Bosses' health bars?

[Hawke]

How can I make the health bars of the bosses visible?

[🌌 LetsPlayNintendoITA 🌀]

you can't

[Hawke]

So, the lack of a crucial GUI element is a design decision?
Thank you for the information.

[The Fool]

Originally posted by Hawke:

So, the lack of a crucial GUI element is a design decision?
Thank you for the information.

Yup, just like it is in most (every?) metroidvania-style 2d castlevania and metroid game, and many similarly-styled games such as Hollow Knight and Bloodstained.

[Hawke]

Originally posted by The Fool:

Originally posted by Hawke:

So, the lack of a crucial GUI element is a design decision?
Thank you for the information.

Yup, just like it is in most (every?) metroidvania-style 2d castlevania and metroid game, and many similarly-styled games such as Hollow Knight and Bloodstained.

Aquaria, Death's Gambit, Dust, Guacamelee and Sundered had HP bars. I've tried Hollow Knight, dropped it for this very reason. The warning about Bloodstained is appreciated.

It is just frustrating not to know if I am making progress.

[WereChicken]

Originally posted by Hawke:

Originally posted by The Fool:

Yup, just like it is in most (every?) metroidvania-style 2d castlevania and metroid game, and many similarly-styled games such as Hollow Knight and Bloodstained.

Aquaria, Death's Gambit, Dust, Guacamelee and Sundered had HP bars. I've tried Hollow Knight, dropped it for this very reason. The warning about Bloodstained is appreciated.

It is just frustrating not to know if I am making progress.

TBF it's only really relevant when the boss shifts attacks noticeably or buffs up at certain health points (like dark souls)

If you actually like the look of the game, dont worry about the health bars as the bosses are pretty tame. The game is fairly short though

[admiral1018]

Originally posted by Hawke:

Originally posted by The Fool:

Yup, just like it is in most (every?) metroidvania-style 2d castlevania and metroid game, and many similarly-styled games such as Hollow Knight and Bloodstained.

Aquaria, Death's Gambit, Dust, Guacamelee and Sundered had HP bars. I've tried Hollow Knight, dropped it for this very reason. The warning about Bloodstained is appreciated.

It is just frustrating not to know if I am making progress.

Bloodstained has an item that will show you the health of any boss or other enemy if that's a huge issue for you.

[TwiceBites]

Originally posted by WereChicken:

Originally posted by Hawke:

Aquaria, Death's Gambit, Dust, Guacamelee and Sundered had HP bars. I've tried Hollow Knight, dropped it for this very reason. The warning about Bloodstained is appreciated.

It is just frustrating not to know if I am making progress.

TBF it's only really relevant when the boss shifts attacks noticeably or buffs up at certain health points (like dark souls)

If you actually like the look of the game, dont worry about the health bars as the bosses are pretty tame. The game is fairly short though

aaight but it seems you've ignored the parts of games that are actually fun, the mechanics, one of the most impactful ones are the damage system, but its kinda hard to tell if im getting farther with one set of gear or another, or if my dodges were better this run or if i was even vaguely close to beating a boss or if i was just getting eaten by a bullet sponge magetank.

sure this is way late on the convo but im trying to fight the man with 3 balls cuz ive got what looks like 3 options that i cant turn back from

[WereChicken]

Originally posted by lavantant:

Originally posted by WereChicken:

TBF it's only really relevant when the boss shifts attacks noticeably or buffs up at certain health points (like dark souls)

If you actually like the look of the game, dont worry about the health bars as the bosses are pretty tame. The game is fairly short though

aaight but it seems you've ignored the parts of games that are actually fun, the mechanics, one of the most impactful ones are the damage system, but its kinda hard to tell if im getting farther with one set of gear or another, or if my dodges were better this run or if i was even vaguely close to beating a boss or if i was just getting eaten by a bullet sponge magetank.

sure this is way late on the convo but im trying to fight the man with 3 balls cuz ive got what looks like 3 options that i cant turn back from

The mechanics of this game aren't that fun. There's only a few optimal weapon/ability combinations. Everything else is meh, also most bosses are very easily beaten, especially when using the time stop mechanic.

[Icedfate]

a boss health bar is not "a crucial gui element".
a health bar is nice. I like health bars, but "not knowing if i'm making progress"(?)
you can tell by looking at the damage numbers floating that you are doing damage.
did i get annoyed when i was fighting the maw and i was trying to do it without taking damage and i was using colossal hammer to do 549 damage at a time and it still took about 8 or 9 hits (and it doesn't make sense, because the bestiary says it only has 2500 hp . . .)and every time i thought, this has to be the last hit and then it took 1 more hit and then i got hit once and then had to reset the game because i was trying to do it without getting hit. . yeah a health bar would have been nice, but it"s not essential.

symphony of the night, which spawned the "metroidvania" tag didn't have health bars. bloodstained doesn't have health bars.
I dunno. i don't have a full list of metroidvanias to quote at ya's.
this seems like a really petty thing to complain aabout and if "no health bars" is a dealbreaker that makes you not want to play a game, then you probably wouldn't have liked the game anyway, if something like boss health bars or lack thereof is enough to kill your fun

[Hotel Security]

a boss health bar is not "a crucial gui element".

Agreed. What a snobby comment. One can easily argue it creates more drama with the fight.

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

I didn't expect someone to complain about the lack of boss health bars, since boss health bars are definitely not a standard GUI element. It's in some games, not in others. I generally don't mind it either way, though I sometimes find it a little hamhanded if it's not done well. In most boss fights, it doesn't matter, because it's over fast enough either way. And besides, if numbers pop up (as they do here), I already know I'm dealing damage and making progress.

I personally have no problem with this game's lack of bars health bars. And, as others have pointed out, the Metroid and the "Castletroids" like SotN don't have this feature either. (Though Order of Ecclesia does have an item that shows you the enemy's remaining HP when you hit it.)

But, for what it's worth, you can at least tell progress on fighting a boss if you can get it to its "pissy boss phase". I noticed that basically every boss gains extra/different attacks at roughly half health.

[davidb11]

I've never heard anyone complain about a lack of a boss health bar before.
Weird.

[Icedfate]

i will admit that while playing binding of isaac, i got used to seeing the boss health bar and then when repentance came out, the final 2 bosses : corpse mom and The Beast, don't have health bars and i found it annoying to be fighting these super spongy ridiculous hard endbosses and not know how close you are to defeating them.

the mom at least has phases so you can sort of tell that way and the beast is just outlasting it, andmyou can see it looking worn down visually, but yeah, i can sort of see where the OP is coming from, but i still don't consider the health bar an essential element.
it's nice when they have it though

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

Speaking of this, I know of another game that normally has boss health bars but doesn't for one specific boss: Mega Man X2.

That was an experience.