Last bosses in fighting games

dwk

Gawd
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Jan 18, 2006
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Why do game devs make last bosses in fighting games cheap/frustrating? It is like every fighting game the bosses get more cheap and overpowered. Why not just make them like a regular player that fights really well? Alpha-152 (DOA4), Seth (SF4) and Shao Kahn (MK9) all spring to mind as cheap/frustrating boss fights. The devs are pretty much forcing you to play cheap as well and not to get better with your player. It seems like I enjoy every fighting game up to the last boss because then it turns into a retry fest to find that one cheap move I can spam over and over to beat them.

I was really shock at how fun the new Mortal Kombat is and was having a blast with the story mode until I got to the last Shao Kahn fight. It is just stupid how frustrating that battle can be. I think if you have to nurf the boss for multiplayer (Seth SF4) or not include them in the multiplayer (Shoa Kahn, Goro, etc MK9) then they shouldn't be in the game. Is it really that hard to find balance or are devs just lazy?
 
I'm with you as I do think that has been an issue as of late. The boss from DOA4 was absolutely nuts based on my memory. CPU opponents are pattern based anyway, but typically with the recent rash of crazy final bosses we've seen those pattens force you to do some otherwise idiotic things. I'd toss in the giant bosses from Tekken 6 into this grouping, too.

You might be happy to know that the CPU Seth was drastically altered for Super SF4, though. Even on the hardest difficulties he doesn't get any MK3-like magic grabs or start his anti-air before you leave the ground. He doesn't play like a human...but at least he doesn't force you to pattern him.
 
Bosses can be annoying sometimes. I disagree about not having them in the game though, I think Extra Health and improved AI is how a boss should be. Thats pretty much what regular SF4 boss Seth was (playable Seth had the lowest amount of health at ~700 but I think boss Seth had average health of ~1000) and I think thats good. I don't want the final boss to be a pushover but I also want to be able to play as them. The problem with boss Seth was his AI had to good of reactions and it seemed liked the game was cheating a lot. However I think Seth is one of the most over-rated bosses in recent fighters. SF4 AI had a lot of flaws and you could easily figure out patterns for everybody including Seth. I'm probably just above average when it comes to fighters (not gonna win a tourny but I usually win against friends and friends of friends) and I never found Seth hard. I think it took 3 tries to beat him the first time I played (medium setting) and after that I learned all his patterns and could almost always beat him with anybody on the very hard setting. Actually I've double perfected him with 5 or 6 different characters.

Though that just furthers your point about the bosses requiring cheap tactics to win since learning a AI's pattern isn't going to make you any better when it comes to fighting real people. Though it does help with timing and learning to do moves quickly since the timing against Seth is strict.

In MK9 I think they should of made Goro, Kintaro, and Shao Kahn playable by making the playable version weaker, which is how the playable version of the hidden bosses are (true - Smoke, Noob, Jade, and I think theres 1 or 2 more). I like how the bosses have extra health but its really annoying how they can just take a hit but go right through it and hit you which no one else can do AFAIK.
 
This is nothing new; have you never played an SNK fighting game before? :confused: :D
SNK has been putting retarded cheap bosses in KOF from day 1 (KOF'94).
Bosses like Rugal, O. Rugal, Goenitz, Orochi, Zero, Krizalid etc. all had moves with ridiculous priority and levels of reaction that are inhuman. Usually I'll play KOF until the boss and then I just quit rather than sit there for an hour+ trying to beat a boss just to get a lame ass 2 minute ending.

A friend of mine showed me back in the UMK3 days that if you just stood still, the computer would do the same thing. They wouldn't attack you or do a counter attack until you attacked first.

Capcom didn't ever have a boss on that level until Seth in SF4 and he's still like a baby compared to a KOF boss. DoA has always had cheap bosses, as has VF with Dural. The only bosses I've found that were always pushovers were the ones in the Vs. games; either that or I'm just waaaaay too good at Vs. games. :D Never had problems with bosses in other SF games though. Bison never really gave me any problems.
 
Capcom didn't ever have a boss on that level until Seth in SF4 and he's still like a baby compared to a KOF boss. DoA has always had cheap bosses, as has VF with Dural. The only bosses I've found that were always pushovers were the ones in the Vs. games; either that or I'm just waaaaay too good at Vs. games. :D Never had problems with bosses in other SF games though. Bison never really gave me any problems.

SFA3 was close to cheap, but it only got bad when Bison had super because he has a tendency to Psycho Crusher the instant you do any attack. Other than that one move he didn't have inhuman reflexes.

Vs. game bosses tend to be really easy because their patterns are simple and easy to avoid.
 
Yeah it seems most fightings do this and it is frustrating. Usually the bosses have moves that sort of break the rules of the game or are over powered. In DOA3 the boss can shoot fire balls and no other character really has long range attacks like that.

In DOA Dimensions the tag team mode is even worst as you have to beat each boss from the previous games to unlock the character and you don't have control of your tag team partner so they are pretty stupid and weak.
 
Seth was BS cheap in SF4. I didn't have any trouble beating him with characters I knew well - like Ken - but with characters I had to slog through the game with to unlock people...man, that was crazy tough. Made me want to throw my controller.
 
When I'm forced to clear the arcade mode to unlock stuff I set the round time to minimum, number of rounds to minimum, and AI difficulty to the lowest setting. It's more effective in some games than others but has always been worthwhile.
 
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