More anti-boss rhetoric

by Steve Parsons { Jul 8th 2005 at 11:30AM }

It's a neverending spiral of scorn. NetJak's sardonic features got me thinking about irritants in video Devil May Cry 3 games, which led to me decrying the use of bosses in videogames. Now NetJak has returned the volley, initially inspired by them, citing said decrying as inspiration. (I think this is where we're all supposed to hold hands and skip giddily into the sunset. Or perhaps not.)

This piece, however, doesn't condemn the use of bosses to anywhere near the degree I did. (Which is probably the more rational approach to be quite honest.) However, it does raise more good points about what's bad with boss battles. (Plus they get bonus points for invoking the holy trilogy near the end.)

After reading the piece, I now have a huge urge to hunt down and play Earthworm Jim 2.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Syl @ Dec 18th 2005 9:47PM

The only recent game I can think of that didn't offer "bosses" was Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. God of War also had no "bosses" (though almost every enemy fit as a boss of some sort)

In my opinion, these game suffered because of it. (Now, both are absolutely excellent games, they just needed bossfights)

Admittedly, I greatly disliked the bosses in PoP:WW, however, i hated the entire game in general, with only a slight bit to do with the bosses.

There are also many games where the Bosses are the main attraction. Espicially when it comes to things such as Shmups, or the before-mentioned Zelda. As fun and great as the dungeon crawling is, I find the epic boss battle to be the reward.

I enjoy boss fights, they DO break up the monotomy. Killing hundreds upon hundreds of henchmen is fine, but you need some challenge every now now and then. When your done destroying legion upon legion of whatever enemy that your going to end up seeing hundreds of time, some giant bad-ass is a great diversion. Sure, finding the pattern and dodging attacks might get boring every now and then, and it does get repetitive before the end of a fight (usually).

Then it ends, the boss is gone, in some cases, you have to fight a more powerful version of the boss [i]once[/i] more later in the game. However, the bosses aren't what make the meat of the game, they're the reward and diversion after it.

Espicially when it comes to RPG's, I don't believe that an RPG would be of any interest at all if it wasn't for a boss fight. You kill hundreds of enemies with little or no effort, then comes a fight with strategy, with an enemy who's difficult, something to test the skills you've been gaining over the time.

In most games, its the boss fights that are memorable, not the nonchalant enemies, perhaps some of the puzzles, but its always the bosses you remember.

Domino @ Dec 18th 2005 9:47PM

Umm...God of War had three (two real ones though). The Minotaur and the Hydra were awesome bosses.

Christopher7xii @ Dec 18th 2005 9:47PM

"God of War also had no "bosses" (though almost every enemy fit as a boss of some sort)"

Except for the Banshee's when you first encountered them, the Hydra, and lets not forget ARES.

Hey Joystiq, write some more gaming news. Parsons petting his own ego about others linking to his written article is obnoxious.

Karmakin @ Dec 18th 2005 9:47PM

Lets get this straight. Devil May Cry 3 is just not that hard. Once you learn the controls, the game is actually pretty easy. DMC one certainly was much much MUCH harder. More cheap hits which added unfair difficulty.

Oh..wait..you're just talking about the bosses? From what I've played of DMC3 (I'm about 80% through the game on normal difficulty), the bosses are just not that bad. The main baddie..Virgil..his fights are free flowing, fast and furious...and totally handleable. Quicksilver was relativly easy, same with Nivan. Actually, most of the bosses were like that. After one or two tries so you can see their patterns, you knew how to attack, and how to dodge, and the boss fights got this epic flowing style that was great.

DMC1 on the other hand, was filled with cheap hits, pattern and unavoidable attacks.

I'm just not sure where you're coming from here. (BTW, God of War had quite a few boss battles. After the boss battles they then became regular enemies, with a few exceptions..but they were good fights. Actually, the biggest complaint about GoW I've heard is the "clone" fight. Which is NOT a typical boss fight)

32_Footsteps @ Dec 18th 2005 9:47PM

You're mistaking "annoying" for "hard." Nobody ever asserted that DMC3's bosses were hard. They managed to be easy and annoying. This is sadly pretty common in games nowadays.

B @ Dec 18th 2005 9:47PM

Personally, I detest the bosses that, just as you are about to defeat them, either gain back all thier health or vanish, only to reappear later when they are much more powerful. It's espicially annoying when the bad guy makes thier escape by using some power to freeze or stun your character that under normal conditions you would be immune to. If they can stun you so easily, why not just stun you and then slit your throat? Why wait till the last minute to escape, anyways? Another thing I hate, player gets captured and loses all his stuff, espicailly when you get captured by a bunch of guards that you could easily take, if the game would just let you attack.