Unique Bosses

[Rezanta 373]

I love those kinds of strat-bosses, so the cockatrice has mg vote

[Jeanne d'Ys 166]

I love plants. And bosses. And Geomancers. FLORAH DID NOTHING WRONG, DARNIT. THE WORLD IS UNFAIR.

 

Anyway, Gria-fanboying, aside, I kinda ran out of ideas recently, so I'm just dropping by to sub XD

And share things when I found some ideas... XP

[lonequeso 1,921]

It sounds like you need to  make a boss that's a plant/geomancer    The plant boss was actually inspired partly by Final Fantasy Tactics. There's a super huge plant boss you fight a couple times in one of them. The other source of inspiration was from Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. That inspired the puzzle to get to the boss. There's a level where you have to use a skill on some plants to burn them away and clear the path. In my game, you have to fight the plant's "nodes" to get vines to move away or disappear completely so you can get to the where the Plant Core is because the rare herb you need is, of course, only found there. I'm debating whether to change that to needing a part of the Plant Core, but we'll see. That level is a ways off from being created in the editor.

 

If you're stuck on ideas you can always use some you find here. Playing an RPG I've never played before usually gives me some ideas and inspiration. You get to play games as research. Sounds like a win-win to me! 

[Lord Vectra 414]

One good way to make a boss unique is to make him/her stronger after every turn. Maybe raise their attack by 1% at the end of every turn.

 

I thought about having such a boss in my current project but I'm deciding which one. One thing you would have to think about is that you can't give them massive attack in the beginning since it could make the boss impossible after only a few rounds. Obviously, if you choose 1%, it isn't a lot but if you have 500, that's +5 at the end of every turn.

 

Giving them stun skills will make the battle more tense but I don't recommend giving them massive health. Unless your goal is to make your player feel powerless (which can be good), you should not give them massive health. They should have moderate health FOR A BOSS. I'm not saying give them health like a normal enemy.

[Jeanne d'Ys 166]

I'm actually working a boss for my project that punishes the player for buffing their stats previously in the entire game.

So it works like this:

In the game, all of my skills that has an effect to buff a Stat is tied to a Common Event that increases the amount of variable X each time it is used by an amount equal to the amount of Stats buffed (So for example, if I buff ATK, it's increased by 1; if I buff ATK and MAT by 2, etc.)

 

I also incorporated 3 plugins for the fight; YEP - Absorption Barrier, YEP - Damage Core and YEP - Armor Scaling. They are used for:

 

The Boss has a Skill called "Pride Antithesis" that he used that Turn 0, which generates an Absorption Barrier with durability equal to variable X * 250. (So if you have buffed 74 total stats, you'll have to crack your way through 18500 total damage at the start of the battle.)

 

Also, the Boss' judgment attack, "Pain of the Weak", deals "pure" damage (ignore armor scaling), the higher the variable, the harder it hits. It also has a chance to strip all of the player's current buff.

 

On the flip side, debuffing stats increases another variable that gradually cause the boss to snap and have a breakdown toward the player, until he's finally weak enough to be finished off.

Edited March 6, 2016 by Maki13

[Kayzee 4,032]

I saw the topic and I was just thinking: You know what RPGs need a bit more of? Bosses that do something interesting OUTSIDE of battle. Think about it. Most bosses in RPGs stand around at the end of the dungeon to attack you or guard something. You may get a cutscene before they attack you, but that's about it. Bosses don't tend to do much or effect the world outside of the battle screen. They are pretty static and uninteresting once you get past the battle it's self. I am not just talking about having interesting characters or evented encounters though, though that is part of it. I am wondering how we can make the event encounter almost part of the boss battle it's self.

 

One good example I can think of of the top of my head of bosses that change it up a bit are Doom Gaze in Final Fantasy VI and Ultima Weapon in Final Fantasy VII, both of which run away and make you chase them down, the game even remembering their HP between encounters. There was one in Final Fantasy VIII that did the opposite and would chase you down while you ran away too. There are probably more fun things you could do. Imagine a boss who was really really powerful and you had a puzzle to lead it into a ambush or trap witch would allow you to encounter it with several debuffs that helped you beat it? Maybe a boss who is running though the dungeon at the same time as you and you had to beat it to the end, both you and the boss being unable to really kill each other but instead you have short battle scenes where you both may cast status effects or something to slow each other down? Maybe even a boss that could disguise it's self as random NPCs in town in order to sneak up on you or hide? Maybe boss battles that, when they use some skills, it briefly leaves battle and has a effect on the surrounding map?

 

I guess that's the kind of thing I tried to do with my "Samhain" project, except I basically wanted to go one step further and make every single enemy encounter do this kind of stuff.

Edited March 6, 2016 by KilloZapit

[Jeanne d'Ys 166]

I actually have one Boss around the style of that in my current project!

 

The goal is basically luring it into a Trap set up on the map to weaken it out by letting it chase you. When it enters the Trap area, a battle will occur against it, and depending on how deep you lure it, the battle would become easier.

 

However, should it caught you outside of the Trap area, a battle with a different (much stronger) incarnation of it would occur, and it would pretty much stomp you out and chew on the characters.

[Rezanta 373]

I saw the topic and I was just thinking: You know what RPGs need a bit more of? Bosses that do something interesting OUTSIDE of battle. Think about it. Most bosses in RPGs stand around at the end of the dungeon to attack you or guard something. You may get a cutscene before they attack you, but that's about it. Bosses don't tend to do much or effect the world outside of the battle screen. They are pretty static and uninteresting once you get past the battle it's self. I am not just talking about having interesting characters or evented encounters though, though that is part of it. I am wondering how we can make the event encounter almost part of the boss battle it's self. One good example I can think of of the top of my head of bosses that change it up a bit are Doom Gaze in Final Fantasy VI and Ultima Weapon in Final Fantasy VII, both of which run away and make you chase them down, the game even remembering their HP between encounters. There was one in Final Fantasy VIII that did the opposite and would chase you down while you ran away too. There are probably more fun things you could do. Imagine a boss who was really really powerful and you had a puzzle to lead it into a ambush or trap witch would allow you to encounter it with several debuffs that helped you beat it? Maybe a boss who is running though the dungeon at the same time as you and you had to beat it to the end, both you and the boss being unable to really kill each other but instead you have short battle scenes where you both may cast status effects or something to slow each other down? Maybe even a boss that could disguise it's self as random NPCs in town in order to sneak up on you or hide? Maybe boss battles that, when they use some skills, it briefly leaves battle and has a effect on the surrounding map? I guess that's the kind of thing I tried to do with my "Samhain" project, except I basically wanted to go one step further and make every single enemy encounter do this kind of stuff.

This reminds me of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky. Darkrai wanted to screw your life up, and it almost worked... Until Dialga brought you back in response to your friends wish. As for anything I'm doing, I want to have a section in my current project that allows for the player to play Xerian, whom is the main antagonist.

[Kayzee 4,032]

I actually have one Boss around the style of that in my current project!

 

The goal is basically luring it into a Trap set up on the map to weaken it out by letting it chase you. When it enters the Trap area, a battle will occur against it, and depending on how deep you lure it, the battle would become easier.

 

However, should it caught you outside of the Trap area, a battle with a different (much stronger) incarnation of it would occur, and it would pretty much stomp you out and chew on the characters.

Neato! I a glad to know other people have had ideas like this!

 

 

This reminds me of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky. Darkrai wanted to screw your life up, and it almost worked... Until Dialga brought you back in response to your friends wish. As for anything I'm doing, I want to have a section in my current project that allows for the player to play Xerian, whom is the main antagonist.

 

Hmmm. That sounds more like boss characters that are interesting, I am mostly talking about a boss which has interesting mechanics, just ones that exist beyond the battle scene.

[lonequeso 1,921]

I don't currently have any bosses where the enemy or strategy changes depending on what you do before the battle. The Plant Core I have is more one big puzzle. The fight at the end is always the same. I'll probably have a more boss or two interactive boss or two before I'm finished. I have a long game with a lot of bosses so I'll have plenty of opportunities.

 

Personally, I like those kind of bosses more in 3D RPG or Adventure games. There's just so much more you can do with a whole 'nother dimension   I do have an idea in mind. Before the battle scene even starts, it would launch various attack at you. The goal is to dodge the attacks and maybe some floor traps and stuff to activate some source of power. (i.e. tesla coils, magic pylons, etc, etc.) Those will weaken the boss so you can fight it. I don't really want to make it possible for the player to initiate the battle beforehand. Pretty typical puzzle. I think it'd be a nice change of pace.