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Do bosses with multiple life bars annoy anyone else?
- Thread starter oni-link
- Start date
This so much, there is nothing worse fighting a boss wondering if what your doing is having any effect on it. Gears 1 final boss being the worst imo.
I like multiple boss health bars as usually it means the boss has multiple forms or major changes in strategy.
Flame Lord
Member
They're pretty good in KH2. Yeah they're multiple, but it has indicators to show how many you've burned through. Plus when you're doing the extra bosses at lvl99 blowing through those life bars in a few hits feel real good. I do remember thinking they sucked in the first KH, because it was just color coded. It especially suck for fucking Sephiroth who basically had an invisible health bar and it didn't seem like you were doing shit.
bobawesome
Member
It's even more irritating when you KNOW there will be multiple forms. Looking at you, Xenoblade.
Black_Stride
do not tempt fate do not contrain Wonder Woman's thighs do not do not
I did a design study while prototyping a game some time back(years ago actually)
We tested a couple ways to give feadback to the player about boss health.
Note for each test it was the exact same boss with the exact same amount of health.
- Nothing - Just let them keep figintg till the boss drops - Players hated this. Few loved...yeah loved it because the mystery of not knowing if the next hit will drop him kept them firing away...but generally the team hated it, one guy actually asked if it was just a random hit that makes the boss drop.
- Visual reference - Boss has no health bar, but as you damage him you can see that he is getting more and more hurt.....worked with lower health bosses, but high health bosses players actually just lost interest (possibly our damged looks werent visual enough) because they could tell how far from victory they were
- Single health bar - Hits will deplete the health bar so little that players started feeling like their efforts were worthless, or that the battle was super long
- Multiple Health bars - Hits on each health bar take a decent chunk, giving players instant gratification. And depleting each health bar could reward players with health, checkpoint, weapons, new boss forms etc etc. This method was the one players liked the most.
- Super Long Health Bar - Chunks comparable to Multiple Health bars get depeleted with hits. Players liked this one too because they immedietely knew this character is a badass cuz his health bar is much longer than others, but still felt like the work they were putting in was actually doing something because the health chunks were decent when they attacked. This was the second most popular in our tests
- Mutliple Health bars on top of each other - Same as above, the opinions on this one were positive as well, but it ends up taking up HUD space unnecessarily.
I liked the colored life bars of the bosses in Final Fight, cause you'd see a color you never saw before after each one and once it got the color of the previous boss you'd know exactly how much you have left.
It was a good way to see how stronger each one was than the one before it.
It was a good way to see how stronger each one was than the one before it.
And cheaper.
This.
Please try to see things differently, OP. This kind of life bars are usually (supposedly) used as a checkpoint indicator and communicators for pattern change and form-transformation. Games that doesn't do this are usually the one from devs that never understood it and put long life bars for the sake of it.
Hoped you learned something new.
Rhomega Beta
Member
I'm looking at you, Mega Man Zero and ZX.
This.
It's a good thing that he is one of the easiest super bosses in Final Fantasy games. Otherwise, that 50m hp wouldn't be necessary at all.
Slamtastic
Member
I liked how the Balder fight in Bayonetta 1 used multiple single life bars that refilled instead of multiple stacked ones, so you didn't know how much longer the fight was, and you thought you had managed to win but he's all "lol nope".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPk0Uc76U4k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPk0Uc76U4k
I found the layered health bars to be really annoying in W101.
In TTYD all bosses which heal only do so at a specific point in the fight, usually to signal a phase change. I don't see that as "self-healing" so much as having a bigger health bar than you're initially shown.
PM64's bosses have actual self-healing where they have attacks which heal themselves which they can throw out at any time they feel, which is much more obnoxious, at least for me. On the bright side, since their heals are just another attack, they can be skipped altogether if you charge up enough damage to kill the boss from near full health in a single turn.
In TTYD all bosses which heal only do so at a specific point in the fight, usually to signal a phase change. I don't see that as "self-healing" so much as having a bigger health bar than you're initially shown.
PM64's bosses have actual self-healing where they have attacks which heal themselves which they can throw out at any time they feel, which is much more obnoxious, at least for me. On the bright side, since their heals are just another attack, they can be skipped altogether if you charge up enough damage to kill the boss from near full health in a single turn.
PleaseBeGentle_
Member
Yiazmat is the true winner of this thread lol
every dot under his healthbar is another bar. he even has a move to fully reheal himself if you put it in a certain situation. T.T
every dot under his healthbar is another bar. he even has a move to fully reheal himself if you put it in a certain situation. T.T
Diablohead
Member
I don't mind it but when the extra HP bars are not clear enough that's annoying, you think you're about to finish but NOPE extra HP bar out of nowhere appears.
nailbombxx
Member
I don't see any problem with it
BouncyFrag
Member
I'm more annoyed by bosses who jump out of reach and summon a wave or two of baddies for you to dispatch while the boss is throwing down AOEs. Dragon Age 2 first comes to mind.
Ryouji Gunblade
Member
Only one health bar is needed.
Might as well put every separate bar into one pixel each.
Might as well put every separate bar into one pixel each.
threelights
Member
KH specifically is not much of a problem because when bosses start to get dumb amount of health bars you will be depleting a single health bar relatively fast.
KH1 was a little worse since instead of little pips indicating how many bars there was left, the bars would just overlap one another and change color, like a beat'em up, so you had to know the colors to know how much health the boss had.
But overall, I prefer this to the percentage bar from MGR (although I do think the percentage bar worked better in that game specifically), because since the bars are always consistent throughout every enemy in the game, it means I can keep trying stuff out to see what will deal the most damage, instead of seeing things that will only apply to one enemy.
KH1 was a little worse since instead of little pips indicating how many bars there was left, the bars would just overlap one another and change color, like a beat'em up, so you had to know the colors to know how much health the boss had.
But overall, I prefer this to the percentage bar from MGR (although I do think the percentage bar worked better in that game specifically), because since the bars are always consistent throughout every enemy in the game, it means I can keep trying stuff out to see what will deal the most damage, instead of seeing things that will only apply to one enemy.
super-famicom
Member
What bothers me is when a boss has one health bar, you whittle it down to 0, then it refills back up. I prefer having multiple health bars, especially ones overlaid on top of each other (yellow health bar on top, when that goes down you see a green bar underneath, then the green bar empties and becomes transparent).
If it's used as an indication for pattern changes i'm fine with it, even if i'd rather have a single bar.
If it's a rare occasion where the boss hasn't displayed his final form leading to the bar refilling itself (final boss in general) i'm fine with it aswell.
Personally i have more an issue with boss that heals and/or summon adds, it can be interesting and offer fun counter mechanics but it's generally not the case.
If it's a rare occasion where the boss hasn't displayed his final form leading to the bar refilling itself (final boss in general) i'm fine with it aswell.
Personally i have more an issue with boss that heals and/or summon adds, it can be interesting and offer fun counter mechanics but it's generally not the case.
BouncyFrag
Member
Kai Leng in Mass Effect 3 is the absolute worst. Your interactions with him are just as bad as the whole ending debacle making Thane's quip about him even more wonderful:
He let a terminally ill drell get in the way of him taking out his target.
Enigmatic Rainbow
Member
I prefer multiple health bars over a single one. The visual feedback feels much better when you deplete the bars much quicker, instead of seeing one bar slowly drain.
As already mentioned, most games that do them well have them labeled anyways. I actually like it when it's done on the player as well, like in Metroid games.
As already mentioned, most games that do them well have them labeled anyways. I actually like it when it's done on the player as well, like in Metroid games.
Gucci Messiah
Banned
yeah that's some straight bullshit
I'd like to see a really organic approach to 'no health bar'. Monster Hunter does this but the tells are often too subtle to pick up on during your first couple fights with a monster, as they are mostly related to how often it enrages.
The animation work and battle damage on the character model are what make this kind of thing unreasonably difficult for the 'payoff' so to speak. But I want to see it done well in a game with truly great boss fights.
The animation work and battle damage on the character model are what make this kind of thing unreasonably difficult for the 'payoff' so to speak. But I want to see it done well in a game with truly great boss fights.
Spring-Loaded
Member
That shark boss form Viewtiful Joe had multiple health bars and healing
SliceSabre
Banned
Nope because it gives me an idea of how longer I'm gonna be fighting the boss and prefer it vastly over super long HP bars.
As long as there is an indication of the massive amount of life, i don't mind.
As an example, i'll use the SRW series.
People find annoying that in later games bosses have inflated life points, i don't mind, because at least you have an idea of how much HP the boss has, contrast with SRW @ gaiden, in which bosses have small HP, but instead GET FULLY RECOVERED a bunch of times as their HP reaches zero, it's absolutely annoying because it trolls you with your resource management, you unload all your heavy stuff thinking you're finnaly gonna destroy the boss, no, whoops, he healed again! haha! i bet you didn't expect this Boss regenerating for a 4th time, did you?!
As an example, i'll use the SRW series.
People find annoying that in later games bosses have inflated life points, i don't mind, because at least you have an idea of how much HP the boss has, contrast with SRW @ gaiden, in which bosses have small HP, but instead GET FULLY RECOVERED a bunch of times as their HP reaches zero, it's absolutely annoying because it trolls you with your resource management, you unload all your heavy stuff thinking you're finnaly gonna destroy the boss, no, whoops, he healed again! haha! i bet you didn't expect this Boss regenerating for a 4th time, did you?!
Plague Doctor
Member
We need more games where we can fight with health bars. Deadpool gets it.
Soodanim
Member
This is what I came to find/post. Post 7, not bad. I'd always mention it as the ultimate, but there's almost certainly some MMO boss that has already been posted that beats it.
Squall5042
Member
This annoys me to no end.
I love this. I don't want to roll over bosses like they're nothing.
Basically this. In KH at least, when I see that I'm about to finish a bar or am half-way through the boss' hp, I can prepare myself for even more powerful and fast attacks. Helps me manage things like getting my cures ready.
But at least when you figure his schtick out (ie, make him chase you out of water where he takes a ton of damage), he becomes incredibly easy.
I liked that about VJ bosses, they seem like bullshit at first but they all have weaknesses you can figure out to level the playfield.
The first time i defeated Fire Leo it took ages because i brute forced my way thru the fight, it was possible to win, but figuring his weakness by dodging his attacks made it easier while still challenging.
What the actual f***?? Surely there's some weapon or spell or item that makes it lose 1m HP each time???
It's frustrating when you have different color indicators depending on how much life is remaining in the lifebar (Streets of Rage, SoulBlazer, FF Type-0 all do this)... I always forget the order of the colors... "oh, does green come before cyan? and then yellow is the last one?"
Haunted
Member
Yep, it feels like I've had several Japanese games which did that recently.
Several coloured HP bars are fucking useless, they don't tell me anything until I'm at the last one.
visiblemode
Member
Ding ding ding
I usually hate this. Write the story so the inevitable conclusion of a fight matches what's about to happen in the story, instead of having me beat a guy and then he suddenly blows me away in the following cutscene.
There are exceptions to this, but it's usually annoying.
As for OP, multiple life bars are part of lots of awesome games, doesn't bother me.
Highly doubtful. Best bet to take him down super fast would be to use a pro action replay or some other cheat device.
No. He's supposed to be the ultimate challenge in the game as I understand it. Not every game should let you bullshit your way through a boss fight.
http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Yiazmat_(Final_Fantasy_XII)