What makes a good boss fight?

[Mortarhate]

I like a boss fight that has multiple strategies available to beat it. It should be difficult, but not to the point of near impossibility. (I like a challenge!)

I agree that status effects should work on bosses as well.  Well, maybe not the 'insta death' ones, but some of the more useful ones like sleep and poison should.

But if there's anything in the world that I'd really, really love, it'd be a boss that doesn't require massive overlevelling / grinding to defeat it.  I hate levelling.

Oh, and a nice reward at the end too; it gives me a nice sense of accomplishment when I get a good item from a boss fight.

 

[BellGoRiiing]

I enjoy bosses that are not too hard but not too easy either...I also like it when they have multiple phases (like most of all the final bosses) but as long as they don't over do it. The thing I like the most about the bosses though is the music that plays when fighting them...One of my favorite bosses is in my avatar, who doesn't like giant towering robots? :p
Another one of my favorites is Stallord from Twilight Princess, to me he was the hardest in the game..and it took me a while to realize that the music was a remix from one of the dragon bosses in Ocarina of Time, lol.

Honestly I have tons of other bosses that I don't feel like listing right now, some of them also come from RPGs too.

 

[tensuke]

One interesting battle gimmick is in Digimon Story DS(and other Digimon DS games, and other games at that) where there are 5 squares for enemies all next to each other. Some moves can hit more than one square, hitting multiple enemies at once. Well, some of the bosses take up more than one square, so say SkullGreymon takes up the middle 3. Since they were bosses, they had more hp, and their hp bars also took up those spaces. So he had an hp bar that was 3 squares long, which is really big and can intimidate you. Also, since they were in multiple squares, you could use attacks that did damage to multiple squares to hit them more than once. Also, sometimes certain parts were weaker, like the arms might've been weaker than the chest, or something. I thought that was cool.

 

[Ratty524]

I choose "special circumstances to defeat"

In my personal opinion, boss fights in RPGs should not only have you battle a stronger enemy than what was introduced in the overworld, but should also have a certain type of way to defeat them aside from the button mashing of the "Fight" command. As of what I've seen, it makes fights a lot more complex and interesting, and it keeps the game from becoming repetitive.

 

[Crystalgate]

I choose "special circumstances to defeat"

In my personal opinion, boss fights in RPGs should not only have you battle a stronger enemy than what was introduced in the overworld, but should also have a certain type of way to defeat them aside from the button mashing of the "Fight" command. As of what I've seen, it makes fights a lot more complex and interesting, and it keeps the game from becoming repetitive.

That could really help, but I don't think requiring special circumstances alone will be enough.

Let's take a golem boss as an example. The golem is to hard to be injured. In order to soften it up, it has to be hit by first a fire spell and then an ice spell. When that happens, it cracks an will be vulnerable for a time until it can restore itself. Let's also say that the golem has a fire ward up that needs to be dispelled before the fire spell can hit. So the order is dispell -> fire -> ice -> spam attack. This is all fine, but if that's it, there's no challenge left once you know what needs to be done. Ideally, the boss battle should be challenging even after you figured out the rules. Chess for example, don't rely on the players not knowing the rules. Granted, were speaking about RPGs and not chess, but I still think that the thinking shouldn't end just because you've learned the rules.

 

[Brandonn]

Just a comment on the story mid-battle:

That's not a bad thing, just make sure you do it right... If I lose the battle, I don't want to replay from the begining and listen to the story part again and again... So I'd include a "checkpoint" of some sort, or make it skippable.

 

[Ratty524]

I choose "special circumstances to defeat"

In my personal opinion, boss fights in RPGs should not only have you battle a stronger enemy than what was introduced in the overworld, but should also have a certain type of way to defeat them aside from the button mashing of the "Fight" command. As of what I've seen, it makes fights a lot more complex and interesting, and it keeps the game from becoming repetitive.

That could really help, but I don't think requiring special circumstances alone will be enough.

Let's take a golem boss as an example. The golem is to hard to be injured. In order to soften it up, it has to be hit by first a fire spell and then an ice spell. When that happens, it cracks an will be vulnerable for a time until it can restore itself. Let's also say that the golem has a fire ward up that needs to be dispelled before the fire spell can hit. So the order is dispell -> fire -> ice -> spam attack. This is all fine, but if that's it, there's no challenge left once you know what needs to be done. Ideally, the boss battle should be challenging even after you figured out the rules. Chess for example, don't rely on the players not knowing the rules. Granted, were speaking about RPGs and not chess, but I still think that the thinking shouldn't end just because you've learned the rules.

Good point. The thinking definitely shouldn't end, perhaps you can make the boss behave differently when the "special circumstances" are met? This would definitely require a lot of thought.

 

[Admiral_Stalfos19]

I do have one idea for a final boss...

Scenario: The final boss has barrier around him. The barrier has five layers, and each layer will only break when any spell of the right element connects with the barrier. You only have five turns to get through each layer before the last layer regenerates. Each layer's elemental 'weakness' changes as it regenerates. Once the barrier is completely destroyed, you then have two turns to deal damage to the boss before the entire barrier regenerates.

Say that 35 turns have passed. They may have gone like this

Water, Wind, Thunder, Fire, Light, MPA, MPA
Dark, Earth, Ice, Thunder, Light, MPA, MPA
Wind, Dark, Fire, Water, Earth, MPA, MPA
Light, Ice, Water, Thunder, Wind, MPA, MPA
Fire, Earth, Dark, Ice, Wind, MPA, MPA

MPA stands for Most Powerful Attack BTW

 

[opaj]

Hmm... that sounds a little tedious to me.  Also, how do you know what element each barrier is?  Are you just taking shots in the dark?

I wouldn't exactly classify a boss that you have to do X move, then Y move, then Z move, rinse, wash, repeat, is exactly a boss that requires strategy.  I mean, X-Y-Z is not a strategy so much as simple repetition, especially in cases (such as the boss battle described above) where it's the only way to defeat the enemy.

Now, what I'd really like to see is a boss that assesses the situation, and fights like a player.  Maybe a boss looks at what you've got, and hits you at your weak point.  Of course, for this to be fun and not frustrating, you'd have to have abilities or spells that can change your weak points in the middle of combat, so the boss would have to try something new and see if it works.  In short, both sides would have to test the other's defenses carefully, and strike hard before the other could react.

 

[Clest]

Well another point most ppl think is that strategy is mostly related to how the player will hit the enemy, rather than how the player will survive, counter and defend from enemy or ways of disposing of enemies before they kill the player.

A good way to help with it is giving specific protective equipment and specially specific spells. With this, enemioes can have a good array of element specific attacks and the player must equip and cast the right spells as they see fit and need to heal constantly. More like keep the player on defensive more than just free to attack fully. Still gotta let the player attack so they don't feel frustrated.

A boss that can consider the situation and exploit the player weakness must have means within the game context to do so, be it because the boss  can scan the player with magic or machines, or they must test the player out and account for which of their attacks did most damage to the player, juust like we as players tend to do.

 

[harbino]

I would say like a boss where you would have to adopt a certain strategy or one which is challenging but completable rather than just pwning it's ass all the time.

 

[Jennestia]

Bosses that "goes in order" kinda like Zelda games and most (good) RPGs..where you simply can't win if you skip over important equipment/elements etc.

Also Boss fights that are story changing.

 

[The Wizard]

I've always liked boss fights that are challenging to the point of frustration.  Nothing feels better than beating a difficult boss after several tries.  Equipment shouldn't be a balancer either, in other words I shouldn't have to have THE absolute best equipment and stats available but should need more strategy and exploitation of the bosses weakness not to mention just good old fashioned luck to gain the victory.  Simply pushing one button and repeating the same actions every round is tedious and just not fun.  A good BGM that fits the mood doesn't hurt either.

 

[Admiral_Stalfos19]

Hmm... that sounds a little tedious to me.  Also, how do you know what element each barrier is?  Are you just taking shots in the dark?

I wouldn't exactly classify a boss that you have to do X move, then Y move, then Z move, rinse, wash, repeat, is exactly a boss that requires strategy.  I mean, X-Y-Z is not a strategy so much as simple repetition, especially in cases (such as the boss battle described above) where it's the only way to defeat the enemy.

I wasn't planning on constantly having to do X move, then Y move and then Z move. I was planning on more like doing T-U-V-W-X-Y-Z one turn, Z-X-U-W-T-Y-V another turn, and U-Z-V-Y-X-W-T another turn... and yeah, you would take shots in the dark, so it's a lot closer to guesswork than repetition

EDIT: Also, when the boss charges for his ultimate, he will automatically release the barrier. You can attack then, but you risk getting owned by the boss.

 

[Emtch]

Sometimes a time limit (or a certain number of turns) can make the battle interesting, but it's easily overused. Also fighting multiple enemies at once is good. For example the turks in ff7. The enemies should have different elements and skills (one hard hitter, one who uses poison, one that heals etc) like many of the bosses in Wild Arms 3 (the boss battles are the only good things in that game).

 

[Aepriz]

I hate one-hit-killing bosses , so thats something it DEFENLY may not have .
Sephiroth from kh2 he was a fun bos , aerial battle's against a still "human-looking" boss .
No to easy , not to hard . but never boring .


- I prefer lots of hp , the damage doesn't really matter as long if he can't kill your entire party with a single skill .
- Human looking bosses i think are really awsome .
- Multipel enemies at one can be irretating if the bos hims self is to strong  , so if the boss is weak : use , if
  the boss is strong already leave 'em out .
- A difficulty that varies is cool , like a buff when you really need to change your strategy or things that ruin you
  strategy (like sh:ftnw the final boss , I normally use loads of defensive skills , but ones you do it she directly
  deletes them )

 

[NeoSamurai]

I believe a boss should be threatening. Meaning, you shouldn't have to fly through the boss easily by using the same skills you might use on lesser enemies. You should have to focus on using a wider array of abilities and if you slack off just once, it could cost you your life.

I know a lot of people say they "don't want a hard boss", but I think that tends to be the people that won't to invest any strategy into beating a game, which is pretty lame.

I believe a good example of this would be the Four Dragon bosses from Lunar 2. Those were the first times that I got to use Lemina's Erase Magic (I believe that's what its called) spell to clear the field of all Elemental advantages. If you didn't, their attacks could kill your entire party in one swipe. And even without any Elemental advantages, the dragons were still pretty tough.

 

[bradleydfc]

A boss that changes form is always something new.
Also a boss that looks strong, and is strong. Not just some human that somehow has superpowers.
Maybe, a strong party member is disabled during the battle.
Or the boss has minions.

Play ccoa's Shades or Volrath and ArtBane's Master of the Wind for great ones in RMXP.

 

[Phoenix]

Interesting bosses to me are:

• Ones that steal your items
• One on Ones
• Bosses that require a certain item to kill them
• A boss that is an actual boss :smile: