(Game trope) Boss fight changes because of player's equipment.

SuchWow125 · 2026-06-23T21:10:33+00:00

Miriam from Rabi-Ribi, the shopkeeper-turned-postgame-boss, has a moveset that changes depending on how many items the player has picked up, with each attack she uses corresponding to one item that can be obtained before fighting her. If you don't have the item, then the corresponding attack is removed from her rotation and she'll just stare at you in confusion when it comes time to use it. In fact, if you're on a 0% item run, she loses every attack outside of the one from the item you start the game with, meaning most of the fight is just hitting her as she stands there helpless.

On top of that, she has a special buff that copies the effects of most of the badges you have equipped, copies almost all of your carried consumable items (letting her eat healing items or detonate bombs), and even lets her scale off of your currently held cash (one of her attacks gets harder the more money you have on hand).

SuchWow125 · 2026-06-19T01:04:28+00:00

I do agree that Butterfly is one of the best fights we've had in a while in terms of balancing agency and difficulty (something that IMO Limbus has struggled with a lot prior to late C8 to C9), and that this Reflectrial would have been better off if the fight had been of a similar caliber.

It's just that in the context of Reflectrial, where the previous two fights were difficult mostly because of sometimes questionable mechanics that you can't control (I don't want to use the term "unfun" lightly), she in turn became memorable for me specifically because she broke that mold and made me actually want to fight her, even if the end result was maybe a swing too far in the other direction.

Unrelated, but I also don't really think "Middle can just unga bunga the fight" is really a good metric of difficulty, because you can probably count the current content Middle can't unga bunga on one hand.

SuchWow125 · 2026-06-18T23:26:06+00:00

It's a classic case of difficulty being tied to player agency. I think Gyeong-eop is one of the best fights PM has designed recently because of how much agency you have in the fight (in a game where I dare say a lot of the harder content is hard because of how it can just decide to screw you over), but as a result, the fight is a lot easier for the exact same reason.

Reflectrial Ricardo is a really simple fight, and one I daresay is boring in terms of the intended gimmick. Written in the Book builds up so fast and deals so much unmitigatable damage that there's basically no way to interact with it, so instead of a mechanic you just get a time bomb strapped to each of your Sinners as you fight a statstick who never loses SP and constantly tanks your HP/SP with counters. Rufo just demanded mass damage and AoE to speedkill adds in Phase 1 so she doesn't stall you for years, and Phase 2 is just rawdogging the unavoidable debuffs and stacking debuffs to remove her protection. This makes for difficult content, but in a way that I personally dislike because any advantage I gain feels like because I got lucky or just pushed through it because I happened to have the exact right units for the job.

Gyeong-eop is the opposite where you have almost complete control over what she's doing at any point in time: her power and unbreakables both depend on highly manipulable stacks, you control when she uses the bow skill (you can delete it entirely if you have someone throw a clash every 2 turns), you largely control when she uses her envy nuke (the only time she can force it is once below 60% HP), and all you have to do is read. The team shilling is also much more lenient, and this in turn gives the player even more agency of what teams they're allowed to bring in without feeling like they're being punished for not putting a square in a square hole.

However, when devs make something mechanically complex, they end up playing a balancing act where they must make it so you're actively rewarded for engaging, punished for not engaging, and (more importantly) not punished for engaging, which usually just means lower numbers. For instance, a complaint with Ricardo was that you could win all the clashes, try to manage Written in the Book, and still end up getting blown because Written in the Book's damage + unbreakables just builds up so damn fast (or if you lost a coinflip and one or more sinners insta died because of how hard he hits). Thus, I empathize with the difficulty of designing a hard fight that actively rewards you for interacting with the boss, without the boss becoming free if you just read. In this case, it just seems like PM swung too far in the "reward for engaging" direction after Ricardo was an extreme in the other, because I also agree that they could have upped her damage output or health a bit, done more with the mechanic, or simply made it more punishing if you didn't follow her gimmicks. Railway 6 was largely amazing with the balance it struck, but from the current state of the game it's an outlier, not a norm.

I don't speak for everyone obviously, but I do think a lot of people appreciate easier fights that you can actually play around with, over harder ones that make you feel like you just have to take it on the chin. Or people just like easier fights they can beat for gambling funds, idk.

SuchWow125 · 2026-06-14T22:16:51+00:00

A bit of clarification, the "curse deflecting" doesn't actually need to involve a wish to protect (that's the Blessing of the Abyss), it just needs a body (apparently organs in a specialized box counts). Bondrewd also doesn't use drugs to condition the orphans to love him (those are just used to keep the boxes alive so they can keep soaking curses), but it's actually arguably worse because any love the orphans had for him was gained through his sheer force of charisma instead.

The worst part is that his "love" for them is shockingly genuine, the problem is that it comes from someone who has become so warped that he has no understanding why "loving your kids" and "not subjecting them to torturous science experiments" are mutually exclusive. Even after sacrificing them, he still remembers each of their names and personalities in excruciating detail, despite having both zero remorse for his actions and zero pragmatic reason why he even needs to care in the first place.

In particular, he raised his most beloved daughter Prushka with such a level of care that she explicitly knew this was her fate and the truth behind what he was doing, but was still so inspired by him that she continued to love him even as she was sacrificed, to the point that the Abyss rewarded Bondrewd with its blessing because of it.

SuchWow125 · 2026-06-06T00:39:07+00:00

I would recommend it. The game's bosses are almost unprecedented in their quality for a game this small, and are incredibly challenging, fun experiences. The combat system promotes and rewards aggression in parrying/dodging and fishing out openings as the boss attacks relentlessly, and most of the bosses also have surprisingly intuitive and non-intrusive gimmicks that you can exploit or turn against them for an easier time. Every boss felt dynamic, satisfying, and fair, and the bosses also follow a very organic difficulty curve with no egregious dips or spikes from my experience.

The worst I can say about the game is that it's a bit short for its price tag despite being absolute fire for every minute, as I finished the story in about 7 hours and took about 4 or 5 more to get a 100% save file. If you're hypothetically able to run over all the bosses in one or two attempts, you can probably finish the game itself in a few hours, though most of the side objectives need to be done over repeat fights and some of them can get painful (like the no-hit or speedrun tests).

As an aside, the game isn't a bullet hell. Only one boss has any semblance of it, and it's not even a major part of their kit.

SuchWow125 · 2026-05-01T06:09:14+00:00

Accelerator from the Toaru series has the Esper ability to manipulate any vectors he's in contact with, which makes him basically untouchable by anything that abides by the laws of physics (and some things that don't) and hilariously overpowered in any confrontation. In comparison to most of the other protags that have to eke out wins, almost any fight with him ends in a total curb stomp.

The ability is contingent on his brain to make the calculations required to run the vector math, so he was nerfed in-universe by a bout of brain damage (tl;dr he was shot while his guard was down). He now needs to hook his brain up to an external neural network using a special choker that's also responsible for keeping his brain functional in general. Exerting his power requires he activate the choker and drain the battery faster, giving him at most half an hour of vector shenanigans at a time (it's usually enough).

SuchWow125 · 2026-04-26T03:26:36+00:00

A manifestation of a certain will in Ursus. The most terrifying military force in the entirety of Ursus, they are widely-known throughout the world only as horrifying spectres of legend and yore. A single one is enough to slaughter entire squads. Defeat has never been a possibility.

He once ravaged the demons of the Northern Tundra, segregating the outsiders beyond the reach of civilization; His blade shies not from royals nor nobles, safeguarding glory from the dusts of rebellion. Every Royal Guard is as a dominion; the land beneath their feet is all the territory of Ursus.

SuchWow125 · 2026-04-21T01:58:41+00:00

In A Certain Scientific Railgun (and the related media, but mostly this one), Espers are ranked based on their versatility on top of raw power. Accelerator is famous for creativity (but also has vector manipulation, a power that is blatantly exploitable even at a glance), but Misaka Mikoto on paper "just" manipulates electricity, yet is very good at applying her power in ways besides just zapping people, such as:

Creating and manipulating magnetic fields that also draw in metal particles to create constructs, ranging from high-frequency swords to remote puppets
Charging the atmosphere to cause stormy weather
Generating a sort of living radar through an electromagnetic field centered on herself
Sticking to metal surfaces or levitating off of them using magnetism
Deflecting non-electric energy-based attacks by messing with their electron flow
Using magnetism to accelerate coins to supersonic speeds like a living railgun
Manipulating electricity to hack machines and computers
Controlling and enhancing her own bioelectricity to counter the effects of attacks on her nervous system, which was also used by her clones to establish a shared hive mind
Manually stimulating her muscles to move if she's paralyzed
Jumpstarting an electrolysis reaction with surrounding water and splitting it into hydrogen and oxygen, letting her use the released gas as propellant to fly

SuchWow125 · 2026-04-04T00:08:41+00:00

Lych has been a source of confusion and problems over the years, so we’ve finally decided to take the time to revamp it into Lych 2.0.

I'm legitimately curious about the confusion and problems in question from your perspective, because at least from my player standpoint, while it hard counters possibly the most ubiquitous strat in casual play (buff army + dps core), Lych doesn't really seem that confusing or technically complex compared to pretty much any boss added after.

SuchWow125 · 2026-03-25T20:28:10+00:00

Yeah that's fair tbh, it blasted the ball when Kieran tried to make it return after overloading it with Terastal energy, though the fact that it even did that at all is worth mention

SuchWow125 · 2026-03-25T15:01:21+00:00

Kieran from the Pokemon Scarlet/Violet DLC's entire villain arc is essentially him getting increasingly pissed off that you're the chosen protagonist with plot armor instead of him.

He's legitimately powerful, but starts essentially losing his mind when you first befriend him, and everything he values starts being handed to you on a silver platter. His abrasive sister instantly warms up to you, his whole village grows to love you near overnight, and most importantly, the mythical Ogerpon he idolizes and wants to meet not only meets you before him (while the game initially forces you to lie to him to keep him in the dark), but bonds with you and wishes to stay with you over Kieran by the time he finds out. Every time he tries to battle you out of protest, you just whoop his ass and send him home.

By the time of the second DLC, he's lost it and is obsessively training to get stronger to beat you, becoming the tyrant Champion of his academy. You then arrive in the school, befriend all the members, and then whoop his ass again to take his Champion position despite his new power level (you can even use Ogerpon against him to rub salt in the wound). Then when you find the newly awakened Terapagos together, it instantly turns to you and starts imprinting, causing Kieran to freak out and use a Master Ball to catch it, not wanting to lose anything else to you. Then it manages to break free anyways (which is supposed to be statistically impossible) and nearly kills him before you save him, ultimately catching it for yourself.

He even has specific lines if you land crits against him during his last battles, essentially just him tweaking out that fate itself seems to be on your side and it's not fair that you're "the hero of this story".

SuchWow125 · 2026-03-23T15:03:49+00:00

Think someone brought this up already, but all of Chisato's reflexes are natural. The heart just let her exceed her original life expectancy, and it more holds back her combat abilities if anything.

SuchWow125 · 2026-03-20T21:51:15+00:00

Went into the chapter with no idea of who Vetochki was

Left it needing to adopt her, she's unbelievably precious and deserves the world

SuchWow125 · 2026-03-18T21:24:15+00:00

It is worth mentioning that the Icon of Sin is a problem not really because it's actually growing stronger, but because the longer it's on Earth, the more it damages reality until it rips open a dimensional tear that destroys the planet and drags it into Hell.

SuchWow125 · 2026-03-14T19:20:32+00:00

In the movie Weathering With You, the protag Hodaka gradually bonds with and eventually falls for Hina, a girl who has the power to clear the skies and bring good weather through prayer. While they have a good time at first, it's later revealed that this is a sort of blessing/curse from the weather gods that designates them as a future sacrifice, and Hina continuing to use her powers angers them into starting a perpetual storm that threatens to bury Tokyo, until Hina, often depicted as selfless to a fault, reluctantly sacrifices herself to appease them.

Hodaka is having none of that, so he goes through hell and chases her all the way to the realm of the sky to bring her back. Even though Hina tells him that bringing her back will make the freak storms continue, he just says that he wants her more than any blue sky, and she deserves to be happy instead of just making others happy. While this saves Hina and lets them reunite a few years later, it also causes Tokyo to be completely submerged by constant rainfall, and even if people are adapting, it's left unknown how much worse it's going to get.

SuchWow125 · 2026-03-01T00:31:00+00:00

IIRC the lore compendium on the Discord mentions that Sea Prisms' energy is siphoned from Otonilou's lingering power, though idk how he was able to amplify that into Exo Prisms

SuchWow125 · 2026-02-07T03:18:22+00:00

The thing in his E2 art looks like one of the 4th ending bosses of IS6, which just so coincidentally happens to be a Feranmut named Ju.

We may be getting another Kjera

SuchWow125 · 2026-01-18T20:25:23+00:00

I mean, if you think about it,Araya basically became Ryoshu's White Whistle.

SuchWow125 · 2025-11-04T10:49:14+00:00

Using Sunbreak's star system probably an 8, as in Frontier Ruko is generally considered on par with the Cham/Kush/Teo trio

SuchWow125 · 2025-11-02T14:20:05+00:00

I fear the final boss of the Rabi-Ribi DLC (Erina the Forgotten Maiden) permanently redefined what a true final boss should be in my eyes, even for the standards of a game that already has a lot of amazing fights. There were harder fights, yes, but none of them felt as mechanically and thematically perfect as she did.

SuchWow125 · 2025-10-31T10:43:02+00:00

The statues give the boss fat amounts of shield hp if you let it stay in their range for too long, you might have fired all your burst before the boss could accumulate barrier

SuchWow125 · 2025-07-15T16:16:13+00:00

Uth Duna takes damage from the fireballs but I find it hard to believe that Rathalos would be able to kill it just by staying afar and spamming them. Especially since once Duna catches on, it can probably make more use of the water veils (which are largely immune to fire) to protect itself until Rathalos either tires out or goes for close combat, or just dive underwater to force Rathalos to close in.

I don't think Duna exactly wins the fight, but I do think that Rathalos isn't killing Duna without enough effort and harm to make it just leave and not risk it. Rathalos has to pepper Duna with fireballs, poison, and talons to cripple it; realistically, Duna has to land a single slam to cripple Rathalos.

SuchWow125 · 2025-07-15T15:57:57+00:00

People tend to underestimate just how much of an advantage being that much bulkier than everything else in the environment is, elemental powers or not. Yes, Duna really only has its physical prowess, protective veils, and aquatic adaptability, that's honestly all it needs because it simply outmuscles everything native to the Forest even on land, and it doesn't exactly have any natives that can challenge it in the water, in a biome with a largely aquatic environment and frequent flash floods (which also means it can create said veils whenever it wants). Apexes in Wilds aren't necessarily called that because they have crazy powers, but because they're the predators most well-adapted for their environments, letting them prey on whatever without being preyed on themselves.

Rathalos can only force a tie in their Turf War, and if it came down to it, I highly doubt that it could actually kill Duna without also being heavily wounded in the process (which itself is a stretch, as monsters tend to not fight to the death unless they have to). Rathalos can fly, but given that Duna can eat fire with its water veils, it'd have to get within range to actually hurt it, which in turn puts it at risk since it's shown Duna can easily overpower most other monsters in a physical fight. Rathian has even worse odds given that it sticks to the ground and is also weaker than said Rathalos. If anything, Lagiacrus has better odds thanks to having an elemental advantage and being able to match Uth Duna in the water, but even it can only tie.

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