*Music: Keeper of Lust from Persona 5* Who doesn't love a good boss fight? A well-designed boss is an unforgettable encounter
that sticks with you long after the rest of the game fades away. Poorly designed boss fights can have an equal
and opposite reaction. They can become a stain on a game's memory. But how do you design a good boss fight? I think the easiest way is to focus on one
of three roles: The Boss as a test of skill, The Boss as a narrative device, or The Boss
as a welcome change of pace mechanically. They're definitely not the only ways to make
a great boss, but if you nail at least one of those points you'll do well. Careful though, there are lots of ways to
aim for those goals and still miss. So let's look at a handful of single player
boss fights, some that hit their mark and some that miss it completely, and get a better
feel for what it takes to make a great boss battle. Oh, and remember that this is not a best-of
list. These are just some informative examples of
how bosses fit into their games. Let's start with a basic, no frills, completely
vanilla boss. Or 20. Mario is filled with them. Mario bosses are notorious for repeating a
very similar design formula. Bowser Jr and the Koopalings in New Super
Mario Bros, Boom Boom and Pom Pom from the 3D series, the Broodals in Odyssey. They all go like this. You run around the boss, avoid some attack
pattern, then hit them on the head. They’ll become invincible and bounce around
the arena for a bit. Rinse and repeat 3 times and you’re done. Simple. Oh, and do it again later in the game when
they come back for a second round. Or a third. Or a fourth. All of these Mario bosses fill those 3 roles
of a boss in a rudimentary way. For what little story Mario games have, well...
they sure are a part of it. They're a small test of skill given that they're
a little tougher to beat than a normal Mario enemy. They are a change of pace, as their fights
turn the game from a linear obstacle course or sandbox exploration to an arena battle. Mario bosses do work as bosses on a basic
level. And they ARE a solid introduction for people
with little to no experience playing games. They’re fun in their own way, but the repetitive
design does get old after a while. The series does so many interesting things
with nearly every level. To see them use the same basic formula for
so many bosses is disappointing. Every once in a while they’ll drop in a
more clever boss, like the Bouldergeist from Galaxy or the Mollusque-Lanceur from Odyssey. These have fun ways of testing your skills
with their respective level gimmicks, but then it's right back to 'Stomp. Stomp. Stomp. Win.' We can find something a little more interesting. Oh, and a little more spoiler-y too. Here’s your warning: *music: Costa del Sol from Final Fantasy 7* So, let's switch to another action series. How about Rocksteady's Arkham games? Combat in the Arkham series is great. The Free Flow combat system was a fresh take
on brawler mechanics. It feels so satisfying to rhythmically hit,
counter, and bounce between multiple targets. But, it really works best when you have groups
of enemies to fight. The combat system doesn't adapt all that well
to 1 on 1 encounters. The Arkham series has plenty of big groups
of basic enemies, but boss battles are traditionally 1-on-1 affairs, so it's not that surprising
that most of the boss fights in the original Arkham Asylum were really underwhelming. The Titan Joker fight at the end of Arkham
Asylum might be the worst one. It tries to be a good Narrative and Final
Test boss fight, but doesn’t do either well. The concept of a roided out Joker just doesn’t
fit the character. Joker as a character is all about mind games
and his dynamic relationship with Batman. He's not meant to be the kind of villain that
you literally just punch in the face until you win. In Arkham Asylum he doesn't have much of a
grand scheme beyond destruction. There aren't weird moral twists or problems
he introduces or forces you to choose between. You just punch him. In the face. Even as a Joker-punching simulator, the fight
still sucks. He just lazily swipes at you his bony claws
a few times. Run around in a circle for a few seconds and
you're good. He'll jump away and send a wave of generic
goons at you and toss in some easy-to-avoid bombs. You clear out the goons, Joker gets distracted
by the evening news, and you take him down with the batclaw, and POW. Repeat this 2 more times and you win. That's it. That's Batman's final challenge. Three waves of standard enemies and running
around Joker a few times. As a culmination of the narrative and as a
test of your accumulated skills the Titan Joker fight falls flat on its face Thankfully Rocksteady did much better in Arkham
City. Its final boss pits you against Clayface,
this time set up by the Joker. It's a much better story hook, as having the
Joker use other villains as a part of his plan is much more in-character for him. Clayface being revealed as Joker's body double
is a cool surprise and recontextualizes the story so far. He feels like a natural part of the story. The two-phase fight is pretty fun and works
as a final test. In the first phase, Clayface keeps changing
shape while attacking you with a variety of moves. He charges at you by rolling into a ball. He’ll try to smash you from afar with his
stretchy arms. He’ll morph those arms into blades and slice
you. He leaps at you with hammer arms. He throws wads of clay that you have to duck
or leap over. You have to keep moving and stay on your toes
while pelting him with ice bombs. Once you whittle his health down, he’ll
freeze up and you get to slice him to pieces with this sword lodged into his back. After a short scene, the 2nd phase begins. Clayface is weakened and looks like he's falling
apart. He sends waves of clay monsters that you slice
up in the traditional Free Flow combat style. If you break It down, this phase is actually
not that different from Titan Joker. Both fights have you fighting waves of normal
enemies while the villain sends out projectiles but it works so much better for the Clayface
fight because of the better story context, and the more interesting and challenging previous
phase of the fight. It fits with the game’s combat and works
much better as an endurance battle. It's not the most amazing or difficult finale
in a game, but the Clayface fight succeeds where Titan Joker failed. It’s a good final challenge that has a healthy
amount of variety, it uses its characters well and it fits naturally in the story. So Rocksteady learned from their mistakes,
but now let's talk about two of the greatest bosses of all time. In the same game, in fact. Metal Gear Solid 3 has two stand out fights
against The End and The Boss. The battles are designed as a midterm and
a final exam for Metal Gear Solid's core stealth gameplay. Both are great fights, and for different reasons. The End for its mechanics and The Boss for
its build up and narrative. In the fight against The End, you face off
against a legendary 100 year old sniper, clinging to life just long enough to face you. You use every stealth trick in your arsenal
to search for him across three forested areas and take him down. Think “Find the needle in the haystack”
but the needle is packing heat. This encounter is slow and intense in a way
that not many other boss fights are. MGS3 is in love with clockwork gameplay systems,
and the fight with The End encourages you to find where he’s hiding in creative ways. You can spot the glare from his rifle. Use the directional microphone to catch the
faint sound of his breathing. Use the thermal goggles to keep track of him
as he moves to a new sniper's nest. Or, you could just capture and release his
pet parrot, which flies right to him. Just like the other fights in the game you
can take him down with the usual lethal and non-lethal options. You can even get unique camo for sneaking
up close to him and holding him up. This fight is full of cool little details
and easter eggs. The game even gives you two ways to bypass
the fight entirely. There's a brief window earlier in the game
where you can take him out as he lingers in the environment immediately after a cutscene. Or, do that fourth-wall-breaking trick that
Kojima is known for. Start the fight, save, and set the system
clock forward a week. The End will die of old age the next time
you start the game. Countless other games have boss fights that
force you down a single path to pass them. Action games sometimes give players some flexibility
in which tools they use to get through a boss fight. But the fight against The End feels more immersive,
taking place in a more realistic world where lateral thinking is rewarded, and you're in
control of the outcome. More so than the other, more straightforward
boss fights in MGS3 like The Fear or The Bees. A slow intense sniper battle is a GREAT change
of pace that rewards creativity in ways that you rarely see, outside of other series built
entirely around the concept, like Hitman or Dishonored. Metal Gear Solid has other boss fights with
creative latitude, but the fight with The End gives that extra unexpected degree of
freedom. The sheer variety of paths you can go down
makes for an unforgettable, unique encounter. The rare kind that you can tell as a story,
and hear the stories of other people, and share in the ways you overcame the challenge. Then we have the final battle with The Boss. Mechanically it doesn't do nearly as much
as the fight with The End. The fight itself isn’t that different from
the game's other fights either. But narratively it's unmatched. The fight has had an amazing build up, spanning
across the entire game. The Boss taught Snake everything he knows
and naturally fights in the same way: using stealth, CQC and gunplay. It plays a lot like a great rival fight. The game does a great job exploring Snake’s
relationship with The Boss through their encounters, codec conversations, the way other characters
talk about her and Snake’s own internal struggle with his mission to take her down. The fight is beautifully framed and plays
as a somber passing of the torch between a master and her student. The game asks you to take everything you've
learned and use it to surpass the Boss. It’s a wonderful, well-earned finale. But what if you didn't want a good finale? What if you could hijack a story, cobble something
together at the last minute, and try to make a nostalgia play to make it all work out in
the end? No? That sounds like a bad idea? Yeah you're right. Who would do that... oh In the closing days of the Nintendo 64, Rare
was making an adventure game called Dinosaur Planet. But no one knew who these characters were. This guy kiiiinda looks like Fox McCloud I
think, so you know what? Just put the rest of Star Fox in it. And thus Star Fox Adventures for the Gamecube
was born. Major characters from the original game got
sidelined, levels and key story sequences were rushed or cut and “Star Fox” gameplay
was forced in with bad Arwing sections. The game is... fine I guess. But the seams in the design between the original
game and the Star Fox reskin are really obvious. Nothing more obvious than how the game handled
its final boss encounter. So throughout the game, the main villain has
been built up to be -Game audio: “GENERAL SCALES”. -He’s a pretty standard ‘big bad’. Not anything crazy or unique but the build
up is there and he has just enough presence in the overarching story to fill the role. So you play through the game. The first half of the game was totally fine
as a Zelda clone. But as you kept playing the game felt more
and more rushed. Each new area feels shorter than the last
even with lots of padding with fetch quests and awkward minigame sequences. Like they just slapped something together
last minute. But hey, you're near the end! I'm sure the fight against -Game audio: GENERAL SCALES -will be fun. So here it is! Here we go! -Game audio What. As soon as you draw your weapon, the fight
ends. A cutscene plays where our MAIN VILLAIN just
GIVES UP. Guess who was pulling the strings allllllll
along? (deadpan) oh no, it's dr zaius...i mean andross. unbelievable. There's no buildup to the twist. It happens and then you just get in an Arwing
to replay the same final boss they had already done in two earlier games. It's one of the laziest, most shoehorned in
final bosses that I've ever seen. This fight is bad as a test. Instead of the Zelda-like combat you had been
using for the last 15 hours, you fight Andross with the Arwing gameplay that was only in
the game for maybe half an hour tops. The battle itself plays like a watered down
version of the final boss from Star Fox 64 with many of the attacks essentially being
the same...except they look...off. Andross' animations and model look very stiff. *snap fingers* hey, over here buddy! This Andross goes beyond a callback and into
shameless rip off territory. It’s a weird, unwelcome change of pace. It’s a terrible narrative conclusion, and
it’s not much of a test. This game was a Zelda-like game at its core,
the final battle would’ve been better in that style, not a poor imitation of Star Fox
64. That’s not the game that they’ve been
building up the player’s skills and knowledge in. It’s an abrupt, unfitting, and sloppy finale
to a game that was split between two separate design docs. Bosses can be tough to design, and there are
a bunch of bad boss fights to avoid, but luckily there are so many more good bosses to learn
from. I know I didn’t mention… like… ANY of your favorites. Like this one. And this one. And this one. And this one. This one. This one. This one. This one. Wow. That's a lot of good bosses. We should talk about them some time. While you wait, how about you learn a new
skill? Skillshare is an online learning community
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episode of Design Doc. *chill vibes outro from Steven Universe: Save the Light*
