The important element of these fights is that as the player you are not really “fighting” these enemies.
Instead of fighting an enemy, it was more about figuring out how to damage the enemy at each phase and repeat until they’re defeated.ĭespite lots of sword-swinging, the 3D Zelda games all had puzzle boss-like design, and the slew of 3D platformers - from Jak and Daxter, Ratchet and Clank, and many more. For many 3D action and platformer titles, the concept of a “puzzle boss” or “environmental puzzle” became a popular trend. Watching speedrunners of older games, it’s easy to see how it was possible to exploit these patterns to get the AI to do what you wanted.Īs the industry moved into 3D and games were able to do more within their game spaces, we saw bosses that became unique encounters, but not in the way that made them exciting to fight. Early titles had bosses that were either a fixed pattern or a limited set of random patterns that could be exploited. Looking at action games and boss designs, there are several periods of evolution. I could talk about any facet of the game as its own article - the combat, the environmental design, enemies, art, etc., but I want to talk about one area where very few competitors have managed to compete with From Software on, and that is the evolution of boss design.
Not only with its approach to action design, but how it has helped influenced and elevated the genre for now over a decade. The popularity and genre-defining nature of From Software’s mega-franchise Dark Souls has been interesting to watch.