Boss Battle Design Vol. 2 - Designing Engaging Boss Fights in Games
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- Опубликовано: 2 окт 2019
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Is your video game boss too easy? Too hard? Too long? Too short? Hang on, you might be looking at it wrong. You might make a better boss fight if you focus on engagement instead. Let's talk about designing engaging boss fights, with a few good and bad examples of engagement in boss battles.
Featuring:
A Hat In Time
Sonic 06
Final Fantasy X
Final Fantasy XII
Borderlands
Castle Crashers
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#ahatintime #ffx #sonic06 
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4:15 "A piano starts to play"
*I, Director, have a dream*
It's useless.
Muda da
Thank you for actually LABELING your spoilers ahead of time. A big pet peeve in videos like these is when people say "Spoilers ahead", but you have no way of knowing what the spoilers are for until they say "[Insert Game] - Major Spoiler"
You calling Alba a damage sponge is the most accurate thing I've ever heard.
you wouldn't expect a damage sponge in a text based game
until you're hit with MUH EXTRATERRITORIAL RIGHTS
@@redjarman Taking down that guy felt more tedious than counting every grain of sand on a beach. I am so thankful that the final boss of Investigations 2 didn't follow in Alba's footsteps.
@@justinecourtneysgavel89 Well, he was too easy ... Balloon, balloon, balloon, done.
i don’t know anything about ace attorney please explain
@@theneighborhoodidiot7768 They're good games. Ignore what you've read here, that's kind of spoilery.
Wanted to point out a little narrative detail in the Yunalesca fight.
During the game, Yuna, at least if she adheres to her own grid, has the role of your party's combined White Mage and Summoner. She is a crucial team member for keeping the rest of your characters alive. However, this boss fight subverts her role to suit the narrative. Once the zombie status hits, her usual strategy of keeping people topped off becomes detrimental. However...
If you've been following her path through the grid, around this point you likely finally unlock the only offensive white magic spell, Holy - which hits like a truck at this point in the game. And what's more - it's one of Yunalesca's only weaknesses.
In the narrative, this is the tipping point where Yuna confirms her decision to defy tradition and the dying order of the world that is clinging desperately and venomously at life. This is where she begins to go on the offensive with the support of the people that she loves.
yes quercus alba ABSOLUTELY counts as a damage sponge. turnabout ablaze just NEVER ENDS
That boss is excruciating. It feels like half the game is just that boss fight. Someone should clock it, it's possible that half the game really is just that fight.
The never ending nightmare of a Prosecutor, Extraterritorial Rights and politics.
God i paused that boss fight 4 times before finishing it
That was definitely a war of attrition
I did it
No
HOLD IT
I did it
No
HOLD IT
I did it
No
HOLD IT
I did it
No
HOLD IT
I did it
No
HOLD IT
My favorite fight definitely has to be the Pure Vessel in Hollow Knight. In the normal game, you reach the final boss, the Hollow Knight, and defeat it. But when you go through the optional God Home area, which is a massive boss rush, you don't get to fight the Hollow Knight, but the Pure Vessel, the HK at the peak of it's strength. And you can clearly see how it's moves and attacks all are based on what the HK used in the original fight, only cranked up to 11.
Combustible Lemons I think that the hollow knight itself is a perfect exemple of good boss design and a even better case to study cause in addition to being a funny encounter he is a gateway boss to the radiance and is build to not be too much of a pain in the ass to fight over and over and to still be ready at the end of the fight for the real one against the radiance
@@lesiropalamenthe6100 In contrast, The Radiance is a massive difficulty spike, and is a big endurance-based slog
And Absolute Radiance is a middle finger to all that attempt the Big Boy's Pantheon of Boringness.
Mine is probably Sisters of Battle. The timing and flow of that fight makes you feel like an absolute badass, and when you beat them you get to have that moment of respect for each other.
Mr. CobbWeb absolute radiance is the only bad part of the game to me
A boss I loved was hollow knight's mantis lords. You can fight them without upgrades (a challenge which I enjoyed in my first playthrough) or after a while with double jump and shadow dash. Their battle feels like you are dancing, the game teaches you the boss by having you battle one mantis and learning her patterns, and after you defeat it, TWO join at the same time making you double your tempo. Great battle, nice challenge and a good OST
Good The mantis lords were so much fun.
And then sisters of battle turns it up to 11
the mantis lords are one of my favorite boss fights of all time
This might be a controversial one, but I love the totem-pokemon in Gen7 and would always prefer them over any gymleader. A gym leader is just a normal trainer 3 level higher than the normal levelcurve. Some have a TM-move, but barely anyone makes a difference.
Totemfight uses actual strategies, like weather effects and have typecoverage(at least in USUM) and the higher stats don't let you one/twoshot everyone with something effective, making setups like weather and other statusmoves viable. You don't need to buff/debuff, if you can twoshot everyone already.
I still don't know what Salazzle was supposed to do though- I picked up Dronkey-a ground type- from the area at the bottom of the mounain and wanted to try him out as I got accustomed to what the boss does.
Because Salazzle has a X4 weakness to ground, I one shot it with bulldozer by accident instead.
@@YourCrazyDolphin well^^ its supposed to poisen you and uses moves against poisened Targets Like venomtrap and venomshock,was it?(Not Sure about the english names; one deals Double damage and one decreases some Stats by 2)
@@MrNovascar Venom Drench and Venoshock. Also, definitely! The totem fights were the best boss fights Pokémon has had since Colosseum and XD (which, in my opinion, are wonderful games). And they're often bulky enough to take a hit from something without going down- but there are always ways to stop it in its tracks. For instance, a Rampardos with a Steel-type Z-move can absolutely demolish a Totem Mimikyu. But it isn't something the game tells you. You have to pick up the fossil for Cranidos, see its ability (which nullifies other abilities when attacking) and figure out that it might be able to break through Totem Mimikyu's Disguise ability. Essentially, this style of boss fight really allows you to get creative with what you bring- and there is usually a trade not far from the Totem Pokemon for something that would help a lot for the fight- a Bounsweet before Totem Wishiwashi, or an Arbok before Totem Lurantis (if i recall correctly). These all really help to ingrain the teambuilding aspect of Pokémon- and they're a wonderful take on Pokémon's open and unique gameplay. (not story openness, team structure openness.)
@@marcodipietro813 That's something I always thought was really interesting about Pokemon; You often need to have it pointed out before you realize it, but fairly often, the game will offer you an option that will help you against an upcoming challenge. For example, the Fire Type Ponyta is available around the same time you fight the Grass Leader, Gardenia, in DPPt, and in GSC, they offer you the Electric Magnemite right before the big Surf from Olivine to Cianwood, which is populated with a lot of Water Types (a sizable number of the trainers in Olivine Lighthouse also use Flying Types if memory serves, too).
I loved all the totem fights except for Salazzle because I beat the actual totem but lost to the backup and that counted as losing the whole fight even though the TOTEM pokemon In the TOTEM fight fainted
Really glad to see Conductor/DJ Grooves boss getting the recognition it deserves. Possibly my favourite boss of all time (partly to do with it having one of my favourite songs in a game too lol), and it was always because of how it kept changing and encapsulated the whole chapter. Great vid!
I was originally going to focus on the Snatcher for this but when I broke it down, the Battle of the Birds was just a more complete package. Both fights are great though.
@@DesignDoc agreed, I like the birds just *marginally* more than Snatcher but both are great yeah
Best part is fighting both at the same time in the death wish
@@DesignDoc Kind of wish you said something about fighting them both in the death wish, like as a side note. but its cool glad you did a hat in time.
@@DesignDoc im just happy hat in time is in this
Great to see A Hat in Time appearing in one of these videos. Love seeing that amazing game get some well deserved attention.
One of my favorites of all time is Senator Armstrong from Metal Gear Rising.
To start off he has the earlier two phases where he can barely be damaged, showing just how strong he is when he breaks the sword that used to tear apart cyborgs and seems like nothing you throw at him can properly deal damage. So when you get Sam's sword to start really doing some damage, you feel all the more powerful.
Then there's the fact that he tests every skill the game has drilled into you all game. Dodging, parrying, ninja run, zandatsu, QTEs, the works. And if you don't show that you've learned everything up until now, you're doing it over until you demonstrate that you've mastered all those skills. As a final boss should be, it's the ultimate do-or-die final exam. And it knows how to end things, with the final clash that leads you to one final zandatsu finisher to rip his heart out. Satisfaction.
Dont forget
nAnO MaChInEs SoN
There's also his famous speech, which is just as much a part of why he's such a great boss as anything else you said there.
Also, can't forget about the amazing music it has playing in the background.
Armstrong is really great, I agree. But one thing I never would have figured out myself is that you need to go behind him to stop him from healing.
@@artey6671 Really? I thought it was kinda obvious with that green blowing light that was in contrast to everything else on his then darkened skin.
One of my favorites, both in general and in the Legend of Zelda series in particular, is Koloktos from Skyward Sword. Perfect example of a short, engaging boss fight that doesn't overstay its welcome. You had a pretty gimmicky "hey let's show off the Wii Motion Plus" dungeon item in the Whip, and then suddenly you're using it to tear this giant, six-armed automaton limb from limb. And then as soon as you've figured out the (pretty simple) first phase, the machine pulls itself out of the ground (yep, it's even taller than you thought), whips out six comically huge scimitars out of nowhere, and tries to bring three of them down on your head. In the second phase, the boss is mobile, attacks with greater reach and a broader arc, and has a couple more tricks up its six sleeves. But it requires very nearly the same tactic as the first, so off you go again for another two rounds.
It's a short fight, but it's exactly as long as it needed to be. Everything about that moment when you tear one of its arms off sells you on just how heavy they are, and the release as the joint gives and the impact as it hits the floor are immensely satisfying. And then getting to pick up one of those scimitars, each as tall as Link is, and whaling on Koloktos with its own weapon feels like sweet, sweet justice. If the fight had continued any longer, the gimmick might have started to feel tedious, but as it is, it's a great memory that makes me want to replay that battle every time I think about it.
That whole dungeon was the highlight of Skyward Sword, IMO
@@marcschwartz5676 Something weird considering that thing was THE WATER DUNGEON. Good job, Nintendo.
@@N12015 Nintendo figured out that swimming was the worst part of their water dungeons, so if I remember correctly, most of the ancient cistern is set above water level.
@@steamtasticvagabond474 That, and they made water movement not terrible. It's still not amazing, but it's not godawful like every other game either.
It's surprising how water levels don't suck nearly as much when you make going through water not suck as much.
Seriously, devs: If you put water in the game and expect the player to spend any remotely meaningful amount of time in it, *make moving in water fun.* If you can't do that, then don't require the player to spend more than a single minute in the water across the entire game.
Thinks about Persona 3: "The arcana is the means by which all is revealed."
*Night queen intensifies*
My thoughts exactly
U sneaky fox, thats dimitri's song in the end. One of the best boss characters i know
It's very good.
@@DesignDoc As a character Dimitri is awesome, but as a boss fight however he is insanely difficult (among the top three most challenging bosses of the game and yet he is the very first one). My uncle never wanted to get past chapter 1 because of this fight that made him ragequit too often.
"it's a little cheap" no.....no it's just cheap. There is nothing fair about a beginner trap, it'll just trip you up once and then never again.
I honestly really like the Ardha summon in the twin boss fight in Persona 5. The first time around its so freking cool that I dont care that I lost. Its not explained but once figured out its an interesting mechanic that makes me rethink my aproach.
masterofdoom5000
Thats the point of a boss battle, if you fail once, you try again.
"It'll just trip you up once"
*Laughs in Sans*
@@revolvingworld2676 I would really argue that that's not the point. Bosses should be fairly made so that it's fair and with enough skill, beatable on the first try. Throwing in some shit like that, no one could see it coming, I think it's utter bullshit.
It doesn't even make sense story wise. Why would someone maintain an ailment during a fight for their lives? "Oh cool, of course I'm going to stay sick during this fight that could mean my demise."
It's like your character either knew they were going to need that or they didn't and would never have stayed sick(unless the party leader is some kind of sociopath who doesn't share status removals).
I love Yukiko from persona 4.
I approached her without having trained much, as she is the first real boss in the game.
It took me so much time to win, but it was really engaging, because that's when you learn that the bosses require quite a lot of strategy in that game.
For me, Persona 4 has the better bosses in the series. P5 has cool setups for their fights but they're just a little too easy or a little too short. Still pretty good but they could've been truly great with just a few tweaks. P3's non-Tartarus boss fights are mostly pathetically easy. Even Nyx...at least until the very end where it just starts to spam Night Queen on your party and you have the possibility of a charmed member casting DIARAHAN on him...
@@DesignDoc Persona 5 suffered a nasty delay because Earthquakes, so they left the fine-tuning for P5 Royal. Not that different from Persona 4 Golden fixed the suffocating pacing during early game. Also the lack of Winter.
@@DesignDoc I didn't have the opportunity to play 5 yet, and just began playing 3 FES. I just found the bosses really easy until now.
So, maybe bring something about 4 next video. Really love what you do.
@@DesignDoc I really want you to do Royal's true final boss than cause the first phase of that fight is done really well.
@@DesignDoc while I agree about P3 Bosses being on the easy side I liked them for some mechanics. Like Strength/Chariot with their Splitting up mechanic, Fortune and Justice with their roulette or hanged man with the statues.
My favorite thing about the Snatcher boss fight from A Hat In Time, is the music.
That shit pumped me up
Thank you for bringing out A Hat in Time ! The bosses there are in perfect balance of challenge and fun.
Lithium Battery It’s an amazing game
One of my favorite bosses also comes from one of my favorite games of all time. Vergil in Devil May Cry 3 is such an amazing boss. All 3 times you fight him, he has something new that tests you as the player.
Not to mention the music in all 3 fights is hype af.
Agreed. We actually discuss Vergil in detail in our Rivals video.
When you stop to think about it, most Swordsman make great boss fights on DMC.
Nelo Angelo in DMC1
Vergil and Agni & Rudra on DMC3
Credo on DMC4 (Dante is also pretty good, very hard tho)
Cavaliere Angelo and Vergil on DMC5
For me tho, Vergil still is the best (Even better than Credo), mostly for those reasons:
- His "Phases" are split throughout the game, which means that not only he gets stronger, but Dante gets Stronger as well.
- He always brings something new, like Beowulf, Devil Trigger, Force Edge. But he keeps using his previous moves as well, increasing in complexity, but not overwhelming the player with new attack patterns to learn on the go.
I still think the first fight is the best
It doesn't do much of anything better than the other two fights, but it sets up the rivalry with a big difficulty spike that shows you as the player what you're in for
When I first fought him, it forced me to actually wake up and give it my all, and made me actually want to do so, something I hadn't felt in years
I do love the conductor fight, but I think the Seal the Deal version where you fight both a buffed grooves and a buffed conductor at the same time is way better. It's hard as hell but at the same time so much fun.
Bayonetta has really fun bosses, they’re like the grandest part of the game and the part you look forward to
Sometimes it even felt like bosses are one with the stage. Pure awesomeness.
@@Gnidel yeah Bayontta manages to balance good gameplay with impressive spectacle.
2:32
Conductor: Oh, So am nah good enough fer ye'? Well fine then, ya lousy peck neck, have fun with DJ peck neck!
Pretty much every boss in Nier Automata, they're either massive damage sponges or don't stand a chance against you (the big fish machine is the worst example, it feels like you've been fighting it for ages but you absolutely obliterate everything it throws your way)
The giant fish? I think you mean the bunny statue in the amusement park. I swear even using the most damaging pod which is bomb off cooldown + A2 beserker mode for double melee damage and being max level, it takes like 3 mins of attacking before it even wakes up and actually starts the fight. Despite fighting that thing twice now my brain literally runs out of memory space when it comes to how long that section takes.
@@kempolar9768 none of the story bosses are damage sponges. I meant the tank in the desert that required like 20 minutes of slowly chipping its health
@@JohnyParuwka Yeah the gold enemies just were not fun to fight, thats a fact all players can agree on.
My favorite is Mr Freeze from Arkham City. He has the most simple gimmick: he learns. It becomes a cat and mouse game as he slowly takes away your options. A delight.
The first encounter in Yakuza 0 with Kuze is one of my favorites for all 3 reasons you gauged the other bosses on. It has an amazing theme, plot engagement and acts as a test of skill which incentivizes you for using specific stances in specific phases and im glad you at least showed him in some of the background gameplay.
That moment when both Design Doc & Game Maker's Toolkit both upload simulltaneously.
TANDEM DESIGN
But no, that was not planned.
Today was a "Must learn" day, I love these channels
NightFore G I G A N U T
Another thing about a hat in time fights is they're unpredictable in the best way. They take more than 3 hits to kill and you have no indication of how much health they have.
Not only does this keep you on the edge of your seat on hard fights: you will never know if the next hit is the last, but it also makes phase changes smoother, arguably less noticeable. There is a moment in mustache girl's fight where she constantly teleports away from you and fires a laser from a distance. This catches the player by "surprise", as there's no indication of this pattern change, the player just figures it out on their own, a satisfying thing to do in any game
I legit never knew that the Zombie status effect kept you safe from Megadeath in Yunalesca's fight. I usually just had all my Aeons tank their way through her third phase.
well Megadeath essentially rips the life force of your party members out of them, so if they're zombies, and therefore don't have any life force to speak of, then they're safe
never thought of quercus alba as a damage sponge but thank you for that image because it's just so great.
You know what really annoys me? Rpg bosses where there is only one build/party setup that can stand a chance or when a boss forces me to use some characters that i haven't leveled up. This gets worse on a second playthrough for me because now im using the same class/character/strategy in all my playthroughs because i don't want to have to grind like that again.
I example of this (from a game i have been playing recently) would be the boiling lizard from etrian oddysey 4 who also has a god-awful gimmick to go along with this. Essentially throughout the dungeon there are these scales that deal damage to you if you walk past them and can only be destroyed by using ice stakes you gain at gather points scattered throughout the dungeon, Once you finally get to the boss room you find that there are scales everywhere and the boss is chasing you down. destroying all the scales weakens him enough to actually be possible for a not overleveled party though you take a bunch of damage and probably waste some of your healers tp in the process. So even before the fight starts this boss frustrates me.
Then you actually fight the thing. every boss in this game takes and deals a bunch of damage, normally this is okay because the fights don't drag on to long and they deal enough damage and have a varied enough attack pattern for things to stay interesting. The bosses encourage you to keep a steady offense so that you can defeat them before you run out of resources basically.The boiling lizard seems to be cut from the same cloth, until he busts out his special gimmick. He summons a bunch of his scales as minions. What they do is that they follow-up on the bosses fire attacks, these attack are frequently multi-hit attacks and already deal a ton of damage. If you don't have a character capable of using ice attacks you are screwed, because the only ways to keep these things from annihilating you is through using the ice stakes you gather throughout the dungeon (which you have a very limited amount of) which destroys them or through the use of ice attacks (which temporarily deactivates them).Now remember when i said that these bosses encourage you to have a steady offense? Having your attackers spend turns to destroy them just means that you will run out of resources before the boss runs out of hp and your medics and buffers are way to busy doing their jobs. So the only way to not lose your sanity is to use THE class with multi target ice attacks. A class that i didn't use so i had to grind. That was certainly a fun experience
etrian odyssey allows you to put ice element attributes on weapons, use team skills w/ these ice attributed weapons, ect.
you didn't need to level up a warlock(mage dude), you could've just spammed the freeze oil on all of your party members.
to be fair, i havent fought this boss.
you really didn't need to level up a mage. and you could've saved union skills just for dealing damage with the boss, and then had your main damage dealers attack the scales themselves. ofc, just paralyzing the boss and beating the shit out of it was a strategy too.
etrian odyssey didn't require you to have a single class, it just required you to use *everything* the game gave you.
... not that I know how effective the freeze oil is. i'd assume it jsut turns all your damage into Ice damage.
Some of my favorite JRPG bosses are the Ba'als from Bravely Second. They're all optional bosses, aside from a couple encounters in the main story. Despite being mostly fought in optional battles, they have significant relevance to the main plot. They have very memorable designs, boss arenas, and music fitting the encounter. Every one of them has a unique gimmick that you need to take into account while building your party and fighting them.
Redshirt, for example, takes the Yunalesca approach by messing with your healing. It inflicts the Gluttony status, which converts all damage taken into healing, but KO's the party member if they get healed above max health.
Other notable Ba'als include Turtle Dove who inflicts Love, which makes your party members copy the moves of the member they're in Love with. If two members both Love the same person, they'll instead waste their turn attacking each other as Love Rivals.
Snowcap cast powerful Ice magic on everyone including itself, making itself bigger. If it gets big enough, it does a massive attack on your party, but you can make Snowcap lose some snow and get smaller by attacking it. Things get more complicated when it inflicts the Freeze status (basically Stop + Poison) which you can heal by attacking an afflicted party member with Fire magic.
Apparati uses elemental attacks that make you weak to different elements. It's water attack makes you weak to lightning, the lightning attack makes you weak to fire, and the fire attack makes you weak to water. It will also counteract at the end of the turn with Action-Reaction, dealing damage to a single party member equal to the damage Apparti took that turn, which can KO any party member if you're not careful.
Goldie summons other enemies who will buff themselves, but Goldie will eventually eat then to take their buffs and heal. It also uses Festival Music to confuse everyone, including all the enemies, which can result in Goldie eating a party member and removing them from battle.
Urchin is able to summon enemies that attack your party when they attack, but the real challenge comes when Urchin uses Rainfall to block all attacks that deal less than 9,999 damage (which is the damage cap) for a few turns.
Firstborn has an innate 85% Evade ability, which lets it avoid attacks 85% of the time. It can be bypassed by using reflected attacks, or brute forced by attack multiple times. Once it gets hit twice, it'll fall over, making it much easier to hit for a turn.
Diamante has an innate ability to reflect your attacks back at the party, making for a long battle where you aren't able to attack with all your might.
They are great bosses in design, but the problem I had in bravely second was that magic was way too op. You can create a setup with multicast and other abilities to basically hit meteor (9999[dmg cap]x4)x4 [meteor rain with multicast and echo and an ability which reduces mp cost to 0 if hp
Some of my favorite types of boss fights in turn-based RPGs are ones that test your use of elements. Some examples being Emperor/Empress (which was also a great way to show how much faster Fuuka is than Mitsuru with scans) from Persona 3, Shadow Kanji with his Nice & Tough Guys in 4, & a fair chunk of the bosses in Octopath Traveller (One of my personal favorites so far was one of the later game ones that would change up his weaknesses after each break to one of 3 sets).
Also a good chunk of Mario RPG bosses with how each of them use the timed hit/action command systems of those series, especially Mario & Luigi. Dark Bowser from Inside Story being my favorite final boss of any Mario game.
As for action RPGs, the fight with Roxas in KH2 will forever be one of my favorites because I am a sucker for mano-y-mano bosses that test your knowledge of mechanics (still haven't beaten Data Roxas but I'll get there... eventually)
The first is of etrian odyssey 5 along with sort of the final super boss of of the same game.
So the first boss is a large golem made of smaller golems, the main thing it does is explode to do heavy damage to everyone, but afterwards you see that all that's left is a few small golems. As the fight goes on they start clumping together to reform the big golem. At the same time if you look at the map on the bottom screen you will see that more small golems are coming to life and walking towards you. The goal is to beat the main body, you have to defeat the small golems to make sure the main one cant complete itself to do the explosion attack, but as you beat them the small golems walking to you replace the defeated ones. This is where the map comes into play. In the labyrinth you find totems that must be turned to block and unblock paths, around the boss room you will find a few that blocks off the little golems. Do that before the boss fight and while some small golems can still reach you, it will not be as many. This fight becomes much easier to make sure they dont become the big golem.
Then the final super boss. It's mostly the same. Except its opening move is the explosion that makes it lose all its body parts. Again the goal is to beat the main body, however instead of its body coming back together, every few turn it regenerates body parts, and here is where the challenge comes in. Each body part gives the boss an extra attack along with giving the boss a new buff, as its life gets lower it starts regaining its body parts faster and faster. You can destroy each body part individually and while it's possible to do at the start of the fight and still get good damage on the main body, at a certain point they come back too fast to kill and still do decent damage to the body. AMD ofcoarse if it regenerates all its body parts, its next move will be the explosion.
Those are my personal favorite in jrpgs anyways.
One of my usual gripes when it comes to RPG bosses it just how mechanically detached they are from the rest of the game. For example, Persona 5 is about hitting opponents elements and statuses they are weak to, abusing weaknesses and strengths to win, and every boss is just a damage sponge with no weaknesses and immunity to all statuses. So many games do this. It uproots the system we became accustom to. With this being said, my favorite RPG final boss has to be Akron from Epic Battle Fantasy 3. The gameplay is similar to persona’s element based system, just without the knockdown mechanics. This boss does have weaknesses to certain elements, but where he’s unique is his ability to change his elemental strengths and weaknesses at will. It’s about using all of the different strategies you’ve come up with throughout your play through as a final test of mastery. It is about adapting and using what you’ve learned to fight him. You can also mess with status effects too, as he’s only immune to instant death. He allows you to use every strategy you’ve ever had against him, which makes this long fight super worthwhile.
So, if you haven't, maybe check HEARTBEAT out. The final boss of that game is effectively a boss rush of all the previous minibosses, and thus you need to adapt strategy during each phase.
You still can't deny that Kaneshiro is the best boss just because of P i g g y t r o n
Well your statement is false because some bosses in Persona 5 do have weaknesses and ailment susceptibility. I'm playing it right now and have done all-out attacks several times against bosses like with the Okumura battle which pretty much just doing all-outs as soon as you can. the blue bots are weak to wind, the yellow ones were weak to psychokinesis if I'm not mistaken, and then there were plenty of other bosses in Mementos and throughout each palace that became regular enemies later that had weaknesses too and even with the weakness thing, there were plenty of regular enemies that had no weakness either like Dionysus so it's not like it came out of nowhere. Yo, I don't see how you even said that. When was the last time you played?
@@s-wo8781 Except the robots in okumara's fight can't get knocked down even if you hit their weaknesses?
@@s-wo8781 Well, here's the thing, you listed stuff that don't really qualify as proper boss battles. Okumera isn't really a boss fight, it's more of an enemy rush. Under that context for that one boss, yes, you get to play the game using the skills and strategies you've come up with and that is great. However, look at every other primary boss. They are immune to non-unique statuses and only have either absorb or reflect elements, no weaknesses. Even enemies with no weaknesses can still be handled through the use of either criticals or statuses like burn or dispair, but not bosses as they just throw out all of the rules. Prime example (spoilers) is Shido. He is just a bullet sponge who reflects all phys damage. He is immune to every status as well. There is no strategy to the fight other than bring rage immunity and keep your health up while hitting him with you biggest attack over and over. The Okumera boss kinda sucks due to how underwhelming it is, but at least it keeps the core gameplay loop of going for knockdowns that the game is known for. The other main fights just disregard the system and ask your to hurl damage at a brick wall until a scripted scenario gives you a free knockdown that would have been impossible otherwise.
As for mementos, those are not bosses, they are just regular enemies with large health pools, and or more akin to minibosses who test your memory of the unit they are based off of. I think they are fine, but in the grand scheme of the game, they are unimportant and can be ignored. Most people I know who played the game never went there unless they had to.
Sorry for the long response, but you seemed like you deserved a proper reply. I adore the game, but the bosses just aren't interesting mechanically.
A good boss ruined by a compulsory gauntlet is (Octopath "spoilers") :
Galdera, the true final boss. The design and having to split all 8 characters in 2 parties for the magic and physical phase is a nice twist, thought many players like me were caught off guard as they had a main party of 4 and the other cast were underleveled. The boss' design is great, but it's ruined by the gauntlet of 8 bosses (after which you CAN'T save your game, die and redo all the killing for 30 minutes in a hard final boss) and it's a bit of a damage sponge, having way too much HP. But with a good strategy is beatable without cheating it out.
Oh definitely. This is boss is fantastic but it's ruined by the slog required to get there. The lack of a save spot is probably the only thing keeping me from beating it. I just don't want to do that again. And good boss design is not discouraging fighting fighting it in the first place because of a slog that it's unfortunately hooked on.
I just began Hollow Knight and my favorite boss so far has been The Mantis Lords.
It was trilling to uncover the patterns in the first one, only to find out later that I would have to fight the other 2 at once. The way they are designed made it feel like a coreographed dance (of death) and finally beating then so effortlessly after I got the gist felt amazing.
Finally a new video, awesome! This channel is so amazing. I love how they break down all the different mechanics games can have! It is so interesting, I wish they uploaded more videos. Keep up the great work design doc! I am eagerly awaiting your next video.
One of my favorite and most memorable boss fights is the Dung Defender in Hollow Knight, just for the difference in tone and setup compared to the others. You've just slogged through the requisite sewer level, things are getting... messier... you hear laughter up ahead, and suddenly this big guy pops up and challenges you! And laughs like a merry man from Robin Hood throughout the battle! He's not evil, or corrupted, or a ravenous monster, he's just a guy protecting an important area who's happy to have a worthy sparring partner, and I think that's awesome.
Xenoblade does this great (to an extent) even if the boss battles are really slow paced whne looked by an outsider, when you're playing you gotta manage your skills really fast to keep the heat bar and party gauge up, but the icing on the cake is the future visions, every once in a while shulk will have a vision of an attack that will probably one shot on of your party members (or all of them) and you gotta deal with preventing that attack from happening by protecting a party member or incapacitating the boss, this is impossible if your party gauge is depleted though. All this gives a first timer a constant sense of urgency when doing boss battles.
At their best, Xenoblade bosses (and I'm talking the entire series here) are intense exercises in keeping pressure on the boss, timing your cooldowns, and managing status inflictions.
At worst, they're the Vita. Fuck the Vita.
Damage sponges arent engaging
Every mmorpg boss: *starts sweating
I mean, good MMO boss fights tend to have unique mechanics that ramp up as the fight goes on. Incentives to move around the field (or trying to figure out where to best stay in place if your class can't function while moving), additional targets to deal with properly (and not just standard enemies), certain points that put greater strain on the healers and tank, and longer bosses tend to have great variety and/or multiple phases to prevent it from getting stale.
If an MMO boss is just an HP bar that continuously lowers one or more player's HP, the designers have failed.
@@unlurkingsentinel6872 I agree, but I must say that MMORPG bosses can get away with changing it up a bit less.
Sometimes a damage sponge with an army of minions can be more than enough to properly test teamwork and communication while still providing a decent challenge for any build not designed for boss killing and crowd control. Not saying this is all MMORPG bosses should be, but there are enough variations on this formula that a decent half of the bosses could be that and it would be just fine (though, not saying it would be good).
Although... I haven't played a lot of MMORPGs so who I am to say. Any free or cheep MMORPGs that are any good? been looking for something to sink my teeth into.
@@frogfox4287 Albion Online. I've since quit but it's pretty neat - I played as a healer and did some dungeons with a couple of strangers, I had to unlock a weapon perk to avoid constantly running out of mana (the skill was you get 3 back every time you attack) and also spamming skills at the same time, trying to prioritize the tank while also protecting the fragile attackers... and also having to dodge attacks at the same time... that was pretty damn engaging
I think one of my favorite bossfights have to be Beowulf from DMC3. I just love the way they adapt the fight so well for the use of 4 different styles. It has very quick and high damaging attacks that either fit with the Trickster style for those who want close-call dodges and defensive approaches, or those using Royal Guard that prefer to dwelve right in them risking a parry-chain or getting wrecked. For example, a multiple hit stomp attack, a massive energy geiser or a lunge (which has a specific stun animation if stopped with a perfect block)
The fight also has the gimmicks of damaging Beowulf's eye so he does a quick counter attack as he tries to protect it in pain, and random cages falling throughout the Arena which can be sent back at him with timed powerful attacks. Again, this is done thinking on using risky close range strategies like those in the Swordmaster style or use those lengthy "wait times" for something more distance based like gunslinger. And the best part is that none of this "branches" are closed off when selecting the style not intended for them, they are just harder to pull off, so you can mix things up with your current style to be agressive and passive in a fight that keeps throwing things at you.
The Devil May Cry series has a lot of good bosses (and bad ones too to be fair), I still vividly remember the Nero Angelo fight in the first game, it really tested your skills with sword combos :)
@@Biouke That too is a neat boss.
I recommend you to check turbo button's video on Credo as he neatly explains its virtues as well
I like this Fight More Then the Vergil Ones actually
This is prob my favorite series from you. It's always interesting to see all the different ways boss fights are made.
From Skyward Sword, I think you should talk about the differences between the Girahim fights and the battles with the robot skeleton pirate.
I struggled so much with each Girahim fight, but always had a lot of fun with skeleton pirate guy
I thought Ghirahim was super fun.
One of my favorite boss fights is the final of Lisa the Painful, at this point you are an armless bald failure and you have find your daughter, then you have to kill some persons those you may never wanted to see dead,then you have to pass through a lot of warriors whose are really strong and confident, but every wave of enemies is more scared and horrified of you, then they stop attacking, instead they are crying, screaming, don't knowing what to do, and finally you reach the final boss, a person whose just wanted the best for the future for the world , a person who deserves to be loved and respects you even at your worst moment in your life.
the bosses in lisa are interesting. gameplay wise they aren't that special, most of them function in the same way (bar the erratic mutants) and at most have a status immunity or two, but story wise they work super well
Appreciate the Sly Cooper music in the outro.
Well looks like a found a new channel to binge.
As someone who never played FFX, that boss with the zombie status sounds like a really cool fight.
I really like the bosses in Metroid Prime 1. The early game bosses teach you the game mechanics: Warwasp hive teaches you how to use the radar, Plated beetle teaches you how to strafe, Flaghara teaches you environmental awareness and effective charge beam timing. But then later bosses take away mechanical crutches you've been relying on: Thardus massively hinders your lock-on, the Omega Pirate hinders your ability to focus on only one enemy at a time and is more punishing of being the wrong distance from your opponent than previous fights, Metroid Prime doesn't allow you to just keep hammering away with your preferred beam type and instead makes you have to constantly change not only your beam types but also switch back and forth between bipedal mode and morph ball mode (whereas previously you could either stay in one mode pretty comfortably the whole time or it was much more fixed what mode you had to be in any given time).
I also like how in Legend of Dragoon. the king Virage effectively has a turn limit. You have to beat it within 10 turns or else it self-destructs and kills your party- and it throws you off by making it seem like there's multiple targets when in reality hammering away at either its body or its head while ignoring the other is all you need to win. And then the very next fight against the Anti-Dragon Staff punishes you for using a crutch you've been relying on most of the game to this point- the Dragoon mode. Sure, you could just enter dragoon mode in such a way it wears off within the same turn, but you've been trained to think staying in dragoon mode is a good thing since dragoon mode gives you better defense against most attacks- which isn't true of this fight. And earlier in the game, there's the fight against Shirley, you're not supposed to fight her at all, you're supposed to wait until she asks you her questions and then answer them properly- which it encourages you to do mechanically by having it be immediately after a previous boss fight (against Drake) without a chance to open your menu in between and thus you're still injured and would want to heal your party before fighting again- thereby teaching you that attacking isn't always the answer, fitting in thematically with the first chapter's plot. The fights against King Virage and the Anti-Dragon Staff probably have a thematic message too, like don't be fooled by the wrong target/ or trying to split yourself between multiple/conflicting objectives, and it's not about being the strongest- that'll be your downfall, it's about fighting smarter with your team.
A boss I hate... this might be a bit obvious, but Morpheel from Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess. It was an underwater fight in a game that wasn't really designed for underwater combat. You just kind of swum around and tried to grapple to boss with the clawshot and then stab it a few times. They tried stepping it up a bit by adding smaller fish that try to get you while you're swimming, but they just kind of swim around aimlessly- not really homing in on you. The third form of the Imprisoned Beast in Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword was a big downgrade from the 2nd form. 2nd form was tough because it had multiple targets that could regenerate and all had to be broken before it entered its vulnerable phase, and it was on a narrow spiraling path that it took up the full width of, so you either had to worry about hitting the targets in the right order and then moving before it fell on you, or doing it in the safe order and being fast enough to route around to its weak point before it got back up. But 3rd form, it tried flying and was easily shot down and hindered its progress in ways that were absent from 2nd form. And the Final boss of the same game, Demise, he was too easy- Ghirihim's final form just before it was harder.
Would love to see you talk about nyx's bossfight in persona 3 if there ever is a next one, one of my favourites
Nyx's fight is so good from a story perspective alone and also on a gameplay perspective too. On your first playthrough it's daunting and overwhelming even if fairly straightforward mechanically once you figure it out, and is a culmination of mechanics you've had to learn the entire game prior, and even when you revisit it and know the strats, it's always emotionally powerful. Definitely one of my favorite bosses too.
@@Lyonfaced yes! And the 13 part monologue gives me chills every time
Honestly, there are a handful of persona boss fights he could talk about.
I hated that boss so much.
I'm a simple man, I see anything involving The Conductor, I click.
Peck neck
kirby star allies had an amazing final boss, despite it being easy to beat. It was so cool!
SAUZ - ソウザ if it was too easy Play soul melter ex
Touhou bosses are cool. In some games, they pop up a couple of times before the formal fight to give you a taste of their attacks. Actually fighting them is a combination of refining your skills and solving a puzzle as you figure out the best method to dodge their mesmerizing and deadly attacks (which change with every phase). Of course, this is subjective to taste, as not everyone is keen on taking three days to beat a boss, but there is definitely something to be said for the the emotional attachment you build with these fights and the feeling of accomplishment once you finally beat them.
Not to mention the music is usually pretty good.
The Hollow Knight - Radiance fight to end the base story of Hollow Knight. How it weaves story into every phase of both fights, how the difficulty progresses and changes, the soundtrack and its shifts, the mechanical tests and discoveries, it is all amazing. Honestly I feel like you could discuss many of the fights in Hollow knight, like how Nightmare King Grimm takes a double-damage and high health boss and extremely fun and engaging fight, or Soul Master's fake-out final phase foreshadowing the skill he gives you upon defeat, or Oro and Mato being a seamless dual fight, or Mantis Lords being an early game treat to overcome. Or Flukemarm...
Another pro to Final Fantasy bosses is that their behaviors are often determined by the party members.
For example, Seymour is more likely to target Tidus and Yuna for attacks if they’re in the active party.
Artorias is one of my favorites boss ever and I like the super mario RPG bosses too.
Radiance from hollow knight has to be one of my favorite bosses. As the fight progresses more unique attacks get introduced and even start to overlap with other attacks. Whats super cool to me though is how your ability to manage multiple attacks while platforming and landing attacks of your own gets tested. None of the attacks change either, just the combination of multiple attacks with increasingly challenging platforming makes the fight a lot harder and more interesting. It makes the player actually strategize farther than "dodge then counter".
Some of my favorite bosses would be the Cameo Battles from the Tales series, a battle with generally the same composition as your own and follows the same rules as you do while giving a challenge.
Seven Force in both Gunstar heroes and Alien Soldier.
Most of the bosses from Viewtiful Joe 1
And Gorgon from Star Fox 64.
Hell yeah for Treasure representation with Seven Force! ♥️ All of their games have some ABSOLUTELY BANGIN' boss battles!
Yeah, I agree on the 7 Forces too!
Majora in majoras mask is a really good thematic fight. It's either easy or hard depending on whether you helped all the towns people or not. And that really helps cement the hope vs despair theme of the game
I would argue that making the fight a joke is the "despair" part
Removing the challenge, as well as having to give up all those masks you earned to get it in the first place, makes it feel like you're losing something essential in the process, that can never be gotten back
All of the boss fights from Furi are really great a teaching patterns and mechanics, but one that has the top fight is the Edge.
He actually throws away a mechanic of the game (which are bullets) to make you better when it comes to sword fighting, he actively teaches you how to parry and anticipate hits. He even encourages you if you keep failling, always asking you to try even more. What's even better is that this concentration on the sword aspect is totally the opposite of the boss prior to him, which was mostly about bullet hell. On top of being hard, once you actually learn his pattern (which can take a long time), he arguably becomes one of the easiest fights.
And let's not forget one think kinda special to Furi, before going against bosses your character will walk through the environement of the boss, a NPC that follows you throughout the game will hype you up the battle incoming with statements about the boss, and with this guy it is about how he trained all of his life just to fight us. One particular sentence blew my mind :
"What would you do if had an eternity to do nothing but wait? Do you keep busy, do you daydream, do you freak out?
*He trained* "
It's maybe one of my favorite boss of all time thanks to all of this.
I absolutely loved the first two boss of Furi, they're already clearly at a top quality. And then, comes the old man. I hate this boss, I find the latter phases unengaging and boring, and thefact that you have to redo everything when you die, ughh.
I ragequited there, it's been 2 years, and I still want to come back because I love this game, but damn this old man.
@@desplanchesstevan1418 The Old man is a test of patience, that's why his theme is about time and wisdom. You have to be patient and go through his phases without being too agressive, that's the point of his boss. Once you understand that it becomes quite easy.
Honestly, the mantis Lords from hollow Knight are the best boss ever. Once you figure out the patterns you get so much euphoria and adrenaline
It would be cool to see you discuss the dynamics of multiplayer boss fights, especially in an MMO setting such as Final Fantasy XIV.
FFXIV has some really neat boss fights, but they're a bit different from a lot of other games. Most of the harder fights are incredibly scripted, and end up being mostly memorization of all the different steps... but those steps are incredibly intricate, and the hardest fights usually use each combination of mechanics only once, so you don't get to a point where you just repeat earlier steps.
Personally, I like it, but I can certainly see why some people don't find that kind of fight engaging.
I love how the fight with the Hollow Knight is build: it's not fantastic in terms of mechanics, it just plain works. But the way the story is told throughout the fight is marvelous: starting epic, dangerous, heroic.. Until the moment he starts to stab himself and the theme song takes a sad turn.
And to boot: if you go to the golden ending, you fight The Radiance. Everything in the fight says "you are fighting a living God", from the song, the appearance, the title card, its omnipresence in the battlefield... It's absolutely amazing!
The fight against Ryuju/Nenesha & Infel in Ar Tonelico 2 was one of the most engaging and climatic boss fights I had the pleasure of playing through
Adrenaline peaking in the first two parts, then the third comes in and I just started crying through the whole fight
Shit's amazing
That's one underrated franchise
And it's such a shame that's the case because it's oh so amazing
My favorite boss is probably Hornet from Hollow Knight. Both fights are pretty fast-paced and intense, so you'll certainly have to stay alert for the entirety of it, but at the same time most attacks are well-telegraphed and you have a good number of opportunities to heal, so they feel fair. Not to mention the settings and the character herself are awesome.
Actually, all Hollow Knight bossfights are pretty good. Well, except Vengefly King and Traitor Lord, that is.
Hornet was way too easy to be interesting to me. Fight over in 30 seconds. like is that it???
Hollow knights bosses shine bright in the boss rush free DLC. with the pantheons and what not
Hollow Knight is a masterpiece but the Traitor Lord is a bastard.
The Battle of Award 42 is one of my favorite bosses. Ever. And this video perfectly summed up why. It’s such a fantastic climax!
One of my favorite fights is the one against Roxas in Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix. Unlike most of the bosses in the game, there's no gimmick, no built-in exploit, no obvious strat. It's just a really intense duel between two keyblade wielders. Story-wise, it's also really powerful. Roxas had his entire existence stolen from him about a year after he was created, which left him angry at everything. He just wanted to go home, but there wasn't really any home for him to go back to. So he fought against Sora in a vain attempt at claiming some sort of place in the world. Also unlike most bosses in KH, the music in the fight isn't triumphant or up-beat, but it's extremely emotionally intense.
Not sure if that counts as a boss, but I really like the Hellblade from Monster Hunter G/GU.
It has a really nice back and forth and rewards you for understanding its attacks and keeping the aggression up on its weakspots.
You have to be just as aggressive and just as tactical as Hellblade, and I love it
@@emenova3553 Also add in The Gore Magala and there various types you face in the game. The Gore Magala fight you have to be aggressive or face frenzy virus and the enraged state is unique to all other monster. Add in the final boss and the in-between state of Magala and it is one of the best fight in the game.
Blackskull dragon18 Shagaru is a true showdown (and cunt in G Rank, damn tracking frenzy mines). Chaotic is hellish but super fun, base Gore is kinda easy, go for the front legs and it’s already downed, still fun tho
One of my favorite boss fights is the one against shadow kamoshida. The boss takes place after Persona 5's interpretation of lust, and fighting him in my first playthrough after using only 1 day to get to the end of the first dungeon, when i am all out of reserves, was well worth the effort to grind to level 10,as that put me on par with most of his attacks. Not to mention my moral victory, but that may just be me feeling glad to not see that shit stain of a level again. The other levels were interesting to say in the least, but the first one where it all starts took the cake.
Second place is the cognative wakaba fight but that is only because of the fact that i had counter and thought that i could defeat the boss without fighting it (you can, just be ready to use all your sp on healing) as I lost my save file because i got off without saving my progress
Always appreciate your videos! Thanks so much!
I'm going to have to pick up A Hat in Time at some point. You mentioned that a boss fight doesn't have to be hard to be engaging, the divine dragon from Sekiro came to mind for me. Very easy fight, but honestly is one of the most memorable fights in the game to me. The overall presentation of the boss was amazing, from the music, to the design of the boss itself and the arena, to launching into the sky and slinging lightning at it to do damage. Just a great experience, more of a spectacle than a boss fight.
I'm fairly certain behemoth should have come under the "frustrating mess" tagline.
Yeah in hindsight, I feel like I should've put in Nergigante or maybe Vaal Hazak there instead. Oh well.
It's a great analysis of boss fights, and it's true that as long as we players are engaged in it, it will be great, no matter the difficulty or length of it, it just need to be handled accordingly to their criteria (if easy, doing little scenarios or commands in the middle of it, like KH and Yakuza to bring diversity, if long, having new additions to keep you focused all the way, etc...)
In short, great video, I hope you will talk about world-building one day, as it's a subject that I find very fascinating.
The Bob Barbas boss fight from DmC Devil May Cry is one of the most creative I've ever seen in terms of presentation.
There isn’t any major agreement on who is the toughest boss of them all, but there are quite a few that stands out amongst others.
You absolutely triggered some sort of gaming PTSD with that short clip of Alba from Ace Attorney Investigations. Spending hours on Diplomatic Immunity is truly the text version of a damage sponge.
Metal Slug 3's third stage boss is really worth mentioning. It has only a few attacks and it showcases them all at the beginning of the boss battle, but the more you hit'em, the faster their attacks get, and they also start doing combinations of two of their attacks at the same time. It really keeps you on your toes without throwing any new elements or surprises. Extremely fair and extremely engaging.
Final Fantasy XIV main storyline final bosses do a great job of being very engaging and spectacular while not being particularly difficult. The main storyline fights are fairly easy in general, and while the final ones do have a small dificulty spike, they're nowhere near the actual endgame raids. However, you barely notice how easy it actually is when playing, because they're an incredible spectable. Music, visuals, voices, special markers, everything overwhelm you in such a way you stay in your toes the same you'd would against an actual raid boss. It's all smoke and mirrors, but it's the kind you want to look at forever
Loved the someya theme at the beginning!
I saw you slipped a clip of an Okami boss in there (Nine Tales). I love Okami to death but its bosses are a bit of a mixed bag, especially since you have to fight some of them as many as three separate times.
But the fight with Yami is special. It strips you of your powers and then slowly gives them back to you, with the boss changing its tactics and its form as it literally sheds layers of itself with each phase change. Each brush power gets its moment to shine without overstaying its welcome, and then the fight moves on.
And then THAT moment happens. You know the one. And when you get your full god status back, Yami just cuts completely loose. And that's the final big crazy test of your skill, set to one of the best music tracks in the whole game.
The way these phases play out mirrors the story beats you're witnessing, and they work together exceptionally well to make for a powerful ending.
I love that you played that lizard's theme music from Sly 2... even though he was my least favorite boss in that game
I like the Mantis Lords and Sisters of Battle from Hollow Knight, keeps you on a zen-like rythym.
Also I havent play A Hat in Time but I know there's harder versions of the bosses that came with the DLC...
what's your opinion on those harder versions?
The final jeanne fight near the end of bayonetta 1 is my favorite boss of all time
The Shadow rival battle from Sonic Generations. It's an exhilarating duel of speed that feels completely appropriate for the characters. I wish with all my heart that it was longer.
One of my favourite fights is definitely fighting Kiryu in Yakuza 4. It's right after a kind of controversial scene in the game, and it's the first show of how actually OP Kiryu is, because you can brush off Kiryu destroying tons of enemies in your control as just "oh you play as him, of course he's OP", but Kiryu wiping the floor with you on your first attempts really shows how strong he actually is, and when you finally match with him, and the battle ends interrupted with a draw, it shows how strong Saejima is as well.
This is also one of the only boss battles in the game where your health is significantly limited, because you have next to no healing items.
When you mention an engaging boss fight either throws wrenches into your strategies or adds additional hooks/attacks, then ends when there is nothing left to add, I remembered another video talking about Mario level design. In both a good level and a good boss fight, it starts when the basic mechanics with something new/interesting, but it's easy. Then it slightly cranks up the difficulty over time/rounds, or adds other mechanics it introduced earlier. At the finale, every mechanic in the fight is used and cranked up to 11.
1:53
Yes, that is the correct game to mention
Ninetails from Okami resonates a lot with me. Its like a "Battle of equals" in the way that if you linger too much in a brush technique, Ninetails interrupts you with one of her own. Its a fight that encourages you to think quickly and deliberately and also makes use of what you learn in the stage before it: her sword looks just like all the othet electric-powered machinery in Oni Island so you make the connection quickly and from then on its like a rehash of the Fox rods mixed in with the Rao fight. In a way it kinda tells you "im not throwing anything particularly new your way but i expect you to do whatever you've done before fast and right"
One of my all time faves is the great mighty poo in Conker’s Bad Fur Day. Mechanically, it’s pretty typical repetitive stuff but the opera singing and juvenile toilet humor make it a very memorable and engaging experience.
I like that the directors in A Hat in Time share a movie studio so it makes sense that the last chapter takes place in the same level regardless of the outcome & it makes sense that the bosses both use the same things to fight you.
That Final Fantasy 10 fight could've avoided the cheapness by just having her start with a brief Haste effect & having her always use the instant death move directly after the first time she turns someone into a zombie. That way, you wouldn't have time to cure the status effect before you first see her use the instant death move so you'd invariably be given a chance to learn the risk before it actually becomes a risk.
The Metroid Prime boss in the first Metroid Prime. It was amazing how every power up came into use! I believe the best way a boss can engage me, is testing everything I've learned. This is my favorite game of all time, so I was expecting nothing more from this near perfect experience.
Pd: Fantastic creature design too!
You showed it a little in the beginning, but I'd really like to see the Ninetails fight from Okami on this show. It's an interesting example of the boss that splits into smaller enemies, like Jelhalla from Windwaker, or The Clown from Mario 3D world.
one of my favorite bosses i've fought recently is captain brineybeard from cuphead! there's a lot of stuff to keep track of, but they're all telegraphed properly so with enough practice you can effectively plan your dodging and come up with new tactics - for example, baiting the barrel ahead of time so it doesn't crash down on you at an incovenient time. its genuinely the only bossfight in this game (except for the early-game easy bosses) where i didnt get angry even once, because failing just meant i get to fight him again and have some more fun
One of my favourite bosses comes from an action RPG that deserves _far_ more attention than it gets: CrossCode. Specifically Shizuka. A fantastic boss of the mirror boss variety. She has everything you the player have. _Everything._ Up to and including your own ultimate attacks. Watching the fight feels like nothing short of a choreographed dance. Weak points? You get a few seconds if you manage to survive one of her ultimates, but beyond that, you make to _make your own openings,_ and if you aren't quick, she _will_ counter at the end of your combo. The emotion surrounding the fight just makes everything more tense.
Rakk Hive is neat because it gives us an answer to the Rakk's lifecycle - and you can even see them in their underground form throughout the game (most notably in the windmill clearing side quest)
but as you said, both bosses are just annoying damage sponges.
One of my favorite boss fights is the Julius fight in Castlevania Aria of Sorrow. The build-up fantastic, having just dropped one of the biggest plot twists in the series up to that point, the fight is a clever twist on the series formula (you're Drcaula fighting a Belmont), and the music kicks ass, but Julius himself is unique compared to other bosses in the game: He's human's sized, doesn't really have a pattern but is relatively easy to dodge, hits like a truck, and uses some classic moves against you. He's tough because you really just have to defeat him before he kills you.
The diggernaut from samus returns is one of my all time faves
I think that Final Fantasy V has some of the best bosses in RPG history, because none of them have much hp, but they have overwhelming attacks and the like. They're not a "hit them for five minutes while not screwing up", they're a "find out how to not get killed really badly while doing damage"
My favorite boss of all time is Inner Father from Sekiro. But honestly, I think the best one in the game is *Great Shinobi Owl.* He's your father, your mentor, and the greatest shinobi in history. One of the final combat arts is his personal invention, and one of the previous bosses was only fighting you because of him. He's presumed dead after a big event in your backstory.
Once you get all that's needed to reach Fountainhead Palace, you just need to return to Ashina Castle. Except... the fast travel doesn't work. This is the first time the game *deactivates* your idols, so it's a real shock. Once you get to Ashina Castle through the dungeon, the place is overrun with even stronger enemies, making it almost like an entirely new area. Then you finally reach the top of the castle, where you recently fought Genichiro...
And there's Owl. In the few hours you spent in-universe gathering those materials, Owl steamrolled Ashina Castle's defenses. You got through the castle yourself not too long ago, so the memory of how hard these enemies were will still be pretty fresh. Yet there Owl sits, notably alive and moreover, completely unscathed.
The fight lives up to the hype. Owl is the first boss in the game to not have any shortcomings in terms of physical ability. Lady Butterfly was fast but didn't hit very hard, Gyoubu had good range but slow attacks, and the Guardian Ape hit hard but was relatively bad at aiming. Owl swings a giant sword at lightning speed and can wipe out your health bar in two swipes. And there's more! If you're looking closely, you'll notice he swings his sword in the same way you do. He also uses jump kicks, shurikens, firecrackers, and a posture regain stance, just like you. He even has a mikiri counter, that thrust countering move you've probably just gotten good at, and his hits even harder than yours does.
Owl feels like the shinobi who trained you. He fights dirty, he has all your tricks but does them better, and he even snidely recites the rules he taught you when he takes out one of your health bars. The only way to beat him is to start using even more underhanded tactics; hitting him right as he tries to attack, throwing shurikens to interrupt his posture regain, dodging past him instead of deflecting... I could go on.
Owl is the trickiest shinobi alive. The only way to win is to take that title for yourself.
One boss fight you might find interesting to talk about is the Luxray+Luxio/ Manectric+Electrike battle in Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Explorers of Darkness/ Time (Luxray) and Sky (Manectric). It's a boss structure that doesn't happen often in those games, but happens often enough to catch you off guard when it happens, and make things more terrifying as it's a swarm battle, 2 enemies to 1 ally.