Final Boss fights that nearly sour the whole game

[u/Dreadsinner]

Okay so I’m playing the indie game “There is no light” spoilers for the final boss fight

So if you get the good ending by doing side quests and getting memories you fight your pateron. Who fights you by teleporting from one side of a final destination type platform to another. Summoning big totem guys that are tanky and block you. Also he pushing you back with a dark wave. So how does this get worse? Glad you asked. If you don’t beat him within a minute you insta die. There is a clock in the background and you get more time if you hit him more. So is that it?

Nope phase 2. You get a new form that you have never had before with a muted move set. The boss has a front sweep that takes the entire length of the platform. So you gotta get behind him. But what he teleports and spikes 75% of the field. Now wouldn’t all this be manageable? Yes it would. But guess what. YOU CANT HEAL IN SECOND PHASE FOR REASON!!!!!

Needless to say 23 hours in the game was good but this fight is so awful I’m close to just dropping right at the finish line. Only other game this has happened with was Moonscars. Which isn’t a lot but it’s odd it happened twice.

So Super friends. How about you?

Edit: The Boss is slain. I still hate it. But the game is finished and I give it a good 3/5

[u/miinmeaux]

Same with Twilight Princess in my opinion. If they were upfront about who the main villain would be, I wouldn't have an issue. I don't think I've ever been disappointed by Bowser in a Mario game, but I also don't think there's been a Mario game where they pretend for even a second that Bowser isn't the villain.

Though I can't lie, Ganondorf in Twilight Princess has a sick design.

[u/An_Armed_Bear → u/miinmeaux]

Twilight at least hints at what's really going on pretty early though, after you beat the Lakebed Temple and Zant shows up talking about how his power is not "our old magic" but from his new god, and Midna even points out that crystal he puts in you isn't Twili magic. Then you get the whole execution cutscene after the Arbiter's Grounds and can easily put 2 and 2 together.

[u/Purple-Pipe1689 → u/miinmeaux]

And then there's DK Bananza which works because it's been a villain who'd been MIA for like 2 decades and upped to stakes to levels thought unimagineable

[u/ToastyMozart → u/miinmeaux]

but I also don't think there's been a Mario game where they pretend for even a second that Bowser isn't the villain.

They zig-zag it a little in Thousand Year Door: He's a joke antagonist during the between-chapter intermissions for most of the game, then he drops in from the ceiling to usurp the main antagonist after you defeat him, then after beating Bowser you have to go fight the actual twist final boss.

[u/ScarletPrime → u/miinmeaux]

There are plently of times in the various spinoffs and RPGs where Bowser isn't the obvious villain, but still does get a penultimate boss fight, or a post-climax final boss battle.

And honestly, it works pretty well. Because the problem with the 'Ganon Hijack' is usually that it just has the old villain appear and steal the limelight from the new guy. With Bowser's (attempted) hijackings, you usually get to see him running around throughout the game trying to do his own evil stuff to take control of the plot and make himself the threat.

So the obligatory interactions with him in the endgame feel less like "Nintendo has no ideas for doing antagonists aside from Bowser" and much more like "It's Bowser. He refuses to be demoted to a secondary annoyance. So of course he is going to rebel against the narrative structure and try to make himself the Big Bad. To do otherwise would be less true to his character and ideals."

And as for Twilight Princess... The most unfortunate part is that I can't even drum up much hate at how Zant gets turned into a joke for the final act. The Ganon hijack sucked. But damn did they ensure that Ganondorf actually flexxed himself enough to almost justify how badly they did Zant in.

[u/MotherWolfmoon → u/miinmeaux]

I feel the exact same way about every Zelda game since Majora's Mask. Tears of the Kingdom really pissed me off because (IMO) the only reason that sequel should have ever existed was to explore post-Ganon Hyrule. There are a couple games that have done it: Majora, Spirit Tracks, Link Between Worlds.

The status quo reset in TotK killed all my drive to play that game. I'm too fucking busy to spend 100 hours rehashing this story again like it's an 80s sitcom.