LIGHTNINGLORD2'S PROFILE

This type of game can work if you put in enough effort in designing and planning it out. And finish it, of course.

For the multi-turn bosses, it is not generally a bad/good idea - it depends on how that is implemented. Other ways to make boss fights more interesting is well thought-out patterns, Skills that do more than one thing, Boss minions, making the boss gain more turns by a very high speed stat and possibly many more.

I left it to spellcasters because the physical attackers never get a chance to use element attacks outside of special equipment.

I think that there are a lot of ways to make the element system interesting, and there should be some kind of other mechanic besides damage multiplier.

Cooldowns can extend even as far as that they take entire turns from you - for instance, the Eater of Days in Magic: the Gathering forces you to skip your next two turns when you play him - which is balanced out by him being a very powerful creature.

I usually pick over-the-top examples to explain such things to make the point more clear. Most bosses won't go that far (but some do), but it's the basic idea. Another idea is bosses with a speed stat so high that they'll (almost) always go first - what I'm trying to say is that there are more ways than one to make a boss interesting. The touch encounters in DQIX are fine when they're not blocking - I'm saying the concept isn't generally superior to random encounters (the 11th Floor in Etrian Odyssey would be the best example how it's the most frustrating - they still move while you battle, and they can join the battle - meaning that there's an infinite stream of boss-like enemies until you lose).

I like the concept of limited level-scaling, but I dislike the downward scaling somewhat - it defeats my intent to stay at a low level (I try to beat bosses if I encounter them on a low level, and nine times out of ten, I succeed).