Boss Skip Feature?

[Sephiroth0812]

I agree, there would need to be punishment for skipping. I think I said something earlier in the thread about not getting trophies, but not getting HP/Magic/equipment upgrades would also be a good balance.

As for Theater Mode though, you'd have to be able to finish the game to watch there, so....

Yep, at least when it concerns rewards that are not crucial for getting further in the game.

Isn't that what playing on Beginner-mode should be for? To get at least the story-stuff and Theater-mode.
And oh well, for those who have problems with a certain boss even on easy, I doubt that unlocking game scenes in Theater-mode as you go along is that hard to implement.

I think that the punishment thing would be a miss if you could skip ANY boss, even the easier ones; if you'd not get any reward from it, then you'd skip yet another boss after it because this time it could be way harder - you'd feel that you're chanceless against it because it's harder than the previous one and because you're underleveled/underequipped from skipping the last one. So, either way, you'd have to go back and level up.

When it comes to devs not copying this feature existing in different games already - my guess is that those titles are either not popular enough (if not on the level of franchise, then on the level of genre) or their main focus is nowhere near boss battles, or other developers already did what I said - they made their bosses easier, to begin with.

That's why I said only non-crucial rewards should be withheld and honestly, if people even skip the earlier easier bosses that's not the game's or the skip feature's problem, but on every individual player's decision.

Most frustration-inducing bosses at least in KH are so far either mid-game difficulty spike like Demyx or First Ursula in KH 1 or the bosses that serve as the gateways to the final parts of a game like second Riku in KH 1, Xaldin or Roxas in KH 2 FM.

Absolutely not. What would even be the point of having any gameplay at all if you were just going to skip the pieces that are supposed to be the culmination and test of your skills? Might as well just include a way to watch all of the cutscenes and skip the game entirely.

Isn't this what difficulty levels are for? There's no shame in playing on Beginner or Normal if you simply aren't good at ARPGs or something, but this is way beyond that.

Such a way exists, it's called theater mode. ;D

Agreed, playing on beginner shouldn't be any source for ridicule or something similar.

 

[Precursor Mar]

People, not every boss fight is Final Xemnas or Lingering Will. There are also a lot of Oogies and Jafar Genies, and I'm sorry-- those are supposed to be the vital parts about the game? Pardon me while I'm being skeptic about it.
By all means, keep defending your own thoughts on the subject and feel free to think otherwise, but y'all are kinda sanctifying the idea of boss fights and putting it on a pedestal is all I'm saying.

Here's a really good descriptor I heard recently:

"Bosses give a game real character. They pit another personality against the player and ask them to know that person or creature through the language of the gameplay."

When it comes to Kingdom Hearts, bosses (especially Disney bosses) are vital because they further add to the experience of interacting with the various Disney properties. Allowing us to connect with these characters in a way the movies could never offer. You can cherry-pick some bad bosses and prop them up as examples to why bosses should be skippable, but realize that not only does it not fix the problem, it actively harms the overall experience.




Look, if you just play games to have a good time then good for you. But don't deny that what you're basically asking is that every single game should be accessible to you and that you should be able to play them however you like. Sorry, but that's not how it works. Not every game is for everyone, and not every game is aiming for the same goal. I won't say that paying money for a game doesn't entitle you to anything, but I will say it doesn't give you complete creative control over it. If a developer wants to make a hard game that forces to learn how it works in order to progress, well then what right do you have to say that theycan't? Same if they want to make a piss-easy baby game.


There also something else I planned to bring up in my initial post. We need to stop pretending the journalism school dropouts in the gaming media that spearheaded this topic did so for the benefit of anyone but themselves. Game journalism is a race. A race of who can get the review for the newest game out first. A race of who can get the most amount of views and clicks. They will abuse this feature. And they will not tell you about it. These are the same hacks who showered MGSV, a repetitive, unfinished mess, with with a hail of perfect scores without disclosing the fact that not only did they play the game under constant Konami supervision in a boot camp, but also while using the chicken hat (which makes you invisible)! These people are beyond disreputable and such a feature would only encourage their profligate behaviour.

 

[f'tang]

Skipping bosses/entire parts of videogames has been one of speedrunning's main pillars since speedrunning was a thing and has never led to such an apocalyptic scenario.
Also not even true. There are times in speedrunning where if winning the fight is faster than losing or skipping it, everyone will try and win it. It's all about finding a way, it's really not "hurr durr me skip fight me faster"

Finding an exploit to skip a boss sequence is not the same as having a box pop up saying "do you want to skip this boss?". And yes, in a normal speed run, if this were enabled, skipping the boss fight would be the fastest solution. This still isn't that big of a deal as speed running should only be an after thought and there could be categories for this game specifically, but still.
Also, nobody seems to take into account that some people just can't help themselves. Similar to gambling, if someone can skip a boss fight, even if they don't want to, they'll do it anyway. I know i would, though this could just be because of my mental illnesses, i dunno.

 

[maleficentfan123]

I like the idea of the game forcing you to at least attempt each boss before giving you the option to skip. I guess when I wrote my post I was going off the assumption that the game would force you to at least make an effort to defeat the boss x amount of times before a dialog box shows up asking if you want to skip the boss. For example:

I fight Demyx once and lose.
I fight Demyx a second time and lose.
I fight Demyx a third time and lose. At the end of this third attempt, a dialog box shows up asking me if I want to proceed with the game or try again.

In some cases assuming the above is what is done, it would often be faster for speed runners to just beat the boss as opposed to losing 3 times and then skipping as not all bosses can insta-kill you.

Maybe as a compromise, this could be a "beginner mode only" option for players who just want to get through the plot as quickly as possible.

 

[f'tang]

So long as you can beat the boss quicker than you can die 3 or so times then i'm down. It'd be better if it were 10 or so times though, at least with the tougher bosses. beginner mode only though.

 

[SuperstarSaga08]

I don’t think it’s a big deal if they were to make it an option. I wouldn’t skip bosses myself, but a lot of people who play these games are really young.

Well if their really young and skipping the boss fights whats left for them to do? I know they are not playing Kingdom Hearts for the story.