It was last week, I believe, when I went on a tirade about the Final Fantasy games and how I had neglected to finish some of the ones I played due to the bosses they had. For example, I didn’t go on to finish Final Fantasy VII because I didn’t want to fight Sephiroth 2-3 times (he changes forms) only to screw up on the third and have to start over. I also stated that I had fought Sephiroth in Kingdom Hearts 1-2 and was sick of him and his One-Winged Angelness. I also went on to say that, even though I liked Final Fantasy XIII, I stopped playing at the last possible point before you take on the last string of bosses. (For the record when it comes to Final Fantasy games, I quit playing FF8 because I got bored and FFX-2 was finished by accident).
If it sounds like I’m leaning towards the ‘Final Fantasy sucks’ camp, I assure you that isn’t true. I don’t mind Final Fantasy, at least not until I have to read ‘Final Fantasy Roman Numeral – 2’ out loud, but even then I don’t think the franchise has lost its way. So what could my problem be?
- Look at all of those characters! Holy crap!
After revisiting Shank on XBLA and getting my ass handed to me by the boss Cassandra, I returned to Twitter to complain about why I didn’t finish Shank on my first playthrough back in 2010: Those friggin bosses!
It was one John Callahan (who is also on DPrime!) that stated that I may in fact hate bosses. A week later, I sit here contemplating that statement (Damn you, Callahan!). Do I really hate bosses? I don’t think I do. There are plenty that I like fighting again and again, but there are also times when they feel like a life-sucking chore. And, more often than not; it’s in an RPG/JRPG.
- This boss in particular can fall into a volcano.
Let’s return to the Final Fantasy games and their bosses; specifically their ‘end of the game’ bosses. How does it usually go? It’s either one challenge after another, with cut scenes and no checkpoints in-between, or one boss that has multiple forms and gets harder as time (a lot of time, sometimes) progresses. The latter I can deal with, it’s one constant fight. The former needs a revision.
See, I don’t like putting a lot of effort into something only for things to not work out in my favor and I end up having to reset and do it all over again from the start. Failing sucks. Feeling like you wasted a bunch of time sucks even more. And yet, as I write this, I think about Mass Effect 2’s Suicide Mission and how, after you start that, there’s no going back and saving; you have to finish what you started. But that isn’t one long, drawn out boss battle after another. It’s progressing bit by bit while taking out the enemies that pop up to battle you. I like that.
In contrast, Final Fantasy has you fighting boss after boss after boss with no break except for the cut scenes. And I believe Mass Effect 2 still gives you checkpoints during the Suicide Mission; Final Fantasy does not. Kingdom Hearts 1 & 2, despite my love for them, does the same thing and has you fighting one boss after another. And while I don’t find those fights entirely memorable, there wasn’t a constant threat of “Oh shit, don’t screw up! You’ve put way too much time into this to do it all over.”
- One boss I never want to deal with. Ever.
But I feel like I’m beating on Final Fantasy a bit much. So, let’s go on to Shank, the other game that sparked this rant of mine. A close friend of mine, Mark Hoursey, can wholeheartedly attest to the fact that the final boss in Shank will destroy you, your happiness, and your momentum within 45 secs. If you’ve played Shank, you know what I’m talking about. For everyone else, watch this instead:
The final boss in Shank is like that. And not just the part where Batman cuts down Taye Diggs, the whole scene is like Shank. It’s all combos, uppercuts, guns, executions and drinking until you get to Cesar. Who will knock you on your ass and make you feel like a child. Putting your entire kill count up to this point to shame. The trick to beating Cesar is to pay attention to the magical area above his head that’ll show an LT, prompting you to pull the Left Trigger in order to counter him. If you don’t manage to do that, you’re screwed. So, instead of playing the game the way I’ve been taught to play it, I’m constantly mashing the Left Trigger on the off-chance that I do counter him. It’s no longer a game about chaining moves together and getting a long combo. It’s “You can attack as much as you can, just keep pressing that Left Trigger!!”
And Cesar isn’t the only boss in this game that’s at fault; the previously mentioned boss, Cassandra, is the same.
- So a Priest, a Butcher, and a One-Eyed Woman walk into a bar…
This topic of bosses in video games could go on far longer than my fingers can handle. We could go on about bosses that suck (due to their design or difficulty) and bosses that are awesome or fun to play. There’s also the subject of what does and doesn’t count as a boss fight. Mass Effect 2’s Suicide Mission, to name an example, doesn’t count. It’s a sequence, not a fight. But in Skyrim, if you get to the end of a dungeon and a Grand Voldemort Deathlord with the power of Disarming wakes up, is that a boss fight, bad luck, or a random encounter?
You know what? I think I’ve found something to talk about for the next couple of weeks. And to think, I had Writer’s Block this morning. Hah!
About the Author
