One concept of game design almost as old as video games themselves is the boss battle. It's exactly what it sounds like. Throw a super tough enemy at a relatively competent player, and let them fight. But what makes for a "good" boss battle? Well strap in, ladies and gentlemen, because this is the post where I talk about boss battles. A fair warning before we begin. Given the nature of some of the bosses, beware of mild-to-extreme spoilers for the games I use as examples. Oh, and all thoughts shared here are my opinion, so agree to disagree. Or agree in general. I'm not the boss of you. See what I did there? …Let's just move on.
One factor that separates bosses from regular enemies is the spectacle of the fight. Pretty much every boss from The Wonderful 101 (or really, ANY Platinum Game) has tons of style and flair. The first boss of that game, for example, is a giant three-headed cyborg dragon controlled by an 20-foot-tall alien swordsman named Laambo. The fight begins with a aerial chase scene through Blossom City (which is the main setting for the game), trying to shoot down the dragon while dodging its own attacks. After that you climb up on to the dragon's back to fight both it and Laambo in melee range. The whole fight makes liberal use of the Unite Morph ability, which lets the titular superhero team create giant tools and weapons to fight with (guns, whips, hammers, etc.).
The fight ends with a free-fall chase scene as the dragon harasses you with charge attacks. To finish the fight, your team Unite Morphs into a giant hand that steals Laambo's sword, then chops both Laambo AND his dragon in half with a single blow. While still in free fall! This fight is spectacular, over-the-top and just plain fun. And this is just the first boss! From boxing matches with mountain-sized mechs, to duels with space pirates that can mimic your every move, to a final showdown with a sentient planet from the future, the bosses in Wonderful 101 get increasingly absurd. Honestly, if you never played that game, play for the bosses. They're great.
For another series with great boss battles, The Legend of Zelda, developed and published by Nintendo, has literal decades' worth of examples. Most bosses in this series showcase another aspect of boss battle design. Figuring out weaknesses to exploit. Usually the boss will be susceptible to whichever tool Link (the main hero of Legend of Zelda) most recently acquired. There are exceptions, of course. The duels with Ghirahim from Skyward Sword are based around swordsmanship, and how precise and unpredictable you can keep Link's attacks (just swinging your sword willy-nilly will result in Ghirahim countering you).
And of course, bosses in this series usually have a specific part on their body that deals extra damage if struck (in most cases, this is the ONLY way to deal damage). Nine times out of ten the weak spot is an unusually large eye, but exceptions do exist. Ganon can only be damaged in his tail, for example. Usually the weak spot is a bright, distinct color to make it more obvious. But of course, bosses with specific weak spots usually defend themselves pretty well, forcing Link to find a creative way to expose or attack the weak spot. Because of this, weak-spot bosses are kind of like puzzles. Living, breathing puzzles that want to kill you, but puzzles nonetheless.
Some games try to hype up the danger and threat a certain boss creature poses. One of my favorite methods for doing this is having you encounter the boss while you're too weak to fight back properly, forcing you to run and hide until you get stronger. Pretty much any horror game with boss battles does this. Why do I like this trope? Because putting that boss in its place after getting chased around a bunch is really dang satisfying. So what's a good example of this kind of boss? To answer that, let's take a look at a major boss from yet another Nintendo series, Metroid.
In Metroid: Fusion, the legendary bounty hunter Samus Aran (pictured above, on the right) encounters the SA-X, an alien doppelganger that stole all her weapons and armor from the previous Metroid game, Super Metroid. Anyway, the SA-X is encountered multiple times throughout the adventure, and is more than strong enough to take Samus down with just a single shot. Whenever the SA-X shows up. you're given three choices; Run away, hide, or die. That is, until you get the Plasma Beam, the one weapon that can fight back against this monstrosity. Every encounter you have with the SA-X until then is bound to be filled with terror as you try to avoid getting caught out in the open. I should mention that Metroid series as a whole has some great bosses, but the SA-X is probably the most terrifying of the bunch because of how helpless you feel every time you bump into it.
Of course, spectacle and atmosphere don't matter much if the bosses are mechanically underwhelming. The Batman Arkham series, developed by Rocksteady Studios, has a ton of creative bosses that not only have spectacle appropriate for Batman's Rogues Gallery, but most of those bosses also have some unique mechanics that make them stand out. The Scarecrow fight from Arkham Asylum has Batman getting hit with Fear Gas, causing him to hallucinate a freaky nightmare realm. To break free he must sneak past a giant Scarecrow and shine the Bat-Signal's light on him. It's freaky, but incredibly creative. The Killer Croc fight involves Batman sneaking around in a sewer system, trying to make as little noise as possible while laying traps to weaken Killer Croc. A boss fight so intense they reused it in the sequel, this time with a great white shark. The final boss of Arkham City has Batman take down swathes of Clay Face clones using a katana sword. Just the idea of Batman fighting with a katana is hilariously over-the-top that it wraps around to being completely awesome. But speaking of Arkham City bosses...
My favorite boss battle in the whole series is in the second game, Arkham City. I am of course referring to Mr. Freeze. In this fight, Mr. Freeze is too strong to fight directly. So Batman must use every stealth trick and gadget in his arsenal just to make a dent in this guy's armor. Every combat mechanic in the game is put to use here, from backstabs, to explosive mines, to Batarang trick shots. What's more, Mr. Freeze will update his suit to counter whichever method damaged him previously, forcing you to adapt and change your tactics. And any boss that forces the player to adapt and change tactics is, in my eyes, an amazing boss battle. Honestly, as much as I love seeing Batman fight with a samurai sword, Mr. Freeze would make for a great final boss in his own right. At least from a gameplay perspective. From a story perspective, obviously not. Do you really think that they would have a Batman game that doesn't have a final showdown with the Joker?
Some bosses have additional rules to how they work. Usually with the goal of making the boss harder. For example, most of the bosses in Re-Digit's Terraria require you to track down an item to summon them, and some of these items only work at certain hours of the day. The Twins for example can only appear at night, the Eater of Worlds can only appear in the Corruption (the spooky purple area). Some bosses will straight up refuse to spawn until another boss has been defeated, such as how the Machines won't appear at all until you reach Hard Mode. Attempting to fight these bosses without the proper requirements will either prevent the boss from appearing or even make the boss battle harder, like how The Empress of Light gets a one-hit kill move if fought during the day.
Terraria bosses are unique in the sense that their difficulty is almost directly proportional to the amount of preparation you did beforehand. And I'm not just talking about getting better weapons and armor, that rule goes for any game with gear-based progression. No, what I'm talking about is Terraria's building mechanics. You can build some cool looking houses for your NPC villager friends, or works of art to show off to your real life friends. But most importantly, you can build custom arenas that give you a distinct advantage over the boss you're trying to defeat. Common strategies in arena building include setting up pools of healing honey (yes) throughout the arena so you're never too far away from an emergency heal bath, or building a platform so high up certain bosses like King Slime and the Eater of Worlds can't reach you (letting you pelt the boss with ranged attacks). Some people even set up crazy minecart rails that let you literally drive circles around certain bosses. Basically, Terraria allows you to give yourself the homefield advantage with it's building system, and I haven't really seen a game do something like that before.
Then we get to Team Cherry's Hollow Knight, which is (surprise) another example of awesome boss battles. The bosses here are based around finding patterns and openings in your opponents' attacks, and behaving accordingly. The interesting thing about Hollow Knight's bosses is that not only are most of them optional, the game's most challenging bosses (Nightmare King Grimm, the Pure Vessel, Nail Master Sly, etc.) are completely skippable. In fact, the only bosses that are mandatory for progression are Hornet, Uumuu, The Watcher Knights, and the Hollow Knight himself. Additionally, even though some bosses have higher difficulty spikes than others, not a single boss in this game feels unfair or poorly balanced. Which is yet another important aspect of boss battle design. No matter how hard a boss is, it has to feel fair. An unfair, overpowered boss is going to make the player want to quit. A challenging but fairly balanced boss is going to make the player keep going on, because they can tell the fight is winnable, and that victory is just out of reach. And with enough practice, they'll conquer everything the game has to offer.
But of course, no discussion on boss battles is complete without mentioning the Souls Borne series. Otherwise known as From Software's greatest hits album. In this series your character is given the task to hunt down a whole assortment of nightmarish, grotesque monsters. Why? Because you can't have a Dark Fantasy adventure without some eldritch horrors to smack around (or get smacked around by). But that's not the point. The point is, you fight a lot of bosses. And while this series has a reputation for its difficulty, there are ways to make certain bosses easier on yourself. Several bosses throughout the series have a trick you can pull off just before entering the arena that makes the whole ordeal more bearable. For example, the battle against the Lost Sinner from Dark Souls 2 normally has you stumbling blindly in the dark while the Sinner takes potshots at you with her greatsword. But if you have a torch, you can light up a pair of oil lanterns just outside the Lost Sinner's hideout, illuminating the room and removing the Sinner's stealth advantage. Granted, they sometimes go so far with the "here's a neat thing you can do to weaken a boss before fighting it" idea that sometimes a boss is literally invincible until you find that trick *cough cough* Mytha the Baneful Queen. *cough cough* But we're here for GOOD boss battles, and Mytha is just one dud in a franchise of awesome bosses.
Additionally, almost every boss in the series allows you to bring a group of phantoms with you into the boss's lair. These phantoms can be anything from friendly NPCs or even other players' characters, and make the fight easier simply because the boss needs to split its attention evenly between everyone involved. Sometimes the phantoms might be even more powerful than your own character. Especially if that phantom is named Jester Thomas. But anyway, two Souls Borne games in particular have something I adore. Transforming bosses! You see, in Bloodborne and Dark Souls 3 the bosses would transform when their health got low, changing their attacks and boosting their stats. This does make the bosses harder, but there is something distinctly awe inspiring about forcing a big bad evil guy to reveal his true form because he underestimated you. Yes, I acknowledge that Souls Borne didn't invent the concept of transforming bosses, but they handle the idea very well, in my opinion. But most importantly, every boss here has a story to tell. From a giant wolf guarding their master's grave for as long as they live, to a preacher-turned-werewolf hunter too blinded by revenge to realize that he became the very beast he swore to destroy. Almost every boss in Souls Borne is the hero of their own, usually tragic, story. Of course, given the ambiguous, non-linear nature of this series, the lore can be safely ignored if all you want to do is fight horrific abominations while feeling like a superhero.
But that brings us to Capcom's Monster Hunter. In this series the bosses (of which there are many) are wild animals, and your character uses the bones, fur, and scales of defeated Monsters to forge better quality weapons and armor. Why? So you can fight even bigger and stronger monsters, working your way up the monster food chain until you prove you are the greatest Monster Hunter who ever lived. It's a pretty simple concept. That's not the point though. The point is, you often have to fight the same boss repeatedly to get the exact materials you need for your next major project. And an interesting thing occurs when you do this. As you get used to a monster's attacks and combos, you figure out the most efficient way to avoid them. You figure out what body parts to attack first to inflict Breaks, which weaken certain attacks. You figure out that some monsters take more damage from certain elements (Fire, Ice, Lighting, etc.) than others. And before you know it, much like with Hollow Knight's best bosses, you enter a kind of zen state (for lack of a better term), weaving through a Monster's attacks, and striking them down when the opportunity presents itself. It's especially cathartic if that kind of monster has been curb-stomping you until the winning strategy finally clicked. It's a beautiful thing to witness, and that sensation is the reason why Monster Hunter is my favorite video game series of all time. That, and the fact that you get to customize your own kitty cat sidekick. And the awesome music as well. While having awesome music is not necessarily a requirement for a good boss battle, it certainly helps.
So, in conclusion, boss battles can prove to be the highlights of a video game experience. Testing your skills, expanding the story, or guarding valuable treasure. Bosses fulfill all these roles and more. And sometimes, if you are really good at making boss battles, you can build entire games centered around them. So now you know the Art of making a video game boss battle. According to a funny Internet Florida man. On a very subjective topic. But anyway, have a favorite boss battle? Feel free to share it with the rest of the Internet. What could go wrong?
