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Geek Culture / Rewarding Video Game Bosses

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Seppuku Arts
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Posted: 23rd Jul 2016 13:43
I am somebody who loves epic video game bosses and over the years I think we've seen some interesting and creative ones out there. I figured in spirit of this being geek culture and us being video game geeks, might be interesting to share some of those big boss experiences. I am going to pick 3 bosses.

It's no secret I'm a huge Final Fantasy nerd, so my first two choices are from Final Fantasy XIV.
One is a fellow called "Brute Justice". Let me explain, there is a raid in FFXIV called Alexander, which is a giant living fortress and in the second raid of it there's a boss at the end. The fight seems normal to begin with, it's a boss fight. Then he has friends, you beat him and all his friends and then it's just time for their ultimate and final phase change...then this happens:
The music changes into something out of an 80's anime and the boss and his friends turn into Voltron, complete with lasers and rocket punches.


My second choice is Titan Extreme Mode. Final Fantasy games are notorious for introducing super difficult bosses. Their 2 MMO's are no different, although nowadays, especially after the expansion, Titan Extreme is not quite like he used to be. He was a nightmare to beat and it was a fight where it required everybody to work well in sync with each other and that doesn't always happen. Mistakes cost you your life and can even mean you get knocked off entirely, so you can get revived. In this run I did below, this is precisely what happened to one of our tanks, as a fight that requires a tank swap (to stop them each massive damage) it looked like the end, but me and the other healer pulled through and we won.

Things to note




Spoilers ahead. I thought I'd pick one from Undertale, I've only done the pacifist run, there's quite a few really good boss fights to choose from, but I decided I'd go for Flowey, because his fight is so different to the others in the game and is just madness and Flowey does some level of 4th wall breaking, every time you load the game you can only enter this fight (iirc you can't even start a new game or delete your save) and the boss will save and reload throughout the fight to disorientate you.

Ortu
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Posted: 23rd Jul 2016 23:59
The bunny in Asherons Call 1 was always a favorite

http://asheron.wikia.com/wiki/White_Rabbit


A single player RPG featuring a branching, player driven storyline of meaningful choices and multiple endings alongside challenging active combat and intelligent AI.
BatVink
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Posted: 24th Jul 2016 08:56
Not exactly a boss, but the first end-of-game challenge I remember and loved was AirWolf. You were a helicopter pilot, and the last challenge was to destroy the base that was behind 2 walls. The walls had 2 gaps which rotated around the wall and you had to shoot through the gap when they aligned.
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Dark Java Dude 64
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Posted: 24th Jul 2016 09:16
Quote: "Fudge it, I'll create a thread about video game bosses. No use lecturing and not taking my own advice."
The man delivers! First candidate added to my list of VP - Activity candidates.
Seppuku Arts
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Posted: 24th Jul 2016 10:29 Edited at: 24th Jul 2016 10:32
Quote: "The bunny in Asherons Call 1 was always a favorite

http://asheron.wikia.com/wiki/White_Rabbit"


Evil rabbit, please tell me you can defeat it with a holy hand grenade?

Another one I quite liked was Soa, who was the final raid boss in SW:TOR first raid and for me, first boss in the game that felt epic to fight. You are basically fighting an ancient god of a force user and he breaks the environment around you. It was especially challenging when I did it, because I was running this game on a laptop with an Intel GMA chip, it took a lot of tweaks to get it to run, but there's a mechanic in there that relies on your see where the shadows on the ground are, but I had shadows disabled.





As the Vink brought up helicopters, I did quite enjoy the last boss of The Division, I played this game with a few people at work and it is a good fun tactical co-op shooter. I remember having to stay in cover a lot and dodging rockets. It didn't take much for the helicopter to kill you and I remember reviving my friend a few times. The game managed to be challenging in several parts, so we had to work together and learn why in fights we kept dying. Which for a multiplayer shooter I felt refreshing compared to the likes of CoD and Battlefield. It also take into account that shooting at a helicopter won't do a lot of damage to it, but you can do more damage if you shoot in the right place or use a rocket launcher, there are turrets you can use, but it does make you vulnerable. One tactic is to distract the pilot whilst somebody else tries to use the turrets (which I think is what the guy was doing in the below video). However, they can also get blown up, so you have to be careful. And it's not just a helicopter, you fight off ground troops too. If it were a single player mission, you'd feel like Rambo, but even with 3 other people, it's still a fun boss fight to beat.





Quote: "Quote: "Fudge it, I'll create a thread about video game bosses. No use lecturing and not taking my own advice."
The man delivers! First candidate added to my list of VP - Activity candidates."


I figure if I am going to lecture, I don't make myself a hypocrite.
JLMoondog
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Posted: 24th Jul 2016 17:57
Quote: "Another one I quite liked was Soa, who was the final raid boss in SW:TOR first raid and for me, first boss in the game that felt epic to fight."

Oh man I remember when my guild finally beat this raid, after about 9 hours! I still ended up dying and have to run all the way back and than make that 'leap of faith' to my death just to get to the boss, lol!

Another one was the first vanilla raid in World of Warcraft, the dragon, sorry it's been over 10 years! It took us 16 hours!!I went through an entire 24 pack of Code Red and 5 bags of Doritos and several dozen frozen burritos.

Last memorable fight or boss win, was when I beat Sephiroth for the first time in Kingdom Hearts II! Amazing fight, I actually teared up when I got the final blow and went into slow-mo. Epic.
Seppuku Arts
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Posted: 24th Jul 2016 18:24
I never got around to Kingdom Hearts II, but might snag if it they do the remaster for PS4. I never played Vanilla WoW. I guess if we are to go for older MMO's, I could go for FFXI, however, I didn't get to fight really notorious ones like Pandemonium Warden and Absolute Virtue, but when both of them were beat the first time, it was actually news worthy as they earned themselves a reputation of being rather tough to beat and people spending long hours trying to beat them. However, I think I'll go for one of their solo bosses, in the game, to progress past 50 you have to complete a "Limit Break" quest every 5 levels, the level 70 one had you solo fight an enemy of the same level, same class, similar stats and would be as powerful as fighting another play who is quite competent at playing. You had to run around to get the item you needed each time you wanted to do the fight and on some jobs, it became a nightmare trying to beat, because the AI would just beat you. Think how a spell could do 200 - 400 damage and characters only had just under 1000 health at level 70, you can see how it could get quite mean. I did my on 'Scholar', which took me a total of 12 attempts to beat him. I just had to strategist and hope for the best. Sadly I did not record it.



This guy made it look so easy, but even then, you can see how close her came to dying, one mistake and he'd have been dead. It was a good idea I felt, because it meant the only way you could pass level 70 was if you learned how to play your job effectively. But, it did frustrate me over the course of 2 or 3 weeks, however, when I won, I was like "hell yes!"
JLMoondog
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Posted: 25th Jul 2016 09:17
Dang, I miss FFXI, when it came out I was scratching my head as to why would they turn Final Fantasy into an MMO!?? But than I bought the game day one and played for many years. I loved this game! I had my 'itle black mage / summoner. So much fun! I wonder if my account is still available with my old character?? o.o Actually my favorite part of the game was the card game in the game login program lol!

I was also enjoying FF REbirth(? can't remember the name), newest MMO playing with you and the guild. For the short time we played, never even got to RP with you guys because once again SWTOR pulled me back in with the Revan expansion pack and I like SWTOR just a little more than FF.

Is FFXI even still going? Dang I want to play so bad now! lol! That game got me through college!
Van B
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Posted: 25th Jul 2016 16:23
I like the big ogre dudes in Resident Evil 4, they do big, deadly, and stupid just right.

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The Slayer
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Posted: 25th Jul 2016 16:49
The worst boss i ever encountered, was the boss i worked for before the one i have now, lol! I would have beaten him in a game, no problems, but it wasn't really a game . Although...life could also be considered a game, i guess.



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Seppuku Arts
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Posted: 25th Jul 2016 20:20 Edited at: 25th Jul 2016 20:21
JLMoondog wrote: "Dang, I miss FFXI, when it came out I was scratching my head as to why would they turn Final Fantasy into an MMO!?? But than I bought the game day one and played for many years. I loved this game! I had my 'itle black mage / summoner. So much fun! I wonder if my account is still available with my old character?? o.o Actually my favorite part of the game was the card game in the game login program lol!

I was also enjoying FF REbirth(? can't remember the name), newest MMO playing with you and the guild. For the short time we played, never even got to RP with you guys because once again SWTOR pulled me back in with the Revan expansion pack and I like SWTOR just a little more than FF.

Is FFXI even still going? Dang I want to play so bad now! lol! That game got me through college!"


FFXI is still going, I still play it from time-to-time on the Asura server. It's still subscription based and still has a community keeping it going. Though they finished off all story related content this year and took down the PS2 and XBox 360 servers, yep, they were still supporting PS2 players, though they stopped supporting new content for PS2 in 2013, which kudos to them is good going. The game is different now, because a lot more stuff is soloable, due to lack of people doing that content, though the relevant requires groups and community. But they tackled the issue in 2 ways, one way is that at level 99 you can get gear that can make you quite powerful, hence you see people soloing crazy stuff, but also uses a "trusts" system, which allows you to fill up your party with NPC's and they will be important NPC's from the game, you can have several different version of Shantotto, you can also get Prishe and several others. They have also solved some of the transport issues and tried bring it up to date, earlier this year they introduced permanent mounts, instead of raising a chocobo and have a chocobo whilstle you have to keep recharging. They also allow you to teleport between home points now. I guess to try an modernise it a little bit, even if they are still quite restricted by the game's engine.


As for the other FF MMO you join us, Final Fantasy XIV: A Real Reborn, you have a LOT of catching up to do, he he, they have been really good at the updates and player feedback. They release a content patch every 3 months, they released an expansion (which has a great story to it and some quite epic stuff) and will be announcing the next expansion soon. Admittedly not all of the patches were great, but I think since the expansion they've hit the nail on the head more. Last major patch was fantastic IMO, especially the primal fight in it. As for the RP, you're always welcome to come back, we did hop over to the Balmung server, as the RP community on Gilgamesh did shrink and we decided to join where a lot people went and that was Balmung.

I guess as I am talking about the latest content patch, I might as well slip in the trailer for it and the primal fight in it, because I love that fight too, but it is a big healer check, I ran a friend's alt through it yesterday and I ran out of MP as a Scholar (Scholars don't run out of MP) but then my secondary healer kept dying so I had to work extra hard XD.





Oh yeah, did I mention, the game added Ozma as a boss?



It isn't as threatening as the FFIX version, but then you are in a group of 24 people who have to co-ordinate with each other, but does have a number of mechanics that can screw you over if you're not careful (particularly when it's a pyramid). One phase change is a little WTH in that it sucks you into a vortex and then suddenly it's all serene, which throws you a subtle hint of lore. The ruins you see look distinctly like Nymian ruins and it was hinted in another question line that it was the Mhachi who brought the plague to Nym that turned all of them into Tonberries, as the Nymian walls could not be broken, so the idea of Ozma (a Mhachi creation) devouring parts of their ancient city is a little frightening.
Seppuku Arts
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Posted: 26th Jul 2016 23:52
Hmm, come to think of it, another game I loved, that I think was kinda underrated (I don't think it got brilliant ratings) was Nier, it had some great boss fights and was an interesting, if not depressing game. It mixed action RPG elements with shoot 'em ups. The game also had some good dialogue, but I guess I'll pick this boss, Halua, it was a little odd, for an action RPG, but one of the ones that had more shoot 'em up mechanics, this was before Undertale mixed the two elements.



And as the female voice actor for the second MC was in another game, Life Is Strange, not sure if you can count anything in that as a boss fight...or rewarding, because that game messes with your head and throws you choices in morally grey areas with no obvious indicator on the consequences and is likely to depress you, the whole last episode is just mind breaking and in the last 2 episodes, the game just gets really messed up, but you end up hooked. A lot of games go with the moral choice thing, but I've not seen a game do it as effectively as this. It has a Donnie Darko feel to it too, I felt. However, as everything in the game is spoilers, I don't think I'll post a video.
CJB
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Posted: 28th Jul 2016 10:39
Psycho Mantis from Metal Gear Solid. Swapping controller so he can't read you mind! So cool!
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Seppuku Arts
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Posted: 28th Jul 2016 20:30
Ah yes, I did love that. I found my old copy of MGS laying around the other week, completely in tack. That game had some great boss fights in it. But the breaking of the fourth wall of Psycho Mantis was something. I do wish more games slipped in clever little things like that. Ways to just break the mould a little bit.

Just talking of something slightly mould breaking, only a small thing, but if you fight any Gremlins in FFXIV they can do a debuff called "Misery", and with debuffs in an RPG you'll have a spell or an item to cure it. In FFXIV, somebody (other than the afflicted) has to use the comfort emote to get rid of it (and be in a short distance). Something quite simple, but unexpected, given emotes in an MMO are generally just things to goof off with.
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Posted: 29th Jul 2016 04:35
Yeah MGS was a mind bender. When the colonel told me to get Merryl's codec frequency from the back of the CD case, I went everywhere in the game looking for some kind of CD before I realized.
JLMoondog
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Posted: 29th Jul 2016 22:20
The final story quest boss in Elder Scrolls Online was a recent boss fight I defeated that was just an amazingly fun, though way too easy, set of fights. Just before you take on the God of Death you're given God like powers, including God armor and Weapons and you tear up the place, destroying powerful mobs that would normally give a party of 4 a hard time, in single blows before taking on the main man himself. It was allot of fun and I was giggling the whole time.
Seppuku Arts
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Posted: 30th Jul 2016 01:49
I found it difficult to get into TESO, which is a pity. I tried Neverwinter today because I was getting a D&D itch, hence I installed my old copy of Neverwinter Nights, hence the attempt to try Neverwinter, but it didn't feel right. TESO looks like the shell of a great game, something that will have worked for me, but felt too dull and uninteresting. Guild Wars 2 was another, I love the Guild Wars 2 battle and class system, when I start talking about ideal class systems, I am talking about stuff very similar to GW2's (generally to me, an ideal class system is a mix of GW2's and FFXI's) but GW2 ended up feeling bland after a while. I never beat the last story missions because they just felt like they had lots and lots of filler, "let's keep throwing hordes and hordes of undead", which got tiresome for me at least. And endgame wasn't quite sustainable. For me, a pity for both games, because I think with a little more work, they'd have been great for me.

I am not sure whether to include taming in ARK: Survival Evolved here, I mean there are bosses, but I've never spawned them. However, there are some rewarding dinos to take down. Like a Giganotasaur, Mosasaur and the Titanosaur. I've taken down Gigas and Mosas before, but Titanosaur is a whole other thing. Gigas can just kill any thing and if you're not careful, they'll enrage and become even more powerful, for a monster that is only outmatched by a Titanosaur (good luck getting one of those) you can really tank it with anything. Of course, if you have a Quetzl with a platform saddle, you can do the fiddly thing of shooting it from a safe distance and just being careful not to get too close. However, as they can wake up quickly, you will be spending a lot of time keeping it drugged. However, I think taming the Mosasaur was my most rewarding, partly because we end up using my method on our server as it seem to work. Have 2 Plesiosaurs with strong health and keep luring the Mosa to each one and swapping, as eventually the mosasaur will come after whomever is shooting it. Once you tame one, they are monsters of the sea. However, on a server that increases your level cap quite high (to 500), I managed to jump into the ocean completely naked and survived 7 minutes having a boxing match with a mosasaur). I've yet to try a titanosaur.

But, 600 Brontos vs 1 Titanousaur, to get an idea of how insane they are.

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