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General Zelda Having More Bosses Outside of Dungeons?

Joined
Nov 25, 2012
Location
Monkey Island
This is EXACTLY the kind of things I want to see in future installments, as a way to break up the ol' formula without shattering it to pieces. More non-dungeon bosses, more dungeon-esque puzzles in the overworld...essentially, more of a blending between the overworld and the dungeon. I've never understood why Zelda has to always be so strict about making a distinction between the overworld and the dungeon; action-adventure gameplay wouldn't be compromised without that pattern at all.
 
Joined
Jan 28, 2013
This sounds like a great idea to me. The bosses are always one of the most fun parts of the game and more means more fun. Plus, harder bosses where you have to find the weak point sounds more hard then the bosses we always get. It will give me a chance to show off my awesome brain power.:sword:
 
Joined
Feb 23, 2011
I've been advocating external boss fights for a while now; mentioned it many times in my posts. I think it'd be neat to have scripted boss fights throughout the overworld, but not only that—I think it'd be neat to face a boss inside a town or village in order for its citizens to return and thrive. This relates to the series' lack of urgency in regards to its citizens. It'd be quite refreshing, in my opinion, to actually witness the villain in the process of attempting to destroy a town or village rather than always hearing about it in hindsight. (E.g., "omg Ganondorf took all our food and summoned a monster!" ... past tense. Instead of... "omg Ganondorf is taking all our food and summoning a monster!" ...present-progressive tense.)
 

JuicieJ

SHOW ME YA MOVES!
Joined
Jan 10, 2011
Location
On the midnight Spirit Train going anywhere
This post really has nothing to do with the amount of bosses in the overworld, but idgaf. It's on my mind and I want to speak it! (But just to go ahead and say it, I think the number of fights in the overworld we saw in Skyward Sword was fine. It would be nice to have a larger number of different bosses, though, even though I liked The Imprisoned making a reappearance. The third time was unnecessary, that's all.)

I've always been enthralled by the idea of overworld bosses in Zelda, and I'd been anticipating this truly coming to form ever since playing Twilight Princess and Phantom Hourglass (they each had mini-bosses out in their overworlds). Naturally I was quite pleased to see it come into fruition in Skyward Sword.

And yet... even though I was pleased, I still say more should be done with them. We need to see the environment taken advantage of in future overworld boss fights. I'm aware that the spiral incline and geysers at the Sealed Grounds were a major part of The Imprisoned's fights, but I'm talking things like the bosses themselves using the environment to their advantage. Let's say a battle is taking place in a snowy area. Perhaps the boss could do things like camouflage itself or use the snow as a protective barrier. Or maybe a boss takes advantage of a mountainous area by making rocks fall (yeah, yeah, I know about Volvagia).

Moving on into a tangent (of a post that has nothing to do with the OP lol), I think part of the reason I'd like to see this sort of thing is because I believe that the titanic bosses should be used as the overworld boss fights. Axle has touched on downsizing Zelda's bosses in the past, and he's right about bosses not needing to be so huge all the time, but having large bosses every now-and-then offers a change of pace. However, it doesn't make sense to me to have a monster the size of a building inside of a dungeon. Out in the open, though, it does make sense. That's not to say every overworld boss would need to be large, but I think any boss that is large should be in the overworld.

There's only one problem I see with having a boss battle in the open Overworld-- the ability to, at any time, simply run away. Unless you were to create a barrier or make the boss fast enough to catch up, in which case it could very well work. I'd be very interested to see how it would play out.

Isn't that what The Imprisoned and Levias did?
 

Mellow Ezlo

Spoony Bard
Joined
Dec 2, 2012
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eh?
Gender
Slothkin
I love the idea of more overworld bosses. A lot of the games in the series (MM, TWW if the big octos count, TP, PH, ST, and SS) had overworld bosses, but I feel like it needs to be taken to the next level.

First off, MM had Skull Keeta, and although it was and incredibly easy fight, I still enjoyed it, and seeing the Stalchildren again was nostalgic for me. However, that particular battle had much more potential, meaning they should have made it longer and harder. When you're in a haunted graveyard in the middle of the valley of death, and you see a giant skeleton standing there, would you be expecting such a short and easy fight? I didn't when I first played it. Except, I am going to excuse this one merely because it was the first bit of experimenting with overworld boss fights, so it's not going to be amazing, and it's quite good considering.

TWW had the Big Octos, except I consider these more of a miniboss. One thing I will point out is that I was expecting some epic sea battle in the boat, but I was disappointed. My overall feelings for the game would have increased drastically if there was a Great Sea battle! I consider it just a missed opportunity.

The only overworld boss in TP I can think of is King Bulblin (there might have been more, but I can't remember at the moment). Although repetitive, the battle was slightly different each of the four times you fought him. The first time, you actually have to chase him around the field, until you strip him of his armour, at which point he moves to the bridge. Knocking a big, fat pig off a bridge was probably one of the most satisfying parts of the game for me XD PLUS, you get to do it twice, with the first time being drastically different from the first. Using arrows to get through his defenses was a cool and creative idea on Nintendo's part! Unfortunately, though, I feel like these two battles were too short. I think it would have been really cool to have some sort of epic horseback battle (similar to what I said above about TWW). Sure you had Ganondorf, but that was hardly a horseback battle. Again, it's a missed opportunity. Oh well, at least they tried. :(
The last two battles with King Bulblin were much different from the previous two, and are the only parts in TP in which you actually lose a significant amount of health (although his attacks are quite easily avoided...). These battles were, in my opinion, really fun, but not challenging enough. It would have been more fun if he had more armour and faster attacks during his ground battles (outside the Arbiter's Grounds and in Hyrule Castle Courtyard).

PH and ST also had overworld bosses, but they were pretty simple.

SS brought overworld bosses to the next level. First off, we have the Imprisoned. Although too easy, the Imprisoned acted as the best final boss build up in the entire series! I love how Groose assisted you during these three battles, it made them a lot more interesting, and made each battle different from the last! Overall though, the Imprisoned sort of disappointed me...
After the Imprisoned, we fought Levias and Bilocyte. Just the idea of fighting the great spirit that watches over Skyloft is awesome, but we actually have to save him. I love that they decided to include an epic Loftwing fight in the game, it sort of made me forgive Nintendo for the missed opportunities with the previous games. Unfortunately, however, I found the battle with Bilocyte to be too easy and unoriginal. The whole battle was a game of volleyball, which we've already seen way too many times in the series! But, that doesn't mean I hate it. I found it cool how Levias and Bilocyte were part of the same battle. Losing against Bilocyte made you have to defeat Levias again. I'm not complaining, Levias is a fun battle. I also like how we have to defeat Levias' parasite from on top of Levias itself!

All in all, SS was the first game that really wowed me with it's overworld bosses, but I still expect more. I think the next--or at least a future--Zelda game should include more numerous, harder, and longer overworld boss battles than previous games. A little repetitiveness is Okay too, but don't go crazy like with the Imprisoned and King Bulblin... :wynaut:
 

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