Bomber’s Notebook #015 – The Evolution of Bosses

So much change has occurred in The Legend of Zelda after nearly three decades of gaming bliss. The big, bad bosses are no exception, as their structures, methods and power have shifted dramatically over the years. From Aquamentus from The Legend of Zelda to Ghirahim in Skyward Sword, the way Nintendo designs dungeon bosses has undergone great improvements, though the difficulty of said bosses has fluctuated. It’s come to my attention that there exists a tendency for Nintendo to make boss battles longer as time passes by while also reducing the speed, immediate danger and damage infliction done by them.

It seems as if the switch occurs once Zelda makes the jump into the third dimension. 3D allows for more freedom in terms of methods to defeat bosses, but for some reason Nintendo decided to make them more sluggish. You may need to stir the pot in your brain a bit more, but overall the threat is dungeon bosses is diminished compared to hair-pullers like Moldorm and Thunderbird. Make the jump to continue reading!

I stated that Zelda bosses have gone been steadily becoming more lengthy. In the original The Legend of Zelda, bosses need only take a few hits before succumbing to the mighty power of Link. Now they actually weren’t particularly powerful either. However, The Adventure of Link clearly picked up the pace and featured fast-moving, powerful bosses that had very specific weak spots. Most of them can be defeated in a minute or two, but the probability of having your health drained substantially or even dying was much higher than what we’ve come to expect today.

I believe it’s safe to say that by today’s standards, The Legend of Zelda and The Adventure of Link are rather primitive games. Therefore the strategy to down bosses weren’t as intelligent, and never would a boss have multiple phases. Battles were quick, heart-racing and were intense despite the split second of time that the battles lasted. The item found in the dungeon is usually always crucial to slaying it, but as I stated earlier, the creativity of these methods are limited due to the 2D format. The prolonging of boss battles came over time, starting after A Link to the Past.

Speaking of which, A Link to the Past featured over a dozen dungeons and just as many bosses. Can you imagine? From my personal experience with the game, boss battles were slightly longer than the ones in The Legend of Zelda and could have multiple short phases. The difficulty of boss battles actually corresponds with the overall power of enemies, which is to be expected. I found myself running a little low on hearts from time-to-time, always needing to replenish Link’s life force with Fairies.

Perhaps what made encounters with bosses in the early 2D games so challenging was their startling speed and the cramped arenas where Link must fight them. You could almost get claustrophobic in those rooms, and it certainly doesn’t help that many bosses spray attacks in all directions. The dungeon bosses from this game pose much more of a threat than, say, the ones from the first Zelda and any other bosses in the franchise’s history (with the exception of The Adventure of Link‘s). I found myself struggling the most with the snake-like Moldorm and the behemoth Helmasaur, who is protected by layers of thick armor.

Nintendo’s groundbreaking title Ocarina of Time debuted in 1998 and didn’t disappoint. It translated the charm of Zelda into 3D and arguably perfected the formula. Something that caught me off guard when first playing through the game was how easy the bosses were compared to its 2D siblings. Gohma certainly doesn’t leave the strongest impression on the player, nor do King Dodongo or Barinade for that matter. The key to defeating the boss became the item more than Link’s skill with the sword, and they became slow-paced rinse-and-repeat processes that typically need to be echoed three times.

Boss arenas became larger, giving Link more space to maneuver and avoid attacks. Due to the pauses between boss’ attacks, the battles are lengthened. Add on top of that the fact that Link must wait for the boss to open up its weak spot (which ordinarily takes longer than it did in 2D games), he has less chances to go on the offensive strike the boss down. The fact is, while bosses look more impressive and intimidating in 3D, there is a minimized sense of urgency that makes it so Link will hardly have a tough time collecting those Heart Containers.

One good thing is that the 3D Zeldas treat bosses more like puzzles, which makes sense since the series is puzzle-adventure. Nintendo probably went into designing bosses in 3D games with a different mindset than they had with 2D games: they became more about the method and eased up on the player, giving him/her ample time to think and come up with a solution without being the fear of being trampled to death or beaten to a bloody pulp. This tradition would continue through Majora’s Mask, The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess. The bosses in the three succeeding games were about the “how”, not the “gaaaaaahhhh let’s shoot things at it and stab it with the pointy stick!”.

Luckily for us, Skyward Sword attempted to turn the tide by introducing a brand new control scheme and giving gamers a new reason to cheer for motion gaming. It’s no secret that combating enemies was made far more thrilling by forcing Link to attack from certain angles, making every encounter a puzzle in itself. The bosses follow suit and make full use of the 1:1 motion controls. Defeating the majority of bosses relies heavily on mastery of the sword, or else you really can’t break any ground. The very first big baddie of the game, Ghirahim, catches Link’s sword and takes it for himself if he finds that the hero is flinging around his weapon erratically.

It wasn’t a complete 180 degree turn since the strategy was intact. It did not pay homage to the 2D classics but simply pushed swordplay into the spotlight and had the player think spontaneously in order to survive. Boss battles were finally fast-paced again and had a similar level of intensity as the bosses of old while retaining the length of modern Zelda bosses. I’d like to think of it as the best of both worlds.

Overall, newer bosses have become more about thinking while older bosses are more about doing. Nintendo found a way to blend the two together wonderfully while still incorporating dungeon items. If that’s not a triumph, I don’t know what is. I hope the bosses of The Legend of Zelda keep moving in this direction, because if they do, we’re in for quite a treat when Zelda Wii U comes around.

So what do you think of the editorial? How do you think bosses have evolved over the past few decades? Feel free to let us know in the comments section below!