I believe the Leviathan fight is there more for spectacle than challenge. Take in count it is sandwiched between 5-3 and 6-1, which as of now are easily the hardest non secret levels in the game, so a breather is appreciated.
i enjoy leviathan a lot and find it kinda challanging, mostly because my natural instinct is to think the air is safe and then the high tail swing comes along at just the right height to hit me and its amazing how such a big thing can catch you totally off guard. shows how even the most simple boss in this game is brilliant
they're not really fps bosses, they're bosses from games like devil may cry or mgrr or sekiro or whatever. swordsmachine, v2, gabriel, insurrectionist, ferryman, minos fucking prime, a bunch of the bosses are a similar size to you and/or primarily use melee weapons. fighting them is almost more like swordfighting, except instead of parrying by blocking their strike, you shoot them in the chest with a shotgun at the right time.
Just a minor correction. When minos says "Judgement!", he doesn't just teleport to you. No, he literally dropkicks you so hard that it causes an explosion, even when he doesn't hit you. Minos literally has nuclear dropkicks.
Sisyphus breaking out of his own flesh prison and then proceeding to laugh evilly when he's dying really gives me the vibes that you NEEDED to kill him right at that moment, otherwise he would've stolen your thunder and destroyed everything in hell before you could...
2024 edit just because people keep asking: No, I'm not going to do another ULTRAKILL video because I'm gonna wait on the game's full release to make a mega-video on it. Okay so just a correction: As fate would have it, the P-2 boss, along with some parts of P-2 in general was nerfed right after I uploaded this video. P-2 boss' attacks are no longer unparryable on Violent's Phase 2. However, his stamina is increased so he can attack for longer intervals. Also, I forgot to mention this but parrying the P-1 Boss' melee attacks restore his stamina.
the p-2 boss tests your perserverance and patience *_when his whole thing was rolling a rock up a hill and failing constantly_* *_THIS IS WAY TOO DEEP_*
kinda more like testing your adaptability to situations because minos was just spamming circle strafe but p-2 boss gets you to dash and slide at the right moment
The leviathan fight became memorable to me after I learned how to quick mount rockets. After that, it became an aerial dogfight against a Kaiju Another thing to add: Minos's became so fun to P-rank after I learned the minimum amount of movement needed to dodge him. I felt like I came out of a Donguri990 video. When your game reaches that level, you know it's peak.
22:45 there's something oddly terrifying, even if you've beaten him before, about the statement: "We THINK he's held back by a stamina system, but we don't know for sure"
P-1 introduced your brain to super human cognitive function P-2 forces you to develop it good god with the amount of escalation in this game P-3 is going to either destory you irl or force you to either ascend or be equally as cracked as whoever P-3 will be.
I'm really hoping for P-3 to be Jesus Prime. It just seems too perfect of a concept to not be in a game where you play as a vampiric machine hellbent on destroying Heaven and Hell after having killed off humanity... just because it's in your nature to do so.
@@the_furry_inside_your_walls639 I doubt it - this Minos and Sisyphus are inspired by Dante's Inferno's depiction of them - Jesus isn't mentioned in his work so I don't think so. Based on this character list I'm reading and with Hakita choosing either human or humanoid characters from Dante's Inferno I'd guess that a character by the name of "Farinata" - a politician, or otherwise another one called "Ulysses" - the hero of The Iliad and The Odyssey
@@the_furry_inside_your_walls639 it'd be a serious twist that jesus is actually dead (twice or...maybe thrice over now) and, for some reason, got locked away in a flesh prison which the angels for some reason went along with and was for some reason unable to escape.
Worth noting that a first-person shooter is really about _controlling space,_ which is why bad FPS bosses tend to be of the variety that you can just corner-camp. In regular FPS combat, you're constantly maneuvering through a 3D space--that's part of what makes it fun. If you can trivialize a fight by camping one spot, you've lost part of the fun. Even a game that focuses heavily on holding specific angles, like CounterStrike, is filled with _many_ angles so that you cannot camp _all_ of them. Each of Ultrakill's bosses controls space in a different way: - V2 controls space the same way you do--by having fast, hard-hitting attacks and the ability to quickly maneuver. You can't corner-camp V2 because V2 has all of the tools you have, and uses those tools aggressively to fill the area around you with danger. - As noted in this video, Minos constantly tests your spatial awareness by striking 50% of the arena with one punch. Minos controls space by being physically *huge*; you can't corner-camp Minos because he can hit you no matter where you hide. Also the homing black hole attack helps. - Gabriel controls space with both his teleportation (similar to V2's movement) and his rapid ranged attacks. The homing attacks in Gabriel 2 are even more oppressive. You can't corner-camp Gabriel because Gabriel has both aim and speed on his side. - Leviathan controls space like Minos did, by being fucking huge. Its sweep and lunge force you to maneuver around it, and it fires enough projectiles that parrying isn't safe. - Flesh Prison controls space by demanding that you control space, using the black holes and massive light beams to push you around while demanding that you keep the eyeball minions in check. - Minos Prime controls space by not giving you any room to breathe. He's a rushdown character in an FPS. (And he has a homing projectile!) - Flesh Panopticon controls space by spreading its healing minions around the arena, emphasizing the need to control the _entire_ arena. At least, until... - Sisyphus Prime does what Minos Prime don't. Well, more accurately, he does what Minos Prime does, but _better!_ Note that all of this is made possible in part by level design and game mechanics. V1 is itself highly mobile and the arenas are all very open, with easy-to-read cover or no cover at all. This pushes the gameplay toward mobility as your primary space-control tool. Contrast CounterStrike, where corners are tight, long sightlines are rare, and movement is methodical and precise; the map design and gameplay of CounterStrike works _with_ the way CS players control space, not against it.
I spent a moment reflecting on how a good bossfight for a tactical, slow-maneuvering kind of game like CS would look...and realized pretty quickly that The End from MGS3 would be perfect. The End's deal is that he's a sniper, skilled at both camouflaging himself and picking you out; this works with MGS3's camouflage mechanics, but it could work just as well with a tactical shooter's heavy emphasis on understanding where you can be shot from.
Tbf it is hard to make a boss for tactical shooters, in movement shooters you have to also move and dodge at the same time but on a tactical one is more about position and aim so, you either have a boss that dies on 10 seconds once you figure out how to position yourself, or you have a bullet sponge that drags the fight
@@enn1924 The key, I think, is to design around challenging the player to pick their movements wisely--which is why I jumped to a sniper. A sniper controls space with the threat of burst damage from a long way away, and is best defeated by flanking.
@@TehNoobinessOk but imagine a combo of a sniper and a sentry in a tactical FPS. You have 2 threats of similar power, except one announces their presence very clearly while the other stays hidden. If you carelessly walk around the sentry’s obvious sightlines, you might walk into the sniper’s. If you steer clear of the sniper’s unclear sightlines, you’ll walk into the sentry’s. A bossfight like that would teach you to calculate risks and balance careful movements with good spatial awareness, also my LMG bros need some recognition, they can defend a zone like nobody else
Thanks for making this. As a game developer, one of the things I struggle with is deciphering why certain parts of other games work so well. Ultrakill was one of 3 games (Sekiro, Ultrakill, and Titanfall 2) that inspired me to make my own fps. This video will really help me out when I start designing my bosses. Again thanks. Edit: I have decied on a name, Book of the Machine
parrying the piss serpent is free hp and massive damage with no stamina increase, and it's about as fast as the average your difficulty + 1 projectile. If you play normal, get good at violent. If you play violent, you are already good.
The Leviathan fight also works as a good tutorial for the rocket launcher. The wide open arena benefits rocket riding, the location of the weak point means you might accidentially learn the magnet + rocket interaction, plus the fireball spam is hard countered by explosive attacks, which reflect the attacks back at him.
Using mountain king for cokm was such a nice detail lmao Also something about the Flesh Panopticon I love is the fact that it’s health and attacks are perfectly accurate for what an actual p-2 flesh prison would look like, with it’s difficulty in comparison to it’s p-1 counterpart perfectly matching that of Minos and Sisyphus, but hakita just decided to detonate it with high-grade explosives anyways.
i’d imagine that likely on the higher difficulties when they’re added, that likely it will force you to do the whole fight, and then have him break out at the very end, as it’s desth animation, or it’ll require you to like best it more, like get it down to a quarter on its last healthbar. definitely though the higher difficulties will likely change boss behaviour if imagine like imagine a fully suped up v2 with All of your gear, and likely even some of the more advanced techniques, or just more advanced then he already uses, like core sniping
@@XenobladeNerd maybe Hakita could just give it a third health bar in higher difficulties, and make the last one the one where Sisyphus breaks out. He would still look as powerful, but you are forced to do the whole fight.
My big gripe with Leviathan is that you can parry the bite lunge, but it's infinitely harder and less rewarding than Minos punching. I don't think they give you the Down To Size combo modifier for it either. Instead of increasing the parry window, they made it appear unparryable. It would have been great for every act to have a Giant boss with a specific special parry.
One of my favorite things about V2 and Gabriel is how the average player must go about facing each boss. With V2, the boss plays by YOUR rules. Jumping, sliding, a hitbox the same size as the player with the same weaponry. You have to not only be the better one when facing him, but learn how to use the tools you both have better than V2. and even in the second encounter, where you both are sporting new weapons, it continues to push mind and body further to make you stronger when you finally finish. But Gabriel.. Oh, Gabriel... You must play by the BOSS' rules. Of course, with the skill and practice you can make either boss a walk in the park, but without a proper plan, not everyone can just mosey on into the fight and expect everything to work out. Gabriel pushes you to learn attack patterns and focus on the attacks he's throwing, rather than how much you can attack him. With patience and proper dodging, you can overcome him. Ultrakill is truly a masterpiece that brings out a player's skill while also allowing them to enjoy the world, the gameplay and the lore.
Minos and sysiphus are playing Tekken in an fps game Fun fact : minos saying " *die* " and sysiphus saying " *destroy* " are both reference to the fact they are going to absolutely decimate you ...
Amazing analysis video! Ultrakill's bosses are a blast to fight for the reasons you mentioned, especially the freedom of how you approach and battle the boss. Also, Leviathan is personally my favorite boss in the game because it's a giant snake, making it visually unique from the small humanoid bosses, and its build-up is downright scary. However, I also agree that it could've been better, like making it a mobile giant boss rather than a stationary one, but I still enjoy it for what it is, and I'm grateful we got a boss that's both a Supreme Demon and a giant snake.
Ultrakill Bosses change the tuning of the gameplay from run and gun to something more Akin to a Dance. kinda like how fights are in faster paced melee/sword games
loved the video, I did wish you included the tiny little cutscenes like V2 gliding on ground or King Minos' dialogue after he's free from the Flesh Prison though, this video needs more views, and you need some more subscribers!
A boss in it's purest form is supposed to be a test of everything you've learned up to that point. Fittingly the Pure being of Will that are the Prime souls are the only instance in any game ever I've seen of a boss testing every single aspect of your skillset without feeling drawn out or scripted. That is truly something I never though I'd see in a game.
One of the best parts of the boss design in Ultrakill is that you have to stay in the danger zone and engage with the boss. The bosses are either big enough that they can attack any point in the room or mobile enough to chase you down if you try to run away. Your only methods of healing require you to either approach the enemy or put yourself in their line of fire. Your defensive options require you to pay attention to what the enemy is doing. All of that combines to make it so the classic FPS anti-boss technique of "chip away at them from behind cover" is completely ineffective.
Very great analogy of all the bosses. What makes ULTRAKILL special to me is that it lives up to its name. You can go all fuck it with the bosses and spam your flashiest combos for them to die in a matter of seconds. Speedrunners do it, and it's always fun to see and do for yourself. Know that 1-4 coin punch trick? Speedrunners have gotten that down to 10 seconds. 10.006. And 6-2? You can easily push Gabriel into his second phase by suspending 8 coins in the air using the grapple, and once his dialogue is done, you shoot all of them with the slab piercer (positioned through his head, the coins reflect it back on the same spot if you do this correctly). The replayability of this game is insane. Every time I go on UA-cam somehow I learn more about ULTRAKILL than I previously haven't. Ways to instantly kill powerful and make them an absolute pushover, speedrun tactics or ways to easily P-Rank levels and with STYLE. I love boss levels like 6-2 because because of that coin slab piercer setup. I love 6-1 and 5-3 because it has a massive catalogue of enemies that really grinds your gears and gets that style meter to absolute ULTRAKILL. 6-1 especially because the 2 final Hideous Masses can be such a pushover, and it's always impressive every damn time. What I'm saying is that this game will never make you bored. Even if you get burned out playing it, you WILL want to come back to the game because of the spectacle. Note about 15:56: parrying the Flesh Prison's orbs correctly will send some of its orbs back to itself. This grants you the +FRIENDLY FIRE style bonus. This also goes for Leviathan. I always parry its orbs whenever it spits em all out. Basically, explosions will reflect projectiles. So even if the orb itself doesn't send back the other orbs, the orb will make an explosion right where the orbs are, and send a number of orbs back to where they came from. So parrying one orb can result in great damage. This is also how you instakill Malicious Faces with the overpump shotgun.
With the only way to heal being to douse yourself in blood, unlike most fps games, healing requires you to do this neat trick not many people know about called: P l a y t h e g a m e
Now I got a question, where do the prime souls like Sisyphus and Minos go when they die? Do they go to Heaven? Do thet just respawn? Or do they return to the overworld? This is more like a question of what happens to enemies in general tbh like...nothing is said about that in game (as I know)
Hope this gets more views, it's a great analysis and I love the editing If I could make a suggestion, please add some sort of transition between subtitles, like a fade, or a short gap without any text (like Netflix does) Sometimes when the text changes, I'm focused on what's happening on-screen, and I don't notice the new text until it's too late
Leviathan is exactly as Max0r described: the only limit is how hard you can ball. It's way more fun if you're rocket surfing and playing the floor is lava while fighting it
ok the wait of the world update made the game so much easier if you can confidently and consistently parry attacks cause parrying instantly fills your stamina and heals to up to "full" as in up to your hard damage cap, this was definently to make sisyphus easier since all his attacks are parryable even in phase 2 but it made tons of other bosses and situations so much easier like flesh prison in which you can actually use the stupid cyan move to destroy 2-3 eyeballs and full heal (if you didnt get hit by the purple black hole), if im not mistaken before this update the heal wasnt big enough to be usefull but now its almost a full heal
Ah! That Clair De Lune strat is called “coin-punching” (I think). If you do it fast enough, you can kill him before he even starts fighting. I’m sure you already knew that, but hey, it’s a cool technique
My prediction is that the final boss of Act III is going to be the soul of Hell itself, considering many things point to Hell being sapient and malicious. But P-3 is going to have Lucifer. In the Divine Comedy, he resides at the center of the rings of Hell, and resides there as punishment from God. In ULTRAKILL, God banished him there after Lucifer questioned him on the morality and purpose of Hell - he holds narrative weight similar to Minos and Sisyphus, and fits being on the lowest level (assuming the trend of the Prime Sanctum door being on the last layer of the act.)
After beating act 2 like a week ago, I’ve gotta say these bosses have been some of the best I’ve fought in years. I actually felt absolutely thrilled to beat them after learning the patterns, figuring out proper weapon management, and using the blood mechanic to its truest potential. Ultrakill is going down as one of my favorite games
Excellent video. This highlights it perfectly. I think the algorithm should RECOMMEND this VIDEO to FIRST PERSON SHOOTER enjoyers. But for real, ultrakill is uber underrated rn. They keep waiting for the full release
08:12 "So when I tell you that, uh... *tink* YOU CAN PARRY THIS MAN It's basically the rule instead of the exception. Game devs (Gay devs), take notes. This is the coolest shit you can do in a video game. It makes you feel like an anime protagonist."
the leviathan is supposed to teach you how the rocket launcher works, giving you a massive arena to rocket ride in and having the projectile barrage attack that can reflect projectiles with the rockets. sure, it isn't hard at all, but it is nonetheless a great boss at what it does
Pretty sure that sisyphus does chains of attacks without a stamina system. It was 4 telegraphed attacks in combination with about 3 untelegraphed ones, after which he cannot attack, then 5 telegraphed and 3 untelegraphed, after which he taunts. This is the most common pattern I've seen in gameplay, at least on violent difficulty. This, of course, doesn't take into account phase 2.
Leviathan used to be my least favorite (but still enjoyed boss) until I learned rocket riding. While rocket riding has diminishing returns, you can reset that by landing on the ground or landing on AN ENEMY. Fighting Leviathan while flying and jumping ontop of them to refresh it is a thrill and everyone should try it. Now its probably my 2nd favorite next to V2-2
Thank god Hakita made all the attacks of phase 2 Sisyphus parry able in violent. Although it will be much harder for newer players because Sisyphus now has infinite stamina from what I can tell. Yeah be very afraid for what p-3 will bring, for Minos was a test of skill, Sisyphus one of might, and whoever they are, a test of pure will.
You should make more Ultrakill videos. Your editing and video style is great. Make videos on stuff like Levels, Enemies, Weapons, and even the Lore and Music.
I'm waiting on ULTRAKILL's release to make a mega video, including a remaster of this topic, because the game's genius is so deeprooted in how everything is so intertwined and how everything bounces off each other
I had never realized how there are "two anime references" in 2-4, this is awesome lol, now I'm gonna think of Jojo and Attack on Peak everytime I re-visit that level
24:15 nah bro, pure damn chance that I got to him But seriously, words of encouragement were not what I expected to see in a video. Just beat Sisyphus' ass this night on standard and boy did I feel satisfied, after 57 retries on this session and I'm guessing 200 more from previous ones. It was fucking 3am and I literally had to stop myself from screaming
Another FPS game which I think does bosses decently well is Half-Life Entropy Zero 2 - where the game has pretty much three main bosses, Plan-B and (spoilers) Clone cop and the Advisor. The final boss you can kind of cheese it though but imo the best boss fight in the game is Clone Cop, which as his name suggest, is a clone of you. Gameplay wise, this also means he has a similar loadout as you. While he doesn't have all your weapons he will switch weapons depending on your position - for example if you're at a medium distance he'll use his pulse rifle but if you get too close he'll pull out his shotgun and try to rush you. Most enemies in the Game you and isolate, rush, overwhelm and thus kill them pretty quickly - this doesn't work with Clone Cop who will just pull a reverse card on you. In addition to this he can teleport around the arena and if you don't pinpoint where he is quickly he can quickly ambush and kill you depending on the difficulty you're playing on. From what I could tell I think he's also aware of where you place mines and remote detonation bombs. In one of my playthroughs I tried placing a bunch of remote detonated bombs in one of the areas he usually teleports to in order to essentially cheese and end the fight quickly (based on what I saw from my last playthrough) - but not once did he either teleport into that area or run near it. Yeah, he doesn't come near in quality as Ultrakill's bosses, but he's definitely one of the better designed ones imo.
this video is already, funnily enough, kind of outdated, just because a patch dropped that nerfed (or balanced) sisyphus it increased the volume of his voicelines, added a slight trail to his teleports (so you can see where he goes kinda), and most importantly made phase 2 of sisyphus parriable on violent with his stamina increased to compensate so yeah, he's a little bit more fair lol
This is surely a great video!This can help a lot of people who's struggling with certain bosses in this game! Oh,and also,i was wondering,what's the noise V2 made after he wall jumped in 2:45 ?Or did i missed some small updates on him?
I believe the Leviathan fight is there more for spectacle than challenge. Take in count it is sandwiched between 5-3 and 6-1, which as of now are easily the hardest non secret levels in the game, so a breather is appreciated.
Exactly like minos
How I felt about Rykard in elden ring, lol
I just found it annoying since it took me so long to P rank
i enjoy leviathan a lot and find it kinda challanging, mostly because my natural instinct is to think the air is safe and then the high tail swing comes along at just the right height to hit me and its amazing how such a big thing can catch you totally off guard. shows how even the most simple boss in this game is brilliant
I wish on the hardest difficulty the platforms would dissapear and the leviathan would do more attacks
Hakita said that ultrakill's bosses are designed more like bosses from character action games. It works extremely well.
When the game’s tagline is Devil may Quake, it fits the bill
*Stylish Action.
they're not really fps bosses, they're bosses from games like devil may cry or mgrr or sekiro or whatever. swordsmachine, v2, gabriel, insurrectionist, ferryman, minos fucking prime, a bunch of the bosses are a similar size to you and/or primarily use melee weapons. fighting them is almost more like swordfighting, except instead of parrying by blocking their strike, you shoot them in the chest with a shotgun at the right time.
@@gremlinman9724 A better example for Shooter bosses would be Vanquish.
Just a minor correction.
When minos says "Judgement!", he doesn't just teleport to you. No, he literally dropkicks you so hard that it causes an explosion, even when he doesn't hit you.
Minos literally has nuclear dropkicks.
Plus they aren't teleports, he is just moving so fast that it looks like so.
I'm just explaining the attacks in a practical sense, I know the prime souls are just quite literally built different lmao
Thighs can crush reinforced concrete 🙂
@@darkthunder301thighs that split atoms
Those calves are powered by nuclear fission.
"it's attacks are as Chaotic as can be, making staying alive a tall Order"
i see what you did there
chaos, order
i wonder what it references...
@@thesilver151 could it be.. some sort of reference to some other boss?
shit i was about to comment this xD
A faint *_J U D G E M E N T_* can be heard..
This fight makes you want to wage WAR on your fingers
Sisyphus breaking out of his own flesh prison and then proceeding to laugh evilly when he's dying really gives me the vibes that you NEEDED to kill him right at that moment, otherwise he would've stolen your thunder and destroyed everything in hell before you could...
sisy's got no problem with hell, it's heaven he woulda crushed first.
@@gremlinman9724 first
2024 edit just because people keep asking: No, I'm not going to do another ULTRAKILL video because I'm gonna wait on the game's full release to make a mega-video on it.
Okay so just a correction: As fate would have it, the P-2 boss, along with some parts of P-2 in general was nerfed right after I uploaded this video. P-2 boss' attacks are no longer unparryable on Violent's Phase 2. However, his stamina is increased so he can attack for longer intervals.
Also, I forgot to mention this but parrying the P-1 Boss' melee attacks restore his stamina.
he's still just as fast though
OMFG JUST WHAT I WISHED TO BE CHANGED IN THE BOSS
you're kiddin right? I spent countless hours p ranking it without parrying A SI GLE MOVE on the 2nd phase for this to happen?
Since I figured that out, I just began to learn when to dodge and I can first try Sisyphus. The rest of the level is a completely different situation
@@matthewmatt6 haha mindflayers go OAAAAAAAA
the p-2 boss tests your perserverance and patience
*_when his whole thing was rolling a rock up a hill and failing constantly_*
*_THIS IS WAY TOO DEEP_*
Hakita you damm genius
I mean we have lore confirmation that the prime bosses know when you respawn, and Sisyphus' only remark is "Keep em coming!"
kinda more like testing your adaptability to situations because minos was just spamming circle strafe but p-2 boss gets you to dash and slide at the right moment
BRUH💀
@@aberrantCatalyst not only the Pisyphus but the entire frickin level is
The leviathan fight became memorable to me after I learned how to quick mount rockets. After that, it became an aerial dogfight against a Kaiju
Another thing to add: Minos's became so fun to P-rank after I learned the minimum amount of movement needed to dodge him. I felt like I came out of a Donguri990 video. When your game reaches that level, you know it's peak.
22:45 there's something oddly terrifying, even if you've beaten him before, about the statement: "We THINK he's held back by a stamina system, but we don't know for sure"
it’s like the strength of a gorilla
@@hivehusk5643 “we’ve never trained a gorilla to lift weights so we have no clue what a peak swole gorilla looks like” it looks like Sisyphus prime
@@Enter54623P3 is just an exceedingly buff gorilla
@@thebaseandtriflingcreature174 harambe prime
@@thebaseandtriflingcreature174 harambe prime
P-1 introduced your brain to super human cognitive function
P-2 forces you to develop it
good god with the amount of escalation in this game P-3 is going to either destory you irl or force you to either ascend or be equally as cracked as whoever P-3 will be.
Note this : P-3 will teach you how to fucking master it
I'm really hoping for P-3 to be Jesus Prime. It just seems too perfect of a concept to not be in a game where you play as a vampiric machine hellbent on destroying Heaven and Hell after having killed off humanity... just because it's in your nature to do so.
@@the_furry_inside_your_walls639 I doubt it - this Minos and Sisyphus are inspired by Dante's Inferno's depiction of them - Jesus isn't mentioned in his work so I don't think so.
Based on this character list I'm reading and with Hakita choosing either human or humanoid characters from Dante's Inferno I'd guess that a character by the name of "Farinata" - a politician, or otherwise another one called "Ulysses" - the hero of The Iliad and The Odyssey
@@the_furry_inside_your_walls639 it'd be a serious twist that jesus is actually dead (twice or...maybe thrice over now) and, for some reason, got locked away in a flesh prison which the angels for some reason went along with and was for some reason unable to escape.
Unless I missed something from The Odyssey... Does Ulysses really belong in a flesh prison...?
Not to mention before you fight Sysphus prime, you have to fight through a whole army of Maurices, Cerberus, machines, husks, and angels
Frickin Mindflyer buffed by stalker
And 2 insurrectionists too... unless you scrongle one of them
And a Ferryman for some reason, like mf go back to 5-2 you have a boat to drive
@@KitsuneGB-hc9zbGabriel promised him free feet pics
@@KitsuneGB-hc9zb it doesn't help his case the fact that Kaiju turned his world upside down, and helped Andrew Ryans to build a new waterpark
Worth noting that a first-person shooter is really about _controlling space,_ which is why bad FPS bosses tend to be of the variety that you can just corner-camp. In regular FPS combat, you're constantly maneuvering through a 3D space--that's part of what makes it fun. If you can trivialize a fight by camping one spot, you've lost part of the fun. Even a game that focuses heavily on holding specific angles, like CounterStrike, is filled with _many_ angles so that you cannot camp _all_ of them.
Each of Ultrakill's bosses controls space in a different way:
- V2 controls space the same way you do--by having fast, hard-hitting attacks and the ability to quickly maneuver. You can't corner-camp V2 because V2 has all of the tools you have, and uses those tools aggressively to fill the area around you with danger.
- As noted in this video, Minos constantly tests your spatial awareness by striking 50% of the arena with one punch. Minos controls space by being physically *huge*; you can't corner-camp Minos because he can hit you no matter where you hide. Also the homing black hole attack helps.
- Gabriel controls space with both his teleportation (similar to V2's movement) and his rapid ranged attacks. The homing attacks in Gabriel 2 are even more oppressive. You can't corner-camp Gabriel because Gabriel has both aim and speed on his side.
- Leviathan controls space like Minos did, by being fucking huge. Its sweep and lunge force you to maneuver around it, and it fires enough projectiles that parrying isn't safe.
- Flesh Prison controls space by demanding that you control space, using the black holes and massive light beams to push you around while demanding that you keep the eyeball minions in check.
- Minos Prime controls space by not giving you any room to breathe. He's a rushdown character in an FPS. (And he has a homing projectile!)
- Flesh Panopticon controls space by spreading its healing minions around the arena, emphasizing the need to control the _entire_ arena. At least, until...
- Sisyphus Prime does what Minos Prime don't. Well, more accurately, he does what Minos Prime does, but _better!_
Note that all of this is made possible in part by level design and game mechanics. V1 is itself highly mobile and the arenas are all very open, with easy-to-read cover or no cover at all. This pushes the gameplay toward mobility as your primary space-control tool. Contrast CounterStrike, where corners are tight, long sightlines are rare, and movement is methodical and precise; the map design and gameplay of CounterStrike works _with_ the way CS players control space, not against it.
I never actually thought about it that way, very interesting!
I spent a moment reflecting on how a good bossfight for a tactical, slow-maneuvering kind of game like CS would look...and realized pretty quickly that The End from MGS3 would be perfect. The End's deal is that he's a sniper, skilled at both camouflaging himself and picking you out; this works with MGS3's camouflage mechanics, but it could work just as well with a tactical shooter's heavy emphasis on understanding where you can be shot from.
Tbf it is hard to make a boss for tactical shooters, in movement shooters you have to also move and dodge at the same time but on a tactical one is more about position and aim so, you either have a boss that dies on 10 seconds once you figure out how to position yourself, or you have a bullet sponge that drags the fight
@@enn1924 The key, I think, is to design around challenging the player to pick their movements wisely--which is why I jumped to a sniper. A sniper controls space with the threat of burst damage from a long way away, and is best defeated by flanking.
@@TehNoobinessOk but imagine a combo of a sniper and a sentry in a tactical FPS. You have 2 threats of similar power, except one announces their presence very clearly while the other stays hidden. If you carelessly walk around the sentry’s obvious sightlines, you might walk into the sniper’s. If you steer clear of the sniper’s unclear sightlines, you’ll walk into the sentry’s. A bossfight like that would teach you to calculate risks and balance careful movements with good spatial awareness, also my LMG bros need some recognition, they can defend a zone like nobody else
Thanks for making this. As a game developer, one of the things I struggle with is deciphering why certain parts of other games work so well. Ultrakill was one of 3 games (Sekiro, Ultrakill, and Titanfall 2) that inspired me to make my own fps. This video will really help me out when I start designing my bosses. Again thanks.
Edit: I have decied on a name, Book of the Machine
Good luck with your game bro
Shit same here dude
I'll probably forget about this comment, but I hope to some day hear about your game and go like "wait I remember this guy"
Drop the link when it’s ready
gl making your fps fella, hope it becomes a hit and that i can enjoy it lmao
Excuse me, how the in the F*** does this not have more views???? This is high quality!
For P-1, strongly recommend beating Gabe 2.0 first, you get used to parrying his throwable attack and it carries over super well.
agreed, though it can work either way
parrying the piss serpent is free hp and massive damage with no stamina increase, and it's about as fast as the average your difficulty + 1 projectile. If you play normal, get good at violent. If you play violent, you are already good.
The Leviathan fight also works as a good tutorial for the rocket launcher. The wide open arena benefits rocket riding, the location of the weak point means you might accidentially learn the magnet + rocket interaction, plus the fireball spam is hard countered by explosive attacks, which reflect the attacks back at him.
I love how after fighting sisyphus, you can go back to Minos and realize hes actually kinda slow
I always thought minos was not that hard.
Now I'm geeting demolished by Sisyphus
Using mountain king for cokm was such a nice detail lmao
Also something about the Flesh Panopticon I love is the fact that it’s health and attacks are perfectly accurate for what an actual p-2 flesh prison would look like, with it’s difficulty in comparison to it’s p-1 counterpart perfectly matching that of Minos and Sisyphus, but hakita just decided to detonate it with high-grade explosives anyways.
i’d imagine that likely on the higher difficulties when they’re added, that likely it will force you to do the whole fight, and then have him break out at the very end, as it’s desth animation, or it’ll require you to like best it more, like get it down to a quarter on its last healthbar. definitely though the higher difficulties will likely change boss behaviour if imagine
like imagine a fully suped up v2 with All of your gear, and likely even some of the more advanced techniques, or just more advanced then he already uses, like core sniping
Incoming "master levels" will right that wrong.
@@XenobladeNerd maybe Hakita could just give it a third health bar in higher difficulties, and make the last one the one where Sisyphus breaks out. He would still look as powerful, but you are forced to do the whole fight.
@@XenobladeNerd I feel like an improvement to that would just to give flesh panopticon 4 phases but kill em after 2
Panopticon has 300 health and Prison has 100, I think getting him to Half and having Sisyphus break out for the encores is a better idea personally.
Saving the video to watch when I'm not multitasking so i can read it
My big gripe with Leviathan is that you can parry the bite lunge, but it's infinitely harder and less rewarding than Minos punching. I don't think they give you the Down To Size combo modifier for it either. Instead of increasing the parry window, they made it appear unparryable. It would have been great for every act to have a Giant boss with a specific special parry.
I don’t think it’s supposed to be parried since it glows blue
@@mr.waterbottle1265according to others and footage, Hakita just changed the color but still kept the code that allowed it to be parried
I love that P-1 and P-2 bosses both use martial arts style fighting to counter your range
One of my favorite things about V2 and Gabriel is how the average player must go about facing each boss.
With V2, the boss plays by YOUR rules. Jumping, sliding, a hitbox the same size as the player with the same weaponry. You have to not only be the better one when facing him, but learn how to use the tools you both have better than V2. and even in the second encounter, where you both are sporting new weapons, it continues to push mind and body further to make you stronger when you finally finish.
But Gabriel.. Oh, Gabriel... You must play by the BOSS' rules. Of course, with the skill and practice you can make either boss a walk in the park, but without a proper plan, not everyone can just mosey on into the fight and expect everything to work out. Gabriel pushes you to learn attack patterns and focus on the attacks he's throwing, rather than how much you can attack him. With patience and proper dodging, you can overcome him.
Ultrakill is truly a masterpiece that brings out a player's skill while also allowing them to enjoy the world, the gameplay and the lore.
The fact that Sisyphus specifically only giants when he’s below 75% percent HP is just a chef’s kiss of character design.
Using In The Hall Of The Mountain King for the corpse of king minos segment was honestly incredible
Minos and sysiphus are playing Tekken in an fps game
Fun fact : minos saying " *die* " and sysiphus saying " *destroy* " are both reference to the fact they are going to absolutely decimate you ...
Fun fact: Sisyphus Prime often says "This will hurt." This is a slight nod to the fact that he will hurt you.
minos and sisyphus are the only bosses that tell you to die and proceed to actually kill you
You see when a normal boss says "die" or "begone" that is just all talk
When minos and sissyphois says it they actully mean it
Minos is one of the very few bosses that says "Die" and then actually just kills you.
@@CaliburovX4 can confirm
Amazing analysis video! Ultrakill's bosses are a blast to fight for the reasons you mentioned, especially the freedom of how you approach and battle the boss.
Also, Leviathan is personally my favorite boss in the game because it's a giant snake, making it visually unique from the small humanoid bosses, and its build-up is downright scary. However, I also agree that it could've been better, like making it a mobile giant boss rather than a stationary one, but I still enjoy it for what it is, and I'm grateful we got a boss that's both a Supreme Demon and a giant snake.
Ultrakill Bosses change the tuning of the gameplay from run and gun to something more Akin to a Dance. kinda like how fights are in faster paced melee/sword games
i love watching these types of videos when i know literally everything about the game
i just love the effort in these
loved the video, I did wish you included the tiny little cutscenes like V2 gliding on ground or King Minos' dialogue after he's free from the Flesh Prison though, this video needs more views, and you need some more subscribers!
in the Leviathan’s fight it should be noted that you can use the whiplash to sort of ride on Leviathan’s weak spot, it’s just as fun as it sounds lol
A boss in it's purest form is supposed to be a test of everything you've learned up to that point. Fittingly the Pure being of Will that are the Prime souls are the only instance in any game ever I've seen of a boss testing every single aspect of your skillset without feeling drawn out or scripted. That is truly something I never though I'd see in a game.
Always nice to see breakdowns like these for any kind of game. It's great study material for future game designers.
24:50 My man literally shat himself
here before this blows up god this needs more views such quality content
24:07 Something to be said about that.
This fight is you doing what Sisyphus would’ve never been able to accomplish
*Beating an insurmountable task*
One of the best parts of the boss design in Ultrakill is that you have to stay in the danger zone and engage with the boss.
The bosses are either big enough that they can attack any point in the room or mobile enough to chase you down if you try to run away.
Your only methods of healing require you to either approach the enemy or put yourself in their line of fire. Your defensive options require you to pay attention to what the enemy is doing.
All of that combines to make it so the classic FPS anti-boss technique of "chip away at them from behind cover" is completely ineffective.
Fun tip with birb: using screwdriver railgun against sisyphus permits healing while hes boxing you up with his combo
Very great analogy of all the bosses. What makes ULTRAKILL special to me is that it lives up to its name. You can go all fuck it with the bosses and spam your flashiest combos for them to die in a matter of seconds. Speedrunners do it, and it's always fun to see and do for yourself. Know that 1-4 coin punch trick? Speedrunners have gotten that down to 10 seconds. 10.006.
And 6-2? You can easily push Gabriel into his second phase by suspending 8 coins in the air using the grapple, and once his dialogue is done, you shoot all of them with the slab piercer (positioned through his head, the coins reflect it back on the same spot if you do this correctly).
The replayability of this game is insane. Every time I go on UA-cam somehow I learn more about ULTRAKILL than I previously haven't. Ways to instantly kill powerful and make them an absolute pushover, speedrun tactics or ways to easily P-Rank levels and with STYLE.
I love boss levels like 6-2 because because of that coin slab piercer setup. I love 6-1 and 5-3 because it has a massive catalogue of enemies that really grinds your gears and gets that style meter to absolute ULTRAKILL. 6-1 especially because the 2 final Hideous Masses can be such a pushover, and it's always impressive every damn time.
What I'm saying is that this game will never make you bored. Even if you get burned out playing it, you WILL want to come back to the game because of the spectacle.
Note about 15:56: parrying the Flesh Prison's orbs correctly will send some of its orbs back to itself. This grants you the +FRIENDLY FIRE style bonus.
This also goes for Leviathan. I always parry its orbs whenever it spits em all out.
Basically, explosions will reflect projectiles. So even if the orb itself doesn't send back the other orbs, the orb will make an explosion right where the orbs are, and send a number of orbs back to where they came from. So parrying one orb can result in great damage.
This is also how you instakill Malicious Faces with the overpump shotgun.
With the only way to heal being to douse yourself in blood, unlike most fps games, healing requires you to do this neat trick not many people know about called:
P l a y t h e g a m e
Now I got a question, where do the prime souls like Sisyphus and Minos go when they die? Do they go to Heaven? Do thet just respawn? Or do they return to the overworld?
This is more like a question of what happens to enemies in general tbh like...nothing is said about that in game (as I know)
24:01
Correction. Unlike Minos, Sisyphus Prime's attacks are still parriable in phase 2
This is a really nicely made video, nice work man
Personally, the leviathan fight is pretty fun! All your points are valid, but here's my favorite part: Riding the leviathan WITHOUT falling off.
I don’t know if you realized this about ultrakill, but the music is so great, the creator Hakita even loves music, it’s all amazing
Really good vid underrated channel love the editing between gameplay sounds and background music
I love how the Die attack syncs with the music drop at 19:15
Hope this gets more views, it's a great analysis and I love the editing
If I could make a suggestion, please add some sort of transition between subtitles, like a fade, or a short gap without any text (like Netflix does)
Sometimes when the text changes, I'm focused on what's happening on-screen, and I don't notice the new text until it's too late
Yeah, I'll keep that in mind
Leviathan is exactly as Max0r described: the only limit is how hard you can ball. It's way more fun if you're rocket surfing and playing the floor is lava while fighting it
ok the wait of the world update made the game so much easier if you can confidently and consistently parry attacks cause parrying instantly fills your stamina and heals to up to "full" as in up to your hard damage cap, this was definently to make sisyphus easier since all his attacks are parryable even in phase 2 but it made tons of other bosses and situations so much easier like flesh prison in which you can actually use the stupid cyan move to destroy 2-3 eyeballs and full heal (if you didnt get hit by the purple black hole), if im not mistaken before this update the heal wasnt big enough to be usefull but now its almost a full heal
Ah! That Clair De Lune strat is called “coin-punching” (I think).
If you do it fast enough, you can kill him before he even starts fighting.
I’m sure you already knew that, but hey, it’s a cool technique
15:24 Pretty clever by saying chaos and order, conveniently its the names for flesh prison's and minos' songs
love the transition at 10:51
My prediction is that the final boss of Act III is going to be the soul of Hell itself, considering many things point to Hell being sapient and malicious. But P-3 is going to have Lucifer. In the Divine Comedy, he resides at the center of the rings of Hell, and resides there as punishment from God. In ULTRAKILL, God banished him there after Lucifer questioned him on the morality and purpose of Hell - he holds narrative weight similar to Minos and Sisyphus, and fits being on the lowest level (assuming the trend of the Prime Sanctum door being on the last layer of the act.)
4:06
“You are already dead”
It's been ages since I enjoyed a video communicated entirely throught text this much. Good show.
After beating act 2 like a week ago, I’ve gotta say these bosses have been some of the best I’ve fought in years. I actually felt absolutely thrilled to beat them after learning the patterns, figuring out proper weapon management, and using the blood mechanic to its truest potential. Ultrakill is going down as one of my favorite games
20:34 its less like a difficulty spike and more like a difficulty spear
Hearing Okayasu talking in that tunnel caught me off guard 😂 I love dumb edits/bits like that cuz that's something I'd throw into a video myself
Excellent video. This highlights it perfectly. I think the algorithm should RECOMMEND this VIDEO to FIRST PERSON SHOOTER enjoyers.
But for real, ultrakill is uber underrated rn. They keep waiting for the full release
08:12 "So when I tell you that, uh... *tink*
YOU CAN PARRY THIS MAN
It's basically the rule instead of the exception. Game devs (Gay devs), take notes. This is the coolest shit you can do in a video game. It makes you feel like an anime protagonist."
All that's left is a way to zoom around Minos like attack on titan
This vid is lovely and I appreciate your text commentary
Every time, every god damn time, when I hear any of gabriel's songs, chills go down my spine.
Can't believe you didn't include the Rodent brothers
Damn, this video claps harder than Mr. Keep em coming.
16:00
I find that parrying the cyan projectiles of the Flesh Prison helps to defeat it faster, as it does quite a bit of damage.
i often found myself forgetting to read the text because the gameplay was so fun to watch
great video
10/10 video, I can feel the pain on beating p2, when I don't have p1 unlocked at all. This will be fun.
I enjoy how most of these bosses are actually challenging for a first timer
Did you just used the ender dragon’s death sound on minos?
the leviathan is supposed to teach you how the rocket launcher works, giving you a massive arena to rocket ride in and having the projectile barrage attack that can reflect projectiles with the rockets. sure, it isn't hard at all, but it is nonetheless a great boss at what it does
The editing of this video is amazing!
ultrakill does everything right.
Underrated chanel (im sorry if i typo it)
Pretty sure that sisyphus does chains of attacks without a stamina system. It was 4 telegraphed attacks in combination with about 3 untelegraphed ones, after which he cannot attack, then 5 telegraphed and 3 untelegraphed, after which he taunts. This is the most common pattern I've seen in gameplay, at least on violent difficulty. This, of course, doesn't take into account phase 2.
Sisyphus' evil laugh always creeped me out.
He was being killed off for good, but that laugh made me feel like he had some greater plan
Damnnn, you're improving a lot man! 10/10 Rep+
Minos is a fighting game character put into an FPS game and I live for it
Leviathan used to be my least favorite (but still enjoyed boss) until I learned rocket riding. While rocket riding has diminishing returns, you can reset that by landing on the ground or landing on AN ENEMY. Fighting Leviathan while flying and jumping ontop of them to refresh it is a thrill and everyone should try it.
Now its probably my 2nd favorite next to V2-2
Thank god Hakita made all the attacks of phase 2 Sisyphus parry able in violent. Although it will be much harder for newer players because Sisyphus now has infinite stamina from what I can tell. Yeah be very afraid for what p-3 will bring, for Minos was a test of skill, Sisyphus one of might, and whoever they are, a test of pure will.
Commenting to boost this video in the algorithm. Great video!
You should make more Ultrakill videos. Your editing and video style is great.
Make videos on stuff like Levels, Enemies, Weapons, and even the Lore and Music.
I'm waiting on ULTRAKILL's release to make a mega video, including a remaster of this topic, because the game's genius is so deeprooted in how everything is so intertwined and how everything bounces off each other
@@Kijillo looking forward to that video bro (would be even better if it reached an hour duration too)
25:15
the sounds of a broken man
11:00 THE TIMING
the bosses are so fun and challenging, and the game itself is both fun and funny
Is there a name for the sound effect at 4:14? Not the vine boom, the one right after it when V2 dies.
Dunno, it's just V2's pain sound basically
It's a sub bass that fades in and out, but I think it's just called the bass drop sound effect
@@Kijillo that is indeed what it's called, thanks!
I had never realized how there are "two anime references" in 2-4, this is awesome lol, now I'm gonna think of Jojo and Attack on Peak everytime I re-visit that level
Great video, great channel, great coverage of a great game.
24:15 nah bro, pure damn chance that I got to him
But seriously, words of encouragement were not what I expected to see in a video. Just beat Sisyphus' ass this night on standard and boy did I feel satisfied, after 57 retries on this session and I'm guessing 200 more from previous ones. It was fucking 3am and I literally had to stop myself from screaming
Another FPS game which I think does bosses decently well is Half-Life Entropy Zero 2 - where the game has pretty much three main bosses, Plan-B and (spoilers) Clone cop and the Advisor.
The final boss you can kind of cheese it though but imo the best boss fight in the game is Clone Cop, which as his name suggest, is a clone of you. Gameplay wise, this also means he has a similar loadout as you. While he doesn't have all your weapons he will switch weapons depending on your position - for example if you're at a medium distance he'll use his pulse rifle but if you get too close he'll pull out his shotgun and try to rush you. Most enemies in the Game you and isolate, rush, overwhelm and thus kill them pretty quickly - this doesn't work with Clone Cop who will just pull a reverse card on you. In addition to this he can teleport around the arena and if you don't pinpoint where he is quickly he can quickly ambush and kill you depending on the difficulty you're playing on.
From what I could tell I think he's also aware of where you place mines and remote detonation bombs. In one of my playthroughs I tried placing a bunch of remote detonated bombs in one of the areas he usually teleports to in order to essentially cheese and end the fight quickly (based on what I saw from my last playthrough) - but not once did he either teleport into that area or run near it.
Yeah, he doesn't come near in quality as Ultrakill's bosses, but he's definitely one of the better designed ones imo.
I'll check it out when I can, thanks for the suggestion
6:47
okuyasu jumpscare
underrated channel, im gonna sub
both Minos and Sisyphus Prime are basically fighting a fighting game character in an FPS
good video!
Small correction: Yellow mode on V2 means moving in a straight line until he hits a wall
this video is already, funnily enough, kind of outdated, just because a patch dropped that nerfed (or balanced) sisyphus
it increased the volume of his voicelines, added a slight trail to his teleports (so you can see where he goes kinda), and most importantly made phase 2 of sisyphus parriable on violent with his stamina increased to compensate
so yeah, he's a little bit more fair lol
19:15
When this requiem leitmotiff hits
22:32 ayo he's got some cake 😳
My favorite boss is leviathan because I can fly on rocket and now ULTRAKILL becomes some kind of ace combat
Example: ua-cam.com/video/UdHVt7cTwXc/v-deo.html
P-2 is basically "oh you beat the whole game? Cool, now do it again."
This is surely a great video!This can help a lot of people who's struggling with certain bosses in this game!
Oh,and also,i was wondering,what's the noise V2 made after he wall jumped in 2:45 ?Or did i missed some small updates on him?
V2 is my clone if i actually used sliding, I know only 4 things:
Parry shotgun bullet
Railcannon ultraricoshot
Whiplash
*alt marksman*