Another boss fight in God of War was the Colossus of Rhodes. Take the Cronos fight, but strip it down to have only two moves — that’s what this boss fight is. While you fight the Colossus throughout the entirety of the first level, you truly kill him off at the end when he’s basically falling apart. The enchanted statue has a ground pound move that creates a shockwave, and the ability to create walls of fire, all of which will hurt you if you touch them. It’s an extremely boring boss fight that doesn’t feel epic or rewarding. Kratos is also a deity at this point, so he pretty much beats the statue into rubble without breaking a sweat.
Let’s stay in the realm of action games and move onto DmC: Devil May Cry which also has larger-than-life bosses.
**SPOILER ALERT** There are two major bosses (hilariously enough, they are related, so maybe it runs in the family) that stand out as the worst and possibly the dumbest bosses that I’ve fought in my gaming life. Mundus and Mundus’ Spawn will try to overpower Dante with their sheer size. Unfortunately, their limited movesets and entire combat approaches are so brain dead that they’re just glorified targets. Mundus’ Spawn has three moves that I’ve seen, and none of them are a real threat. The same can be said for Mundus. **END SPOILER**
I think we dwelled in the realm of action games for long enough though. Let’s instead look at a boss from the RPG genre. I love the Tales games, but their boss fights haven’t always been the best, specifically their large ones. One that pops into my mind immediately is Gusios from Tales of Vesperia.
Gusios is extremely large, towering over the player characters at approximately 3 times their height. And he’s even wider and longer than that. However, he's extremely slow, making it somewhat easy to maneuver around to the weak points on his back. You’d think that exposing and utilizing the weak points of a boss to your advantage is smart, right? But every single time you try to make your way to his back, you're prevented from doing so. It’s almost as if the game is saying, “Nope! Can’t do that!” It’s an annoying detriment. This boss is just like any other boss in the game; it just happens that he’s large.
Any huge boss needs to have something that stands out other than just sheer size. Look at Dark Souls or even Demon's Souls. They also have huge bosses, but each of them is interesting. Their size is used to their advantage, though it may house some weaknesses as well. It's too bad there are bosses who throw their weight around with no real stuff backing them.
Have you ever been stereotyped? Well, we’re going to look at some stereotypes that exist in video games. Join me next time as we venture into the land of familiarity and cliche.
Simon Chun is GameZone’s freelance writer and RPG buff for all things new and old. Check out his twitter @kayos90.
There was a time when bosses were an integral part of the gaming experience.
Oh wait, they still are! After all these years, bosses are one of the highlights of the games we play, usually challenges that you must overcome at the end of a stage, or mid-stage, or something that is meant to test your skills. They’re excellent for bragging rights as you make your way toward the end of the game.
The art of designing a good boss fight can be tricky. While most gamers probably don't know what is necessary to create one from a development standpoint, they can usually tell if a boss fight is good or bad.
This week on Bitpicking, I’ll be looking at the bosses that are particularly large, and, while their size might make them look intimidating, they’re actually pretty tame.
God of War is a franchise that lives and breathes off of boss fights. Its large mythological beings are several times bigger than protagonist Kratos, yet somehow he manages to kill them all. Perhaps it’s not a testament to Kratos – and effectively the player – that these creatures go down, but to the bosses' powerlessness and inability to think creatively.
Cronos is a massive Titan in Greek mythology and an absolute gargantuan in God of War III. I'm not exaggerating when I say that Kratos isn’t even the size of his fingernail. Fighting Cronos is an awe-inspiring experience just because there hasn’t previously been a boss fight of that magnitude of the franchise. So you'd think bringing him down would be rewarding when fighting. However, Kratos fights Cronos on his arm, and just like a person trying to swat a tiny bug, Cronos attempts to kill Kratos as he squirms about. In theory, Cronos should easily win, as Kratos isn’t agile as a fly, nor can he fly away like one. But this isn’t the case, since all Cronos does is try to slap Kratos while the latter peels away at the titan’s fingernails until he gets angry.
All you’re doing is fighting a dynamic environment rather than an actual boss. Fighting Cronos is like watching a quick-time event unfold as you pick away at his hand until you kill him in an anticlimactic and unbelievable way. Size doesn’t mean anything. This fight throws logic out the window (though the franchise didn’t have much to begin with), and runs. Boss fights are meant to be cool and rewarding. Here, it’s just flash without substance.
