Cheap Boss Syndrome

[Darkdrium]

Yu Yevon in FFX. Whose idea was it to make a boss who was vulnerable to zombie? I always thought there was some kind of unspoken rule of boss monsters that said that they shall not be insta-killed, but instead I discovered that I could life him to death.

Not cheap in the way meant, but I felt gypped. Well, I would have, had I not gotten a goodly amount of playtime out of the game before I faced him.


ROAR!!!!! says GOJIRA!!!!!

I think it's generally agreed that fighting Yu Yevon is simply the epilogue, Braska's Final Aeon being the true final boss.

It would explain why it's impossible to lose to him. I mean, you have unlimited revives for god's sake.

[Lord Revan]

Yeah I faced a few bosses of this for example that last boss from Elite Force, personally I think it's becuase game maker are getting either lazy or too close to dead line to make anything else. another cheap boss I think is Darth Traya from KOTOR2 (on the light side) you can't use any of your Force buffs or Force healing (as it give it the same effect to her) and then there's the three lightsabers she uses at the end.

What are you talking about? Even with her tapping your buffs, she's still an easy takedown. The multiple floating sabers pose somewhat of a problem, but that's dealt with easily enough with using careful positioning, ranged force-attacks such as saber-throw or force storm, and a few strokes of Master Flurry.

I'd have to say that Darth Malik from the original KOTOR is more cheap than Darth Traya because of his massive damage-boost. Even then though, he's nowhere near as cheap or as hard to take down as some of the other bosses mentioned.

funny I found just the opposite Traya really hard to beat and Malak being rather easy (I healed and shielded up when he ran to the "healing" stations on light side and used those myself on the dark side).

[nickolay1]

In my experience, both Malak and Traya were trivial to cut down.

[Crazy_Vasey]

I only found Malak difficult the first time through the game when I had the most pathetic character you can possibly imagine. I didn't even have any of the special attacks levelled - just the normal and basic critical strike that came with the class. Even then I still won pretty easily with the use of shields.

Most of the boss-type fights in Fable were pretty cheap I thought. The gigantic guy wth two swords and Jack of Blades both reeked of it. The first because he had to be attacked in a pretty specific way if you were a melee guy and the second because unless you had gone and got good ranged attacks it took FOREVER to beat him once he took to the sky. Both were more annoying than difficult though.

[White Haven]

Hehe. My first run through KOTOR ended up with a dual-wielder with Master Speed and Master Flurry. Five attacks per round sorta makes Malak your bitch in a single attack, or at most two. Second time through, I deliberately went single-saber just for a slight challenge.

[Mr Bean]

Traya was hard as hell once the three sabers came out and she killed me twice before a crit spree let me win it. Malak in comparsion was a huge letdown. He died in a single flurry attack from my saber staff.

[Vendetta]

Yu Yevon in FFX. Whose idea was it to make a boss who was vulnerable to zombie? I always thought there was some kind of unspoken rule of boss monsters that said that they shall not be insta-killed, but instead I discovered that I could life him to death.

Not cheap in the way meant, but I felt gypped. Well, I would have, had I not gotten a goodly amount of playtime out of the game before I faced him.


ROAR!!!!! says GOJIRA!!!!!

You didn't twig that something was rotten in the state of Spira when he cast a free Auto-Life on you at the start of the battle? I mean the guy actively wants to lose.

[Yogi]

Malak was only hard because I went completely light side and couldn't disable the pods. I just started using shields between each "round".

[Vympel]

Malak was only hard because I went completely light side and couldn't disable the pods. I just started using shields between each "round".

Eh? You can disable the pods if you're lightside, I'm sure of it.

[Noble Ire]

Malak was only hard because I went completely light side and couldn't disable the pods. I just started using shields between each "round".

Eh? You can disable the pods if you're lightside, I'm sure of it.

If there is a way, I never figured it out. The only way I ever won that battle was by Striking him a few times with everything I had, then running in circles for a few minutes to recharge my Force power, and then repeating about twelve times.

[Lancer]

Malak was only hard because I went completely light side and couldn't disable the pods. I just started using shields between each "round".

Eh? You can disable the pods if you're lightside, I'm sure of it.

Destroy Droid. Hell, my character had a completely lightside alignment and he still could use Force Storm to destroy the pods quite easily.

The only problem I had with Malak was at first I didn't know to destroy the pods, so I had to do it the long way.

[Crazy_Vasey]

Malak was only hard because I went completely light side and couldn't disable the pods. I just started using shields between each "round".

Eh? You can disable the pods if you're lightside, I'm sure of it.

Only if you have selected some Dark Side powers or one of Destroy Droid or Throw Lightsabre. Considering the general crapness of Throw Lightsabre and the fact that there are no droids in the game powerful enough to warrant a power specifically to destroy that kind of enemy and you have a fair chance of a good guy character having nothing that would work on the first run through the game. I could only pull it off because I didn't realise Throw Lightsabre was useless when I picked it as one of my powers.

[White Haven]

It takes one (1) attack for even a pure-light character to completely trash Malak. Out of boredom, I fought him the hard wat, letting him heal up every time, and it was STILL not a challenge.

[TheFeniX]

Most of the boss-type fights in Fable were pretty cheap I thought. The gigantic guy wth two swords and Jack of Blades both reeked of it. The first because he had to be attacked in a pretty specific way if you were a melee guy and the second because unless you had gone and got good ranged attacks it took FOREVER to beat him once he took to the sky. Both were more annoying than difficult though.

What? Jack of blades was the perfect ending to the shitstorm that was named "Fable."

Multi-Strike + Assassin Rush + Slow Time: he didn't even hit me once.
After he floated up into the air, he hit me once with his radial attack. After that I just targetted him with my Bow of Skorm, strafed sideways, and fucked his world up. A pathetic ending to a pathetic game.

As for cheap, those two Twilek(sp) assassins from KOTOR 2 you have to fight with Atton. He's a fucking ranged support fighter and they put you in close quarters combat against two opponents? I had to run around behind a divider, lay about 5 mines, then draw one over there. It took me 6 tries before I got it. God I hate that fucking half-a-game.

The two Wookie fights with the Red head chick in KOTOR 2. You run a bit, stop, shoot, run again. ACES!

General Grievous from X-Box EPIII. He does the basic three hit slash combo over and over and over. He's the only boss I couldn't ace because you were forced to play so "cagey" with him, you burned your "combo meter."

Desann and Kyle from Jedi-Outcast and Academy (respectively). In fact, almost any SP boss from those games. All your force powers won't affect them except from behind (even if they are in the AIR), yet they can push,pull,lightning, choke you with impunity.

Halo 2 - end boss on legendary: Mr. infinite shield which dual plasma rifles won't knock down, but three shots from a marine sniper rifle will. Even with his shield down, it takes (on average) 5 ful barrages from dual plasma rifles to kill him (sometimes more). I know it supposed to be hard, but when the end boss has so many ways to "one-hitter" you and it takes 3 hours to beat: you tend you go insane.

Any "Weapon" from FF7 which you can't beat even with 70+ level characters unless you use very specific materia combos.

Idol from Killer Instinct. You know what? To Hell with that. I can only think of Soul Edge when it comes to a "non-cheap" boss in a fighting game.

[RRoan]

Halo 2 - end boss on legendary: Mr. infinite shield which dual plasma rifles won't knock down, but three shots from a marine sniper rifle will. Even with his shield down, it takes (on average) 5 ful barrages from dual plasma rifles to kill him (sometimes more). I know it supposed to be hard, but when the end boss has so many ways to "one-hitter" you and it takes 3 hours to beat: you tend you go insane.

Try fitting a banshee in there. That will take him out real quickly. But I have to ask, three hours? He's absurdly easy to dodge. I only had trouble from his guards.

[Ma Deuce]

Yeah, Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force had that feel. The boss basicly had an array of one-hit-kill moves that he used over and over, and you were magically given 999 ammo on all your weapons just before the battle and have to unload every one into his head to kill him.

And whats bad is you don't really know how your supposed to take him down. Not sure if he has to be attacked in a particular area or not. But no, the way you kill him is to pound the fuck out of him with every heavy weapon you have.

First I emptied every photon torpedo (super charged blast) I could into him. Next was the wonderful arc welder gun. Then I started firing the heavy phaser blasts at the guy. After that I was going to wip out that weird Etherian gun. But after almost exhausting my rifle ammo, he finaly dies.

A little anecdote you might find amusing: Remember that one-use red hypospray you use to incapacitate Doc Kreege on the scavenger base? My brother learned the cheat code to add the weapon to his inventory, assigned a hotkey so he could use it at will, and discovered that it can take down Vorsoth with one shot .

[GuppyShark]

As for cheap, those two Twilek(sp) assassins from KOTOR 2 you have to fight with Atton. He's a fucking ranged support fighter and they put you in close quarters combat against two opponents? I had to run around behind a divider, lay about 5 mines, then draw one over there. It took me 6 tries before I got it. God I hate that fucking half-a-game.

He was a Jedi by that point when I played. Atton whipped out a vibrosword (from memory, they're energy shielded) and took them both down.

[Noble Ire]

Halo 2 - end boss on legendary: Mr. infinite shield which dual plasma rifles won't knock down, but three shots from a marine sniper rifle will. Even with his shield down, it takes (on average) 5 ful barrages from dual plasma rifles to kill him (sometimes more). I know it supposed to be hard, but when the end boss has so many ways to "one-hitter" you and it takes 3 hours to beat: you tend you go insane.

Try fitting a banshee in there. That will take him out real quickly. But I have to ask, three hours? He's absurdly easy to dodge. I only had trouble from his guards.

I love watching his guards freak out when you do that. Splattering them when they go beserk never gets old. And even without that move, that fight is incredibly easy; Tartarus is slow as hell, and the mutli-leveled arena makes him very easy to avoid. Just dance around a bit until Johnson nails him, them empty a few carbines into his head. Easy.

[TheFeniX]

Try fitting a banshee in there. That will take him out real quickly. But I have to ask, three hours? He's absurdly easy to dodge. I only had trouble from his guards.

We were doing co-op (to be honest, it's the only way to play Halo 1 or 2). And in Halo 2 (on Legendary), if one dies: you can't respawn. You have to start from the last checkpoint. And if I'm not mistaken, the enemies are harder and more numerous on co-op.

So the chance of a lucky shot taking us down were doubled. Still, my roomate was the one who kept dying when the bosses re-inforcements came in because he'd sit still to try and take them out. One would just drill his ass with a brute shot from 100 yards out.

He was a Jedi by that point when I played. Atton whipped out a vibrosword (from memory, they're energy shielded) and took them both down.

Making him a jedi required being nice to him. He was a Carth clone which immediately made me hate him. So every chance I got I'd tell him to shut the fuck up (even as lightside).

[Trogdor]

He was a Jedi by that point when I played. Atton whipped out a vibrosword (from memory, they're energy shielded) and took them both down.

Making him a jedi required being nice to him. He was a Carth clone which immediately made me hate him. So every chance I got I'd tell him to shut the fuck up (even as lightside).

How was Atton a Carth clone? Carth was Mr. squeeky clean Republic soldier who had a vendetta against his former mentor. Atton was a scoundral who betrayed the Republic and used to be an assasin for Revan. The only similarity was that they were two range support characters that you get early in the game.