Damn Boss Difficulty

[Gabriel]

Crap.

 

OK, call me a baby if you want. Say I'm "not a true gamer" if you must.

 

Last night, I bought Star Wars: Episode III for my PS2. I had played a little of it in a GameCrazy and was having fun with it. So, I plunked down the 50 bucks and brought it home for some mad jedi hack and slash.

 

So, I'm having a great time. I'm killing lots of droids and generally having no problem with the first level. Then I get to the first boss, Count Dooku.

 

I played for 2 or 3 hours, just repeating that boss battle over and over and over and over. I could not beat the bastard. One time I got all the way to the last segment of the fight with full health and he STILL kicked my ass. It literally seemed like nothing I did made any difference. I got more and more frustrated as time went on.

 

Finally, I just hurled the damn controller against the wall. I did it with enough force that I completely shattered a dualshock 2.

 

Now, call me a fucking baby, but I thought we were past the stupidity of ridiculously powerful bosses and such to "enhance" the replayability of games? Plus, this was the FIRST GODDAMN BOSS! Nothing to that point in the game even came close to preparing me for the steep increase in the difficulty curve of that fight.

 

I've had less frustration beating Bison on the hardest difficulty of Street Fighter II, and he just outright cheats and ignores the physics engine of the game!

 

Now, I have to buy a new controller.

 

Crap.

[Dones]

Would you say you bought this game on impulse?

[Red 5]

"Anger leads to hatred... hatred leads to suffering!"

 

 

With the exception of very few games (Zelda, Jade Empire, RE4, and some other RPG's) I hate boss battles in general.

 

I loved Prince of Persia 2, got to the final boss, wasted an hour of my life repeatedly trying to beat the last boss. Never did it. Put the game next to Prince of Persia One on the shelf and never touched it again. My xbox controller is still in one piece though.

[sega saturn x]

I know how you feel panzer dragoon games have stupid hard bosses.

[Tempest]

The last game I could think of that had bosses that were just plain hard was Metroid 2 Prime. However I also seem to remember Contra Shattered Soldier being unfairly difficult with its bosses as well...

 

Tempest

[SteveW]

When I think of hard bosses, I keep thinking back to De Rol Le from Phantasy Star Online for the Dreamcast. It took so many tries to kill it, I lost count. I just remember playing it over and over for days until I got lucky enough to kill it. Then, one of the side quests on the next level made you go back and fight the boss again, but this time with some moron scientist who had the A.I. of a retarded caveman with narcolepsy. He'd get hit over and over, die, and force you to refight the boss until you defeat it. Man, that sucked. Enough people complained about it that when Sega ported the game to the Xbox and GameCube, they lowered De Rol Le's difficulty, and when fighting that thing with the stupid scientist, instead of standing around and taking hits over and over, he'd play dead instead, and not get in the way.

[Dones]

The last boss in Lunar 1 remake for the playstation was hard. He kept healing himself. It took me about an hour to deplete his HP.

[hex65000]

For me it was Heavy Metal: Geomatrix for the DC. Near the end, the battles are insanely lopsided. After being killed over and over and over for about an hour I was ready to throw the controller down and chuck that cd across the house.

I did not. Despite the red haze I put it back in its case and turned off the machine. It was time for a break and the next time, I was just gonna gameshark it.

The game was decent enough, kinda like power stone with guns. It was very pretty, with the usual style of the Heavy Metal universe artwork. However the fact that the computer slapped me around mercilessly with no hope of winning, was really annoying.

 

Hex.

[ Not to self: do not attempt to fight Lu Bu . . . ]

[doubledown]

For me it was Heavy Metal: Geomatrix for the DC. Near the end, the battles are insanely lopsided. After being killed over and over and over for about an hour I was ready to throw the controller down and chuck that cd across the house.

I did not. Despite the red haze I put it back in its case and turned off the machine. It was time for a break and the next time, I was just gonna gameshark it.

The game was decent enough, kinda like power stone with guns. It was very pretty, with the usual style of the Heavy Metal universe artwork. However the fact that the computer slapped me around mercilessly with no hope of winning, was really annoying.

 

Hex.

[ Not to self: do not attempt to fight Lu Bu . . . ]

850973[/snapback]

 

 

I remember the boss in Prince of Persia 2. I got the game after it had been discounted, played it briefly and put it away. Couple of years later I thought I'd give it another try. After a couple days of dedicated playing after work and what not I got to the boss. He is a tough son of a bitch. You have a certain amount of time that you have to beat him in too, which sucks. Then when I finally beat him, I go to save the girl, and what do you know, he's not dead at all, I have to fight him again. I did beat him, but what a pain in the ass.

 

I remember when I got Power Stone for the Dreamcast. I instantly loved the game and was hooked by all of the hidden unlockable things to get, so of course I set out to beat the game. I got pretty damn good and of course got to the boss, what a pain in the ass. I remember that I actually broke an ottoman after losing to him for the umpteenth time. I did eventually beat him though, and of course after you beat him, he transforms into a giant slug type creature and you get to fight him again. I hate the double end bosses.

[sega saturn x]

Yeah but the slug monster was a breeze compared to the big gay wrestler form.

[+kisrael]

I don't remember that lat guy in Power Stone being THAT much of a killer. Though maybe it took some doing...I think once I figured it out it wasn't too bad.

 

Now...Bangai-O...there's a mother of a final boss. Mostly 'cause you have to do so much of the level to just get another chance...

[Stingray]

The first boss in Devil May Cry 2 (big octopuss looking thing) just kicked my ass all over the place for a couple hours on Saturday. I finally gave up and put the disk back in the box. I expect I'm done with that game. I'm glad I only paid $5 for it used. It's a pity though, the game was really fun up to that point.

 

-S

[BydoEmpire]

I thought the Metroid Prime bosses were pretty tough. Sadly, I gamefaq'd my way through most of them. :/ At least in a game like Panzer Dragoon Orta, while the bosses were hard, I'd do a little bit better each try, or figure something out after a try or two. I fought Meta Ridley about twenty times, with no improvement, no new weak spot discovered, nothing. Then one time I randomly happened to beat her. Frustrating and bad design, imho, though the rest of the game was great.

 

In general I don't like difficult bosses. I just want to play the game. I don't have time to play the same boss over and over and over. Obviously, if it's a shooter or something where that's the game, then this is a moot point.

[Shannon]

I had problems with the final boss in Doom 3 for a good 20 minutes and even after consulting the gamefaqs I could not figure out why I was dying so quickly. I eventually realized it was because of the direction I choose to run in at the beggining.

 

If I ran clockwise I would get clocked, if I ran counter clock wise then I would manage to avoid the 1st attacks long enough to power up the soul cube.

[cimerians]

Devil May Cry and Contra come to mind...and some of the old Castlevania's.

[sega saturn x]

Devil may cry 3 bosses are a joke they can be so hard. I also love how the games has no check points so if you die its back to the beginning.

[shadow460]

The toughest bosses I have encountered are Tavion from Jedi Kinght 2 (that is, if you actually try to fight her), and Ultimecia from FF8.

 

Even a quick kill vs Tavion requires split second timing and a good bit of luck. Otherwise, Kyle won't need his lightsaber for very long.

 

It seems to me Star Wars games have always been a bit harder than normal, though.

 

May I recommend, though, against buying a Nintendo64. the stock controllers are the best made for it, but they are fragile as glass.

[Rugxulo]

Are you talking about the arcade version? A few years ago I was addicted enough with SF2 (SNES) to try that (the SNES controllers aren't that bad, IMO)...and eventually succeeded (if he corners you, you're dead...blocking sometimes helped, Ken's fireballs and super uppercuts sometimes helped too...avoid jumping into his forcefield). I was disappointed that the ending wasn't any different, though.

 

I've had less frustration beating Bison on the hardest difficulty of Street Fighter II, and he just outright cheats and ignores the physics engine of the game!

 

Now, I have to buy a new controller.

 

Crap.

850505[/snapback]

[classicgamingguy]

God, I HATE boss battle from any game. I know...it's a challenge to players when they get to that point, saying, "Okay, how well do you think you know the game? Here's a challenge for you!".

 

I remember the first battle in Metroid Prime, that thing in the tube with the rotating force fields..I actually had an easy time of that...just keep moving in a circle, firing when you can, double-tapping to dodge incoming fire..the one battle that made me scream out out was with the rock monster, who you had to "scan" to find his weakness then attack.

 

There's also that major satisfaction when you bring a boss down, especially if you've had to replay that particular boss more than once. I remember that feeling, then despereately trying to find a save game point so I would NEVER have to fight it again! lol

 

Steve

Edited July 9, 2005 by classicgamingguy