Your Say: Boss Characters

[BigDave2007]

hi Everyone here's a chance to get your soap boxes out and have a rant

i'm currently in the middle of a MSc Dissertation, for which i'm looking at the role of the boss characters in games, as part of this i'm looking at character design, implimentation, perception, gameplay and lots of other fun areas.

what i'd like to know from those of you out there is:



whats your favourite game boss and why?

What's your least favourtie game boss and why?

what makes a boss memorable?

thanks for your help guys. hope this sparks some discussion?

regards
Dave

[BiroBoy]

First things first, get someone to move this post to the 3D-Palace Chat forum, you will have a lot more replies in there than you will in the newbie section.

Favourite Game Boss - this is a tough one as generally I play a lot of straegy games where a big boss doesn't really mean a lot, but of the ones I have played it would have to be Berial (I think that was his name) from Devil May cry 4.



Reason being is that it has a very cool entrance which made him very memorable.

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Worst Game Boss - Emporor Percival of the Cragmites from Ratchet & Clank on the PS3, a bit of a let down this one, great build up all the way through the game to have a match at the end which was so predictable that it took about 30 seconds to do, a bit like the olden days when you know which move is coming each time so can counter before he has even done it.

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What makes a boss memorable - Well just watch any of the Devil May cry games, they have great entrances with a bit of Dialogue, normally a great sense of scale which make you look small.
And a decent AI which doesn't make it too predictable of what they are going to do next. When I beat a big boss I like to think I havce achieved something, in the case of the 2 I have mentioned above I would say fighting a 100ft flaming demon was the more memorable


Hope this helps

[texasbob]

from the topic header I thought you were asking what character the boss is like, which in my case would be Darth Vader. he looms over the office, the workers pray he doesn't cast his evil stare their way , then the words you dread to hear .." the emperor is most displeased with your lack of progress " then the awful choking, gurgling sound as a coworker pays the price for his lack of vigilance. You do not dare to look up, heart beating fast you sense when the boss goes past, relieved that this time you did not incur his wrath. You feel for your co-worker but better him than you ... until the next time the evil boss stalks through the office.

I like the one BiroBoy shows.

['lectric eye]

A lot of modern games (mainly first person shooters) maintain a lot of realism all the way through the game, then when you get to the boss it all goes out the window as he absorbs bullet after bullet. This is something that really irritates me, as most of the time the game rewards your skill in getting a headshot but then the rules change once you get to the boss and you have to defeat him in a certain way. Anyone else find this?

[olblue]

The build up is the most important part for a boss - theres no point dumping a boss randomly in the middle of an encounter as there is no psychological build up or excitement ready - same goes with knowing there is a boss at the end of a level - unless you are virtually crapping in your pants at the prospect its not really a boss.

Good example of a simple and effective boss was the Constrictor in Elite for the C64 (olde skool). When you reached the level of, I think, dangerous - you would get a simple message asking you to hunt down a stolen navy spaceship. Locating that ship first took round about another 2 weeks of play as - though it didnt say it, you were having to get a new level (deadly) before the actual encounter would take place - you never knew at the point before that though (as it didnt tell you) if you were going to fly into the boss at any time - all you knew was that you were following its trail, you had to have the best weapons you could afford and you were probably going to die at any time.

Hell, it didnt even give good loot however its one of those bosses that stands out and stood the test of time.

The graphics? It was a 12 polygon spaceship, wireframe, no textures.

[olblue]

regarding taking the boss down in a headshot though I think the issue is that you would feel the game cheapened your experience if all you had to do was line up one straight sight on the head - call it the Lethal Weapon syndrome - Riggs can kick the shit out of everyone he meets in about 1 second until he meets the blonde guy. Its because if he just killed him in one head shot without even getting his shoes dirty it would have lost one of the awesome fight scenes of the 80s.

Boss fights should be epic - bosses are experienced so that they can take masses more damage because a skilled fighter would roll with the punches, have better endurance...etc...etc.

Real life scenario;

Boss fight in FFX - huge guy with sword

Yuna launches a weak fire attack.
Enemy : "AAAAAaaa oh god aaaa oh help aaaaaa the pain help me, oh god please kill me.... aaaaa"

Fight lasts about 1 second.

[Saiya-jin]

My favorite game boss would have to be the flying dragon thing from "Shadow of the Collosus"

Here's a video,

YouTube - Shadow of the Colossus speedrun...

The reason is because of the fact that I had to shoot it down, then chase after it, train-robbing style, then fly around on it's back till I stabbed it enough.
The fact is that all of the bosses in that game rock. I loved fighting everyone of them.

The least favorite boss was from "Marvel Nemesis". He cheated and I just wanted to be done with the game. In fact, the whole AI cheated. The boss just took the cake.

Before I answer the last part, let me say that I really like the way Metal Gear bosses are done as well. They would take the cake if Shadow of the Collosus wasn't such a good game. That's because of the style that Biro Boi and Ol' Blue mentioned.

Now, what makes a boss memorable is the difficult balance of challenging and accomplishable. The drama set up is always a must, but the satisfaction of stabbing that giant in the head, following him down 20 feet to the ground, and rolling away is something so visceral and out of this world.

Man, am I a geek!! God almighty.

Good luck Dave. I hope this helps

['lectric eye]

That Shadow of the Collossus boss looks great. What I meant above was that bosses in realistic games leave you feeling a bit cheated when they inexplicably take insane amounts of damage (Hitler in a mech suit etc not included). Some games do solve this problem in really cool ways though - When you fight Grey Fox, the cyborg ninja in Metal Gear Solid, if you try and shoot at him he deflects your bullets back with his sword. This way, the game forces you to change the way you play, making the boss fight seem like a fresh new challenge plus it keeps the boss fight within the same realistic rules you've been playing by.

I understand what Olblue's saying regarding the FFX boss fight - It makes sense in the RPG's world. Maybe that's something you could address in your dissertation BigDave, the way a game's genre affects the boss fights.

Also OlBlue, there was a good documentary on Channel 5 last night about Elite, an episode of 'Brits Who Made the Modern World'. You might want to track it down if you missed it. Sorry for going off topic there

[olblue]

God damnit, I would have liked to see that.