Why are there no more epic boss battles?

[Eddie the head]

I am confused where is this lack of awesome boss battles comeing form? Off the top of my head Satan( Resistance 3) The beast (Infamous 2) Wheatley (portal 2) Dr. Nefarious (Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time). I fail to see how any of these are worse then Bowser form the N64 or before. What am I missing?

 

[nu1mlock]

I agree, games of today have too little "epic boss battles". There are a few, I agree, but when it comes to AAA-games there aren't that many of them that has any satisfying end-game bosses, let alone mid-game (or whatever one would call those).

I completed Dead Space 2 today. Bought it off the Origin sale for less than 4?. Sure, I liked the game and I "need" to play the third game when it gets released (especially co-op, if not the first time then the second time around, but it WILL be played co-op - love playing with friends!), but there were no bosses except for maybe the last "boss", which still was easy and boring.

It's a shame really.

But who knows, I'll be getting Dark Souls when it gets released for PC, at least it's hard. Question is, is it the same "hard" as it used to be?

 

[Brendan Stepladder]

I am confused where is this lack of awesome boss battles comeing form? Off the top of my head Satan( Resistance 3) The beast (Infamous 2) Wheatley (portal 2) Dr. Nefarious (Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time). I fail to see how any of these are worse then Bowser form the N64 or before. What am I missing?

Since when was Bowser a good boss fight? It was tedious, and the camera combined with the poor grabbing controls made it a pain in the ass.

 

[Eddie the head]

I am confused where is this lack of awesome boss battles comeing form? Off the top of my head Satan( Resistance 3) The beast (Infamous 2) Wheatley (portal 2) Dr. Nefarious (Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time). I fail to see how any of these are worse then Bowser form the N64 or before. What am I missing?

Since when was Bowser a good boss fight? It was tedious, and the camera combined with the poor grabbing controls made it a pain in the ass.

Ok that wasn't really the point it's just that's a boss battle I think everyone has done.

 

[Brendan Stepladder]

I am confused where is this lack of awesome boss battles comeing form? Off the top of my head Satan( Resistance 3) The beast (Infamous 2) Wheatley (portal 2) Dr. Nefarious (Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time). I fail to see how any of these are worse then Bowser form the N64 or before. What am I missing?

Since when was Bowser a good boss fight? It was tedious, and the camera combined with the poor grabbing controls made it a pain in the ass.

Ok that wasn't really the point it's just that's a boss battle I think everyone has done.

I think a better example would be something from Ocarina of Time, then. Still, points for effort.

 

[notyouraveragejoe]

Vanquish pulled some good ones

Yeah, very good ones considering it was a third person shooter.

Twisted Metal (new one) I felt had some epic boss fights with brilliant design. Similarly, the boss fights in Batman: Arkham City could be really good (my favourite is the Freeze one as it requires tactical planning and use of almost all moves).

Rayman Origins while still doing the "weak point" thing was an intelligent one I felt with the bosses all looking cool. Finally, Demon's Souls had great boss fights but as mentioned before (like Dark Souls) lacked the context to make them amazing.

Still...with my Nostalgia Glasses I miss the boss fights that were in Skies of Arcadia. THOSE were amazing!

 

[Casual Shinji]

How has no-one mentioned God Of War 3 yet? I'm pretty sure Kronos is on record as the biggest boss ever included in a videogame. He stands a genuine mile high, you traverse his entire body as if its one ginormous level, and absolutely brutalize him in a thousand different ways.


Fuck, every boss in GOW 3 was pretty damn spectacular. It says a lot when one of the least exciting bosses in a game is a 50 foot scorpion you fight in the middle of a mountain.

Yeah, but then Kronos was pretty easily dispatched which feels a bit undeserving to his character seeing as you spend a good 1/3 of the first game running around on top of him.

For me GoW3 handled its boss battles rather poorly. You start the game fighting the fucking God of the Sea who himself is fighting a Titan, and you end the game with the weakest boss battle; the fight with Zeus. That's not a good way to pace your game. The battle with Hades and Hercules were badass though.

 

[Roofstone]

Lollipop Chainsaw's bosses are pretty epic, all things considered. They quite remind me of the old arcade game bosses, with different phases and attacks that needs dodging.

 

[TimeLord]

Devil May Cry 4 had you fight against a reanimated statue the size of a skyscraper that flew in the air while trying to perform karate and shoot magic and energy beams at you.

I love the Devil May Cry games.

 

[orangeapples]

Nowadays it's just pew pew, kill everyone, pew pew, strong monster, hit weak spot, pew pew, dodge attack, hit weak spot, pew pew.

I didn't read the rest of the topic, but a lot of the old games were a very similar thing. Lots of boss battles involved finding the vulnerable spot and attacking it while dodging attacks. Now the weak spots are glowing and we have lock on, but the concept is still the same.

Really, you just summed up a huge chunk of classic video games...

 

[OniaPL]

Lost Planet 2 was fun, but aside from the massive monster in the image the fights didn't qualify as "epic".
And the train scene was just frustrating.

Vanquish had great boss battles, especially in the challenges. I wish more shooters would take a more "fun" route of shooting like Vanquish did.

Yes, while videogames become more serious boss battles become less easy to justify. But why can't games offer both experiences? I sometimes want to shoot headshots with realistic weapons, and sometimes I want a giant-ass sword I can shove into a monster.

Yes, a lot of bosses in the history of video games are about hitting a weak spot, but that's just shitty. It's lazy design that makes for a boring experience.

I also find that I yearn for more optional, really difficult boss battles. For example, in FFX when I for the first time ran into a Dark Aeon, i was both extremely excited and shitting my pants. While the design wasn't the best in those fights, I miss stuff like that; tests of skill, that not everyone can complete. Tests of skill that reward you.

Vanquish challenges, they were exciting, for example.

 

[Shuguard]

I strongly recommend looking into the monster hunter series if you want epic boss battles. Specifically monster hunters unite or (if you can get your hands on it) monster hunter portable 3rd. Boss battles can go from 10 mins to a full 45 mins of constant battle.

The reason i recommend these two over others in the series is that you won't need a new system (if you own a PSP) and there's a lot more content in them.

 

[Snotnarok]

Most bosses today are giant monsters that are beyond a railway that you have to shoot at from a distance.

God of War has ALWAYS had great boss battles. Darksiders had some pretty amazingly fun battles too.

 

[Nathan Josephs]

you should play some peace walker online with the optional battles. that stuff is made of legend.

 

[RJ 17]

Guess I'll just boot up the emulator, pick up the controller and replay Final Fantasy IX or something.

First of all, FF9 fucking sucked.

Now that that's out of the way, I'd argue that it depends on 1: your definition of "epic" and 2: what games you play.

Not that anyone was paying attention by the end of the game, but the boss battle against Knight Commander Meredith in Dragon Age II was pretty epic. The boss battle against Alduin in Skyrim was pretty epic. Hell, even the last stand at the missle tanks in Mass Effect 3 was pretty epic (as it stands in place of a boss battle).

 

[RavingLibDem]

I figure some old games had good epic boss battles, but it is important to keep a balance in every boss fight between epicness, difficulty and relevance; and what I think is good that not all games now believe that they need a boss fight all the time, or even to end a game. It makes it all the more satisfying when you find a good game, with a good boss fight, that actually fits