What's your opinion on boss battling?

[Dragon]

Expanding on the title, what purpose do you think boss battling serve, and why do you think boss fights are necessary in video gaming? Do you think that sometimes boss battling are out of place in video games, or are they completely necessary in all video games?

Feel free to share thoughts!

 

[Darkwing Ducklett]

I think boss battles are quite important in games; in most, they break up the monotony of regular gameplay quite nicely by providing a slightly greater challenge for the player, or by serving to advance the story. Alice: Madness Returns highlighted to me just how important boss fights are in games: it only had one, right at the very end, and it kept building up to one at the end of each section, only to have it never materialize. It was absolutely maddening.

...although sometimes I think boss battles exist solely to piss the player off. I still have nightmares about the trio of Giacomo, Ayme and Folon from Baten Kaitos.

 

[Khoshi]

It expands on the story a little. Like...to find out who set off the motions for the story in the game, like who did what. An example for this (at least imo) would be some of the bosses in the Touhou games. They're usually a part of the story in one way or another, either knowing what's up, or being in cahoots with the main enemy.

That, or just to serve as an obstacle to test the player's skill.

They're necessary, to both help the story form, and to put the gameplay mechanics to the test. It depends on genre though, as I doubt you'd expect boss battles in sports games, unless we're talking Punch Out or something. :p

They're usually necessary, just not compulsory to have in video games.

 

[Satoshi Ookami]

As others said, they aren't exactly necessary but they add spice to the game.
Especially if they are storyline bosses that help the flow of the story.
I'm not fan of randomly put bosses just to have them there, though. That feels redundant.

 

[Legobricks]

Bosses represent a great challenge to overcome. The purpose of playing a game is to overcome the challenges it puts forth, and bosses serve as the epitome of that idea. Personally, I prefer happenstance encounters like being met with '[hostile faction] reinforcement fleet approaching' in EV Nova, or a dragon in TES V: Skyrim. The encounters are random, aren't bosses in a strict sense, and don't even have to be fought if one can devise an escape. I enjoy the freedom of such an encounter. It's not simply 'enter room; kill boss', it's a part of a wider experience, part of the world and its lore. So when I think of video game bosses, I tend to think of these things instead of the traditional kind; there's something awesome about them in their relative mundanity. Fights with characterised bosses certainly aren't necessary; all that is, is the monotiny being broken up by a particularly difficult set of events on occasion.

 

[Oryx]

I think I'm in the minority, but I don't like bosses at all. I play the game because I like the general gameplay, the difficulty level of the main levels, and all that; I often choose a difficulty level based on what's challenging for me in the normal game, which means bosses become near impossible. Getting stuck on the same spot for ages makes me drop the game and never finish it, so bosses existing in a lot of games have made the game much less enjoyable.

I do find it interesting how bosses parallel testing in education though; many of them aren't necessarily designed to be more difficult, but to see if you've learned what you were supposed to learn in the last level. I know Bit.Trip Runner does this a lot, where it will spend all the level introducing a new rhythm-based item or pattern and then throw them all at you in the boss fight, which you should be able to do if you learned them well enough. People generally hate tests in school, but love boss battles - is it because we enjoy what we're trying to learn? Because we don't see education as a challenge to rise to like a boss? Because we can start over if we fail?

 

[El Héroe Oscuro]

I've felt that boss battles are a tool used by developers to spur a sense of completion within a game. When you go through specific levels of a level and are sometimes forced to collect certain items, you want to feel like there is some form of gratification for doing such. That's why a lot of developers put a "boss" in there, so it gives the gamer a sense of direction or a goal to strive towards to.

That being said, I wish some boss battles weren't so formulaic - meaning more along the lines of "go to this dungeon, collect this item, must use said item to defeat boss." The Legend of Zelda series is pretty guilty of that. That's why I think in A Link Between Worlds Nintendo tried to mix it up a bit by allowing you the ability to get all of your weapons at the beginning so you had the option of using any kind of weapon in any kind of situation, allowing the gamer to decide for themselves how the game will play out.

Probably one of the best boss battles in my gaming career was the Mr. Freeze battle in Batman Arkham City. The battle itself was really intricate as the game made you use all of your items and gadgets to take him down, as Mr. Freeze would eliminate the ability of you using the same item against him twice. That's good game/boss battle design in my opinion because it tests the gamer's overall skill and not just their ability to use one specific item. I'd like to see more game's use that kind of concept for boss battles instead of such a structured boss setup where there's obviously one weapon that needs to be used to defeat a boss.

I would be perfectly content if they got rid of all mini boss battles and just had one boss battle at the end that was like the example above; a hard fought battle that tests your skill and use of all in-game items that makes the gamer feel accomplished for their doings when it's all done.

 

[Yukari]

Boss battles are one of the most important parts of a game to me. But sometimes it isn't important. (In RTS games, for example.) So I Think the importance varies.

However, I don't like formulaic bosses. I feel bored if a boss doesn't make me think or test my reflexes to an extent.

I've felt that boss battles are a tool used by developers to spur a sense of completion within a game. When you go through specific levels of a level and are sometimes forced to collect certain items, you want to feel like there is some form of gratification for doing such. That's why a lot of developers put a "boss" in there, so it gives the gamer a sense of direction or a goal to strive towards to.

Aside from this I also think bosses are a way of progressing the story in a game. This can be in a number of ways really.

 

[markpaul]

The boss battles are important but I use them rarely, as I prefer normal game play.

 

[Sonata]

Boss battles are:
Fun
Awesome
Beautiful
Thoughtful
Hard
Annoying
Angering
Screen-bashing in-ing
That's the 12th time I've lost to this boss I am so done
What the freaking frick frack whaaaaaat theeeeee truck how did they do that
No no no no no stop no no no oh oh oh no no no stop please no no oooooh no don't die don't die don't die dammit all why did I have to die

 

[Cerberus87]

A boss raises the bar of gameplay and forces the player to use different techniques... When well implemented, of course. Not like in Doom where you could blast the Spider Mastermind with two BFG shots, in what was one of the most pathetic boss battles in gaming history (pistol start is much different, but still).

However I don't like bosses which aren't intuitive, I mean they require some sort of obscure strategy which takes ages to figure out. Once you learn how to beat them, it's fine, but the process of trying to beat them is excruciating.

 

[Luck]

A phrase that has always rang true for me was "If you're going to do something, do it right". I love well designed bosses as much as everyone else, but a lot of people completely miss the point of a boss and just make a bullet sponge enemy with a random flashing weak point. Ideally, a boss should both have relevance to the story in some way and should be a test of your skill. Having either/or is fine for the most part, but generally crappy and/or pointless bosses really mess with the pacing and consistency.

I think absolutely every developer should try to make great, meaningful boss fights, but unfortunately that's simply not a realistic expectation. There are a variety of genres, and the concept of a good boss varies wildly with each genre. Hell, it varies wildly with individual gameplay systems. It's completely understandable if some developers don't want to make boss fights because of current limitations, and it's almost always preferable to having a scar on what might've been a "perfect" experience.

 

[Phazon Elemental]

Necessary? Maybe not. But usually, they serve to let players know "by the way, you're almost done with this part of the game." Well, if done WELL, anyway.

 

[Dustmop]

I love well designed bosses as much as everyone else, but a lot of people completely miss the point of a boss and just make a bullet sponge enemy with a random flashing weak point. Ideally, a boss should both have relevance to the story in some way and should be a test of your skill. Having either/or is fine for the most part, but generally crappy and/or pointless bosses really mess with the pacing and consistency.

Could not agree more. Some games would really benefit from removing poorly-designed bosses. They're not fun, they're not important to the story (and therefore, the game itself), they're just a nuisance.
I do wish more bosses actually were a test of skill, rather than just aiming for the red spot for 30 minutes. Especially when the game is so lacking in antagonists that you have to kill the same guy 6 times with almost the exact same method every time because "Oops, he's not really dead." I'm looking at you, Resident Evil.

On the other hand.. While I don't believe bosses are necessary for every game.. I do feel there are a lot of games that wouldn't work quite as well without them. LoZ, for example. Or any general dungeon crawlers. What would be the point of that long dungeon if there wasn't something nasty at the end of it, or more importantly, someone/thing pertaining to the story?

 

[Nidoking76]

In my opinion, the boss fight's whole purpose is to provide the player a challenge. Think about it. In pretty much all games, most regular enemies you fight are no threat whatsoever. But when the boss comes in, everything takes it's turn to the funner and more challenging.

The best boss is a boss who has a good set of strengths and weaknesses. This makes him more of a challenge; because this way, the player sits still, waiting for the right moment to strike. For example, take the first boss of Naught 2.

He was a great boss because he left the player waiting for the right moment. Another great boss is a boss like you. That's right. You. A boss like you is the best possible boss fight. Think of it this way: in all video games, what is the single most dangerous creature in existence? You. So a boss with all your strengths, abilities, and weaknesses is the best possible boss. Sadly, this kind of boss is extremely rare, and can only be found in games like Straw Hat Samurai 2.

 

[pompayyy]

It depends on the game. It would make sense in an adventure game like The Legend of Zelda, but it would rarely work in game based around realism (like a boss in Call of Duty, or GTA).

Most of the ones that do exist are pretty awesome though, especially a certain one in Final Fantasy VI

 

[El Héroe Oscuro]

Another great boss is a boss like you. That's right. You. A boss like you is the best possible boss fight. Think of it this way: in all video games, what is the single most dangerous creature in existence? You. So a boss with all your strengths, abilities, and weaknesses is the best possible boss. Sadly, this kind of boss is extremely rare, and can only be found in games like Straw Hat Samurai 2.

Or like Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time where you fight the dark version of Link. That was a pretty monumental battle, as I don't think anyone was expecting it at the time. It was really fun to fight a doppelganger of yourself! I agree that there should be more boss battles like that, but I think it should be selective; if there are too many of those, I feel like it would lose it's "wow!" factor that Ocarina of Time and supposedly Straw Hat Samurai 2 had.

 

[Raine]

To be honest, majority of the times where I feel they're completely unnecessary is mainly because they annoy me XD Often times I will go around grinding the crap out of my character (if the game has levels) in preparation for the boss. If they serve no purpose whatsoever in regards to the story, and are just obstacles to overcome, I personally don't see a point to having them at all \: Though final bosses have this certain aura about them that makes them, in my opinion, these celestial (for lack of a better word) type beings. For example, Ultimecia in FFVIII was one of my favourite bosses in any game.

 

[Nidoking76]

If they serve no purpose whatsoever in regards to the story, and are just obstacles to overcome, I personally don't see a point to having them at all \:

I disagree. A boss that doesn't have much to do with the plotlinr of a game is still really fun to fight/deal with. I mean, Legend of the Void had the really awesome wolf boss known as 'Old One Eye.' He was more of a random encounter than anything else. But he was still a good boss fight.

 

[Manul119]

Hey.. Hey now! Don't forget that Boss Battles could be awesome as well! Remember.. Um... The battle with Metal Gear RAY on Metal Gear Rising Revengence.. Or Psyco Mantis from Metal Gear Solid! They should be creative and fun.. and well.. What's the point of BOSS battles if they aren't challenging.. personally.. .I would like it if the battles had some sort of... um.. Connection with the story in game.. Just saying!