We all have been in situation where certain enemies or bosses halt your progress entirely for various reason. Ranging from said enemies uses trick that you are not familiar with, bosses that requires understanding on gameplay mechanic that otherwise be challenging without, and some other simply of significantly harder and faster that FORCE you to be
A BETTER PLAYER. Maybe even all of them.
So in today's thread I'm going over bosses that are very well-designed, even when the heated moment turn into frustration, and you have to be stay on focus throughout the session as those enemies can make you audibly gasp and applause for amazing battle.
(THIS WILL BE A LONG THREAD SO PLEASE BE READY FOR READING)
Alatreon (Monster Hunter World: Iceborne)
Let's start with the one boss that not only make a better World Gunlance player, but make me better in every Monster Hunter and the many adversaries and challenge, it's none other than Alatreon. Time to break it down mechanic that make Alatreon is one of the finest and hardest challenge Monster Hunter ever pull.
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ESCATON JUDGMENT: Escaton Judgment, or shorten to Escaton/Supernova and EscaJudge (by me only), is an arena-wide attack that deal 1500 damage to the player in near-impossible to sustain DoT, and with player's max HP only 200, you really have to be careful with this powerful attack. But at the same time, this attack is not without mechanic that make this attack survivable but also straight up cancelling it.
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ELEMENTAL SWITCH: Elemental Switch is the second main mechanic that you should paying attention all the time. Alatreon can start the quest in RedFire Mode, and its alternate start BlueIce Mode depending on what day you're playing. Regardless of what you start with, you always wants to bring Alatreon weakness and that elemental choice should be obvious. But there's a third elemental, PurpleDragon Mode, in which it will enter temporarily as before it switch to the alternate elemental (If RedFire start:
Fire Alatreon > Dragon Alatreon > Ice Alatreon > Dragon Alatreon > Fire Alatreon > ...). Before EscaJudge, Alatreon will always enter
Dragon first before EscaJudge into the other.
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NO FARCASTER ALLOWED: Perhaps you're thinking to use Farcaster to avoid EscaJudge entirely by returning to camp, but unfortunately, Alatreon is the only quest where Farcaster is disabled.
Fire Alatreon weaks to Ice weapon. Ice Alatreon weaks to Fire weapon. Dragon Alatreon slightly weaks to Dragon, while immune to both Fire and Ice.
Now how do you counter this threat? Let's start with play around its main mechanic first.
As mentioned earlier, EscaJudge can be avoided by two method: The first is to break Alatreon's horn in which EscaJudge will simply be cancelled and return to previous Elemental; Second is to topple Alatreon by dealing enough damage to its forelegs in which EscaJudge damage will be reduced to ~750 damage and its DoT is much slower making it survivable.
Coincidentally, I also explain Elemental Switch mechanic in one line, eh? Well, Alatreon's horn can only be broken twice before you no longer be able to prevent EscaJudge from happening. Making Alatreon hunt must be done as quickly as possible in scenario as follows:
Fire Alatreon > Topple > Dragon Alatreon > Break Horn > Fire Alatreon > Topple (if possible) > Dragon Alatreon > Break Horn > Fire Alatreon > Dragon Alatreon > Low EscaJudge > Dead
Here's come the problem. I play mainly Gunlance and Hammer, and neither is a good weapon to hunt Alatreon. In fact, you'll get flamed by your teammate if play any of these. And ironically, Alatreon is MUCH EASIER solo than with group since Alatreon is very consistent as far as moveset goes. And speaking of moveset, Alatreon has one of the best and fair moveset, everything is telegraphed and easily reacted, all come down to how good you are as a Hunter and how familiar you are with the weapon. One thing you must know in order to hunt Alatreon is to always aggressive and up-and-personal.
Eventually you know how to evade most of Alatreon's attack, when to heal when absolutely necessary, prepared for endurance battle, what attack to punish... and you confidently say to yourself "I'm not aggressive enough to win this fight." After your struggle, you just sit down and able to say "that was a great fight" proudly. Personally it took me a week of constant playing and honing my Gunlance finesse to its maximum before finally slain Alatreon in ~40 minutes.
Arch-Tempered Velkhana (Monster Hunter World: Iceborne)
For the second entry it will be from Monster Hunter World again, I know, but I've been playing nothing but Monster Hunter in the last 4 months. From World Iceborne, Rise Sunbreak, and currently trying to tackling Generation Ultimate. One day you might heard me slain Deviant solo after long and tedious Village and Hub progression. Sorry getting sidetracked by random rant.
*clears throat* Alatreon, Fatalis, Safi'jiiva, Xeno'jiiva, Kulve Tarroth, and Velkhana. Among the hardest challenge in Monster Hunter World: Iceborne, Velkhana, and specifically Arch-Tempered variant, is the easiest to solo but still caught the most experience player even to this day. I've seen enough HR999 Insect Glaives and Longsword getting carted by forgetting dodge button exist and the urge to get Red Spirit Gauge is higher than actually slaying Velkhana. Listen, I can make fun of LS main because I used to be one back in 2008~2010 as a kids.
Unlike Alatreon where most of its attack are weaker but is a setup to caught you off-guard with stronger attack. Meanwhile most AT Velkhana attacks are able to one-shotted you regardless of defense, HP, your feeling, and your mood today. Doesn't mean defense is neglected as Divine Blessing skill exist to lower any damage by 50% when proc'd, Moxie (food skill) allow you to take one lethal attack and prevent you getting carted, and the elusive dodging (work best honestly). AT Velkhana attack that can one-shot you all are unblockable... so there's that.
When I'm still playing World, soloing AT Velkhana is my warmup before I have to deal with multiplayer random that probably will get wiped as fast as my Gunlance's Quick Reload.
Genichiro Ashina [2nd Battle] (Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice)
And to finish it off (because I'm tired typing lol), the final entry will be the second Genichiro Ashina fight as I think Genichiro is the best boss that remind you "SEKIRO IS NOT SOULSLIKE."
I'm sure some people who play Soulsborne jumping into Sekiro will plays as if it was 1:1 with Souls combat-wise, and everyone (including me) couldn't be more wrong. Iframes for dodging is essentially none, and the addition of Thrust Attack and Sweep Attack adds dimension to the reaction heavy gameplay. So let's break down what makes Genichiro is a well-designed boss not only to make you are prepared for what to comes next but also "immersive tutorial".
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ATTACK DEFLECT TIMING: One thing that separate Sekiro to Souls is the combat relying on perfect parry than it is turtling behind shield or defy logic by phase through blade and meteor. The closest I can think of is METAL GEAR RISING: REVENGEANCE with better flow in deflect timing.
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THRUST/SWEEP ATTACK: In Sekiro there are four types of attack, and four different ways to approaches it. First is standard attack that can be deflected and most attack fell into this category; Second is Thrust Attack that requires the skill Mikiri Counter in order for you to properly defend against it; Third is Sweep Attack for when you Goomba Stomp someone to deal shitload of posture damage; And fourth...
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LIGHTNING ATTACK: It's a MIRACLE you survive this attack. You better have FAITH on me making this joke in the year 2026. Even in Sekiro lightning attack fucking suck (until you meet Tsubasa Ozora later and get shut down from way downtown). Pretty sure the first lightning attack happen in this battle too, so it's another "immersive tutorial" after getting zapped into previous Idol.
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ENCOURAGING AGGRESSIVE PLAYSTYLE: Exactly this what makes Sekiro is very satisfying to play and when it click you'll have a good time. Posture damage is the best way to finish a fight than reducing enemies HP to 0, and the feedback loops of Posture mechanic is easily grasped (assuming you don't doze half the fight). The more aggressive you are the faster you are at filling the Posture bar, and as you disengage the Posture bar will gradually return to 0 as you leave them be.
HONORABLE MENTION
Primordial Malzeno (Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak), Furious Rajang (Monster Hunter), Sulejmani (Ace Combat X: Joint Assault)
Thank you for reading my thread. I may not be able to play as many games as the guy next to me, but in return these moment sometimes become more memorable as I struggle and tried to overcome the challenge without the help of a guide. I apologize if I say something wrong as I'm not someone with 3,000+ hours that know everything, and play with minmaxed Meta build.
I'm thinking of writing "Gunlance: My Love and Hate For Certain Weapon" next, what do you think?
Going to read and react your reply later since it's midnight right now for me. I hope to listen to your version of what's
MAKE YOU A BETTER PLAYER.