Most games have the "ultimate bad guy" right? Atleast most fighting, RPG, and shooter games do. These "Ultimate Bad Guys" are supposed to be the epiphany of evil (or good), but are often just plain annoying. For instance, take Xemnas of Kingdom Hearts 2. He seems like your typical oh-my-gosh-its-the-guy-in-the-black-cloak big final boss right? Well that final fight we're talking about? It actually takes place over about 5 (or 6, i lost track) battles. Yeah. First you have to battle his giant robot friend, then you battle him in king form, then you battle his pet dragon, then you battle him in king form again, then you battle him in final form. Dang that is 5 battles. Guess what? His health remains pretty much the same in all the battles. The robot can be killed by a bit of button mashing, and the dragon is just a play on of the space minigame from earlier on. Why do we have to fight him 5 times? The point is, making repetitive boss fights does not make a boss "hard", it makes them "annoying". Now im not saying you should just put in one fight where the boss is so powerful that he can kill the players in one hit (darn you Sephiroth!) but atleast bulk up the health bars a little bit. Theres a difference between button mashing and sitting there all day trying to defeat a psychotic cloak wearing freak. Game designers need to find better ways to induce the fear that final bosses should cause.
Number 1: Give them some flashy attacks. Going back to Xemnas, in the final fight he has a move where he grabs Sora (the main character) and starts draining the life out of him, all the while cloning himself so Riku can't save Sora. This is kind of cool, but they could've added some glowing effects or something to where he was killing Sora. Bosses should have flashy big attacks that are fun to watch but fun to avoid at the same time.
Number 2: Bulk up health bars. Final bosses with 10 hit points aren't a challenge, and leave the player in a "What the heck?" kind of state for the next few hours. Bosses need to have a decent amount of hitpoints to challenge the players, but at the same time not so much that it takes days to kill him. A decent balance of power is required.
Number 3: Cut out repetitive battles. No one wants to fight the same guy 5 times. Eventually it gets boring. Even with his pet heartless dragon. If needed bosses could have 2 or 3 really tough henchmen to send out before the actual battle. That makes it more interesting.
Number 4: Make a good reward. Players hate it when the final boss gives you just a stupid cutscene and the credits (i know i do!). Every good final boss needs a decent reward and endgame. Take the Pokemon series for instance. When you beat the elite four and the champion not only have you collected enough experience to make Gary gawk but you have also become the world champion, gotten into the hall of fame, gotten a star on your trainer card, and unlocked the endgame. And for those of you wondering what the heck an endgame is, its the part of the game after the final boss where you have little things to do like the Battle frontier. Also, a save point after the final boss makes people happy. We don't want to have to go back to our last save point to enjoy the game any more. I am not beating Xemnas again for the simple reason that there is no save point.
I hope that game developers can make better bosses in the future. If anyone has any good bosses they'd like to share, tell me who they are, what game, and what made them so good. And i don't want "Iggy Koopa!" because all you had to do was jump on his head. And throw him into lava. How pleasant. Anyway, thanks for reading everyone and keep on gaming!
Tee 3