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Best bosses in Western Developed games?

Shadow of the Colossus, 5 Soulsbourne games, MGS franchise, Platinum games are just a few I personally like.

k I don't think MGS belongs here at all, almost all fights are simple and perfunctory.

Shadow of the Colossus is entirely about boss fights, so of course it has good ones. I'm sure Cuphead will have dope bosses too.

So after that, the question becomes "why don't more developers make games like From Software and Platinum", to which nationality is irrelevant.
 
Where are all the amazing boss fights that people keep talking about in Japanese games.

I mean, people are citing Zelda...really? The series where every boss has one or two attacks and all you have to do is hit their glowing weak point with the dungeon item a few times?
In addition to a lot of the great choices other people have mentioned, there is stuff like many of the bosses from across the Mega Man franchise, the giant monsters from the Lost Planet games, the fun boss fights you see in dungeon crawlers such as the Etrian Odyssey games, and the fun boss fights from the Metal Gear Solid games.

There are no lack of great boss fights out there, but they are strangely absent in mainstream western AAA titles.
 
I feel like if you bring up something like Destiny which draws its roots from MMO's it's a massive disservice not to give credence to WoW. WoW without a shadow of a doubt has the best MMO boss fights. I agree Atheon and Oryx were fun. But they don't even hold a candle to the best raid bosses in WoW.

WoW fights were good, often excellent, but the MMO boss king is:

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(Titan Hard\Ex, FFXIV)
 
k I don't think MGS belongs here at all, almost all fights are simple and perfunctory.

Shadow of the Colossus is entirely about boss fights, so of course it has good ones. I'm sure Cuphead will have dope bosses too.

So after that, the question becomes "why don't more developers make games like From Software and Platinum", to which nationality is irrelevant.
Its my small list of favorites. Many other posts suggest Dmc, Ninja Gaiden, Resident Evil, Dragons Dogma etc.
And MGS has some of the most memorable bosses in gaming.
I really think Dmc is near the overall best on average.

Sly cooper being near the best for west. Last boss has good stuff in sly one. Other bosses like the ddr like voodoo gator?

Little big planet has a few nice things as well.
DMC and Bayo aren't my personal style. I love MGS Rising though.
 
Where are all the amazing boss fights that people keep talking about in Japanese games.

I mean, people are citing Zelda...really? The series where every boss has one or two attacks and all you have to do is hit their glowing weak point with the dungeon item a few times?
Bayonetta
Devil May Cry
Dark Souls
Vanquish

Play any one of those
 
Where are all the amazing boss fights that people keep talking about in Japanese games.

I mean, people are citing Zelda...really? The series where every boss has one or two attacks and all you have to do is hit their glowing weak point with the dungeon item a few times?

When's the last time you played a Zelda game...?
 
Where are all the amazing boss fights that people keep talking about in Japanese games.

I mean, people are citing Zelda...really? The series where every boss has one or two attacks and all you have to do is hit their glowing weak point with the dungeon item a few times?

Zelda has some pretty good bosses

Not every boss has to be challenging to be good. Zelda bosses at their best are satisfying to fight and have plenty of spectacle.
 
Weren't people just dismissing the God of War series for being mere spectacle?
While a lot of Zelda bosses are fairly easy puzzles, there are also a lot of really fun fights in the series. It isn't a series you can paint with a broad brush. For example, while some Twilight Princess bosses fall into being easy spectacle battkes, the boss fights against Ghirahim in Skyward Sword are intense swordfights with no gimmicks or tricks other than knowing how to defend yourself and create openings. Those are legitimately great boss fights that demand you make the most of the game's unique control scheme.
 
Maximo (PS2) from Capcom's now defunct Western studio. Game deserves more attention for being a really good reimaging of GnG as well.
 
Just remembered, Next Level Games is a western studio and they made Punch Out Wii.

That's a game of nothing but boss fights, and it's great.
 
Speaking of Strider, I think the 2014 Strider had pretty decent bosses, actually. More involved, prolonged and significant conceptualizations of the quick arcade bosses. I really like that game in general, though.
 
Where are all the amazing boss fights that people keep talking about in Japanese games.

I mean, people are citing Zelda...really? The series where every boss has one or two attacks and all you have to do is hit their glowing weak point with the dungeon item a few times?

People already mentioned some games

I will add Dragon's Dogma(especially the DLC bosses) and Kingdom Hearts(especially 2)

lingering will and Sephiroth are God tier bosses

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhL5WQjnfjc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVcbyeJd2Uk

honestly KH2 has countless good bosses.

oh and the final boss of Splatoon was amazing too last year

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YSzDXldPzo

good bosses in Japanese games are like fish in the see easy to notice while good boss in western games are like needle in a haystack.
 
Ewwww L4D Tanks are emblematic of everything that is wrong with FPS boss design.

They work really well in the context of Left 4 Dead. They require a fair use of teamwork to take down, which is the entire point of the game. You want to stick together, but not close enough that you all get bodied by his attacks. You need to aware of your environment so you dont get stuck in a corner, or possibly tossed off the map entirely. There's a strategy involved in preparing for a Tank in the last stands, and the spontaneous cooperation that comes when the Tank appears. He also has a fantastic song, a classic giant monster movie song that instantly inspires dredd and panic in the player.

Not sure whats so bad about it, unless you're just against a boss that requires the player shoot it a lot. Which I mean uh...that's kinda...the whole genre there. Its like complaining about a beat'em'up boss where you have to punch it a lot until its dead.
 
They work really well in the context of Left 4 Dead. They require a fair use of teamwork to take down, which is the entire point of the game. You want to stick together, but not close enough that you all get bodied by his attacks. You need to aware of your environment so you dont get stuck in a corner, or possibly tossed off the map entirely. There's a strategy involved in preparing for a Tank in the last stands, and the spontaneous cooperation that comes when the Tank appears. He also has a fantastic song, a classic giant monster movie song that instantly inspires dredd and panic in the player.

Not sure whats so bad about it, unless you're just against a boss that requires the player shoot it a lot. Which I mean uh...that's kinda...the whole genre there. Its like complaining about a beat'em'up boss where you have to punch it a lot until its dead.

It's just not fun. It throws you around, shakes your camera around a lot, and requires lots of backwards strafing while shooting if he's aggro'ed on you. You can prepare for last stands. But if he surprises you mid-level you can't really prepare for that. FPS bosses in general tend to suck, especially ones that get up in your face and shove the camera around. I say this as someone who has put 200+ hours into L4D2 and 150+ into Killing Floor 1.
 
k I don't think MGS belongs here at all, almost all fights are simple and perfunctory.
Psycho Mantis, Liquid, Volgin, The Boss, The END, Metal fucking gear
tumblr_o15mk7rjLN1rc7zl1o1_400.gif


But seriously one of the biggest disappointments with MGSV amongst the fanbase were the lackluster and janky bossfights.
 
I think the Lazaravich fight from Uncharted 2 is interesting and was disappointed by the first games Crash Bandicoot fight and the third games QTE thing.

Yaaaaaa. I'm glad someone else mentioned him. I really like the Lazarevic fight and I'm surprised by how negative people are towards him. It's a straight up cat and mouse fight and all about mobility.

I really like the second time you fight Dark Samus in Metroid Prime 2 as well (the elevator fight). It's a shame the last fight against it is poopie.
 
Sonic 2 would technically qualify, but it's kind of a cop-out answer. A lot of the big Japanese Sonic Team members were in California during the development of Sonic 2.

I think he answered mainly that to throw off the definition of 'Western Developed.'

It's as much a cop out as people naming Metroid Prime bosses. That game was "made" in Austin, but with Japanese producers and Nintendo's all seeing eye watching over it.
 
I can think of like 5 from GOW III alone.

Hades, Zeus, Cronos, Posiedon, and Hercules. Unforgettable moments in an epic game.
 
Psycho Mantis, Liquid, Volgin, The Boss, The END, Metal fucking gear
.

These are my 2 favorite boss fights in the whole series. I think out of all the MGS games, 3 had the best package of boss fights to me. I still laugh my ass off whenever I make The Fear eat some rotten food and make him barf his guts out.
 
The final boss of Infamous on the hardest difficulty was the perfect difficulty/reward ratio ive ever felt. It took a lot of patience, precision and learning of patterns and tells, it took a few deaths to learn that, and once you had it down the fight lasts quite a while giving you a long tense period of "alllmooost thhheeerrree", but it wasnt smash your tv hard or anything. It didnt punish me enough to make me hate it. It was just hard enough to make me feel like a superhero when I won.

Next closest Boss fight in my experience was Deathstroke in Arkham Origins.
 
Where are all the amazing boss fights that people keep talking about in Japanese games.

I mean, people are citing Zelda...really? The series where every boss has one or two attacks and all you have to do is hit their glowing weak point with the dungeon item a few times?

In addition to all the games listed by others, try Ys too. Dragon's Dogma. Monster Hunter.

Seriously, it's not even a contest. Japan wins this hands down.
 
Yaaaaaa. I'm glad someone else mentioned him. I really like the Lazarevic fight and I'm surprised by how negative people are towards him. It's a straight up cat and mouse fight and all about mobility.

Same. It fits perfectly with how good and arcadey all the other action in the game is, with what's still the best entry with the best scenarios. I don't agree with the criticisms at all. The same reason we got no supernatural twist is the same reason we got another QTE fest at the end I guess... too many external chefs in the kitchen.
 
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Royce from Transistor.

Epic battle against an opponent with the same skill set you have. You need to know your own strengths and weaknesses to know where to get in your good hits and how to best mitigate his. Awesome fight.


Agreed on this one too. Really establishes a great sense of scale, and rewards you for understanding how each previous raid mechanic fits together. You feel like a badass when your group gets the fight down and you trigger that sweet kill animation.

The recent developer ride along cited Ghostbusters as reference, and it really cements the quality of the thinking that went into this encounter.
 
Quadraxis from Prime 2

All the bosses in the Prime Trilogy are God Tier (except Mogenar, fuck Mogenar).

Retro is the only Western dev who's bosses that I actually like.

Man, people always bring up Quadraxis as their favorite boss from that game (and maybe the series), but I never saw it. Sure, the technical part of it is really cool, but the game had a bad habit of getting in your way, and some elements of the fight aren't well-designed. The 'blinking blue' kneecap weakness should be telegraphed to the player earlier or it should have a better hitbox. The camera in the last phase of the fight isn't reliable for boosting from the spider rails to the top of its head and you have to time against your instincts. The mini-quads summoned later on are more annoying than a serious threat - They sort of appear near the end of this endurance run of a fight and are just there to distract you. The colored troopers in the Omega Pirate fight from Prime 1 are more engaging imo - You hear them coming and they're very direct and swift in their actions.

I'd probably go with Omega Pirate as my favorite fight overall but if we're sticking with just Prime 2, Chykka, although I admit I'm being a bit unfair. I sort of discount the first half of the Chykka fight, which is a boring slog, because the second half is so adrenaline-pumping. The music picks up, the platform you were fighting on splits apart, and Chykka itself is very animated. There are some annoying parts to this fight too like aiming its moving tail and Seeker Missiles sucking in general, but Chykka feels more satisfying to me because the progress feels palpable.
 
Aside from Deus Ex in which triggers different sequences bases on how you approach a boss, I simply can't find any memorable ones save for Guacamelee, which I consider one of the best controller tests I've experienced in a boss fights. Every input is directly utilized by the player and a nice balance of defence, offence and counterattacks. If someone made the equivalent in 3D game it would be gaming bliss.

And no, Platinum games do not count.

If Guacamelee didn't exist, I'd place classic Tomb Raider for sheer presentation - as well as being mechanically driven instead of press x to play video gamezzz.
 
Man, people always bring up Quadraxis as their favorite boss from that game (and maybe the series), but I never saw it. Sure, the technical part of it is really cool, but the game had a bad habit of getting in your way, and some elements of the fight aren't well-designed. The 'blinking blue' kneecap weakness should be telegraphed to the player earlier or it should have a better hitbox. The camera in the last phase of the fight isn't reliable for boosting from the spider rails to the top of its head and you have to time against your instincts. The mini-quads summoned later on are more annoying than a serious threat - They sort of appear near the end of this endurance run of a fight and are just there to distract you. The colored troopers in the Omega Pirate fight from Prime 1 are more engaging imo - You hear them coming and they're very direct and swift in their actions.

I'd probably go with Omega Pirate as my favorite fight overall but if we're sticking with just Prime 2, Chykka, although I admit I'm being a bit unfair. I sort of discount the first half of the Chykka fight, which is a boring slog, because the second half is so adrenaline-pumping. The music picks up, the platform you were fighting on splits apart, and Chykka itself is very animated. There are some annoying parts to this fight too like aiming its moving tail and Seeker Missiles sucking in general, but Chykka feels more satisfying to me because the progress feels palpable.

BUT YOU'RE BREAKING HIM APART!

I haven't played 2 in years so all I remember is the spectacle. But damn, that's what made it so memorable.
 
DmC's last boss, needed a lot of hand holding from Capcom but that boss is the closest to being as mechanically good as great Japanese bosses.
 
As a person who played Lineage 2/WoW for a decade I have to say that you are giving too much credit to intense number/ stat crunching puzzles that require mass coordination over relatively simple and uncompelling mechanics.

I see where you are coming from but over time I just grew tired of the intentionally unfun mechanics built into MMO raiding. It forces players into investing much more time than is required compared to Destiny on top of encouraging form of play that is toxic to my enjoyment of a videogame. Meanwhile in Destiny's more coop/pickup/arcade version of raiding is a much more digestible and enjoyable experience.

Besides fuck any raid boss. The best fun I had was a 17 hour 200-450 person PVP session outside of Baium's boss room in oldschool L2. When I think of MMOs the best content for me were the mass PVP events. The raids were just a chore.

You're either not a raider and speaking out of your ass, or you haven't done a raid in any game in 10 years. Stats are one of the least important parts of boss design, other than to ensure that mechanics play out correctly (When you overgear something it loses meaning, or if you're on LFR or something where it doesn't have any impact it also loses meaning). If you're talking about farming consumables and shit, you DEFINITELY haven't played in over a decade.

If it were purely down to numbers, bosses would die the first pull, good guilds are that good, mechanics ARE the bosses, and they're certainly deserving of these spots. Single player gamers would be crushed by the complexity of most of these fights, and Destiny is an ok riff on it for small fps playing groups, but they don't hold a candle.

Now if you mean they take too much time because at the highest level these fights require hundreds of attempts over time, then I think you're speaking to part of why we largely consider these so good. But even the easier fights that you can kill in a single night of raiding your first time seeing them can be awesome bosses. The fact that they're in an MMO/Cooperative is an additional level of coordination and enjoyment.
 
I fully support anyone saying Prime 2, especially Quadraxis. Though they're not as engaging as it I'd say the final combo at the end of Emperor Ing and then Dark Samus during the countdown sequence is one of the most cool encounters thematically.

Those saying fights from Prime 1 though I can't really get behind. The first time around they're pretty cool but then you realize it's strafing around the target and hammering shoot while switching to the appropriate visor or, in the final bosses first phase, weapon.
 
You're either not a raider and speaking out of your ass, or you haven't done a raid in any game in 10 years. Stats are one of the least important parts of boss design, other than to ensure that mechanics play out correctly (When you overgear something it loses meaning, or if you're on LFR or something where it doesn't have any impact it also loses meaning). If you're talking about farming consumables and shit, you DEFINITELY haven't played in over a decade.

If it were purely down to numbers, bosses would die the first pull, good guilds are that good, mechanics ARE the bosses, and they're certainly deserving of these spots. Single player gamers would be crushed by the complexity of most of these fights, and Destiny is an ok riff on it for small fps playing groups, but they don't hold a candle.

Now if you mean they take too much time because at the highest level these fights require hundreds of attempts over time, then I think you're speaking to part of why we largely consider these so good. But even the easier fights that you can kill in a single night of raiding your first time seeing them can be awesome bosses. The fact that they're in an MMO/Cooperative is an additional level of coordination and enjoyment.

Third option - you aren't used to playing in good guilds and are easily amused.

No longer being enchanted by MMO raiding is not the same thing as being inexperienced in them. The mechanics that encourage the toxic bullshit response that you gave does not impress me. Nothing you said made a good case for why I should like raids. The only thing your post made a good case for is why I don't like people who are still hung up on them.
 
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