Summary
Video game bosses generally tend to be a test of everything the player has learned up till that point, forcing players to employ the most powerful tools in their arsenal even to stand a chance against these intimidating foes. It’s a chance fordevelopers to craft a spectacular encounterthat fans will remember long after they’re finished playing the game.
However, there are times when players are railroaded by combat encounters that are ridiculously challenging to an unfair degree. Some of these bosses have forced many players to give up instead of trying to circumvent an impossible fight, to the point where developers had to update the game’s content so that these bosses are easier to deal with and don’t cause most players to tear their hair out.
There’s no denying that most MMORPGs attract a crowd obsessed with min-maxing and forming a party that’s capable of taking out the game’s toughest threats without breaking a sweat. So, it says something when a game releases a boss so ridiculously challenging that even its most dedicated players can’t find a way to circumvent the boss fight. Such is the case with Absolute Virtue,one of the most infamous bosses inFinal Fantasyhistory.
Many gamers experienced sleepless nights trying to best this foe, which ended up being a huge issue at the time. There were massive controversies prioritizing player health when this boss was introduced inFinal Fantasy 11, and Square Enix had to release a patch that nerfed this boss so that they wouldn’t be blamed for forcing players into becoming obsessed with the game to the detriment of their health.
Armored Core 6is a FromSoftware game that is very muchunlike any of their previousSoulsbornegames. The mecha-action game is a callback to theArmored Coreseries, getting players invested in micro-managing every aspect of their mech so that they can tackle tougher foes with ease. Some bosses in the game will force players to rethink their build, with Balteus being a massive pain for players who struggled against him repeatedly.
This tough battle forced players to change their build to tackle the foe, so players were disappointed when the studio nerfed this boss in a later patch to make the game easier to handle. It beat the point of whatArmored Coreis all about — circumventing roadblocks by optimizing a player’s build to attain victory.
Elden Ringis a game notorious for its wealth of challenging boss fights, even if some people felt like encountering the same boss in multiple locations nullified the impact of these encounters somewhat. Still, the game is an achievement that shows just what Soulsbornetitles are capable of when paired with a massive and interesting world.
Some of its bosses were particularly tough to deal with, and Starscourge Radahn is a boss that will cause players a ton of issues because of how challenging this encounter is.The hitboxes of this boss were considered to be so unfairthat Radahn’s attacks were nerfed in a later patch so that it didn’t have an invisible hitbox, which can be interpreted as more of a fix instead of a nerf depending on the player’s viewpoint.
Lies of Pis easily one of the best Souslikes fans can check out for themselves. The unique story utilizes Pinocchio’s fairy tale to craft a wonderful world that feels like an unofficialBloodbornesequel at times. The aggressive combat makes this comparison more obvious, with some fans feeling like the bosses were too self-indulgent for their own good.
Most major encounters had two phases and were ridiculously hard. Clearly, the studio understood that boss fatigue could be a real thing, and nerfed some of the bosses in the game to make these battles less irritating to get through. One boss that was nerfed pretty heavily is Simon Manus, an encounter that could be pretty grating to get through.Both his HP and damage are reduced, with players being able to break his stance more easily than ever before too.
It’s only fitting thatan MMORPG would feature a boss so ridiculously hardthat developers would be forced into nerfing the encounter. Such is the case with Hephaistos, an infamous encounter in the critically-acclaimed MMO,Final Fantasy 14.
The developers who playtested this boss were so good at the game that the boss' difficulty was inadvertently heightened, as a result. It didn’t take long for players to correct this mistake, letting them enjoy a balanced encounter that was pretty epic in its own right.
