Mechanical Alchemy: An Exceptional Boss Battle
This morning I entered the Botanical gardens of Batman Arkham Asylum prepared for a fight with my favorite villain Poison Ivy. I was even prepared for the obligatory vagina plant boss that greeted me with its' life draining weeds and poisonous "spores" straight from that duel clitoris. What caught me off guard was the amount patience and memorization required to survive this boss battle. I found my self tearing my hair out and yelling at the TV much like I did my first play though of Mega Man in 1987. This yelling is a wonderful indication that those in development did something right here. I should be jumping out of my seat! It means I am invested in the game and it is quite surely doing its job of creating an engaging interactive experience. This very refreshing in a climate where powering leveling often saves the day. In Batman Arkham Asylum it does not matter how many armor upgrades you have or how powerful your batarang is, it is your movement that counts. Constant vigilance pays dividends; this is the kind of game play that does not forgive mistakes. As painful as it can be to have to restart from scratch after one single misstep I find mastering a boss' attack patterns to be more rewarding than plowing through an end boss with some tricked out uber sword. These types of sensibilities brandish the vibes of a difficult platformer and have their roots in battles like Megaman's "Rock Monster" and King K. Rool's end game gauntlet from Donkey Kong Country. While the last two may share a 2-D perspective the lack of a third dimension does little to diminish the difficulty. Both games require spot on timing and pattern recognition built within fairly solid control schemes. Here the two manage to take the play control (the good and the bad) and allow it to become entirely realized as a full-scale instrument. In these instances the player is forced to utilize even the subtlest variations of the jump mechanic to persevere. It is my belief that the simplest mechanics work the best in games and while Batman's collection is not perfect it builds on these formulas by adding the some extra dimensions.
The general movement of Batman feels top heavy creating an exhilarating sensation of traveling impetuously towards danger but it also makes the avatar slightly obtuse in its' handling. This results in having to plan out your moves a second or two beforehand to avoid missteps, especially in times when the grappling hook is made ineffectual. In this fight the small island Batman is trapped on is laced with deadly vines that affect a specified area at a time and one is forced to use the run and dodge in tandem. Since the island is so small and it is easy to get trapped in corners you are forced to utilize both mechanics collectively. This essentially recreates the dangers of the Mega Man Rock Monster boss battle but broadens it by forcing you to react on a 3-D plane.
It only gets harder when the unarmed goons join the fight and you are forced to weave in and out of the vines while managing what can be called the most delicate of Arkam Asylum's mechanics. The combat system at first glance appears simple and "mashy". Only by mastering dodge and counter will you find yourself chaining the higher combos. Moving successfully through a chain of button presses transforms this combat system into a silent rhythm action mini game with free flow quick time qualities. This creates a sense of urgency and effectively forces the player onto a level of competence he might have otherwise not bothered to achieve.
I love it when a boss battle has me getting off my couch, steaming with self-righteous indignation. It makes winning all the more satisfying. It is my belief that games should be designed with mechanics in mind before anything else. If a game does its job right the boss fight should combine these mechanics into a sort of waltz celebrating the well-crafted instrument being played. Batman surely delivers with this epic fight with the lovely lady Ivy.
What are some of your favorite boss battles and what mechanics cause you to salivate?
ROCsteady
Posted to on 1 November 2009
· Comments (9)
Other stuff like this: batman, batman arkham asylum, donkey kong country, mechanical alchemy, mega man, poison ivy, rock monster
I was just happy that it saved after each stage of the battle. I couldn't imagine finishing it if each time I died I had to restart from the very beginning. ^_^;;
My favorite boss battle is clearly in Xenogears, the dual boss battle against [Spoiler] and, after that, [spoiler].
The combination is just mean. One drains the HP to 1 - in a situation where you use fuel to attack and a LOT of fuel to repair.
The other is a total gimmick fight with additional meanness.
Another is, of course, Magus from Chrono Trigger. He's an awesome boss and was also tricky the firsttime I did him way back.
...sorry, RPG player, so dodging does nothing for this ol' one.
Sad to say, but Seymour's various forms throughout ffx. My brother and I started playing that game when we were stupid young--way too immature to understand the damn sphere grid. We messed up the leveling really badly: we honestly had to restart the game with every Sey form because we were so weak. Every. Single. One. And then we got stuck on Yunalesca...
Years later, we replayed the game and found it soooo much easier. So, even though it was due to our own inexperience with RPGs, I'm giving it to Sey~!
@ Nexus : I know! Thank goodness for the auto save function in that battle! I was surprised by its inclusion. In the old days it was very common to start completely from scratch. I was so expecting to have to redo the whole match!
Oddly -- for me -- I got through the Poison Ivy boss battle after two tries, and I'm really, really, really not very good at those aspects of gameplay. I never like the boss battles (but the sneaking aspects of BATMAN were heaven for me). Other boss battles in the game made me much crazier -- the penultimate final boss battle in the game took me awhile (and yes, "righteous indignation" is the exact emotion).
I think the key to my success was: I was a bit drunk (I'd come home from a party) and I just jump/dodged nonstop from one side to another so P.I. never really had a bead on me.
God, what a good game. Even the hard parts were so fun I couldn't stop playing for long.
Hmm, favorite bosses...
I would have to go with these...
Seven Force from Gunstar Heroes. Just because he was SEVEN bosses in one and you had to fight them all back to back! Each one had it's own pattern and theme and then you had to fight them later all over again in space!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAkh1ULg0Ls
Time Devour from ChronoCross. If you wanted to get the 'good' ending you couldn't kill it you had to heal it by removing the girl trapped inside. To do that you had to use your magic powers in a VERY specific order. the problem is that if the boss uses ANY magic ANY at all it screws the whole thing up and you have to start over... plus he's still trying to kill you!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LnU6ghXLq0
I find Castlevania games, at least the DS ones and Symphony, have really great boss battles. They're about classic skill and memorization, and they're also relatively unforgiving. The most recent Order of Ecclesia is especially punishing, but in a way that if I die I think "well, that was my fault, I should have done X." What's really great is that, in Dawn of Sorrow and Order of Ecclesia at least, the bucket load of power combination allows for a variety of ways to combat your foes. Think you're good? Try beating the final boss of Dawn by throwing cats at it. That's the student witch power, if'n ya didn't know.
I've always been fond of the Metal Gear Solid series' boss battles. There were a lot of distinctive characters in the first game, each with their own attack patterns and weaknesses. The battle against the MG-RAYs in the second installment was also very good, in my opinion.
It's probably horrendously obvious, but the final form of Sephiroth from FFVII. The first time I played through I didn't have maxed out materia, the Ultima weapons or the broken stats - I didn't even have Knights of the Round as I recall :O.
It was so hard learning all his tactics and constantly juggling keeping the health up with making sure his barriers were down and absolutely brickin' it each time he cast Supernova #that was the times when I didn't go off to make a sandwich#.
I've no idea how many hours I sank into that boss. Makes me kinda of sad when I do it now, now that I've got all the tricked out gear he's usually dead within about 3 turns.
Ahh well, there's always the next decent Final Fantasy... :)