Game Tweaks: Boss Battle Replayability

[Firaga 5,947]

I decided to bring back this little series of mine because I finally another relevant tidbit to discuss after what seems like ages. For those of you not acquainted, this is a series where I discuss various tweaks that I feel should be made to the overall Kingdom Hearts formula, i.e. the basic structure that follows all games, more so in the more important titles, and can be applied to Kingdom Hearts III and/or any future title in the series.

 

Today's topic is about what I feel is an essential piece of what makes any good Kingdom Hearts game last: the ability to literally play it over and over again. I mean, really, that's a good point to make with any game, am I right? But, let me explain further:

 

Olympus Coliseum. The Underdrome. The Absent Silhouettes. The Garden of Assemblage. Mirage Arena. All are great examples of giving us, the player, a well of playable boss battles to explore and experience over and over again. The challenges are always stacked higher and higher, the difficulty rises, and there's always a couple of surprises in store. You understand what I mean, right? Boss battles are a great part of the series as a whole, and being able to revisit them later in the game with new avenues to explore, and being able to stack the deck higher against yourself while doing so is a great experience.

 

Here's the gist of what I'm saying: I want the series to give us more chances to replay boss battles, and I don't mean just by starting new games obviously, I mean all in the same campaign and with higher risk and reward. Like, for example, imagine if a game gave us the Mirage Arena mission Villain's Vendetta in the form of being able to replay through every major boss battle in the main story on a continuous loop until the end (ex: if this was being utilized in the original Kingdom Hearts, we would fight Darkside, then maybe Leon, then Guard Armor, then Trickmaster, then Cloud, then Cerberus, and so on.) and give us various different levels of difficulty and challenge while doing so, like choosing to fight them all at twice their original level, or without help from party members and etc. This can also include any "bonus" boss battles that are available, similar to the Organization XIII Replica battles.

 

Now, I make the point to specifically cite boss battles as repayable content because it's pretty much the best option when doing something like this. Don't get me wrong, it's fun to collect Stickers and make Ice Cream and fight the Mushroom XIII and all that, but an experience like that can be fleeting at best. If you ask me, any side challenge in any game that just involves collecting things with subpar rewards at best just needs to not even register as a possible mechanic anymore.

 

Take the card collection in Re:Chain of Memories for example. Yes, I've cited this game as my favorite in the series, but even I can admit that collecting literally every card in the game, on Sora's side specifically, is just not worth it in the end (okay fine, I've never done it myself, but even if I did, there would still be no point anyway, so there). I mean, once you have all the Keyblade cards from KHII and Days, the enemy cards based on the Organization members and then get the super holy mega awesome "Gold" and "Platinum" cards which apparently have value in them for some reason, can you, like, use them for anything? Not really. They're just there to have. By then, you'd be done with the entire story and just left with roaming the various floors and maybe replaying the final battle against Marluxia. But that's it. Shouldn't there be more to it than that?

 

I think I've made my point clear. Feel free to leave your own ideas and suggestions.

Edited May 11, 2016 by Firaga Sensei

[rosco258 212]

I decided to bring back this little series of mine because I finally another relevant tidbit to discuss after what seems like ages. For those of you not acquainted, this is a series where I discuss various tweaks that I feel should be made to the overall Kingdom Hearts formula, i.e. the basic structure that follows all games, more so in the more important titles, and can be applied to Kingdom Hearts III and/or any future title in the series.Today's topic is about what I feel is an essential piece of what makes any good Kingdom Hearts game last: the ability to literally play it over and over again. I mean, really, that's a good point to make with any game, am I right? But, let me explain further:Olympus Coliseum. The Underdrome. The Absent Silhouettes. The Garden of Assemblage. Mirage Arena. All are great examples of giving us, the player, a well of playable boss battles to explore and experience over and over again. The challenges are always stacked higher and higher, the difficulty rises, and there's always a couple of surprises in store. You understand what I mean, right? Boss battles are a great part of the series as a whole, and being able to revisit them later in the game with new avenues to explore, and being able to stack the deck higher against yourself while doing so is a great experience.Here's the gist of what I'm saying: I want the series to give us more chances to replay boss battles, and I don't mean just by starting new games obviously, I mean all in the same campaign and with higher risk and reward. Like, for example, imagine if a game gave us the Mirage Arena mission Villain's Vendetta in the form of being able to replay through every major boss battle in the main story on a continuous loop until the end (ex: if this was being utilized in the original Kingdom Hearts, we would fight Darkside, then maybe Leon, then Guard Armor, then Trickmaster, then Cloud, then Cerberus, and so on.) and give us various different levels of difficulty and challenge while doing so, like choosing to fight them all at twice their original level, or without help from party members and etc. This can also include any "bonus" boss battles that are available, similar to the Organization XIII Replica battles.Now, I make the point to specifically cite boss battles as repayable content because it's pretty much the best option when doing something like this. Don't get me wrong, it's fun to collect Stickers and make Ice Cream and fight the Mushroom XIII and all that, but an experience like that can be fleeting at best. If you ask me, any side challenge in any game that just involves collecting things with subpar rewards at best just needs to not even register as a possible mechanic anymore.Take the card collection in Re:Chain of Memories for example. Yes, I've cited this game as my favorite in the series, but even I can admit that collecting literally every card in the game, on Sora's side specifically, is just not worth it in the end (okay fine, I've never done it myself, but even if I did, there would still be no point anyway, so there). I mean, once you have all the Keyblade cards from KHII and Days, the enemy cards based on the Organization members and then get the super holy mega awesome "Gold" and "Platinum" cards which apparently have value in them for some reason, can you, like, use them for anything? Not really. They're just there to have. By then, you'd be done with the entire story and just left with roaming the various floors and maybe replaying the final battle against Marluxia. But that's it. Shouldn't there be more to it than that?I think I've made my point clear. Feel free to leave your own ideas and suggestions.

I had an idea similar to this only neing able to replay every boss from the series where the boss uses the same mechanics from the game they're from while the player uses the game mechanics of the current game. Like say roxas from days vs kh1 sephiroth

[KingdomHearts3 2,591]

Do that for KH3 and I am sold!

[BlankShell 638]

I think it would sort of take away from what made the boss battles special, in a way. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of benefits; studying the game's mechanics by facing the same guy over again, the gauntlet style challenge (Villain's Vendetta was great!) etc. But so many boss battles are integral to the way the story flows that I wouldn't inherently feel like facing Storm Rider again, for example, just for the lulz.

 

What we really need is New Game+ =P

[Firaga 5,947]

I think it would sort of take away from what made the boss battles special, in a way. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of benefits; studying the game's mechanics by facing the same guy over again, the gauntlet style challenge (Villain's Vendetta was great!) etc. But so many boss battles are integral to the way the story flows that I wouldn't inherently feel like facing Storm Rider again, for example, just for the lulz.

 

I don't get what you mean. Nothing is being devalued here, it would just present the player a more challenging take on each boss.

[BlankShell 638]

I don't get what you mean. Nothing is being devalued here, it would just present the player a more challenging take on each boss.

I more meant that I don't see how a repeated series of battles is any more interesting than, say, the collectibles or puzzles or anything of the like. Diminishing returns and all that; I certainly don't go back and replay BBS solely for the Mirage Arena, unless there's some sort of objective I haven't completed, so for me at least it's all about achieving specific tasks.

[Firaga 5,947]

I more meant that I don't see how a repeated series of battles is any more interesting than, say, the collectibles or puzzles or anything of the like. Diminishing returns and all that; I certainly don't go back and replay BBS solely for the Mirage Arena, unless there's some sort of objective I haven't completed, so for me at least it's all about achieving specific tasks.

 

Because the challenge would be in raising the difficulty to where the player needs to think more critically about how to approach it than they did the first time around.

[BlankShell 638]

Because the challenge would be in raising the difficulty to where the player needs to think more critically about how to approach it than they did the first time around.

Which is fine (and like I said, Villains Vendetta was solid), I'd just rather have a specified challenge than anything customizable. Personal preference.