What makes a good boss fight?

[Sally]

Okay, this is here so people can post there ideas of what a 'good' 'boss' fight is,

please reply here and have fun

[Nortos]

These might be some good references
http://www.rpgrevolution.com/forums/?showtopic=8000
and
http://www.rpgrevolution.com/forums/?showtopic=8579

[Starrodkirby86]

According to one of my favorite Indie games, Exile/Avernum, an excellent boss fight is actually not just a hack-and-slash battle. It needs to have more flare, entertainment, challenge.

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It would be extremely simple to slap a boss and then we're done. I mean, just have the monster in the database, give it a few spells, maybe some uber stats and a promising experience count, then plop it into the Troops Area. You have a boss battle right there! Though it's an extremely idiotic battle, but nonetheless it is.

The use of an event page helps with a boss battle. Like (Although this may not create the best boss battle, this is just a mere example) you can set up an event page where if the boss has less than 50%, he can summon some monsters or create some forced action. That definitely makes stuff more wonderful. :3

[Calintz]

I agree 100% with you Starrodkirby86...

There are features in my game that occur ONLY during battle and there are interactions regardless if it's a boss or just a regular enemy...

[Sally]

i just posted this topic to help people find out what is a good boss fight.

i beleve a few cool spells that do stuff that the RMXP engine  cannot prouce,
and some random heals, random summons, talking from the boss

[legacyblade]

I think in a turn based, the boss needs to start getting more powerful the lower his health gets, and also needs to have some uber spells. But in an ABS, the only way for a awesome boss battle (in my opinion) is a predetermined move route in which the blast the heck out of the screen while you dodge, and are vulnerable for just a few secconds.

[Calintz]

I think that the both the main character's and the boss's HP should decrease as the battle prolongs, because thinking about it, I'd concur that defense truly does reduce as health drops...Make this work well by giving the boss a LOT of HP.

This also works vice-versa...I've seen in several games, that as the health drops, the defense rises on an enemy boss...

[legacyblade]

I mean that as the boss gets lower HP, it "pulls out the big guns" since its getting desperate.

[Calintz]

I agree with you LegacyBlade, and that can go hand in hand with what I've said...

[Blizzard]

I have an enemy in my game which's defense increased when he gets attacked and decreases when he gets attackes with a water elemental based attack. He's a mud monster and his name is Mudlor. :3 Mudlor's are day-active and sometimes appear together with R-Tex (T-Rex, lol) which are night-active. :3

A boss fight should be simply "something more" than normal enemies, even if it's just a battle with a lot of talk.

[Fantasist]

Speaking of which, dialogues alone can do a wonderful job in boss battles.

[Blizzard]

That's true. I added a couple of sentences in my own game, but I will improve that. If you have played CP, you should have noticed that the blue woman in Lisk Forest attacks Jason right after Endout shouts "Watch out, Jason!".

[Punn]

As for mines, a boss have a skill that keeps growing each turn. Another boss I made up, it causes a stat problem, if your infected with it, it does 10x damage, other then that, its normal damage. And finally, a boss that conceals your status condition, you have to keep recovering, or you end up with poison, burn, and decay and you gotta cure from stun, asleep or paralyze, you have to figure out what you hit with or it will end up getting worst every turn if your not curing the characters.

[Calintz]

I agree with all of you.

[Caro Ru Lushe]

My boss Villain, Viral, transforms into 3 different monsters, and becomes each time inmune to a certain Element and weak to another, and in each phase, he gets stronger as he begins to die, and his skills becomes more deadlier.

He even becomes Invulerable for 3 Turns and the Stage always changes.
>__>;; and he even reacts differently when a character has low hp.

[Starrodkirby86]

My boss Villain, Viral, transforms into 3 different monsters, and becomes each time inmune to a certain Element and weak to another, and in each phase, he gets stronger as he begins to die, and his skills becomes more deadlier.

He even becomes Invulerable for 3 Turns and the Stage always changes.
>__>;; and he even reacts differently when a character has low hp.

See, that's really interesting. A very excellent example on how monster boss battles would go with more flare and personality.

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A little tip. When a monster changes or transforms (You can make this via the Change Monster or something through the Event Page I believe), their HP of the monster remains the same regardless of both monsters' maximum HP (This may change if the transformed Monster has less HP though, but I never tested this part of the woods out).

Example:
Monster A will transform when 50% of its HP is lost.
Monster A has 100 HP. So Monster A will transform to Monster B when it has 50 HP.
Monster B has 500 HP.
When Monster A transforms to Monster B, it will still have 50 HP, and not 500 HP.

If you want to have the transformed baddie to 500 HP like above or the maximum value (Like in the RPG Maker 2000 games), simply give it a Full Recovery. This I faced when I wanted to make a test game to show off as a video on Stepmania, and I realized my enemies died too fast when they transformed despite them having different, higher values for HP. It may be different, but I am sure this is the case.

[Nortos]

One of my boss's it's the first boss so it has to be piss easy but I wanted to add element he is weak to blind but every 3 turns he has a skill that removes blind that doesn't take up his turn and than every 5th turn he uses "charge up" and waits one turn than casts on all party members for lots of magic and than attacks the player with lowest health and you have only really oner skill for defence this early a SR skill that puts all defensive stats up 200% for 1 turn or next dmg dealt

[Blizzard]

Grid Stalker & Grid Master at the end of Cravgon in CP:

First of all, Grid Stalker draws the party into a kind of VR where the battle actually takes place.
After Grid Stalker loses 50% (I think it was 50% xD) HP she transforms into Grid Master which is the actual boss with better attacks and higher stats. This stays for 3 rounds. Then Grid Master transforms back into Grid Stalker who has her HP at 100% again. And again the same thing.

[Quan]

... woah.  I definitely have to play CP now.

Another great boss archetype is the "healing assistants" boss, like Giga Gaia or Lavos' final form in Chrono Trigger.  You have the main boss, along with two 'appendage' enemies that cast healing spells on it.  To truly damage the boss, you have to kill the appendages first, but once the appendages are dead, the boss starts a countdown, after which he resurrects them.

EDIT:

I also like the idea of the boss reacting differently based on factors like the characters in your party, or whether you've acquired a specific key item or not.

[Calintz]

I think that this topic actually deserves a tutorial...

Hey Sally!! You think you might wanna do this?? After all, your boss seems quite interesting!