Preferred Boss

[Random Person]

Do you prefer a boss where there is only one way to defeat (like in OoT and TP) or one that there are multiple ways to defeat (like in MM.) Personally, I'm tied. MM gave you many different options on how to defeat most of the bosses, but in TP, even though you only had one option, you were forced to look cool doing it. And I don't know about you, but I love when a game makes the character I'm using look cool. I guess it takes into account MM's ability to go back in time as well.

 

[dumb180]

I like the multi-vuln style of bosses present in MM, Alttp, and probably other titles. Having said that, I liked the camera views and catchy music of TP's boss battles. Even so, I definitely prefer the former option.

 

[PhantomTriforce]

I like the bosses with multiple ways to defeat. Let's take a look at some of these kind of bosses:
Goht from MM
There were 3 ways to kill this boss
1) Roll around as a goron - medium difficulty to do, does the second most amount of damage
2) Stay near the door and shoot fire arrows - easy difficulty to do, does the least amount of damage
3) Place bombs with perfect timing - hard difficulty to do, does the most amount of damage
Mothula from ALttP
The are 2 ways to kill this boss
1) Fire rod - easier of the two to achieve, does the lower damage
2) Attack with Master Sword - harder of the two to achieve, does the higher damage
Helasaur King from ALttP
As most of us know, there are 2 phases to this battle
Phase 1
1) Place bomb with perfect timing - harder of the two to do, does more damage
2) Hit with hammer - easier of the two to do, does less damage
Phase 2
1) Shoot an arrow - harder of the 2 to do, does more damage
2) Attack with sword - easier of the 2 do to, does less damage

Looking at some of my examples, the bosses with multiple ways to defeat were mainly from ALttP and MM, and there were the funner bosses too. Multiple ways of defeating bosses might also give better experience, challenges, etc.

 

[Tony]

I like multiple ways to defeat a boss because it gives you more reasons to play the game again with more or less difficulty. I liked the way they did this in LoZ, Alttp, and MM also. My favorite boss that you can defeat different ways is probably the mini boss Wart because there is so many ways to get the bubbles off.

 

[linksbro321]

I like bosses with many ways to kill them because their easy!!!!!!

 

[Master Sword13]

I'm tied too. Honestly, I'd like it if there were multiple options, but each option had a different cutscene, that way you could look cool fighting AND do it different ways each time. Especially if you went back to the first day or something like in MM.

 

[Oni Cucco]

Mothula from ALttP
The are 2 ways to kill this boss
1) Fire rod - easier of the two to achieve, does the lower damage
2) Attack with Master Sword - harder of the two to achieve, does the higher damage

3) relase a bee and dodge the traps

skip to 1:33 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aib2tyvsEcM

 

[blubb]

Well, if it comes to Mothula, I usually get the Golden Sword before beating that dungeon (you don't need the fire rod in level 5 to defeat ice enemies or unfreeze the boss, the Bombos medallion does the job just as well) because even after beating the game >20 times, I have still a hard time against Mothula, especially because you have to hit her very akwardly, the sprite and the vulnerable area actually don't match very well. I don't know exactly how many hits it takes to defeat her, but obviously the Fire Rod is more effective than the Master sword. But the Tempered Sword and especially the Golden Sword are much better.
But back to topic: I like bosses with multiple ways to defeat them much more, and that's just one of the many resons why LttP and MM are my favourite Zelda games. I think it's kind of boring and predictable to simply use the respective dungeon item (and only that) to defeat a boss and it takes away a lot of challenge. The Oracle games are an exception to that, finding the weak spot of a boss wasn't always that easy even though the dungeon item was used most of the time.
IIRC the battle against Majora could be fought in more different ways than any other (final) boss battle in the series (#2 would be Beast Ganon in OoT): Depending on how difficult you wanted the battle to be, you could use either of the five(!) forms of Link, with Fierce Deity being the easiest and Deku being the hardest. As normal Link, you could use normal arrows, light arrows, no arrows at all (depending on the phase of the battle) and you could use the Kokiri Sword, Gilded Sword or even the Great Fairy Sword. Doing a spin attack is harder with the GFS (and also swinging the sword normally is harder with the GFS), but therefore it deals more damage. Heck, you could even use bomb(chu)s for some extra challenge. Maybe there are even more possibilities to that battle! Such things greatly increase the replay values of the game, so I'm all the way for bosses that can be killed in multiple ways.
Off-topic again: For those of you who have played Final Fantasy IV and V: In FFIV your classes for the final battle are pre-defined and the boss is not very hard at all. In FFV you have to choose your classes and the abilities you learn throughout the game very wisely or else you'll fail epicly on the final boss. While I've beaten FFIV on the first try without any problems (yes, I'm referring to the "hardtype" version), I had to play through FFV twice because on the first playthrough I totally screwed up my classes and abilities and therefore stood no chance against Exdeath.
So the same applies to Zelda: [obvious] The replay value is much higher if there are different ways to beat the game. [/obvious] I like non-linear games much more, unless the difficulty is really over-the-top.

 

[February Eve]

I'd like more than one way. The classic "use the dungeon item on the boss", sure, but including a more unusual way to kill a boss would be a way to provide challenge for veteran players. It doesn't necessarily have to be by using different items, either. For example, when fighting Morpha in Ocarina of Time, you can actually hide in a corner to make it easier to fight him. You can also try jumping around the middle platforms, which makes it harder since it's easier for him to grab you. It helps to balance the difficulty.

I also like offbeat methods of killing the big bosses, like being able to use the bug-catching net instead of a sword to "play tennis," or setting the golden bee on him mentioned in another post. I hope fun methods like this return in future Zeldas.

 

[zora warrior]

Well, I haven't played ALttP and I have only played the very beginning of MM, but it would be a lot more fun, i can imagine. So i guess I'll have to go with the latter.

 

[Moonlight]

I am going to say I am tied between both XD

 

[8bubbles8joe]

One with multiple options, it encourages creative thinking and new strategies.

 

[Sasuke Uchiha]

Multi-Vun
(30 character rule, I have a rule against YOU!!)

 

[butterbiscuit]

I prefer it to have multiple options. With this, you can challenge yourself with new ways to beat the boss. You can also see how your friends beat it. Just as long as there aren't a few really easy solutions, the more the better.

 

[Ice6661]

i liked having multiple ways of killing the bosses, it adds more to it.
sure having one way to kill a boss is fun but it makes it soo easy
like why not have a challenge =]