Giant Shade Boss

[Xelane]

I have no idea why they thought this boss fight was okay in its current state.

The first phase places it outside of your reach and forces you to wait until it attacks so you can get a few hits in at a time. Couple this with the fact that you need to deal a certain amount of damage within a short time-frame, it makes for an extremely frustrating experience.

The second phase is just as bad because he'll keep pulling his arm away where you cannot reach it whenever you're supposed to damage it enough to trigger the next phase. It's easily the most unfun element of the entire game.

This is made much worse when you reach the later phase of the fight where you have to defeat it before it reaches the library. I just cannot do it to save my life, even with the strongest weapons and spells at my disposal. It is just not possible.

EDIT: If it makes any difference, I'm playing on Hard

[Something Hank]

Hard is a bit of a difference, yeah. Hard is sponge-ville as ♥♥♥♥, and honestly not the intended experience.

In general, the game has a lot of bumps. They're plenty worth it for its story values.

[Minneyar]

It's definitely possible. If you've got the YoRHa DLC, then Virtuous Contract is the strong weapon you can have at this point; if not, Beastbain. In either case, make sure you've upgraded them to at least Level 2 in the Junk Heap. Also check all of your words and make sure you've equipped your weapons and spells with words that increase attack & magic damage.

In the first few parts of the fight, use Dark Lance to damage him when you can't get close to him, and shoot him in the mouth when you can. There's no time limit here, so keep your magic meter relatively high so you can use a charged dark lance on him when a weak spot appears.

After he starts walking to the library, just keep hitting his feet and jump over shockwaves when they appear. Using Dark Hand when you have magic will probably deal the most damage, and you can use a Strength Drop if you're just not dealing enough damage, although I got him down to 0 before he even started climbing the hill.

Edit: Also, Hard mode isn't really balanced very well in this game. All it does is give enemies a ton more HP. If that's not fun for you, just turn it down to normal.

[Geist]

Dude just shoot it. For the feet use strength and magic drop to kill it faster. Use whatever magic you are comfortable comboing with. Maybe put poison word on weapon too.

[Shadowlet]

This was the one boss I had to switch to Normal for. The library is pretty much impossible with base weapons.

[Geist]

Originally posted by Shadowlet:

This was the one boss I had to switch to Normal for. The library is pretty much impossible with base weapons.

Will take some effort but you can do it.

[⚝ndrn]

This is legitimately not possible on Hard mode you can't output enough damage to kill it before it reaches the library. They paid 0 attention to Hard mode on this mf game

[RedSkyKing]

Originally posted by .ΛmbyDexter//:

This is legitimately not possible on Hard mode you can't output enough damage to kill it before it reaches the library. They paid 0 attention to Hard mode on this mf game

It is possible on hard but only by a spit second. The giant shade was in front of the library about to attack just before I killed it.
But yeah, the balance between normal and hard is all kinds of screwy.