@@ArchitectofGames the fact that she comes right after Mr. "The edge" (MY Favourite boss) means that you really feel like she SHOULD be your greatest threat. which makes her preaching and pleading hit home (unlike the OTHER boss that does this "The Song"). This aspect as well as EVERYTHING "The Voice" says and does are the two aspects of Furi that made it one of my favourite games of all time in conclusion FUCK "THE STAR"!
@@tianling3383 I think The Beat serves a similar function to The Song. They're both their to appeal to emotion, guilt and contentment respectively. The Song tries to convince you to just stay. That she'll take care of you and everything will be okay with her. Because if you made it that far, things are going wrong, but maybe you'll listen to the pretty, motherly blonde lady dressed like an Angel. The Beat is the last ditch effort to stop you by trying to convince you that you are wrong. That you're the bad guy in this story. Her purpose was never really to fight, hence all her traps, it was just to try to appeal to some form of emotion you may have. It's very like Hotline Miami in that the only way to really win is not engaging with the game. Furi uses common game tropes to make you think they're trying to fake you out and that they'll all be wrong in the end when it's really the Voice who's not entirely honest with you for his own ends. Hotline Miami has the dream sequences that reprimand and call out the players violence and they kind of tell you to stop. Both games do something interesting by playing with how we've been conditioned to see and play games by just giving you the truth or something close to it and just letting you fake yourself out by thinking thinking they're faking you out.
The final boss from Metal Gear Rising is also worth to mention: You have that senator riding on a huge Metal Gear to fight, only to be disappointed on how easy that fight against the giant machine is... to discover a cutscene later that the senator himself is much more tougher then what you would expect from a senator to be!
One of my favorite bosses I’ve fought is the mantis lords from hollow knight. They aren’t very difficult but the perfect synchronization and rhythm game of their attacks is just so much fun to fight against
This video actually has some helpful advice at designing a boss fight in other mediums, too, even without interactivity. A climactic fight with good theming, where the enemy feels threatening, where the way the hero wins is set up properly (and often subtly), and a twist on the scene to make it more interesting.
In my opinion the boss with the best theming would be the hollow knight, with a fight that get progressively more easier and the music that get sadder.
heucl meucl-heucl i have to agree. That fight really gave me the feels. But the radiance was a better boss, because of the sence of danger it gave imo. But almost all the bosses from hollow knight was awesome, and it is one of my favourite games from 2017.
Boblesopp oh sure I wasn’t diminishing the awesome radiance fight! Only the hollow knight one prove that a fight don’t have to get harder with time and can even be really satisfying even if the boss get weaker, which is an interesting twist.
Also, the *lack* of music in certain moments really makes a difference. Such brilliant sound design led to me having chills down my spine when we came out of, you know, *that place* .
@@DevilsAdvocateofnazareth Sif doesn't repeatedly stab himself to help you kill him. Sif is, (without knowing the lore) just a big dog you fight with a big sword that you find completely at random, who happens to limp around when hurt (which is kinda odd since A. most other bosses don't show any amount of remorse or injury right up to their last breath and B. he's perfectly fine until at nearly no health)
One of my fave vids yet, though I do always love stuff about boss fights in general. I like how you made the Twist part of the video a literal twist as well. XD
One thing about Furi! The charge attacks actually have some uses, a few bosses have openings that aren't otherwise telegraphed and allow for extra damage to be done, speedruns probably show those less 'obvious' techniques all being used to the optimal level. Good video either way, hope you keep growing (:
not to mention that charging up your dodge makes it much easier to dodge big projectiles (like the shockwave attacks)! also charge attacks are a godsend against the edge LOL
At least in the Hand boss fight, during the tail end of the boss firing charged shots at him when he retreats for his laser attack can actually interrupt him doing it, which causes him to instead close back in for more melee. Comically its shown at about 15:07 around the time he mentions they are more of less worthless.
if you can pull off a full charge in the melee section, you can carve up a bosses life bar for that phase in one combo. this requires standing absolutely still and using a charge mechanic that I think the game doesn't even tell you. Using the gun controls during melee sections makes the stranger's sword turn orange and do more damage on hit, but you loose it if you get hit. If you can pull of both this and a fully charged dash attack, that's the boss' entire health bar for that melee segment. I pulled this off exactly once.
as a gitter of gut in furi, nah charge attacks are amazing, especially when playing against the bosses on regular difficulty it's just hard to grasp when you should do them if you haven't fully mastered the game
This is exactly what came into my mind too. I used charge shot so much to interrupt the Song's dive attack I felt bad because it felt like I was cheating.
Very nice video. One thing I'd add on theming is that there are actually very different ways to theme effectively as well. To take furi and dark souls as examples. Furi gives their bosses quite a lot of personality, and gives you most of their story upfront to build hype for the actual fight. Dark souls often does the opposite. Though sometimes bosses are announced and talked about in advance, it often likes to throw them at you without much of an explanation. However, there is a lot to discover about the bosses through item descriptions and/or the world as well. I think one of the best examples of that is Quelaag's sister. Who essentially explains why the boss was even there. I'm also rather surprised you didn't talk more about Furi's last boss, which was in my opinion by far the worst part of the game. It strips away melee entirely, leaving you with only dodging and shooting without adding a similar twist to it as the edge. And as you said, it's basically one big endurance run(read: slog.).
Yeah I really wasn't a fan of the true final boss. The shmup parts of the game are waaay less satisfying and the issues with dodging seem to be even more pronounced in that fight particularly. I eventually beat it but you're right on the money with saying it's a slog, which is a shame, because they clearly put a lot of effort into it.
I'm really late here, but you're actually very very wrong on the value of charged attacks in Furi. The openings for them are less obvious, but each has its own special use. Charged slashes, apart from triggering a finisher, also cut clean through bullets in your path, regardless of if they can be destroyed. Additionally, it will continue to charge while you parry, letting you turn a single hit opening into a devastating attack. This is particularly valuable on bosses with strings with very small openings, and most pronounced on Furier. Some good examples are the Hand's directional waves, where you can charge the attack, side dodge then immediately hit him with it, The Edge's strings, which only leave a single hit opening, and the Chain's spreadshot, which you can plow clean through. The charge shot, likewise, sees its best use as either an interruption tool, or to cut a path through particularly problematic attacks. The Line's bullet hell segments are made vastly easier by strategic charge shots to wipe out his bullets enmasse. The same can be said for some parts of The Burst and The Song. Admittedly, it's less useful than the Charge Slash, but I've used it to quickly interrupt an attack I did not want to deal with in my current position on the map. It will tear through *everything* in its path, making it a great answer to attacks that combine waves/lasers and bullets. The Strap can have some moments where using it to stuff a laser when there are tracking projectiles are around will save your life, alongside it being great for cutting said projectiles out of the air. Charged dodges have scaling distance based on how long you hold it down, letting a skilled player land exactly where they plan to. This is particularly useful for dodging over multiple attacks at once or quickly landing behind the boss and then reversing to deliver a charged slash.
Shit, I thought I knew the game decently well after finishing a furier run, but it turns out I didn't even know some pretty basic stuff! I knew most of that, but I had no idea about the charged slash. Thanks for explaining it in such great detail and even naming examples of when each charged move is more useful!
If you want the ultimate example, fight The Hand's first phase using just charged slashes and parries/dashes. He's incredibly weak to them if you know where to place them. Namely, when he runs to the edge of the arena, charge a slash and a dash both. Release dash to land next to him, release slash. Acquire damage. All of his wave spam attacks are weak to dash through charged slash.
Theres also the one charge you forgot. The character charge. If you move the stick you use to aim your shot with in a melee section then you'll stand still and charge your character for a second. Once you change color a single combo will take the bosses entire bar. But if you're hit you lose the charge. Its difficult to pull off but extremely rewarding and every boss has the opening for it, it's just about finding it
yo good video, but you're a tad wrong about Furi's mechanics at the end there. You dodge when you let go of the button, so if you just tap it, it's easy to spam some dodges around, but when you hold your dodge you'll go further as it charges. This is where the misconception about problem dodges is (I hear this complaint a lot. It does take some getting used to, I guess, but I don't think it's that hard to learn). I'll let that part slide, but charged attacks are amazing. Charged gunshots can chew through multiple projectiles, or destroy certain projectiles that might take more hits to destroy. This is great for the bullet hell sections where you need some breathing room. Charged melee attacks are solid punishes as long as you can time them, and work pretty well against The Hand iirc. Everything has a niche.
DJ Octavio is one of my favourite bosses he poses a clear threat to you not only being challenging but also narratively with him taking the great zap fish which powers all of inkopolis and through the game being built up as the leader of the octolings the enemy of the inklings. His mechanics are also really easy to understand and uses most of the mechanics that you've encountered in the other levels and has a amazing progression in difficulty starting off pretty easy and every phase requiring you to multitask all his attacks and full mastery of the bosses mechanics. As for his theming I don't really know about that the fight adds so much so soon that it's hard to find a real theme in design at least for me who is believe it or not a certified non game designer so I don't know but anyway great video
I think GLADOS from the first portal game (and also spoiler Wheatley from the second) shows the characteristic of threat as GLADOS firstly sets of the nerve toxin that gives you a timer, imeadatly putting the pressure on due to the set timer that will spell death unless you get on with it. Secondly the way if getting the cores to defeat her can sometimes be quite hard and often end in a few mistakes, wasting time for you and making that threat more pressing.
The Revengeance's first boss (Yes it's a Metal Gear) also conveys some extra meaning if you're a Metal Gear Lore nerd as well; this boss is the penultimate final boss(es) in Metal Gear Solid 2, where it feels... rather unsastifying, by design at least (There's many of them, but you fight them one by one. and when you defeat one of them, they don't even get destroyed; they merely jumps away so that a new one takes place).
My simple rules of boss fights: 1: It should be defeatable with 0 damage taken, if the player plays perfectly. This rule instantly rules out any scenario where the player is alive but he knows he will die, which is a VERY bad experience. The boss also should not have nigh-impossible to dodge attack/interaction, for the same rule. 2: The boss should feature slower-heavier and faster-lighter attacks, but not from both exteme ends of the spectrum. Either make a boss bulky and heavy, and compensate for the difficulty with harder readability on his moves, or make is really fast-paced and action-fulled, but not both. A big bulky titan who could barely swing his arms suddenly moving at mach 5 ruins all the immersion. 3: Bosses should feature phases, or atleast sub-phases, where the strategy/approach of the player has to change. 4: Do not make a binary bossfight with a bloated healthbar. Nobody wants the biggest threat to be falling asleep mid-fight because how boring the boss is. If the boss has a lot of health, make it intersting, more phases, more moves. 5: Don't put the player on a clock. Nothing's worse than a boss, where not only it is difficult to beat the boss, you also have to hurry. Just once you die because RNG boss pattern didn't favor you and you didn't get enough openings to attack and it leaves a sour taste in the player's mouth. Force the player to move, but not by making him insta-lose. 6: It's okay to give the boss an "infinite" healing skill, which he'll use sometimes if the player drags out the fight too long. If the player is playing too safe this can punish him perfectly. He has to speed up his pace, to deal more damage than the boss heals under the same period. Throwing in a 5-15% heal every now and then as a reminder to stop playing overly defensive is a good mechanic. - I personally really enjoyed it in the Soul of Cinder fight in Dark Souls 3. The boss was oppressive, but we had to find openings and abuse them, else he will heal himself up. Kept us on our toes and punished just enough for trying to be too defensive.
It's a somewhat different piece of cake than action RPG-games. Turn based RPG (and strategy, because the system is similar) games most of the time revolve around tactics, long-term planning, having backup plans in your sleeve etc. Also most of such games deal with RNG, in which case there is always a chance of everything going wrong, aswell as everything going right. 100% chance "events" are usually either very transparent, so they don't just nuke you off without warning, or very minor ones to support the main flow of action as either a combo piece in your plan, or as a safety "oh shit" button. Every succesful game with turn-based combat (Divinity, XCOM, Darkest Dungeon, to name a few), have a well-made system which has the player try to turn the odds in his favor by clever execution and strategy. If that system is not made well, or not fixed quickly, the game falls from grace miserably.
Yes, in the first phase's "Faith moveset" he wields a lance and uses WoTG and Heal. It's pretty much just a tool to avoid players from trying to stay extremely far at all times, or play too passive. If you are decently close you can nullify it by attacking him a few times during it, perhaps even come out with him having less health after than before the heal.
I disagree with your first point. More accurately the boss should be defeatable from any situation possible within without any further significant permanent costs. This is not necessarily the same as without taking damage, for instance a boss could launch an undodgeable attack that drops you to 1hp or similar at some point in the fight and still be fair. Likewise, if healing is possible in your game, then unavoidable damage is also fair game. Your second point has more to do with theming. I can certainly say the "lightning bruiser" is doable so long as it is thematically sensible, for instance having a large near future vehicle that dishes out insanely powerful attacks while also being extremely fast is a legitimate option. Likewise a slow yet weak character has its place, usually not as a boss, but as an extremely unsettling gaming moment that resembles a boss fight as you pummel to death someone who argues politics at you while putting up only the very bare minimum of resistance to qualify as a fight. And point 5 I don't agree with. One of the greatest boss fights I've seen thematically was the last boss of Metal Gear Solid: Ghost Babel. The entire fight was against someone known for being super dirty, and you've already beaten him once. This time you face him he is just constantly running away and trying to stall the fight with flashbangs as he attempts to get a satellite connection on his I win the game button.
He's not talking shit about the game overall, just the boss fights. And he is kinda right, the boss fights do suck. The main game is great though, just for different reasons
Another great video! One factor commonly effecting my enjoyment of boss-fights is the "kill" itself and how it is justified narratively (something you touch upon with Dark Souls). Playing Nier Automata recently the first few boss fights end with the boss dying to either a chance encounter (another character comes to save the day) or an overpowered attack that your character was hiding (releasing a large killing laser or the like). Such a twist in how you actually kill the boss really sours the experience for me as even if the boss fight was satisfying in the four ways you have mentioned it is resolved (narratively) as being completely out of the players control. Ultimately, this makes me feel like all my energies and mastery of a fight were of zero importance (even when that is obviously not true). By removing the player from the narrative "kill" all the emphatic energy is simply sapped from the glorious "Victory Achieved" sentiment epitomised in Dark Souls.
I love how you give so much thought into little things and always say something about the soundtracks, which can be easily forgotten in analysis videos.
Maybe Okami too. I mean (to possibly spoil some of the surreal experience of the first time playing through the game, stop reading if you still plan on playing it), you got bosses that pretty much always got unique and fair mechanics, and you are actually getting "tutorialed" by having regular enemies doing some of the similar stuffs to bosses so that you can try and remember what works best to a set pattern, and you ultimately have to fight the same boss multiple times, with later times usually being less hand-holding, yet you get better stats and more importantly, remember the way you beat the boss last time, to make you feel more powerful. And there are twists, not only to the story, but to mechanics as well, suddenly giving you a mechanic that you thought only you can use, and suddenly ripping some of your ability off so that you have to do things not in the way you are comfortable with.
I disagree man, I used the charged attacks alot, it's really useful, but only against certain charged attacks. It can really make life easier if you know when to use it...
Great video, truly~ As a gamedeveloper myself i really appreciate when people really go into detail as it can always teach you some new stuff despite what you think you know, and i gotta say, this video really made me think ^^
I'd love to see you revisit this topic, I feel like furi and other "boss rush" type games can only contribute so much to the conversation of how grander scope games integrate their base mechanics into their bossfights
I think it's worth pointing out that bosses can still be good in spite of missing one of these traits. Undertale does a fantastic job of this: most of the bosses don't make the boss feel like a threat, but their mechanics, theming, and twists are so good that you don't even miss the threat. In addition, Undertale's mechanics mean that the lack of a threat makes the boss more relatable, and it's more likely that the player will at least try to spare the boss, which even further adds to the theming.
The Creature from Creature In The Well does a great job at this. He taunts you before the fight, as well as whenever you die throughout the game, plays around with the game’s regular mechanics in inventive ways, and rewards you for having explored and completed challenges to get the game’s various optional weapons. His final appearance is a little over-the-top, but totally worth it in the end.
one of my personal all time favorite boss fights is hands down the fight with The Wolf Knight, Artorias The Abyss Walker, in game he was one of the 4 knights of gwyn lord of sunlight with a will stronger than steel, but when you encounter him, he has fallen to the corruption that he long fought against, so it falls to you the chosen undead to grant him a mercy killing and let history remember the man but not the monster
I actually feel like Artorias is the best boss in Dark Souls. The hype train to fight him begins really early in the game in Darkroot garden when you get the first of the 4 rings. After that you just get more and more snippets of this legendary knight of Gwyn and even fight one of the other knights later in game. Then Sif happens and crushes your heart so you can get the covenant to face off with the four kings themselves. After all that, Artorias’s legend, to me, made me feel really intimidated when I walked into his arena and I saw his name. His boss mechanics are enjoyable to dodge, his relentless aggression feels like you aren’t facing another mindless boss, but an actually experience player and his epic yet mournful theme all culminate into my favorite boss. He has the perfect balance of mechanics, design and H Y P E. What makes the fight even better is when you realize Artorias is fucking left handed and is kicking your ass with his offhand and without his shield. Finally beating him felt so fucking good, and taking his armor, making his sword, and kicking Manus’s ass felt even better. The DLC of dark souls was packed full of fun and memorable bosses, and Artorias stands at the top as the best. Also Sif’s alternative cutscene made me literally quit the game like wtf fromsoft, the first fight already stomped my heart don’t do this.
Other people: I'm never touching Dark Souls again because it's too frustrating Me: I'm never touching Dark Souls again because I'd rather die than lay a finger on Sif
Enter the gungeon has my favourite bosses. But I am not old enough to have experienced the classic bosses others think of I still think it has the difficulty and satisfaction to make a great boss fight experience
I think Lavos from Chrono Trigger is a great boss. 1: everything that Lavos starts with kind of a boss rush, (without changing into the bosses) but tells you what boss it’s switching into, then goes into the fight against the shell. You’ve already fought Lavos spawn, so you know what’s coming. The other boss battles you don’t know what will happen but aren’t too crazy. 2:Lavos causes the apocalypse and kills Crono. Do I need to say more? 3:music and background for all 3 fights are great. 4:When fighting the Lavos core, this is a small twist, but instead of the imposing humanoid in the middle that attacks you being the Lavos core, (the characters even trick you into thinking that too) the little bit on the right is the actual boss.
At this point yes, and the last one is a nightmare to beat. SPOILERS: In order of difficulty: the Incomplete One, the Watcher, the Time Keeper, and last but not least the Hand of the King.
I ran across this channel today and after watching a few videos I'm definitely hooked. You've got some great content which is well researched, put together, and portrayed in a way which is both easy to understand what the point is and is entertaining and immersive in both visuals and sound. In addition from what I've read in the comments the fan base here is incredibly supportive and all around pretty great. I'm definitely down to subscribe and look forward to catching up on all of your stuff
The thing that i love the most about O&S is when you are fighting with a friend and smough's hammer just appears out of nowhere and sweeps your friend across the floor.
I finished Furi after buying it from watching this video a long time ago. Very good game I’ve bought a lot of games because of this channel that I never heard of
One little detail in Furi that I loved was that, during the fight against the Scale, he typically won't attack you while he's monologuing, meaning that's your window to get a hit in. In the very next fight against the Hand, though, whenever he's talking, that means he's prepared to parry any of your hits, like he's specifically trying to goad you into attacking. That's just such a neat little bit of messing with player expectations in a really in-character way.
No one ever mentions the lyrics of MGR:R boss fight themes. They just fit so well into the situation, explaining the boss's origins and intentions, giving the "theming" a whole new layer!
I think another important part of making a good boss is allowing the player to beat it using only the basic moves you have. In sekiro, for example, you can use prosthetics for separate bosses to make the fights easier, shurikens for butterfly, firecrackers for literally everyone, but in the end of the day, you can beat any boss using only your attack, deflect and dodging moves. Except for thr ape. Fuck the ape.
Despite Furi being one of the shortest games I've played, it's also stuck around with me as one of the most memorable gaming experiences I've had, and still manages to dig up those feelings of excitement I had while playing it even while just watching a video like this.
I played the Director's Cut of Human Revolution. Boss fights were improved so much. There were turrets to hack and traps to set and different strategies rather than just holding down the trigger.
Nightmare King Grimm in Hollow Knight was the perfect boss to me. I genuinely thought he was unbeatable, but bit by bit I could get the flow of the fight. When I finally won, I felt so glad but immediately wanted to fight him again, because it was such a pure joy. Radiance was also great as the true final boss. Dramatic pattern and music, tremendous threat, and the 2nd phase ascension was thematically perfect. Generally, all of the bosses in Hollow Knight were great. Artorias of Abyss is another boss I like, but I personally think the beauty of Dark Souls comes mostly from the brilliant level design, than from boss fights.
My favorite boss in HK are the Sisters of Battle. It has the theme, mechanics, threat. and most importantly, a twist. I also loved NKG too! His fight was almost like a dance, which makes sense because he is circus leader after all.
thank you for this video and thank youtube to pop this into my reccomendet section. I would probably never have known about Furi if it wasn't for this.
I absolutely love Furi. For as much rage induced pain it caused me, especially in the New Game+ of Furi, it was such a good experience and made me feel like I grew as a person. 10/10 video, gonna play Furi again now.
One thing that I like about ornstein and smough is that they will actively try to surround you, sometimes giving you the impression that you're on a regular 1 on 1 fight only for the other to hit you from behind
An interesting Bossfight game is Johtun. It's on Steam and is basically a series of small tutorial levels followed by a bossfight with the mechanic introduced earlier palying a part. The best bit though is that you can try each boss in any order you like.
A boss from “Remnant: From the Ashes” fits the first 3 principles perfectly. The Unclean One, aka metal head Shrek, is who I’m talking about. Walking through a door you initially just see his shack in the distance with no engines near it, a huge red flag because this game is typically crawling with enemies. As you enter the shack you hear the pounding of his metal hammer and see bones/meat being processed (like a butcher). Weaving your way room to room in the shack you discover a maze and these huge blue pots. You make the final turn and see the beast standing there. He turns to you and the fight starts. Trying to lose him through the rooms around you and you realize he’s smashing the walls. Through the walls you can hear what attack he is going to preform and move to avoid being hit. This teaches the player about audio cues, that you don’t always need to be looking at the boss to know what they’re gonna do. To add even cooler mechanics other bosses in the game spawn mobs randomly to inflate difficulty. The blue pots, which the boss breaks, has 1 elite per pot. This means the player knows where the engines are coming from and knows how many there could be, compared to endless respawning. The boss is fair, teaches you, and has 2 hilarious weak points (his face and his exposed butt). It sucks his boss weapon is glitched and players can’t obtain it.
2:56 "In The Director's Cut, there are hallways on the sides of the circular room that will take you to an upper floor. On the upper floor, you can activate gas dispersal, but the Rebreather Augmentation is highly advised. There is also a security hub surrounded by lasers. Triggering or destroying the lasers will activate turrets which will shoot at you. If you can get through them, you can hack the computer and turn the turrets against Fedorova. There are several ways through the lasers: you can use the stun gun to temporarily disable one laser, you can just walk through them using the Cloaking Augmentation, you can hack the nearby panel and turn off the laser, or you can break the wall near the panel and turn off the breaker powering the lasers." Also there are power generators that can be broken and after thath floor starts dealing electricity damage and if Adam has appropriate aug he wont get damage. So i dont see any disconnect between this fight and other parts of the game.
One of my favorite fights is the final boss of Hyper Light Drifter. I have never been fucked over by a boss so quickly. The audiovisual feedback in that fight has some serious thump to it too, making it all the more threatening. Beating it the first time feels great, but when you get to where you can plow through it with ease, the feeling of mechanical mastery over this monstrosity that has haunted you the whole game is extraordinary.
0:41 Sisyphus prime from ultrakill gotta be one of the most crazy boss fights i have ever fought He is fast, unpredictable, hard, every line he says is memorable, his fight is equivalent to a war, and the best part is, you can beat him in only 30 seconds, but you gotta be real hardcore to pull that off
Dark Messiah of Might and Magic has some wonderful bosses, and I'll never forget the thrill of finding outside-the-box ways of kicking their asses. ^_^
Seven conditions for a memorable, beautiful boss fight: 1. Choral/Baroque/Classical Romantic theme or symbolically significant theme. 2. 1 vs 1 fight or, if several bosses at once, they should be fought alone. (enemies can be present if they are directly controlled by the boss) 3. Symbolically significant and/or visually stunning setting (bonus if isolated and serene) 4. Boss should rely on dexterity, (unique) skill or intelligence rather than just brute strength or power. 5. Boss and player character should be of similar size and the same species (if multiple species are present). 6. Player's and boss's attacks/abilities should be aesthetically pleasing and employ visual flair. 7. Interactions between player's and boss's abilities/actions should be varied and creative (the more counterattacks and parries, the better). (This includes subversion of player expectations/formula breaks) Examples that satisfy at least some of these conditions: Gehrman and Gascogne (Bloodborne) (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) Albert Wesker (w/ Jill vs Chris/Sheva and 1st Phase of last battle) (RE5) (2, 4, 5, 6, 7) Osmund Saddler (RE 4: *Separate Ways vs Ada; NOT last battle vs Leon*) (2, 4, 5, 6, partially 7) Psycho Mantis (MGS 1) (1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7) Yasha and Deus (Asura's Wrath) (2, 4, 5, 6, 7) Al-Mualim (AC) (2, 3, 4, 5, 6) Gwyn (1, 2, 3, 5), Sif (1, 2, 3, 4, 6), Priscilla (1, 2, 3, 4, 6), Gwyndolin (1, 2, 4, 5 kind of, 6, 7) (Dark Souls) Liquid Ocelot (MGS4) (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7) All the Colossi (Shadow of the Colossus) (2 - used to its maximum potential, 3, 6 kind of, 7) Metal Gear Rex vs Ray (MGS 4) (2, 3, 5, 6, 7) O & S (Dark Souls) (1, 2 3, 7) Giygas (Earthbound) (2, 3, 4 kind of, 7) The Boss (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7), The End (2, 4, 5, 7), The Sorrow (2, 4, 7) (MGS 3) Glados (Portal) (2, 4, 7) Pretty much all the bosses in Undertale (2, 3, 4, 6, 7) Krauser (RE 4) (2, 4, 5, 6, 7) Sephiroth (FF7) (1, 2, 4 kind of?, 5 kind of?, 6, 7) Probably the bosses in Ookami satisfy 2, 3, 4, 7
I WILL NEVER FORGET THE PURE DREAD I FELT WHEN BLACK FIRE STARTED SWELLING AROUND FRIEDE IN THE DARKSOULS 3 DLC, I WILL NEVER FORGET THAT CRIPPLING ANXIETY, NEVER EVER
I’d have to say my favorite boss fight is Roxas is KH2. The music and setup for that fight bring so much and with it being one of the hardest fights in the game, it really sticks with the player
Spider Mastermind, Doom 2016. Tough, threatening, kickass soundtrack, satisfying death. I love the way it starts using different attacks the more you damage it. Starts creating pillars you have to stand on to avoid electrical attacks on the ground, but then swaps and makes you jump back down as it electrocutes the pillars instead. It becomes like a dance of destruction.
The Hollow Knight from Hollow Knight does have a twist: First, the Hollow Knight just seems to want to protect something, or just kill you. But then, it stabs itself.
Boss presence is important too. You have to continuously remind the player who they're fighting! If the boss goes off-screen or doesn't attack you directly, you have to find some way to put them in. If the fight is more of a platforming section or a chase scene, with the environment causing the most harm, make the boss do something, even an attack that isn't meant to hit. And making sure the boss fight feels like it belongs in the game. If the fight runs on it's own completely unique mechanic, it won't be as fun. Hollow Knight is great at this. Any given boss probaly shares an attack or mechanic with a previous enemy.or obstacle, so you always know what to do.
Hollow Knight: The Hollow Knight 1. Mechanics - You have everything you've picked up on your way to the end, and the fight gets easier as you get better equipment and prepare yourself more for the fight. 2. Threat - This thing was sealed away for a reason. If you fail to kill them, then Hallownest is doomed to certain destruction by the hands of the Infection. 3. Theming - You're facing the Infection at what is to be believed is its source. Throughout the game, you've seen the effects of this plague and how it was the driving force behind why the kingdom fell in the first place. The fight takes a turn after some time, when the boss begins stabbing themself in the chest. This is when the already somber music into a slower, more suspenseful theme. The music at this point means to tell how the Hollow Knight is trying to fight the same thing you are, the source of the infection, whether it's trying to kill itself or something inside it. 4. Twist - If you got to a certain point in the game, Hornet will pop in to create an opening for you. The dream particles hint that you're supposed to use the Dream Nail to find the true source of the Infection. But that's not what I'm here to talk about. If you choose to continue attacking the Hollow Knight, Hornet will fall off and be knocked out, unable to continue helping. When you kill the Hollow Knight after this, you absorb the Infection into yourself in a sort of cycle, becoming the next Hollow Knight and being chained up. This boss leads to 3 endings based on your progress and actions. One of my favorite bosses in Hollow Knight, dispite how easy it has become.
5:25 thanks for giving me flashbacks to "i dropped my contact lenses". Fuck me every time I get to lost izalith I want to headbutt a wall, this fight can sometimes be a breeze and other times take way too many attempts because broom hands sweeps me into a pit. There is a reason I have set up some boards in the backyard for punching (other than my roof not being able to support a punching bag)
Personally, I find that one of the elements of a satisfying boss is that a boss should have more than one weapon, with at least one of them being one that can shoot projectiles.
It speaks a lot about the Yelena boss fight that the first time I fought her I just happened to have some upgrade points left over, bought the fully upgraded typhoon and then used it to murder her easily and never touched the typhoon again
One of my favorite bosses is Lord Gwin from Dark Souls. I like how Fromsoft completely subverts your expectations by building him up as the biggest bad ass ever, but by the time you get to him all that’s left is a burnt husk of a man. He’s sacrificed everything: his kingdom, his family - even his own life - in a desperate effort to subvert the natural order and prolong his reign.
My fav boss fight is last boss on hard in Rabi-Ribi. Irisu is 15 min long multiple-stage fight that took be couple of days to get right. What i think is very important in a long fight like that - is for your early-stage accomplishments to matter in the later stages. Like - if you made a long fight where you have full resources in a middle of the fight (because it's first part is easy/because game heals you at some point, etc) every time you fight it - you may as well make a chekpoint there. If not, and you're commited in designing a long epic fight - everything should matter, because this early part will start to feel like a chore quickly. Rabi-RIbi does everything right in that aspect, it's an adnventure of a fight. Try to look it up, but for a person who nevery played the game amount of things (like numbers and stats, not bullets) start to get messy, game itself build this complexity very gradually, but it's a mess to look at for a non-initiated person. (also iconoclasts is a boring shallow game, some bosses are ok tho)
Orphan of kos, beautiful setting, extremely difficult but not unfair and not even close to impossible, threatening but still vulnerable, fun to fight, extremely rewarding to beat, great lore, and an amazing conclusion to one of the best DLCS ever made in history
I belive what makes a great boss is the following 1 gameplay in the boss fight 2 the bosses story and ehat it ads to the narrative 3 the challenge and reward for overcoming it 4 the little things, the soundtrack the bosses atitude its looks ect.
"Some Metal Gear Lore nerd will probably know the answer, but this big ROBOT THING"
Oh, you mean a...
Metal Gear?
Psycho Mantis or sniperwolf part 1 and 2. I felt bad after they died that's a good boss fight and Vulcan Raven was inspiring
@shadowfr0st right so great, never took me out of the game. It's the most satisfying game to beat
"There's actually a fourth one; a twist"
Well done sir. I did not see that coming.
Additional detail of The Beat (furi's 9th boss) is that despite attacking rarely, she never actually causes you harm - she's that weak.
I never realised that, wow!
@@ArchitectofGames the fact that she comes right after Mr. "The edge" (MY Favourite boss) means that you really feel like she SHOULD be your greatest threat. which makes her preaching and pleading hit home (unlike the OTHER boss that does this "The Song").
This aspect as well as EVERYTHING "The Voice" says and does are the two aspects of Furi that made it one of my favourite games of all time
in conclusion FUCK "THE STAR"!
@@tianling3383 I think The Beat serves a similar function to The Song. They're both their to appeal to emotion, guilt and contentment respectively. The Song tries to convince you to just stay. That she'll take care of you and everything will be okay with her. Because if you made it that far, things are going wrong, but maybe you'll listen to the pretty, motherly blonde lady dressed like an Angel. The Beat is the last ditch effort to stop you by trying to convince you that you are wrong. That you're the bad guy in this story. Her purpose was never really to fight, hence all her traps, it was just to try to appeal to some form of emotion you may have.
It's very like Hotline Miami in that the only way to really win is not engaging with the game. Furi uses common game tropes to make you think they're trying to fake you out and that they'll all be wrong in the end when it's really the Voice who's not entirely honest with you for his own ends. Hotline Miami has the dream sequences that reprimand and call out the players violence and they kind of tell you to stop.
Both games do something interesting by playing with how we've been conditioned to see and play games by just giving you the truth or something close to it and just letting you fake yourself out by thinking thinking they're faking you out.
@@ArchitectofGames what of the Flame?
Video is primarily about Furi
The game in the description is Bayonetta
okay
I'm fine with this
Now its Dark Souls...
That's cause its youtubes algorithm that decides what to link to in that spot.
Furi... FURI KURIIII
Key word: primarily
Either way he still talks about bayonetta lol
If you read the actual description it says every game he shows on screen.
Plus, Furi has one of the most kickass soundtracks EVER.
Jungle dragon yhoarn fase 2 from terrarias calamity mod is the best I ever heard
@@spearfanatic6267 they're both fucking insane
Everhood also has an amazing soundtrack
The final boss from Metal Gear Rising is also worth to mention: You have that senator riding on a huge Metal Gear to fight, only to be disappointed on how easy that fight against the giant machine is... to discover a cutscene later that the senator himself is much more tougher then what you would expect from a senator to be!
One of my favorite bosses I’ve fought is the mantis lords from hollow knight. They aren’t very difficult but the perfect synchronization and rhythm game of their attacks is just so much fun to fight against
2 years late but their music is so BONKERS its worth mentioning
This video actually has some helpful advice at designing a boss fight in other mediums, too, even without interactivity.
A climactic fight with good theming, where the enemy feels threatening, where the way the hero wins is set up properly (and often subtly), and a twist on the scene to make it more interesting.
In my opinion the boss with the best theming would be the hollow knight, with a fight that get progressively more easier and the music that get sadder.
heucl meucl-heucl i have to agree. That fight really gave me the feels. But the radiance was a better boss, because of the sence of danger it gave imo. But almost all the bosses from hollow knight was awesome, and it is one of my favourite games from 2017.
Boblesopp oh sure I wasn’t diminishing the awesome radiance fight! Only the hollow knight one prove that a fight don’t have to get harder with time and can even be really satisfying even if the boss get weaker, which is an interesting twist.
Also, the *lack* of music in certain moments really makes a difference.
Such brilliant sound design led to me having chills down my spine when we came out of, you know, *that place* .
You're describing the Sif fight from dark souls man
@@DevilsAdvocateofnazareth Sif doesn't repeatedly stab himself to help you kill him. Sif is, (without knowing the lore) just a big dog you fight with a big sword that you find completely at random, who happens to limp around when hurt (which is kinda odd since A. most other bosses don't show any amount of remorse or injury right up to their last breath and B. he's perfectly fine until at nearly no health)
One of my fave vids yet, though I do always love stuff about boss fights in general. I like how you made the Twist part of the video a literal twist as well. XD
One thing about Furi! The charge attacks actually have some uses, a few bosses have openings that aren't otherwise telegraphed and allow for extra damage to be done, speedruns probably show those less 'obvious' techniques all being used to the optimal level.
Good video either way, hope you keep growing (:
not to mention that charging up your dodge makes it much easier to dodge big projectiles (like the shockwave attacks)!
also charge attacks are a godsend against the edge LOL
At least in the Hand boss fight, during the tail end of the boss firing charged shots at him when he retreats for his laser attack can actually interrupt him doing it, which causes him to instead close back in for more melee. Comically its shown at about 15:07 around the time he mentions they are more of less worthless.
if you can pull off a full charge in the melee section, you can carve up a bosses life bar for that phase in one combo. this requires standing absolutely still and using a charge mechanic that I think the game doesn't even tell you. Using the gun controls during melee sections makes the stranger's sword turn orange and do more damage on hit, but you loose it if you get hit. If you can pull of both this and a fully charged dash attack, that's the boss' entire health bar for that melee segment.
I pulled this off exactly once.
as a gitter of gut in furi, nah charge attacks are amazing, especially when playing against the bosses on regular difficulty it's just hard to grasp when you should do them if you haven't fully mastered the game
This is exactly what came into my mind too. I used charge shot so much to interrupt the Song's dive attack I felt bad because it felt like I was cheating.
Very nice video. One thing I'd add on theming is that there are actually very different ways to theme effectively as well. To take furi and dark souls as examples. Furi gives their bosses quite a lot of personality, and gives you most of their story upfront to build hype for the actual fight.
Dark souls often does the opposite. Though sometimes bosses are announced and talked about in advance, it often likes to throw them at you without much of an explanation. However, there is a lot to discover about the bosses through item descriptions and/or the world as well. I think one of the best examples of that is Quelaag's sister. Who essentially explains why the boss was even there.
I'm also rather surprised you didn't talk more about Furi's last boss, which was in my opinion by far the worst part of the game. It strips away melee entirely, leaving you with only dodging and shooting without adding a similar twist to it as the edge. And as you said, it's basically one big endurance run(read: slog.).
Yeah I really wasn't a fan of the true final boss. The shmup parts of the game are waaay less satisfying and the issues with dodging seem to be even more pronounced in that fight particularly. I eventually beat it but you're right on the money with saying it's a slog, which is a shame, because they clearly put a lot of effort into it.
I'm really late here, but you're actually very very wrong on the value of charged attacks in Furi. The openings for them are less obvious, but each has its own special use.
Charged slashes, apart from triggering a finisher, also cut clean through bullets in your path, regardless of if they can be destroyed. Additionally, it will continue to charge while you parry, letting you turn a single hit opening into a devastating attack. This is particularly valuable on bosses with strings with very small openings, and most pronounced on Furier. Some good examples are the Hand's directional waves, where you can charge the attack, side dodge then immediately hit him with it, The Edge's strings, which only leave a single hit opening, and the Chain's spreadshot, which you can plow clean through.
The charge shot, likewise, sees its best use as either an interruption tool, or to cut a path through particularly problematic attacks. The Line's bullet hell segments are made vastly easier by strategic charge shots to wipe out his bullets enmasse. The same can be said for some parts of The Burst and The Song. Admittedly, it's less useful than the Charge Slash, but I've used it to quickly interrupt an attack I did not want to deal with in my current position on the map. It will tear through *everything* in its path, making it a great answer to attacks that combine waves/lasers and bullets. The Strap can have some moments where using it to stuff a laser when there are tracking projectiles are around will save your life, alongside it being great for cutting said projectiles out of the air.
Charged dodges have scaling distance based on how long you hold it down, letting a skilled player land exactly where they plan to. This is particularly useful for dodging over multiple attacks at once or quickly landing behind the boss and then reversing to deliver a charged slash.
Shit, I thought I knew the game decently well after finishing a furier run, but it turns out I didn't even know some pretty basic stuff! I knew most of that, but I had no idea about the charged slash. Thanks for explaining it in such great detail and even naming examples of when each charged move is more useful!
If you want the ultimate example, fight The Hand's first phase using just charged slashes and parries/dashes. He's incredibly weak to them if you know where to place them. Namely, when he runs to the edge of the arena, charge a slash and a dash both. Release dash to land next to him, release slash. Acquire damage.
All of his wave spam attacks are weak to dash through charged slash.
Damn.. yoy said what I wanted thi say... just infinitely better
I can’t be bothered to read that but I agree also you thought you were late
Theres also the one charge you forgot. The character charge. If you move the stick you use to aim your shot with in a melee section then you'll stand still and charge your character for a second. Once you change color a single combo will take the bosses entire bar. But if you're hit you lose the charge. Its difficult to pull off but extremely rewarding and every boss has the opening for it, it's just about finding it
yo good video, but you're a tad wrong about Furi's mechanics at the end there. You dodge when you let go of the button, so if you just tap it, it's easy to spam some dodges around, but when you hold your dodge you'll go further as it charges. This is where the misconception about problem dodges is (I hear this complaint a lot. It does take some getting used to, I guess, but I don't think it's that hard to learn).
I'll let that part slide, but charged attacks are amazing. Charged gunshots can chew through multiple projectiles, or destroy certain projectiles that might take more hits to destroy. This is great for the bullet hell sections where you need some breathing room. Charged melee attacks are solid punishes as long as you can time them, and work pretty well against The Hand iirc. Everything has a niche.
DJ Octavio is one of my favourite bosses he poses a clear threat to you not only being challenging but also narratively with him taking the great zap fish which powers all of inkopolis and through the game being built up as the leader of the octolings the enemy of the inklings. His mechanics are also really easy to understand and uses most of the mechanics that you've encountered in the other levels and has a amazing progression in difficulty starting off pretty easy and every phase requiring you to multitask all his attacks and full mastery of the bosses mechanics. As for his theming I don't really know about that the fight adds so much so soon that it's hard to find a real theme in design at least for me who is believe it or not a certified non game designer so I don't know but anyway great video
I think GLADOS from the first portal game (and also spoiler Wheatley from the second) shows the characteristic of threat as GLADOS firstly sets of the nerve toxin that gives you a timer, imeadatly putting the pressure on due to the set timer that will spell death unless you get on with it. Secondly the way if getting the cores to defeat her can sometimes be quite hard and often end in a few mistakes, wasting time for you and making that threat more pressing.
The Revengeance's first boss (Yes it's a Metal Gear) also conveys some extra meaning if you're a Metal Gear Lore nerd as well; this boss is the penultimate final boss(es) in Metal Gear Solid 2, where it feels... rather unsastifying, by design at least (There's many of them, but you fight them one by one. and when you defeat one of them, they don't even get destroyed; they merely jumps away so that a new one takes place).
Terrabalt you fight them three-on-one, not one-on-one.
My simple rules of boss fights:
1: It should be defeatable with 0 damage taken, if the player plays perfectly. This rule instantly rules out any scenario where the player is alive but he knows he will die, which is a VERY bad experience. The boss also should not have nigh-impossible to dodge attack/interaction, for the same rule.
2: The boss should feature slower-heavier and faster-lighter attacks, but not from both exteme ends of the spectrum. Either make a boss bulky and heavy, and compensate for the difficulty with harder readability on his moves, or make is really fast-paced and action-fulled, but not both.
A big bulky titan who could barely swing his arms suddenly moving at mach 5 ruins all the immersion.
3: Bosses should feature phases, or atleast sub-phases, where the strategy/approach of the player has to change.
4: Do not make a binary bossfight with a bloated healthbar. Nobody wants the biggest threat to be falling asleep mid-fight because how boring the boss is. If the boss has a lot of health, make it intersting, more phases, more moves.
5: Don't put the player on a clock. Nothing's worse than a boss, where not only it is difficult to beat the boss, you also have to hurry. Just once you die because RNG boss pattern didn't favor you and you didn't get enough openings to attack and it leaves a sour taste in the player's mouth. Force the player to move, but not by making him insta-lose.
6: It's okay to give the boss an "infinite" healing skill, which he'll use sometimes if the player drags out the fight too long. If the player is playing too safe this can punish him perfectly. He has to speed up his pace, to deal more damage than the boss heals under the same period. Throwing in a 5-15% heal every now and then as a reminder to stop playing overly defensive is a good mechanic. - I personally really enjoyed it in the Soul of Cinder fight in Dark Souls 3. The boss was oppressive, but we had to find openings and abuse them, else he will heal himself up. Kept us on our toes and punished just enough for trying to be too defensive.
It's a somewhat different piece of cake than action RPG-games.
Turn based RPG (and strategy, because the system is similar) games most of the time revolve around tactics, long-term planning, having backup plans in your sleeve etc.
Also most of such games deal with RNG, in which case there is always a chance of everything going wrong, aswell as everything going right.
100% chance "events" are usually either very transparent, so they don't just nuke you off without warning, or very minor ones to support the main flow of action as either a combo piece in your plan, or as a safety "oh shit" button.
Every succesful game with turn-based combat (Divinity, XCOM, Darkest Dungeon, to name a few), have a well-made system which has the player try to turn the odds in his favor by clever execution and strategy. If that system is not made well, or not fixed quickly, the game falls from grace miserably.
What ?! SoC can heal ? i killed him 4 times and he never did that !
Yes, in the first phase's "Faith moveset" he wields a lance and uses WoTG and Heal.
It's pretty much just a tool to avoid players from trying to stay extremely far at all times, or play too passive. If you are decently close you can nullify it by attacking him a few times during it, perhaps even come out with him having less health after than before the heal.
Totally agree, hell SoC is actually one of my favourite bosses in DS3! (Well you know besides Gael and Midir)
I disagree with your first point. More accurately the boss should be defeatable from any situation possible within without any further significant permanent costs. This is not necessarily the same as without taking damage, for instance a boss could launch an undodgeable attack that drops you to 1hp or similar at some point in the fight and still be fair. Likewise, if healing is possible in your game, then unavoidable damage is also fair game.
Your second point has more to do with theming. I can certainly say the "lightning bruiser" is doable so long as it is thematically sensible, for instance having a large near future vehicle that dishes out insanely powerful attacks while also being extremely fast is a legitimate option. Likewise a slow yet weak character has its place, usually not as a boss, but as an extremely unsettling gaming moment that resembles a boss fight as you pummel to death someone who argues politics at you while putting up only the very bare minimum of resistance to qualify as a fight.
And point 5 I don't agree with. One of the greatest boss fights I've seen thematically was the last boss of Metal Gear Solid: Ghost Babel. The entire fight was against someone known for being super dirty, and you've already beaten him once. This time you face him he is just constantly running away and trying to stall the fight with flashbangs as he attempts to get a satellite connection on his I win the game button.
I still like to hold boss fights up to the standard set by Devil May Cry 3. The Vergil fights, specifically.
Rival bosses are fun.
Sheesh, why are you picking on Adam Jensen? He never asked for this.
Dialask Isel oh, I loled
He's not talking shit about the game overall, just the boss fights. And he is kinda right, the boss fights do suck. The main game is great though, just for different reasons
A boss fight is nothing without a god tier song
*Megalovania intensifies*
@@Randoman590 *PLIN PLIN PLON*
Another great video!
One factor commonly effecting my enjoyment of boss-fights is the "kill" itself and how it is justified narratively (something you touch upon with Dark Souls).
Playing Nier Automata recently the first few boss fights end with the boss dying to either a chance encounter (another character comes to save the day) or an overpowered attack that your character was hiding (releasing a large killing laser or the like). Such a twist in how you actually kill the boss really sours the experience for me as even if the boss fight was satisfying in the four ways you have mentioned it is resolved (narratively) as being completely out of the players control. Ultimately, this makes me feel like all my energies and mastery of a fight were of zero importance (even when that is obviously not true).
By removing the player from the narrative "kill" all the emphatic energy is simply sapped from the glorious "Victory Achieved" sentiment epitomised in Dark Souls.
This is an impressively well-produced video. If all of your videos are about this level of quality, I'm surprised you don't have more subscribers.
I love how you give so much thought into little things and always say something about the soundtracks, which can be easily forgotten in analysis videos.
Maybe Okami too. I mean (to possibly spoil some of the surreal experience of the first time playing through the game, stop reading if you still plan on playing it), you got bosses that pretty much always got unique and fair mechanics, and you are actually getting "tutorialed" by having regular enemies doing some of the similar stuffs to bosses so that you can try and remember what works best to a set pattern, and you ultimately have to fight the same boss multiple times, with later times usually being less hand-holding, yet you get better stats and more importantly, remember the way you beat the boss last time, to make you feel more powerful. And there are twists, not only to the story, but to mechanics as well, suddenly giving you a mechanic that you thought only you can use, and suddenly ripping some of your ability off so that you have to do things not in the way you are comfortable with.
I disagree man, I used the charged attacks alot, it's really useful, but only against certain charged attacks. It can really make life easier if you know when to use it...
I loved the strap fight, it got a lot of "Ohohohoh"s from em because of how awesome the transitions were.
Great video, truly~
As a gamedeveloper myself i really appreciate when people really go into detail as it can always teach you some new stuff despite what you think you know, and i gotta say, this video really made me think ^^
"huge adrenaline rush" cheeses boss 5:04
The music and you speaking went together very well. I didn't notice until the end. Good work.
How come no one watches that...
It should be mainstream.
Hell yeah, liking anything that has a furi thumbnail and starts off with furi music in the background
I'd love to see you revisit this topic, I feel like furi and other "boss rush" type games can only contribute so much to the conversation of how grander scope games integrate their base mechanics into their bossfights
"This cowardly goon is teaching you how to avoid this helicopter's attack"
*Get hit by the helicopter's attack*
I think it's worth pointing out that bosses can still be good in spite of missing one of these traits. Undertale does a fantastic job of this: most of the bosses don't make the boss feel like a threat, but their mechanics, theming, and twists are so good that you don't even miss the threat. In addition, Undertale's mechanics mean that the lack of a threat makes the boss more relatable, and it's more likely that the player will at least try to spare the boss, which even further adds to the theming.
The Creature from Creature In The Well does a great job at this. He taunts you before the fight, as well as whenever you die throughout the game, plays around with the game’s regular mechanics in inventive ways, and rewards you for having explored and completed challenges to get the game’s various optional weapons. His final appearance is a little over-the-top, but totally worth it in the end.
The example of jet stream sam reminds me of Megaman X 1's Vile, which was probably one of the best moments in video game history in my nostalgic mind.
i stand by this video being one of the best video game analysis videos of all time
one of my personal all time favorite boss fights is hands down the fight with The Wolf Knight, Artorias The Abyss Walker, in game he was one of the 4 knights of gwyn lord of sunlight with a will stronger than steel, but when you encounter him, he has fallen to the corruption that he long fought against, so it falls to you the chosen undead to grant him a mercy killing and let history remember the man but not the monster
dodging all of the hands last combo is insane and you should definitely do it at least once for the hell of it.
I actually feel like Artorias is the best boss in Dark Souls. The hype train to fight him begins really early in the game in Darkroot garden when you get the first of the 4 rings. After that you just get more and more snippets of this legendary knight of Gwyn and even fight one of the other knights later in game. Then Sif happens and crushes your heart so you can get the covenant to face off with the four kings themselves. After all that, Artorias’s legend, to me, made me feel really intimidated when I walked into his arena and I saw his name. His boss mechanics are enjoyable to dodge, his relentless aggression feels like you aren’t facing another mindless boss, but an actually experience player and his epic yet mournful theme all culminate into my favorite boss. He has the perfect balance of mechanics, design and H Y P E. What makes the fight even better is when you realize Artorias is fucking left handed and is kicking your ass with his offhand and without his shield. Finally beating him felt so fucking good, and taking his armor, making his sword, and kicking Manus’s ass felt even better. The DLC of dark souls was packed full of fun and memorable bosses, and Artorias stands at the top as the best.
Also Sif’s alternative cutscene made me literally quit the game like wtf fromsoft, the first fight already stomped my heart don’t do this.
Other people: I'm never touching Dark Souls again because it's too frustrating
Me: I'm never touching Dark Souls again because I'd rather die than lay a finger on Sif
Great video! First time I’m seeing some well-deserved praise for Furi!
Song at 0:26 is actually Carpenter Brut - What we fight for. It's roughly halfway through the song in the bandcamp link
Enter the gungeon has my favourite bosses. But I am not old enough to have experienced the classic bosses others think of I still think it has the difficulty and satisfaction to make a great boss fight experience
I think Lavos from Chrono Trigger is a great boss. 1: everything that Lavos starts with kind of a boss rush, (without changing into the bosses) but tells you what boss it’s switching into, then goes into the fight against the shell. You’ve already fought Lavos spawn, so you know what’s coming. The other boss battles you don’t know what will happen but aren’t too crazy. 2:Lavos causes the apocalypse and kills Crono. Do I need to say more? 3:music and background for all 3 fights are great. 4:When fighting the Lavos core, this is a small twist, but instead of the imposing humanoid in the middle that attacks you being the Lavos core, (the characters even trick you into thinking that too) the little bit on the right is the actual boss.
Dead Cells does a great job at this with all four of its bosses.
THERE'S FOUR OF THEM?!?
At this point yes, and the last one is a nightmare to beat.
SPOILERS:
In order of difficulty: the Incomplete One, the Watcher, the Time Keeper, and last but not least the Hand of the King.
@@FonVegen the name of the last one feel like a berserk reference
Oh god, I barely reached the timekeeper
@@FonVegen Wait, I'm dumb. Which one is the giant? The devs for Dead Cells went all out on the name changes
Another funny yet insightful video, thanks! Just commenting for the UA-cam algorithm.
I ran across this channel today and after watching a few videos I'm definitely hooked. You've got some great content which is well researched, put together, and portrayed in a way which is both easy to understand what the point is and is entertaining and immersive in both visuals and sound. In addition from what I've read in the comments the fan base here is incredibly supportive and all around pretty great. I'm definitely down to subscribe and look forward to catching up on all of your stuff
I think one of the things that made Furi so good is that the fights are so personal. Every boss talks to you in a way like they knew you before
When it comes to music and aesthetics of a boss fight Touhou Project titles (especially seventh game - Perfect Cherry Blossom) do a great job.
The thing that i love the most about O&S is when you are fighting with a friend and smough's hammer just appears out of nowhere and sweeps your friend across the floor.
I finished Furi after buying it from watching this video a long time ago. Very good game I’ve bought a lot of games because of this channel that I never heard of
One little detail in Furi that I loved was that, during the fight against the Scale, he typically won't attack you while he's monologuing, meaning that's your window to get a hit in. In the very next fight against the Hand, though, whenever he's talking, that means he's prepared to parry any of your hits, like he's specifically trying to goad you into attacking. That's just such a neat little bit of messing with player expectations in a really in-character way.
It is fun how some boss fights end satisfyingly with pure brutality. It somehow deeply satisfies some of us deep inside.
No one ever mentions the lyrics of MGR:R boss fight themes. They just fit so well into the situation, explaining the boss's origins and intentions, giving the "theming" a whole new layer!
I think another important part of making a good boss is allowing the player to beat it using only the basic moves you have. In sekiro, for example, you can use prosthetics for separate bosses to make the fights easier, shurikens for butterfly, firecrackers for literally everyone, but in the end of the day, you can beat any boss using only your attack, deflect and dodging moves.
Except for thr ape. Fuck the ape.
Despite Furi being one of the shortest games I've played, it's also stuck around with me as one of the most memorable gaming experiences I've had, and still manages to dig up those feelings of excitement I had while playing it even while just watching a video like this.
I played the Director's Cut of Human Revolution. Boss fights were improved so much. There were turrets to hack and traps to set and different strategies rather than just holding down the trigger.
The music absolutely bops aswell
Nightmare King Grimm in Hollow Knight was the perfect boss to me. I genuinely thought he was unbeatable, but bit by bit I could get the flow of the fight. When I finally won, I felt so glad but immediately wanted to fight him again, because it was such a pure joy.
Radiance was also great as the true final boss. Dramatic pattern and music, tremendous threat, and the 2nd phase ascension was thematically perfect.
Generally, all of the bosses in Hollow Knight were great.
Artorias of Abyss is another boss I like, but I personally think the beauty of Dark Souls comes mostly from the brilliant level design, than from boss fights.
My favorite boss in HK are the Sisters of Battle. It has the theme, mechanics, threat. and most importantly, a twist. I also loved NKG too! His fight was almost like a dance, which makes sense because he is circus leader after all.
nohardy Couldn’t agree more. Sisters of Battle are great :)
thank you for this video and thank youtube to pop this into my reccomendet section. I would probably never have known about Furi if it wasn't for this.
I absolutely love Furi. For as much rage induced pain it caused me, especially in the New Game+ of Furi, it was such a good experience and made me feel like I grew as a person. 10/10 video, gonna play Furi again now.
One thing that I like about ornstein and smough is that they will actively try to surround you, sometimes giving you the impression that you're on a regular 1 on 1 fight only for the other to hit you from behind
An interesting Bossfight game is Johtun. It's on Steam and is basically a series of small tutorial levels followed by a bossfight with the mechanic introduced earlier palying a part. The best bit though is that you can try each boss in any order you like.
My favorite boss is Credo from DMC4
A boss from “Remnant: From the Ashes” fits the first 3 principles perfectly. The Unclean One, aka metal head Shrek, is who I’m talking about.
Walking through a door you initially just see his shack in the distance with no engines near it, a huge red flag because this game is typically crawling with enemies. As you enter the shack you hear the pounding of his metal hammer and see bones/meat being processed (like a butcher). Weaving your way room to room in the shack you discover a maze and these huge blue pots. You make the final turn and see the beast standing there. He turns to you and the fight starts. Trying to lose him through the rooms around you and you realize he’s smashing the walls. Through the walls you can hear what attack he is going to preform and move to avoid being hit. This teaches the player about audio cues, that you don’t always need to be looking at the boss to know what they’re gonna do. To add even cooler mechanics other bosses in the game spawn mobs randomly to inflate difficulty. The blue pots, which the boss breaks, has 1 elite per pot. This means the player knows where the engines are coming from and knows how many there could be, compared to endless respawning. The boss is fair, teaches you, and has 2 hilarious weak points (his face and his exposed butt). It sucks his boss weapon is glitched and players can’t obtain it.
Giving Furi the attention it deserves! Good on you man!
Thank you for this. Furi freakin rules. Superbly underrated gem.
I see furi in the thumbnail, I click
very nice breakdown.. very entertaining.
2:56
"In The Director's Cut, there are hallways on the sides of the circular room that will take you to an upper floor. On the upper floor, you can activate gas dispersal, but the Rebreather Augmentation is highly advised. There is also a security hub surrounded by lasers. Triggering or destroying the lasers will activate turrets which will shoot at you. If you can get through them, you can hack the computer and turn the turrets against Fedorova. There are several ways through the lasers: you can use the stun gun to temporarily disable one laser, you can just walk through them using the Cloaking Augmentation, you can hack the nearby panel and turn off the laser, or you can break the wall near the panel and turn off the breaker powering the lasers." Also there are power generators that can be broken and after thath floor starts dealing electricity damage and if Adam has appropriate aug he wont get damage. So i dont see any disconnect between this fight and other parts of the game.
Such good quality! Love the music
One of my favorite fights is the final boss of Hyper Light Drifter. I have never been fucked over by a boss so quickly. The audiovisual feedback in that fight has some serious thump to it too, making it all the more threatening. Beating it the first time feels great, but when you get to where you can plow through it with ease, the feeling of mechanical mastery over this monstrosity that has haunted you the whole game is extraordinary.
0:41
Sisyphus prime from ultrakill gotta be one of the most crazy boss fights i have ever fought
He is fast, unpredictable, hard, every line he says is memorable, his fight is equivalent to a war, and the best part is, you can beat him in only 30 seconds, but you gotta be real hardcore to pull that off
Dark Messiah of Might and Magic has some wonderful bosses, and I'll never forget the thrill of finding outside-the-box ways of kicking their asses. ^_^
Seven conditions for a memorable, beautiful boss fight:
1. Choral/Baroque/Classical Romantic theme or symbolically significant theme.
2. 1 vs 1 fight or, if several bosses at once, they should be fought alone. (enemies can be present if they are directly controlled by the boss)
3. Symbolically significant and/or visually stunning setting (bonus if isolated and serene)
4. Boss should rely on dexterity, (unique) skill or intelligence rather than just brute strength or power.
5. Boss and player character should be of similar size and the same species (if multiple species are present).
6. Player's and boss's attacks/abilities should be aesthetically pleasing and employ visual flair.
7. Interactions between player's and boss's abilities/actions should be varied and creative (the more counterattacks and parries, the better). (This includes subversion of player expectations/formula breaks)
Examples that satisfy at least some of these conditions:
Gehrman and Gascogne (Bloodborne) (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
Albert Wesker (w/ Jill vs Chris/Sheva and 1st Phase of last battle) (RE5) (2, 4, 5, 6, 7)
Osmund Saddler (RE 4: *Separate Ways vs Ada; NOT last battle vs Leon*) (2, 4, 5, 6, partially 7)
Psycho Mantis (MGS 1) (1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7)
Yasha and Deus (Asura's Wrath) (2, 4, 5, 6, 7)
Al-Mualim (AC) (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
Gwyn (1, 2, 3, 5), Sif (1, 2, 3, 4, 6), Priscilla (1, 2, 3, 4, 6), Gwyndolin (1, 2, 4, 5 kind of, 6, 7) (Dark Souls)
Liquid Ocelot (MGS4) (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7)
All the Colossi (Shadow of the Colossus) (2 - used to its maximum potential, 3, 6 kind of, 7)
Metal Gear Rex vs Ray (MGS 4) (2, 3, 5, 6, 7)
O & S (Dark Souls) (1, 2 3, 7)
Giygas (Earthbound) (2, 3, 4 kind of, 7)
The Boss (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7), The End (2, 4, 5, 7), The Sorrow (2, 4, 7) (MGS 3)
Glados (Portal) (2, 4, 7)
Pretty much all the bosses in Undertale (2, 3, 4, 6, 7)
Krauser (RE 4) (2, 4, 5, 6, 7)
Sephiroth (FF7) (1, 2, 4 kind of?, 5 kind of?, 6, 7)
Probably the bosses in Ookami satisfy 2, 3, 4, 7
I love your videos man keep up the great work
"Laurel & Hardy" haha, you've got my respect.
I WILL NEVER FORGET THE PURE DREAD I FELT WHEN BLACK FIRE STARTED SWELLING AROUND FRIEDE IN THE DARKSOULS 3 DLC, I WILL NEVER FORGET THAT CRIPPLING ANXIETY, NEVER EVER
I’d have to say my favorite boss fight is Roxas is KH2. The music and setup for that fight bring so much and with it being one of the hardest fights in the game, it really sticks with the player
Spider Mastermind, Doom 2016. Tough, threatening, kickass soundtrack, satisfying death. I love the way it starts using different attacks the more you damage it. Starts creating pillars you have to stand on to avoid electrical attacks on the ground, but then swaps and makes you jump back down as it electrocutes the pillars instead. It becomes like a dance of destruction.
The Hollow Knight from Hollow Knight does have a twist: First, the Hollow Knight just seems to want to protect something, or just kill you. But then, it stabs itself.
Boss presence is important too.
You have to continuously remind the player who they're fighting! If the boss goes off-screen or doesn't attack you directly, you have to find some way to put them in. If the fight is more of a platforming section or a chase scene, with the environment causing the most harm, make the boss do something, even an attack that isn't meant to hit.
And making sure the boss fight feels like it belongs in the game. If the fight runs on it's own completely unique mechanic, it won't be as fun. Hollow Knight is great at this. Any given boss probaly shares an attack or mechanic with a previous enemy.or obstacle, so you always know what to do.
Hollow Knight: The Hollow Knight
1. Mechanics - You have everything you've picked up on your way to the end, and the fight gets easier as you get better equipment and prepare yourself more for the fight.
2. Threat - This thing was sealed away for a reason. If you fail to kill them, then Hallownest is doomed to certain destruction by the hands of the Infection.
3. Theming - You're facing the Infection at what is to be believed is its source. Throughout the game, you've seen the effects of this plague and how it was the driving force behind why the kingdom fell in the first place. The fight takes a turn after some time, when the boss begins stabbing themself in the chest. This is when the already somber music into a slower, more suspenseful theme. The music at this point means to tell how the Hollow Knight is trying to fight the same thing you are, the source of the infection, whether it's trying to kill itself or something inside it.
4. Twist - If you got to a certain point in the game, Hornet will pop in to create an opening for you. The dream particles hint that you're supposed to use the Dream Nail to find the true source of the Infection. But that's not what I'm here to talk about. If you choose to continue attacking the Hollow Knight, Hornet will fall off and be knocked out, unable to continue helping. When you kill the Hollow Knight after this, you absorb the Infection into yourself in a sort of cycle, becoming the next Hollow Knight and being chained up. This boss leads to 3 endings based on your progress and actions. One of my favorite bosses in Hollow Knight, dispite how easy it has become.
Asura's Wrath?? That game has the best and most memorable boss fights. No other game comes even close to how spectacular those boss fights were.
I fucking love Furi such a good game
5:25 thanks for giving me flashbacks to "i dropped my contact lenses". Fuck me every time I get to lost izalith I want to headbutt a wall, this fight can sometimes be a breeze and other times take way too many attempts because broom hands sweeps me into a pit. There is a reason I have set up some boards in the backyard for punching (other than my roof not being able to support a punching bag)
Furi is an awesome game ! And that soundtrack omg, one of the bests i've heard
The mgs 4 liquid ocelot fight will always be my favorite mgs fight
Personally, I find that one of the elements of a satisfying boss is that a boss should have more than one weapon, with at least one of them being one that can shoot projectiles.
It speaks a lot about the Yelena boss fight that the first time I fought her I just happened to have some upgrade points left over, bought the fully upgraded typhoon and then used it to murder her easily and never touched the typhoon again
One of my favorite bosses is Lord Gwin from Dark Souls. I like how Fromsoft completely subverts your expectations by building him up as the biggest bad ass ever, but by the time you get to him all that’s left is a burnt husk of a man. He’s sacrificed everything: his kingdom, his family - even his own life - in a desperate effort to subvert the natural order and prolong his reign.
My fav boss fight is last boss on hard in Rabi-Ribi. Irisu is 15 min long multiple-stage fight that took be couple of days to get right.
What i think is very important in a long fight like that - is for your early-stage accomplishments to matter in the later stages. Like - if you made a long fight where you have full resources in a middle of the fight (because it's first part is easy/because game heals you at some point, etc) every time you fight it - you may as well make a chekpoint there. If not, and you're commited in designing a long epic fight - everything should matter, because this early part will start to feel like a chore quickly.
Rabi-RIbi does everything right in that aspect, it's an adnventure of a fight. Try to look it up, but for a person who nevery played the game amount of things (like numbers and stats, not bullets) start to get messy, game itself build this complexity very gradually, but it's a mess to look at for a non-initiated person.
(also iconoclasts is a boring shallow game, some bosses are ok tho)
Mechanic: God of War III (Poseidon)
Threat: Shadow of the Colossus (Everything)
Theme: Batman: Askham Asylum (Scarecrow)
I highly recommend getting furi's soundtrack (as linked under the video) it might just be the best OST ever
“What makes your favorite boss memorable” *tells me to think about games I don’t have*
Orphan of kos, beautiful setting, extremely difficult but not unfair and not even close to impossible, threatening but still vulnerable, fun to fight, extremely rewarding to beat, great lore, and an amazing conclusion to one of the best DLCS ever made in history
I belive what makes a great boss is the following
1 gameplay in the boss fight
2 the bosses story and ehat it ads to the narrative
3 the challenge and reward for overcoming it
4 the little things, the soundtrack the bosses atitude its looks ect.
I'm kinda surprised you didn't talk about Doom 2016, as all of its 3 boss fights are probably my three most favorite boss fights out there.
"I want you to think of your favorite bosses"
*shows rumor honeybottoms*
NO