DWSAGE007'S PROFILE

Got my creative juices flowin'. Gibco Productions has its hat in the ring!

Mmm...suppose I should get started on something as well. I'll probably start with a few one-hour shorts, just to get back into the handle of things...then get to work on an actual project or three.

Gave it a shot, simply made a quick shop. I started with three tables, and when I got to the last one I was going "...I've used -everything.-" So...fire. Everything's better with fire. Tried to go for a blacksmith look...

But agreed. This still isn't the best of tilesets-some parts of it in particular annoyed me, like the chair and table being together, making it impossible to simply layer the table over a person while keeping the chair separate.

I feel Tau did a better job than me in almost every respect, though. Especially since the bottom half of my shop is rather bland.

Getting back on topic...hm. There's several instances of good boss bottles I can think of, followed by -great- boss battles. (There's countless mediocre ones, and even a few bad/infuriating ones I can name, but that's another matter.)

So what makes a good one? In my opinion...

Emotional Investment:For those that played the first Grandia, tell me you didn't get a little grin on your face when you fought Mullen and got to smack his pretty little face a couple of times. Tell me you didn't get a tear in your eye when Laharl flew into a rage against the Seraph in Disgaea, or got a feeling of regret fighting Dhaos in Tales of Phantasia. (A good soundtrack can help with this even more, of course.) A fight that you've been looking forward to, whether it be between longtime rivals, a total scumbag of a villain, or just a highly skilled opponent...can be the difference between a forgettable fight and a memorable one.

Strategy vs. Attack, Heal, Rinse, Repeat:Chrono Trigger did this best, I think-a variety of bosses in it required you do more than simply attack again and again, instead using your noggin and figuring out attack patterns. Magus required you attack physically with Frog while the other party members used the correct element. The Security Bit would use a powerful attack if you didn't get rid of his drones first. And Lavos himself with his little...turnip...things, making you think they were mere support while the guy in the middle was the big boss, throwing you for a loop when you find out his 'support' is actually the main opponent! All of these required more thought than most, which made it all the more satisfying when you defeated him.

Wait, since when does he do that?:A minor note, but an effective one-a villain that changes up their attacks every so often can pack more memorable punch. Angel of Death is at 50% health? Fine, he'll start bringing out the big guns and healing himself. 25%? He's desperate now, using attacks that do massive damage...if they hit.

THAT'S new:A switch on the last one-a boss that can do something out of the ordinary makes him a lot more memorable, simply for that one thing! Bowyer from Super Mario RPG locking your buttons on you? Croc taking your items and using them in the middle of the fight? GoGo's only weakness the art of doing nothing? All of these are good examples. Find yourself a way to screw with the player's normal experience, make it different from a regular fight!

Style:It's all about the style. Sure, beating up the high school geek might be satisfying, especially if he's a villain...but if he ain't got style, it ain't no thang. I hate to beat a particular game into the dirt, but...Chrono Trigger, again. Tell me Magus didn't strike fear into your heart from the start of the fight to the finish.



Boss DON'Ts, on the other hand, are easy to avoid...though it might be worth it to have one or two, just to make the other bosses seem better by comparison. Be sparing with them, though.

Ludicrous survival time:20 turns isn't a bad amount of time to be fighting a boss, especially if he has all the other things mentioned above. 40 turns? That's...a little long. But when it gets to the point that you're taking more than half an hour on one fight, there's something wrong. (Final Boss battles -may- be an exception to this...)

BADBAD USED ELIXER:Usually goes hand in hand with the above-bosses with full restore moves, effectively undoing many turns of combat, prolonging the entire thing...especially if he does it several times over, or when he does it at relatively high HP values.

Hur hur, I too fast!:The villain can do more damage than you can heal, constantly, sometimes having a turn to -each character's- turn. (Shin Megami Tensei:Nocturne, I'm looking at you...) If they're already kicking you around like a football, they don't really need that extra speed boost...

Ha! Using up all your remedies accomplishes nothing!:Final boss battle of Final Fantasy IX. He couldn't really -hurt- me, per se...but when he managed to cause 15 different status effects to every character, every other turn-in other words, right when I'd recovered from the last use-it got...annoying. If it'd been used more sparingly, it would've merely been a good tactic. Using it so often made it simply cheap.

Speaking of cheap...:Right, back when I mentioned the Angel of Death using amazing attacks at 25% health? Well, combined with High Survivability, having an opponent use an attack that can one-hit KO a character, and being able to use it multiple times before you can respond, can kill the experience. (Especially if you have to go all the way back through a ten-minute cutscene just to start the fight again.)

I'd always been partial to Earthbound's 'homesick' status effect, really...I mean, while I think it's a little extreme that you'd be jonesin' for momma's cooking so badly that you ignore the rabid wolf chewing on your arm like a squeaky toy, it introduces a facet of reality into the game-you miss your family even though you're saving the world. How about a call home?

But enough of that. How to explain Status effects without going through text books? Hm...

1)Talk to NPCs that got afflicted with it in real life. "Man, that FLU makes it tough to get around the house...you can't move three feet without feeling like someone's stabbing a knife through your chest." = Damage every round.

2)Have it explained by your friendly neighborhood doctor. Goes quite well if you're using the 'disease instead of status effect' method.

3)Simply introduce the status effects as minor plot points. "Oh snap, someone poisoned that Mimic's teeth! The rogue's already Golemized-he's gonna take -forever- to hand us that cursed artrifact of the Nile now! Everyone get ready for a long fight..."

4)Don't. Just make the status effects obvious enough that no one can really mistake them for something else. Armor Break cuts defense, Blind reduces accuracy, Haste increases character speed...while the Final Fantasy naming theorem isn't the most impressive, it -is- simple.