GOING IN BLIND AND PREPARING FOR COMBAT

"Firagajagajada"
That's amusing :3

Part of me likes getting a gameover, AS LONG as the boss doesn't seem impossible. I've had this issue in SSP where a
boss will easily wipe out my party unless I do X Y and Z on the first few turns. (I still love this game ^o^;)
I believe there are four good ways to make a hard boss or chain of bosses, without making them complete assholes.

1. In-combat bestiary, that somewhat explains the bosses' attack patterns, and weaknesses.

2. Give the boss breathing room, and make the beginning part of the fight somewhat easy. Don't allow the boss to use Firagajagajada until the player had enough time to setup decent defense buffs.

3. Fix the freakin' F12 button, and allow the player to skip before-boss cutscenes- FOR THE LOVE OF... X-P

4. After every hard boss, have an easy mode boss. This makes the player feel like a badass- which equates to more fun.

--
I love hard games, but I don't like the game throwing bosses that seem impossible on my first attempt. It's a little
too disheartening for your audience.
Especially if your game doesn't have a difficulty setting.
(kinda funny this pop up. I've been thinking about this a lot after beating SSP.)

I usually reserve dungeon gimmicks and hints for some nearby villagers to explain. A lot of customization comes from choosing your own gear and abilities, but going in with a strategy beyond resistant gear is usually a must for boss fights.

author=Feldschlacht IV
Bosses should be designed to be able to be beaten without most optional equipment that makes life easier. Yes, fireproof armor makes fighting the dragon easier, but not having it still allows the player to win, but different strategies must be used (ex. the lack of flame protection means that more turns must be spent healing than attacking, so on). That reduces the 'roadblock' effect of not knowing what you have to equip beforehand. Although it is definitely possible to warn the player beforehand or give hints. Some games let you change equipment on the fly.

And if you die, you die. If people can't handle the concept of losing in a game I mean what else do you want the game to do suck your dick?

author=Large
My opinion is that the old paradigm of "Gear resistance" is too tiring, and overused. Why would you have to reload a game?

What if, for instance, your party/character is not exactly the killing machine or the huge pool of hitpoints tank, or the swift healer, but a balanced combination? Not someone who can dish massive amounts of damage while outhealing any damage done to him, but someone who can defend and attack, finding some sort of middle ground. There wouldn't be any need to reload/warn the player before hand.

Now, those concepts are actually difficult to convey/put down in a game

They're difficult to put down in a game because they're awkward/boring/too simple. Those same tired concepts are done because generally they work. Not to say that innovation can't be tried, but with all innovation, its a dangerous game that might work or not work. Something isn't better just because it's new. Keep that in mind.

New things are some times worse in some cases :P
Example some of the older rpg makers (2k example) have unlimited tile sets to use while something slightly newer such as Rpg maker VX has a max of 5 unless you do something overly complicated to use more.
So yup your right about newer not always being better.

I don't think I've ever voluntarily reset a game because I had the wrong set-up for a battle. I tried my best to plow through, get a read on what the boss did just in case I'd need to redo it, then just try to beat the crap out of it.

Do you know how many times it took me to defeat Ozma or Emerald Weapon? A hell of a lot. Did I feel accomplished afterwards? Hell yes, I did. Why? Because I found my own way of dealing with them through trial and error and I freaking won.

Boss fights are the games way of telling you that the next part will be harder than the last. They're like end of year tests - you're about to go up a grade and they want to see if you remember what you learned so far as well as prepare you for harder times ahead. Nerfing them is just silly. Besides, there's nothing like a good challenge to keep the heart pumping~

Why didn't the player equip the asbestos underwear? There's an opportunity cost in play with equipment to consider. Something else is in that equipment slot: What is it and why would the player put it there? There should be an intentional design that guides the player towards the asbestos undies. Like the OP said setting is one. Another way is the enemies you fight. The boss can have Fire*1000 but the Salamanders you fight early on only have Fire*10 and the Molten Golems you fight later have Fire*100. Over the course of the dungeon the player should, ideally, come to realize they have suboptimal equipment and replace those Radical Shades with the Asbestos Undies. It's similar to status effects but instead of Fire*x reduce the number of targets it hits or supplemental actions enemies can take. A Dream Eater can put you to sleep but his damaging attack does little for example but the boss won't be so kind. Effective use of palette swap enemies can do the same. The player may not know what a green hydra does the first time he fights one but learns the basis of how they act through experience. Then three dungeons later when red hydras show up the player can assume they'll act similar but expand on how their green family members act.

Give the player patterns. Brains looks for patterns all the damn time. Trust that the player will figure it out.


also let the player retry a battle they lost and give them menu access between attempts tia

author=GreatRedSpirit
also let the player retry a battle they lost and give them menu access between attempts tia

Pfft. My 'giving them a retry' is a save point/prompt before the battle. You lose, you try again. Simple, effective.

I'm sorry, I'm not nice. I'm sick of the newer games that let you try something over and over and over and not die just because 'dying is bad'. It's wimp behaviour. You die, you try again. They say they're trying to be more realistic but take out death as a consequence? Consequences of taking on that fifty-headed hydra unprepared is death. There are no second chances here, sunshine.

If Mario taught me anything it's that people will replay if the game is addicting enough, even if they end up dying and having to go back to the last 'saved' spot. Making things easier is just another way of saying 'not good enough to make people want to play over again'.

Re-playability. That's what it's all about. You don't want to make the game so hard that people can't pass, sure, but you don't want them to never pick it up again because there was no challenge. Show of hands. How many people have replayed games like Tetris, Mario, Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy 1-10? How many have replayed newer RPGs? Which ones, when you first played through, did you die on during bosses, without resetting or taking the wimps way out?

Bosses shouldn't surprise you TOO badly, because hopefully the normal battles that come before them should be preparing you for what the boss does. If the boss uses temporary invulnerability, area ice damage, and paralysis, there should almost certainly be a battle in the dungeon that uses temporary invulnerability, another battle that uses single-target ice damage, and another battle that paralyzes one of your characters (but doesn't have enough MP to do more than one). This will train the player to deal with these issues, in an environment where planning for them helps but isn't necessary. And then the boss will test the player by using all three at once, in a more deadly manner, so that if the player didn't gain the skills and knowledge he was supposed to, he will fail.

Now, if some of the normal battles are tough enough that you can't survive them without preparation, then hopefully there have been easier ones beforehand to prepare you, or at least other clues to prepare you. Like, hey, we're entering an active volcano, and this chest just contained the Flame Armor. Maybe I should wear my fire-resistant gear and spend my next 500 AP to learn my mage's fire-immune buff spell. (This is depending on the player to be genre-savvy. How good of an idea this is depends on your target playerbase.)