HOW TOLERANT ARE YOU TO LEGITIMATELY DIFFICULT BOSSES?

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You know, I finished both DDS 1 and 2 - but I still hate the fact that I have to restart my game everytime I encounter a new boss and realised that I didn't have the correct weakness equipped for that one fight (you have 6(?) elements to choose from, and only one is correct most of the time whoope). Especially after a long FMV.

There are seven. I don't see why you don't just put each party member on their weakness, though, like teaching Serph fire mantras.. That's all that's really necessary. And maybe Void Death/Void Expel.

Not too tolerant... I hate to admit it, but it's true, I'm kind of a wimp in terms of game difficulty.

Now, I don't like it when a game pretends to have a strategic fight, but they just wave the answer right in your face, like "Hey idiot! See that big glowing spot on the Invincible Enemy? Attack there, dummy!"

Having legitimately difficult fights can be really fun. But I prefer the really difficult fights, the ones that require 4+ tries or a quick trip to GameFAQs, to happen only in optional parts of the game, giving you really powerful rewards in return. Having a lot of high-difficulty boss fights that require detailed, specific planning and strategizing, beyond the mere suggestion of "use the spell that takes out the most hit points," spread all over the main story just isn't fun for me.

I'll be the first to admit it, I'm not an elite Power Gamer. I'm not in the XBox Live "Pro" category, and I stopped playing with power... Nintendo power around the 100th issue or so. Soo... for example, I bought Shin Megami Tensai: DS, played for about five hours... then stopped. It's just not my cup of tea. Same story with Etrian Odyssey and most of the DQs. But more power to the more strategic or persevering gamers who can play through this stuff and knock the crap out of these games. Rest assured, I will be watching your Let's Play videos on YouTube.

Station: You can make self-healing bosses work (Diablocide), but it's lame when it's a boss like FF1's Chaos that is just like WELL OKAY YOU JUST DID NOTHING. I guess it's a half-decent gimmick, but it undermines the player. The only "strategy" it adds is USE MORE NUKES LESS TACT

I hated that boss in one of the Xenosagas that, once you beat him, pulled a LOL YOU THINK THIS IS OVER HAHAHAHA and rejuvinated :( Controller met the tv screen at that point. Idk why I was even playing it in the first place.

So yeah, not very tolerant at all :(

Also, he had a full heal he could use at will.

Station
I expect them. However, please refrain from self healing bosses.

Omega!
/


I remember some boss (damned if I remember the game) where halfway through he'd start regenerating health to the point that I could barely damage him on tuns when I could afford to keep the guns blazing. I totally loved* that fight, wasting all that progress on a boss that pretty much turned invincible halfway through

*

To compliment Booseter Seat's post, make sure that you capitalize on any systems you add onto the game. If you have a toilet malfunction script, make sure that it's used - maybe make a boss that makes characters wet their pants if they don't urinate before the fear attack.

In Arian Wild, I'm mixing things up - Diablocide was good, but those bosses were built around having fourteen heroes available to die on a whim. One of the core boss/mini-boss/Elite Mook mechanics is Hate attacks. Basically, your Threat bar tells you the chance that an enemy will target that character for a basic/special/artifact attack. Each enemy also has Hate, an invisible counter that builds as a character repeatedly attacks a target (or more rapidly/slowly with certain status effects and skills). Every few turns, the enemy will unleash a Hate attack on the target that has developed the most Hate. These are ZOMG FKKKKKK U moves that make you make sure you balance support and minion/boss attack choices (note that many boss battles are going to have some sort of minion(s) present so that the prissy mageboi doesn't die immediately if you don't have a Hate-manipulating party).

Some people would say that this mechanic is far too unbalanced (Hate attacks are meant to be the equivalent of 250% normal damage, whether though status effects, damage, or whatever). My defense is that the entire game is built around Threat/Hate manipulation (Threat moreso, but still). Hate attacks were something that Karsu and I decided to include very early in Arian Wild's production, which brings me to my next point of capitalizing on systems:

To make legitimately hard bosses that don't seem ridiculous/hard to understand/whatever, you need to decide upon your systems/mechanics/etc. early on in development. As Booseter Seat said, it's more fun to fight bosses that use/require a certain type of mechanic to defeat... but in addendum, you have to make sure that this isn't a Giant Space Mechanic From Nowhere. Let's look at an infamous commercial example!

The Dark Elf's cave in Final Fantasy 4 paralyzes characters that have metal equipment. While you can use metal equipment during the boss battle itself iirc, this still applies because it's a serious power decrease for your party - but it's not a sudden, random effect. This "rule-changing" gimmick is basically metagaming, and it works because you know about it. Let's pretend that no NPCs mention the metal thing, and the characters don't talk about it. Ew.

IN SUMMARY:
THINK BEFORE YOU MAKE GAMES PLZKTHNX

(also, somebody talk about SH2's sanity points and wheel of critical hitz/shopping please)

Was that the boss in the mountain range on the starting island? If so, saknflsangkldfsanglksfdnjklndshlndlsfhnlkdsfnh;sdfh

btw I beat that game on my first try! As in, I did the four-hour final dungeon/penultimate bosses/final boss stuff where you can't save on my first try. I might have purchased the shiny strategy guide.

Oh, right. I remember now.

Some of the best boss fights I have ever encountered have been from Legend of Legaia and the Grandia games. These bosses can really turn things around, and yet are never TOO overbearing. And often times, grinding does not make it any better!