Like A Boss… Or Not -- An Exploration of the Age-Old Boss Battle

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Like A Boss… Or Not -- An Exploration of the Age-Old Boss Battle

Post by Steve Farrelly @ 04:04pm 11/02/13 | 16 Comments

Continuing our run of unique, in-depth games features, AusGamers has for you today a look at the age old videogame boss battle, and his (or her) station in the modern videogame landscape.

Contributor Adam Redsell took to looking into this trope for us, to see if maybe this old hat has finally become a redundancy in gaming, or if, perhaps, he (or she) just needs an updated, new job description.

It's an interesting look into a classic addition to games, with modern up-to-date examples most people will be fully aware of. Definitely a must read for avid gamers.

Click here for the full feature.

boss battle

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Raven
Posted 04:36pm 11/2/13

Isn't it about time there's the odd guy where the "boss" is just some scrawny little guy pulling with a fat wallet which, after you've cut down his mercenary guard you just cut through like butter? :)

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Tollaz0r!
Posted 04:43pm 11/2/13

A boss battle should be significantly more difficult then fighting any non-boss, it should never be 'hit this spot 3 times' or similar. It really should test your skills as a whole.

I agree that if you are going to have Boss Battles, they need to be pretty full on using a large assortment of skills. However they should have reason to be tough, and not something lame like Super-Shields.

The more creative a boss battle the better.

What would Mario be without Bowser?

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Dan
Posted 04:43pm 11/2/13

Raven: Has been done before. One example off the top of my head: http://earthwormjim.wikia.com/wiki/Bob_the_Killer_Goldfish

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glynd
Posted 05:00pm 11/2/13

Isn't it about time there's the odd guy where the "boss" is just some scrawny little guy pulling with a fat wallet which, after you've cut down his mercenary guard you just cut through like butter? :)

The joker in arkham city? i remember that being a fair bitch with all the enemies dropping from the roller coaster. Joker himself was pretty easy to bash up but the waves were fairly frustrating.

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Steve Farrelly
Posted 05:13pm 11/2/13

While I agree wholeheartedly with everything in this piece, I'd like to point out that as disappointing as the Arkham Asylum boss battle was, there were a few reasons for it playing out the way it did.

Firstly, it was designed to show just how far the Joker would go and, conversely, that Batman would never cross that line (though let's be honest, who among us didn't want to see Bats inject the Titan formula as well), which equally meant it was a means to showcase Batman's ingenuity in how he battled Titan Joker with exploding gel on his fists.

There could have been more layers added to confrontation to make it more cerebral, sure, but looking deeper, there were very rewarding components to it from a narrative level for those of us looking.

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skythra
Posted 05:22pm 11/2/13

Before reading the article i was about to say "What you mean like that game shadow of the colossus, where you roam from boss to boss? and that's the whole game?"

But it was referenced really early on.

Lots of games have problems with boss design in that they give players just too many things to kill a boss with. Then they want you to kill a boss with whichever way your play style has decided on. It's too late to punish a player at the end of a game who's spent all his time honing his combat and avoidance based around a certain few weapons to have them not be useful in the end game. Noone likes that but noone likes a short game without a lot of different abilities (look how many people complained about Assassins creed 1, the first game which is honestly the best at just going around and assassinating people rather than sword fighting).

What i mostly find in videogames is that the first boss is really well crafted, you've got only a few skills and game mechanics learned and you usually have to use a few combinations of them cleverly to defeat the boss with some timing and patience. Then it gets washed out as the game progresses you and aside from a few unique bosses who have a horribly weak spot but otherwise overpowered, the rest of the bosses just fall like larger more powerful goons.

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Dazhel
Posted 05:44pm 11/2/13

Many of last year’s greatest games did not have boss fights at all – XCOM: Enemy Unknown

I'd argue that the first time you encounter a Sectoid Commander and the Uber Ethereal in the temple ship assault are effectively boss fights.

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Khel
Posted 05:50pm 11/2/13

I find myself preferring big epic set pieces rather than traditional boss battles these days

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Jim
Posted 06:03pm 11/2/13

Say what you will about Madden and FIFA, at least sports games have confidence in their core gameplay. You don’t see EA Sports throwing in a giant Joe Montana or Pélé in the closing minutes of each match. Players are looking for an authentic, immersive experience; they don’t need constant reminders that they are in fact, just playing a videogame. Puzzle and strategy games are similarly convicted in the inherent goodness of their game design.

or maybe it makes less sense to have boss fights in games that aren't generally about killing enemies...

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Nukleuz
Posted 07:42pm 11/2/13

Hotline Miami. Those boss fights were... boss!

Short and sweet. Strategy, skill, and a bit of luck got you over the line. A perfect example of a good boss fight imo.

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breno
Posted 07:14pm 12/2/13

Boss fights have their place but I just recently relate to the Deus Ex example, i'm currently in first play through and going the pacifist/stealth option as I usually do when a game allows me. Came to the boss battle and all I had was my tranq gun, pistol and silenced sniper rifle. Took me ages to work out that I can use my remote mines in Baret. My point is, boss have their place..yeh, obviously not in rpg's lol

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reload!
Posted 07:46pm 12/2/13

I'd have said they were most suited to rpg's.. if done well. if you're gonna half arse it then sure, don't bother, but few gaming encounters are more memorable than epic boss fights. certainly for a game like deus ex 2, if you give the player a stealth choice to play with then create ways of defeating the boss through means other than shooting them. imo this only creates more options not limitations. the fact that an encounter might last only a fraction of the game doesn't change the fact that it can leave a much grander impression.

perhaps as games are able to randomly generate how different mobs look then it becomes less necessary but as long as you're cutting your way through identical hordes, it is always nice to be blown away by some giant fuckoff tentacle gunship.

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paveway
Posted 08:36pm 12/2/13

If you want some proper boss fights, go no further than Dark Souls

Capra demon first up when you are low level in the narrow boss room is tough when you are new

Gwyn lord of cider the final boss is a proper challenge for you character even if you have some experience unless you are a parrying god

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Viper119
Posted 10:26pm 12/2/13

The boss fights in Deus Ex HR would have been alright if they'd provided inventive options to killing them for the stealth/pacifist path, a bit like how you could find out Gunther and Navarre's kill codes in the first Deus Ex and just speak it to kill them.

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qmass
Posted 10:40pm 12/2/13

IMO only the Japanese know how to make a good boss fight now days. Bosses should be about smashing gamers in the face with as much EPIC as possible. Back in the day when everything was so limited, the difficulty and time to beat gave a heightened sense of tension but today they are lazy copies of copies that just take forever and grow tiresome. If you are going to have a boss battle then the kind of insane bosses in some Japanese beat em ups (DMC#, bayonetta etc) should be the goal. Not a slightly large enemy that sits in one room and just has a shitload of hp.

The only western games I can think of that has done this moderately well is one or two of the bosses spread out across the dead space trilogy and maybe some of the dark siders bosses, though many of those were uninspired big monster in a room affairs too. Even then they are mostly pretty boring because they still don't have the INSANE HYPER ADRENALINE SUPER HAPPY FUN TIME I AM ON THE DRUG THAT KILLED RIVER PHOENIX exuberance of Japanese games.

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fpot
Posted 10:39pm 12/2/13

This is my favourite boss ever

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