That One Boss and That One Level cleanup.

Finished Elden Ring. Now I wanna hear all of your opinion on Radagon of the Golden Order, because I keep dying to him even with the game-breaking options (Rivers of Blood, Stars of Ruin, Comet Azur, etc). Is he a hard boss or not?

Bump: Someone added Tree Spirits as Goddamned Boss in YMMV.Elden Ring... even though it's also listed as That One Boss. Consensus?

Bumping again. This was added to ThatOneBoss.Dark Souls:

• The Crystal Sage is this for pure sorcerer builds. For anyone with some brawn it's an obnoxious but not overly hard boss whose spam attacks can be tanked and who loses big chunks of health to every swipe of your trusty sword. But if if you sank all your points into Intelligence and Attunement (and you kind of have to if you want to have a viable sorcerer build), have fun trying to dodge the barrage of differently-moving spells coming from four different directions while knowing that any mistake will likely be your last because you just don't have the armour and health to survive more than one or two hits. And you'll have to do it for a very long time, because the one sort of damage you're proficient at dealing out is the one sort of damage the Crystal Sage has a ton of resistance to!

I managed to beat the Sage without partaking in Sequence Breaking without dying, so I have a ton of questions about this.

Well, being a YMMV trope, That One Boss is subjective so I think it should be kept.

It explicitly specified itself as difficult for magic users only.

So, no?

Can a Final Boss qualify. I added the Nymphojinn from Huniepop 2 awhile back since they’re a huge Difficulty Spike for various reasons. I’d also like to know if this is too complainy.

Final Bosses can qualify; they just need to be very difficult by their standards. The entry also seems fine to me.

The Final Boss essentially requires winning four dates in a row and you can’t go in pre-prepared with baggage countering or point optimizing gifts since the girls and combinations are random. Winning one endgame date alone can be quite difficult even if you go in prepared.

Thanks and good to know. EDIT: Actually, I said inthat the entry seemed fine.

Edited by RandomTroper123 on Sep 14th 2022 at 5:16:19 AM

Been playing Elden Ring, and this one has been on my head for a while. At the end of Millicent's sidequest, if you choose to side with her, you get an version of an Unalloyed Gold Needle that can later transform into Miquella's Needle, which is needed to avert the Lord of Frenzied Flame ending if you somehow managed to meet the requirements for it and only wanted the Frenzied Flame sacred seal. Problem is, to transform the Unalloyed Gold Needle into Miquella's Needle, you need to beat Malenia in order to even access it. Is this a situation similar to Champion Gundyr?

That might fall under That One Sidequest. Maybe?

Not sure, because if you underwent Frenzied Flame Proscription for just the Frenzied Flame Sacred Seal and not the ending, does it count against?

Anyways, not sure if we talked about him before, but someone re-added Father Gascoigne to ThatOneBoss.Bloodborne and added Ebrietas. I understand Optional Boss no longer being a disqualifying factor, but do they really deserve it?

Bump.

Hi, I hate to beat a dead horse, but I'd like to ask for an opinion on the validity of some of the examples on ThatOneLevel.Super Mario Sunshine now that I've given the game a playthrough myself.

For those unaware, the sole requirement for unlocking the final level in Sunshine is completing the seventh mission in each of the game's seven main worlds. Anything beyond that is solely for the purpose of 100% Completion, including some of the more infamous Shines in the hub (the eighth mission in each world, Pachinko Game, Lily Pad Ride, etc). Since That One Level obviously has the established rule that anything that is challenging but optional has to be moved to Brutal Bonus Level, should we carry this out for the Sunshine page?

I'm unsure. Sunshine isn't really a linear game anyway, and I don't know if all the "bonus" levels are meant to be more difficult than the other levels. But thinking about it, they usually are, so you might have a point? It's just more difficult to call when it's not a clearly linear game and many bonus levels can be explored at any point.

Edited by mightymewtron on Aug 3rd 2022 at 5:47:00 AM

I don't think things like Pachinko Game and Lily Pad Ride qualify as Brutal Bonus Levels since the game doesn't really telegraph them as such and they're available fairly early. The Episode 8 Shines also vary wildly in difficultly, like how Bianco Hills' "Red Coins of the Lake" is a super straightforward Red Coin level, so I'm not comfortable lumping them under the BBL banner when the intent doesn't seem to be there. The only stages that might count are the hidden Red Coin challenges in the Secret levels since they're hidden fairly well, but they also give you FLUDD so they're not even that hard. Plus none of them are listed anyway.

Edited by Karxrida on Aug 3rd 2022 at 3:47:35 AM

So I was having some shower thoughts about the Sunshine examples and think they can stay. At least most of them.

The thing is that I don't believe the game explains the specific mechanism for unlocking the endgame, so someone familiar with other 3D Mario titles might assume a static Shine total is required and try everything to get to 70 like in 64. Or they'll do stuff just from not knowing. And while the game doesn't outright have Schizophrenic Difficulty, it also doesn't clearly differentiate which levels are supposed to be the "hard ones" outside of the times you lose access to FLUDD.

You also have to consider that Delfino Plaza encourages you to explore it to find all its Shines. And it has like 20 or something? Stumbling upon the more infamous ones isn't that difficult, especially the Pachinko Machine.

Edited by Karxrida on Aug 8th 2022 at 1:20:49 AM

From the RPG page for That One Level:

• Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga. Joke's End kind of defines this, as it's long, confusing, and an ice level with creepy and annoying music and teamwork puzzles. The worst part is the fact that you spend most of the area being split up. In the Mario & Luigi series, only having one brother severely weakens you, preventing you from using Special Attacks or reviving if you get knocked out. Since the enemies in Joke's End are very tough, you're probably gonna spend half the level running from every fight you see just to stay alive. Unless you grind endlessly once you get the bros back together, you'll enter Bowser's Castle severely underleveled.
  • Teehee Valley can also be considered this. Having to control Peach who wanders about aimlessly just WAITING to be kidnapped by the Gritty Goombas is certainly no day at the beach. Especially during that damn spin jump puzzle. Your switching of high jump to spin jump has to be QUICK and PRECISE, lest you fail. Then, if that isn't bad enough, you have to time your spin jumps along with Peach, meaning that if she strays from the screen, she'll get kidnapped and you'll have to do it all over again. And you will. Again, and again, and again.
    • Not to mention when you return to Teehee Valley aboard the S.S. Chuckola there's that bleeping red and blue barrel mini game. A timed sliding puzzle where you have to get 6 barrels lined up ten times in less than 200 seconds? No thank you.
  • Heck, you won't even be at the first major boss in this game when you do the first of many hair-pullers of the game: The Border Jump. To get into the Beanbean kingdom, you have to jump over a rope that varies in speed. Seems simple, but for some it's really not. Oh, you're using an emulator where the keys are reversed? Good luck with that...

Also, do the barrel and Border Jump mini-games really fit under "That One Level", since by definition they're mini-games rather than proper levels? They're both mandatory to progress through the game, but still. Also, I don't recall seeing anyone even complain about Border Jump, at least not the first time you go through it (the harder difficulty levels are optional).

The first couple things need to be rewritten imo, partly because of the indentation. I also feel the last example can be cut.

I feel that ROM hacks should be allowed entries for That One Level, considering they are a type of game as well.

True, but the point of many ROM Hacks is to be as hard as possible, so it's a bit tricky. (Plus we don't trope fan-made content on the page for the game itself...)

I think the Border Jump example can be nuked. You could always rebind the keys if you don't like the emulator's default layout.

So, given the whole thing with "are superbosses eligible for That One Boss", I now have to ask if a Brutal Bonus Level can be That One Level. I ask because somebody listed the one for YMMV.Splatoon 3.

Only if it's mandatory to obtain an certain ending. Otherwise, no.