Simon

[Braydra]

IMO Simon is the best recent example added difficulty at the expense of fun.

Simon is the only boss in the game that removes large parts of your kits we built out throughout the game and narrows build diversity down too much.

I know he's an optional boss but man he was a let down. Thematically he hits but his kit makes the learning experience not fun.

My pain threshold is pretty high when it comes to hard bosses but something about him made it not fun. Kinda hard to articulate can anyone relate?

And no I'm not asking for nerfs.

[Kashra Fall]

What made him not fun for you is most likely that he puts you into 1 shot status, no matter how you build. Most people don't even fight him, they just do the one shot silliness, but his actual fight is fun if you just go for parries (Because imo that is what the boss is, a test at how good you got at parrying.) I tried it a few times, got him to nearly half on his second phase, but outright refused to use that broken build to fight him. It wouldn't be an achievement if I cheesed it lol.

[Braydra]

His ability to remove characters, steal shields, 1hp you anytime is just too much.

It leaves just one way, which is fine but at the expense of ways to have fun.

This is one of the few trends this game doesn't bunk from it's contemporaries. We all know how insane jrpg secret bosses can be but I rarely hear people talk about how much fun they are.

[Kashra Fall]

Originally posted by Braydra:

His ability to remove characters, steal shields, 1hp you anytime is just too much.

It leaves just one way, which is fine but at the expense of ways to have fun.

This is one of the few trends this game doesn't bunk from it's contemporaries. We all know how insane jrpg secret bosses can be but I rarely hear people talk about how much fun they are.

As stated, if you learn the fight and just parry it all, you can win with just two characters (Onbal did it.) it's not impossible, but it is rewarding if you do it/try to do it. He only has 4 combos and those combos variate between 3 different hit amounts based on his HP phase.

[Braydra]

For sure I don't disagree.

I guess the game just could have done a better job easing you into combining those mechanics.

The phase 2 difficulty spike compared to anything else in the game is so sharp that it might turn people off from learning it proper.

Not a fair comparison but prenerfno cheese parry only consort radahn was WAY less of a difficulty spike lol.

[Widgit]

Just parry his combos and you can do this fight with literally any build in the game. Except for builds that don't parry or dodge.

[king_of_jamaica]

Originally posted by Widgit:

Just parry his combos and you can do this fight with literally any build in the game. Except for builds that don't parry or dodge.

Honestly, designing fights that expect you to perfectly parry/dodge everything is pretty ♥♥♥♥ game design.

[Kashra Fall]

Originally posted by king_of_jamaica:

Originally posted by Widgit:

Just parry his combos and you can do this fight with literally any build in the game. Except for builds that don't parry or dodge.

Honestly, designing fights that expect you to perfectly parry/dodge everything is pretty ♥♥♥♥ game design.

The entire game is built around the parry and dodge mechanic. There are a few optional fights in the game that also require this and if you got to Simon, odds are, you have a good idea of how to do it by now. A little practice and you'll down him. Me personally? It wasn't worth the achievement point, nor did I have any desire to play NG+ lol, so if he gave a picto/weapon, it wasn't gonna get used anyways. I gave em an hour or two of my time, but after 100+ parries an attempt, my finger just couldn't keep up anymore xD.

[Widgit]

Originally posted by king_of_jamaica:

Originally posted by Widgit:

Just parry his combos and you can do this fight with literally any build in the game. Except for builds that don't parry or dodge.

Honestly, designing fights that expect you to perfectly parry/dodge everything is pretty ♥♥♥♥ game design.

It's a very optional fight.

[Hassohappa]

I understand him removing shields as they are incredibly strong and too easy to stack up, although stealing them is obnoxious since some weapons give you shields and you might not have spare weapons to put on that character. I had been using Chantenum on Maelle and hadn't found the Flying Manor yet so I had no additional items for the level 33 weapon upgrade. The arbitrary 1 HP bonus action and denying revives both felt unsatisfying because they also deny most of the remaining defensive options other than parrying but maybe he would have been too easy without them.

I haven't looked that much but one thing I haven't seen is anyone mentioning using Monoco to just stunlock him. As long as you are fast enough for each of your characters to have 1 turn for every 1 turn of his you can use Charging Burn, Charging Mark, and Charging Critical to let Monoco use Break Point every turn. It's maybe a little less cheesy than oneshoting him although it also circumvents the fight and I'm kind of surprised he isn't immune to breaking tbh.

[JonathanJol]

I don't get the deal of this post, is not even the fact that he is optional, he is a super secret boss that most people wouldn't spend time to even reach, he follows the game design of every JRPG in history.

Most secret bosses are not meant to be balanced, nor thematically accurate, they are meant to be a pain in the ass because most people finding it are into min maxing and breaking the game.

Yes, not everyone is like that, yes some people would enjoy to have a thematic secret boss, but let's be fair, if simon didn't exist, no one would miss it, and that is the deal of this kind of bosses.

[Jerome Powell]

You can do 120mill with the sword you get from the arena, just use that and have sciel double your damage. Put a few energizing starts and Maelle/Alicia can just one shot everything after the setup from sciel

[0wnz0r]

Originally posted by Kashra Fall:

Originally posted by king_of_jamaica:

Honestly, designing fights that expect you to perfectly parry/dodge everything is pretty ♥♥♥♥ game design.

The entire game is built around the parry and dodge mechanic. There are a few optional fights in the game that also require this and if you got to Simon, odds are, you have a good idea of how to do it by now. A little practice and you'll down him. Me personally? It wasn't worth the achievement point, nor did I have any desire to play NG+ lol, so if he gave a picto/weapon, it wasn't gonna get used anyways. I gave em an hour or two of my time, but after 100+ parries an attempt, my finger just couldn't keep up anymore xD.

therein lies the problem.

game shouldnt hav been built around parry n dodge.

[Evilsod]

Originally posted by 0wnz0r:

therein lies the problem.

game shouldnt hav been built around parry n dodge.

Yeah, they should've built it around football. None of this turn-based stuff either.
In fact, they should've just made a different game entirely.

Originally posted by Braydra:

His ability to remove characters, steal shields, 1hp you anytime is just too much.

It leaves just one way, which is fine but at the expense of ways to have fun.

This is one of the few trends this game doesn't bunk from it's contemporaries. We all know how insane jrpg secret bosses can be but I rarely hear people talk about how much fun they are.

It's almost like he's some sort of endgame optional boss and is meant to challenge you by expecting mastery of the game.
Of course, most people have only really mastered the art of stacking damage and instakilling him (myself included) but I hope to be able to go blow-for-blow with him eventually.

[Azaroth]

it's called a challenge guys. that's it.

[GerikHighwind]

Imo, every RPG should have an optional hidden boss that tests the absolute limits of the system. System mastery should be required for these bosses. Every single thing you've learned about the game's systems should be necessary to come out ahead. If anything, I'm more upset that the one shot cheese exists than anything.