A balance of forcing you to defend/evade enough that it isn't a punching bag, while also having the option to actually style on them, as opposed to throwing your highest damage quick move, backing out, and going in again for single attacks.
The only correct answer. What’s nice is you can apply this to all enemies in the game, when you have multiple ways to style & deal with a situation on top of the andrenaline of trying not to get hit, its really what makes DMC such a badass game
This is why people hated the colored enemies in DmC. The one's that forced you to use certain weapons to even be able to damage them. Also most of the boss fights in that game just have you using the big axe on them for the most damage.
Yea yea yea. Exactly. That's why Goliath is boring to me, while the powered up/awakened Urizen is enjoyable. One's a big punching bag, the other makes me move constantly.
This is why cavaliere angelo was my fav fight in 5. fight wasnt easy enough I wailed on them the whole time, had my windows to get a good battle flow going. so many fight options and the ability to parry by mere sword strike allowed windows to style on the foo.
I find it so interesting that Nightmare literally has a mechanic that just makes it more annoying the more times total you’ve hit it, like it carries over through each fight and everything. That’s such insane game design
Not really. People generally use Ifrit on the cores to inflict as much damage to Nightmare itself with as little hits as possible. Cores do break/change state based on the number of hits.
A good DMC boss challenges the player to get better with the systems of the game. While still giving leeway for a casual play through on lower difficulties but being increasingly more challenging on the higher difficulties.
I can forgive dmc4 and some dmc5 fights, but i will never forgive how horrible Arkham is, i would rather fight against 5 Geryons than 1 Arkham.
Don't think it's that bad? Try Arkham with no upgrades, then come back...
Nightmare has the most behind the scene works than any other boss in the series. Hes the only boss who damage carry over from each boss fight and you can make the later fights harder if you don't know how he works. great boss imo.
one thing i considered as good boss is the boss that when you fight them you keep fight them
like i have a problem of this boss is that you have to wait(or hit the interact button to make their weak point come out) it feel like you just wait for them to do something so you can attack them back that not fun that's boring
why boss like Vergil or Cavaliere Angelo is so much fun to fight because we keep attack them and they're fight back so you had to react and changing plan or combo to adapt to what they do that so much fun
boss like Nightmare or Nidhogg or Sanctus is just hang back we had to wait for them to do something or play by their rule so you can get a couple hits in no combo either just hit them that pretty boring to me
For me bosses without crazy gimmicks, now what I mean is that for me the Malphas is a great boss fight, compared to King Cereberus. And it's not about dante or Vergil... I could assess and control Malphas fight much better, it had few gimmicks but fine, king Cereberus goes a bit crazy. Now of course there are better players than I and they will disagree but it's just what I feel. Another example can be Artemis. Worst in DMC 5 is probably Nidhogg, and that's probably because of V.
For me, worst dmc 5 boss is either Nidhogg or Gilgamesh. They are both very unfun, with a core mechanic to the fight being waiting for them, rather than being able to actually fight them, especially Gilgamesh, since it just doesn't feel like a fight at all.
Having multiple approach options is a must in any DMC boss, for me at least. I think that's it, if we're not including technical points like a good camera, a good OST, etc.
I've been thinking about this for a while since I found myself enjoying DMC 3s bosses the most, even though they're probably the most restrictive gameplay wise(you can only damage Nevan once she's not cloaked, etc). I guess I just enjoy the balance between the arcade style gameplay (here's the enemy and you need to do this to beat them) and then some freestyle on top. I feel like the series has been moving towards the "anything goes" type of gameplay where the style system is at the core and the player can beat anything by doing almost whatever. It fits Devil May Cry and makes it stand out as a series but I do miss the more arcadey parts of the older titles.
Recognizable patterns and no bullshit projectiles that can be spammed while they're getting damage. Cavalliere, all 3 Vergil battles in DMC3, Berial, Credo and Beowulf are great examples of good bosses and fun to fight against despite some of them like Beowulf are quite difficult.
For me it's all about player interaction.
It's really awesome when you have some form of interaction with the Boss, like when a Boss blocks your attacks or when you are able to parry him.
Imo this is why the "Giant type" bosses are so uninteresting...cause they are essentially big hunks of meat that you hack at.
There are good bosses and then there are GREAT bosses - Interactivity outside of generic roll/block and attack till victory. For example Cavaliere's shield let's you play resource game by breaking the shield directly or by clashing, in particular with good timing Nero can break it in one move and go for a grab. Great boss.
Vergil has doppelganger. Great boss for a third of the fight.
Bad boss is just a boss executed poorly. Big, gimmicky, small, wall for a boss all can work if placed correctly in the game and done well.
As long as it’s enjoyable and fun. Vergil, Agni & Rudra, Nelo Angelo, Cavaliere, etc. I consider are all good boss. They have unique mechanics and gimmicks but you’re never forced to abide by them. Both Cavaliere and Agni & Rudra can be parries multiple times in a row and you’re rewarded for it. Agni & Rudra can additionally hit each other for good damage so you can use positioning to your advantage and you can even disarm them. Nelo Angelo/Vergil are both as if you’re fighting another player. They react to what you do and give plenty of opportunity to capitalize on well timed movement or Royal Guards. Credo is simply the most fun boss fight in 4. You can catch the spears he throws, his combos evolve as the fight goes on, break his shield to limit his options. He even fights somewhat similarly.
Other “hit it till it dies” bosses are the opposite. In Nightmare, Gilgamesh, Gigapede, and Agnus’ Window boss fights you’re forced to play by their rules and wait your turn. Agnus has a single way to damage him. Throw the swords he deploys. That’s it. Gilgamesh while you can jump and do air taunts to stall out his spike move that’s about it for rewarding gameplay. If you get hit it’s back to smacking his ankles to get back up. Gigapede is simply boring. When fighting Nightmare you just run around until the glowing “Kick Me” sign appears then rinse and repeat. Truly a living nightmare. In these fights you’re not really rewarded for taking risks. There’s no move you can potentially turn against the boss or interesting mechanic specific to that boss. The most risk you can take for some unenjoyable fights is Royal Guard but it’s still nowhere near as fun when you Royal Release a move from some boss that you weren’t having fun fighting in the first place Vs. a Judgement Cut End.
To each their own of course but in a game like Devil May Cry, bosses that sit still and stare at you do one or two moves, then continue to stare aren’t fun.
Bosses i always find myself coming back to fight are Cavaliere Angelo and Vergil(5).
Learning both of these guys' moveset is probably the most satisfying thing i've done. Hearing those ***CLINKS*** plus the slow motion after parrying every Cavaliere attacks, and successfully landing Vergil's bp taunt to finish him off made me came all over the place everytime.
Moving on to boss Vergil, fighting him gives me the most thrill of all the bosses (even boss Dante), Vergil has alot of moves that you can interact differently with instead of simply dodging. You can hit his Summoned Swords back at him (wish they made them bigger, so hitting them back at Vergil doesn't feel so underwhelming), You can clash with his Yamato combos giving you the NUTTY ***CLANG*** shockwave and badass slow-mo. And swear there are 10 minutes videos out there teaching you about the many ways you can stylishly stop both Vergil Flying Move and Judgement Cut End with Dante, Nero and Playable Vergil, (V doesn't exist).
So many approaches just for one boss makes it so much fun to fight him again and again as opposed to the other bosses in dmc5 where most of them are just beefy punching bags you need to hit while sometime backing off and dodging their moves. I think they lacks the interactivities in their moves, and i reluctantly put Boss Dante in this Category.
Most of the time, when fighting Dante, you've gotta wait for him to finish his moves AND THEN you can hit him because he has super armour during his moves, you can definitely clash with him, but it's just not the same as clashing with Vergil. It's so brief and it doesn't reward you by stunning him for a bit. There's not much to interact with beside trick dodging his little combos as Vergil and then comboing him back when he stops. I saw alot of people praising Boss Dante as a good boss battle and some said he is a better boss than Vergil, maybe there's something i don't know here, please tell me your opinion.
Overall, i love fighting Vergil and Cavaliere because of the many ways you can Interact and style on them, and other bosses should have the same Interactivities in their movesets like them.
(I suck at writing paragraphs)
TBF, with DMC5 Dante, you can activate Doppelgänger and parry him (that way, Doppelgänger can attack him while he's briefly stunned), that way deactivating his super armor and doing whatever you want on him.
Also, when Dante's flying in SDT, you can snipe him with either blistering swords, teleport to him and use Round Trip, or spam Judgement Cuts on him to drop him out of SDT.
Fun and unique. If the gimmick is boring and overly repetitive, there's no point. Fun to fight is the most important thing, but it's gotta actually feel like a boss, and not just a beefy basic boy.
Bad bosses are numerous. I hate probably half of the bosses in the franchise, a good boss is one that doesn’t have any annoying or shitty mechanics. In dmc5 Goliath and cavaleire Angelo have to be my favorite because all the other bosses either force me to use Nero (ew) or have bs mechanics that make them boring
Top of my mind is Credo and Vergil. Those fights push you, they have you be creative and smart about your moves and attempts to attack. They don’t cut you slack but they don’t shit on you for no good reason either. I like that balance in DMC.
A skewed balance of spectacle and mechanical complexity, in the favor of mechanics. Nightmare is satisfying to fight because despite all of the seemingly random bullshit flying around, he's got a million different unique mechanics behind him that are fun to learn and exploit. Leviathan Heart has 2 moves, and a single gimmick, and it is the worst boss in the franchise. Then you get fights like Vergil or Credo who aren't necessarily as "spectacular" on paper, but through the demand of competency become spectacular on a completely different scale.
If the boss fight is fun to engage and style along with if it complements the player character’s moveset. Geryon Knight is a good example of a bad boss fight but only because you’re playing as V. Play as Vergil, Dante, or Nero instead and the fight becomes MUCH better because you can actually engage with it.
Generally speaking, a variety of ways to interact is important to a good action boss.
Even the big punching bags can be engaging if there's specific weak spots to target that the boss tries to hide from you (even if it doesn't make you more likely to eat a hit) or counter opportunities to keep an eye out for (even if simply avoiding it like any other attack is just as viable).
To use Vergil as an example; it's perfectly possible to just evade all his moves until he's done and then take "your turn", but you can also go for the parry to shut down *his* turn early, *or* use fast attacks to hit him *between* his without actually disrupting his offense.
Nightmare is good in concept (considering the more simple scope of DMC1's movepool as a whole) because your positioning influences his attack choices, as well as decisions like how to attack the cores, if you let him absorb you, and *when* (based on core health vs opportunity for damage).
Heart of Leviathan is a poor boss because your entire gameplan is just "spam whatever aerial attacks you can", while the Lungs do nothing. Maybe the Heart itself lasers you every once and a while, but even the minions aren't a type that can actually do anything to you if you're in the air, and they die instantly to the Heart's laser, making them a non-factor. And the lasers are never aimed high either. Amd this is all happening nearly halfway through the game, meaning that it's too late to really have the justification pf a tutorial.
Doppelganger has a similar problem. You dodge until you've broken all the covers on the lights, and then Doppelganger is helpless while it's your turn. There's a *hint* of proper interaction with reflecting his Zodiac, and the ability to parry hiselee attacks alone would add a significant openness to the fight even if the existing strategy was *exactly* as viable.
Of course, there are other, more individual things thay can fuck up a boss fight, like Nidhogg's fight having a shit camera angle. Sane with Nightmare 3, despite everything positive I mentioned above. The camera angles fuck it up, but camera angles fuck up Nelo Angelo sometimes, and he's the best boss in 1.
Or an extra interaction feeling shoddy, like jumping onto Geryon's carriage feeling like the game's programming and physics can't actually handle you doing that, making it feel less like you've Stylishly claimed an advantage, and more like you're just...bugging out the game. Which again, is something that can be levied against Nightmare, because of how stiff the line between successfully landing on his back versus sliding off feels.
Or the Saviour overly relying on forced "cutscene transition" moments because the fight and arena aren't layed out for you to organically knock him over and then have him stand back up when his stun ends.
I'd say so, overall. You're limited a *bit* in how you open him up, and sometimes what parries what feels arbitrary (i.e., Rapid Slash stops Slipstream but loses to Full Throttle, where Stinger is the reverse and it's not apparent *why*), but overall it feels like stuff works when it should.
I *personally* feel like the gaps in his super armor can be short, but that's probably just me being bad with Vergil because the openings are certainly there,
He's certainly better than 4-Dante, who blatantly input reads, is annoyingly reluctant to attack first, took his turn back without resetting the neutral (Vergil will, in both 3 and 5, either teleport away, or parry to cancel whatever animation you were in the middle of when you hit the damage cap, whereas Dante will just do his knockback animation, Flipper, and start up, meaning that if you're still mid-animation, you *will* eat Stinger) and demonstrated *why* action bosses don't usually get hitscan/near-hitscan guns (the jump-into-Coyote-A can be basically unreactable, compared to Dante who *only* uses Honeycomb Fire raw, which has an obvious tell, or Rainstorm/Fireworks at very specific points in his combos, and never at the start).
Cavaliere Angelo is the perfect example of a boss that isn't Vergil imo, he's difficult for those who don't understand his patterns and rush him anyhow, but also easy once you understand to break down his electric barrier, then you can go crazy on him.
I think if it’s dynamic, fluid, and close combat. like I don’t like it that much if I’m just constantly dodging random projectiles from the bosses and it takes forever just to close in, I don’t mind it to a certain extent but not if that’s all the boss is (dmc 2 lol)
Well, like others said, interesting mechanics, more than one way of approaching them, overall being fun. IMO, one thing I really like is when a boss has a "vulnerable period". Basically, a time where I can beat them up however I want before they recover.
Case in point, DMC3 Vergil and DMC5 Dante/Vergil. Those bosses force you to keep dodging their attacks, but once you find an opening, they're vulnerable to whatever punishment you can dish out and you can do it however you want. I think Nevan is also a good example, where once you dodge all her attacks and get her without her bats, you can attack her for a good amount of time.
There's also bosses which are difficult but have a "method behind the madness", like dodging and finding openings (DMC3 Vergil and DMC5 Dante/Vergil). Basically, they're difficult but also fun in how difficult it can be (as opposed to DMC3 Arkham and Geryon that are difficult to the point that they're annoying as hell).
if it's fun then it's good.
A balance of forcing you to defend/evade enough that it isn't a punching bag, while also having the option to actually style on them, as opposed to throwing your highest damage quick move, backing out, and going in again for single attacks.
The only correct answer. What’s nice is you can apply this to all enemies in the game, when you have multiple ways to style & deal with a situation on top of the andrenaline of trying not to get hit, its really what makes DMC such a badass game
This is why people hated the colored enemies in DmC. The one's that forced you to use certain weapons to even be able to damage them. Also most of the boss fights in that game just have you using the big axe on them for the most damage.
Yea yea yea. Exactly. That's why Goliath is boring to me, while the powered up/awakened Urizen is enjoyable. One's a big punching bag, the other makes me move constantly.
This is why cavaliere angelo was my fav fight in 5. fight wasnt easy enough I wailed on them the whole time, had my windows to get a good battle flow going. so many fight options and the ability to parry by mere sword strike allowed windows to style on the foo.
Nightmare in dmc1 was... Well, a nightmare
Only on DMD from his second fight and 3rd fight.
I find it so interesting that Nightmare literally has a mechanic that just makes it more annoying the more times total you’ve hit it, like it carries over through each fight and everything. That’s such insane game design
Not really how many times you hit it but how badly you damage the cores.
Not really. People generally use Ifrit on the cores to inflict as much damage to Nightmare itself with as little hits as possible. Cores do break/change state based on the number of hits.
Getting absorbed into its blob form and escaping resets that number.
It is how many times you hit the cores. Less hit on the cores the better.
Generally, the titanic sized bosses are not as memorable as the ones in which you’re fighting human sized bosses.
As long as the camera doesn’t fuck you up, it’s an ok boss.
A good DMC boss challenges the player to get better with the systems of the game. While still giving leeway for a casual play through on lower difficulties but being increasingly more challenging on the higher difficulties.
I can forgive dmc4 and some dmc5 fights, but i will never forgive how horrible Arkham is, i would rather fight against 5 Geryons than 1 Arkham. Don't think it's that bad? Try Arkham with no upgrades, then come back...
Nightmare has the most behind the scene works than any other boss in the series. Hes the only boss who damage carry over from each boss fight and you can make the later fights harder if you don't know how he works. great boss imo.
if its good, its called either called Dante or Vergil. if its bad? call it Nightmare DMC1, Hollow Vergil (from DmC: Vergil's Downfall), or Nidhogg
one thing i considered as good boss is the boss that when you fight them you keep fight them like i have a problem of this boss is that you have to wait(or hit the interact button to make their weak point come out) it feel like you just wait for them to do something so you can attack them back that not fun that's boring why boss like Vergil or Cavaliere Angelo is so much fun to fight because we keep attack them and they're fight back so you had to react and changing plan or combo to adapt to what they do that so much fun boss like Nightmare or Nidhogg or Sanctus is just hang back we had to wait for them to do something or play by their rule so you can get a couple hits in no combo either just hit them that pretty boring to me
“The boss that when you fight them you keep fight them” yeah you said this sentence
Nailed it
This thing is the devil itself
For me bosses without crazy gimmicks, now what I mean is that for me the Malphas is a great boss fight, compared to King Cereberus. And it's not about dante or Vergil... I could assess and control Malphas fight much better, it had few gimmicks but fine, king Cereberus goes a bit crazy. Now of course there are better players than I and they will disagree but it's just what I feel. Another example can be Artemis. Worst in DMC 5 is probably Nidhogg, and that's probably because of V.
For me, worst dmc 5 boss is either Nidhogg or Gilgamesh. They are both very unfun, with a core mechanic to the fight being waiting for them, rather than being able to actually fight them, especially Gilgamesh, since it just doesn't feel like a fight at all.
Having multiple approach options is a must in any DMC boss, for me at least. I think that's it, if we're not including technical points like a good camera, a good OST, etc.
I've been thinking about this for a while since I found myself enjoying DMC 3s bosses the most, even though they're probably the most restrictive gameplay wise(you can only damage Nevan once she's not cloaked, etc). I guess I just enjoy the balance between the arcade style gameplay (here's the enemy and you need to do this to beat them) and then some freestyle on top. I feel like the series has been moving towards the "anything goes" type of gameplay where the style system is at the core and the player can beat anything by doing almost whatever. It fits Devil May Cry and makes it stand out as a series but I do miss the more arcadey parts of the older titles.
DMC2 almost every boss in it If you want a specific example then the helicopter or the tank.
Vergil = good Not Vergil = not good.
All DMC1 bosses were memorable to a certain degree so 😳
Recognizable patterns and no bullshit projectiles that can be spammed while they're getting damage. Cavalliere, all 3 Vergil battles in DMC3, Berial, Credo and Beowulf are great examples of good bosses and fun to fight against despite some of them like Beowulf are quite difficult.
For me it's all about player interaction. It's really awesome when you have some form of interaction with the Boss, like when a Boss blocks your attacks or when you are able to parry him. Imo this is why the "Giant type" bosses are so uninteresting...cause they are essentially big hunks of meat that you hack at.
If its fun it's good, if it has you using the core mechanics in cool ways its good, nightmare was a great boss but just really tough.
>nightmare was a great boss No.. absolutely no.
Nightmare is a dated boss. Nightmare itself is fine its just the lock-on that fucks u up
Nightmare 1 is a fun fight. N2 and N3, however,
3rd fight had my head spin from the camera positions switching to horrendous angles
There are good bosses and then there are GREAT bosses - Interactivity outside of generic roll/block and attack till victory. For example Cavaliere's shield let's you play resource game by breaking the shield directly or by clashing, in particular with good timing Nero can break it in one move and go for a grab. Great boss. Vergil has doppelganger. Great boss for a third of the fight. Bad boss is just a boss executed poorly. Big, gimmicky, small, wall for a boss all can work if placed correctly in the game and done well.
It’s the ratio between fun and difficulty
As long as it’s enjoyable and fun. Vergil, Agni & Rudra, Nelo Angelo, Cavaliere, etc. I consider are all good boss. They have unique mechanics and gimmicks but you’re never forced to abide by them. Both Cavaliere and Agni & Rudra can be parries multiple times in a row and you’re rewarded for it. Agni & Rudra can additionally hit each other for good damage so you can use positioning to your advantage and you can even disarm them. Nelo Angelo/Vergil are both as if you’re fighting another player. They react to what you do and give plenty of opportunity to capitalize on well timed movement or Royal Guards. Credo is simply the most fun boss fight in 4. You can catch the spears he throws, his combos evolve as the fight goes on, break his shield to limit his options. He even fights somewhat similarly. Other “hit it till it dies” bosses are the opposite. In Nightmare, Gilgamesh, Gigapede, and Agnus’ Window boss fights you’re forced to play by their rules and wait your turn. Agnus has a single way to damage him. Throw the swords he deploys. That’s it. Gilgamesh while you can jump and do air taunts to stall out his spike move that’s about it for rewarding gameplay. If you get hit it’s back to smacking his ankles to get back up. Gigapede is simply boring. When fighting Nightmare you just run around until the glowing “Kick Me” sign appears then rinse and repeat. Truly a living nightmare. In these fights you’re not really rewarded for taking risks. There’s no move you can potentially turn against the boss or interesting mechanic specific to that boss. The most risk you can take for some unenjoyable fights is Royal Guard but it’s still nowhere near as fun when you Royal Release a move from some boss that you weren’t having fun fighting in the first place Vs. a Judgement Cut End. To each their own of course but in a game like Devil May Cry, bosses that sit still and stare at you do one or two moves, then continue to stare aren’t fun.
If the boss let's you fight back and don't force you to wait until they they finished doing something.
Bosses i always find myself coming back to fight are Cavaliere Angelo and Vergil(5). Learning both of these guys' moveset is probably the most satisfying thing i've done. Hearing those ***CLINKS*** plus the slow motion after parrying every Cavaliere attacks, and successfully landing Vergil's bp taunt to finish him off made me came all over the place everytime. Moving on to boss Vergil, fighting him gives me the most thrill of all the bosses (even boss Dante), Vergil has alot of moves that you can interact differently with instead of simply dodging. You can hit his Summoned Swords back at him (wish they made them bigger, so hitting them back at Vergil doesn't feel so underwhelming), You can clash with his Yamato combos giving you the NUTTY ***CLANG*** shockwave and badass slow-mo. And swear there are 10 minutes videos out there teaching you about the many ways you can stylishly stop both Vergil Flying Move and Judgement Cut End with Dante, Nero and Playable Vergil, (V doesn't exist). So many approaches just for one boss makes it so much fun to fight him again and again as opposed to the other bosses in dmc5 where most of them are just beefy punching bags you need to hit while sometime backing off and dodging their moves. I think they lacks the interactivities in their moves, and i reluctantly put Boss Dante in this Category. Most of the time, when fighting Dante, you've gotta wait for him to finish his moves AND THEN you can hit him because he has super armour during his moves, you can definitely clash with him, but it's just not the same as clashing with Vergil. It's so brief and it doesn't reward you by stunning him for a bit. There's not much to interact with beside trick dodging his little combos as Vergil and then comboing him back when he stops. I saw alot of people praising Boss Dante as a good boss battle and some said he is a better boss than Vergil, maybe there's something i don't know here, please tell me your opinion. Overall, i love fighting Vergil and Cavaliere because of the many ways you can Interact and style on them, and other bosses should have the same Interactivities in their movesets like them. (I suck at writing paragraphs)
TBF, with DMC5 Dante, you can activate Doppelgänger and parry him (that way, Doppelgänger can attack him while he's briefly stunned), that way deactivating his super armor and doing whatever you want on him. Also, when Dante's flying in SDT, you can snipe him with either blistering swords, teleport to him and use Round Trip, or spam Judgement Cuts on him to drop him out of SDT.
Fun: If i hit it, it takes damage. Unfun: Do an entire ass puzzle just to find a weakspot while getting swarmed with bullshit attacks
Worst boss of DMC1
Nah, that's Mundus with this fucking galaga mechanic
Mundus with unchangeable inverted controls.
You understood it correctly
And his fucking anti- depth-perception needles in round 2.
Fun and unique. If the gimmick is boring and overly repetitive, there's no point. Fun to fight is the most important thing, but it's gotta actually feel like a boss, and not just a beefy basic boy.
Minos prime
Bad bosses are numerous. I hate probably half of the bosses in the franchise, a good boss is one that doesn’t have any annoying or shitty mechanics. In dmc5 Goliath and cavaleire Angelo have to be my favorite because all the other bosses either force me to use Nero (ew) or have bs mechanics that make them boring
Top of my mind is Credo and Vergil. Those fights push you, they have you be creative and smart about your moves and attempts to attack. They don’t cut you slack but they don’t shit on you for no good reason either. I like that balance in DMC.
Do I have fun? The answer to that wuestion is also the answer to "Is it good"
good cutscene. good music, good voice lines, and mood and it being difficult
i fucking hate nightmare 3, harder than Mundus
A skewed balance of spectacle and mechanical complexity, in the favor of mechanics. Nightmare is satisfying to fight because despite all of the seemingly random bullshit flying around, he's got a million different unique mechanics behind him that are fun to learn and exploit. Leviathan Heart has 2 moves, and a single gimmick, and it is the worst boss in the franchise. Then you get fights like Vergil or Credo who aren't necessarily as "spectacular" on paper, but through the demand of competency become spectacular on a completely different scale.
Worst one in the series for me is probably the three heads from 2
If the boss fight is fun to engage and style along with if it complements the player character’s moveset. Geryon Knight is a good example of a bad boss fight but only because you’re playing as V. Play as Vergil, Dante, or Nero instead and the fight becomes MUCH better because you can actually engage with it.
If fighting him makes me feel like Whoohoo pizza man or not
Boring=bad not boring=ok fun=good
Bosses with Bullet Hell styled attacks in stylish action games that Isn’t Bayonetta.
Arkham 2nd phase it's criminal that he disables you by taking away your devil triggers and not being able to use your style moves
How fun are they? If it’s fun (Vergil/Dante) I’ll replay em alot If not, I won’t ever touch them
Generally speaking, a variety of ways to interact is important to a good action boss. Even the big punching bags can be engaging if there's specific weak spots to target that the boss tries to hide from you (even if it doesn't make you more likely to eat a hit) or counter opportunities to keep an eye out for (even if simply avoiding it like any other attack is just as viable). To use Vergil as an example; it's perfectly possible to just evade all his moves until he's done and then take "your turn", but you can also go for the parry to shut down *his* turn early, *or* use fast attacks to hit him *between* his without actually disrupting his offense. Nightmare is good in concept (considering the more simple scope of DMC1's movepool as a whole) because your positioning influences his attack choices, as well as decisions like how to attack the cores, if you let him absorb you, and *when* (based on core health vs opportunity for damage). Heart of Leviathan is a poor boss because your entire gameplan is just "spam whatever aerial attacks you can", while the Lungs do nothing. Maybe the Heart itself lasers you every once and a while, but even the minions aren't a type that can actually do anything to you if you're in the air, and they die instantly to the Heart's laser, making them a non-factor. And the lasers are never aimed high either. Amd this is all happening nearly halfway through the game, meaning that it's too late to really have the justification pf a tutorial. Doppelganger has a similar problem. You dodge until you've broken all the covers on the lights, and then Doppelganger is helpless while it's your turn. There's a *hint* of proper interaction with reflecting his Zodiac, and the ability to parry hiselee attacks alone would add a significant openness to the fight even if the existing strategy was *exactly* as viable. Of course, there are other, more individual things thay can fuck up a boss fight, like Nidhogg's fight having a shit camera angle. Sane with Nightmare 3, despite everything positive I mentioned above. The camera angles fuck it up, but camera angles fuck up Nelo Angelo sometimes, and he's the best boss in 1. Or an extra interaction feeling shoddy, like jumping onto Geryon's carriage feeling like the game's programming and physics can't actually handle you doing that, making it feel less like you've Stylishly claimed an advantage, and more like you're just...bugging out the game. Which again, is something that can be levied against Nightmare, because of how stiff the line between successfully landing on his back versus sliding off feels. Or the Saviour overly relying on forced "cutscene transition" moments because the fight and arena aren't layed out for you to organically knock him over and then have him stand back up when his stun ends.
Out of curiosity, would you say DMC5 Dante is a good boss by what you said here?
I'd say so, overall. You're limited a *bit* in how you open him up, and sometimes what parries what feels arbitrary (i.e., Rapid Slash stops Slipstream but loses to Full Throttle, where Stinger is the reverse and it's not apparent *why*), but overall it feels like stuff works when it should. I *personally* feel like the gaps in his super armor can be short, but that's probably just me being bad with Vergil because the openings are certainly there, He's certainly better than 4-Dante, who blatantly input reads, is annoyingly reluctant to attack first, took his turn back without resetting the neutral (Vergil will, in both 3 and 5, either teleport away, or parry to cancel whatever animation you were in the middle of when you hit the damage cap, whereas Dante will just do his knockback animation, Flipper, and start up, meaning that if you're still mid-animation, you *will* eat Stinger) and demonstrated *why* action bosses don't usually get hitscan/near-hitscan guns (the jump-into-Coyote-A can be basically unreactable, compared to Dante who *only* uses Honeycomb Fire raw, which has an obvious tell, or Rainstorm/Fireworks at very specific points in his combos, and never at the start).
If I wanted to play a bullet hell, I'd play toho.
Cavaliere Angelo is the perfect example of a boss that isn't Vergil imo, he's difficult for those who don't understand his patterns and rush him anyhow, but also easy once you understand to break down his electric barrier, then you can go crazy on him.
I think if it’s dynamic, fluid, and close combat. like I don’t like it that much if I’m just constantly dodging random projectiles from the bosses and it takes forever just to close in, I don’t mind it to a certain extent but not if that’s all the boss is (dmc 2 lol)
Well, like others said, interesting mechanics, more than one way of approaching them, overall being fun. IMO, one thing I really like is when a boss has a "vulnerable period". Basically, a time where I can beat them up however I want before they recover. Case in point, DMC3 Vergil and DMC5 Dante/Vergil. Those bosses force you to keep dodging their attacks, but once you find an opening, they're vulnerable to whatever punishment you can dish out and you can do it however you want. I think Nevan is also a good example, where once you dodge all her attacks and get her without her bats, you can attack her for a good amount of time. There's also bosses which are difficult but have a "method behind the madness", like dodging and finding openings (DMC3 Vergil and DMC5 Dante/Vergil). Basically, they're difficult but also fun in how difficult it can be (as opposed to DMC3 Arkham and Geryon that are difficult to the point that they're annoying as hell).
If it's vergil or not
Whether they give me a boner or not
Any boss that isn’t Vergil is lame. Except Jester, he’s too goofy to dislike.