Lunchtime Discussion: Finales
Boss or no boss?
Published: 12:00, 08/07/2010 by Blair [mynameisblair].
44The final of the World Cup kicks off on Sunday, with Spain and Holland making it through; They’ve battled their way through match after match to reach this final, as you would in a game to get to the final stage. Most games feature a boss of some form at the end, whether it be a final race, assault on an enemy base or an actual enemy to defeat. Looking through the games I’ve completed, most of them are in the format of going through stages, completing a harder stage (such as a mini-boss) and then repeating this until you progress on to the final stage.
Action/adventure games, such as the God of War series or any of the Zelda games feature actual bosses, whereas other genres, such as racing games feature tournament stages with a bigger ‘boss’ race at the end of each stage. There are ways to make games without boss stages, but does this make the game better or worse? Would you rather you were tied to this formula and were definitely going to expect a great battle at the end, or would you rather be free to do missions as you choose, and perhaps face an anti-climax?
Have you experienced a game that does the finale right, or is it possible to get it wrong? Personally, my favourite final stages have been the colossal bosses in the action/adventure genre, where I have often been stunned by the scale of things. What about a game based around boss battles, such as Shadow of the Colossus, where you face many large bosses rather than a single being at the end? Which games have provided a great finale and which have turned out to be an anti-climax?
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08/07/2010 at 12:05
Member since: May 2009
I was a bit disappointed with the last Agency mission in Just Cause 2. I thought it was a lot easier than earlier Agency missions.
08/07/2010 at 12:09
Member since: Aug 2009
I loved SOTC because of the amazing boss battles all the time. However, like final fantasy, i like a big final boss that is hard to defeat and needs skill to defeat.
Not like Bioshock 1 :/
08/07/2010 at 12:20
Member since: Jun 2009
Are you saying that Atlas was easy or hard? I found him pretty tricky on survivor, but it wasn’t too bad once you knew his patterns & what plasmids/weapons to use when.
09/07/2010 at 09:59
Member since: Jan 2010
That’s pretty much it for Atlas though, once you’ve got him figured out there’s nothing to it.
08/07/2010 at 12:16
Member since: Aug 2008
I love boss fights, they provide a good end to things and a culmination of what has gone before, although it does depend a lot on the game. I do get annoyed when a supposedly ‘realistic’ game has a boss character who is just like a normal guy, but somehow bulletproof. If I can headshot bad guys throughout the game, then I should be able to headshot the boss as well. There is a particular game Im thinking of here, but I forgot its name. :?
08/07/2010 at 12:18
Member since: Aug 2008
I agree with this. I dislike games that change their own rules as a cheap way to make the boss harder.
08/07/2010 at 12:23
Member since: Jun 2009
Insert generic 3rd person/1st person shooter name here – There are absolutley loads of titles that do this (& it’s never realy occurred to me until now!)!
08/07/2010 at 13:06
Member since: Mar 2010
killzone 2 was really bad at the whole boss thing personally i thought it total ruined the pacing of the game (especially on elite) and just felt tacked on. boss battles when they work add to the game but when there just rammed in just because everyone else does it then i find it really distract’s from the overall quality of the game
p.s. Demon’s Souls is awesome
09/07/2010 at 10:00
Member since: Jan 2010
Very good example of how boss battles should be, challenging and quite scary in case you do something you’re not supposed to and die by accident. Like the Dragon God, that was so much easier getting through with the Dragon Bone Smasher.
08/07/2010 at 12:17
Member since: Aug 2008
I think a game should be structured with a sense of increasing challenge, building to a final point. This is true of almost all genres though exceptions exist such as Gran Turismo. I like that you earn more points by using a weaker car if you have the skills to still win with it.
I found Uncharted (both, but especially 2) to be excellent for this. It gradually gets harder with a few spikes in difficulty at various points and then a very unforgiving final boss battle
08/07/2010 at 12:18
Member since: Jun 2009
WET was a complete anti climax – You go through the entire game jumping, dodging & using slo-mo as much as possible against the lower level goons & blowing them away in spectacular style, & then when it comes to the final showdown with the main antagonists of the game…Its a really simple QTE & that’s it! WTF??
I do like a good boss battle at the end of a game – Examples that come to mind are Batman, Borderlands, Dead Space, Killzone etc
Although saying that, Fallout 3 didn’t have an epic boss battle at the end, but yet i felt somewhat sentimental when the credits rolled – I guess emotional attachment throughout a game works too!
08/07/2010 at 12:26
Member since: Jul 2009
FFXIII provided an excellent set of boss climax battles, even though the story made little sense to me (please don’t try and explain it). The game has been derided for being a little too linear but I would note that almost all of the battles, right from the start to the end, are well balanced and beatable. This is what I like in a game, and not a game which makes me throw my controller at the wall in frustration.
08/07/2010 at 12:35
Member since: Apr 2010
Lost planet 2 kinda sucked at the end.
08/07/2010 at 12:36
Member since: May 2009
You definitely don’t need to have final boss battles. Halo was one of the big games that didn’t bother with this route, and instead had a race against time at the end on a warthog which was pure genius.
Then there’s the times when the final boss is disappointingly easy or frustratingly hard, like Killzone 2.
They can be very difficult to get right, and many a time I feel that they’re not really needed.
08/07/2010 at 12:41
Member since: Mar 2009
MGS games seem to hit it right for me. Yes theyre often wierd in how they play out, but the levels of build up, effort and reward always seem about right.
08/07/2010 at 13:16
Member since: Apr 2010
Totally agree. The boss “animal” levels were varied and challenging, and the final boss battle? Without giving it away I can just say it gave me this awesome feeling of closure.
08/07/2010 at 22:11
Member since: Apr 2010
Of course I’m talking about MGS4, it being the most recent one I’ve played.
08/07/2010 at 13:52
Member since: Aug 2009
Same as, they’re pretty unique battles. But I did think MGS3 had a couple too many consecutive boss battles towards the end – Volgin, the Shagohod twice, the Boss… was a little too much. But I think that’s pretty much my only (albeit minor) complaint about the game.
08/07/2010 at 12:52
Member since: Apr 2009
I remember the end of Bioshock, and it was the ONLY disappointment of the whole game for me, in that it was too easy.