Current Events > Hot Take: Boss battles are a bad video game mechanic.

(+) Yeah! (+)

They aren't a "bad" mechanic but they are overused. I think there are a lot of mechanics in games that are kind of questionable but we just roll with them because they were established conventions when games started to get consistently really good in the 80s/90s. Some of them are going away, like lives/game overs.

I don't know what a better alternative would be but I think there are a lot of boss fights in some games just because it's the thing to do. You need some kind of feeling of accomplishment, maybe a "boss" puzzle instead? Idk. I think a game can feel perfectly accomplishing without them though. Banjo-Kazooie to Tooie is a good example of when they added boss fights to something that was structurally fine without them

CoorsLight posted...

I don't know what a better alternative would be but I think there are a lot of boss fights in some games just because it's the thing to do.

This. It's an easy to do standard convention. Levels over? Time for a big dude with a minigun for you to unload into. It's possible to do well but most devs just put in damage sponges or monsters with glowing weak points with three attack patterns because it's what you do. Bosses aren't as popular as a mechanic as they used to be so people don't tend to put a lot of effort into advancing ideas.

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lilORANG posted...

Souls without bosses would be a far superior game

How?

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ManaYuka posted...

I was just pointing out some games I like the bosses, some games I dislike them. I was not advocating to get rid of bosses like the TC.

Ah. Alright.

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Hot take? More like shit take. Like any other game mechanic, it has to be appropriately implemented. But the mechanic itself isnt shit.

steveoSEK posted...

Didn't like peace walker, eh? It's definitely an odd game, like hideo Kojima decided to mix monster hunter and mgs. Some of those huge boss fights were infuriating, particularly peace walker itself.

The issue with PW bosses is that they are designed for a squad of 4 people in multiplayer. In single player they are bullet sponges and not particularly fun.