As such, they are usually characterized with unique music and cutscenes before and after the boss battle. īoss battles are typically seen as dramatic events. In games such as Doom and Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia, an enemy may be introduced via a boss battle, but later appear as a regular enemy, after the player has become stronger or had a chance to find more powerful weaponry. Some bosses may contain or be composed of smaller parts that can be destroyed by the player in battle, which may or may not grant an advantage. A boss battle can also be made more challenging if the boss in question becomes progressively stronger and/or less vulnerable as their health decreases, requiring players to use different strategies to win.
Some bosses are encountered several times through a single game, typically with alternate attacks and a different strategy required to defeat it each time. While most games include a mixture of boss opponents and regular opponents, some games have only regular opponents and some games have only bosses (e.g. Characteristics īosses are usually more difficult than regular enemies, can sustain more damage, and are generally found at the end of a level or area. Ī 1980 example is the fixed shooter Phoenix, wherein the player ship must fight a giant mothership in the fifth and final level. Only by defeating the Dragon can the player claim the orb, complete the game, and be eligible to appear on the high score list. The orb is kept in a treasure room guarded by a high-level enemy named the Gold Dragon. The objective of the game is to retrieve an "Orb" from the bottommost dungeon. One of the earliest dungeon crawls, dnd implemented many of the core concepts behind Dungeons & Dragons. The first interactive game to feature a boss was dnd, a 1975 role-playing video game for the PLATO system. The concept has expanded to new genres, like rhythm games, where there may be a "boss song" that is more difficult. The first game to feature a boss fight was the 1975 RPG dnd. They may be less common in puzzle games, card video games, sports games, and simulation games. RPGs, FPSs, platform games, and fighting games are particularly associated with boss battles.
Bosses take strategy and special knowledge to defeat, such as how to attack weak points or avoid specific attacks.īosses are common in many genres of video games, but they are especially common in story-driven titles. At times, bosses are very hard, even impossible, to defeat without being adequately prepared and/or knowing the correct fighting approach. Template:Not in citation A boss enemy is quite often larger in size than other enemies and the player character. A final boss is often the main antagonist of a game's story and the defeat of that character provides ultimate satisfaction to the game player.įor example, in a combat game all regular enemies might use pistols while the boss uses a machine gun. A superboss is generally much more powerful than the bosses encountered as part of the main game's plot and often optional to encounter. A miniboss is a boss weaker or less significant than the main boss in the same area or level. Boss battles are generally seen at a climax of a particular section of the game, usually at the end of a level or stage, or guarding a specific objective the boss enemy is generally far stronger than the opponents the player has faced up to that point, and is usually faced solo. A fight with a boss character is commonly referred to as a boss battle or boss fight.
In video games, a boss is a significant computer-controlled enemy.
For the film, see Boss Level.Ī boss fight from Guacamelee!, a game in the metroidvania genre, in which the player characters (the two characters in luchador outfits) must keep ahead of the giant rampaging creature (boss) on the left, while dodging obstacles and other enemies.