Or at the very least some of the best Action RPG bosses. Now here me out; Firstly, KH games have some absolutely questionable bosses and gameplay design choices. Stuff like Mysterious Figure in BBS are absolutely bottom of the barrel fights with difficulty coming from bad mechanics not leaving you properly equipped to fight them while others in the series like a bunch of KH3 bosses are too piss easy because the mechanics leave you way too capable to fight the bosses instead.
But Kingdom Hearts 1 had some interesting bosses even with its dated mechanics; Fights like Ansem and Riku make use of the game's inbuilt parry mechanic quite well . But of course when I think of peak KH bosses I'm mostly referring to the super bosses of KH2FM and KH3:ReMind.
Both KH2FM and KH3:ReMind have suites of super bosses that are incredibly fun and rewarding to fight. They balance difficulty, presentation, flashiness, use of the games mechanics, replayability and individual gimmicks extremely well(there are some outliers of course especially in 2FM). They have a large focus on reacting to rather than predicting the bosses' attacks and reward creative ways of finding openings and gaps in their offense. Combine this with your damage in KH games being pretty high, and it makes it so that while your openings are rare in general, you dont need too many to win, which helps keep the boss fight's length down to acceptable levels instead of feeling like a slog. This in turn further enhances the replayability of the fights.
Because they are never too long; losing makes you want to hit continue super fast. The frustration doesn't really pile up because you know it's not really a long fight (most fights in ReMind are 5-7 minutes at most). When you want to refight a boss you've beaten you dont say "ugh that will take forever to do I'd rather not do it again" but rather instead you feel like learning new openings and ways to beat the bosses. They never really feel like a chore.
And of course there's the presentation. KH as a whole is pretty much suspend flashy stuff and the fact that the fights are chockful of it while being playable and readable is extremely commendable. I mean look this at this:
This is peak anime bullshit but it's still somehow very understandable and really satisfying to learn(plus theres actually a secret opening to lay on some damage during that attack). Part of the presentation as well is the music; Yoko Shimomura's music is just a cherry on top of the cake that are these bosses, some examples:
Rage Awakened
L'Eminenza Oscura(KH3 Ver.)
Lord of the Castle(KH3 Ver.)
The only part of the presentation that is lacking imo are the backdrops as they are mostly just white platforms.
Anyway I'm done gushing for now; this was prompted by me replaying the data bosses from 2FM and ReMind over and over for the past 2 days and just being floored by how well done these are. Some games are lucky to get one good boss fight, while these have at least 10 each. Where would you put KH in terms of bosses? For me up there with From Software's stuff at least.
Bonus Question: How can KH games incorporate this level of boss design outside super bosses; while not destroying their difficulty curves? Even the main 2FM feels too easy until you hit the superbosses but I'd love for them to somehow get these into the main games content.
But Kingdom Hearts 1 had some interesting bosses even with its dated mechanics; Fights like Ansem and Riku make use of the game's inbuilt parry mechanic quite well . But of course when I think of peak KH bosses I'm mostly referring to the super bosses of KH2FM and KH3:ReMind.
Both KH2FM and KH3:ReMind have suites of super bosses that are incredibly fun and rewarding to fight. They balance difficulty, presentation, flashiness, use of the games mechanics, replayability and individual gimmicks extremely well(there are some outliers of course especially in 2FM). They have a large focus on reacting to rather than predicting the bosses' attacks and reward creative ways of finding openings and gaps in their offense. Combine this with your damage in KH games being pretty high, and it makes it so that while your openings are rare in general, you dont need too many to win, which helps keep the boss fight's length down to acceptable levels instead of feeling like a slog. This in turn further enhances the replayability of the fights.
Because they are never too long; losing makes you want to hit continue super fast. The frustration doesn't really pile up because you know it's not really a long fight (most fights in ReMind are 5-7 minutes at most). When you want to refight a boss you've beaten you dont say "ugh that will take forever to do I'd rather not do it again" but rather instead you feel like learning new openings and ways to beat the bosses. They never really feel like a chore.
And of course there's the presentation. KH as a whole is pretty much suspend flashy stuff and the fact that the fights are chockful of it while being playable and readable is extremely commendable. I mean look this at this:
This is peak anime bullshit but it's still somehow very understandable and really satisfying to learn(plus theres actually a secret opening to lay on some damage during that attack). Part of the presentation as well is the music; Yoko Shimomura's music is just a cherry on top of the cake that are these bosses, some examples:
Rage Awakened
L'Eminenza Oscura(KH3 Ver.)
Lord of the Castle(KH3 Ver.)
The only part of the presentation that is lacking imo are the backdrops as they are mostly just white platforms.
Anyway I'm done gushing for now; this was prompted by me replaying the data bosses from 2FM and ReMind over and over for the past 2 days and just being floored by how well done these are. Some games are lucky to get one good boss fight, while these have at least 10 each. Where would you put KH in terms of bosses? For me up there with From Software's stuff at least.
Bonus Question: How can KH games incorporate this level of boss design outside super bosses; while not destroying their difficulty curves? Even the main 2FM feels too easy until you hit the superbosses but I'd love for them to somehow get these into the main games content.
