Adventure Game Boss Battle Analysis
I choose to analyze one of my favorite boss battles from one of the games in the Zelda Franchise.
the Twilight Fossil Stallord battle in the Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess.
I think this fight has a great overall epic feeling to the fight mainly because it keeps the player moving at high speeds for the majority of the battle.
The battle is set up at the end of a dungeon just as most of Zelda bosses, and there are two stages to the battle. As per Zelda fashion the player collected an item earlier in the dungeon that helps them defeat the boss in the final battle. In this case its an item called the spinner which uses a track system that's embedded into the walls of the dungeon to move the player over obstacles and to help defeat enemies.
The battle starts off in an a big circular room with an already dead monster's skeleton lying in the sand pit, which takes up the majority of the room. There is a small cut-scene with one of the game's antagonists and then the creature's skeleton is reanimated. The boss battle has the player use the spinner on a circular track surrounding the boss. the objective is to have the player detach from the wall while using the spinner and ride it over the sand and past smaller enemies that are summoned as obstacles and attack the Boss's spine. Do this a total of three times and the Stallord falls.
In stage two of the battle the sand pit floor starts to sink and now the circular room is revealed to be a cylindrical spinner track with a smaller tower in the middle. The player is then pushed off the tower by the still alive head of the boss, and now the player has to use the spinner to get back up to the top of the tower. The obstacles the player faces are traps that are placed on the spinner track which causes the player to have to jump back and forth from the inner tower to the outer spinner track.
Meanwhile the Stallord's floating head is firing fireballs at the player which have to be avoided in order to get closer to the head so it can be temporarily stunned and the player can attack their weak spot. Rinse and repeat one more time and the battle is won.
Battle plan for making my boss battle
In my game the player must have the blessed sword Excalibur at its full potential to even be able to get to the second room, which leads to the boss battle level. I want the boss to be a giant suit of armor that does not want the ancient sword, Excalibur to be taken out of the museum.
As is old Zelda fashion I want to make a boss that feels epic. One was I think I can achieve this goal is to make the boss take up the majority of the room. Since we have to have our Boss move occasionally I want to him him start in one position and after a certain amount of attacks are dealt the boss will retreat to a top some pillars and summon some Ghostly Knights to defend him. All the knights must be defeated before the player can knock down the knight.
The giant Suit of armor with brandish a great spear like weapon. With which he will use to do execute sweeping strikes directed at the player. The player must use their environment to defeat the boss. I will have pillars in the level that can be knocked down and climbed so that the player isn't in the range of the spear sweep.
For the finale I want to have the boss be positioned between two collapsible pillars and the player has to knock them over to imprison the giant. Then the player has to make their way to the helm of the suit and break a glowing gem atop the giants helmet.
Fin.
