[General Discussion] Overly Frustrating RPG Boss Battles - Sephiroth kicked my ass

This thread seems to be going down in flames rather quickly, so I'll try to say something interesting.

The very first time you play through Suikoden II, Luca Blight seems to be almost impossible to beat. Three consecutive battles which, if you happened to somehow emerge victorious from the last of them, are rewarded with the hardest duel in the game. Suikoden II was weird in that, no matter how good you are at the RPG genre, you don't really seem to be good enough to do all the right things to prepare for the fight until you beat it and play through it again.

Of course a part of that reason is because you now know what's going to happen, but the game's mechanics don't seem to be perfectly clear until you've taken some time to absorb the information.

As Suikoden II fans know, when you're playing the game a third or fourth time, Luca Blight is frighteningly easy. Those first two battles you fight against him that seemed impossible are now being intentionally lost because you want some semblance of a challenge for the last fight and duel.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Can't we just talk about the topic at hand? This shouldn't get bogged down in melodrama.

To add to the growing list of hard bosses, I think I'd put Bloodbane from Valkyrie Profile up there. He's easily the toughest boss in the main game, and the only boss outside of Seraphic Gate that really requires you to know Guts (a skill that has a pretty good chance of reviving your character if they are KO'd).

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Cetra

I would classify a lot of these I'm seeing here as simply difficult rather than frustrating bosses, though frustration obviously has different meaning for everyone.

I like to go by the dictionary, which tells me that difficulty and frustration can go hand in hand perfectly fine. Don't bring that kind of stuff into this when you yourself admit that it's all opinionated anyway.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by RacinReaver

Usually "difficult" implies a challenge, though it's a fair challenge.

"Difficulty" only implies a struggle; it doesn't imply a degree in which it's difficult. For you, "difficult" means a fair challenge, while "frustrating" means you're practically forced to use tricks or loopholes.

All I was saying is that, in the end, it's entirely semantics, and I only complained because it sounds like Cetra's trying to correct people by saying their choices aren't in fact frustrating.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?