Stages or Boss Fights: Which Do You Prefer?

[T-Pac | 7,560]

Answers are likely to vary game by game, but do you generally prefer boss fights or the stages that precede them?

-CasualCart

[Gloves | 11,790]

Boss fights for me. Especially stuff like Extreme or Savage raids (e.g. in Final Fantasy XIV); I like content that requires laser focus and perfect reflexes, especially if there's variability involved (i.e. not something you can completely memorize). Same w/ shmups, I love the boss fights when they're accompanied by some bad-ass theme song; Jamestown is phenomenal for this, especially the last boss.

[DarkTone | 985]

Fucking love boss fights. Sometimes the anticipation of wondering what type of boss awaits is great. The patterns, the gimmicks, the music. Bosses are a big staple in gaming. 

Great question, by the way. 

[DefaultGen | 5,409]

Stages 100%. I like running and platforming. Boss fights are usually stuck on a single screen. Some of my favorite NES games are Ninja Gaiden, Adventure Island, and SMB3 because the bosses super short and easy and you just get right back into the platforming!

I also get more frustrated being stuck on a hard boss, but enjoy getting stuck on a difficult stage more if that makes sense.

Edited January 1, 2022 by DefaultGen

[0xDEAFC0DE | 1,277]

17 minutes ago, DefaultGen said:

Stages 100%. I like running and platforming. Boss fights are usually stuck on a single screen. Some of my favorite NES games are Ninja Gaiden, Adventure Island, and SMB3 because the bosses super short and easy and you just get right back into the platforming!

I also get more frustrated being stuck on a hard boss, but enjoy getting stuck on a difficult stage more if that makes sense.

I agree 100% with this. Similarly, I like Castlevania 2 even though it only has 3 easy bosses. 

[T-Pac | 7,560]

@DefaultGen @0xDEAFC0DE same here.

I think cool bosses always elevate a game, but ideally I just want to ooh and aah at them while I drain their health (relatively) unopposed. The perfect boss-battle, to me, is an eye-candy bookend to a well-designed level rather than a task in-and-of itself. A reward for besting the stage.

-CasualCart
 

[Hammerfestus | 3,852]

Stages. I like the progress.

[GPX | 1,370]

I’m sorry, I need both. A stage is about the journey, the exploration. The boss fight is about the adrenaline and the end result to get you to the next stage.

They both serve two completely separate forms of entertainment, but to me, are complimentary to each other. Like the theme song with Married with Children, “you can’t have have one without the other”.

[RH | 4,908]

I prefer a good journey over a stellar ending, whether that's working for an endgame cut scene or a boss after 3-5 stages.

Edited January 2, 2022 by RH

[YOURTURN | 1,256]

I often prefer both. But I also have a history of playing Commodore 64 games that did not have bosses in them. So there are times I do prefer a boss-free story than one that has to include one at the end of every chapter/stage.

[ifightdragons | 234]

9 hours ago, DefaultGen said:

Stages 100%. I like running and platforming. Boss fights are usually stuck on a single screen. Some of my favorite NES games are Ninja Gaiden, Adventure Island, and SMB3 because the bosses super short and easy and you just get right back into the platforming!

I also get more frustrated being stuck on a hard boss, but enjoy getting stuck on a difficult stage more if that makes sense.

Agree on all ends

[fcgamer | 4,727]

12 hours ago, CasualCart said:

@DefaultGen @0xDEAFC0DE same here.

I think cool bosses always elevate a game, but ideally I just want to ooh and aah at them while I drain their health (relatively) unopposed. The perfect boss-battle, to me, is an eye-candy bookend to a well-designed level rather than a task in-and-of itself. A reward for besting the stage.

-CasualCart
 

Totally agree with you, I'll take stages over bosses any day. I like my bosses to be mediocre in difficulty, not something I can sloppily beat, but if it's too difficult and hinders progress after a couple of tries, it's not for me.

[JamesRobot | 5,804]

10 hours ago, GPX said:

I’m sorry, I need both. A stage is about the journey, the exploration. The boss fight is about the adrenaline and the end result to get you to the next stage.

They both serve two completely separate forms of entertainment, but to me, are complimentary to each other. Like the theme song with Married with Children, “you can’t have have one without the other”.

I actually think your argument is sound.  I initially gave you the agreement emoji and really enjoy good balance.  But after thinking about it, I don't really need both.

There are a bunch of games that are pretty much level driven only and I like them quite a bit.  Racing games come to mind as a genre example.  

Then you have a few games that are all boss and no level.  Usually fighting games.  I think of Mike Tyson's Punch Out as a specific example.  Supremely entertaining. 

Trying to think other examples without being tied to genre, I came up with Shadow of the Colossus.  Each boss, a level in itself.

 

[mbd39 | 2,024]

1 hour ago, JamesRobot said:

I actually think your argument is sound.  I initially gave you the agreement emoji and really enjoy good balance.  But after thinking about it, I don't really need both.

There are a bunch of games that are pretty much level driven only and I like them quite a bit.  Racing games come to mind as a genre example.  

Then you have a few games that are all boss and no level.  Usually fighting games.  I think of Mike Tyson's Punch Out as a specific example.  Supremely entertaining. 

Trying to think other examples without being tied to genre, I came up with Shadow of the Colossus.  Each boss, a level in itself.

 

Cuphead is close to being all boss fights but also sprinkles in some run n gun stages.

[twiztor | 851]

stages 100%. if i'm playing a game, i am more likely to quit in frustration over a hard ("impossible!") boss rather than a challenging level. when the boss difficulty is an 8 but the stage difficulty is a 3, i just don't have any fun. needs to be balanced.

i hold a special place in hell for any game that makes you go through a boss rush at the end. i'm cool when they include it as a bonus way to play (i certainly don't play boss rush mode, but i appreciate that they have it as an option for those who do). but when it's a necessity to complete the game, i totally f'ing hate it.

[fcgamer | 4,727]

32 minutes ago, twiztor said:

stages 100%. if i'm playing a game, i am more likely to quit in frustration over a hard ("impossible!") boss rather than a challenging level. when the boss difficulty is an 8 but the stage difficulty is a 3, i just don't have any fun. needs to be balanced.

i hold a special place in hell for any game that makes you go through a boss rush at the end. i'm cool when they include it as a bonus way to play (i certainly don't play boss rush mode, but i appreciate that they have it as an option for those who do). but when it's a necessity to complete the game, i totally f'ing hate it.

I don't mind some boss rushes, such as the Mega Man stuff. Gotta make it fair though.

[CMR | 520]

I prefer stages.  I think this is one of the reasons I don't care for most Treasure games.  They tend to focus on boss/mini boss fights more than level design.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,545]

Bosses.

[Tanooki | 4,934]

Stages as there's just far more to explore, enjoy, and engage in if not grow your character.  Boss fights, they're either good, bad, or infuriating depending how they were designed and some clearly are just cheapo progression stoppers with stilted difficulty to drive you nuts, while others just are a little work because you've learned and grown from the previous stage areas (so it's hit and miss.)

Like twiztor there said, I'm in most cases likely to get to the 'fuck this game' and move along mentality from the bosses, never the stages except in extreme cases of poor design.

A good recent excellent example is Metroid Dread, I'll never see the ending without youtube.  Why?  Shitty uneven boss design with fair to just sadist level of difficulty made somewhat of an issue due to the lame button combination rapid juggling needed on a few things.  What put me off it was the last dumb chozo super mini-boss before the last fight of the game.  Reading online, lots of people put the game down there too.  I would have quit earlier on with this tentacle shit in a water room until I was tipped off you can actually make that one optional blowing out a wall and going around (which I don't think was an intended design.)  I can not for the life of me juggle the tether, missile, jump dash in rapid sequence to not get utterly wrecked on that fight.  After a couple dozen plus attempts I was ready to put the game up or dump it despite utterly loving everything else.   That skip saved the game for me.  And truth be told I may probably never play it again or casually return to where I left it and backtrack because the uneven oddities of a select few bosses make the game a chore off and on to an utterly fun stopping level.

[Kguillemette | 1,544]

It's tough to say. I overall prefer stages to bosses, but sometimes boss fights can be the absolute highlight of a game. They also can make a challenging yet fun stage unfun if the boss is too hard/tedious and you need to redo the level a bunch making it a chore. Luckily that doesn't happen often in games I've played. A good boss fight is the cherry on top of a well designed stage sundae.

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

I love great level design and I love a great boss battle, so it's tough to pick one as a generalization. If you look at the entirety of the gaming world, there are infinitely more well-designed levels than great boss fights. Boss fights are hard to do right, so the vast majority are actually pretty mediocre. Still, I have a soft spot for some of the cool boss-only games out there like Cuphead and Shadow of the Colossus, so I guess I'll say boss fights for now.

Edited January 2, 2022 by DoctorEncore

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,105]

On 1/1/2022 at 4:34 PM, DarkTone said:

Fucking love boss fights. Sometimes the anticipation of wondering what type of boss awaits is great. The patterns, the gimmicks, the music. Bosses are a big staple in gaming. 

Great question, by the way. 

This!

[GPX | 1,370]

On 1/3/2022 at 1:17 AM, JamesRobot said:

I actually think your argument is sound.  I initially gave you the agreement emoji and really enjoy good balance.  But after thinking about it, I don't really need both.

There are a bunch of games that are pretty much level driven only and I like them quite a bit.  Racing games come to mind as a genre example.  

Then you have a few games that are all boss and no level.  Usually fighting games.  I think of Mike Tyson's Punch Out as a specific example.  Supremely entertaining. 

Trying to think other examples without being tied to genre, I came up with Shadow of the Colossus.  Each boss, a level in itself.

 

What I will clarify further, is that stages often test specific skill sets in certain segments of the stage. Whereas commonly, bosses test your all-round skills and reflexes with their encounters. You’re sort of doing different objectives with the stages and the bosses.

Bosses also gives you a purpose and a narrative to the journey. Imagine powering up and maximising your weapons and without the bosses (think Bowser, Dr Robotnik, giant spaceships, screen-filling badasses etc), you’d be like “damn, I miss those bosses!”

[JamesRobot | 5,804]

1 minute ago, GPX said:

What I will clarify further, is that stages often test specific skill sets in certain segments of the stage. Whereas commonly, bosses test your all-round skills and reflexes with their encounters. You’re sort of doing different objectives with the stages and the bosses.

Bosses also gives you a purpose and a narrative to the journey. Imagine powering up and maximising your weapons and without the bosses (think Bowser, Dr Robotnik, giant spaceships, screen-filling badasses etc), you’d be like “damn, I miss those bosses!”

I'll give it that my favorites are typically a balance of both.  Megamans for sure gotta have both.  And the Wily castle is like a series of boss levels if that makes sense.

[Strikezone1 | 154]

On 1/1/2022 at 6:13 PM, DefaultGen said:

Stages 100%. I like running and platforming. Boss fights are usually stuck on a single screen.

I'm with this. Both are integral parts of a good action game. But there's usually a lot more action within the stages than there is in the boss battles.