Your Favorite Raid Boss!

[sparab]

Fair enough; I may just be remembering it through nostalgic lenses. Also, that video is the Free Field version, not the EQ; the EQ has a titled Vahrda and a time limit.

It might be included in the arks battle chronicle, along with ragune arena.

[loafhero]

Big Vardha's design just screams raid boss. Out of all the Free Field bosses I faced for the first time, Big Vardha intimidated me the most. I originally hoped that Yamato (prior to any gameplay footage) would be a proper successor to Big Vardha but alas, it wasn't.

[red1228]

Yamato's AIS Phase is probably the most "Fun" I have during an EQ. Shame its impossible to fail (is there even a time limit, I don't remember)

Profound Darkness is very badass, but why do I have to deal with Double's BS first?

I didn't care for Deus at first, my initial feelings toward him were "Another thing to kill for the new hotness in gear *eye roll* "... But now I kinda like him.

If Sega's servers (probably running on 10 year old 5400rpm / 8mb cache HDDs that are about to spontaneously combust) didn't keep making me slide off platforms for no good damn reason, Magatsu would probably be my overall favorite.

[Zorak000]

Loser before he began to die in a split second
mega stu before pre-first-gate kills were a regular thing
mining base demise - maybe the best set piece in the game
Deus esca - actually feels like a raid
yamato - a raid-themed roller coaster. a fun thrill ride but clearly feels like it wasn't supposed to be a challenge; at least not yet...
profound onion - double into onion still feels a bit disjointed even with the transition, onion doesnt really feel like it's presenting a threat until near the end tbh, it's just sorta... there and... your fighting it?
mother - nice try with the falz arms mechanic but it kinda gets played out if your mpa lacks meaningful burst
mega stu today - cube pinata
loser today - dies if you blink at him too hard
elder - eh feels like {a boss fight}
anything I forgot - the fact I forgot it probably means something

[yoshiblue]

Big Vardha's design just screams raid boss. Out of all the Free Field bosses I faced for the first time, Big Vardha intimidated me the most. I originally hoped that Yamato (prior to any gameplay footage) would be a proper successor to Big Vardha but alas, it wasn't.

If we could have inside it's interior, that would have been cool. I think was interests me the most about the fight is that you more or less give it a futuristic version of the original's death. Only instead of air dropped torpedoes, its lasers from the heavens. Didn't think they would do that.

[Hysteria1987]

Probably Deus Esca, because I've only done it once so I'm a fair way from being over it, plus the aesthetics are different and nice.

After all the Mother triggers my team did over the RDR boost week, its no surprise that it's far from favourite at the moment (one of us managed to get a 14* though which was cool). All up I'd rather SEGA take a bit of a break from what feels like constant new giant monster quests, and go for some that are more mob-based. Really quite liking VR TD at the moment, even if it feels a bit easier than Necky.

[Neith]

Dark Falz Loser, easily.

The time speed changes were a really cool idea at the time, he was one of the first raid bosses with a potential party wipe move (yes, it's very easy to prevent but at least he has one), the boss theme is one of the best in the game and and he includes throwbacks to PSO (specifically Olga Flow). Unfortunately he's far too easy and the regular Loser emergency involves doing Apos Dorios which is one of the least fun fights in the game in XH.

I do wish that Loser had Falz Angel's theme though, I've always found Imperial Dynasty to be a better theme than la l'inno per il IDOLA.

I do like Profound Darkness as well, but hate Dark Falz Double (I see a theme emerging here).

Esca Falz Mother I found fairly boring, like Sega just gave her a ton of HP and a BS nuke on low health. Deus Esca Zephyros is a really well done boss in concept, but has some issues at the moment. He'll probably end up getting nerfed, like anything else that ever posed any challenge in PSO2.

[loafhero]

Gameplay-wise, I'm fine with Double. Double's soundtrack is pretty unique too. What I don't like is Double's giggling.

[Altiea]

Since I created the topic, I might as well post up my thoughts.

1. Loser
Okay, I admit, Loser is pretty awesome. He has one of the best raid boss soundtracks, even to this day, and he's got some pretty cool fight mechanics, too. Shame power creep caught up to him, or more people would be attending Loser EQs.

2. Deus ESC-A
My favorite part about Deus ESC-A is that it's super grandiose in scale. The game really makes it feel like he's going all out against you. I know people complain about the DPS check, but I like it, since it's extremely tense and wants to make me get better at PSO2. Although I main Boots, so I don't know what that says about "getting better".

3. Profound Darkness
I actually don't have a problem with Double. I play Boots. The music is pretty awesome, and it really feels like you're tackling a universe-ending abomination at times. Although we all know we fight PD because it's a cube pinata.

4. Dark Falz Apprentice Gia
Sure, the fight can literally be boiled down to "Fomelgion > Photon Blaster x 10 is a true combo", but that doesn't take away from how big the fight feels. It's also backed by the amazing Mining Base soundtrack, which I absolutely adore.

5. Yamato
Easy and controversial as it is, it's hard to beat Borderless blaring in the background while you ride your trusty AIS to victory. I think the opening portion is the weakest part, though.

6. ESC-A Falz Mother
I have difficulty rating this against Yamato; I would say that personally, they should be in the same spot, but that's not really how lists work. At any rate, I'm gonna go against the grain here and say that I actually like the Rideroid section and like the actual fight less. I kinda like the shmup aspect of the Rideroid, and playing on controller, I don't have control issues with it, so I enjoy the Rideroid. The thing is, when I fight Mother, I don't really feel like I'm actually doing any damage (the numbers say otherwise), so I don't feel any sense of gratification when I beat up the arms. It gets better in the second half, though.

7. Magatsu
I mean, Magatsu's a cube pinata. People have optimized runs to such a point that he's a real non-issue. Sai is still pretty hype, though.

[isCasted]

Wall of text, I guess:

1) Falz Arm - what to say? Chasing is not fun, having it die on spawn isn't fun either.

2) Elder - was never really good. Fairly unimaginative design, very slow pace. Then again, he's not really annoying with anything.

3) Apos Dorios - I'm still confused by its tail swing animation, and everything related to Weak Bullet in this fight is bullshit. Chasing isn't fun here either. Otherwise it... used to be kinda fun.

4) Loser - the very first fight when it was released was suffering, and I loved every second of it. He clearly seemed like he doesn't fuck around with all the quick attacks and chasing projectiles. Unlike Elder he required you to pay attention. But then, people figured Mirage, and the magic was ruined, sort of. Still, it was an interesting fight until the point where he started dying in 2 minutes. Then, when XH came... nothing really changed. Whose idea it was to make his XH version be barely 25% stronger than SH when everything else was 4x? Sure, he can't be Miraged as easily now, but now it boils down to two scenarios: either you have a bunch of people who have no clue that attacking big red bubble when the boss is down is counterproductive (which is when you can't interrupt his rage phase in any way, and attacking him is almost pointless) or you don't (which is when he dies instantly after a time stop, or even before he can do one). Loser desperately needs another buff, or else there will be even more videos like this.

5) Magatsu was a mistake. At the start it was brutally unfair (thanks to lack of 13* gear, broken-ass platforming physics and insane lag) and unrewarding, but at least I liked all the varying objectives. Then SEGA, instead of taking a balanced approach, twisted everything upside down and turned it into a gigantic walking sandbag that ruined the game's already fragile economy by flooding it with Excubes, rendering FUN Scratch obsolete. There's no reason to dodge, no reason to shoot arrows, there's no chance to protect walls because he can't even reach the first one. Visual noise with accompanying frame shits is really annoying. Phase 2 is fun, but only because of Sai. Sai is fast, intense, reasonably punishing; its only problem is with awkward hitboxes.

6) Double - it's fun to dodge its attacks while trying to deal damage at the same time when it sticks out its tongue, but leg chasing bullshit never was and never will be fun. What a waste of an interesting concept.

7) PD - it would've been perfect if not for insane randomness of patterns (especially when solo) and "anticheese" (enabling random downtime on core just to mess with burst damage dealers. Sure, it had to be done, but they could just use their head a bit more to make it less annoying).

8) Apprentice Gia - has many interesting attacks, intimidating atmosphere, but what is that I hear?.. It's sounds of BEAMS... and now it's dead. Fuck.

9) Yamato - there's no reason to attack anything that isn't large shining cores. Sure, you can freeze larger cannons, but if you're destined to get hit you will get hit. Then again, does it really matter? No consequence for getting hit, no consequence for dying, no consequence for failing DPS check. I know they had to make an easy boss for PS4 newcomers, but this is overkill. Oh, and weakspot glow is way too bright, as if presence of a ton of giant mechs around them wasn't enough in itself to make it hard to see (telegraphs of) incoming attacks.

10) Mother - just a visual mess with a ton of shades of blue (but hey, it's better than red in Mothership EQ). Chasing arms that are detached from main body that is invincible is a dumb concept. Getting attacked by an arm from all the way to the other side of the arena is dumb. "Anticheese" is even more cancerous now, because every arm change is treated like a separate phase, so weakspot can be opened for less than one second before closing if you didn't make one extra little hit in the last time, making you fight arms all over. DPS check is actually interesting, because it requires team coordination and failing just short of success doesn't give you full punishment, whereas on 2nd check you can win big by finishing it early. Last phase is ok, visual noise aside.

11) Deus... Damn cutscenes cutting to black every time, resetting music and fucking with skill cooldowns, ruining the general flow of the quest. The first encounter should be longer. Dragon heads' visual change is barely noticeable when you break them, and they get in the way of gap-closing PAs. Climbing dragons to reach weakpoint is awkward, and gap-closing PAs break again due to curvature. That cutscene where he grows wings... they just pop in, it looks like fucking Sonic Lost World. Not enough variety in attacks on final phase. Music (in all previous cases it ranged from good to fantastic, btw) just blends in together, giving an incoherent feeling. Transition to The Whole New World is awkward due to incompatible rhythms, and it only makes me ask a question: why is transition even there if the music gets interrupted by a cutscene beforehand?

In the end, it's hard to measure the best one, because they've all felt differently at different times, they all have individual merits and annoyances. Core design of bosses is by most part great all over, majority of the flaws come from bad execution and lack of second thought on certain inherently unnatural mechanics.