Why Do Bosses Have Multiple Forms?
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- čas přidán 29. 04. 2024
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Multi-phase bosses are all over JRPGs, but they've made a home in every genre by now. For game designers, breaking up a single boss fight into a bunch of forms can create more flexibility, more payoff, more chance to tell an interesting narrative, and yeah, maybe more things to watch out for. Let's talk about boss phase design in games!
Featuring boss fights in:
Kingdom Hearts 1
Final Fantasy VI
Shovel Knight
Ace Attorney series
Sonic Superstars
Cuphead
Gunstar Heroes
Persona 3
FTL
Star Fox 64
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Please display the names of the games you're portraying
I think cool series of cooled BetaDesignDoc where you talk about each video, Like lazzy purple but about feels extra videos where you talking about more things you wanted mention and development of these videos?
One of the best that im surprised you didnt talk about is multiplying enemies, I think the most famous at this point is the mantis lords but my personal favourite was the dark lurker from DS2 which was an extra treat because of the terrible thing you have to do to get one of the best fights in the game
Can you make an episode about magic systems and RPG classes ?
@@Celticassassin23 We talk about Mantis Lords in our episode about Double Bosses
For a second, I thought that was Edgeworth on the thumbnail and I physically did a double take out of pure confusion
Edgeworth works too. His second phase is updating the autopsy and all those kinda bs
"You're not just a clown, Kefka. You're the whole circus"
@@EmperorPenguinn I knew you would do that, Wright.
(WHAT...? Hrk. Not again!)
@@Crocogator"Looks like Phoenix Wright was Phoenix Wr... -STUPID!!"
Phase 2 Edgeworth: Updated Autopsy Report
Phase 3 Edgeworth: An Earthquake hits and Edgy is left cowering in fear, Franziska comes in for the assist.
Bosses channeling the phrase "I didn't hear no bell" when getting up again and again
south park reference of Randy
(Malenia flashbacks intensifies)
I recall that line from Randy vs Batdad
MGS4's Vamp fight.
Has infinite phases until you figure out the fight's puzzle at which point it can be ended immediately.
Getting killed by a random enemy, boss "they took our job"
Im really glad he brought up Ace Attorney for this, because like he said, the changes to the sprites, animations, and personality is SO satisfying to see.
One of my favorite moments was seeing Damon Gant's struck-by-lightning sprite. He maintains his friendly old man facade for so long and finally, FINALLY, you see it develop its first big crack. And then he just completely loses it at the end, laughing and clapping while his pleasant theme plays as you realize it's finally over.
It's interesting that in AA games, when you get past the witness's big lie and the Pursuit music kicks in, it actually gets easier -- they get desperate, you start seeing the contradictions before they even finish speaking, and it really feels -- to you, the player! -- like you've taken the initiative and they're really on the ropes now.
Danganronpa does this too, it's pretty cool
The fight against Zant in Twilight Princess has always been one of my favorites. Each one of his phases takes on the form of one of the previous bosses you have fought before, but with some twist (Similar to the first phase of Lavos from Chrono Trigger, another great multiphase boss). But what I specifically love about Zant is how chaotic both the music and the fight gets with each phase you defeat. It makes it seem as though it is going to lead to some great finale, but that isn't exactly what happens. You are teleported into the middle of Hyrule Field where Zant begins to throw a tantrum and swing at you with all he has rather than relying on his magic (Which was given to him by Ganondorf). This helps illustrate the idea of how weak Zant is physically and mentally, and how he never would have rose to power without the help of Ganondorf. It also shows how strong you have become throughout the game, having been horribly defeated by him earlier in the game.
Yeah I love the way they use the multiple phases to really hammer in that Zant had basically nothing to his name before getting buffed by Ganondorf
FromSoftware does grandiose phase changes in boss fights like no one else. I'll never forget Godrick slicing off his arm with an axe and grafting a fire-breathing dragon head to himself for as long as I live.
Yeah Godrick will stick with me for a long time
dont tell me he grafted you to himself 💀
I actually glitched it my first time through, I never got the phase change! Then I was really confused by the dragon fist weapon you get from him....
@@scepta101Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
How about the Soul of Sinder which has several phases it switches between during the first phase alone and then becomes Gwyn during the final part?
I appreciate that example of long boss fights making you stop, because that was exactly what happened to me with Tropical Freeze. That exact scenario with that exact game.
Too much waiting for animations between attacks
@@DesignDoc or all your best attacks are too slow to hit, and the boss teleports, and they are a bullet sponge, and they spawn adds constantly.
Oml that boss was so tedious😭 i spent so long trying to beat it recently
Pyribbit from Kirby also comes to mind
It didn't help that the story was so bare-bones, I didn't even realize it was the final boss until watching this video. I just figured that world had a tough boss, and it stopped being fun to die to him. I might give it another go knowing it's the final boss.
If we're talking boss phases, we have to mention Hollowknight Mantis Lords.
Also in Hollowknight is The Hollowknight himself where, in his second phase, he will pause to actually deal himself damage, as he attempts to put down the infection in him.
HAVE YOU SEEN THE RADIANCE???
@@user-um1yb8kf9x of course I have. However epic that fight is, I don't think the phases do anything too crazy, hence the omission. Having to chase her up into the sky is really cool though, and is a sick transition between phases.
@frogfox4287 On second thought, that's fair.
I have no idea why he dropped soulslike games completely and is talking about Sonic f superstars instead lol
@@timurradman3999 if my memory serves, he's already covered all of the key design concepts in Demon Soulsborne: Elden John Dies Twice. In fact, I distinctly remember listening to him talk, at length, about how the game uses the bombast of phase transitions to clearly signal that there are new, and more lethal, movement and attack patterns coming right at you.
Plus, it seems like the purpose of this series is to teach the nuances of key game design concepts to a wide audience; from the average gaming enthusiast to the working developer. Sure, he could've used Fromsoft footage to explain the boons and banes of phases. But, each game he chose to feature cleanly explained it's corresponding idea better than than it's souls(ish) analogues could have, in most cases. I'm also pretty sure that his secondary consideration is to highlight as many different types of games as possible. That way, the ideas can be used as is, or laterally applied in a creative way.
My favourite phased boss is Volo from Pokemon Legends Arceus.
It starts out as a 6v6 battle. In the rest of the game, it's rare to find a trainer with a full team of six. And it's a tough fight, too. Volo's team mirrors that of Cynthia in the games set in the present, which is understandable, given that he's related to her. But then you beat him. And he appears to break down, until he utters that famous line: "Giratina, strike [him/her] down!"
And you enter phase two: an equally brutal fight against Giratina (Altered Forme), no healing in-between. This is where a lot of people's first attempt goes to die. But you come back, higher levelled. And you beat Gira-
Oh, wait, there's the Origin Forme. In practice, it's a BRUTAL 6v8 fight. And two of Volo's Pokemon are Giratina. A difficult fight, especially in a casual playthrough, but SUCH an awesome one to win, and watch Volo's real breakdown.
I just thought of that too because of the 8-bit Music Theory video. It was such a challenge for me vs typical Pokemon games, it was a great surprise.
I also appreciated that the game does not heal you in between these phases like these games usually do, say, with N and Ghetsis. Good thing I happened to have a random Froslass on my team to complete its entry when I encountered them, that thing saved my butt with its type advantage over both of them.
I didnt like that fight because its kind of ruined by the games battle system imo. I see how people love this fight but for me it was just: Kill a Pkm -> Volo sends out a new Pkm that kills your Pkm in return -> you do the same -> repeat until youve only got 1 mon and start to spam revives during Giratina phase.
I dunno about favorites but the fire breathing T-rex from Monster Hunter World stands out to me, since it was a hard fight and it stood between you and further armor upgrades, so you had no choice but to git gud.
While I mostly agree, and it’s a neat surprise, it’s only as tough as it is because of how janky speed is in the game.
I have to applaud TOTK's fight with Ganon. Asides from the hilarious surprise of his health bar nearly going offscreen, it humbles you in a sense with how easily he can break your hylian shield and then all of sudden starts mimicking your powers.
And then, very importantly, the final epic dragon fight after that big battle is surprisingly much easier. Because seriously, nobody would want to go back and fight Ganon again at that point, and dying/restarting would totally take you out of the story sequence. That's doing a long, elaborate battle right.
I wouldn’t say powers, more skills. He’s a highly skilled fighter and you really need to step up your game for even the first phase. It’s not just sheer terms of power like other bosses or creatures in the world, he’s a boss that challenges you on skill as well. Timing your flurry rushes and parries, paying attention to the pattern of the Gloom, and so on.
Omg when he started flurry rushing ME I really felt like I was facing a power beyond me. I def think TOTK did their fight better than BOTW in terms of phases and tension.
@@Lorraine202 I'm pretty sure _every_ player remembers him dodging your own attack and losing their shit.
And yet that part being easier didn’t make it feel any less rewarding because of the plot twist right before hand and the epic nature of the fight (won’t spoil it).
While almost every Megaman game has multi-phase final bosses, only the one from Zero 3 really sticks with you - because it's a story relevant twist!
WARE WA MESHIA NARI! HAHAHAHA!!!
__________
WARNING
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too bad the all the phases are so easy
@@baubles25
Tbf for a perfect run you have to beat the boss rush with little or no damage as well, all in one attempt. Though it would of course be more epic if the final phase was like in ZX and the second one wasn't limited by hardware.
Not a single word about Senator Armstrong from MGS:R?
It's an emotional roller coaster, beginning with a somewhat standard huge machine that you can easliy win against, and then fighting the man himself, thinking "he's just a guy, and I'm a certified BAD ASS! how hard can it be?"
And you hit him, and hit him.... and hit... all the while he's completely unfazed and his HP is barely below 99%.
The fight is even cinematic for some parts of it, giving you some hope that you might be able to win regardless, but then stripping it away from you...
long story short, you use your former rival's sword and truly finish Armstrong at the end of a tough real fight.
And the music. MAN the music! The entire game has kick ass boss fight's music, but this one takes the cake. In every category.
Pure masterpiece of a final, multi-phase boss
Honestly, pretty much all of the bosses in revengeance are really good examples of multi-phase bosses. I could go into further detail, but it is hard to type on mobile
@@amethystt727 Hard agree!
But they feel more "traditional" in their phases... i.e they raise the stakes and the "ante" with each phase, as they should.
Armstrong, on the other hand, feels like a full movie of its own
Ornstein and smough from dark souls 1 is an awesome phase shift, going from a two on one to a one on one when you beat one of them. Really surprised me the first time and made for an intense and memorable fight. There's a reason they're a classic
I'm of the opinion that the Demon Prince in DS3 did the same gimmick much better
But the BEST part of the shift is the devs gave the player a choice on how they want to die. Fight an oversized dragon boy or fight an electrified chubster. The devs give the player rope to hang themselves with. It's crazy how little this has been replicated in other games.
It's definitely a very specific shift in that one boss' capabilities stacks or layers on top of the remaining boss' capabilities, basically mashing both into a single phase. Most phase shifts give up the previously concluded phase for the sake of unpredictability, but what O&S did was potentially more unsettling because of some element of possible familiriaty, and therefore more entertaining
@TheGrifhinx
In my experience, phases often build on the previous phase by enhancing some moves and then adding a little more
You missed an opportunity not showing even one of the Kirby post game bosses, they usually are a powered up version of the base game bosses, but with an unexpected completely new extra phase, much harder and with new lore implication for the series. They are some of the most well executed multi phase bosses in gaming.
This is what I thought as well. Especially when he started talking about how phases can be nice rewards for tackling the fight on a higher difficulty, I really expected him to start talking about Kirby.
@@corhydrae3238 Yea exactly, that looked like a perfect set up to talk about Kirby bosses, but he didn't, what a miss.
Especially the latest one, Chaos Elfilis
From a supped-up version of the final boss, to that with an enormous phantom of itself in the background and swiping their lance at you, to *ominous ball of darkness* to *ominous ball of darkness* that burns as hot as the sun
@@draghettis6524 Yea, Chaos Elfilis has one of the best second phase of all Kirby games. But also i loved that the Star Dream Soul in Planet Robobot use the second phase to connect it to Nova from Super Star, that was a really clever twist, or that in the True Arena, Star Dream Soul eat you and now you have to destroy it from the inside with a new extra boss added before the end.
Kirby genuinely has one of the best takes of multiple phase bosses in general, along with its boss rushes.
I once had an idea for a game purely designed with the sole purpose of making a new boss phase surprising again.
It would be an action adventure that would have its gameplay practically revolve around phases. Mini-bosses, regular enemies and even your character and allies having multiple. They would be, of course, short and sweet - the last thing i want is a regular enemy encounter that takes an hour.
The interesting part is that the game would be COMPLETELY up-front with EXACTLY how many phases each character and npc has.
Except the final boss, who has one more than advertised.
Genius
I've always been a fan of the "You've got them on the ropes" type phase. Ones that make it feel like you're in control now, but the boss isn't backing down, usually accompanied by some really triumphant music!
Pokémon games in the last few generations have been pretty good at that. When you get to a boss trainer and you knock them down to their last pokémon and they send out their ace and power them up with mega evolution/dynamax/tera forms etc and the music picks up big time! Sure, they aren't the hardest, but they sure are great at hyping you up!
Sword/Shield made really good use of dynamic music changes in the gym battles. If you were on the ropes the backtrack was minor key. When you were switching Pokemon it dropped out the lead. When either you or your opponent used the bombastic kaiju finale the crowd went full soccer cheer.
The battles weren't all that complex and the gimmick didn't make much difference on the casual level but the soundtrack sure set the mood.
Some games even combine this with the desperation phase. Sure, the boss is wounded, but they don't care about themselves anymore; They want to take you down at all costs. One of my favourites is Laurence, the First Vicar from Bloodborne. He's a burning, hulking beast, the very thing he fought against as a human. As the fight progresses, he starts to stumble. And then his flames go out of control, causing his legs to give out. The music goes somber, but this crippled, tortured beast just keeps crawling towards you, leaking lava in it's wake. He's even more dangerous now, but the whole ordeal starts to feel like a mercy kill.
This makes me think of the Final Bosses in the newer Kirby games. They always, always have a final phase that is much easier than the earlier ones (usually just button mashing and stick rotating) but the visual spectacle and seeing the boss struggle are such good prizes after a regular phase 1 (and sometimes 2)
@@hirvox Basically every big boss-level monster in Dragon's Dogma does that. When their health is finally getting low, the music changes to more of a cheering you on feel instead of being the boss's theme, and the boss itself starts using far more erratic, desperate attacks that tend to hit harder but also can leave bigger openings. And it always makes the battles feel extra epic.
Also, when you do finally win, there's a really relaxed, take a breath and enjoy your victory bit before the normal music and ambience kicks back in. Not necessarily a boss phase thing specifically, but I point it out because far too few games include post-victory musical transitions like that.
@@SuperPaperPokemonOh! yes! i love that kind! The final phase is a reward for your effort in the first few phases!
I'm surprised nothing what shown for Okami. The final boss against Yami is long but memorably epic. The fight begin with it stealing all of your 13 Celestial Brush Techniques as well as your divine energy, rendering Amaterasu nearly powerless. The fight consists of you slowly taking back each brush technique, slowly restoring you back to your full powers. Yami is a giant mechanical ball that has a bunch of transformations, and each technique you steal back gives you a way to counter each new phase. The final part is the most memorable, as Yami uses a dirty trick to steal back all of your powers, but then the prayers of everyone you helped along your journey reach you, restoring Amy's original power Sunrise along with the rest of her powers, ending in a big climactic finale of Light and Dark.
While technically this boss has 13+ phases, many are very similar to each other and can be roughly grouped into 3-4 major forms that Yami takes (ball, slot machine, mecha, and hand).
I've never seen a game nail the "darkest hour" to "hope restored" transition so well in a boss fight. The soundtrack definitely adds to that feeling. Fantastic final boss
Yeah, that boss was certainly cool... I say as someone who's never needed multiple tries to beat it. If it were difficult enough that I actually had to restart all that sequence over again, I'd feel VERY differently. Luckily, Okami's developers understood that boss battles should either be elaborately cinematic or highly difficult, but never both.
As much as I like Yami, I feel like the Slot Machine form shouldn't exist.
And apparently so did Capcom cause they cut it out of his appearance in Tatsunoko Ultimate All Stars
@@CassiusStelar I agree the slot machine part is pretty doodoo lol. It's def not a perfect boss
It's probably the longest boss fight I ever had where I didn't mind how long it was. The only part of it where the length annoyed me was that my wii remote batteries actually ran out halfway through and I had to go to the store to buy new ones with the fight on pause.
Another cool thing Cuphead does is that little line the bosses say when you die which changes every phase. Alleviates some of the frustration of dying by giving you a few witty remarks to enjoy.
Another GREAT example of a fight with like a bazillion phases is The Beast from the Binding of Isaac: Repentance. Thematically, narratively, and gameplay-wise it is just PERFECT. You start out facing the incarnation of evangelist dogma, which is so narratively and thematically appropriate it would be hard for me to explain without explaining the whole Isaac lore. It has its own second phase, so you think you’re done, right? Nope! You’ve got a quick health refill before facing off against four ultra-powerful versions of the Harbingers, complete with their own second phases. But, you’ve fought the regular Harbingers lots of times before, so you know what they’re generally gonna do. And, they never overstay their welcome. But, there’s always this large shadow in the background of a devil figure. And when you take care of the Harbingers, you fight the Beast, who isn’t that mechanically challenging(you’re basically playing Flappy Bird), can still pose a very large threat to weaker builds. And, it’s theming is INCREDIBLE. It’s a combination of Isaac’s mother and the Devil, the two biggest antagonistic characters in the game. And, after the Beast is defeated, you finally give Isaac a happy ending, and IT GIVES ME TBE FEELS EVERY TIMEEEEEE
I like this as an example because you're right, there's so many phases that the whole fight feels like it's moving quickly despite the length. There's no overlap between the attack patterns of each phase but each harbinger only has 1-2 simple attacks per phase.
I mean... Isaac is still dead. Sorry to ruin your happy ending. But I'm really glad you bought this up because I totally agree! Every time I beat them I make sure to say THEN SUDDENLY, THE SKY ABOVE CRACKED OPEN, AND A WHITE BEAM OF LIGHT--
Easily my favorite final boss in the game, unfortunately I couldn't experience it properly the first time (reason 1: I saw some spoilers. reason 2: I was unbelievably broken and won in a matter of seconds against each phase)
@@concept8192🤓
@@topcatfan I literally didn't do anything wrong dude
KH2 Xemnas is peak design for boss phases. You start with a 1-on-1 against a weak Xemnas, then you get a brief respite to leave before fighting him for real. After that, you go through mini areas, fight swarms of enemies, fight Xemnas in a Chair twice, a gummi ship-lite segment against a giant dragon, and then end things with you and Riku versus Final Xemnas. The entire middle part between Xemnas 1 and Final Xemnas is basically there to hype you up with challenges that are simple and easy, but widely varied. The music and stakes keep escalating, until eventually it's just you and Riku against the final fight.
And even then, the final fight *still* has traditional phases. Xemnas starts by bringing you into the air before the fight goes to the ground, and he can occasionally capture Sora to force you to play Riku for a bit. Then, when you get Xemnas down to the last health bar, he forces you into a quicktime event where you have to mash two different buttons in order to survive. If you succeed, he'll have only 1 HP left and be completely dazed, ready for you to finish him off with any attack that you like.
The entire Xemnas gauntlet is full of things that sound like they shouldn't work in a final boss battle, but the execution is so well done and serves the tone so well that you find yourself getting amped up and invested every single time. I used to regularly open up my endgame save for KH2 solely to fight against Xemnas over and over again, because it was just *that* satisfying. There are better boss battles, but none execute boss phases quite as excellently.
Ditto, one of my favorites. Again the final phase is the hardest but its okay because there's a checkpoint. Never played KH3 but I doubt they can top it.
@@WhiteFangofWar KH3 has a lot of issues due to how rushed it was. (Most of the rush comes from being forced to swap game engines halfway through, scrapping most of their work.)
It had some great moments, and the final fight isn't explicitly *bad* per say, but the last leg of KH3 is probably its weakest portion. The changes from the DLC help, but KH3 can't come anywhere close to KH2's ending. (Or prologue. Roxas in Twilight Town is the best prologue of any game ever.) But here's to hoping that KH4 can finally surpass KH2 - I have hope that it can be done!
I loved that battle but sadly never finished it because I didn't realise until much later that the quicktime event at the end required mashing TWO buttons, not just one.
Got to that end point so many times but never wised up.
It's pretty much at the top of my list of "Best Final Boss Fights". It's so well done both mechanically and thematically.
Well fucking said
I knew Nyx was going to be here more than likely, but I must admit I unironically enjoy its ludicrous phase count. I recognize it's objectively not great boss design, but for me it does contribute to a good feeling of 'whittling down a god'.
Hell nah, i’m not hearing “the arcana means all thing will be reaveal again
I mean, we can't talk about boss phases without talking about the Mantis Lords from Hollow Knight. The first phase teaches the player the attack patterns and feels like a duel; the second phase feels so much more hectic but has basically the same attack pattern you were just taught to avoid. If you took the time to learn the patterns from the first phase, it's not too bad of a fight, but if you just got lucky or facetanked your way through, you're in for a world of hurt.
Throw in the setup implying it will be three one-on-one battles only for that to go completely out the window... the small but meaningful changes in the upgraded Sisters of Battle fight... the music...
Shumps are the kings of multi phase bosses, like how every boss in Touhou has both named and unnamed attacks comprised of complicated attacks
But the boss fight from a game I am playing is the Crying Children from Library of Ruina, a seven phase boss fight going between disruptive cherubs and a wrathful angel. It is long, arduous, and tiring, and it perfectly encapsulates the feelings of the person who became the Crying Children. It tests your ability to maintain resources in a card battler while being a great story section
I really hate Crying Children but only because it feels too long and the fact in the cherub phases unless you stagger the right one or beat the right card it can take even longer.
The progression of Sword Saint Isshin is incredible imo. You start by facing a boss who's ass you've kicked twice before, and once you defeat him, it's revealed that the true final boss is a character who you've grown friendly with the whole time. His moveset starts off difficult and complex, testing every bit of knowledge you've accumulated throughout the game, and only increses in difficulty and spectacle as the phases go on.
I think the funniest part is facing who was once your biggest struggle right where he first bodied you but now every time you re-challenge this fight you're like "Yeah ok you're good warm up Genichiro" [oils him up]
I think the absolute standout Sekiro boss phase surprise has got to be the first Guardian Ape fight though
@@Whattabatt iconic switch up. They tried to do it again in Armored Core 6 but I wasn't about to fall for it lmfao
I can't stop talking about Sonic Frontiers and the Titans on this one.
The boss fights are so cool, but the second phase is something i really like. There is a tiny cutscene showing that the Titans activate some kind of emergency shield and they are more difficult, not in a huge way but you can notice a pattern change while the fight goes on and the perfect part is, when you reach to the second phase, you also hear the second part of the song (except for Find Your Flame, for some reason).
Giganto makes him appear lasers that make him harder to use the cyloop normally and also he has a giant laser beam attack and a surprise crushing attack near end of the fight, he also is more agrresive
Wyvern needs two parries and the chasing sequence has visual obstacles thanks to the lasers, also add more cinematic with the really cool QTE
Knight just deciding to throw its shield against you and you need to parry it to being able to attack it it's really cool!
And on the new DLC, Supreme having basically 4 phases now it's amazing, with a real unique pacing, while the first fight is basically the same the second one adds some layer to the story telling and basically a complete new Titan Fight
Speaking of Supreme, I like how it's second phase makes it look like it's preparing to induce Third Impact. You cannot tell me Frontiers did not have some inspiration from Neon Genesis Evangelion.
Knight's phase cracked me up, honestly. I actually tried taking him out by punching him every time he passed me just because him spinning around the arena is hilarious.
Extreme Measures IV, from Hades.
Extreme measures is one of the prestige options Hades offers, each level of which increases the difficulty of the next boss. EM 1 and 2 are largely negligible to a skilled player who has access to take them, but 3 and 4 up the difficulty quite a bit, even for experienced players.
EM4 however, is such a powerful and unique experience. The fight seems the same at first, and in fact I'm not sure the usual first 2 phases are changed. But where the boss would usually fall before, you get a great story beat, then he stands back up, darkens the sky, and flies into an intense new and final phase that can easily destroy even the most experienced players. It's awesome and it feels like he's finally actually throwing everything he has at you, using his power to its fullest.
there is a difference to (I think) phase 2. that being the short intervention of cerberus causing a bunch of aoes to appear all over the battlefield. (and I think he summoned midbosses as minions instead of just souped up ones)
Phase 1 and 2 are different. The spear throw, the double spin and the mini boss spawns. The laser also gets a shockwave
For me, the Kingdom Hearts 1 Sephiroth fight was definitely one of the most memorable video game fights all time.
Gotta disagree with the FTL analysis here as I just went on a huge FTL binge. You have to go all in on at least one main strategy, and some runs may not yield the right combo of items to execute that strategy perfectly, but you absolutely have options. I beat it with a heavy missile approach in a rock cruiser, an evasive strategy using the weak stealth cruiser, boarding with mantis, and more.
You should never finish off a ship with your crew aboard anyway. The game taught you that. Boarding is actually brilliant if you just leave the one laser guy up there, then AI won't kick in and you can disable systems that the laser guy can't reach. Fire bombs will consume the ship from that point forward to where it stops posing a threat. You can even go all in and get the shield bypass to board on phase 3. The bigger issue with the final boss is that sometimes your run just doesn't yield enough material to get the job done, but that's not really the fault of it being a phased hard fight.
I love run based games, but RNGsus should never let you get to the final boss without at least offering you the tools to beat it. Otherwise it's wasting my time and that is the cardinal sin of any game.
Say it with me.
*The Arcana is the means by which all is revealed.*
*The moment man devoured the fruit of knowledge, he sealed his fate...*
Diarahan!
YUKARI NO-
I wish you could cast a silence spell on nyx just to not get that repeated over and over
@@MeltedSea *Entrusting his future to the cards, man clings to a dim hope...*
Might as well post the copypasta here while I'm at it.
The moment man devoured the fruit of knowledge, he sealed his fate… Entrusting his future to the cards, man clings to a dim hope. Yes, the arcana is the means by which all is revealed. Attaining one's dream requires and stern will and unfailing determination. The arcana is the means by which all is revealed. The silent voice within one's heart whispers the most profound wisdom. The arcana is the means by which all is revealed. Celebrate life grandeur, its brilliance, it’s magnificence. The arcana is the means by which all is revealed. Only Courage in face doubt can lead one to the answer. The arcana is the means by which all is revealed. It is indeed a precious gift to understand the forces that guide oneself. The arcana is the means by which all is revealed. There is both joy and wonder in coming to understand another. The arcana is the means by which all is revealed. One of life’s greatest blessing is the freedom to pursue one’s goal. The arcana is the means by which all is revealed. To find the one true path one must seek guidance admist uncertainty. The arcana is the means by which all is revealed. It requires great courage to look and oneself honestly and forge your one’s path. The arcana is the means by which all is revealed. Alongside time exist fate, the bearer of cruelty. The arcana is the means by which all is revealed. Only with strength can one endure suffering and torment. The arcana is the means by which all is revealed. In the face of disaster lies opportunity for renewal. The moment man devoured the fruit of knowledge, he sealed his fate… Entrusting his future to the cards, man clings to a dim hope. Yet arcana is the means by which all is revealed. Beyond the Beaten Path lies the absolute end. It matters not who you are, Death awaits you.
The music to Hades final boss (wonder who that is) has gotta be one of the best phase change songs ever
“Who would watch Design Doc at 3am?”
Me, in Germany: “Oh boy, 3am, time for the new Design Doc vid!”
For me, a good example of how you don't have to do all that much with a second phase and still have it feel like a big deal is Celeste and the Badeline fight - halfway through you get a brief break where she doesn't have attacks and talks to you for a bit (but while you keep going at her), before the music picks up with a distorted, glitchy effect, and she starts throwing blocks telekinetically around the level. It's not a huge change to the process and a rather logical continuation of the mechanics, but the story context of it and the fight as a whole makes it stand out as a lot more memorable
Fighting depression has never been more satisfying.
Final Fantasy 14 has boss phases all over the place. While there are some with phases for the sake of story-telling, most of them actually have phases for gameplay mechanic purposes: The first phase will introduce you to the special gimmicks of the boss, and the later phases will gradually push the limits of the gimmicks further and further.
For example, one of the Endwalker bosses attacks you with different kinds of isolated attacks in the first phase, notably placing all kinds of monsters on the field that do an AoE of different patterns. And then he ends the phase with a new mechanic: spinning the floor and every monster on top of it. And then from phase 2, he starts either chaining these attacks one after another or using them all together, getting more and more intense as the fight progresses. This is a cool way to use phases, since it allows Square Enix to offer interesting challenges without confusing the player of what's going on. If the boss battles started immediately by mixing all these new mechanics, players would struggle to learn the fights.
WILL YOU LIVE TO SEE THE END?
@@pyrrhos8175 ALL IN EXISTENCE BENT TO MY WILL!
THE END HAS COME, AND IT WILL BE BEAUTIFUL
As a contrast, _WoW_ (at least when I played) tended to largely introduce an entirely new set of mechanics on bosses with phases rather than _FFXIV's_ introduce-and-then-layer approach.
On the one hand, _WoW_ can give you the feeling that you're stuck fighting multiple boss fights for one shot at loot, while on the other _FFXIV_ bosses can sometimes just feel like meat walls once all the mechanics are active.
While I wasn't the one playing it, the fight against Merga in Freedom Planet 2 that you showed a snippet of during the "tell us about it in the comments" ending sequence was very much an experience to watch a friend go through; not only could it be seen as a distorted mirror match for protagonist Sash Lilac, as Merga's a far stronger and more combat trained member of the same species, but it's a sort of endurance battle as you go through 6 phases of the boss on a single health bar (and if you're trying to get the highest rating for the fight, possibly on just a single hit point).
Surprised at the lack of mention of Dragon Quest, with the first game introducing the concept of multi-phase bosses with The Dragonlord. Many of its final bosses have really cool atmospheric or gameplay shifts.
An example of this is Psaro The Manslayer (from DQ4) is an interesting example of this: you fight him after he has used the Secret of Evolution, turning into a monster that keeps evolving as the battle advances. He has SEVEN phases (similarly to Nyx), in which he slowly loses arms, and grows new limbs; all the while changing movesets, until he achieves his final form and starts the *real* final battle.
Similar case is Orgodemir (from DQ7) who only has four phases, in which he goes from two forms you had seen before (a snake/dragon demon and a "dashing young dandy") to two new ones as his body begins to break down, with his third phase being an amalgamation of the previous two; and his final form being a version of the real one that's just... melting down. It even summons zombie-like creatures by "lobbing hunks of meat"... it's genuinely offputting, at least to me.
Touhou Project
Each Spellcard is essentially a different phase
With later bosses having more Spellcards to burn through, and more intricate bullet patterns to dodge
and non spellcard attacks are like a brief respite between attacks (sometimes they are hard too)
@@joserubenuriberusca1248 The non spellcards can be seen as phases as well, since they're generally (always?) different, but more similar to each other than the spellcards.
Not to mention they might differ based on the character that you play as and in higher difficulties they are often times stronger.
One of my favourite uses of of multiple phases in boss fights is to add emotion and to make you really feel for the boss.
An example of this is the final boss of Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights.
As the fight progresses through its phases she gradually gets more attacks as usual.
However, at some point it changes. At some point some of her attacks start failing occasionally, as she tries to summon monsters but instead only coughs up blood. In the final part of the fight she can no longer fight back at all, as she cries and struggles to even stay upright. I believe she does occasionally wind up for an attack, only to collapse onto the ground.
Another thing is that you can get away with more phases if you add great rewards and the fight is optional. In FFXIV, you can spend months in a single seven-phase encounter with only one checkpoint (after phase one) where each phase is its own boss that has sub-phases, but the reward is an incredible weapon you get to show off to other players (it’s an MMO) which keeps people trying to do it
This has nothing to do with gameplay, but I love multiphase bosses with multiphase music. Hi-fi rush is one of my favorite examples, each phase is linked to a verse or chorus of the song, so beating a boss also gives the feeling of clearing a song in a rhythm game. Very satisfying.
For a nontraditional multiphase boss fight, Rhythm doctor has 1-XN (Super Battleworn Insomniac). It is a souped up version of its daytime counterpart 1-X, the boss level designed to test your ability to count to the 7th beat. 1-XN's first phase is a faster, glitchier version of 1-X, but the second phase changes to a 7/8 irregular time signature. The audio based glitches are omitted during this phase for the player to get used to the new time signature, and reintroduced in the third phase as a final challenge.
the final boss gauntlet of kh2 is one of the most ridiculously epic things i've experienced in videogames
Dark Souls 3's Soul of Cinder has to be in the running for top boss phase changes, especially as it concludes the DS trilogy. The first phase has it transition between various movesets players could have in the previous games (made most obvious by the Scimitar form using the famous Dark Woodgrain Ring backflip), then when it goes to Phase 2 it suddenly gains Gwyn's move set and you hear the iconic Plin Plin Plon piano notes.
I was waiting for Metroid Prime 2 Quadratix boss fight. That one is very good at showing complexity and how the phases show how powerful a boss really is.
I'm surprised you didn't talk about the victory lap: an easy second phase to a hard final boss that always feels really cathartic for me like the second Ganon phase in BOTW and TOTK, Raven Beak in Metroid dread or Asriel from undertale
I’m glad you talked about Cuphead because it was ALL I could think about after you included the first clip of it! The visual changes are insanely brilliant-the wackiness and surrealism of those evolutions always perfectly grounded in classic cartoonal logic and physics. The fake “knockout” phase in Bootlegger Boogie was such a hilarious meta-moment that almost seemed to be designed for CZcamsrs’ reactions. And when it comes down to gameplay and mechanics, I think the fact that I managed to complete the game is a huge testament. I had no faith in myself starting out, but the game always stayed fun and kept me so engaged-never devolving to the sorts of hopelessness nor monotony you described with some of your examples. Love your videos, keep up the amazing work!
Chrono Trigger's true finale is a whole boss rush
Queen Zeal's both forms, then Lavos mimicking every single major boss you fought. Just to finally face the damn final boss and its three forms
One of my favorite multi faze bosses is Radiance and absolute Radiance from Hollow Knight. The final climb at the end brings so much anticipation to the end of the fight. Although our fight with Badeline in Celeste wasn’t exactly a multi faze showdown, each time you confront her she grows more depth in her character. Cuphead is one of my all time favorites. So that was a great example for this video. I just bought a gba sp, and I intend on playing Final Fantasy VI. As a pretty big fan of JRPGs, it looks like a lot of fun. Keep up the amazing videos doc! You are the best!
P.S.
Gannon/Gannondorf in Ocarina of Time was a very unique and dynamic battle. The time when Link escapes with Zelda from the crumbling castle mid fight was unforgettable.
Gonna bring up Mr Freeze from Arkham City just for him having multiple ways of dealing with the player.
Mario and Luigi partners in time final boss, The elder princess shroom fucked me over so much the first time I played the game I straight up decided to start again from 0 just to prepare better for her, God I fucking love that fight, the phase change was such a difficulty spike when I was a kid lmao
This is also good info to remember when making any boss for Tabletop Gaming. Even if there is no loss of time due to repwat attempts, there IS a loss from a bosses form taking too long or being more complicated than needed, and therefor losing the intrigue and attention of your players. I will be rememvering a lot of the examples and discussion here for the future ❤
I like Lavos' Boss Fight from Chrono Trigger a lot because it has 2 main fights that each have their own phases. The first is a Boss Rush where it first copies the prior bosses in the game for each phase, the second fight is the true battle. You can skip the first fight based on your decisions in the game as well, which is neat.
Actually, there's three phases. First is the potentially skippable boss rush, then there are two consecutive multitarget bosses with very different strategies.
Edit: Wait, I understand what you mean now. You're counting the boss rush as a seperate multiphase fight, and then the two phases final comes after it. Makes sense since in some cases you can choose to leave between the boss rush and phase 1 of the final.
Another good type of multiphase bosses are the recurrent bosses who each time you reencounter them they have a new phase to show, a good example is that egg kid from Paper Mario, first is like a normal enemy, later you are required to charge your attacks, then he flies so half of your moves don't work, and finally he flies with a spike so you have to know which options you have for an apparently immune-to-everything boss.
All modern Kirby games do this for just about every boss, but the True Arena in Kirby's Return to Dreamland Deluxe does it especially well for me. Specifically the remake, since it adds a bunch of new content, including a massive overhaul to the true final boss. Already, you can tell something's up - the background's different, he's hitting you with some intense attacks right out the gate, and his health is dropping suspiciously fast. But if phase 1 didn't make you uneasy enough, you're then thrown a healing item (which actually holds a lot of story significance for the new content); trust me, you'll need it once he shifts into phase 2. Now with a slighly altered design that makes him infinitely more unsettling, he breaks out brand new attacks exclusive to the True Arena, and is generally a lot beefier than even the regular version. And to top it all off, a unique death animation for when you finally prevail, which appears to dredge up some early concept ideas for an alternative ending to the main story.
Kirby games have made a habit of giving their final bosses exclusive new phases for the True Arena (or equivalent), and it's a cool reward in and of itself for the players who made it this far. But seeing an older boss get that same treatment just hits different.
Thinking about Chrono Trigger's boss phases. The first ones you encounter are in Magus' Castle, with Slash and Magus, specifically. Partway into the fight with Slash, he decides that you're a worthy opponent and so grabs his sword from the wall to fight you at full strength.
Magus is an interesting one, because the first half of his fight is as a Barrier Change Boss, where he's constantly swapping elements (attacking in the process) and you need to hit him with the right one to do the most damage; hitting him with one of the other three elements results in him healing, and hitting him with a weapon nets a counterattack and a Barrier Change. The second phase is him hitting the party with spell after spell as he charges up a fairly devastating super spell that can take you out in a couple casts if you haven't over-leveled.
Nearly every other boss in the game is a multi-part one, not a multi-phase one. Lavos could qualify for both, as it has three forms fought in sequence, with multiple enemies/parts in each form.
The second you showed footage of KH2s Final Xemnas bossfight I had to comment how good that final phase is.
> The music quiets down slightly from the previous phases.
- Now you need to listen for sound clues what attack comes next after Xemnas' teleport breaks your Lock-On.
> Perfect timing of reaction-commands, your Reflect spells and MP-management.
> The theme of the Boss already admitting defeat but not letting the protagonist win.
> Voice lines like "We shall go together" and "Can you spare a heart?" delivered by Paul St. Peter go incredibly hard.
And all that with the best visuals the PS2 could allow.
Man KH2 is such a great game.
About Nyx Avatar....
Reload made things a bit more unique with actual physical changes alongside moveset changes based on the Previous Full Moon bosses
Something that a number of games do that I personally know more through FFXIV is a phase transition after meeting a DPS check. It's simple in concept: Don't do enough damage to either break the boss' concentration or get their HP to a certain point before they do a big attack? Start over from the beginning. And if you do? You'll get treated to the boss transitioning to the next phase (potentially even being given a new checkpoint).
The most evident example of this in FFXIV is with the last bosses of each Savage Raid tier. To give an example, the last boss of Stormblood's Deltascape raid tier is Exdeath (it makes more sense in context) and once you get his HP to 0 on the Normal version of the raid, he ends up getting sucked into the void that he was using for some of his attacks and you win. But in the Savage version of the fight, not only are his attacks more difficult to deal with, but when his HP is depleted and gets sucked into the void he instead breaks through the wall and faces you as Neo Exdeath which is effectively a completely new fight on its own (with the aforementioned new checkpoint). Exdeath was pretty much the first example of this in FFXIV and the community ended up calling said first phase/fight a "door boss".
Yup! Exdeath also has to this day the best phase transition in the game IMO. This is also pretty much the entire concept of Ultimate fights in FFXIV. A gauntlet of short harder-than-Savage phases that quickly transition into each other with no checkpoints or breaks of any kind. I'm most of the way through my third one, and each one is a special treat of unique phases and mechanics that compound upon each other as the fight goes on. In TOP, you start off fighting Omega, who then transitions into Omega M and F, who then transitions into Final Omega.
Once you've beaten each form, you get phase 5, in which all the previous forms show up and start doing combinations of all their mechanics at the same time. If you thought dodging M and F's AoEs at the start of phase 2 was rough, you have to do it twice in a row much faster with extra complications while still maintaining your rotation in phase 5. If you beat phase 5, you can go onto phase 6, which is a new form entirely with brand new attacks designed to screw you over right at the end of a long gauntlet.
For a lot of Savage and Ultimate fights, I find that just seeing the unique extra phase transitions and boss forms is half the reward of doing the content. Seeing Titan Maximum in person was such a good reward for the first tier of Eden. Same for Hephaistos phase 2. Same for Perfect Alexander. Every time I see a phase unique to the harder difficulties, I feel rewarded for the struggle, and I really think that the incredible presentation is super important to keeping me motivated to finishing these fights!
It's certainly unclear from what you've written that you even know what a DPS check _is._ Not to say that the fight against Exdeath isn't a DPS check, but I'm pretty sure enrage timers (explicit or implicit) were more-or-less standard equipment for bosses by the time Exdeath went live, even if on the lower difficulty levels they translated more to "don't stand in the insta-gib fire" than a serious DPS race.
Ahtal-Ka from Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate should take special mention because it's a normal mantis spider hybrid in the first phase, a mecha pilot in the second phase, and then bludgeons you to death with humanity's first invention in the third
I'm very happy to see MHGU mentioned here! Love that game so much
I had a "time to Yunalesca" count going in my head when I hit play and I wasn't dissapointed :P
Even though From Soft excels at multiphase bosses, the one that has stuck with me its the Abyss Watchers, seeing them killing each other just for, in a final attempt, merge all of their blood to kill you (apparently destroying their faction in the process) it is majestic
Visually peak multiphase boss goes to Ivory king.
Probably the least interesting part of the Kefka fight is that you fight him in multiple phases. The most interesting part (which you didn't show off) is that he fights YOU in multiple phases. Your group falls in battle, your second and third group comes to replace him
Also all cuphead bosses feel like damage sponges because there is no animation for them to recieve damage, making all your attacks feel futile. Dividing the fight into multiple phases doesn't resolve the issue it just creates 3 different damage sponges.
The only thing that limits the frustration is that after you die it tells you how close you were to beating the boss. Without that feature you'd have no idea how far you were to beeting the boss. For all you'd know, once you get to phase 3 there are still a million more phases to go, and no health packs along the way.
In the Kirby series, starting from Triple Deluxe and onward, the True Arenas have players rematch with a final boss that's not only stronger, but also has an extra phrase to serve as the final test to this endurance run.
As a bonus, these extra phases can provide you a final bit of lore if you decide to pause... and in some cases, you get the chance to listen to a cool rendition of the Final Boss' theme
While it makes these "True" final battles more memorable, this can sometimes be an issue for some players, as most iterations of the arena start you over if you die.
Love the shoutout to 8-Bit Music Theory. 8-Bit and Design Doc are my top two video game CZcams channels.
In Tekken 8, they flip this on its head. Kazuya's moveset never changes between stages, your own does, swapping between Tekken 4 and beyond Jin's Karate to Tekken 3 Jin's Mishima-ryu to Jun's Tekken 2 moveset to a combination of the three. Really a fascinating way to put a twist on things.
Man, replaying the original Bravely Default and experiencing the final boss sequence with each phase between story progression having its 10/10 soundtrack slowly change from impending doom to a potpourri of the theme of both the main characters and the game itself in fanfare
I loved the big mashup of themes of the final boss the most. Since those same themes showed up constantly throughout the game as your party each used their special attacks, I liked to imagine the ones in the final theme were from the many alternate reality versions of your party all helping in the background.
So sad how bad Bravely Default 2 was.
@@Terranigma23 I have no idea how you came to that conclusion, especially with how highly rated it was.
@@Mordalon if it's your first Bravely game, then I can understand, but Bravely 2 is so different. What Bravely 2 miss a lot it's the "Meta" of Bravely Default 1/Second. Exemple, if you were at a certain point in the game and you decide to open the main menu of the 3DS, something really mindblowing happened. Bravely 1 was revolutionary because it was one of the first JRPG that you can control the random encounter rate. Bravely 1 world is more than just one big continent like in Bravely 2. There is boat/airship world map exploration. In Bravely 2 you are only by foot. It's boring. In Bravely 1 the Crystal are far more imposing (Crystal Orthodoxy) and important. In Bravely 2 the crystal are reduced to small key item that only the protagonist and main antagonist seem to know about. Can we talk about the main antagonist lol ? Bland/cliche thing that I have seen. Voice acting of Bravely 2 is a lot inconsistent. Bravely 1/Second voice acting has a lot of AAA voice actor. Always remeber when Agnes scream in rage against a certain character in Bravely 1. Bravely 1 plot twist were so much better. Bravely 2 has barely none of them or are predictable. Bravely Second has a lot more unique job class like (Exorcist, Patissier, Yokai, etc). Bravely 2 job class costume design is really nice, but there is a lack of new job class. It's always the same classic "black mage, monster tamer, bard, etc". The story and ending is really lame. The music of Bravely 2 is good, but I would have like to have more dungeon songs. It's a little bit annoying at the end, but it was really fine in the end.
Hands down my favourite phase transition is still Bahamut from the end of Coils in Final Fantasy 14. The music and spectacle is top notch, even in a game where phase transitions are pretty spectacular in general.
DSR (a couple ultimates ago) also did a fantastic job with storytelling throughout and used phases to great effect. Especially for something that has a race for world first attached to it, phases are clear milestones and the storytelling kept everyone very invested in what would happen once someone saw the next part. Funnily enough, that was also an example where people (the vocal ones) really hated there being a checkpoint until its purpose was made clear much later on.
Limbus plays with phases with the Distorted Hindley fight.
Distortions and EGOs are mental phenomenon, usually bringing their problems/will to become their strength, often having their powers and attacks be based on defining moments and personality. Most often phases are punctuated by a shakeup in moves, swapping out skill sets, or activating new passives.
Hindley is no different, and the hate for Heathcliff and his inferiority complex cause him to target Heathcliff and gain buffs on smacking him. Prevent him from doing so, and he starts taking extra damage.
But phase 2? On phase 2 he barely edits his attack pattern, wheels out no new passives, just a cutscene and the intense music becoming sad.
Hindley always blamed his problems on Heathcliff and could never grow or change. Why should his distortion, the physical corruption of his body by his issues, be any different?
The final boss of canto 6, plays with phases well.
You aren’t fighting one boss. You’re fighting two.
Each phase is punctuated by reality twisting and breaking, sending you to the other’s battlefield. Every time they gain new attacks, gimmicks, and patterns. The music also changes, until phase five, when it becomes a duet.
Limbus Company (and Library of Ruina) can be good showcases of how to do multiphase bosses (apart from that one fight in Library of Ruina, if you played it you know which one I'm on about). Boss of Canto (chapter) 3 has 2 phases with attack and visual changes, you can even make this fight harder on yourself if you don't get certain items from the dungeon on your why to them that shows One of your character's will to fight the boss.
Canto 4's boss is really good in it's own ways, you help the boss out of Distorting (turning into a monster basically) and they gain EGO (A power that'll be unique to the boss and takes on a unique shape based on them, an earlier boss of the same Canto also achieved EGO) , during the EGO section phases are highlighted by the music with you getting a bit more of the song after each phase before the finale with a beautiful cutscene.
I could go on for a long while about Canto 5 and 6's boss fights
@@arachineatzeer7478 canto 5 has the same gimmick on three phases. They have a resource you need to bring down to have a chance of damaging them.
But each phase has the effects change.
Phase one has an AOE that is amped, and the boss heals sanity (coin winrate) based off it, and reuses a good evade. It is lost this phase by whacking them during their evade
Phase 2 lets the resource reduce damage and reuse the last coin of their current ultimate. They’ll mark a target, but if the marked target hits them they’ll lose the resource.
Finally, phase 3 has them gain temporary shield hit points and reuses a powerful counter based on the resource amount. You need to out damage the shield to reduce it.
All three phases have the same basic logic, but what you need to do and watch out for changes.
I know that, I've done all cantos so far XD
@@arachineatzeer7478 saying it for those who don’t XD
I really really love the fight against Elfilis in Kirby and the forgotten land, whether it be the Arena fight against his Chaos form that offers a lot of difficulty and in which they end up as a simple ball of pure destruction; or his fight in the story, whith his posession of Leongar, his horrifying amalgamation, and the first time we see his godlike ultimate form... It always get more and more awesome each time
N. Gin in Crash 2 is a great example of making a player feel empowered, as each phase is got to by destroying the weapon of the previous phase. You slowly destroy his mechanical piece by piece until there's literally nothing left of it.
Lots of monster hunter's late game bosses are cool
Safi Jiiva, Raging Brachydios and Fatalis has cool phase transitions
Kurth Taroth's music intensifies
7:31 I think this point is mostly true with one exception. Rick The Door Technician from Star Wars Jedi Survivor. Truly the most memorable boss from that game simply because he’s such a wimp and theres nothing more to it.
There's something about Cuphead boss phases that I've never seen mentioned before. Specifically, the phases have different kinds of attacks in later phases, which test different skills. Early phases tend to have lots of fast attacks, often overlapping each other, though each individual attack is simple. But later phases usually only have one or two complex attacks, which take precision to actually avoid.
This provides a very specific kind of difficulty arc as you fight bosses over and over again: The early phases never get boring, even when you've played them dozens of times, because they're so fast and hectic. Each time you play, you get better and better at managing the chaos until eventually you can do it without getting hurt. Later phases, meanwhile, aren't a test of reactions so much as understanding. To avoid attacks in later phases, you need to pay attention and stay calm. The first time you reach the final phase, you'll die immediately to an attack you don't know how to avoid, then spend the earlier phases thinking of what you should have done. When you replay the starting, you simultaneously think about mastering the early attacks, and muse on how to survive the later ones, basically keeping your brain occupied the whole time. Winning a battle always feels very earned.
If early phases were slow and elaborate while later ones were fast and overlapping, the bosses would be miserable. You would figure out the complex attacks immediately, then have to sit through them every time you wanted to train your reaction time at the fast ones.
i really like danganronpas final boss phases in the final trial of each game. when youve logic-ed and minigamed your way far enough for the true mastermind to go "oh alright, you got me" and show their face. its a huge moment of success because you pinned them enough to give up hiding (with the added reward of a zany, larger than life character), but its also when things really begin, you realise that it isnt over and theres still more to go. theyre some of the series' most iconic moments for a reason. i particularly love it in sdr2, when they take advantage of that game's setting to do a crazy set piece
Ive played a lot of games with a lot of boss phases, but for me...i think the most memorable and impactful has to be...
Omega Flowey. I will never in my life forgey the feeling as he descended from the screen after i had to reopen my force closed game, and then the emotional swell with each phase as a new soul came to help me??? Oh my god, iconic. Toby's incredible score of course makes the whole thing, but the visuals and gameplay just. Its a beautiful, narratively driven boss fight that will continue to be one of the best in my mind in all of gaming
Volo from Pokemon Legends Arceus. Everyone knew he was gonna be important to the plot in some way by simply being connected to Cynthia. The standard 6v6 battle itself was a huge jump in difficulty compared to every other battle in the game so far, and him bringing out Giratina, despite also being expected at some point, ramped up the difficulty even more. Despite just being one Pokemon, Giratina can demolish your team with how the battle system in this game is set up. And even after you take down Giratina's health bar, the game then does a complete 180 and revitalizes Giratina with a new(old) form that makes it even stronger and giving your team no chance to rest. There's also the fact that unlike the other boss fights in the series that could be considered to have phases, this battle does not heal your team between each phase, effectively making the fight an *8v6, three-phase boss fight*, something that has never been done in the series before.
This boss fight was made to leave a long-lasting impression on everyone, even compared to all the other superbosses in the series.
The final boss in Okami has really cool forms which basically makes you use every technique you learned. It's one of the most satisfying final bosses for me.
CrossCode loves its boss phases, as pretty much every single major fight has at least three to five. Some boss phases just add a bit more movepool complexity to the fight. Others completely switch up their strategy. I suppose whether it feels exhilarating or frustrating depends on how well you understand your own moveset. And, to a certain extent, how good you are at choosing equipment for passive abilities.
I think you could do a whole video about making sure your game sticks to its own philosophies and what it teaches. Recently I've run into a lot of games that introduce a new element in the last fight, or asks you to have a specific build that can be hours of respec away from yours, and general choices that are unrewarding for players who spent the entire game being rewarded for their playstyle.
One fight that comes to mind is the final boss in The Legend of Heroes: Kuro no Kiseki II/Trails Through Daybreak II.
One of the defining features of this game and its immediate predecessor is that they use both turn-based combat and a simplified kind of action RPG combat, but with only the fomer in boss fights - except for this game's final boss fight, where after certain points, he will actually force you to fight with the action RPG combat, where you have far fewer options, until you can stun him and revert to turn-based combat.
He also outright changes the nature of the fight at different HP thresholds, using a power seen throughout the game via a set of plot-relevant devices to make you briefly face previous bosses, even altering who's in your party each time until the final phase reverts to who you were using before those phases.
I can't think of another game that's even attempted anything close to something so different for its climactic fight.
Someone brought it up! Hell yeah!
The final boss of Daybreak 2 is honestly the best you could get with any RPG, with many cinematic shots and twists in it. It really solidified the Daybreak games having my favorite combat.
Crosscode's two final bosses, of the base game and of the post-game in-game storyline in the DLC, use multiple phases.
A lot of them, since the first one, the Designer, has his healthbar divided into 16 segments, for your convenience.
It starts off light, as it is someone you've already fought, in what's a scripted loss ( if you game hard enough, he will just go faster and faster with exclusive dialogue until he reaches a limit where consistently dodging the one-hit kill attack ( advertised as such ) becomes nigh impossible ), and since then he only has had one change - access to all the elements for his shield, instead of only the two you had unlocked during the first fight, and a few stat increases.
Once you've knocked down two healthbars, he throws a barrage of orbital lasers on the arena - it's not hard to escape with most your health, but it's definitely a spectacle.
One phase later, he throws out the big guns. For the fourth to seventh phases, he uses an element each, in a random order.
The structure is always the same. He will charge up a big attack, and you need to hit him with the opposite elements. If you do it enough, you will get an elemental shield of the element he's currently using, nullifying all damage of that type.
Then he does his big attack, and after it you have the opportunity to go for a guard break and deal damage.
Repeat once Heat, Cold, Wave and Shock have all been used. Afterwards, it's the return of the orbital lasers.
Then you get a full heal, and a checkpoint.
For he changes the arena and his form, going from blue humanoid to giant blue godly elephant robot, changing name for The Creator.
For this ninth phase, it's basic. Either he does a flurry of punches that leaves his fists vulnerable, that you can guard break to access the trunk, that you can guard break again to turn into a climbable surface and leave his face open to your combos, or he fires a few pocker chips projectiles at you.
During the next one, he infuses his attacks with Heat and Cold, changing their properties, and the following one it's with Shock and Wave instead, getting for each element a big charge-up attack that you can weaken by quickly completing a short puzzle.
Then he gets a mad HP multiplier. Your attacks deal no discernable damage. This is not the first time this happens, and you know how to deal with it.
Or rather, your programmer ally knows how to hijack the conveniently spawned boss summons to deliver an exponential attack buff to you.
The Creator will then follow this structure for four phases : multiply his HP, enter an element ( in order of Cold, Heat, Wave and Shock ), attack you and spawn minions for you to buff up, rinse and repeat.
For the last phase, he'll do a big combination of all the elemental super-attacks, becoming then stunned for your victory lap, as in this one he automatically spawns and kills the summons that buff you. This fight's OST, The Ultimate Experience, is an apt description of this fight. ( The lore of it is that it was created as the ultimate videogame experience by a depressed developer who commits suicide once you finish it, the guilt of having tortured countless digital copies of people in order to harness private data too big for him to live after his life's work is complete )
The other one, at the end of the DLC's dungeon, a massive multi-floor structure floating inside of an immense crater ( the time to beat for the in-game challenge is 2 hours, which includes the boss. It is not easy ). This boss is Di'Orbis, creator of the universe according to the lore of the game inside the game, and the four other Ancient Gods, each of those associated with an element and an in-game in-game class ( with Spheromancer being associated with Di'Orbis and no element ).
This fight is similar, but better executed. It only has four phases, which are as follows :
- Phase 1 ; Di'Orbis, invulnerable, spawns two of the Ancient Gods. One will attack, then after the first downtime period after their attacks, both will assault you at the same time. Defeating one will give you the opportunity to guard break Di'Orbis, who'll then summon an elemental shield that gives him resistance to that element and a weakness to the opposed.
Phase change : He will start charging two attacks, a rain of Heat meteors and successive waves of massive ice pillars. You can reduce the length of these attacks by quickly completing a short puzzle that is "shoot this thing into this other thing with the correct element, then wail on the second thing", with a gorgeous visual of a gas giant in the center of the arena and the elemental attacks being represented by orbiting moons. After those are done, the gas giants will expand into a star and spears of light, that hit hard, will appear and attack you ( these were already used by the dungeon midboss, whose attacks are also reminiscent of the Ancient Gods' )
- Phase 2 : Same as phase 1, but the Ancient Gods get an additional super-attack of their element and shape, and they attack without waiting. Only one god may use this attack per cycle.
Phase change : Same as previous one, but with a series of Shock lightning strikes and one of Wave explosions. The light spears are more numerous.
- Phase 3 : Same as phase 2, but all four gods can attack you, and you need to defeat 2 gods instead of one
Phase change : Now he has all 4 attacks, the light spears are even more numerous, and after they fire, the star collapses into a black hole that covers the arena with lines that damage you if you stand in them
- Phase 4 : Multiple gods can use their ultimate attacks during the same cycle.
All in all, it's a very cinematic fight ( and the OST, titled "The Last Trial" helps it a lot ), that will take a good player around 10 minutes on rematches.
I could have swore the title was; why do bosses have phases, but digestability and keeping it from going stale are good answers for that as well.
A fantastic interpretation of Seven Force was found in a Mega Man fan game, of all things. In Make a Good Mega Man Level 2 (a level design contest), the judges made the endgame Wily Levels. ACESpark's level ends with a multi-phase gauntlet complete with new forms that relate to the Mega Man franchise (such as a Devil Form that _isn't_ monotonous) and a loose NES style. If the player is having too much difficulty, they can just skip to the last phase they were on in exchange for not getting an optional collectable. It really makes dealing with the low-tier entries and the spike-spam level another judge made worth-while.
I loved the 3rd phase of the Ganondorf fight in TotK, not because it's technical fighting like phase 1 and 2, but it's a cinematic set leading up to an intense climax.
Slaying the Demon Dragon while skydiving felt like a reward after a difficult swordfight, while nicely incorporating the main gameplay mechanic (skydiving) of the game.
I love that Sally Stageplay even references FF6 in its phase change to angel.
Kirby bosses do multiphases well, especially later in the game fights.
A notable one is Ado/Adeline, a magic artist possessed by Dark Matter, painting somewhat weaker versions of previous games' bosses (DL3) or various enemies + Ice Dragon (64)
After beating each phase, she gets progressively more enraged, until jumping out from behind her easel to fight on her own, only to comically be defeated from literally anything, including damaging Kirby, ending off the entire fight with a fun flair.
also holo defense api from planet robobot does this (without the funny flair at the end (still a cool fight))
One of my favorites is in Lightning Returns, on the final boss. On normal and easy, he has 4 phases: intro, magic, physical, and stagger phases. But on hard, you can fight his plus form, which has him shifting between his first 3 phases with no transition. It's a cool test of player capability.
Chrono triggers lavos boss fight is my favorite. Taking form of past bosses was dope imo
Honestly one of my favorite series with boss phases is the Kirby series since a lot of them do shift the fight drastically, especially when it comes to the final bosses.
One of my favorites is the final boss from Planet Robobot since it starts as a traditional style Kirby fight, but leads into an on-rail shooter against a planet sized super machine. The Ex version of the fight even adds a new last phase to the fight where it goes back to the normal fighting style for the finishing blows.
Luca Bright From Suikoden 2 will always be my fav multi-phase. He is basically almost depicted an evil force of nature villain for most of the game and his fight does some stuff that really sets it apart.
In most games you over come overwhelming odds, fighting through hordes and then take down the big baddie. This one flips the script.
It starts with you doing a doing an Army vs Army fight on a separate top down grid with the idea that you are controlling hundreds or thousands of soldiers with the idea you want to "isolate" the guy from the rest of his army. The next phase ask you to create 3 parties where each fights him a separate time, each wounding him visually after each fight, even though his dialogue only exudes confidence in his own strength. Between each fight and after, he has just a short bit of dialogue that just showcases that he absolutely knows he is evil and revels in it. Eventually you have to take him out in a 1v1 with his body already full of arrows.
Its a little different than the multi phase fights listed, mostly because it stops briefly after each phase and lets the story and dialogue cook a bit, but its really just one big multiphase fight. It uses all the game mechanics, from its large cast needed to make Three 6 person teams, to utilizing 3 different forms of combat to help drive home how strong and unhinged this villain was and I think its a big part why he is remember as one of the great gaming villains of all time.
Honestly, this one should have been mentioned. It's a thorough check of every skill and goes from grand scale to small, which is a rarity. I'm still looking for a boss fight that cool decades later.
Super Metroid endboss fight is probably one of the most epic in gaming history.
A great example of why the last phase doesn't have to be the most difficult one.
One of my favorite implementation of multiple phases in a boss fight belongs to Alatreon in Monster Hunter World. It does something that I didn't see mentioned in the video.
Rather than the phases being based on boss health, it's based on time spent fighting the boss. It starts in fire active mode, then after a while, it shifts to dragon active, then it unleashes its signature move, and it's ice active now. From ice active, it can then go back to dragon, then into fire once more. All 3 of these modes change its move set.
You can even influence what phase it enters. It's horns are breakable in dragon mode, and if you break it, instead of swapping to the opposite element, it will revert back to its previous one. For example, starts in fire, goes dragon, player breaks the horn, it does its signature move, but it goes back to fire instead. And all of this is on timer rather than boss health, which is really cool.
Gunstar Heroes getting a mention makes me very happy. What a throwback
The mantis lords fight in hollow knight is a great multi-phase fight. You walk in and see 3 of them on their thrones. They all bow and the fight starts. First you fight 1 of them, and learn the patterns, but once you beat that one, they go back to their throne, and the other 2 come out, using the same patterns as before, but now there is much less wiggle room and reaction time.
After you beat that boss though, later you can find them again to fight all 3 at once for the ultimate challenge of the mantis lords.
I definitely think that phases help to keep a boss fight fresh. Not only do you need to adapt to what's coming next yet you also don't have boss fights feel like they're taking longer than they should. One bad example I can think of would be the elemental dragons from Bravely Default. They all follow basically the same pattern and don't change at all during the fight so you create a single strategy to take them on and then spend a long time grinding out the same turn sequences over and over until you've taken them all out.
I absolutely loved the final boss of FF6 though. Not only is each phase unique in what threats exist and that the phases have their own meaning, it also builds up really well to the climax of fighting Kefka himself. You're part on edge with all the problems you need to deal with yet also part in awe on how amazing the fight is.
Want to adapt your boss's set of phases for higher difficulties of your game? You might try doing what Dead Cells did and cut out the earlier, easier phases as you amp up difficulty. The Concierge, for instance, starts out by simply walking after you and using an attack with a year of startup, then pushes you away when you damage it to a certain point, switches phases, and unleashes a temporary aura that rapidly chips away at your health if you get too close. When you start a run by breaking out the first boss stem cell, however, Concierge just... doesn't bother with either of those phases. He whips out the aura right off the bat and now you have to hope he doesn't immediately jump across the screen to shred you with it.
One of my favourite final bosses is the last boss of Wario Ware Get it Together. There's a short, micro-game like phase for every single one of your characters, and you'll need to get through all of them. It perfectly delivers on the games main system, while also being a fun challenge at the same time.
One of my least favourites is the Xemnas fight in kingdom hearts 2. Most of these phases are perfectly fine, the initial fight, the cylinders, the power core, and the first armoured Xemnas are all perfectly fine. The schmup section would have been fine if it was just 50% shorter, and the second armoured Xemnas fight just feels completely unnescesary. Just give us one fight with the harder mechanics. Final Xemnas is a great fight, but the fatigue is kinda starting to set in at that point, so it can be kinda frustrating.
Spoilers for Nier:Automata --
The final boss of its C/D-endings consists of you switching around between characters in mechanically different phases, It is kept together by the song (iirc 'Possessed by a Disease') continuing between switches whilst the further in phases become shorter and more aggressive, as basically the world around you falls apart.
Eventually, the revealed boss of each of the characters' phases combines into a 'philosophical amalgamation' that you fight with everyone at the same time. It is this memorable and epic progression, in a game filled with many memorable boss encounters.
But given it is Nier, you do not get a glorious, optimistic end to the fight. Instead the fight ending there, you get a choice who you play as to fight the other character each with a rather sad resolution, hence the split endings.
The fight in itself would already be great, but the (in part inevitable) rugpull (and Ending E) makes it a memorable package.
When I think of excellent examples of multistage boss fights, I think of Metroid Dread's Raven Beak and Pokemon Legends Arceus' Volo/Giratina.
These fights stand out to me because they both do an excellent job of making you think they're over long before they're over, by making the first phases already big difficulty spikes, and the second phases tough enough that "surely there isn't MORE, right?" They never feel unfair, you have all the tools you need to win right out the gate, and yet each time you reach a new phase you will VERY likely be blindsided. It's good stuff!
I think Dark Souls 3 takes my first place for favorite multiphase fight. One fight in particular is amazingly well done.
To set the scene I need to give some background. So far in the game the only bosses to have a second phase with a transition are the Lords of Cinder that are appropriately signposted as particularly badass. At the end of the fight you immediately get your reward as the music fades.
This is important because Sister Friede is an awesome twist of this. She is an 'ashen one' just like you, and at the first transition she becomes embered (which is something you can do) fully healing her and bringing in a second boss. Father Ariendel.
When the second phase is complete they both fall to the ground, you get your titinite slab (final upgrade for your weapon) and the rush you feel just about forces you to celebrate.
However, you can hear Father Ariendel give a dying prayer to empower Sister Friede, and she, Stands. Back. Up. Now much more difficult and more aggressive than ever. Being empowered by heretical dark flames she seeks vengence on you for destroying her world.
I will never forget having to quickly pick up my controller and panicking till she slaughtered me in the 3rd phase, the only 3 round fight if im not mistaken in the entire game.
Grime has some really damn cool bosses and phase transitions. Personal favourites being Surrogate Vulture, Shapely Fidus and Dreamborn Terror, And the Vulture when you are on New game plus where every single boss either gains new attacks and/or entirely new phases.
Radiant Silvergun does many variations of multiphase boss fights. Some bosses just change from one phase to another suddenly, others more gradually.