Board 8 > Most Frustrating Boss Type *Spoilers*

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I have been replaying Yakuza 7, and I got to a boss whose entire gimmick is "counter every attack, by every attacker". Nothing fancy, but it got me thinking about making this topic.

Every game is different, and every playstyle is different, but what kind of bosses just cause utter dread or annoyance? I think it is different for everyone, but I know I can usually respect "press x to smack, press x to smack harder" The final bosses of FF3-4 for instance just try to murder your shit. But then you have your wonky types that do all sorts of different things

Just wanted to know everyone's most dreaded boss type. Feel free to give examples. Also, most favorite boss to face can also be discussed.

Now, back to getting my face smashed for sneezing in a boss's general vicinity....

Status effect, followed closely by high defense.

High offense is least-annoying because it's the easiest to deal with by simply "gitting gud."

immune to damage for a while before you can finally attack it once, repeat

Note: I gave "defensive" and "status/buff/debuff" their own categories. They kinda fit the same mode of cutting or increasing damage, but felt they were distinct enough categories. One boss can purely fuck with you with status effects, while another just soaks damage like a sponge . That's kinda my definition here.

Also, fuck those bosses that heal themselves. Just unfair.

WarThaNemesis2 posted...

immune to damage for a while before you can finally attack it once, repeat

Oh God...That kind of defense. Even worse than the healers sometimes

Only damageable after a specific move with no set times to use that move. Can lead to incredibly long and drawn out boss fights for absolutely no reason.

WarThaNemesis2 posted...

immune to damage for a while before you can finally attack it once, repeat

This. Bosses that are mostly just waiting. Like Pyribbit from Kirby or Sonic/Shadow's fights against Iblis in Sonic 06

Status effect bosses suck but can usually be prepared for at least partially with accessories and such.

Minion bosses are just always annoying with no way to get around it.

HM to bosses that are immune to damage while they have minions in the battle area. Especially ones where the minions can get stuck easily.

WarThaNemesis2 posted...

immune to damage for a while before you can finally attack it once, repeat

This

Went for summons/minions. If they double as an attack, such as during the Bad Girl battle in No More Heroes, it's fine, but it's less a focus. Meanwhile, in WoW or FFXIV, you have "these need to die immediately or boss explodes killing us all. These need to die slowly because the boss gets stronger if they die but they will wipe the party if they get this attack off and haha btw your targeting is messed up." Then you have Haru's dad fight in Persona 5 Royal and ughhhh.

If I wanted to play a puzzle game, I'd play a puzzle game.

Spoiler warnings without saying WHAT is a pet peeve of mine, lol.

On topic, I think all these boss types can be great when done well, but the most frustrating is a boss who constantly summons minions that can support them.

Like if the boss summons a healer who heals them, and then if you kill the healer they just resummon them--that shit sucks.

Any boss that heals itself toward the end of the battle. I get that it's a logical move on the boss' part, but it's annoying af when it feels like you're fighting the same battle five times in a row.

DreamEater12 posted...

Only damageable after a specific move with no set times to use that move. Can lead to incredibly long and drawn out boss fights for absolutely no reason.

Nearly every Hyrule Warriors giant monster unit but especially Manhandla.

If we're talking JRPGs, which this topic seems to be implying, then status effects. Nothing like trying to find a save before the boss, equip every anti-status effect equipment you have, and then rolling...or not having those items and then dying horribly every single time.

Summon minions, but specifically the kind where it's perpetual instead of at certain phases/starting out with them but gone for good once killed.

Minion bosses are the worst

Not just because they're frustrating, but they also often feel lazy. If I'm fighting a boss, I want to fight the actual boss, not a bunch of waves of smaller enemies I've already been dealing with for hours

And there's nothing worse than being close to landing the killing blow on a boss only to get the last bit of your health chipped away by some nondescript grunt offscreen

The ones with so much HP that it takes 30+ minutes regardless of your setup

I remembered two lesser seen strategies.

1. "kill in a time limit." (Odin/Plague/Walls)

2. "Kill at the same time, or they revive next turn" (FUCK YOU FF5!)

Strife2 posted...

I remembered two lesser seen strategies.

1. "kill in a time limit." (Odin/Plague/Walls)

2. "Kill at the same time, or they revive next turn" (FUCK YOU FF5!)

And mixing those together you get a certain Persona 5 fight that was already mentioned

Status effect bosses and minion bosses are either equally bad or right on the heels of one another depending on how it goes. Minion bosses are probably worse since as far as status effect bosses go, there's usually ways to prepare and prevent some of the statuses.

Let me mention a specific Wild Arms 2 boss, Vagesta, named for an iconic GFAQS user. It uses a move to evade all damage almost every turn, which also keeps you from building any of the force meter you might use to take some kind of countermeasures. Force meter is gained by taking damage or hitting an enemy. It also uses a status effect move, which doesn't give you any force meter, and can heal itself once per fight. It is specifically designed to be a waste of time. Not a threat, just a waste of time.

Voted for minion bosses, especially the ones where the boss is immune while they have minions up. It's annoying to keep killing minions so you can poke the boss a few times instead of just being able to attack the boss.

Bosses that switch half way through from skill based to *follow the fixed button prompt on the screen*, where the player suffers a ton of damage when failed, or the boss somehow automatically resets a chunk of it's health. Annoying.

I prefer a straight boss battle from beginning to end.

FFX bonus bosses.

Especially if they take hours to deal with even after fully grinding your character and equipment.

I voted Minions but it may be recency bias from Rogue Legacy 2 Tubal sucks. And that boss makes the minions untargetable for 10 seconds after they spawn so you just have to spend 10 seconds dodging them

In general though I'm very good at dodging a single enemy with clear attack patterns, and very bad at dodging lots of small enemies/projectiles moving around at random.

Honestly my answer has nothing to do with the mechanics of the fight: the worst are bosses you can't save right before, or ones with a long unskippable cutscene before the actual fight starts.

Failing that, bosses that become arbitrarily invincible for parts of the fight are the worst, but that's more in action games than RPGs.

Kenri posted...

ones with a long unskippable cutscene before the actual fight starts.

It is I, ANSEM, the seeker of darkness

I voted for summoners in the poll, but had I read the thread before hand, I absolutely would have said 'Other' because timed boss fights suck, including "kill in X turns to get <cool reward>" and variants.

If we're talking outside JRPGs, anything that's a DPS check. I like to fight defensively.

Bosses that enforce a time limit because they're busy

I, too, hate that one Persona 5 Royal fight.

Strife2 posted...

Kill at the same time, or they revive next turn

probably this

but also ones where you just have to wait around before anything matters. F/GO has a lot of fights that you either just have to survive a few turns and then the fight's over, or wait a few turns for some sort of gimmick counter to kick in, and it's just kinda a waste of time until then.

Bosses with a boring/tedious phase 1 and a significant difficulty spike for phase 2

Middle management

Since I mostly play FGO lately, I gotta go with the defensive ones. Though status effects are much more annoying elsewhere, especially if you didn't know about it beforehand.

I mean, it really depends on the severity of things. A defensive-based boss can be great if you're doing more than 1 damage a hit. An offensive-based boss is legitimately terrible if it can one-shot everyone in your party, often due to bad game design (see: Gattuso in Vesperia).

Things I hate:

• Bosses that require grinding because of poorly-implemented level scaling
• Non-final, non-secret bosses that take way too damn long for any reason
• Timed fights
• Excessive status conditions
• Impenetrable defenses
• Boss fights with drop items which aren't guaranteed
• Minion summoners that don't know when to quit
• That one Persona 5 Royal fight that keeps getting mentioned, which qualifies for several of these

ChaosTonyV4 posted...

Spoiler warnings without saying WHAT is a pet peeve of mine, lol.

May I ask what this was in reference to? Isquen specified what it was to.

Sounds like we're talking about traditional party based rpgs, not something actiony like elden ring

It's hard to complain about jrpg style bosses. But I can think of one thing

I guess I'd complain about what I'll call "guess and check" bosses.

That is, bosses that will instantly kill you if you don't do something specific in response to a vague prompt. Bonus points if the ability isn't seen until 75% of the way through a 20+ minute battle. Seeing a vague prompt like that just makes me want to pause the game, go to gamefaqs/youtube and look up what to do

I'd also complain about rng bosses, but I don't think I've ever actually faced a boss that was rng, just one that was rng for my low level or poor strategy

My experience is JRPGs, but I didn't have to have it limited to that if someone has an other example that fits this discussion. That said, the hate for the Okumura fight in Persona 5 is hilarious, since their dungeon is also the worst.

Fuck the status boss fights

BlueCrystalTear posted...

May I ask what this was in reference to? Isquen specified what it was to.

the topic?