Boss Fights

What was the most difficult challenge you faced in a game most recently? Was it a puzzle? Perhaps a level with some tricky mechanics? Or was it some big dude with a huge health bar and an intimidating presence? That guy would be a boss. Unlike regular enemies, boss fights are intended to be difficult and are meant to test the player with what they have learned in the game thus far. There are games with awesome boss fights and games with pitiful encounters. How do you do it right? You approach it like another puzzle.

            Let me put it this way: imagine that the boss isn’t just some beefed up version of a previous enemy, but rather an AI with a set of tactics that the player must memorize in order to avoid taking damage and finding a weak spot to exploit. Easy bosses will have obvious weak spots and may do the same tactic over and over again. Harder bosses will have more complicated strategies and will sometimes change their tactics during later parts of the fight. They also have not so obvious weak spots. In a way, boss fights are just combat centric puzzles.

            Some of the best boss fights I can think of come from two games: Shadow of the Colossus and World of Warcraft. For those of you unfamiliar with the game, Shadow of the Colossus was this PS2 title made by Team Ico back in 2005. It presented an incredible world with creative mechanics. It is often cited as an example in arguments for proving games are an artform. The object of the game is to defeat all sixteen colossi and bring your dead girlfriend back to life. Thing is, there are no other encounters. It is solely boss fights. You have to find each colossi, then figure out how to slay them. Each fight is a puzzle unto itself. The first thing you have to do is find a way to climb onto the colossus itself, then crawl around on its body to find weak spots and strike them. This is easier said than done as the colossi can shake you off if you don’t grip tightly and some fights require critical thinking to find a solution.

            As for World of Warcraft, bosses would be found in either certain quests or dungeons and raids. Quest bosses were not very entertaining to fight. They were just beefed up versions of earlier mobs. However, the dungeon and raid boss fights are epic! These fights require you to have a team of people to coordinate with and take down. I’ll use the Icecrown Gunship Battle as an example. You have ten people on your team. The object of this battle is to destroy the enemy gunship whilst also keeping your ship safe and staying alive. You have members dedicated to fighting off invading attackers, firing artillery at the opposing ship, assassinating the enemy mage who disabled your cannons periodically, and at least one guy distracting the enemy captain so he doesn’t kill anyone too quickly. This was one of the coolest fights I ever participated in. It took practice to get everyone skilled enough to know the encounter, but it was worth it. The satisfaction of taking down a gunship was immense and I would gladly do it again if I could.

            And yet, there are some lazy examples of fights. Some games have bosses that either have an easy to predict pattern that never changes or they took a regular enemy, increased its size by 5, then tripled its health. Not exactly compelling. Sometimes the game might just repeat the same method of disposing of bosses. This isn’t always a bad thing, but if it occurs too often, it really takes away from the experience. As much as I love the series, Legend of Zelda is guilty of this. Most bosses will just circle around the player, rush to attack, Link uses the new item he just got in that dungeon, stuns the boss, pulls out his Master Sword, and just swings away. Rinse and repeat at least 3 more times.

            Boss fights are also becoming more like spectacle fights as opposed to puzzles. Look at Kingdom Hearts 2. I love that game so much and it was a hit in 2006, but doing the same system it did back then today would not work. Bosses had attack animations that were just stellar to look at and they felt intimidating to stand against. However, the game had something called Reaction Commands. When you hit the triangle button during a Reaction Command prompt, you would basically gain the upper hand and knock the boss down to your level. Then you just swing your keyblade away until it gets back up again. In other words, hit triangle to win.

Puzzles and boss fights go hand in hand. Puzzles are a test of logic and reasoning that do not involve combat and bosses are a test of strategy and staying alive long enough to gain the advantage and take the enemy down. Can a boss fight look amazing and still be an engaging experience? Of course. So long as it isn’t a beefed up version of another enemy or the fight looks pretty solely to look good, give that fight a riddle with a solution and you’ve got a great boss fight.