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Why do so many people enjoy "boss battles"?


Chris+++

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It became trite as far back as the '80s, and yet it kept on for years and years: The fun part of the game stops, and now you're stuck in one place, memorizing the movement patterns of an enemy whose health is twenty times greater than the others', using up all of your most powerful ammo, and re-playing the same bit over and over until you win through tedious trial and error. It's like one of those hi-ya games that a lot of players dig -- the graphical humanoid version of rock, paper, scissors.

 

I know some people love that kind of thing, whereas others find it unimaginative and hackneyed like I do. I'm also aware that on the very rare occasion, contending with the main enemy at the end of a level or game is handled cleverly and in a novel way. What I'm interested in is what others enjoy about "boss fights" in general, and why they're disappointed when they don't exist (at least in NES games onward).

 

It's not a sarcastic inquiry. I'm genuinely curious. There must be something I'm missing.

 

(This is entirely incidental, but I still wonder where the kinda lazy term "boss" came from. It doesn't seem fitting. I don't see employee name tags on all the other characters. When he exists, I call him the Big Bad Guy at the End.)

 

 

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If it's handled well and the difficulty is in parity with the stage/stages run up to it I think they're a fun break, something different that lets you work on those skills you got just moments or so ago as a right of passage proving you're ready for the next world, land, adventure.  I'm also good with a mid-stage sub boss if the same feeling is there too, something that moves the story/adventure along that flows well.

 

When they end up being asinine difficulty spikes, utterly cheap moments, grating memorization games, or even worse some no tells rhythm heaven timing bull shit nightmare I'm anywhere from annoyed to quitting on the game entirely and going elsewhere.  IT's an epic sign of a range from bad design to lazy design using cheap parlor tricks to extend the game basically from emotional abuse.

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I don´t like boss battles either, but I might miss them if they disappear. They are a change of pace, they get the blood pumping and it is really satisfying to beat them.

 

16 hours ago, Chris+++ said:

I still wonder where the kinda lazy term "boss" came from. It doesn't seem fitting. I don't see employee name tags on all the other characters. When he exists, I call him the Big Bad Guy at the End.)

In some games the bosses are literally bosses (like in Turtles games). I am guessing this was frequently the case also in early games with "bosses" and so the term "boss" became synonymous with big bad guy at the end of a level.

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It is curious that you wouldn’t want Boss Battles in your games. Would you prefer just playing the same sort of levels, against the same enemies, without breaking up the gameplay with something a little different? For example, these are the top 10 NES games (according to IGN)

 

Duck Tales, ok no boss battles (no Yeti, no giant rat, no vampire duck) at the end of each area. So just pogo sticking normal enemies and collecting diamonds.

 

Bionic Commando, technically I guess the bosses are the communications / computer rooms, which are kind of weak.

 

Dragon Warrior, only a few real “bosses”, like the Green Dragon when saving the Princess, the Axe Knight (Edrick Armor), the Golem guard (Cantlin), and the Dragonlord. If you remove all the forced story battles, you are just left with random battles. Would that be fun?

 

Mike Tyson’s Punchout, The whole game is boss battles.

 

Metroid, only 3 bosses in the game. Mostly these just stand as checkpoints to force you to collect a certain number of hidden middle packs / energy tanks.


Castlevania III, without the boss characters, you just have a simple platformer with simple enemies (other than Medusa heads and other flying enemies knocking you into pits). What would be the purpose of collecting all the hearts (for special weapons), and 2-hit/3-hit?

 

Mega Man 2, I like the mechanic of beating a robot boss to obtain their weapon. While it is true the order of beating the bosses is easier by learning the weaknesses, just a guessing game.  What would you do instead? Just get a new weapon from Dr. Light at the end of each stage? What about the bosses at the end of each stage in Wily’s Castle?

 

Super Mario Bros, so no bowser clones at the bridge in the castle? Just walk in and rescue Toad?

 

Legend of Zelda, no dragons or other bosses guarding the Triforce pieces? Just find the dungeon map and compass and walk into the Triforce room?

 

Super Mario Bros 3, No mini-boss castles you need to step on to get to the second half of the map. No Bowser kids to defeat, each with their own different attacks. Just walk into the castle and collect the wand to restore the king of that stage to his normal self?

 

I don’t understand why you wouldn’t want boss battles? Without them, you just have the exact same gameplay on new stages with new skinned enemies. 

18 hours ago, Chris+++ said:

I'm also aware that on the very rare occasion, contending with the main enemy at the end of a level or game is handled cleverly and in a novel way.

Isn’t this the very definition of a boss battle? At the end of the level, you have a novel challenge that must be completed. Before this trope, I suppose most games were just more levels, with faster enemies. Game design has changed now through, you could make single screen games, or repeat the same levels with faster enemies or shorter timers, but boss battles are pretty much a staple of certain game genres.

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43 minutes ago, CapitanClassic said:

Would you prefer just playing the same sort of levels, against the same enemies, without breaking up the gameplay with something a little different?

 

No, but there are other ways of varying the game-play without halting progress for what amounts to an interactive intermission of monotony.
 

 

46 minutes ago, CapitanClassic said:

Isn’t this the very definition of a boss battle?

 

Wouldn't that be nice! All too often, though, there's nothing clever or intelligent about it -- it's just a rip-off of a million other games' "bosses." That's why I mentioned the inventive incorporation of such a level finale' as a rare exception.

 

That's all a matter of taste, though. As I said, I understand that many players like them, and many don't. It's subjective. What I'm mostly interested in is why players like them who like them.

So your reason is that it breaks up the game-play with some variety, and relieves repetition?

 

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51 minutes ago, zzip said:

In a lot of games, they are annoying like you describe.

 

But in the Souls games, they are the centerpiece,  I think that's really the only place I enjoy them.

 

I admit I don't know the Souls games. Which platform? Are they recent?

 

 

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1 hour ago, zzip said:

I mean Like Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Elden Ring...   They are on most modern platforms and have been coming out since around 2010

I see. I'm watching some Dark Souls III game-play on YT at the moment, and you're quite right -- nearly every enemy appears to take quite a while to bring down. In this case, then, that's literally the game one chooses to play; there wouldn't really be any challenge without the Big Bad Guys, so if fighting them weren't fun, there wouldn't be much reason to play the game at all.

 

I'm pretty ignorant to the modern stuff, so I probably shouldn't have been so vague in the initial post; the prospect of a major, level-delineating enemy can mean different things, depending on the era.

 

 

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Have you heard about dramatic art? Every story needs a climax, at least theoretically (some people like movies or books that don't follow these rules but I'm pretty sure you're not among them 😉).

Now you said that there are other ways to vary the pace of a video game. Sure, that's why a boss battle is not always a battle against one big foe.

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1 hour ago, roots.genoa said:

...Sure, that's why a boss battle is not always a battle against one big foe.

 

Good point -- level climaxes / finales do tend to be more interesting when there are several evil somebodies, instead of just one big evil somebody.

 

 

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In general I like boss battles because they sort of punctuate the game with a different kind of challenge.  They also provide an opportunity for a different kind of audiovisual splendor - different music, big explosions, visual chaos, etc.

 

Just like anything else, they're not all made the same though.  Especially in arcade games made after the late 80s, I definitely agree that boss battles can verge into the realm of exasperating and cheap.  Ever fought a boss in a Cave shoot-em-up?  Super Jedi type players can somehow beat them "with practice" but most mere mortals just need to hope that they've got enough bombs and lives to cash in for getting past the fight.  

 

Lots of beat-em-ups had really stupid boss fights, too.  Some of them amounted to naked theft. 

 

In short - my take is that boss fights represent an opportunity to do something cool and memorable and different, but they're also an opportunity to screw up a game. 

 

  

 

 

Edited by Cynicaster
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It seems like we are kinda covering all the bases here.  I don't like them, and I do.  I'll say that I LIKE when the boss battle adds a sense of accomplishment and fits well with the story or flow of the game.  Someone mentioned Metroid, and I think the Boss battles are completely appropriate in there.  But if the gameplay changes completely or the boss is too repetitive then it often does just turn into a trial and error session which is not fun.

 

For the Souls games - I feel like those were created by people who wish games were 100% boss battles, and I don't really get it.  Much of the complaints the OP mentions are in there.  Some people even claim you should play the souls games with a wiki open so you can save time by not having to do as much trial and error.  That's fun for a while, sometimes.

 

A modern game where I really like the boss structure is the Mass Effect series.  They do a nice job of using the existing game mechanics but throwing a new enemy or new difficulty into the mix to give you a challenge and push you to do something new, without just changing the gameplay on you entirely.

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On 12/7/2022 at 8:42 PM, Austin said:

If we're going to complain about boss battles on a general level, then we might as well complain about videogames on a general level too.

 

Videogames suck and are a major waste of time! 🙃

You know what I dislike in video games? Challenge. And don't tell me there are games now with difficulty modes that allow you to just follow the story, because I don't care for the story either. 🙂

I want to start the game and get the top high score immediately. 😤

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On 12/9/2022 at 1:55 PM, wongojack said:

For the Souls games - I feel like those were created by people who wish games were 100% boss battles, and I don't really get it.  Much of the complaints the OP mentions are in there.  Some people even claim you should play the souls games with a wiki open so you can save time by not having to do as much trial and error.  That's fun for a while, sometimes.

The difficulty of the Souls games is way overstated.   It's nowhere even close to 100% boss fights.    Most of the common enemies are easy enough to deal with,  with a few tough ones sprinkled in here and there.    When it comes to Bosses, there are some ridiculously simple bosses that nobody talks about.   There's some legendary tough ones that people talk about all the time,  and a lot in between that require a little trial and error, but won't make you pull your hair out.

 

The game designers love to create these giant monstrosities that instill fear and the player and think "I'll never beat that!"   but most have an Achilles heal

 

I only open the wiki when I get really stuck,  

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I just finished Persona 4 and I could not imagine the game without boss fights. Each character had a "boss" which defeated their inner demons and brought them into the party. Then there's the antagonists' boss fights which take them down. If you follow the right story arc there's the Boss of all Bosses fight which takes out the "I'm behind it all" bad guy.

 

To me boss battles should be a culmination of everything you learned in that part of the story - or level - and becomes a stepping stone to the next area. It gives a sense of accomplishment while moving the plot forward. If it's a well-written story - or the boss has a reason to be there like in a Shmup - then I don't mind at all. If you're gonna toss in Bob the Maniacal Juice Maker just because you liked coding him but had nowhere to put him... then just keep him out.

 

EDIT: Oh and make it a boss battle if you're going to do it. There have been a couple of less than memorable MMORPG games I have played where the "boss" was so much easier than the path to get to him. I should not be able to faceroll a boss on a normal try. (Now if I have been grinding and am 40 levels above what was intended that's my fault.)

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On 1/17/2023 at 10:21 AM, zzip said:

The game designers love to create these giant monstrosities that instill fear and the player and think "I'll never beat that!"   but most have an Achilles heal

Yes they instill an insurmountable fear sometimes.. till you beat them.

 

They are also educational. There have been times when I had to develop new pattens or new combinations of movements to beat them. Thus they are educational in a sense. Take the newly learned combo and apply it in the forthcoming levels.

 

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Not much to add here, but on a personal level, I like bosses that add something to the story rather than being mere roadblocks, especially for games that focus more on story than fight.

Big boss in a shooter or a beat-m'up? Fair, the game is all about combat technique after all.

 

For example, a few bosses in the first Silent Hill feels like they are here because they needed a boss.

Some ARE significant to the story but others are... Even delving into symbolism, I really can't see the point of the poisonous giant butterfly on the rooftop (tho this whole part of the game is really short, I wouldn't be surprised that they cut a good chunk of game here).

 

By comparison, bosses in Silent Hill 2 does have a more clear and meaningful reason to be there. And even better : sometime, there are no boss. Which, for such a game, is deliciously tipping you off.

You fear to open the last door of the building... Because you don't know what abomination awaits... And then... Nothing. Not even a simple ennemy or a last puzzle. Just... freedom to go deeper in the nightmare. That's actually brilliant.

And it's really important because in those games (survival-horror in general) the focus isn't on combat, which mean that you have no special technique to defeat bosses, usually just filling them with a lead hail until saturnism kicks in. So "a boss because we need a boss here" is really a bother since it doesn't bring anything significant to the game experience, it just slows you down and puts you low in ammo and health packs (which I assume is the point, but it also screams of lazy development since it mean that they couldn't balance the difficulty before)

 

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