Boss Arena Recovery: Difference between revisions
m
no edit summary
m (Mass update links) |
mNo edit summary |
||
| (7 intermediate revisions by 3 users not shown) | |||
Line 2:
So, you've collected all the [[Suspicious Videogame Generosity|suspiciously placed items left before the boss door]], and the boss has [[He Was Right There All Along|suddenly]] appeared from nowhere. After a long, drawn-out struggle, your character is doggedly squeaking along on 1 [[Hit Points|HP]]. What's a video game character to do?
The answer is usually "Scour the arena". Chances are you'll find some nice recovery items right there in the arena, just right for the poor player who's having difficulty with the boss. This might come in the form of the [[Flunky Boss|boss's minions]] being easily killable, dropping health and [[Mook Maker|coming in infinite numbers]]; an [[
Seems to occur more often in recent games. [[Nintendo Hard]] games tended to give you no options except to keep trying the same, frustrating boss until your fingers bleed.
Compare [[After Boss Recovery]], where you're given health and ammunition refills after defeating the boss, and [[Suspicious Videogame Generosity]], where the game gives full refills right before the evil creature tries to obliterate your characters. A type of [[Anti
{{examples}}
* ''Zelda'' series loves this one, especially in 3-D games. Here, every single boss and even many [[Mini Boss
** However, this is averted with Ganondorf, from ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
*** Actually... not so much.
** On one particular boss in ''[[The Legend of Zelda:
*** .......It deposits them ''from its nose''.
*** From the same game, the Final Boss arena seems to avert this. Until you figure out you can {{spoiler|[[Nightmare Fuel|use your hookshoot on Princess Zelda to strip hearts from her]] to heal yourself!}} Played straight with ''Twilight Princess'', however.
** From the Ocarina of Time, the [[Mighty Glacier|Iron]] [[Lightning Bruiser|Knuckles]] of the Spirit Temple can be lured into helping you out. Their axes are capable of destroying the pillars and throne usually decorating their arenas. Often, this yields the player three much needed hearts.
*** Ganon can also end up doing this to the rubble of his castle, and it should be noted that this is the only way to get heart/magic refills during the fight.
** Averted in ''[[The Legend of Zelda:
** ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
* The ''[[Super Mario Bros.]]'' series, again mostly in the 3-D games. ''Super Mario Galaxy'' actually has small plants and lights to shoot at for coins in the boss arenas for just this reason.
** In ''Super Mario 64'', Bowser's fire breath left behind health-restoring coins when it burnt out. King Boo does the same thing in the remake, and Chief Chilly drops coins when punched.
** Not to forget ''Super Mario World'', where in the fight against Bowser the Princess throws you a mushroom between attack waves.
* The boss arenas of the latter two ''[[Time Splitters]]'' games.
* ''[[Gauntlet (1985 video game)]] Legends'' console games always had a small amount of recovery items hidden in the boss level.
* Even ''[[Grand Theft Auto]]'' got into this, providing suspiciously out-of-universe health packs in areas of key difficulty.
* It could be argued this is present on the bosses of ''[[Shadow of the Colossus]]'', where there are usually convenient places to rest for stamina recovery on the boss.
* In the new ''[[Ninja Gaiden]] II'' for the Xbox 360, you can only hold 30 arrows at a time. Whenever you're at a flying boss (or somewhere else that where you'd need arrows), there's a dead guy lying in the ground with an unlimited number of arrows stuck in him that you can scavenge.
* Many of the boss areas and very difficult areas of ''[[Resident Evil]] 4'' contained ammo and healing items (but then again, so did the less difficult areas).
* Most games in the ''[[Metroid]] Prime'' subseries have at least one boss whose shots you can shoot out of the air for ammo and health. Almost every single major boss in ''2'' and ''3'' have these. (Those that don't are pretty much guaranteed [[That One Boss]]). In ''2'', it's due to the [[Dark World]] which steadily takes away health, meaning that sometimes you have to fight the battle with no safe zones. In ''3'', it's because you need health to activate Hyper Mode, which is required to kill most bosses.
** Some of the 2D games have it as well. The easiest to remember are the nails Kraid shoots in ''Super Metroid''.
*** In ''Super Metroid'' that was probably a necessity to keep the player from running out of Missiles, since otherwise only charged shots would have any effect on the boss and the Charge Beam wasn't a required powerup.
*** Don't forget what happens as you shoot up Core-X and Hard Core-X in Metroid fusion. The boss fight is pretty much all said and done once the X mimic transforms into its true form because you could rapidfire the darn things and squirt out almost obscene numbers of green and yellow X parasites to heal and restock from.
* In the ''Warriors'' game, some of the bosses can only be hurt with ranged attacks. In this case, there will always be a beer carton on the ground that provides infinite glass bottles for throwing.
* ''[[Chaos Legion]]'' often had [[Mooks]] and [[Mook Maker
* ''[[Kirby]]'' boss battles are ''made'' of this trope. Since you're theoretically supposed to be able to defeat bosses without any of your [[Power Copying|copy abilities]], your only offensive option may be slurping up [[Circling Birdies]] or [[Mook Maker]] offspring and launching them back at your opponent.
* Similarly, extra [[Mooks]] present during boss fights in [[Beat'Em Up]] games with a focus on grapples and throws (like Mike Haggar in ''[[
* The final battles at the end of each era in ''[[Body Harvest]]'' consist of you in a floaty-feeling hovercraft, battling an enormous creature that obliterates most of your shields with each hit in a dish shaped crater, and your weapons gobble down ammo at an astonishing rate. Fortunately, the boss drops a bunch of powerups whenever it soaks up enough damage, so the fights tend to consist of getting knocked around the crater like a billiard ball while trying to swoop under the boss to collect powerups it drops.
* While it doesn't have normal boss fights, the ''[[Medal of Honor]]'' series provides its inexplicable health restoration in the form of medkits that drop from dead enemy soldiers.
* In ''[[Overlord]]'', most significant boss battles feature spawning pits from whence the player can call forth more minions, the goblin-like creatures that do the player's fighting/dying/pillaging/heavy lifting for him. This isn't exactly the same as a health pickup because the number of minions the player has is always limited, and can't be replenished during a boss
** The number of minions you possess (not the ones you command) is a ''very'' theoretical limit. If you grind for about half an hour, you're unlikely to run out even if you're playing [[We Have Reserves|true to form]].
* Berial, the first boss in ''[[Devil May Cry]] 4'', leaves behind health-restoring orbs when he smashes buildings. At least, until you get to the higher
* Most of the boss battles in ''[[No More Heroes]]'' have at least one chest with a full-health recover and one with a full battery recharge. These are removed on [[Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels|Bitter Difficulty]], in addition to the bosses being more aggressive.
* Early bosses in ''[[Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles]] Ring of Fates'' had this. Players are advised to enjoy it while they can.
** The sequel Echoes of Time also generously stocks the first few boss areas with chests full of recovery items. It also includes a couple of boss rush minigames where all the boss arenas include 2 respawning minions that always drop food, but this goes straight past Suspicious Videogame Generosity and into Malevolent Videogame Generosity, since the extra mooks mean more attacks to avoid and can stun-lock you together with the boss.
* In ''[[Star Wars]]: [[The Force Unleashed]]'', the final battle with {{spoiler|Emperor Palpatine}} would be much harder if it weren't for the health you get from killing his guards, who are occasionally sent into the arena as {{spoiler|Palpatine}} levitates up and watches.
* ''[[Dead Space (
* In the Black Temple dungeon in ''[[World of Warcraft]]'', there is a boss called Reliquary of Souls that attacks in [[Sequential Boss|phases]]. Between phases, swarms of [[Mooks]] show up that refill the group's health and mana when killed. From a mechanical standpoint, this is justified as the boss prevents all healing in its first phase, and drains mana in the second, but it still seems like a kind of chivalry from a creature that's supposed to be trying to kill you.
* In ''[[
* ''[[Odin Sphere]]'' has a fairly bizarre example of this; during every boss fight (if you had the foresight to bring seeds) you can kill the [[Mooks]] that the boss summons/appear with the boss, then use the released Phozons to grow fruit, which can then be used to heal.
* In ''[[Billy Hatcher and
* ''Turok 2'' has it's final boss retreat, and send robot minions after you, which can be slaughtered for health.
* ''Pirates: The Legend of Black Kat'' has a few boss fights that feature these, usually in the form of respawning kegs, hammers, and/or grog.
Line 57:
* ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines]]'' mocks the player using this trope. In the fight against plague spreader Bishop Vick, a few human shamble around the room. They look like free blood refills, but drinking even a little will cause your character to stand in place and vomit uncontrollably until you're killed. Serves you right for forgetting {{spoiler|that he's spreading a massively infectious virus}}.
* When you fight a boss in the ''[[Dawn of War]] II'', the area you fight them in is often surrounded by boxes that you can destroy that yield [[Crate Expectations|crates]] when destroyed that, when clicked on, add one to the number of uses for any item of wargear a has that has a limited number of uses, like Frag Grenades.
* The Ork Warboss in ''[[Warhammer
* During the final boss of ''[[Okami]]'', there are a few chests littered around the battlefield you can open for inventory items. [[Sequential Boss|One of the boss's forms]] even mimics a slot machine, and one combination makes it give up a load of recovery power-ups. Not that you necessarily need such instant-use rejuvenation when you probably have an inventory stuffed with cheap and effective healing.
** Not to mention that using your slow-time-down power, occasionally one of the characters from earlier in the game will drop health for you.
* A strange version of this appears in ''[[
* In every single ''[[
* In ''[[
* The first boss in ''[[Rocket Knight Adventures|Rocket Knight]]'' (2010) has a pair of health pickups on either side of the room.
* ''[[Smash TV]]'' is one of the earliest games to do this. [[Justified Trope|Justified]] in that most bosses are invulnerable or highly resistant to your regular peashooter gun, and special weapons all have limited ammo.
Line 69:
** ''Half-Life'' 1 has small healing pools scattered around the final Boss area, in addition to the usual [[Med Kits]] lying next to dead explorers.
* The final area of the Wending Wood questline in ''[[Dragon Age]]: Origins - Awakening'' pits your player party against two tactics-aware dragons with [[Wonder Twin Powers]]. Yes, that's as bad as it sounds. Fortunately, every now and then, they would simultaneously take off and leave the room for a couple of seconds, which counts as the end of the encounter in gameplay terms, allowing your [[Shoot the Medic First|party healer]] to recover from the [[Non-Lethal KO]].
* Nearly each boss battle in ''[[Unreal II:
* Most boss arenas in the ''[[Viewtiful Joe]]'' series have a box or two with items that can recover your Life or VFX. They're often in the background, meaning you'll have to hit the boss with your Mach Speed power, creating after images to break them open for you.
** It's [[Played With]] in Viewtiful Joe 2. [[Mad Scientist]] cyborg Dr. Kranken fires at you from the background while his creation Cameo Leon assaults you with his [[Overly Long Tongue]]. The Doctor throws cheeseburgers and Molotov Cocktails at Leon that he can use to recover. You can whack him to prevent him from consuming them, or take a cheeseburger for yourself.
** In ''Double Trouble'' Joe often teams up with his sister Jasmine against a boss. By tapping on her she tosses you fast food!
* Most bosses in ''[[Prototype (
* Some of the (non-tank) bosses in ''[[Dragon Quest Heroes
* In the PS2 ''[[Dororo]]'' game the first chapter's boss will, during her second phase, continually spawn weak enemies into the arena while hiding on-top of a tower. Even this early on they aren't much of a threat and barely chase you, but they will always drop ammo for your leg-cannon. This is actually the first time in the game the cannon is useful (ammo is extremely limited and it doesn't do that much damage anyways) and locking the pickups to cannon ammo helps remind the player it exists and can be aimed upward.
* ''[[River City Girls]]'' (from the ''[[Kunio-Kun]]'' series) has a unique example with Yamada, the second boss. One of his more potent attacks is to conjure up pieces of junk and telekinetically spin them around him, trying to clobber Misako and Kyoko. However, one of the objects is always [[Power-Up Food| an Apple]], which one of the girls can grab to regain health.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Boss Battle]]
[[Category:
| |||