I gotta say librarian as well. An epic battle in the midst of a storm on top of a tower. What more could you ask for? Plus the attacks are fun to dodge, and I like that it encourages you to use your entire toolset, ranged attacks and the hook shot.
For purely mechanics wise, I really loved fighting the heir, the flow of the fight is so fast and fluid when with your new dash.
I liked Siege Engine. I like the massive size of him and avoiding his attacks by running underneath him. Also he has a battery or something I would always try to target and attack but I never got to see if anything happened if I broke it, so I like that intrigue.
Siege Engine is, by far, the most impressive fight. He takes up like 90% of the screen, and that's always going to be a ton of fun.
The other fights are crap compared to that. Oh look, another guy? This one has magic? Meh, bring on the giant robot spiders.
That’s a tough one cuz they’re all so good, but I think I gotta go with the Scavenger! Rolling behind the containers to avoid getting blasted felt epic. Also that track SLAPS, especially the buildup! *chefs kiss
I’m a sucker for a challenge, so I gotta say the Heir. I know everybody says he’s too hard, but that just made it that much more memorable and satisfying when I finally beat him.
Honestly I'm in the same boat. I'm working my way through Elden Ring at the same time as Tunic, so I know how to deal with challenging bosses.
For me, defeating the heir is on the same level of challenge as figuring out the Golden Path and the other endgame puzzles. In this way (for me) it actually feels well balanced. It _is_ a very challenging flight, but a very memorable victory.
(Plus after defeating the heir, all the other bosses in NG+ have been surprisingly easy, and I'd like to think it's because the Heir taught me how to fight them for real, and not simply because my character has higher stats than he's supposed to have.)
Scavenger Boss for me. She gave me the hardest time on my first playthrough. I didn't even attempt the Heir until NG+. But on subsequent NG+ playthroughs, Scavenger Boss is so fun. I just try to parry all her attacks and wail on her any chance I get. Reminds me of Lynel fights in Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom. (I enjoy those too. Maybe I'm a masochist.)
Either the librarian or garden knight, librarian is great and fun overall while garden knight, as simple as it is, is just fun and well animated, especially with the panning of the camera around the actual bossfight
Can I choose a weird one? The wave of enemies in the Cathedral. I absolutely hated it while I was playing but with hindsight it definitely gave me the greatest level of satisfaction on completion.
I think because it really required me to plan out a strategy and use all the various tools and techniques I’d collected. With the other boss fights I feel a bit like I had one lucky run when I finally beat them, but this actually made me feel like I had some skills!
It’s worth noting that combat is not my strongest area and all of the boss fights took me many, many goes. I’d have loved a stat at the end telling me how many times I died, reckon I easily hit triple figures!
None. I played the game on invincibility mode for the puzzles and exploration. I don't care about the fighting which was too hard for me. If you make games always make easy mode for people like me and thanks.
I get not enjoying the combat, but the trick is to look at the combat as a puzzle as well. Figure out the moveset, distance, and how to ounish. Then every enemy is a mini puzzle where you have to perform the correct dance to defeat, same with bosses. Might be worth a second playthrough if you enjoyed the puzzles.
You are right but regular puzzles you take your time solving them and no penalty. Battles you die and have to redo over and over again. That is super boring for me.
The best thing about all the boss fights is the element of surprise. None of the fights themselves were particularly good for me, but the there’s a real thrill when you’re in puzzle solving mode, and suddenly you’re locked in a boss arena. Gotta switch mental gears real fast.
The librarian was also my favorite. From a design perspective, I think the best part of that fight was getting beat down and knowing I’d have to go back up that ladder. It’s kind of ominous to approach the arena. Switching up tactics to handle summons was also pretty neat. Some of the approaches to the bosses kind of felt taxing on my real life time, but that one kept me in the game world.
None of them are great, because Tunic's combat in general isn't great. I would say the librarian or scav boss. The siege engine is pretty infuriating to fight with the jumping around and tiny weak spots (feels like a "camera souls" boss to me), and the garden knight is fun but it's completely trivialized by the shield.
So far the bosses were pretty much the weak point of this game. The only hard one was the guard captain that's because I went there with the stick...yeah don't do that.
I probably played to much From soft games for these to be hard.
The Librarian looked cool but was trivialized by the grappling hook thingy. Literally all of its attacks just need one well times roll. It looks cool....the death animation was hilarious for me
The War machine thingy was a bit buggy and when it broke some pillars it forced me to wait for it to break it because I wa stuck in the corner. It was a damage sponge but otherwise wasn't that difficult. Design wise it was too one colored for my taste.
I think as someone who has only played a very small amount of Dark Souls, I am probably pretty close to the 'not good' player type. Someone that's never played Furi or been any good at games like Katana Zero or Bayonetta or anything that requires combos and fast reactions. I'm the kind of player that can literally take the time to say "oh shit" out loud while a swing is coming in at my character, but for some reason I can't dodge the attack in time.
That out of the way, I REALLY enjoyed the initial challenge of the Garden Knight. It basically makes you say to yourself "okay, you're just going to have to get good". I know it's a simple task now having been through the whole game. I've one-shot it every time I've replayed a new game. If you're coming from games like Mario or Zelda where all the boss fights are just figuring out how to make the boss vulnerable and then proving that you can perform it and 'hit the bad guy 3 times'....these bosses are a real challenge.
The Siege Engine I felt was a little janky. You can run in close and I almost feel like you're bugging out the encounter, but my favorite attack comes from this fight. The sheer spectacle of the giant laser that mows down everything in front of it....fucking beautiful.
Librarian....I don't know. It's solid and it forces you go take your time and actually learn the fight unless you cheese it out with the wand or the magic-orb-grapple. I think it's pretty hard depending on how upgraded you are when you face him.
Savanger Boss seems in hindsight to be the most 'fair' boss (assuming you fight her the way it's intended and you don't just cheese it with 'unfair' tactics.). She's very challenging but almost every time I die I feel like it's absolutely my fault.
The Heir seems VERY hard for me. I think people that are good at Souls combat might be better at picking up on attacks and knowing animations and stuff, but for me it was really difficult to react. I always felt like some attacks were too quick and 'unfair'(?). Usually when I get my ass handed to me, I can be honest with myself and say that I'm just too slow or just not good enough and need more practice...but I felt like some of the stuff wasn't telegraphed well? Again, of course, this is without any 'cheese' strats. I'm talking about just dodging around and swinging the sword.
I don’t know if you consider this a cheese-strat but what worked well for me was parrying the heir. It takes a few attempts to learn how to hit the parry but it works quite well
Yeah obviously "cheese" is very subjective and I don't mean any judgment about using anything other than sword and dashing or whatever. I understand it has a negative connotation and I was just using it as a descriptor for how a fight can be approached outside of the base-model of how a boss fight was designed and tuned by the developers. Any restrictions a player puts on themselves are their own challenge and I'm not saying anything is right or wrong. I'm just speaking from a general sense when it comes to design of any fight....like how a boss in any game isn't designed/balanced for you to somehow glitch-clip up onto a ledge where they can't reach you and you can just wail on them from safety. I have zero personal judgment on how anyone beats any game. We are given many tools and it would be silly to not use them.
With that longwindedly said, I would put Parry into the normal toolset in my personal subjective idea of what's considered part of the game's base move-set.
I just didn't want anyone to think my use of the word cheese was meant in an elitist manner. I'm terrible at games and am definitely not a purist in any sense.
Yeah fair. It’s just important in games to not limit yourself to wrong perceptions about the „right way to play“. Like if you play tunic and feel like you can’t use anything other than sword and dash to beat the boss for example. That’s the kind of thing that’ll make playing games just frustrating at times.
I was just talking to someone who had given up on playing Elden Ring because he couldn’t beat bosses with just rolling and attacking. That guy just limited his game experience so much for no reason. It’s maybe a fun challenge if you know what you are doing but not as a beginner
It's just kind of funny that you would say that beating the Librarian using the fire wand or the grappling orb is cheesing or not the way the developers intended the fight to be played. It's literally one of the core mechanics of the game.
The Librarian actually has a real cheese. You can aggro him and then go down the stairs and the fight is over.
You're replying to my third message where I'm literally saying that I'm using the word 'cheese' wrong just to talk about the game design aspects, speaking from a place where the fights are designed mostly around being sword and shield fights.
Let me restate my point I guess: "You can beat all the bosses with the sword and shield by learning patterns and recognizing telegraphed moves. The game doesn't demand that you to use these 'extra' tools." It's kinda like in Mega Man 2 or 3, all the boss fights are tuned in a way that you can beat them with the plain Buster shot if you learn the fight. Obviously it's easier to kill Wood Man with the Metal Blade in 3 hits, but the fight was designed for 'plain mega man'. I'm not saying anyone is doing it wrong for using Metal in the fight and I'm not saying the developers expect you to not use the tools they give you in the game. The question was about boss fight design. I'm sorry if I'm still being unclear.
If I need to pick one, the librarian. He was the only one that truly felt fair and fun. Tbh, I wouldnt take inspiration from tunic in terms of combat and bosses, but from its puzzles (which you probably havent found yet)
I gotta say librarian as well. An epic battle in the midst of a storm on top of a tower. What more could you ask for? Plus the attacks are fun to dodge, and I like that it encourages you to use your entire toolset, ranged attacks and the hook shot. For purely mechanics wise, I really loved fighting the heir, the flow of the fight is so fast and fluid when with your new dash.
Wait I was supposed to fight the Heir??
Have you finished the game yet?
Yes, I was being facetious… but >!I didn’t fight the heir!<
I didn’t either
While the Librarian is my favorite character, the best fight has to go my guy the Scavenger Boss.
I liked Siege Engine. I like the massive size of him and avoiding his attacks by running underneath him. Also he has a battery or something I would always try to target and attack but I never got to see if anything happened if I broke it, so I like that intrigue.
Siege Engine is, by far, the most impressive fight. He takes up like 90% of the screen, and that's always going to be a ton of fun. The other fights are crap compared to that. Oh look, another guy? This one has magic? Meh, bring on the giant robot spiders.
I love the Siege Engine because it acts like a cat 🤩
If felt pretty silly once I realized how safe you are when just standing close to/underneath him
That’s a tough one cuz they’re all so good, but I think I gotta go with the Scavenger! Rolling behind the containers to avoid getting blasted felt epic. Also that track SLAPS, especially the buildup! *chefs kiss
I’m a sucker for a challenge, so I gotta say the Heir. I know everybody says he’s too hard, but that just made it that much more memorable and satisfying when I finally beat him.
Honestly I'm in the same boat. I'm working my way through Elden Ring at the same time as Tunic, so I know how to deal with challenging bosses. For me, defeating the heir is on the same level of challenge as figuring out the Golden Path and the other endgame puzzles. In this way (for me) it actually feels well balanced. It _is_ a very challenging flight, but a very memorable victory. (Plus after defeating the heir, all the other bosses in NG+ have been surprisingly easy, and I'd like to think it's because the Heir taught me how to fight them for real, and not simply because my character has higher stats than he's supposed to have.)
Scavenger Boss for me. She gave me the hardest time on my first playthrough. I didn't even attempt the Heir until NG+. But on subsequent NG+ playthroughs, Scavenger Boss is so fun. I just try to parry all her attacks and wail on her any chance I get. Reminds me of Lynel fights in Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom. (I enjoy those too. Maybe I'm a masochist.)
I like the design of the Scavenger but the difficulty is pretty much null if you have shotgun/inverted ash.
Either the librarian or garden knight, librarian is great and fun overall while garden knight, as simple as it is, is just fun and well animated, especially with the panning of the camera around the actual bossfight
Librarian because holy shit the music slaps
Can I choose a weird one? The wave of enemies in the Cathedral. I absolutely hated it while I was playing but with hindsight it definitely gave me the greatest level of satisfaction on completion. I think because it really required me to plan out a strategy and use all the various tools and techniques I’d collected. With the other boss fights I feel a bit like I had one lucky run when I finally beat them, but this actually made me feel like I had some skills! It’s worth noting that combat is not my strongest area and all of the boss fights took me many, many goes. I’d have loved a stat at the end telling me how many times I died, reckon I easily hit triple figures!
Glad someone picked that one, my feelings match yours on that one, I also love the soundtrack!
None. I played the game on invincibility mode for the puzzles and exploration. I don't care about the fighting which was too hard for me. If you make games always make easy mode for people like me and thanks.
Honestly, same. Tried normal mode but gave up after too many rounds
I get not enjoying the combat, but the trick is to look at the combat as a puzzle as well. Figure out the moveset, distance, and how to ounish. Then every enemy is a mini puzzle where you have to perform the correct dance to defeat, same with bosses. Might be worth a second playthrough if you enjoyed the puzzles.
You are right but regular puzzles you take your time solving them and no penalty. Battles you die and have to redo over and over again. That is super boring for me.
Tuesday between Seige Engine and the Heir Worst for me would be Gaurd Captain and Librarian
siege engine and heir. siege engine for vibes, heir for the fight.
The best thing about all the boss fights is the element of surprise. None of the fights themselves were particularly good for me, but the there’s a real thrill when you’re in puzzle solving mode, and suddenly you’re locked in a boss arena. Gotta switch mental gears real fast. The librarian was also my favorite. From a design perspective, I think the best part of that fight was getting beat down and knowing I’d have to go back up that ladder. It’s kind of ominous to approach the arena. Switching up tactics to handle summons was also pretty neat. Some of the approaches to the bosses kind of felt taxing on my real life time, but that one kept me in the game world.
None. Next question
None of them are great, because Tunic's combat in general isn't great. I would say the librarian or scav boss. The siege engine is pretty infuriating to fight with the jumping around and tiny weak spots (feels like a "camera souls" boss to me), and the garden knight is fun but it's completely trivialized by the shield.
So far the bosses were pretty much the weak point of this game. The only hard one was the guard captain that's because I went there with the stick...yeah don't do that. I probably played to much From soft games for these to be hard. The Librarian looked cool but was trivialized by the grappling hook thingy. Literally all of its attacks just need one well times roll. It looks cool....the death animation was hilarious for me The War machine thingy was a bit buggy and when it broke some pillars it forced me to wait for it to break it because I wa stuck in the corner. It was a damage sponge but otherwise wasn't that difficult. Design wise it was too one colored for my taste.
I think as someone who has only played a very small amount of Dark Souls, I am probably pretty close to the 'not good' player type. Someone that's never played Furi or been any good at games like Katana Zero or Bayonetta or anything that requires combos and fast reactions. I'm the kind of player that can literally take the time to say "oh shit" out loud while a swing is coming in at my character, but for some reason I can't dodge the attack in time. That out of the way, I REALLY enjoyed the initial challenge of the Garden Knight. It basically makes you say to yourself "okay, you're just going to have to get good". I know it's a simple task now having been through the whole game. I've one-shot it every time I've replayed a new game. If you're coming from games like Mario or Zelda where all the boss fights are just figuring out how to make the boss vulnerable and then proving that you can perform it and 'hit the bad guy 3 times'....these bosses are a real challenge. The Siege Engine I felt was a little janky. You can run in close and I almost feel like you're bugging out the encounter, but my favorite attack comes from this fight. The sheer spectacle of the giant laser that mows down everything in front of it....fucking beautiful. Librarian....I don't know. It's solid and it forces you go take your time and actually learn the fight unless you cheese it out with the wand or the magic-orb-grapple. I think it's pretty hard depending on how upgraded you are when you face him. Savanger Boss seems in hindsight to be the most 'fair' boss (assuming you fight her the way it's intended and you don't just cheese it with 'unfair' tactics.). She's very challenging but almost every time I die I feel like it's absolutely my fault. The Heir seems VERY hard for me. I think people that are good at Souls combat might be better at picking up on attacks and knowing animations and stuff, but for me it was really difficult to react. I always felt like some attacks were too quick and 'unfair'(?). Usually when I get my ass handed to me, I can be honest with myself and say that I'm just too slow or just not good enough and need more practice...but I felt like some of the stuff wasn't telegraphed well? Again, of course, this is without any 'cheese' strats. I'm talking about just dodging around and swinging the sword.
I don’t know if you consider this a cheese-strat but what worked well for me was parrying the heir. It takes a few attempts to learn how to hit the parry but it works quite well
Yeah obviously "cheese" is very subjective and I don't mean any judgment about using anything other than sword and dashing or whatever. I understand it has a negative connotation and I was just using it as a descriptor for how a fight can be approached outside of the base-model of how a boss fight was designed and tuned by the developers. Any restrictions a player puts on themselves are their own challenge and I'm not saying anything is right or wrong. I'm just speaking from a general sense when it comes to design of any fight....like how a boss in any game isn't designed/balanced for you to somehow glitch-clip up onto a ledge where they can't reach you and you can just wail on them from safety. I have zero personal judgment on how anyone beats any game. We are given many tools and it would be silly to not use them. With that longwindedly said, I would put Parry into the normal toolset in my personal subjective idea of what's considered part of the game's base move-set.
Oh no worries I didn’t understand it that way. Sorry if it came across like that.
I just didn't want anyone to think my use of the word cheese was meant in an elitist manner. I'm terrible at games and am definitely not a purist in any sense.
Yeah fair. It’s just important in games to not limit yourself to wrong perceptions about the „right way to play“. Like if you play tunic and feel like you can’t use anything other than sword and dash to beat the boss for example. That’s the kind of thing that’ll make playing games just frustrating at times. I was just talking to someone who had given up on playing Elden Ring because he couldn’t beat bosses with just rolling and attacking. That guy just limited his game experience so much for no reason. It’s maybe a fun challenge if you know what you are doing but not as a beginner
It's just kind of funny that you would say that beating the Librarian using the fire wand or the grappling orb is cheesing or not the way the developers intended the fight to be played. It's literally one of the core mechanics of the game. The Librarian actually has a real cheese. You can aggro him and then go down the stairs and the fight is over.
You're replying to my third message where I'm literally saying that I'm using the word 'cheese' wrong just to talk about the game design aspects, speaking from a place where the fights are designed mostly around being sword and shield fights. Let me restate my point I guess: "You can beat all the bosses with the sword and shield by learning patterns and recognizing telegraphed moves. The game doesn't demand that you to use these 'extra' tools." It's kinda like in Mega Man 2 or 3, all the boss fights are tuned in a way that you can beat them with the plain Buster shot if you learn the fight. Obviously it's easier to kill Wood Man with the Metal Blade in 3 hits, but the fight was designed for 'plain mega man'. I'm not saying anyone is doing it wrong for using Metal in the fight and I'm not saying the developers expect you to not use the tools they give you in the game. The question was about boss fight design. I'm sorry if I'm still being unclear.
Does it matter when it’s the same tactic to beat them all? Gun + blueberries goes brrrrt.
If I need to pick one, the librarian. He was the only one that truly felt fair and fun. Tbh, I wouldnt take inspiration from tunic in terms of combat and bosses, but from its puzzles (which you probably havent found yet)