I miss having bonus bosses that aren't uber bosses

[Zackarix]

I know that this is a me problem and I need to git gud. But I really miss having bonus bosses that required more strategy than "hit it until it dies" without being "so hard that you'll cry" difficult.

KH1 had the infamous Sephiroth, but it also had the Phantom, Ice Titan, and Kurt Zisa.

KH2FM introduced Lingering Will and the data battles, but alongside them it introduced the Absent Silhouettes, allowing people to experience some of the brand new bosses without having to fight them at full power.

Does anyone else feel this way, or am I just too casual of a fan?

 

[AR829038]

I know that this is a me problem and I need to git gud. But I really miss having bonus bosses that required more strategy than "hit it until it dies" without being "so hard that you'll cry" difficult.

KH1 had the infamous Sephiroth, but it also had the Phantom, Ice Titan, and Kurt Zisa.

KH2FM introduce Lingering Will and the data battles, but alongside them it introduced the Absent Silhouettes, allowing people to experience some of the brand new bosses without having to fight them at full power.

Does anyone else feel this way, or am I just too casual of a fan?

I mean, I recall Phantom, Kurt Zisa, and Ice Titan being pretty hard when I was younger. Tbf, they still kinda are a little bit. Same with the Absent Silhouettes, depending on how early you fight them (I like to fight them as soon as they become available, so they can be a bit challenging, especially Larxene).

I actually think if you count KH3's DLC as "bonus" bosses, they've had more non-superboss fights than any other game in the franchise. BBS also had the Mirage Arena fights, Coded had the Olympus Coliseum battles, Days had tons of optional missions, and DDD—well, DDD had Lord Kyroo, I guess.

My point is, I don't think most of the games, old or new, have relied exclusively on uber-hard superbosses for all their optional boss content. Personally, the thing that bugs me more is locking the bosses behind the ending. I miss the simplicity of KH1 where you can fight all the superbosses and 100% the game before facing the final boss. KH2 ruined this, and every game since. It's a small peeve of mine, but I hate the feeling of getting through the end of the game and then having to narratively backtrack to before the final battle to do all the newly unlocked content, because when I'm finished it feels anticlimactic. Like, I just beat Lingering Will. What now? I have to go through the whole final Xemnas gauntlet again? I don't want to just repeat the ending twice to finish the game with 100% completion. But what's my alternative, just stand there after beating LW and turn the game off because I've run out of content? I just wish the games would go back to a simple format where you can do everything the game has to offer BEFORE the ending so it can all feel wrapped up nice and neat.

 

[Chie]

Yeah I'd say that Ice Titan and Kurt Zisa are arguably more challenging (without doing the UW grind*) than Dark Inferno. KH3 also has a lot of optional gummi bosses.

*note that i last played in Final Mix which makes the UW grind exponentially more involved which also meant I was much higher level at the end of it, which then made every boss, even the superbosses, jokes.

 

[Zackarix]

I mean, for me there's a notable difficulty difference between "you have to use a strategy to defeat this boss" and "you have to stick to the strategy perfectly because there's not much room for error and also be be prepared for a long fight because the boss is an HP sponge."

But if you're fighting the Absent Silhouettes as soon as they become available because otherwise they aren't challenging you're clearly on a much higher skill level than I am.

 

[Chie]

In my memory the Ice Titan is absolutely "you have to stick to the strategy perfectly and the fight is long"

 

[sakonan7]

I guess Dark Inferno was super hard for you lmao. Making this joke because everybody made him the butt of their joke lmao. I count Armored Xehanort Replica as a not uber-hard extra fight.

 

[Zackarix]

I guess Dark Inferno was super hard for you

No. I guess Dark Inferno is technically a non-uber bonus boss in that it's an optional boss that isn't too hard. But Dark Inferno very much falls into the "hit it until it dies" category. I'm pretty sure some of the story bosses were harder. There were absolutely a few that required more strategy.

 

[Elysium]

I like having hard bosses that are within reason and don't rely on gimmicks that are "impossible" without some kind of cheat. I've never played Lingering Will in 2 fairly and don't feel any shame about that, that boss is honestly absurd. I feel the same way about Mysterious Figure in Land of Departure of BbS and the other one at the Keyblade Graveyard in BbS.

I like Ice Titan, Sephiroth in KH1 and KH2, Kurt Zisa, Xemnas in KH1, Dark Inferno, Julius, the Gummi Superbosses in 3. I feel like the Data Battles in KH2FM are somewhere between those and the above as far as being "possible, but still a bit ridiculous." I haven't played Re-Mind to compare the new battles there to these.

 

[MATGSY]

In my memory the Ice Titan is absolutely "you have to stick to the strategy perfectly and the fight is long"

But it wasn't nearly as difficult to pull off said perfect strategy as with latter bosses. He's not designed with a level 100 player in mind & clearly meant more for like 50s-60s.

 

[Chie]

Maybe I'm just bad at the Ice Titan...

In terms of strategy diversity though, KH1 has that going for it throughout the whole game. It's much more of an RPG than an action game, even in terms of area + event design. The perfect execution bosses in later games at least push me into remembering how the fight goes, which I couldn't say for a lot of KH3.

 

[sakonan7]

No. I guess Dark Inferno is technically a non-uber bonus boss in that it's an optional boss that isn't too hard. But Dark Inferno very much falls into the "hit it until it dies" category. I'm pretty sure some of the story bosses were harder. There were absolutely a few that required more strategy.

Lol oops, I misread part of your original post. Yeah, Dark Inferno does count as hit until it dies lol and isn't like a boss like say Kurt Zisa.

 

[Phoenix]

I don't know if it's because I'm getting old and worse at games, but I recall having no issues with Kurt Zisa, Phantom or the Ice Titan. Whereas I can't beat any of the data battles these days.