• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

I hate boss gauntlets

SaitoH

Member
Played DMC3 up to level 18 where I hit the bane of my exsistence ... the dreaded boss gauntlet. Problem is while I can beat the bosses, I'm not proficient enough to handle all of them in rapid succession. After a mere couple tries usually a boss gauntlet frustrates me enough to abandon said game for another from my huge unplayed pile.


Such a shame, I was really enjoying DMC3. Maybe I'll play it again sometime down the road ...
 
I feel you, for most games. But the beautiful thing about DMC3 was the fact that the bosses have such set patterns, and great audio/visual cues. You really can get to the point where you aren't even hit with most boses. But yeah, I feel ya.
 
Nothing worse than a game, one's truly enjoying, screwed by some bastard designer who decided to put a hard as heck boss.


*Shakes fist at Nocturne's Matador.*
 
i love boss gauntlets, and that dmc3 level is one of my favorite in any game ever. i've played through it dozens of times just for fun. you get to show off your refined technique and upgraded styles against a bunch of bosses you already know how to beat! it's like your victory lap before the endgame! stick with it, anyway: dmc3's last boss battle is unbelievably great and you're nearly there.
 
capslock said:
Psst: You only have to beat 3 of them.

Really? Uhhh ... I knew that. >_>

I assume it's a specific three?

Drohne: I understand liking it if you're actually good at the game, but, even though I'm on level 18 -playing on Normal difficulty, I can't yet call myself "good". I'll give it another go after I finish MGS3 (can't put it down atm).
 
I believe the worst boss gauntlet ever was in Actraiser 2. The gauntlet in Actraiser 1 wasn't too bad, but the difficulty level of Actraiser 2 just made the gauntlet at the end an utter nightmare.
 
IJoel said:
Nothing worse than a game, one's truly enjoying, screwed by some bastard designer who decided to put a hard as heck boss.


*Shakes fist at Nocturne's Matador.*

Haha. Matador is the least of them all.
 
RevenantKioku said:
Haha. Matador is the least of them all.

Yeah, I imagined so, but it's the first one to encounter that's hard and really discouraged me from continuing playing the game. I have no patience for games that require you to spend time mindlessly levelling up (as opposed to have enough content in between to attain a high enough level.)
 
teiresias said:
I believe the worst boss gauntlet ever was in Actraiser 2. The gauntlet in Actraiser 1 wasn't too bad, but the difficulty level of Actraiser 2 just made the gauntlet at the end an utter nightmare.

hahaha holy shit! *ding ding ding*

I totally forgot about that, what a tramatizing experience.
 
IJoel said:
Yeah, I imagined so, but it's the first one to encounter that's hard and really discouraged me from continuing playing the game. I have no patience for games that require you to spend time mindlessly levelling up (as opposed to have enough content in between to attain a high enough level.)

Yeah, but Matador is optional. Or at least I'm fairly sure the Candelabras aren't required to beat the game.
Plus, it isn't your levels, its your strategy, most likely. I died often to bosses and just went in again with a different set of demons and a different magatama on the protagonist and whooped their ass. SMT3 doesn't really give you too much for power leveling.
 
SaitoH said:
Really? Uhhh ... I knew that. >_>

I assume it's a specific three?

you only have to kill enough bosses to complete a circuit on that rock slab with the lighted gems. i think you can get away with killing as few as three or four, though i don't remember which ones specifically. compare the gems on the slab to the ones above the boss gates. you do get something if you kill all the bosses though...i think it was a blue orb.
 
IJoel said:
Yeah, I imagined so, but it's the first one to encounter that's hard and really discouraged me from continuing playing the game. I have no patience for games that require you to spend time mindlessly levelling up (as opposed to have enough content in between to attain a high enough level.)

Levelling up does no good against bosses in Nocturne. You have to have the correct strategy or you're screwed, no matter how high your level is.

RevenantKioku--Matador is mandatory, not because you need the candelabra, but because he blocks a pathway that's necessary in order to progress in the main game. Most of the other bosses like that are optional, though.

P.S. My favorite boss parade--end of stage 2 in Gradius V.
 
Prospero said:
Levelling up does no good against bosses in Nocturne. You have to have the correct strategy or you're screwed, no matter how high your level is.

RevenantKioku--Matador is mandatory, not because you need the candelabra, but because he blocks a pathway that's necessary in order to progress in the main game. Most of the other bosses like that are optional, though.

P.S. My favorite boss parade--end of stage 2 in Gradius V.

Well, when a boss kills you with 2 successive attacks in the same turn, I'd say at the very least, some levelling is required.
 
Prospero said:
RevenantKioku--Matador is mandatory, not because you need the candelabra, but because he blocks a pathway that's necessary in order to progress in the main game. Most of the other bosses like that are optional, though.
Okay. Been almost a year since I fought Matador in that game, haha. Seriously though, some of the bosses in SMT3 were the most fun I've had in RPG battles in years. Especially those
Anit/Absorb Physical fuckers! And here I am with my Physical Spec Protagonist, waving his dick around doing nothing in battle now!

IJoel said:
Well, when a boss kills you with 2 successive attacks in the same turn, I'd say at the very least, some levelling is required.
It's been a while, but I'm gonna go out on a limb and say you made it there under-leveled. I seriously took maybe two tries at Matador, and I had not power-leveled up to that point.
Good luck though. Seriously, despite maybe one or two minor flaws I find in it, it's one of the best RPGs in my book.
 
RevenantKioku said:
Okay. Been almost a year since I fought Matador in that game, haha. Seriously though, some of the bosses in SMT3 were the most fun I've had in RPG battles in years. Especially those
Anit/Absorb Physical fuckers! And here I am with my Physical Spec Protagonist, waving his dick around doing nothing in battle now!


It's been a while, but I'm gonna go out on a limb and say you made it there under-leveled. I seriously took maybe two tries at Matador, and I had not power-leveled up to that point.
Good luck though. Seriously, despite maybe one or two minor flaws I find in it, it's one of the best RPGs in my book.

haha... Well, I never had any issues getting there, as I could handle all that was thrown at me. I stopped a long time ago though, and started DDS. Found DDS ages more acceptable and 16 hours into it I haven't really been frustrated by any mob/boss (those damn death marching skulls are EVIL!) Funny enough, I stopped playing DDS because I got sick of the ridiculous random encounter frequency. I had random encounters every 5 seconds. If I was lucky, I would be able to go 10 seconds without one. If I was lucky... :p
 
SaitoH said:
Played DMC3 up to level 18 where I hit the bane of my exsistence ... the dreaded boss gauntlet. Problem is while I can beat the bosses, I'm not proficient enough to handle all of them in rapid succession. After a mere couple tries usually a boss gauntlet frustrates me enough to abandon said game for another from my huge unplayed pile.


Such a shame, I was really enjoying DMC3. Maybe I'll play it again sometime down the road ...

Are you still whining about this? Stop being such a pussy.
 
RevenantKioku said:
Seriously though, some of the bosses in SMT3 were the most fun I've had in RPG battles in years.

Ditto. I'm waiting for DDS2 to show up on my doorstep so that I can play through 1 and 2 in one go, but my expectations are already lowered based on reports that the battle system is more forgiving (and the bosses will probably fall more easily as a result).
 
I thought "DMC3" as soon as I saw the thread, haha. I was so disappointed by the boss gauntlet, not because it was particularly difficult but because it was so utterly obligatory, and I imagined all the people I'd convinced to play the game because this one was different stopping there even though the end's in sight. There's no internal logic to it other than 'we need a boss gauntlet', so much so that Dante can't even drop a quip about it (I would have forgiven it for a "Hold it!! What's going on? You were most certainly dead.")

Drohne's paean makes sense too though, I guess, but for a road trip game like DMC3 I still don't want to take the scenic route to the endgame just for the sake of pimping my ride.
 
Prospero said:
Ditto. I'm waiting for DDS2 to show up on my doorstep so that I can play through 1 and 2 in one go, but my expectations are already lowered based on reports that the battle system is more forgiving (and the bosses will probably fall more easily as a result).

But without the massive party of characters, and the way the skill building tree is set up, you also don't have the luxury of picking and choosing your skills as you did in SMT3. They account for that in some ways, but I've had some really fucking close battles in DDS.
But that said, DDS is much more accessible than SMT3. SMT3 is really fucking hardcore.
 
human5892 said:
Viewtiful Joe's boss gauntlet led to me not playing the game anymore.

It led me to throwing my Wavebird out of my second story bedroom window.

I was surprised at what happend and sat there and laughed my ass of for a bit.

Then I went outside with a flashlight and found it still on and took it inside.

I was amazed it still worked, and still does to this day. :)
 
I almost prefer how DMC1 handled this sort of thing. Recurring bosses will always be a nuisance to some, but turning some of those expected tricks on their head with alterred takes on familiar patterns plus a few new wrinkles is something I usually prefer in these situations. The planning was a little off in that game(Nightmare version 1-3 nearly back-to-back isn't very endearing), but it is a process that could be used more.

Speaking of boss rush though, about a month ago I pulled out Harmony of Dissonance and went through that extra mode with classic Simon Belmont, which was pretty entertaining for 20 minutes. I liked hearing Vampire Killer as the theme music as well.
 
If the bosses were fun to begin with, then I generally like taking them all on in a gauntlet. If it's a game where you get upgraded weapons/abilities as you go, each individual boss will be easier the second time around, anyway.
 
Ronabo said:
It led me to throwing my Wavebird out of my second story bedroom window.

I was surprised at what happend and sat there and laughed my ass of for a bit.

Then I went outside with a flashlight and found it still on and took it inside.

I was amazed it still worked, and still does to this day. :)
:lol :lol :lol :lol :lol
 
What have we learned here today gentlemen?

Capcom rocks.
 
Mashing said:
I stopped playing Viewtiful Joe because of that. I never could beat all 5 bosses in succession.

You only had to beat the first four without running out of lives, actually. Once you got to Fire Leo, you could die as much as you wanted (believe me, I know) without having to start back over at the beginning.
 
I rather liked the VJ gauntlet. Fire Leo was absurd for the first dozen attempts, but once you get the pattern down, it was a really fun fight.

VJ2 also had a gauntlet, but the game lets you save between each boss, saving the frustration, but stealing away the challenge. Not too memorable really.
 
Brandon F said:
I rather liked the VJ gauntlet. Fire Leo was absurd for the first dozen attempts, but once you get the pattern down, it was a really fun fight.

Not only that, but the other four bosses you had to fight were all VERY pattern based, so once you got their pattern down, it was really easy to take them all out with minimal fuss. The only boss who didn't have as much of a pattern was Alastor, and you didn't even have to fight him as part of the gauntlet.
 
Top Bottom