with no real significance.

Its been like this for years in gaming.I havent ran into a boss fight that makes me use all my equipment I gained. The only close one was mega man and even then you can still use your pellet gun and win. Bosses are always just about pattern and hit the weak point or when the time is right. To me a fun boss fight is something that feels epic and keeps you moving. Recent example binary domain has some great fun boss fights. I looked forward to every single one and had a blast with each one.

[QUOTE="ispeakfact"][QUOTE="princeofshapeir"]

MGS1 and 2 had some great boss fights, 3 had only a handful, and 4's only good boss fight was against Liquid Ocelot. Not to mention the way to beat each boss is straight up told to you by using your Codec, and from then on it's repeat pattern until boss am ded.

AcidSoldner

I actually feel 3 had the weakest boss fights. With the final fight and proboly the end standing out. Also lack of background to the bosses which was a thing that was in ever other MGS I played hurt it as well.

[QUOTE="AcidSoldner"][QUOTE="ispeakfact"] Nah, the boss fights in MGS4 were pretty epic. Especially against Screaming Mantis. That was pretty freaky. Then fighting in Rex while Ocelot in in Ray. That was awesome. Definitely some killer bosses in that game.princeofshapeir

Raging Raven was pretty good too. The boss fights were okay, but they were nowhere near the level of the previous games. They lacked that real emotional, epic feeling, and all of the Beauty and the Beast corps are annoying and silly antagonists with no real significance.

I don't know if I'd necssarily say a majority of boss battles blow, but yeah, not a whole lot really "wow" me.

[QUOTE="princeofshapeir"]

[QUOTE="AcidSoldner"]I thought 4 had the weakest boss fights in the series. The only interesting ones where against Crying Wolf and Screaming Mantis.Zaibach

Raging Raven was pretty good too. The boss fights were okay, but they were nowhere near the level of the previous games. They lacked that real emotional, epic feeling, and all of the Beauty and the Beast corps are annoying and silly antagonists with no real significance.

[QUOTE="princeofshapeir"]

[QUOTE="AcidSoldner"]I thought 4 had the weakest boss fights in the series. The only interesting ones where against Crying Wolf and Screaming Mantis.Zaibach

Raging Raven was pretty good too. The boss fights were okay, but they were nowhere near the level of the previous games. They lacked that real emotional, epic feeling, and all of the Beauty and the Beast corps are annoying and silly antagonists with no real significance.

[QUOTE="princeofshapeir"]

[QUOTE="AcidSoldner"]I thought 4 had the weakest boss fights in the series. The only interesting ones where against Crying Wolf and Screaming Mantis.Zaibach

Raging Raven was pretty good too. The boss fights were okay, but they were nowhere near the level of the previous games. They lacked that real emotional, epic feeling, and all of the Beauty and the Beast corps are annoying and silly antagonists with no real significance.

I refuse to touch Mehtal Gear Solid with a 10 foot pool, not for me.

ActicEdge

The least you can do is buy MGS2:Substance and MGS3:Subsistence and experience the boss fights only through the "Boss Rush/Survival" modes.