Favorite Skill Checks?

[God-Shattering Twink]

What's your favorite example of a skill check boss/level/sequence in a game?

For me, it's got to be the Skeith fight from .hack//infection. His fight really feels like a trial-by-fire that demands the player be intimately familiar with the party command and spell systems. Fighting him really made the game's combat system click with me.

 

[Jayonnaise6105 Jayonnaise6105]

I liked maxing out my strength stat in Cyberpunk to where I could physically rip most locked doors open with my bare hands. I think you could do something similar if you maxed out hacking too.

In terms of boss encounters, I always remember the final boss in Mass Effect 1. You could skip a phase of the fight if your Paragon or Renegade stat was high enough.

 

[Tonberry]

 

[Sir Auriel of Lionel]

I hope you stocked up on items and have a dedicated healer because Sporefall, will cause multiple random status ailments. If you didn't just take a chocobo to cross the planes beforehand and properly leveled this will be fine, annoying but manageable unless you didn't buy Esuna.

 

[bjork]

It's an unintentional one, but in the old game Space Taxi, there's a level called Beanstalk. As you're dropping off your existing passenger at pad 1, other pads grow and become pads 2-9, as seen here:

but if you're very fast and can drop off the passenger before pads 2 and 3 finish growing, another passenger will show up on pad 1 and ask you to leave the level, skipping all of the other flying around you'd normally do here.

 

[Jayonnaise6105 Jayonnaise6105]

I liked maxing out my strength stat in Cyberpunk to where I could physically rip most locked doors open with my bare hands. I think you could do something similar if you maxed out hacking too.

In terms of boss encounters, I always remember the final boss in Mass Effect 1. You could skip a phase of the fight if your Paragon or Renegade stat was high enough.

Judging from other people's responses, I may have misinterpreted what was meant by "skill check"

 

[Turbo Kid]

The Messenger

The Queen of Quills, also known as one of the "Fallen" Messengers. It's the first boss most players struggle with and it's quite fitting seeing as how she's a dark reflection of the character you're playing as. As far as stages go, it's the Tower of Time which is a grueling gauntlet of tough platforming challenges ending in a tough boss fight to determine if The Messenger is "worthy". Beating it basically opens up the second chapter of the game

Chapter 7 of Valkyria Chronicles, where the game finally takes the gloves of and kicks you in the teeth. It's an early preview of how dangerous the game's final boss and his second in command actually are.

Judging from other people's responses, I may have misinterpreted...

Been there, done that, got the t-shirt LOL

 

[Vardalis]

I think for me it's Metal Gear Rising with the bosses. Sure, you can brute force some of the fights if you really try hard to be stubborn, but they gradually demand you master things like parrying, cutting, dodging, etc, and it feels very satisfying to have things finally click and beat them without getting pile drived.

 

[Sir Auriel of Lionel]

Judging from other people's responses, I may have misinterpreted what was meant by "skill check"

Personally I think high Charisma stat to talk out of fights and the end game boss like in Fallout 1 and 2 is perfectly valid as a check,

 

[Jayonnaise6105 Jayonnaise6105]

Personally I think high Charisma stat to talk out of fights and the end game boss like in Fallout 1 and 2 is perfectly valid as a check,

True enough. Although, I think it's evident how RPG-coded my brain is

 

[TacoMeister]

Personally I think high Charisma stat to talk out of fights and the end game boss like in Fallout 1 and 2 is perfectly valid as a check,

Was actually gonna post that. Best use of a skill check in gaming history, imo.

 

[Ferik]

The Fiend Ryu fight in Ninja Gaiden Black. If you thought Hard Mode was going to be the same as Normal but with bigger numbers oh boy are you in for a rude awakening.

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

There's a boss battle in Threads Of Fate that basically demands perfect reflexes: one mistake and he catches up to you and kills you instantly.

 

[Turbo Kid]

I feel like modern Ninja Gaiden games do skill checks within 5-10 minutes of starting the games LOL.

 

[Jayonnaise6105 Jayonnaise6105]

I feel like modern Ninja Gaiden games do skill checks within 5-10 minutes of starting the games LOL.

I remember hearing about a boss in one of the 3D Ninja Gaiden games where:

Spoiler

It blew itself up after you beat it and could still kill you and make you have to retry the fight

 

[Ferik]

I remember hearing about a boss in one of the 3D Ninja Gaiden games where:

Spoiler

It blew itself up after you beat it and could still kill you and make you have to retry the fight

Yeah that's in 2, if you block it does no damage though, and it's really obvious it like blinks red and makes a bunch of noise before blowing up.

This was also like 3 or 4 years after Resident Evil 4 had an instant death QTE after the Del Lago boss so it wasn't unheard of at the time. NG2 just didn't have a giant button prompt on the screen.

 

[Turbo Kid]

Bloodstained Curse of the Moon has bosses with final attacks after you deplete their HP. I feel like there's another game I have played that has this as well but I can't remember.

 

[Ferik]

Bloodstained Curse of the Moon has bosses with final attacks after you deplete their HP. I feel like there's another game I have played that has this as well but I can't remember.

Castlevania: Rondo of Blood does it several times, which is relevant since Bloodstained is based on Castlevania.