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- Mid-boss redirects here. For the Disgaea character, see Vyers (Disgaea)
A boss is an enemy-based challenge in video games that, once encountered, stops the game's progression until the player either is able to surmount the enemy or is thwarted by it. Success or failure may have different consequences depending on the game. However all true bosses halt game progression until the challenge is resolved. In traditional game design, a boss is usually an enemy which must be surmounted to trigger the end of one level, sequence, plot point, and/or challenge and the beginning of a new one. Progression is stopped until the player can pass this enemy and realize the end or change of this portion of the game's structure or plot. Bosses are typically a difficult and/or spectacular enemy challenge. A fight with a boss character is usually referred to as a "boss battle," which often has its own special music and environment. Bosses appear in many video games, particularly action games which often feature multiple bosses generally increasing in difficulty as the game progresses.
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History
Early video games, like their pinball machine predecessors, could not be "won". They were designed as a contest against the machine, with the only goal to accumulate points until the machine inevitably won. For example, early Nintendo and Atari video games such as Pong repeated the same challenge, although the difficulty of the game would increase. Eventually, the game became too difficult for any player to win. The first arcade video game with a boss-like attacker was the 1979 game Galaxian. In Galaxian, waves of ships would attack the player. Each wave included a few "flagships". Destroying the flagships resulted in significant bonuses. The flagships appeared at the top of the screen, implying that they were directing the attack. The flagships were thus referred to as "bosses" in the games. Although the flagships were usually defeated before advancing to the next level, it was not a requirement. The first arcade video game with a true boss was Phoenix introduced in 1980 by Centuri. In Phoenix, a player was first attacked by several different smaller types of enemies. After disposing of the small ships, the player was then attacked by birds. After the birds were destroyed, the player faced a large mothership. Only by defeating the large mothership could the player advance to the next level. The first console games with a boss were Vanguard and Phoenix for the Atari 2600. Both games were ported from arcade video games. The first known game to explicitly list an end-level, stronger opponent as a "boss" is the arcade game Renegade (which was ported to several other platforms) in 1986.
Bosses in traditional game design
Many single-player/cooperative games follow the normal rules of ramping and plot structure, becoming progressively more difficult as the player advances while the overall story continues to build. Bosses are a consequence of this structure, appearing at the end of a level, as a climax to a sequence or event, or blocking the means to the next area or an event or goal important to progression. They tend to reiterate previous themes within the game structure they represent while testing both the player's skills and the player character(s) status and abilities. From a plot perspective they also provide closure, confrontation, or otherwise a change of events for characters or situations within the game's story. The basic boss concept in gameplay is a single enemy to be surmountable by defeating it with the player character(s) abilities available. This basic concept is often expanded on by designers and directors in different ways, requiring the player to fight multiple enemies working together as a "boss", or a boss that has multiple forms or stages, or specific weakness or weak points. Some are unique in the sense that they are optional, or even do not directly stop progression at all points of contact. An example is Nemesis from Resident Evil 3, a boss character that constantly stalks the player throughout the game, turning game progression into a running boss battle. Some are created with more unconventional solutions in mind such as puzzle solving, mini-games, or other unique solutions. For example, a boss in the NES game Monster Party is a pair of dancing zombies; they are impossible to defeat unless the player allows them to finish dancing, after which they self-destruct. Some bosses are designed to be literally unbeatable, usually for plot or design purposes. In some scenarios the goal instead is to simply avoid or survive against the boss's threats for a certain amount of time, while in others the player's defeat will not cause a "Game Over", but will actually continue the plot. Examples include the Orbital Frame Anubis from the Zone of the Enders games, the first encounter with the Cloud of Darkness in Final Fantasy III, and the tournament battle with Wiseman in Xenogears. There is also one at the start of Kingdom Hearts that is hard to defeat (Leon Squall), although it is possible. Even if the player dies, the plot continues. Game design tradition often sees weaker or simpler bosses appearing before an encounter with a true boss that actually signifies the transition to the next challenge of the game, or to plot progression. These types of bosses are usually referred to as mini-bosses or sub-bosses. A mini-boss is usually designed as less of a challenge or of less importance to the story, and more as a means to briefly break up the regular action, to define a dramatic point in the level structure, or simply as a warm-up to an actual boss. A boss whose defeat signals the end of at least the core progression of a game is called a "final boss". This boss type is often designed to be the ultimate challenge in the game as well as the plot's climax. A stock final boss tends to fully tax all of the player's methods and skills learned in the game, or their player character(s) attributes and abilities, though this is not always the case due to design reasons both intentional and unintentional. Some bosses, upon being defeated, trigger the destruction of their surrounding area, or in some cases, the entire game world. These bosses are colloquially called "load bearing bosses," in reference to "load bearing walls" found in architecture. Upon defeating a boss like this such as Mother Brain in the Metroid games, the player usually must escape from the area in a timed escape sequence, where the penalty for running out of time is either a game over or massive damage. Occasionally the destruction that ensues is solely cinematic, such as in Star Ocean: Till the End of Time when, after defeating the main final boss, the universe ends. Many games feature enormously strong optional bosses that are not accounted in the core game structure in any way; they are usually hidden within the game design and serve only as an extreme challenge for an expert player. These are commonly known as "superbosses", of which many have grown to become rather infamous amongst hardcore gamers. They often require an incredible amount of skill, resources, and even physical endurance to beat. The Yiazmat superboss from Final Fantasy XII, for example, can take literally many hours to defeat, with his fifty million hit points and ability to instantly kill player characters at random. An example of a less powerful, but popularly celebrated superboss is Sephiroth (originally from Final Fantasy VII) in the Kingdom Hearts series.
Presence of boss design in gaming
Little has had more impact on game design than the introduction of the boss concept. Bosses are often favored by game directors and designers as an easy opportunity to provide a great deal of gameplay, spectacular art, and challenge all in one. Despite this, the extent to which boss design impacts a game varies from title to title and across genres. Some games have few or fairly standard boss battles as a means to emphasize other game structure. For example, the Halo trilogy keeps emphasis on its sweeping gun/vehicles battles and atmosphere, and thus has few bosses throughout its three games, with the first game having arguably absolutely none, and the third a final boss that is intentionally anti-climactic. Others focus on the player fighting a massive assortment of bosses, such as Gunstar Heroes, which has the player fighting over 35 bosses across seven brief levels, including one boss that must be defeated in seven different forms within one battle. A rare few games are almost entirely focused on simply defeating bosses, with no other relevant design in the game to compete with it. For example, the single-player mode of most fighting games consists entirely of one-on-one fights against opponents of increasing difficulty, ending with the battle against the final boss. The cult shoot-em-up rRootage is formed entirely of randomized boss battleships. The action-adventure game Shadow of the Colossus consists of little more than sixteen gigantic monsters to defeat, each with its own long battle. Some games include a sequence often referred to as a boss rush, in where the player must surmount several bosses in a row or even all at once, often without the option to renew resources or rest. Boss rushes are often used in game design to see the player endure a long rematch against all the bosses defeated prior to that point. Series particularly noted for featuring boss rushes are the Castlevania series and particularly the Mega Man series, in which the titular character usually has to battle all of the Robot Master bosses in the game, one after the other, within the confines of a single level near the end of the game. Boss rushes are also used as bonus gaming modes, sometimes revolving around a time attack challenge. In modern gaming, bosses have long since been used as an integral device to accentuating the plot, particularly for confrontations against antagonistic characters. Many game stories feature the player defeating villains through boss battles, as the boss concept inherently lends itself to the idea of a "showdown". The end result is many players defining a villain's worth not just by its relation to the plot, but as a worthy boss battle as well. As games evolved as storytelling devices, bosses have found more and more use in different story contexts, such as symbolic images or thematic concepts; an example are the Pyramid Head bosses in Silent Hill 2, whom in actuality symbolically represent the main character's tortured psyche, rather than simply a threat to the player. Bosses have come full-circle enough to be used for lampooning or self-referencing the concept itself, such as the Bob The Goldfish boss in Earthworm Jim, who, as a normal goldfish, is totally defenseless and can be defeated by simply knocking it out of its bowl. A recurring final boss in the Metal Gear series is named "Big Boss"; his mentor's name is simply "The Boss", whom Big Boss must defeat as the final boss of Metal Gear Solid 3. There has been a small backlash against the prevalence of the boss concept. Some critics feel that bosses are overused, often are more frustrating and tedious than fun, and needlessly disturb the atmosphere of the game. An example is a common critique of the boss characters in the Max Payne series of games; many feel the player's immersion in the noir-like, cinematic, more realistic world of these games is diminished when encountering a person that can survive several shotgun blasts to the head simply because the game deems him a "boss". The "boss backlash" is partly responsible for the "Giant Enemy Crab" internet meme, after producer Bill Ritch's upended his own presentation of Genji 2 by introducing a clichéd boss character glaringly out of place with a game supposedly based on real feudal Japanese battles. In Kingdom Hearts 2 Boss Battles are made either more intresting or slightly easier with the Variations of "Reaction Commands" if the player presses the triangle button when prompted, The main character preforms a special action, that usually needs to be followed on by another reaction commands. they can count for better or worse, if not done correctly. Most Bosses in the game actually have "Multiple Forms" This emphasizes on the last 5 boss battles of the game, against Xemnas.
See also
References
External links
- General-purpose Boss Fighting Guide
- Boss battles – article discussing good boss design
