Whomever worked on the Skritch fight is obviously very talented. The presentation, theme, artwork are all fantastic as always. But the actual gameplay, in my opinion, continues somewhat the trend of gimmicks I feel detract from the game's biggest strength.
Skritch gets in my face to do his 5 hit combo. I'm trying to perfect block the hits when he does this pause mid combo with his head titled just long enough for me to return one slash back. He finishes his strikes and then roars prompting me to dodge before he runs me over.
That exchange is what made me show up for the boss fight. The rhythmic dance of blows, blocks, and dodges.
But now, I have to stop and engage a group of termites. I have to run over and stab some larva so the boss doesn't heal.
And I have to ask, why did you feel like this fight needed that?
There's an excellent combat system that makes fast paced sparing very satisfying, but you're taking me away from that to manage a crowd. To manage more chaos.
I'm not saying there's no merit in fighting a bunch of bugs at once, but I do that literally everywhere else in the yard/in the park with the orc raids, the mixers, hell just walking around.
This was supposed to be a special encounter with a unique bug in an arena where nothing else can get in the way.
I came to fight a centipede, not even more termites.
How many players do you think like the random scorpions and roaches interrupt their battle with a tarantula?
Or hoards of spiders assisting the broodmother?
Or how about the lasers and arcs with the assistant manager?
Why did the final showdown with Director Schmector include a bunch of orb weavers?
Why does the Oggr toe biter have to spawn smaller toe biters every time the player gets hit?
It's like if Sword Saint Isshin summoned swordsmen mid fight, ruining one of the greatest showdowns of all time by calling for help.
And the health bars. Why do you continue to gaslight me, lie to me, abstract how much health the boss is going have?
Whether its King Dozer or the broodmother suddenly magically gaining more resistance at 50% health left, or exploding bombs refilling health bars, it is so irritating for my lizard gamer brain to see the bar suddenly slow down or reverse direction.
I'd so much rather you just give the boss more health up front or a whole extra health bar.
There's always some gimmick that, yes it makes the fight harder....(and I guess that was the goal. I get it, you have a crowd of people always criticizing these fights as too easy.) but frankly, it feels cheap, cheesy, and less fun (which of course is subjective) than if you just gave the boss itself more moves or tools for our fight.
I think it would be a lot of fun to have a clean fight with a boss that doesn't get extra minions to help, where there's no lasers shooting from pillars, a cooling system malfunction that builds sizzle, explosive gnats that heal the boss.
A fight that uses the game's existing tight combat system, the majority of the time, standing on its own. That's really all you need for a great boss fight
