Are Boss Battles Getting to Easy?

[ihateghirahim]

The first time I played Skyward Sword, I beat many of the bosses with little effort. Once you know what to do, the boss is really predictable and not that hard. I played OoT again, and the bosses seemed much harder. You know how to beat Volvagia, but you still can't escape the raining boulders and confusing whack-a-mole guessing. Phantom Ganon is self-explanatory, but you still have to find and time your shots just right. I think the boss battles seem to be getting easier. Anyone have some insight?

 

[Ventus]

Yes.

The reason why Skyward Sword's bosses were so easy is because of the style of combat that pervaded each and every boss in existence. If they were blocking one way, you attack the area that is open by slowly bringing your sword over then wreaking havoc on them promptly. It's hard at first because you have to adjust to the motion controls, but soon you realize that the game IS the motion controls as far as combat is concerned.

I propose Nintendo make the controls just how you control Link, not how you defeat foes (if you understand what I mean that is).

 

[Kirino]

The reason why Skyward Sword's bosses were so easy is because of the style of combat that pervaded each and every boss in existence. If they were blocking one way, you attack the area that is open by slowly bringing your sword over then wreaking havoc on them promptly.

That really only applies Ghirahim, and even then I think you're oversimplifying it. Bosses like Koloktos, Tentalus, Scaldera and The Imprisoned require very little use of motion controls. Even the bosses that did use motion controls as the main method of defeating them had them used cleverly. I had quite a bit of trouble with SS's bosses.

Anyways, more on topic, I think SS struck a good balance in boss difficulty. I wouldn't mind if they kept it that way, but yeah, harder bosses would be nice. Challenging bosses are the only bosses there should be. That's what bosses are for.

 

[JuicieJ]

For a while, the bosses were generally way too easy, yeah, but Spirit Tracks and Skyward Sword (especially Skyward Sword) really put the bosses back on track. They weren't strictly limited to the use of an item to stun them, rendering them helpless while Link wails away on their weak point without any effort whatsoever, and their level of challenge was above average for, not just the series, but general gaming.

Even when they weren't incredibly hard (Scaldera, Moldarach, Bilocyte), they were still STIMULATING due to their flawless and diverse design, and that's something that modern 3D bosses just couldn't boast in the GameCube era. The only other game I've played that I can say matches SS's boss lineup is Metal Gear Solid 3. I can only hope to see Zelda 3DS and Wii U take this success even further.

 

[Zelink]

Aren't boss battles supposed to be some epic showdown? I'm just too good at video games I guess. I wish bosses could take more damage though and have a more diverse array of attacks and better reactions. Yeah I think they're too easy but Nintendo also has to cater to the younger audience as well as casual gamers. It's a tricky balance really.

 

[Ventus]

Aren't boss battles supposed to be some epic showdown? I'm just too good at video games I guess. I wish bosses could take more damage though and have a more diverse array of attacks and better reactions. Yeah I think they're too easy but Nintendo also has to cater to the younger audience as well as casual gamers. It's a tricky balance really.

Boss /are/ supposed to be an epic showdown. Perhaps not the culmination of everything previously learned, or everything learned in the dungeon/area you just visited, but still they're supposed to be tough for the point the player is in the game.

@Draco When I was talking about SS, yes I was oversimplifying it. I had no trouble with the bosses due to their patterns and general mechanics, so after about a year and a month of talking about it, I really can't be troubled to consider the most inept of players when speaking about SS.

What I SHOULD HAVE BEEN saying is, there's player skill to consider when creating boss-types, but said skill should not be based around how well they know as well as how often they can get the controls to work.

 

[Cfrock]

I wouldn't say bosses are getting too easy. I agree that they are easy, yes, but the bosses in Skyward Sword were a bit more challenging than the bosses in Twilight Princess and the DS games aren't the breeze that The Minish Cap's Chu-Chus were. So I'd say the series was taking admittedly small steps, but steps nonetheless, towards making the bosses more challenging with recent entries.

You know how to beat Volvagia, but you still can't escape the raining boulders and confusing whack-a-mole guessing.

I don't think a boulder has ever hit me during the Volvagia fight and if you stand in the centre when you know Volvagia is about to pop up, you will be able to reach him in time, no matter where he comes out.

The reason why Skyward Sword's bosses were so easy is because of the style of combat that pervaded each and every boss in existence. If they were blocking one way, you attack the area that is open by slowly bringing your sword over then wreaking havoc on them promptly.

Gonna have to agree with Dracomajora on this, only two bosses (which sadly count for no less than five actual fights) really fit into this: Ghirahim and Moldarach. Scaldera, Koloktos, The Imprisoned, Tentalus, Bilocyte and Demise either didn't use specific directed swinging or made tiny use of it (such as needing a horizontal swing to sever Koloktos' legs or deflecting Bilocyte's spit to the left or right). SS's bosses were easy, to be sure, but only two were based around directed sword swings.

 

[JuicieJ]

What I SHOULD HAVE BEEN saying is, there's player skill to consider when creating boss-types, but said skill should not be based around how well they know as well as how often they can get the controls to work.

But it's not. The bosses in Skyward Sword test your skills by forcing you to read and react, just like in the classic era. Knowledge of the controls is just a mere part of the bosses. Which is actually a good thing. If your game's control scheme isn't being taken advantage of, then it's using rather primitive design.

 

[The Wanderer]

Whether the bosses are getting harder or easier depends on your perspective. I know that's kind of obvious, but Skyward Sword clearly divided Zelda fans in more than one area. I only have The Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, and Four Swords: Anniversary Edition to go on, but it seems bosses got pretty easy between Majora's Mask and Skyward Sword. They were essentially huge puzzles that could attack, and once you know the answer to a puzzle, it's just not as challenging.

Not all Skyward Sword's bosses were intimidating powerhouses, and yes, they could have been harder. I think what really separates them from previous bosses is that you generally have to be on top of your game to avoid getting slaughtered. The top of your game may not be very high off the ground, but you still can't slack, or you'll get whacked. (I just came up with that.) Ghirahim's battles aren't truly that difficult, but they require timing, precision, and a bit of sheer reflexes to boot. Look away from the screen to grab a pretzel or something, and expect to be face-down on the floor when you turn back.

I would say bosses were getting easier, but then Skyward Sword happened and they became more challenging again. They're still not quite where they should be, but unless Zelda Wii U returns to the whole glorified-puzzle-boss ideal, they're on the rise.

 

[DarkestLink]

I beat the MQ Boss Guantlet with more ease than that of the Lightning Round. Maybe I just suck at SS.

 

[A Link In Time]

While there have been recent installments with easier boss battles like The Minish Cap (except for the Big Octorok and Vaati) and Phantom Hourglass, the difficulty of most bosses usually requires me to use at least one potion in battle which is sufficient for me to enjoy considering I'm a seasoned veteran.

What I liked about Twilight Princess and Spirit Tracks was the variety of boss battles although the pain didn't rack up until Ganondorf and Skeldritch, respectively. Skyward Sword leveraged the assets of those past titles while introducing less predictable bosses. Whereas Ghirahim and Demise followed a set pattern, they readily defended against Link's attacks.

 

[Spirit]

The 2D Zelda boss fights are a lot harder than the 3D games and I think since WW boss battles have been getting a lot easier (this includes all 2D titles released after WW) Th only boss that gave me any trouble in WW was the second Phantom Ganon fight and only because it was an endurance fight.

Boss battles are so easy now that i havent seen a game over screen in a Zelda game for a very long time and its a shame because bosses are something that should put the difficulty and fun into things but with games like MC, TP, PH, ST and SS i just havent felt challenged and the only fun thing about boss battles is seeing what they actually are but saying that i wasn't impressed with SS's roster of bosses and i saw five of them at least twice which made me feel shortchanged. They need to put the difficulty back into bosses and make them a threat again rather than them being a room with a bigger and slightly different looking field enemy.

 

[Justac00lguy]

I think since Zelda has entered the era of 3D we haven't had a consistent amount of challenging bosses...

I think one of the weaknesses of Zelda games as a whole is the difficulty of the bosses! Boss battles are meant to represent the biggest challenge you have faced so far and all the skills you have learnt up to then and in that dungeon! However we ussally get the same concept of use the dungeon item on the weakpoint and repeat, sometimes there will be exceptions but this is the general idea of how a boss in Zelda works!

One of the things I actually thought Skyward Sword did well in was boss battles! Tbh some of the bosses I didn't like but the challenge and design of the boss battles were actually a step forward! Not a huge step but we had more diverse bosses, bosses with higher challenge, bosses with more stages and unique switches with the likes of the Ghirahim boss fight!

In terms of challenge boss battles certainly need to up the anti if they want to improve the whole boss experience as in my eyes a challenging boss is a good boss!

 

[Zelda-Obsessee]

Skyward Sword bosses were a piece of cake for me but for a few of my friends who play Zelda they seemed to be a real challenge, especially Ghirahim. (Who I thought was the easiest out of the lot.) Demise was a bit tricky for me but once I got the hang of the thunder skyward strikes it wasn't hard at all and I can do that boss battle quite quickly whenever I try now.

Twilight Princess is another story though as a lot of the bosses are generally quite large in size and overall are intimidating especially Twilit Arachnid Armogohma, but that's just because I absolutely hate spiders. Back to my point, the bosses were big but the damage they gave wasn't anything to worry about and after playing the game 3 times I see that really the bosses weren't /that/ tough in this game either. Perhaps I little trickier to work out how to kill. (Being able to squish the giant spider with the statues was very satisfying though...)

Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask; I found those bosses to be a bit more of a challenge especially Bongo Bongo in the Shadow Temple, that was frustrating. But that kind of level of difficulty is what I like, challenging and a little frustrating but not impossible on the first go.

The bosses in games like Phantom Hourglass, Spirit Tracks etc. I find are also a little on the easier side, perhaps a bit more of a challenge is in order but I wouldn't want the bosses so hard it'd take me 3 tries before I defeated it.

 

[Krazy4Krash]

I beat the MQ Boss Guantlet with more ease than that of the Lightning Round. Maybe I just suck at SS.

Or have been playing OoT for over a decade...

Are bosses getting too easy? No. They've actually stepped up in the most recent titles. Not to the point of being called "challenging", but nevertheless, have gotten "harder", I reckon.