What’s better than zero bosses? ONE boss. What’s better than one boss? TWO bosses. Games love to throw two bosses at you at once. If you do it right, a double boss fight can
be an easy way to ramp up the challenge, reuse game assets, and build up some pre-fight hype
all at once. But you can’t just jam two bosses together
and expect it all to work. Double bosses have to be crafted, so they
fit together. Otherwise, you’re gonna get a chaotic mess. Do it right, though, and you’ve got an instant
classic fight that’ll stick with a player after the game is over. Today, let’s figure out how to choreograph
the dance that is the double boss fight. You might have your own double wandering around,
and not the fun kind. The identity theft kind. To defeat that boss, party up with today’s
sponsor, Aura! You ever get your identity stolen? It’s real bad. A friend of mine did. He had to make a ton of calls to fix it. Lots of worrying, and it took forever. Identity theft cost Americans $56 billion
dollars in 2020. There’s so much to keep track of. Credit scores, leaked passwords, data breaches,
unauthorized purchases. Aura is the one-stop shop that keeps track
of all of that and alerts you if it sees something bad happening. Aura has a full suite of security tools inside
an easy-to-use dashboard that acts as your financial security headquarters. Credit score monitoring and one-touch credit
freezing. Bank transaction alerts. A password manager. An antivirus and VPN to keep your computer
safe. Aura watches the DARK WEB to check if your
usernames, emails, passwords, or other sensitive info got caught in a data breach. After I signed up, they found a couple passwords
of mine that I had to go change. Aura has a ton of security tools ready to
go, and they have a free trial for Design Doc viewers. Get a handle on your data security by signing
up to a free trial at aura.com/designdoc and get your financial house in order. Thanks, Aura! Double bosses are a deceptively simple idea. ‘If one thing good, then two thing more
good.’ And that’s not… wrong. Not entirely, anyway. Two thing sometimes IS more good. Double bosses can be extra memorable. They can be hype factories built from an unexpected
team-up that you get to play your way through. Or they can be a place to bring characters
back, building a new challenge from a combination of old elements. Double bosses can create interplay in ways
that a single boss would have a tough time doing. They can make a player choose their path on
the fly, where how the fight plays out is a direct result of the decisions made. Double bosses can be more than just two bosses
fighting at the same time. But along with the opportunities for a unique
fight, pairs of bosses are prone to unique problems to avoid that depend on what type
of fight a game is aiming to make. Let’s start real basic. What’s the cheapest, easiest, fastest way
you can think of to make a double boss? We’ve got this one standing right here. Hmm… uhh… what if… two? Just fight two copies of the same boss at
once. That seems easy. Hollow Knight clones a couple bosses very
well. Like the Mantis Lords. After fighting your way through a tribe of
deadly mantis warriors, you get to challenge their leader… S. A trio of mantis sisters. Yes, this is still a double boss. The fight is broken up into two phases. The first has you fight the middle sister,
who teleports around the arena and swipes at you with her lance, drops on you from above,
or tosses a boomerang at you from the wall. The timing’s a little tricky, but it’s
a pretty straightforward fight - just dodge and hit. Once she yields and retreats, the two remaining
sisters step in for a 2-on-1 matchup. Hope you learned that first phase well because
now we’re doubling up on everything. Both sisters have the same move set, but the
fight now has a different rhythm, and you have to rethink your positioning and constantly
be on your toes. You’ll deal with two vertical drops, one
after the other. They’ll pincer you with both the dash attack
and the boomerang projectile. One might dash while the other drops soon
after. They each might dash in quick succession,
or the second one might delay a bit to throw you off. They’re the same bosses, but the changing
patterns make the fight completely different. And if you want even more of a challenge,
there’s an optional rematch in the DLC where you can fight all three sisters at once. Uhh, good luck! Hollow Knight’s Godmaster DLC has an even
better double boss - the Nailmaster brothers, Oro and Mato. Like the Mantis lords, the first phase is
a one-on-one fight with just Oro that lets you get a handle on his basic moveset. The second phase brings in Mato, where again,
the changing pattern over a repeated moveset makes the fight work. Unlike the Mantis Lords, each brother has
a unique signature move - a dashing slash and a cyclone spin. Careful positioning is even more important
here, as it influences their attack patterns. If you’re on one side, they’ll alternate
between attacking and backing off as the other follows up. If you’re caught in between, they coordinate
their slashes to pincer you. The fight is much more demanding than the
Mantis Lords, as you search for brief openings to attack without leaving yourself open for
the counter. The two-phase structure is a smart way to
get players up to speed on a challenging fight, while the way each pair coordinates their
attacks prevent unwinnable situations and make for a new memorable fight from reused
components. Of course, there’s only so much you can
do by cloning a boss. It’s not all that creative. Oro and Mato even try to get around it by
being ever so slightly different, because a full-on clone would introduce some problems. Two copies of the exact same thing don’t
necessarily work together all that well. At worst, a cloned double boss can feel like
really obvious filler. The original Batman Arkham Asylum famously
dropped the ball with its bosses. Over half of them involve this roided up Titan
henchman. Maybe with a different outfit. Or maybe it’s Bane. Either way, the fights are the same, from
the first one to the fifth. Both the third boss and the semi-final boss
throw two of them at you! It’s not much harder to deal with two at
once, though. Maybe you pick your opportunities a little
more carefully, but it’s mostly the same, and considering there's like a half dozen
of these guys, you’re pretty good at getting rid of these titan henchmen by now. Cloned bosses are not something you can drop
in as a placeholder and expect to get much fun for free. OK, so maybe cloning a boss isn’t what you’re
looking for. What’s the next easiest thing to do? What if we just reuse two DIFFERENT bosses? That’ll fix it, right? Well, it’ll fix some things. Recycling bosses into a 2-on-1 fight tends
to work better with simpler bosses with recognizable patterns. They can fit in classic beat-’em-ups like
Streets of Rage 4 pretty well. Multiple bosses with distinct behaviors that
mix and match can make a fight much harder and much more interesting. Streets of Rage 4 has a few stages where you’re
fighting cops. The boss at the end of stage 2 is ‘The Commissioner’
- a jacked version of Commissioner Gordon with some HEAVY overhead punches, super armor
on most moves, and a dashing grab that’s tough to dodge. In stage 4, you deal with Special Forces officer
Estel, who has a ton of flippy kicks to avoid and sometimes calls in artillery support. Each boss is challenging on their own, but
you’ll get to know their patterns and take care of them before too long. Stage 7 ups the stakes. On top of this moving train, Estel returns
and has figured out how to smuggle some hand grenades on board. She’s calling in backup again. Watch out for the… OH GOD, IT’S THE COMMISSIONER. Now, it'd be a little overwhelming if both
bosses played identically to their original versions. The Commissioner is toned down a little. No super armor this time, and fewer different
kinds of moves. Estel acts a little more defensively, preferring
to keep her distance while the Commissioner tries to bash you into submission. Even with the toned-down movesets, paying
attention to the attack patterns of both at once makes the fight exponentially tougher. That moveset change is crucial. The moves of two separate, pre-established
bosses often don’t combine very well. And you’re likely going to have to combine
them somehow. If you try to sidestep the issue by doing
something you think is clever, that might look like the Boom Boom and Pom Pom fight
in Super Mario 3D Land. There are only 3 distinct bosses in the game
- Bowser, Boom Boom, and Pom Pom. Each individual one is reused a lot over the
game’s 16 worlds, with some arena design tweaks to help keep the repeated fights from
being EXACTLY the same. Sometimes, though, they try to spice things
up by making you fight two of them at once in the same room. Kinda. Unless you’re looking closely. The bosses themselves are really simple. Boom Boom spins at you with his head exposed,
which you jump on because Mario, and he ricochets around for a bit. Repeat 3 times, also because Mario. Pom Pom is pretty similar, but she throws
a boomerang at you and moves a little differently in her ‘invulnerable’ shell phase. Very simple. Combine them, though, and it gets a little
trickier. Or it would, but despite them being in the
same arena, the two of them are still separated. The room is split between a low and a high
floor, and each boss stays at only one level throughout the fight. The two fights feel independent from one another,
even when they’re in the same room, which undercuts a lot of opportunities the design
of the encounter could have for interacting and overlapping attack patterns to add to
the challenge or just make the strategies a little less basic. Despite being added together, the fight’s
just as simple as before. Other boss combos can be way too chaotic. In the Megaman X Legacy Collection, they added
an extra mode called the X Challenge. Here, you fight pairs of pre-existing Maverick
bosses from different Megaman X games with a selected arsenal of special weapons. You want to fight Chill Penguin and Frost
Walrus at the same time for some reason? Now you can. Most Mega Man boss fights are designed in
isolation, with the attack patterns, weaknesses, AI behaviors, and sometimes the arena itself
designed with just that one boss in mind. The X Challenge lets you not take any of that
into consideration - it just throws both bosses at you at once and calls it a day. Attacks are a nightmare to dodge, as there’s
no rhythm to most of the possible fights. The screen immediately becomes a cluttered
mess. Even the background color palette makes some
of the bosses hard to see. When you combine two existing bosses, they’re
usually either very simple in design or altered to make the fight more digestible and playable. Without any customization, or at least careful
selection of the bosses chosen, a double boss fight can feel like a bad ROM hack or a mod
done wrong. Double bosses can do more for a game than
just be a fun fight. In the right circumstances, having a couple
of old bosses combine forces can become a hype factory, and long-running series have
lots of material to work with. Yakuza is filled to the brim with beloved
criminals, and near the top of the list is Majima. Yakuza 4 establishes more of his past with
his brother-in-arms, Saejima. Over that game, you watch these two tragically
fall out and slowly reunite through crime drama shenanigans and shirtless fights. By the end of their character arcs, these
two become a strong dynamic duo. In Yakuza: Like a Dragon, the series goes
through a soft reboot with the gameplay and cast. Most of the past characters in the series
were set aside for new characters. Sometimes, though, the game dusts off some
fan favorites. Like Majima! He's back! And you're fighting him! And halfway through the fight, OH MY GOD,
IT'S SAEJIMA! Look at what they're doing! It doesn't hurt, either, that the fight's
very good. The Majima fight goes from a fun callback
to a double-fun, double-callback fight and works as a great hype moment for longtime
fans. OK, so there are plenty of advantages to reusing
bosses in a double boss fight, but there’s something limiting about it. It’s gonna be more work, but what if we
start designing double boss fights from the ground up? Two bosses provide a challenge unique to most
games, even when combat is focused on dealing with groups. Having 2 bosses to deal with simultaneously
creates a lot of intimidating yet fun and nuanced problems to handle on the fly, especially
when the bosses are different in ways that complement each other. In Hades, when you reach the end of the 3rd
area, you’re pitted against Theseus, the former Hero King of Athens, and Asterius,
the Bull of Minos. These two are carefully designed to be a contrasting
duo both in character and gameplay. Theseus is a pompous punchable jerk whose
demeanor miraculously never changes no matter how many times you beat him, and Asterius
is a stoic, honorable warrior who’s pretty chill. The pair’s stark contrast extends into how
each of them fight. Asterius is an aggressive close-ranged brawler
with heavy melee combos, leaping attacks, and a tracking bull charge that you’ll need
to avoid by taking cover by a pillar. His attacks get heavier when his health hits
the halfway mark. Theseus is a more defensive fighter that prefers
to attack from a distance with his spear. He has a shield out at all times that you
have to flank to do damage. When he’s at half health, things get way
more chaotic. Theseus summons the aid of one of the 8 Olympian
gods at random, who give him a new attack. Each attack is slightly different based on
the god, but they generally fill the arena with a pattern of AoE circles to avoid. And when the two are together, they can also
team up for a big shock wave or a fastball special. Theseus and The Minotaur play off of each
other extremely well. They have distinct roles that are easy to
understand and provide choices to make on the fly when fighting them. Depending on your build, you’ll need to
decide whether to focus down one or try to take care of them at the same time. No matter your choice, you can’t sleep on
either of these two. You’re always on high alert so you don’t
get blindsided by the other, and each of their 2nd phases are a force to be reckoned with. It’s an intimidating fight that can easily
end a run if you’re not careful or if your build just isn’t quite right. Theseus and Asterius make a great team that
provides a real challenge no matter how many times you face them. Lots of double bosses have specific roles
for each member of the pair. Like offense and defense, or healing and attacking. Though sometimes, leaning into those roles
too hard creates an overly simple fight. In No More Heroes 2, you fight New Destroyman. This guy was literally split in two in the
first game, and both parts are back as cyborgs to fight you, 2-on-1. One is a close-range brawler, while the other
snipes you from as far away as possible. No problem there, until you take down the
closer one first. Once the fight is just against the ranged
cyborg, the pacing slows to a crawl. The sniper continues to keep his distance,
flying around the arena and landing in places you can just barely reach. You have to wait around until the AI decides
to jump to the ground and try to revive his partner, where you can jump in and get a few
free attacks. He’ll run away, fly around for a bit, maybe
take another potshot at you, and then come back to try and revive again. That’s it. If you run up to him too quickly, he’ll
likely just fly away. If you try to chase him down, he’ll keep
flying away faster than you can keep up, and probably get an easier chance to revive his
buddy in the process. You just don’t have the tools at your disposal
to take him out at range for any real damage, so the fight slows down to a chip damage contest
that saps the energy out of what had been a fun fight. The weird design turns it into a slog. If you get it right, double bosses where both
characters have unique roles can create a nuanced fight with more layers than you might
pull off with a single boss. There is an interesting dynamic that pops
up in a double boss fight. Since there’s two things to deal with, what
happens when you take one of them out? Different choices make the fight play out
differently. Does nothing happen? One goes down and the other just acts as they
were? Well, if you got through fighting two things
at once, how hard is taking out the remaining half going to be? If nothing happens, the fight might all of
a sudden become very easy. And that might be what you want! But you can do way more complex things, too. Slower paced, strategic games, like turn-based
RPGs, can really benefit from the extra strategy options that a double boss can unlock. In Bug Fables, there are a couple of encounters
against a rival team. A vain diva moth called… uh… Mothiva, and her wasp bodyguard, Zasp. Zasp is attack-oriented, with multi-hit moves
and the ability to boost his damage for two turns. Mothiva has tons of attack and support abilities. She can hit your whole party at once, raise
her partner’s defense, use the game’s turn relay mechanic to give Zasp an extra
attack, and she can even revive him back to low health. You’d think that would make taking her out
first a no-brainer, but if you do that, Zasp gets a permanent attack boost, which can be
devastating in a game where every hit point counts. Even targeting Mothiva at all gives her bodyguard
a bonus. Attacking either one ends up creating complications
that you have to account for. The wider variety of options that a second
enemy character opens up makes the fight with these two much more interesting than either
of them would be alone. Since most every double boss fight involves
fighting two things, they usually will present a player with a choice: What should they prioritize
attacking first? Depending on the roles the bosses have, it
might be obvious. If one of the two is a healer, taking that
one out first will probably shorten up the fight. If a long-distance boss is too hard to catch,
you’d probably want to deal with the closer half first. But some pairings can make for some more interesting
choices. Look at the Ornstein and Smough fight in the
first Dark Souls. Smough’s a big, slow berserker with a wide,
heavy hammer attack. Ornstein is faster and more precise with his
spear. They’re a classic Dark Souls boss, where
you’re managing the positioning of the two, minding their attacks and waiting for solid
openings to strike. It’s a great fight, but what makes it stand
out is that you’re given an interesting choice in how to approach it. Depending on which one of the two you take
out first, the remaining boss gets a powered-up second phase. The choice you make is the trick. Fighting a more powerful Smough is the easier
of the two to deal with, but Ornstein is more difficult to take down in the initial phase
as he’s smaller and faster and has Smough’s wider attacks covering him. Do you want to take the more difficult fight
head-on or wait until the battlefield clears out a bit and save the challenging part for
later? Ornstein and Smough’s synergy and second
phase choice make for a challenging fight where there’s no clear ‘correct’ answer
to how to approach it, and the same double boss fight can unfold in a bunch of different
ways. Where Dark Souls presents the power up idea
as a choice for the player to make, Devil May Cry 3 uses the same idea as a punishment. Agni and Rudra are a pair of ogre-like demons
standing in your way. Maybe you try to focus down the health of
just one of them first. Classic mistake. The other one is now way stronger, good luck. If you split the damage more evenly before
taking one down, the second one shouldn’t last too much longer. The game even tries to suggest that you operate
that way. As you’re learning the rhythm of their attacks
and getting better at breaking their guard, swapping between the two will feel pretty
natural. These two are a classic example of a double
boss that forces you to carefully consider how you split your attention. OK, let’s take one more big step back. Double bosses are a unique type of fight. If you’re feeling even more creative, the
double boss fight format can give you a lot of freedom to design a unique experience. Stereo Lovers in Sayonara Wild Hearts is not
a traditional boss fight at all, but it uses a double theme to make something you haven’t
seen before. You’re up against twins, and their opening
song is a back-and-forth between two parallel worlds. On the beat, your track shifts from one world
to another, and your positioning carries over between the two. You have to look ahead and remember where
you’re supposed to stand, then time your movements with the music so you’re in the
right place during the shift. You’re shifting your attention from one
situation to another, just like in a more run-of-the-mill double boss fight, but in
the context of how Sayonara Wild Hearts plays, the double boss gets a different meaning to
create one of the most memorable parts of the game. Since there’s two parts of a double boss,
what’s forcing you to even have both of them be in the same place? Near the end of Nier: Automata’s campaign,
you’ll ride an elevator up a tower to encounter this spherical robot named Ko-Shi. Go fight. Partway through, the camera cuts away and
your other character is flying up the side of the tower fighting a similar robot, Ro-Shi,
in a shmup-style sequence. Partway through THAT, the camera cuts back
to the elevator for another round with Ko-shi. Then back to the shmup. Then back to the elevator. Back and forth you go, faster and faster,
until you’re both at the top of the tower. The two separate fights fuse together, and
you’re now fighting both at once. Even at this point, you’re still swapping
characters periodically. The framing that Nier Automata uses throughout
the fight does a ton to make it stand out. There’s also a ton of story context tied
in here that I'm not gonna spoil. You go do it. I don’t think we talked enough about every double boss ever,
so you’re gonna have to tag team in for me down in the comments. Let’s talk about some more great double
bosses, how their developers altered their gameplay to make them fit, and the unique
setups and framing that made those fights so memorable. Maybe next video we’ll talk about the elusive
Triple Boss. *chill vibes outro from Cuphead*
