Spoiler What Did You Think of Demise?

[Ghirahimiscool]

Hey guys! I know not all of us liked Demise, the final Skyward Sword boss. But some of you do. So, what did you think of Demise, and why? I hope you reply!

This thread was brought to you by Ghirahimiscool. Thank you.

 

[Ventus]

Boss wise, I find him worse than Ganon. You can manipulate both, but Demise is such a joke. I laugh when people say he's the hardest ermahgerd boss ever.

Story wise, I find him a worse "cop out" than the Defeat Timeline. He has no legitimate placement in the series in my opinion, and should scurry back into Street Fighter where he belongs.

 

[A Link In Time]

I thought Demise was a refreshing final boss battle. He exhibited extreme eloquence for someone his size and despite fan complaints regarding his role as the demon king I believe he functioned in the narrative very well. From the constant flashbacks and repeated fights in the Sealed Grounds it was rather clear that the Imprisoned was the final boss but to everyone's surprise not in the traditional beast form it assumed for most of the adventure.

A major gripe with Demise is that he allowed the player to save their progress and stock up on items for their inventory. Many argue that he would have made for a more challenging fight had you been forced to battle him immediately following the third Ghirahim battle. Conversely, Nintendo's decision to set up Demise this way highlighted his major flaw-overconfidence. Demise was certain that he would bring Skyloft and Hyrule to their knees and never imagined a mere human could defeat him. This was manifested by his choice of words at game's end, "Extraordinary. You stand as a paragon of your kind, human. You fight like no man or demon I have ever known".

With respect to the battle itself it was well executed and justified the game's namesake with the incessant need for the Skyward Strike during the second phase. My only complaint is the lack of variety. The entire dual was a sword fight and although the lightning piercing the heavens during the latter half made for a fascinating spectacle it was hardly as diverse as the puppet, beast, horseback, and sword stages of Twilight Princess's Ganondorf.

 

[Ghirahimiscool]

He was soooooo booooorrring! Wasn't fun.

 

[Seth]

I'm sorry but that was by far the EASIEST final battle I have ever fought. Ever. He was the easiest boss in the entire game.

He looked cool, I thought the build-up was great, the battle ground was cool and really everything else I enjoyed.

He was just too damn easy. I seriously thought to myself after I beat him, "that was it?".

 

[Koosholts]

I've never experienced such an anti-climactic showdown with a boss -- ever, in any video game. Demise is not only a bad boss for Zelda standards, he is a bad boss period.

I thought the build up to Demise was adequate. The Pinecone became extremley tedious after a while, but I understand that Nintendo was trying to build up suspense for the final showdown. This is not my complain with him.

The real complaint I have with this gorilla is how anti-climactic the actual battle was. As soon as Demise said these words...

I've waited eons to return. I can spare a few more minutes to let you decide.

I facepalmed myself out the window. Seriously Nintendo? I get presented this scene that exhibits one of the best climaxes in Zelda history and your going to design this streoid-induced villain to let me roam free? Even better, give me the courtesy of preparing myself? My adreniline is going through the roof and all of a sudden he gives me a choice to leave and walk freely about my day. Hell, I can even go to Skyloft and spend all the time I want chit-chatting with people who have no freakin' idea of what is going on. No sence of urgency, it completley butchered the atmosphere, and made for a anti-climactic scenario leading into the actual boss battle.

I understand that the player needs a chance to prepare themselves for the final battle. I believe Demise is extremley easily, actually one of the easiest bosses ever, but I'm not ignorant to the fact that other people have different gaming abilities. However, the fact that the game builds up this suspensful atmosphere only to let me roam the streets of Skyloft with no time limits is an extremley poor design choice. Let us take Ocarina of Time for example. The player knew that they were entering the final stages of the game. They had once chance to prepare and went through seven rooms, ascended a castle, fought Ganondorf, descended the castle and fought the final stages of Ganon. Ocarina of Time managed to do this fluidly without any interruptions that would create an anti-climactic atmosphere. Imagine finally getting to Ganon in Ocarina of Time and saying, "oh, hey buddy, you look tired. Take a rest for a bit and restock on your potions to make sure it's a fair fight!" That's exactly what it was like with Demise and it was absolutley pathetic.

Oh, and nobody use the excuse that his actions was just a part of his character -- letting you prepare for the final battle showed how confidend he was in his powers to destroy you. That is absolute bull crap. His actions make him a terrible villain, one of the worse in the series. Why the **** would a Demon who has been locked up for eons let the only chance of his demise (lol ironic) slip away like that? It does not make him seem confident it makes him look like a complete ******.

Now that I'm done talking about that let's talk about the actual battle itself. As I previously mentioned I felt like Demise was extremley easy. I know that people have different gaming abilities, and Zelda villains have never been hard to begin with, but I was really expecting a fierce challenge with all the suspense put into him. I was sadly dissapointed, but the difficulty is simply an opinion. I realize that other people have difficulties with him and that is completley fine.

 

[kizo]

When I saw him for the first time, I thought he looked sooo cool. I like demise, but I hate his giant beast form, I would pass on that form any day. He was a challenge to me primarily because I didn't know what to do during the second phase where you hold up your sword to shoot lighting blast slices. Besides that....heh..not that bad as a boss, I've fought better, especially in the same game, Example: Ghirahim. All-in-all I liked him, but they could of done better with him.

 

[Sydney]

I liked his hair.....

 

[Random Person]

Let's see. Originally, I didn't have any quarrels with Demise. I didn't like him. I didn't dislike him. After sitting down and shifting through my thoughts, however, I have had time to analyze Demise and have come to the realization that I don't like him. (Random Person dislikes something from SS! Big Surprise![/sarcasm]).

Design
Can you say "generic?" Big, buffed up, ultimate bad guy has been done way too many times in the era of villainy. Even a villain design that's been done too many times can still seem fresh in the mind, but Demise just wasn't. The only thing really interesting about him was his fiery hair. When I see him, plus the fact that I know his story, I can only see Nintendo trying to make someone who looked like Ganondorf, but wasn't Ganondorf. If you're going to make an original villain, please make him original and not a rip off of who we love to fight. (<-- That comment probably made some people mad. trollface.exe) And if you're going to make him Ganondorf, than make him Ganondorf. All in all, his designed seemed like a failed attempt to give fans the best of both worlds of having Ganondorf as well as an original boss. (Personally I blame everyone who complained about the G-man's appearance in TP)

Personality
I didn't hate his Personality, (I do agree with Koolsholts though. That part was poor design) but I have issues with it and it's because of something I said before. Demise was basically another Ganondorf and I'd much rather have Ganondorf than a rip off.

Battle
I did not hate the battle with Demise, but it left me rather disappointed. People say he was easy, but I actually had trouble defeating him and had to use several potions. This is because, however, his fighting style is pretty bland and I kept trying to change tactics when I should've been doing the same thing over and over. Automatic defenses, while containing the possibility of difficulty, prove to be generic and entertainment lacking once the pattern is figured out. I may have struggled with him trying to best him with my swordsmanship skills that I apparently don't have, but others could easily exploit the pattern, especially those good at shield bashing. This also takes away from the fun, because there's no more "figuring." A quarter of the fun with Zelda bosses is figuring out how to defeat them. Difficulty isn't the only thing though. Demise impressed me with shooting lighting from his sword and allowing me to do so as well, however, the fact that he only has two stages, both being really short and repetitive, takes away from this. If you were to count the part with Ghirahim as part of the final battle, then maybe you would have a better case, but I Personally didn't feel that to be true as the atmosphere of the game did not seem like it.
Most final bosses in Zelda proved to be either a great challenge for their time, and/or very creative in being defeated. I feel that while Demise didn't completely fail at these aspects, he could've done alot better.

Concept
And then there's this category. Oh boy, forgive me if I rage. I'm not gonna beat around the bush, I HATE what Demise stands for. An ultimate demon who wants to rule the Earth is fine. A bit generic, but fine. It's been done in Zelda before and I'm one of those people who doesn't complain that much about Zelda traditions. But the fact that Nintendo stuck the "He's essentially Ganondorf" excuse on him makes me want to rage. It's seriously a cop-out to try and please everybody, (and I really feel that it failed). If you want to give us a new villain, by all means, do it. If you want us to fight Ganondorf, THEN GIVE US GANONDORF! Don't make up a villain with no previous mention in any Zelda game and tell me he's the reason Ganon keeps coming back. Not only does this take away from the epicness that is Ganondorf (saying he's only returning because of Demise's will) and the story of the Zelda series but its a prime example of what I hate about SS. It tries to please everyone by making sacrifices in the wrong places. I feel like I've put more dedication into this game series than Nintendo did simply because of how non fluent SS is. I'm all for trying to please more people and all for trying new things. I liked Twilight Princess and the different things that came with it. But SS's changes made it so that it didn't feel like Zelda anymore but rather a game with "The Legend of Zelda" on the title. Hence why we got a villain who wasn't Ganondorf, but at the same time, still was Ganondorf.


All in all, Demise is not the worst villain in the world, but he certainly disappointed me. He's lacking in originality, creativity and his genericness (not a word) is in all the wrong places. Given what I experienced at the end of SS, I might have been happier thinking that Demise was a giant fish with appendages, marshmallow toes who could fly. Believe it or not, I actually liked the Imprissoned more than him.

 

[Azure Sage]

Personally, I didn't find him to be all that bad. A little disappointing, but not that bad.

Before I continue, I'm just going to say right now that I don't care about what he stands for or his concept or anything like that. The fact that he was like the origin of Ganon's existence or whatever means nothing to me, so I won't focus on that at all.

As far as the battle was concerned, it was all right. The atmosphere was amazing, as well as the music. It was amazingly epic. As for the difficulty, I found that to be all right. It took me a while to beat him. I don't understand how people can say he was easy, because he's only easy after you figure out how to fight him. If you were lucky and figured it out right away, then good for you. I wasn't one of those people. I lost to him near seven times before I finally figured it out.

One thing I absolutely love about the battle is the Lightning Skyward Strikes. That is a seriously nice touch. I also heard about how you can distract him with the bug net, but when I tried it, it didn't work... So I don't know about that. However, I still have to go into his fight with a few fairies and maybe a potion. Even though I now know how to fight him, I still have trouble defeating him sometimes, so I'd say his difficulty is average. However, the battle was still a little short. I was hoping it would be longer. Therein lies the disappointment. It wasn't quite long enough for me.

As for his personality, I'd say it's all right. He's the classic condescending baddie who thinks he doesn't have to put in a lot of effort to defeat you, and there's nothing wrong with that. Some people say the fact that he lets you save and heal before fighting him ruins the atmosphere, but I disagree. It doesn't ruin a thing. It's part of his condescending character, and it's also kind to less-skilled players who need to heal and save before fighting him. If you would just say to them, "Better luck next time", instead of giving them a fair chance to heal and save, then that's just incredibly rude and unfair to those less-skilled players. At least, that's how I see it.

His design was okay. I keep hearing he looks like Akuma from Street Fighter, but I've never played Street Fighter, so I really don't care. I thought his design was fine. There's nothing wrong with the generic buff, tall, super-villain. In fact, I thought his appearance was intimidating. And once again, I don't care about the connection to Ganondorf. That doesn't matter to me.

That's really all I have to say on the subject of Demise. All in all, he isn't too bad.

 

[JuicieJ]

I thought Demise was incredible. He had an fantastic buildup throughout the entire game and finally showed up in one of the most epic presentations imaginable. He then proceeded to give us a truly epic 1:1 boss fight. Demise alone is arguably the best final boss fight in Zelda (imo), but combine him with the Horde Battle and Final Ghirahim and you have one of the most intense endings in gaming history. I know I can't speak for everyone when I say all t hat, but that's sure how it felt to me, and I know I'm not the only one. He was also not the sort of character you would expect to see in Zelda design-wise. His figure was just plain epic, from his fiery hair to his ugly toenails.

As a side-note, I definitely wouldn't say Demise alone is the best boss fight in general in the series. Just the best final boss fight. Even then, it's a pretty tough call between he and Majora for me.

I facepalmed myself out the window. Seriously Nintendo? I get presented this scene that exhibits one of the best climaxes in Zelda history and your going to design this streoid-induced villain to let me roam free? Even better, give me the courtesy of preparing myself? My adreniline is going through the roof and all of a sudden he gives me a choice to leave and walk freely about my day. Hell, I can even go to Skyloft and spend all the time I want chit-chatting with people who have no freakin' idea of what is going on. No sence of urgency, it completley butchered the atmosphere, and made for a anti-climactic scenario leading into the actual boss battle.

I understand that the player needs a chance to prepare themselves for the final battle. I believe Demise is extremley easily, actually one of the easiest bosses ever, but I'm not ignorant to the fact that other people have different gaming abilities. However, the fact that the game builds up this suspensful atmosphere only to let me roam the streets of Skyloft with no time limits is an extremley poor design choice. Let us take Ocarina of Time for example. The player knew that they were entering the final stages of the game. They had once chance to prepare and went through seven rooms, ascended a castle, fought Ganondorf, descended the castle and fought the final stages of Ganon. Ocarina of Time managed to do this fluidly without any interruptions that would create an anti-climactic atmosphere. Imagine finally getting to Ganon in Ocarina of Time and saying, "oh, hey buddy, you look tired. Take a rest for a bit and restock on your potions to make sure it's a fair fight!" That's exactly what it was like with Demise and it was absolutley pathetic.

Oh, and nobody use the excuse that his actions was just a part of his character -- letting you prepare for the final battle showed how confidend he was in his powers to destroy you. That is absolute bull crap. His actions make him a terrible villain, one of the worse in the series. Why the **** would a Demon who has been locked up for eons let the only chance of his demise (lol ironic) slip away like that? It does not make him seem confident it makes him look like a complete ******.

I don't see how something that's optional can be complained about. Nintendo gave players a chance to restock heal up if they wanted to, as well as save the game. It's not like you were forced to heal yourself (like in the cutscene right before Ganondorf, which you seem to have overlooked). It was giving players that wanted some health and what not a chance to do so. If you didn't want to, you didn't have to. That's called good game design. Forcing us to fight him right there would have been inconsiderate game design. Surely you've noticed how many people found him to be extremely hard. You may not have yourself, but others did. This is a case of difficulty being in the eye of the beholder. Forcing these people to go fight and die, having to do the Horde Battle and Ghirahim all over again would have been a terrible design flaw and, again, inconsiderate to many players. "Oh, you can't win the fights? Too bad, kid, suck it up and deal with it." That's the attitude behind doing that.

Doing this doesn't ruin the moment at all, either. It goes along with him creating an entire realm for he and Link to fight. If he had said "Go and run along, I'll be standing right here", that would have been different. But that's not what he did. He created a place where they "wouldn't be bothered by distractions", which makes an incredible amount of sense. He wanted the fight to be just the two of them. No one else around. This also helped demonstrate the power he has. He was able to create a dimension under his own power and not be phased by it at all. Most powerful demon in the universe? Yeah, I'd say so after that. You also have to realize that Demise wasn't saying "Go heal yourself". That would have been breaking the fourth wall. That was only the gameplay part of it. In reality, it was about letting Link decide if he actually wanted to face him or not. I'm kind of surprised you think he was actually saying "Go run along and let your injuries heal". That's not what it was at all.

Very well, then. I shall prepare a place for us where we will not be bothered by distractions. If you still have the courage to face me, seek me there.

"If you still have the courage, seek me there." That doesn't sound like "go heal yourself" to me. It sounds like "I'm gonna create this place where we can fight. You can choose whether or not you want to follow me." Major difference. Your complaints about Demise are really unsound. If you want to say he's easy, that's fine. But all the other things are just not there.

 

[Mog of war]

I thought demise was cool. but he lacked th OMG FINAL BOSS!!!! feel, he felt more like an eh.... boss. the scene was cool though.

 

[Arkatox]

I thought he was an epic villain. He was like Ganondorf before Ganondorf existed. I wonder why Demise decided to switch his name to Ganon throughout future generations once he was born as the gerudo.

 

[Kylo Ken]

I think that Nintendo did good with the idea of Demise. They should definitely bring him back in a new Zelda title. Maybe explore the possiblity of him being the devil? I mean, you have three goddesses so two devils, Demise and Ganondorf could work? They never did explain (in detail) where the two came from. If they did, forgive me for my ignorance.

 

[AnimeHat]

As a boss, I thought that it was a satisfying and challenging battle. It took me multiple tries to defeat him. As a character, I thought Nintendo should have characterized him more so that he was just as charismatic a villain as Ghirahim.