#10485486, By CitizenGeek Recently Completed Games

CitizenGeek 11 Aug 2014 21:55:15 3,491 posts
Seen 3 months ago
Registered 15 years ago

MatMan562 wrote:
How can you be a huge MGS fan and think video games would be better off without bosses? That doesn't make any sense to me

I was just thinking it was a bit weird to complain about boss battles in a comment about a Metal Gear game! You're right, the best boss battles are more like complex puzzles, which I think the MGS games do very well. That said, I think MGS bosses, overall, are a bit overrated. The bosses in MGS1 and MGS3 are fantastic, but it's a different story with MGS2 and MGS4, where the boss fights are nothing to write home about, and the bosses in Peace Walker were pretty frustrating. I think the MGS games are a very rare exception that kind of prove the rule that most boss battles are pretty terrible, though.

I'd distinguish between RPGs and other games here. Boss battles in RPGs, where the boss is basically a super-powered regular enemy with some additional abilities, can be satisfying and good fun and you can always just grind if they are too difficult. Action games and the like are where boss fights seem to be used as tedious lazy showpieces (at best!) and cheap difficulty spikes at worst.

Edited by CitizenGeek at 22:04:57 11-08-2014