This week, Adam sits down with a topic we're all familiar with; bosses. Not the guy who wears short sleeved shirts and scolds you for spelling errors. No, we're talking about the larger than life characters you fight at the end of a level, or to be more specific, the huge guy at the very end of the game. The Sess has a bone to pick with final bosses, because they always seem to be a bit removed from the rest of the game, requiring simple memorization or trial and error to defeat them, rather than usage of the skills you've acquired throughout the entire game.
This is where you guys come in. Leave a comment below outlining how you think game developers could improve final boss battles. Just try to be civil, expressive, and creative. But first, press play and find out what Adam has to say on the subject.
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RossMunE
good question, i don't' have the answer either
deathnotejoe
i think boss battles should be like devil may cry(not exactly but similar). where u are pretty much even in power and it actually takes (some) skill to defeat them. devil may cry did have somewhat repetitive boss fights that took a lil bit of paying attention to realize a pattern but they were really close to some epic fights. boss fights need to be against equal of slightly stringer enemies that are smart and require a brain and tactics while utilizing all the skills u have acquired through out the game up to that particular boss
CH1CK3N_CH4S3R
I just got through with the first Uncharted, and while it has great production values, the last chunk of the game and more so the lass "boss" have such a rushed and frustrating quality to it. I agree that with games like Hitman, call of duty, splinter cell and other real world based games, it's hard to get the sense of one powerful boss because like in uncharted, it's still just another human being, with the exception that you have to fight against this crackshot sniper and at any point if you die you have to retry.
That brings me to my next point, where a game like prince of persia that came out last year has a boss battle that doesnt so much have you fighting the last boss but more so avoiding him, but again if at any point you die, you have to do so much backtracking to try it again, thus getting frustrating.
I find that one of the most satisfying bosses in a game would be the final one from Metroid Prime, it has multiple stages, each getting increasingly difficult, but still manageable, and its an enemy that the game has been leading up to the whole time (hence the name of the game), so when you actually get to face it you see how massive it is and keep widdleing it down untill you finally win. Pretty cool stuff.
And although its not really a boss I think one of the best game ending's of all time is in Hitman: Blood Money, where you're under the impression that Hitman is dead but then you can get his heart started and then shoot up a funeral. Awesome.
CloneofBlade
Certain games you want to have a final boss at the end. What would God of War been like if you didn't fight Ares at the end of the game? However games like Halo do very well without having boss battles.
CamperHunter1
My favorite final boss battles are those that are battles of attrition, you gotta finish these guys fast or you're gonna regret it.
Best and favorite examples (in no particular order):
1) (Sega Genesis) Dynamite Headdy - Dark Demon, just try to beat this guy without taking damage or a ridiculous amount of deaths. You can hit him once every cycle, and what he decides to do each cycle is completely random. If he decides to throw his giant laser of win at you, and you didn't shrink yourself, you can kiss a third of your health goodbye.
2) (Sega Genesis) Sparkster (Rocket Knight Adventures 2) - Axel Gear, Ok so he isn't a FINAL boss, but this final battle warmup is almost essentially a mirror match complete with lightning walls that are shrinking the battlefield. Take too long to finish him off, and you'll watch your health start falling faster and faster.
3) (Sega Genesis) Gunstar Heroes - Golden Silver, another great example of a boss who will make you regret every additional second you take to kill him, he'll do significant damage to your character's already waning health (assuming you didn't die and just restart the battle with full health, but even then, nothing is guaranteed if you aren't good with your timing). No weaknesses to this guy, destroy the gems powering him, and do it fast.
4) (Sega Genesis) Spiderman - Kingpin, not only are you not guaranteed to hit when you fight this guy, you only have roughly a minute or so before the timer on this battle ends, and this guy does not hesitate to punch you clear across the battle floor into a wall.
(Notice my favorite examples are from the Sega Genesis)
In my opinion, a boss needs at least some of these qualities to give a sense of satisfaction.
1) Needs to refuse to die
2) Needs to stand out from the rest of the game, nothing overly dramatic, just something to make him/her/it recognizable as your final obstacle. (Although some big tough guy that makes you think "omg..." is a good thing too)
3) Needs to make the player have a sense of urgency to finish the battle quickly, whether it be through a timer, or just being able to hurt the player more as time continues to pass
4) The harder to avoid taking damage, the better.
5) Weaknesses, if any, should be hard to figure out.
Fex_Anderson
It is a frustrating thing that almost nobody can make a satisfying final boss. My solution? Everybody hire the guy who does the bosses for Metal Gear Solid. I honestly think that would change everything.
Dreamgod247
A good way to reslove the final showdown, is to have a different final boss battle based on how you played the game. At the end of each stage, have the A.I. learn from your different fighting styles. For example, the final boss battle would be determine by a gun's a blazing boss or more stealther boss based on what style you used in the game. Unstead of everyone playing the same boss, players we able to expereience different final boss everytime. In the end your have the finally say on what kind of final boss you fight.
TroBogues
I think that the quality most important to a final boss is character. It needs to have a multi-dimensional personality that has been in the game long enough for you to develop an opinion on it. Far too often are final bosses either giant creatures never even hinted at before it appeared, or stereotypical super villains, with shallow, 2D personalities that you don't think twice about before ending their lives.
One of my favorite final bosses was that of Portal. She(?) had been in the game from the start, with her lovable, but quirky personality. Being the only other person (Robot) in the facility, you really became attached to her. *SPOILER* At the end, when she tries to incinerate you and you escape, you get this adrenaline rush. Than, as you gradually get closer, sneaking through the rusty underbelly of the facility, the way she gets gradually more insane is truly captivating. Than, of course, the final boss fight itself was fantastic. My favorite game ending of all time.
TroBogues
I think that the quality most important to a final boss is character. It needs to have a multi-dimensional personality that has been in the game long enough for you to develop an opinion on it. Far too often are final bosses either giant creatures never even hinted at before it appeared, or stereotypical super villains, with shallow, 2D personalities that you don't think twice about before ending their lives.
One of my favorite final bosses was that of Portal. She(?) had been in the game from the start, with her lovable, but quirky personality. Being the only other person (Robot) in the facility, you really became attached to her. *SPOILER* At the end, when she tries to incinerate you and you escape, you get this adrenaline rush. Than, as you gradually get closer, sneaking through the rusty underbelly of the facility, the way she gets gradually more insane is truly captivating. Than, of course, the final boss fight itself was fantastic. My favorite game ending of all time.
deline
boss battles for a few games are great like mgs1,2,3&4 and god of war 1&2 and a few more games i cant think of the names right now. But ther are a few games that have s4itE boss battles like nes game tetris, E.T. And some other game i cant think of the boss suck so bad that your rl boss was bitter then that one.
pwnappetit
Boss battles go hand in hand with the ending. We as gamers have to feel like we accomplished something. Not barely scathed by. We want to be left feeling like we could have done better, and with the excitement of a second play through. Final bosses shouldn't be HARD. They should be relatively simple but take a bit to get there. Like MGS4, GTA4, Farcry 2, and Resistance 2 just to name a few. Bosses like Kessler in infamous are simple to beat on easier levels, then get BS one hit kills or semi-death kills in the harder categories aren't fun. They're frustrating. Wesker in RE5 does this the first ten seconds of the first stage of the final fight. Sephiroth in Kingdom Hearts does a attack that instantly leaves you with 1hp then teleports behind you and slashes you in half before you know that the frick.
dethsauz
this year DEAD SPACE + INFAMOUS were very satisfactory once i had beaten both.
INFAMOUS definitely had a much more DIFFICULT boss. i also had it set on HARD + didnt even know it. but i definitely dig a good challenge. just not a cheap one shot kills you kind of challenge.
pwnappetit
First off, let's get rid of the whole "bosses with one hit kills".
Sure, the final boss is supposed to be the most powerful adversary in the game. However, one could pull that off without one hit kills or attacks/randomly placed traps that leave one almost dead.
A Final Boss battle is supposed to be the most epic moment in the game that leads up to a SATISFYING ending. An ending that brings narrative closure and is not an effing "to be continued" or "the end...OR IS IT?!" bs that a lot of games now a days have.
A good example is MGS4. Someone mentioned in an earlier comment that the random, not-introduced-until-now fighting mechanic made the Liquid Ocelot fight a little more memorable, but this isn't for all games. One of my favorite game endings the one in GTA 4. I just survived a crash landing via helicopter [although that was scripted] and was on my way to Jimmy P when his goons come out of nowhere and start gunning at me. I pulled out a rifle and gunned them down, leaving me an inch from my life. So the heat was on. Who would die first? Me or Jimmy? Luckily I still had my handy dandy sniper rifle! Sure, Jimmy wasn't stronger or faster than the enemies before him. He didn't have any bs impenetrable armor that most bosses flaunt. He was just a man, like me. Both, with a bullet with our names. Few moments were as satisfying as when I shot him in the head, and shot him one more time as he was getting up.
Essence07
In my opinion Boss Battles are almost unavoidable for many games, since the narrative of most games include an antagonist i.e. Bioshock's Atlas, the Prophet of Truth, the Joker, and so on. The best thing a developer can do in this situation is to add some kind of epilogue to the game, like the Mile High Club mission in CoD 4, the song at the end of Portal, or the resurrection of Elika at the end of the last PoP. If these games hadn't contained the sense of resolution the epilogue gave them, they too would have felt like victims of the traditional final boss.
pervysage
lol I am guilty of looking at portal in the background......I missed like half of what he said...lmao!!!!
m60feral
boss battles in mgs are the best. each one is just unique in every aspect.
vinny87
Well one game i know that tackled the final boss really well was Kingdom Hearts 2. Some of the battles before that confrontation were hard but by the time you get to the final boss the game sorta works under the assumption that your character is really strong and can take on the boss head on. The Metal Gear series has also tackled boss battles better than a lot of games out there. Fighting Boss in 3 and that epic fist fight in 4 were hard but gave you such a great sense of satisfaction.
I think to answer your question Adam comes down to story telling in a way. If you think about it games that have good stories that start and end well (Bioshock didn't end well) have good final boss battles. The story is such an integral part that developers HAVE to consider how it ends and the boss batles are better for it.
LunaticNotions
The problem is not unsatisfying final bosses, its wanting to apply the same formula to every game. Its a false problem saying that because games are an interactive medium, you'd want some spectacular over the top finale. Those are just crutches for a poor narrative (well not always). Just like were in Hollywood, narrative is just there to serve special effects, instead of special effects serving the narrative (yes I hate the transformers movies). There are so many other ways to bring a satisfying closure to a game, that you don't need to resort to fireworks. Just look at shenmue 2, the all final chapter didn't have a single fight, boss or whatever. There was even a all section were you only walked and talked with a girl.
The real problem is that the industry seam to think that games need to be only about adrenaline.
ChrisHero22
I do agree with most of the people here in saying that boss battles, final boss battles have been quite lacking lately. Legend of Zedla had it right to a degree, usually summing up a bunch of the items and gear you got in the game to help you, and then the big final showdown.
However every game can't do that, and that is one of the big reasons why it is so hard to come up with a big final climatic showdown in such a general way. It has to be more specific to the game you are playing, and that is how to start. I think Batman AA touched on something that could be used more regularly though, not with its final boss battle but with the Scarecrow encounters. A lot of games have bosses that are AMAZINGLY intelligent.....and outsmart you or whatever have you and that is what fuels the story. Then they morph, or become a dragon, or you usually get this BIG over the top end boss battle that just loses the magic of that character. A game that designs a final boss battle around simply catching those more intelligent but probably weaker villains without them having to morph or turn big or anything along that scale.
Take a generic action title for example. Your enemy has devised a series of puzzles, traps, and various other things all on a timer before the building blows up causing you to use the various different things you got through the game. You beat it, you catch them. Then just have the satisfaction....of a level where you just get to have your way with them, to get that sense of satisfaction. I mean most games, the entire game is you racing around figuring stuff out, till you finally end up facing your main villain. Why not just tie in all the racing and figure out and whatever game mechanics your game revolves around in a more deep and complex way for one final "boss" level?
HeroInTraining
Super Metroid had the epic battle with Mother Brain, but it didn't end afterward. You still had to make it out of the base and to your ship before the Planet exploded. Ending almost the exact way it started.
But it was still a thrilling conclusion. Plus a refreshing change of pace at the end of a game.
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