r/metroidvania • u/ENGINEER_Velaster • Aug 30 '26
Dev Post We want this giant boss fight to feel like a desperate struggle. What do you think?
Hope everyone’s doing well! It’s been a while since I last shared some development progress, so I wanted to show you what we’ve been working on.
This is one of the large late-game bosses we’re currently working on.
Our goal is to make the first encounter with something this huge feel overwhelming, while still keeping the fight fair.
We want players to learn its attack patterns, figure out the right timing, and eventually overcome a fight that initially feels like a desperate struggle.
The full boss fight has three phases, and today I’m sharing a small part of the second phase.
There’s still a lot we want to polish, especially the attack patterns, effects, and overall impact of the combat, so this is still very much a work in progress.
I’d love to hear your thoughts!
When you fight a huge boss in a Metroidvania, what makes that battle memorable for you?
Edit: I made a mistake in how I explained this. The boss doesn’t have three phases that you fight back-to-back in a single encounter.
You’ll actually face this late-game boss three separate times in different locations as you explore, and each encounter has its own theme. The first fight is more beast-like, the second is focused around lightning, and the third has a blood-themed style.
We’re designing it this way so you won’t have to go through one extremely long, exhausting boss fight all at once. Instead, each encounter happens naturally at a different point during your exploration.
I’ll also reply to some of the comments below to clarify this. Sorry for the confusion!
Edit 09/01: There have been so many great suggestions and comments that we’re already discussing them as a team. I’m reading every single comment. Thank you all so much! I’ll keep replying to as many of you as I can. :)
Edit 09/12: I’ve now read through all of your comments, and we’ve had a lot of discussions as a team about the feedback you shared.
We’ve already started working on several of the points you raised, especially the ones we felt could clearly make the fight better. There’s still a lot we want to improve.
We’re only a team of seven, so we can’t always move as quickly as we’d like, but we’re pushing hard toward the full release in November.
Thank you again for all the feedback, criticism, and encouragement. We’ll keep working hard, and hopefully I can come back soon and share another interesting part of the development process with you all. :)
Thank you again for all the amazing feedback. It really means a lot to us!