Don't you just love boss battles where...

[Gutsman]

...the boss seems impossibly hard and defeat is all but inevitable...but after many tries you eventually find his weakness and manage to defeat him?

That's the kind of experience I live for...it's the reason I play video games....what about you guys?

[rezo]

Not really the kind of experience I live for or the reason I play games(my favorite boss fights are the ones where you and the boss are on equal terms as far as strength and ability go)

However, I always thought it was funny how after having so much trouble with these bosses, you end up blowing through them like nothing, and the game would realize how weak the bosses were and throw them all at you one after the other on the final stage. . .

[Shine]

I always hated that. Streets of Rage was the most common offender.

[AaronChance]

I like all fights to be challenging. If the fight isn't challenging and is something where I simply go through the same motions time and time again, like in most RPGs, what are they there for in the first place?

I also hate the achillies' heel approach to boss design since you can only fight them once, because once you learn the trick you're just repeating the same thing over and over.

[Ragnarok the Red]

I don't mind the impossibly hard boss factor when there are only one or a few in a game, tops. But when just about every boss you fight is impossibly difficult in relation to your level and strength when you fight them, especially in an RPG, it's mind-numbingly frustrating. Xenosaga is a good example for a recent offender of this.

A good example of the occasional hard-ass boss battle in a game is good is Lunar: Eternal Blue for Sega CD. The giant wind-up toy in the haunted mansion, Borgan, and Zophar were all exceptionally challenging bosses, and the degree of pride I felt when I finally put them down I still remember fondly to this day. Too bad their difficulty got toned down for the PSX Complete version - especially Borgan who wasn't half as difficult to put down.

[Cheebs]

Originally posted by Gutsman
...the boss seems impossibly hard and defeat is all but inevitable...but after many tries you eventually find his weakness and manage to defeat him?

Kinda' like the last boss in Ninja Combat (early Neo Geo game). After many tries I realized his weakness was $10.00 worth of continue quarters, and I managed to beat him.

[Roufuss]

Originally posted by ShineAqua
I always hated that. Streets of Rage was the most common offender.

One of the only flaws of early 2d beat em ups. I remember Double Dragon threw like 2 or 3 Abodo's at you. Damn them all to hell.

[Gutsman]

I don't think beat em ups in general have well designed bosses. They're either ultra cheap or ultra easy.

The best designed bosses I've seen are those in action RPGs like Zelda LTTP. When you fight those bosses they always seem impossible to beat at first, then after a few tries you find out how to dodge one attack, then after a while, another attack, until you eventually "figure him out"..

[animegirl]

I still to this day have not beat the last boss in Ninja Gaiden...and the sick thing was after you used up all your lives they made you go through that nearly impossibe last stage yet again! That game only exists to torment me.

[FuryFox]

Originally posted by Gutsman
...the boss seems impossibly hard and defeat is all but inevitable...but after many tries you eventually find his weakness and manage to defeat him?

That's the kind of experience I live for...it's the reason I play video games....what about you guys?

No, with few exceptions (like DMC), I find that very annoying. I don't like having the game ended and started over again, over and over again. It breaks the flow of the game, doesn't really even make sense, and becomes boring typically. I prefer drawn-out battles, where you have to discover the enemy's weakness as you fight them...I don't mind dying if I screw up, or logic escapes me, but not just because the designers want you to play find-the-pattern.