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[GregWS]

Mega Man Zero 2; awesome boss in the sense that you REALLY wanted to kick his ass at that point, but he was WAY too easy, doubly so given how hard that series is.  So because of that, kicking his ass just wasn't as satisfying as it should have been.  Background: the final boss is this guy who's been acting like a douchbag for most of the game; a highly effeminate purple-wearing Euro/Emo/Blond/Boy/Robot, who has this really douchy aristocrat laugh (which they actually had a sound sample for on the GBA).  In his second form, he turns into this freakish butterfly monster.  :D

[handCraftedRadio]

It's tough to read this thread without having played every single game ever made because I might accidently read something about the end of a game i haven't played yet.

I never really liked any of the ending bosses in the megaman X series, they are usually just simple repeating patterns that take forever and make your thumbs hurt by the end of it. And how many times to you have to fight the same ending boss in the series?

The Zombies Ate My Neighbors boss sucks too. A big floating head, real scary.

[GregWS]

Zero's good like that; 4 different games, 4 different stories/bosses, with a nice enough overarching one that ties all the games together.

Heck, I think it's the only Mega Man series that qualifies as having both a first and last game.

[William Broom]

the final bosses in every jak and daxter game



the games themselves were so fun, but god damn

jak and daxter: FIGHT A GIANT ROBOT ON TOP OF A TOWER. ONLY YOU CAN'T HURT IT AT ALL UNTIL YOU'VE BEEN THERE LONG ENOUGH TO HAVE WHITE ECO

jak 2: GIANT NON-MOVING BUG IN THE MIDDLE OF A ROOM. SNIPE HIM DEAD.

jak 3: DRIVE AROUND AND BRING DOWN A GIANT SHIP. THEN KILL A GIANT ROBOT WHO REFUSES TO MOVE.

I agree with the first two, but Jak 3's boss was off the fucking hook. You do it a disservice by failing to mention that the 'ship' is bigger than the largest enemies of SotC, and that you have to chase it across the entire game overworld.


If you want really anticlimactic bosses, try the Sly series. In every game they've copped out by having you fight the final boss with some sort of gimmicky control scheme: First in a jetpack, second in a terrible on-rails shooter, and third with an entirely different character.

[brog]

Cave Story.

Can't agree with it. The secret boss was one of the most epic boss battles I've played in my whole life. The tension and everything else built by the extra stage was flawless.

Unless you were talking about the normal ending final boss.

Yeah, I meant the normal ending one.  I'm not pro enough to get secret endings.

[i wanna be the guy]

but Jak 3's boss was off the fucking hook. You do it a disservice by failing to mention that the 'ship' is bigger than the largest enemies of SotC, and that you have to chase it across the entire game overworld.

well yeah it was huge, but it felt a little weird to be driving around the world while indirectly fighting the boss

if it was more of a 'shoot the ship itself' thing instead of what we were treated to, i might think a little differently

hell even seeing the boss again might change my opinion, i haven't played it in years

[mewse]

In the modern commercial games industry, most game designs follow the "penultimate boss" rule -- the second-to-last-boss is the last real "challenge" in the game, with everything beyond that intended to merely be spectacle which most players will be able to breeze through with little difficulty.

The theory goes that it's more frustrating to be stuck right at the very end of a game than it is to become stuck in the middle of the game, so most designers try to avoid increasing the difficulty level at the very end of the game, and will often even drop it slightly, just to ensure that their players' final experience with the game is a positive one.

[Melly]

Is that a proved thing? Do most people really prefer to have easy final bosses in comparison to the stuff they got through before it? I really don't think that's a good direction, especially when they fuck it up as to make the final boss just too easy, leaving a lack of satisfaction from beating him.

Is the people that enjoy having a tough final challenge a minority?

[Bood_war]

I can't believe no one's mentioned Fallout 3

[Spoilers]
Colonel Auburn Dissapointed me so so so much. My fucking LEVEL 1 character could've beaten him to death with his fists. Let alone my level 20 character with his arsenal a fatman with 20 mininukes, rocket launcher with around 100 missiles, and both  Alien Blasters. That was one one of the biggest letdowns I've ever had in a game.
[/Spoilers]

[Melly]

I honestly think mainstream companies just think too much of "we can't frustrate them too much or they won't shower us with money waah waah" and too little of "lets make an awesome finale while keeping it balanced and fair so they don't throw their controllers on the wall because of a cheap boss".

[Smithy]

Final boss of Demons Crest for Snes.
Unless you did things right and ended up fighting the weird lavamonster thing. Or you did things doubly right and fought the giant bone pillary weird thing.

I never actually beat that thing. Only vaguely recall it. Suddenly I feel like playing super nintendo again.

[Alevice]

Welll, neither of the lasts bosses of that game were great personally. That extra boss was totally lame IMO. The boring music didnt help.

[Smithy]

Yes! Indeed.
Most of the bosses were quite fun. But the last ones are hard to remember.
Still, the first first one's pattern was way to simple.

[Cokho]

Can't agree with it. The secret boss was one of the most epic boss battles I've played in my whole life. The tension and everything else built by the extra stage was flawless.

Unless you were talking about the normal ending final boss.

[mewse]

Is that a proved thing? Do most people really prefer to have easy final bosses in comparison to the stuff they got through before it? I really don't think that's a good direction, especially when they fuck it up as to make the final boss just too easy, leaving a lack of satisfaction from beating him.

Is the people that enjoy having a tough final challenge a minority?

I've never seen anything proven about this, but it's the prevailing opinion in the bits of the industry that I've been part of, and it's ubiquitous enough in the games I've played that I assume it's an opinion held more or less universally within the industry, at least for games produced in the west.  I'm not saying that the opinion is right;  just that it's an opinion which is commonly held.

And nobody's saying that people prefer to have easy final bosses;  just that people tend to get more upset by becoming stuck on the final boss than they do by becoming stuck at an arbitrary spot in the middle of the game.  And as a result of that, a game's final boss fight is often intentionally made to be easier than the second-to-last boss fight, in order to keep anyone from becoming stuck on it.  (The theory is:  if a player can get past that second-to-last boss, then they'll definitely be able to defeat the final boss, and therefore not become angry about a perceived difficulty wall right at the end of the game.)

(The exception to all this, of course, is "secret bosses" or "challenge bosses", which often follow or exceed the game's standard difficulty curve, on the theory that they'll only be fought against by hardcore players who really want a serious challenge.)

[Rumrusher]

Mecha death from dad's game was anti climatic (extra) boss when you can chip down his health by having him juggle a boxes/main weapon in the air.
His main attack is pouncing which would be cool if it wasn't for the fact he tends to stand for long periods of the fight doing nothing. for a dark and fast character he sure defensive and predictable.
oh and the final 'story' boss health can be depleted so bad that in the actual fight all may need to get is one to 4 hits on the head(both on normal or hard forms).
the only real challenge/fun I got from this from the monkey,the trainsformer, the monkey owner, and climbing the tower. oh and the cat launcher breaks the game.
MD's theme is awesome though.

[MaloEspada]

Metroid Fusion definitely had a disappointing final boss, IMO.
Spoiler:
The boss battle against SA-X was good, the second form was cool too. The escape was a nostalgia effect that would led to an epic boss battle, but instead we got a battle against a Big Metroid Lizard. Not to mention it's simple attack patterns and repetitiveness.

[Melly]

@mewse

I guess I don't mind them not wanting the player getting stuck on the final boss, but why don't they draw the line at making it just as difficult as the one before it, but maybe looking or feeling more epic and important? It's like the designers stop thinking, or are forced not to think and just dumb to fuck down out of that stuff because the dudes with money upstairs that probably don't even play games are telling them to.

[Rumrusher]

fist fights as a final battle in shooter game.
seem epic when it starts but then it looks out of place or slow.
dead to rights had one.
mgs is famous for them.

That or the second to last one you face afterward double your skills in the game so much that your surpass the final one.
Wait, if the 'mainstream' guys think the final boss would make people give up on the game,what stopping gamers from quitting up to the second to last and watching some youtube video?

[Copyrite]

Mega Man Zero 2

Just played through Zero 3 and I was slightly disappointed how slow Omega Zero was compared to his ZX incarnation. As such, I found the second form to be a lot harder than the third. I died multiple times trying to figure out his attack patterns, then after finally beating that won the final round on my first try. Then again I did play ZX before Z3, so I got an additional edge from that. But one of Z3's final bosses was just a beefed-up intro stage baddie. But in total, they had three tripled life bars. I'm not sure what compensates what anymore.

I'll be sure to try Z2 sometime myself just to see how easy that fanboy-attracting jerk is.

More about the GBA Megamen, in Battle Network titles some final bosses could have done better story-wise. So you made it through the final area, good job, now fight this guy you've never heard of before. Just a little bit of foreshadowing throughout the game doesn't hurt.