What makes a good Final Boss?

Is it the build up? Their characterisation? The ability to smash you into a thousand pieces? Tricky moves? Is a final boss even necessairy in a game?

And, as a side question: are there any FPS's with strong boss-type enemies, not even final bosses? 'cause I was thinking about this the other day, and I couldn't think of a single one. Even the best FPS's out there, Deus Ex and Half Life 2 mostly eschew bosses for tough fights.

Portal

Build-up is very important. If you want to kill the fucker, you will have fun killing the fucker.

Also, challenging. If it's the final epic battle between good and evil, then there is no fun in having it one-sided.

Last of all, don't make the final boss some monster of huge proportions. Let them fight on the same ground as the hero. after all, you've been killing plenty of David vs. Goliath battles in the course of a typical game. Fighting someone who is your equal has far more impact.

Fair cop.

I personally think a good boss fight needs to have a well designed pattern of attacking that requires a strategy to figure out and defeat them. Bonus points if there are multiple strategies to the Boss depending on how you play the character.

A good final boss will also have the characterisation, atmosphere, build up, emotional layer etc to go along with that. They are the final part of the game so you really need all that extra stuff along with the well designed encounter to really give a sense of accomplishment.

I think Final Bosses aren't necessary but they're important for games with a heavy emphasis on combat.

As for games with good final bosses. I recently got around to finally finishing MGS 3 and after I finished wiping away my manly tears I'd have to say that game has some of the best boss fights I've seen. Especially The End and The Boss they both have really well designed combat patterns with several different ways of fighting them and The End is incredibly atmospheric while The Boss had a really strong emotional context and build up (plus the environment looked really good and factored into the combat as well).

I don't think final bosses are really always necessary and oftentimes simply interrupt the pacing of the story (which is presumably at its climax). If it is appropriate to have one, it should be defined more by what it brings narratively than its difficulty. Portal is a good example of this, as the fight is basically forcing the player to kill time while the boss taunts you and reacts to the damage you're doing. It's an elaborate, interactive cutscene. Earthbound does this pretty well too, being a seemingly unbeatable opponent and forcing the player to pray for their victory. Literally.

Personally, I find a difficult final boss to completely discourage me from playing the game. Because really, what's the reward for beating the final boss? The end of the game, ie: the cessation of playing. There're no more challenges to pursue after that, and you probably don't get any in-game rewards for it either. Not that you'd need them. So if the boss puts up too much of a challenge I'll just stop playing out of apathy, and if the story is really engaging I'll just hate the fight for delaying the ending. And seriously, you've already had the entire game up til now to show off your creativity in creating gameplay challenges, so you might as well make the final boss an emotionally engaging event rather than just another speed bump after a series of speed bumps.

edited 14th Jul '11 4:45:51 AM by Clarste

personally i do need a difficult boss as a final boss (i played shin megami tensei games when i was young)

of course there are a ton of great exceptions that exclaim you dont need a difficult boss

if the story is truly well done it feels like youve actually saved the world from destruction

and also you beat a boss that seems unbeatable so you look totally badass

case in point: Persona 4 and EarthBound

gamers love pride so final bosses should give gamers a lot of pride

It needs to have a point.

The final boss must have a connection to your character. You must have a damn good reason for killing him. Do not make him a Giant Space Flea from Nowhere.

Making him challenging is just a perk.

This is the most important thing for me, I think. The battle needs to feel like it has meaning, rather than being just another boss fight. Bonus points for special dialogue during the battle.

Build up and epicness is important o-o

Also difficulty, I always feel sour when final boss is easy.

Beyond that, I don't care whether final boss is giant monster, evil version of main char or somehow emotionally connected to main char.(as long its not out of nowhere of course xD)

edited 14th Jul '11 7:28:36 AM by SpookyMask

Question: what about Final Bosses like the ones in Earthbound or Persona 3?

Because both of those had pretty easy final bosses, but the way in which they were handled made them incredibly awesome.

In Giygas' case, it was mostly a matter of figuring out what you were supposed to do.

Build-up to it is indeed very important. Bad pacing can take away the sense of a climatic battle, it's one of the things that I thought ruined Chrono Cross, you're all set to fight the Final Boss and OH WAIT I HAVE TO TELL YOU WHAT THE PLOT ACTUALLY IS FIRST IN A MASSIVE EXPOSITION DUMP.

That being said, the actual boss fight needs to be difficult itself, and require putting all your resources at your disposal to work. I love Final Exam Bosses because it really feels like everything comes together when it forces you to remember everything you've learned and aquired in the game beforehand to defeat the boss.

I see a good final boss as a boss with noot just build up, but it needs to be an insane ride. An awesome finale and very challenging. Fortinbras the god of light from Onimusha and Jubileus from Bayonetta are excellent examples.

Every good final boss battle should have a moment where you're not sure if you won, and you think, "is it over? Did I do it?" and then the boss curbstomps you, and you throw your controller at the screen.

What makes your game fun? We've been playing it this long right? If this is to be our last fight, or even just a climatic fight then make it a fight to remember. Are there any elements of the combat system that haven't really been used much? Get creative. Some simple strategy has been letting the player coast? Crush it, force his fingers to hit new buttons. Any combos the player hasn't had the chance to really make useful? Or maybe you have nothing really new left to squeeze out? Then throw a curve ball and something new, or for the more conservative, just make it bigger, tougher, quicker and better looking, make those fingers preform like never before and make it look good too. Or maybe your whole game's been unforgiving old school NES difficulty and you are finally looking to throw the player a break? Then make sure our dissection lets us makes use of all our favorite tricks. It is our last fight, let total victory be a fun memory.

Emotional Investment and a good challenge for me. This is the end of a game; I should either want to kill this bastard or be crying that I have to. I don't want them to be a pushover; I want them hard. Like Yahtzee said, it should be like a final exam where you use everything you've learned over the course of the game.

This reminds me of the way Gradius games usually end. Basically, the final boss can't do shit because you had to blast your way through all its defense systems to get there.

X4 LOL that seems like funny.

edited 14th Jul '11 10:15:38 AM by NONAMEGIVEN

As long it's not a Giant Space Flea from Nowhere, I'm generally not picky about final boss fights. I do prefer bosses that have some sort of connection to at least one of your characters as I believe that villains should always have some sort of link with the heroes even if it's minimal. Awesome music is also preferred, as is the upscaled difficulty. I want to feel like I have done something impossible in order to finish the game.

I like fast-paced boss battles. The kind where you're getting hit a lot, but so is the boss. They're pulling out all the tricks. I'm too fond of bosses with multiple forms, I think it gets tiring after awhile, but one boss I thought for was pretty good was Majora from Majoras Mask. She's about as big as Odolwa, which isn't much, and she's leaping around all over the place lashing at you with her whips. Then she throws out these spiky-spin top things that keep getting in your way and they explode, all the while you've got little room to use light arrows on her to stun her.

But Majora lacked a lot of emotion/meaning, at least compared to, say, Mother 3. It used the same "can't fight your way out" strategy from the previous game while also making it considerably more difficult. And the ending is just absolutely heart-breaking which wraps up the game very nicely.

Emotional involvement, e.g., that the story buildup is such that facing the final boss is climactic, and beating it is satisfying. That said, being at least slightly above the difficulty of the average boss of the game, and this is just me, but "high stakes", to make it epic.

I really like Azel in this regard. He's not quite the final boss - there's one more after him - but he's pretty difficult because he can easily match your usual fighting speed and is actually pretty smart, on top of having the other God Hand at his disposal. In short, he can do almost everything you can, which may require you to come up with new tactics.

A good Final Boss not only requires a good buildup, but the Final Boss is one of the moments that makes the game awesome. It also requires emotional attachment, like when you FINALLY beat the boss, you feel happy. There should be a sense of desperation as well, and don't forget Awesome Music! And the Final Boss should NOT be an Anticlimax Boss, since it has to show NO REMORSE.

One example that did that for me is ZODIAC Libra.

edited 14th Jul '11 12:53:07 PM by AttObl

I want a final boss that's legitimately difficult (final exam bosses are usually good for this) with little to no Fake Difficulty and/or blatant cheating.

Oh yeah, awesome background music for the final battle is NOT optional.