Lucas the Dreamer
I think optional bosses should be included if they guard something important. If the optional boss doesn’t really guard anything that serves a major purpose (an Infinity +1 Sword is not an item of major significance) then no, they’re a Superboss. If an optional boss prevents access to an entire area in a game or is required for an ending then yes it can qualify. The Owl rematch from Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice guards two endings despite being in an out of the way optional area so he qualifies. The Demon of Hatred guards materials to fully upgrade your subweapons so it doesn’t.
Why waste time when you can see the last sunset last?
Ferdinand Von Aegir fan
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That was what I was meaning with my point. It depends on the context.
If lets say there is a game where you can fight Godzilla, but he isn't mandatory and is optional, and it's clear Godzilla is the hardest fight in the game, then he's a Superboss.
However, if, to access Godzilla, you have to get past a dungeon where you fight Mothra, and Mothra is incredibly hard and prevents you from continuing, then that could, in theory, be That One Boss.
Muramasa got.
NaNo 4328 / 50,000
The "and prevents you from continuing" means that it isn't optional. The dungeon might be optional, but Mothra isn't.
Link to TRS threads in project mode here.
Is it valid to consider the designers' intentions when deciding whether a boss qualifies as That One Boss? If it's That One Boss, that indicates that they 1) found the boss exceptionally difficult compared with all the others, to the extent that they would rather it not be in the game, and 2) nonetheless felt obliged to beat it before moving on. That suggests that the designers have messed up in some way - if the boss was meant to be exceptionally hard, then the normal rules of game design say that you shouldn't force the player to fight it. So either the designers didn't intend the boss was going to be that hard, or they tried to make a Superboss and fumbled the "optional" part in some way.
Or they're messing with your expectations and deliberately invoking That One Boss, of course, but that would be rather unusual.
Is this character unique, or one of a kind that exists elsewhere? If the former, then I think that I'd call them a boss; if the latter, then I think that I'd call them an Elite Mook.
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