Poll of the Day > ever just brute force a game boss when there was an easier way?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Elemental weaknesses, Attack patterns, cheap weapons...Have you ever just wailed on a boss the hard way because you CBA to play their way?

Sydney from Vagrant Story comes to mind. He's got a pattern and eventually will leave himself open to real attacks. On my first playthru i probably spent 45 minutes tick damaging him to max Risk, and then using items to take my Risk down and doing combos all over again. eventually the game just gives in.

SMT:N, Beezlebub? he handed my party its ass for a week despite doing exactly what i was supposed to. ended up beating his final form after letting my party die against all wisdom and killing him with a charged shot after dying with the "revive with 1 HP skill".

Quicksilver in DMC3? hit him with a fully charged Royal Guard blast right out of the gate like hitting Ghoma in LoZ with an arrow as soon as you enter the room.

any bosses you've "glitched" using legit in-game mechanics?

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Yes, because it's often more fun to go OP.

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Well there's the infamous Hellhouse of FF7R.

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Not sure if it counts, but when I beat Final Fantasy VIII a couple months ago I was using aura and spamming Squall's limit breaks on Ultimecia. I messed up and she wiped by party, but I had the Phoenix GF that revives you sometimes and casts a fire attack on the enemy. Luckily, Phoenix triggered, but the fire attack killed Ultimecia... so the killshot came from her killing me.

DeathMagnetic80 posted...

Not sure if it counts, but when I beat Final Fantasy VIII a couple months ago I was using aura and spamming Squall's limit breaks on Ultimecia. I messed up and she wiped by party, but I had the Phoenix GF that revives you sometimes and casts a fire attack on the enemy. Luckily, Phoenix triggered, but the fire attack killed Ultimecia... so the killshot came from her killing me.

just like my Bubz kill in SMT:N.

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The bridge dragon in Dark Souls. Two HP at a time.

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I brute force'd my way through Breath of the Wild.

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For some of the shrine puzzles for Breath of the Wild on the Wii U theyd have you control these maze platforms with the game pad to try to get a ball through the maze and fall into a target area

I realized I could just kinda bounce the ball up into the air, and then flip the gamepad upside down, so the ball would land on the flat surface of the bottom and I could just have it roll any way I wanted

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Smiffwilm posted...

Well there's the infamous Hellhouse of FF7R.

I just did this last night.

Mead posted...

For some of the shrine puzzles for Breath of the Wild on the Wii U theyd have you control these maze platforms with the game pad to try to get a ball through the maze and fall into a target area

I realized I could just kinda bounce the ball up into the air, and then flip the gamepad upside down, so the ball would land on the flat surface of the bottom and I could just have it roll any way I wanted

After getting the ball through the maze legit like three times, only for the ball to fall short of making it to the trigger on leaving the maze, I resorted to that myself.

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That was my go-to strategy when I was younger. If punching doesn't work, punch harder.

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Mead posted...

For some of the shrine puzzles for Breath of the Wild on the Wii U theyd have you control these maze platforms with the game pad to try to get a ball through the maze and fall into a target area

I realized I could just kinda bounce the ball up into the air, and then flip the gamepad upside down, so the ball would land on the flat surface of the bottom and I could just have it roll any way I wanted

I did the same thing. 2ez

Smiffwilm posted...

Well there's the infamous Hellhouse of FF7R.

Screw that boss. It's probably the one boss really keeping me from my hard mode playthrough.

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Mead posted...

For some of the shrine puzzles for Breath of the Wild on the Wii U theyd have you control these maze platforms with the game pad to try to get a ball through the maze and fall into a target area

I realized I could just kinda bounce the ball up into the air, and then flip the gamepad upside down, so the ball would land on the flat surface of the bottom and I could just have it roll any way I wanted

I made a video showing how I cheesed that shrine.

https://youtu.be/v4gZK_NPcsg

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there's a boss in the SNES road runner game (IIRC it's the second boss). hard to explain, but there are weak points and a big U shaped area with a giant ball rolling through it. if you try to dodge the ball and only attack when it's safe, it seems basically impossible. eventually I figured out that if you just ignore the damage you take, you can just peck the weak points one by one and win before you run out of health.

not sure that quite captures the gist of your topic, but it's what came to mind

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Smiffwilm posted...

Well there's the infamous Hellhouse of FF7R.

How would you even brute force this one (doubly so if you're on hard mode, which is what most people complain about)?

The boss is actually not too difficult if you fight it "properly", and borderline impossible if you don't.

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Yeah I did that with the boss run at the end of Yakuza 0. I used so much health packs but went in balls deep. It felt good.

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I have quite a few times but it's hard to think of many off the top of my head. I killed the giant boss in dark souls 3 without the storm ruler. Just slapped him up with a normal weapon for like 20 minutes.

A lot of these fights end up not leaving much impression on me cause I ignore the part that makes them unique or interesting in favor of just heal tanking through their gimmicks instead.

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People do this in Xenoblade 2 Kingdom Hearts 2 and will fight a boss for 15 minutes instead of actually utilizing all of its mechanics and beating the boss in a quarter of the time. If that.

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In action RPGs I don't mind being at a regular or slightly lower level to make battles more intense but in turn-based RPGs, I grind to OP levels if possible and brute force my way through

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PK_Spam posted...

People do this in Xenoblade 2 Kingdom Hearts 2 and will fight a boss for 15 minutes instead of actually utilizing all of its mechanics and beating the boss in a quarter of the time. If that.

In KH: 358/2 Days I fought a boss for 30-40 min because I brought the wrong Keyblade with me and it was doing jack to him (and bosses in that game had like 87 health bars).

I could have died and restarted but my dumb kid ego wouldn't let me die without a fight.

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358s bosses were all dreadful, even with the right setups.

Its salt in the wound that all of those bosses are fought solo too.

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Ruler of the Sky was completely awful

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I can't recall ever not doing something the most efficiently.

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Throwback to Pokmon Red and Blue if you chose Charmander

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Yeah most games really. One mission in god eater forced me to try different things. But I still didnt use strategy. Never used custom bullets like everyone suggested either. I just switched to a new gun type and farmed away on upgrading its damage out put. Outside that fight I 99.9% just stuck to melee attacks and dodges. No guns no blocking.

Old why I loved that game so much it was clearly meant to play co op.

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This is how I got through Dragon Age because I didn't want to mess with the tactical combat system.

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Skyrim, i went all Leeeeroy Jenkins with a two handed sword on every enemy and boss there was.

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I leveled up so much in Final Fantasy X that every character could one-hit pretty much any enemy in the game except the hardest boss, which required 3 or 4 hits. I even re-built the sphere grid so that I could max stats on every character.

This was the NTSC PC2 version BTW, so no dark Aeons.

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Dikitain posted...

I leveled up so much in Final Fantasy X that every character could one-hit pretty much any enemy in the game except the hardest boss, which required 3 or 4 hits. I even re-built the sphere grid so that I could max stats on every character.

This was the NTSC PC2 version BTW, so no dark Aeons.

my biggest gripe with FFX vanilla was that even the Brady strategy guide completely misses the crater on Thunder Plains where Lightning always struck twice, despite finding it myself almost totally by accident.

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I could never do the tow rope on the Hoth stage of Shadows of the Empire on N64 because the camera would shift to an awkward angle so I would just endlessly shoot at the AT-ATs and slowly whittle their health down to beat the stage.

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VincentVega posted...

I could never do the tow rope on the Hoth stage of Shadows of the Empire on N64 because the camera would shift to an awkward angle so I would just endlessly shoot at the AT-ATs and slowly whittle their health down to beat the stage.

that level sucks, but i'm guessing you weren't a fan of the Ace Combat games. throwing the rope one way and the camera and controls the other way are the only way that's ever going to work.

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LuciferSage posted...

that level sucks, but i'm guessing you weren't a fan of the Ace Combat games. throwing the rope one way and the camera and controls the other way are the only way that's ever going to work.

No, never played Ace Combat. After Mario 64 and Goldeneye Shadows of the Empire was probably one the third 3D game I had ever played, not having a PS1 or PC at the time so moving in general was still something I was getting g used to. Luckily Rogue Squadron made tying them up much easier.

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Dikitain posted...

I leveled up so much in Final Fantasy X that every character could one-hit pretty much any enemy in the game except the hardest boss, which required 3 or 4 hits. I even re-built the sphere grid so that I could max stats on every character.

This was the NTSC PC2 version BTW, so no dark Aeons.

I somehow almost beat 8 without utilizing the junction system. Had I just popped a hero drink in the final fight I woulda won. I had her at her final monologue before dying.

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Definitely.

In Dark Souls games, I rarely ever use infusions or saps. I always attempt brute force first.

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VincentVega posted...

I could never do the tow rope on the Hoth stage of Shadows of the Empire on N64 because the camera would shift to an awkward angle so I would just endlessly shoot at the AT-ATs and slowly whittle their health down to beat the stage.

I remember doing that initially as well (whoever thought that automatically shifting to an absolutely atrocious cinematic angle as soon as you use the tow cable was a good idea should be shot), but I think it only works on the lowest difficulty; at higher difficulties, each AT-AT requires hundreds of laser shots and the mission will end in failure long before you can finish shooting them down.

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It can be fun reminding everything that I'm the final boss. One of my favorites is probably Psycho Mantis. Bitch please, go ahead and read that controller, you're still getting Snaked.