Re-running another of my old topics to see what people say this time.

Boss battles. Yay, nay, or something in-between? No poll this time as this one needs explanation along with the choice. It's not enough to say "Yes, give me loads!" Why? What kind of bosses? How frequent? How difficult?




For me, a very qualified yes. I recognise the need for them, and seldom enjoy fighting them.

I don't like lengthy battles. Running around attacking the same weak point for half an hour is boring. I have better things to do with my gaming time.

I hate overly difficult boss battles. Gradual difficulty increases, if you please, not difficulty spikes! If a boss is considerably harder than the areas leading up to him then it's quite obvious he's difficult for the single purpose of slowing the player down. That's not to say I like easy boss battles (usually boring), or hate difficult bosses full stop. As long as the difficulty fits the game.

Cheap bosses? Gah! I can't stand that! Instant kill attacks which wipe out your entire party with no warning, attacks which knock your character over and are spammed so he can't get back up - ugh!

Mini bosses and sub-bosses can stay out of my games, thank you very much, except in the case of RPGs where they can sometimes be managed in a way which feels meaningful. Action games tend to be as regular as clockwork with bosses. Mini boss, proper boss, new level and repeat pattern until the end of the last level whereupon you encounter the final boss.

I don't like frequent boss battles. It's tiresome.

I reserve a special category of dislike for reoccurring bosses. If I can kill boring boss then that's enough for me. I don't want to have to kill boring boss 2, boring boss rebirth, boring boss fusion, boring boss neo fusion, and boring boss ultimate X death angel edition. Final Fantasy, I'm looking at you here! I don't care if boring boss neo fusion casts fire 3 instead of fire and is strapped into some kind of crazy flying battle harness - he's still the same boring boss I've killed before. The alternate form of the returning boss – being made to fight the exact same battle again, usually at the end of the game – is worse still. “You defeated the stupid spider boss at the start of the game. Can you do it again now that you’ve got more powerful weapons, more health, more abilities, and 15 hours of practice under your belt?” Then after the stupid spider boss redux you have the stupid plant boss redux, the stupid flying boss redux, and so on until you’ve defeated every boss twice.

Froggy's golden rules for game structure around boss battles:
Thou shalt provide a proper save point immediately before the boss. A hard save point, not a mere checkpoint which is lost if the game is turned off. Chance to restore health, magic power, ammo etc is appreciated.

Thou shalt not force the player to watch the same cutscene over and over if they die.

Thou shalt offer the player a way to patch up their health after winning the battle so a puny enemy doesn't one-shot them and force them to repeat the battle again.