Battling Aspects of a Boss battle

[fgsfds]

[I think there's no topic like this, if there is, close/merge with the other topic]
[If this is a wrong section, please move to the correct section of the forum, this is about discussion, and possible serve as an idea giver]

I've been playing a couple of RPG games, XP and VX, I reach the high point of the game, boss battles, and so far, it seems seriously bland, in certain games, their just overpowered, and lack variety of skill that gives a challenge.
I want to make a thread dedicated to giving ideas about boss battles, and so far, I came up with certain theories, but I don't know, that's just me.
Anyways, here's my idea, and theories.

~Shapeshifters (Theory), trying to implement this in my game, pretty much a boss that change into the same being, with the same HP and SP, as well as status effect, into another enemy with the same graphic possibly, just difference in skills, element and resistance

~Clone and Mix (Theory), another idea in the making, this kind of bosses, makes a same copy, with reduced statistic (PDEF/MDEF remains the same), however, this is what I'm trying to do, the main/real boss itself, changed position of the graphic, for example, at the start of the fight, the boss is in the middle, then it makes a copy of itself, then the middle turns into a dummy, and the real boss change to the left, if the real boss is dead, then the fight is over, even if the clone is out there. I'm planing on using some events, variables and such to make this happen, but I'm not up to this phase yet. Just a theory I'm coming up with (Need a way to prevent players from farming Gold/Exp from it though).

~Core, as seen in a boring game, Lucid Awakening (Though in the end, it seems a bit abused in my book, play it and you see what I mean), a boss have parts of it, 2 hands and a body, killing the body kills everything, the hands just there to annoy/distract you. Kind of easy to add in a game. (I believe there's a tutorial around here for this)

~Spawning Minions, obviously, the boss spawn little turds in the fight. As usual, nothing fancy.

~Armor, a huge armor protecting the sensitive core. (Think RE4 Salazar battle, shoot the eye long enough and the creepy kid will come out, that's his weak spot, then it closes again, and you have to hurt the eye again.) Possibly another theory. Might work on it soon.

~Elemental shifter, I have a boss that constantly changes element, with 1 weakness, 1 null, 2 drains and 2 reflect, Dark and Light element are reflected as well or drained. Players need to utilize actors with elemental skillset, some of my actors have some element, but not all, and some don't have at all, all normal/neutral attack are reflected

And here's what I been using for bosses skills as an added challenge.
~Certain bosses have iDs (Instant Death Skills, a term in my game), however, to prevent "Broken" or unfairness, iDs only targets one

~Turn Sensitive Skills, at some point, if a boss battle continues on for a very long time, a skill may become seriously dangerous.

~Super Buff, a skill that boost overall performance, rather then a skill that focus on all statistic, better with one skill that boost most/all of them, so aggressive bosses can quickly continue the assault.

~Muddle (A term used in Shin Megami Tensei, Just borrowing the word), inflicts a series of status condition, from Mute, Stun and Poison, possibly more then that.

~Health Percentage Damage Skills, directly damage a percent of health, keeps the constant healer players on their toes.

~SP Damage Skills, hurts the SP, may cause some good challenge to the players

~Multiple Damage, as seen in rmxv I believe, with a cool animation, these kind of skills are potentially deadly, each skills has a cph (Combo Per Hit), meaning how many times it will hit the target.

So, what kind of crazy and wacky ideas you guys have for your boss battle?
(Btw, you can take my ideas here, hope you got something or resources to utilize them)

[ALUCARDfromHELLSING]

~I dunno how cool it is, but I want last boss in my game to have skill that makes your HPs = 1. :P

~Turn Sensitive Skills, at some point, if a boss battle continues on for a very long time, a skill may become seriously dangerous.

This one is pretty good idea as well.

~Transformation. I always liked transformations in RPG's. Even thought it may be not very original.

~Maybe adding a few new parts to boss during the battle like wings. So you won't be able to hit him with close battle attacks and skills.

[jubhub731]

Im thinking a flying enemy who you can only do alot of damage to him if you use magic or ranged , But then if you do enough damage to him his wings get damaged and you get bonus damage on him and melle can hit him then :cheery:

[Jaberwocky]

I imagine a lot of boss ideas would be dependant on the systems your game uses >.>

For example, if you have an ATB guage thing, you could give the boss a powerful skill with a fairly long casting time, so that the player has to interrupt it somehow.
Or you could give the boss a skill that does something whenever the player does a certain action, like... every time they heal it poisons the healer, or every time they attack the boss in melee they take damage, or every time they cast a spell it gives the boss MP to cast its own spells.
Actually, that gives me an idea for my own game, a slip-damage state that interrupts casting when it ticks instead of doing damage...

[AGAFURO]

*using Charlie Fleed's FFX-style CBS*

Well, some bosses I got in my project includes:

Category: Reviver, including: "Valkyrie" and "Master of Elements".

Valkyrie:

The Valkyrie has two minions that fights at her side: Einherijars. Whenever an Einherijar dies, the Valkyrie's next move will be a skill that revives the killed einherijar. If both einherijars are dead, the Valkyrie will use a skill called "Valkyrie's Call", which revives them both, with buffs.

While all 3 enemies are alive, their damage output is pretty high and may be too much to handle, but if you kill the minions they will just get revived. The trick, is to inflict the minions with status-effects (which they are vurnable to) rather than killing them, greatly decreasing their effeciency and then focusing on taking down the Valkyrie herself.


Master of Elements:

The Master of Elements is a boss with 4 minions, in the form of "elemental orbs". The actual boss itself does nothing but cast defensive buffs on himself and defend, until one of the orb dies, in which case he revives that orb. The orbs themselves, obviously use attacks of their own element, and they also absorb all damage of that element/has weakness to opposing element etc.

The Master of Elements will stop reviving his minions and start fighting only when ALL the orbs are dead, meaning you have to finish them all off in quick succession. This can, however, not easily be done by just spamming all-targeting spells, as almost all of those are elemental, meaning once of the orbs will take more damage than the others, while another one absorbs the damage and is healed instead.



Category: Changing Phases, including "Dark Moon" and "Charging/Incantation" etc.


Charging/Incantation:

I have several bosses that uses a unique status-effect called "Charging" or "Incantation". Basically, when the boss hits a certain HP, or a certain amount of turns has passed, the boss uses a move that inflicts one of these two status effects on himself/herself. The status-effect can't be dispelled. Trough battle-event, the boss will be forced to use a certain very powerful move if he/she is inflicted with said status-effect when his/her turn comes up. Then the effect will be removed. It's just as simple as that.


Dark Moon:

The "Dark Moon" is a bit more interesting. Basically, there is a "minion" that can't be killed and is pretty far above the main enemy. The Dark moon is EXTREMELY slow, and follows a set, repeating attack-pattern. The screen-tone is also changed, depending on what the "Dark Moon" is about to do. For example, the first move could be "Dark Cloud", which blinds all characters. Before that move is used, everything becomes darker. Next, a buff-move targeting the main enemy is used called "Moon's Blessing" etc. Before that happens, the screentone becomes slightly blue. Finally, the Dark Moon may use an actual attack, which should be very powerful... like "Apocalypse". Before that happens, the screentone becomes slightly darker and slightly red etc.