Are good bossfights gone out of fashion?

[Clement Rage]

I watched Rise of the Tomb Raider on Youtube lately, and honestly, was kind of disappointed in the Final dungeon.

Spoiler

For a Deathless Army, they're pretty susceptible to a shotgun to the face.(I know they reform, but they're not as terrifying as they're made out to be)

And then I got to thinking, and realised that most games I've played lately haven't had many satisfying bossfights. The Arkham games' only major weakness was the lack of good bossfights, with some notable exceptions, they're usually a variant of ' lots of henchman rush'. The Last of Us, Uncharted... I've always found God of War bossfights oddly unsatisfying, and in general I prefer fewer, more dangerous enemies over hordes of weak ones, but it's something gaming seems to be moving away from. Especially not the kind of pursuer you can't shoot straight up, you have to make rockfalls or push them over a cliff. There doesn't seem to be as many these days. But I don't play that many games, so I could be wrong. Thoughts?

Notable exception : Metal Gear Rising

 

[Jason Tandro]

It is genre dependent. While I don't like the XIII Trilogy's battle system that much (Except Lightning Returns which is a different battle system), I have to admit that all 3 games had some very interesting bosses. Not XIII as much until you get to the open world, but XIII-2 had some incredible encounters with some unique twists. You don't really get into mechanically fascinating fights until Lightning Returns which plays on not only the time you fight them

Spoiler: Pro Tip

(fighting them earlier in the 13 days means they will be weaker versus if you fight them later and... pro tip: It is absolutely possible to complete the main quest of the game by the end of Day 2 (minus the actual "end game content" of course) on a New Game+ if you do everything exactly right. I know. I've done it.)

but also each boss is a story relevant character utilizing unique attack strategies and the fights are filled with emotion. The sole exception being the Dead Dunes boss who is... kinda boring.

Action games haven't really impressed me with their boss fights lately at all, except for, as you mention Metal Gear Rising which has some truly fucking phenomenal boss encounters.

The most fun I've had with boss fights in recent memory? Final Fantasy XIV. It defies the MMO grindiness that makes up, to be fair, a considerable chunk of the game and delivers unique boss fights that have incredibly interesting mechanics. While this makes some boss fights blood-pissingly frustrating (Good King Moogle Mog Extreme...) when you don't have a party that knows the fight, it makes most a joy to fight, particularly the story bosses.

 

[Cthulhu]

I think the GoW bossfights (usually the first one though) are badass and probably the best in any game I've played to date, but, personal opinion.

A lot of the linear games have some kinda mechanic that only applies to bossfights though - think quick-time events, rocket launchers only usable there, etc. Halo was a bit disappointing in that respect because the finale there is driving around instead of shooting (like what you do in the rest of the game).

The FF games' bosses are neat because they're often a real challenge but use the same mechanics as the other wossnames. Although a lot of them are more visually impressive than good combat, if that makes any sense.

Finally, FTL's final boss is a bitch.

 

[Claymore]

Finally, FTL's final boss is a bitch.

It is indeed.

But the pure ecstatic joy at finally beating the bastard reduces me to tears that I haven't experienced since the old gaming days of having to beat a game in a single run.

So ... good in a way? Lol.

 

[Geostigma]

The Souls Series (And Bloodborne) are in my opinion the gold standard for Boss fights these days. From Software really sets the standard for both matching the tone of the experience as well as the difficulty curve. For instance Ornstein and Smough in Dark Souls took me around 40 attempts to beat on the first play through

Spoilers but check out Gaping Dragons intro for setting the tone of a fight

or Sifs

spoiler for the final vanilla fight of Bloodborne but it illustrates how intense and difficult the boss fights are in the series.

Spoiler

 

[Channy]

I agree with the Souls series. I remember when FF boss battles were tough - required strategy, abilities, speed... then after a point it just became a labour of hatred because bosses had a bajillion HP and you just had to take them down tick by tick. Not exactly hard, just exhausting.

 

[Tetsujin]

The Bayonetta games and MGR had the most intense boss fights I had experienced in years. Challenging as well as pure eyecandy spectacle.

Outside of that...I dunno. There hasn't been much that impressed me to be honest.

 

[Starling]

That description very much reminds me of the KH secret boss fights. Sure some are a fun if long challenge but others are straight up unfair.

 

[Lex]

The Bayonetta games and MGR had the most intense boss fights I had experienced in years. Challenging as well as pure eyecandy spectacle.

Outside of that...I dunno. There hasn't been much that impressed me to be honest.

+1 on Bayonetta, I'd forgotten about how nuts the boss fights were in that game (I've only played the first obviously).

I have to disagree with the thread as a whole though. If I think about FF games generally, Lightning Returns for example has (or can have) a very challenging final boss, even if you do everything to level up beforehand (and I think it's totally epic, but that part is opinion).

+1 on XIV having some of the best boss fights I've ever experienced.

 

[JechtShotMK9]

I had the time of my life beating the Data Organization members in Critical Mode on KH2FM+. Spent an entire night beating them all. It was great.

As far as recent games go, my all-time second favorite boss fight (first being Omega from Mega Man Zero 3, because I am the King of Mega Man) would be Grigori from Dragon's Dogma. Damn, that fight was fun. Very "Shadow of the Colossus meets God of War."

 

[Geostigma]

The Bayonetta games and MGR had the most intense boss fights I had experienced in years. Challenging as well as pure eyecandy spectacle.

Outside of that...I dunno. There hasn't been much that impressed me to be honest.

+1 on Bayonetta, I'd forgotten about how nuts the boss fights were in that game (I've only played the first obviously).

I have to disagree with the thread as a whole though. If I think about FF games generally, Lightning Returns for example has (or can have) a very challenging final boss, even if you do everything to level up beforehand (and I think it's totally epic, but that part is opinion).

+1 on XIV having some of the best boss fights I've ever experienced.

I fuckin loved Shivas theme and how it was paced to go with her rotation in FF14.

It got my music boner going so hard when she ulted and the theme changed. God i miss that game sometimes.
Here's a slightly smaller video if anyone wants to hear it. It's a great song easily top 3 in the entire game

 

[Lex]

That dragoon is fucking terrible. Like I read the comments and they said they purposefully slowed DPS to get the right length of vid, but that's no reason not to use the proper rotation, DoT's and macro every fucking thing (latency causes dps loss using macros) jfc I can't believe how bad they are.

 

[Clement Rage]

'Challenging' isn't the only element to 'good', though. Bayonetta's bosses bored me, even though I had to lower the difficulty setting to finish the game, she didn't care about most of them, they were just big monsters in her way.