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Boss Gauntlets (Spoilers) -Opinions, Favorites, Terrible Ones?

TheInfamousKira

Reseterror Resettler
This is a thread inspired by the Multi-Phase Boss Fight thread. I realized that I don't like multi-phase so much as I appreciate a good ol' boss gauntlet. Two, three, five bosses in a row/in the same dungeon. Nothing makes a game feel more like it's reaching a serious or end point than a series of challenging encounters.

By nature, RPGs seem to be the best at this, followed closely by character action games. In particular (though I'm biased) Final Fantasy and Zelda have some awesome ones.

My favorites off the top of my head are probably

Ultimecia's Castle - Final Fantasy VIII
This dungeon is cool, regardless, but having each one of your commands locked by a boss fight is a cool idea, and it's used well in FFVIII. The open nature of the castle mixed with a split party gives you lots of room for interesting battles, should you unlock a command that's not fitting for the next boss, and find yourself in a jam. Opening the dungeon with the trippy ass Sorceress battle, followed by the eight or so command battles, followed by Ultimecia and Griever in the finale. It's cool shit.

Kingdom Hearts
The End of the World is pretty awesome. For low to mid level parties, the end bosses are awesome. Starting with a random encounter with a Behemoth, moving on to the completely unexpected Chernabog, and finally to the finale. Ansem opening up the gauntlet, he's the hardest (or second hardest depending on how well you did with Riku) one on one encounter with a human sized opponent. Then you have a book end battle with Darkside, another solo fight with Ansem, and then the World of Darkness, an eldritch collosus of fleshy madness, including numerous hordes of the strongest regular Heartless in the game, the core and head of the beast, and two more battles with Ansem. I wish the last battle wasn't aerial, but the spectacle of it all is awesome.

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
Everything is Ganon's Tower. Four repeat boss fights in monochrome to hammer home how much more powerful you are first off. Gohma, Kalle Demos, Jalhalla and Molgera. Then battles with Phantom Ganon and three forms of Puppet Ganon, followed by a sword fight with Ganondorf himself on top of the tower at the Great Sea slowly submerges the pocket of Hyrule you're in. Also, good shit.

So what about you guys? Do you hate multiple bosses in one place? Do you prefer them at the end, middle or all throughout? What games do it well? What games do it shit?
 

Bartski

Gold Member
Not sure if I like it when a game throws this stuff at me as part of the story but optional boss rush gauntlet modes can be great.

Beating the Mortal Journey Gauntlet in Sekiro was probably the most difficult thing I've ever done in videogames full stop. That's all bosses from the game + 3 additional harder "inner" versions of Genichiro, Owl and Isshin at the end, one by one without failing.

I did practice quite a bit in "Reflections" - such an amazing feature allows you to replay boss fights and just try different strats without losing consumables. I really hope to see something similar in Elden Ring.
 
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I don’t mind having an optional boss rush mode, but not having anything locked behind it. Seems like the people who go for this tend to do it as a form of personal satisfaction. I’m a big believer in world building and tailoring boss fights to the area it’s tied to. The only time I enjoy back to back fights is when it makes sense in the context of a game, and the ability to save or take a break in between.
 

TintoConCasera

I bought a sex doll, but I keep it inflated 100% of the time and use it like a regular wife
I really hate when a game makes me beat a bunch of bosses I've already beaten, feels lazy and boring.

I do love games that are just one boss fight after another tho, like Furi or Alien Soldier.
 
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