What purpose do boss runs serve?

[Goliath]

Why does From soft think having the player run a certain distance before redoing a boss fight is productive? Am I missing something here or is it just time wasting and bad design?

[thebigkabooa]

Because Dark Souls as a series is about reintroducing you next-gen gamers with concepts that new games have since dropped.

The run back encourages you to not die in the first place.

The first step to getting good is ambition.

Don't want to run back? Get better at not dying.

[gackie]

I don't understand the purpose of this thread. It's a game mechanic that's existed since the dawn of time. These games don't hold your hand.

[Miles]

I think part of the problem is the discrepency between boss runs. Compare Nameless King, or Soul of Cinder, to the Twin Princes, or Dragonslayer runs. I wish it was at least more constant.

Does the run to Dancer really encourage me to not die? Of course not.

The one to Twin Princes definetly does and this is a good thing I wish it was more consistant.

[gackie]

Originally posted by Karkoff:

I think part of the problem is the discrepency between boss runs. Compare Nameless King, or Soul of Cinder, to the Twin Princes, or Dragonslayer runs. I wish it was at least more constant.

Does the run to Dancer really encourage me to not die? Of course not.

The one to Twin Princes definetly does and this is a good thing I wish it was more consistant.

The run to the Twin Princes has no enemies in the way.

[Miles]

Originally posted by Hat Skeleton!:

Originally posted by Karkoff:

I think part of the problem is the discrepency between boss runs. Compare Nameless King, or Soul of Cinder, to the Twin Princes, or Dragonslayer runs. I wish it was at least more constant.

Does the run to Dancer really encourage me to not die? Of course not.

The one to Twin Princes definetly does and this is a good thing I wish it was more consistant.

The run to the Twin Princes has no enemies in the way.

Its long that is my point, I hate sitting on the elevator, compared to running up some stairs through early game enemeies to dancer.

There should consistanly, either make them annoying/difficult or not.

[karkied]

Why do they design the game so player can die? Why dont they just give us iframes all the time? Its such a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ that u pay 60 bucks to die numerous times. Whats the fun in that? :)

[gackie]

Originally posted by Karkoff:

Originally posted by Hat Skeleton!:

The run to the Twin Princes has no enemies in the way.

Its long that is my point, I hate sitting on the elevator, compared to running up some stairs through early game enemeies to dancer.

There should consistanly, either make them annoying/difficult or not.

It's about 20 seconds...

[Miles]

Originally posted by Hat Skeleton!:

Originally posted by Karkoff:

Its long that is my point, I hate sitting on the elevator, compared to running up some stairs through early game enemeies to dancer.

There should consistanly, either make them annoying/difficult or not.

It's about 20 seconds...

You can disagree with me that its annoying and that's fine, but that then begs the OPs question. If they present no challenge what is the point of wasteing 20 seconds of the players time.

Originally posted by thebigkabooa:

Because Dark Souls as a series is about reintroducing you next-gen gamers with concepts that new games have since dropped.

The run back encourages you to not die in the first place.

The first step to getting good is ambition.

Don't want to run back? Get better at not dying.

This is the answer I agree with, and I wish the runs had more consistant length and difficutly.

[Goliath]

The response to any criticism towards the game should not be an instant "yarr! The game is tough, that's why!". You didn't read the OP. I said that runs aren't hard. The boss itself is a wonderful challenge that I enjoy. I don't want the game to hold my hand, I just don't want to waste my time by holding down spacebar and w for a minute or 2 before I experience that "tough but fair" and wonderfully challenging experience. LoL

[Hans Meiser]

Why do I have to play the game? I just want to say I beat it, it's so stupid that I have to play the game to finish it. They could just start me when the last boss is dying.
From is wasting my time by making me play this game, such a bad design. Where is my beat a game button, ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥...

Some people just baffle me, OP probably wonders why he has to shoot people in Counterstrike too. I mean they could just spawn him at the bombsite with bomb hand, such a bad design...

[Hunubul]

Originally posted by Sentinel:

The response to any criticism towards the game should not be an instant "yarr! The game is tough, that's why!". You didn't read the OP. I said that runs aren't hard. The boss itself is a wonderful challenge that I enjoy. I don't want the game to hold my hand, I just don't want to waste my time by holding down spacebar and w for a minute or 2 before I experience that "tough but fair" and wonderfully challenging experience. LoL

You know if you just start the boss right away you don't have time to get ready and let off steam. The game forces you to have a little rest before you try again. In other games people can really get fustrated because they can't beat a boss and they are just thrown back into there. And also they won't change the core gameplay just so that some people can restart the boss when they die... Bonfires are a big part of the game, mechanically and storywise too, they won't just throw it out so you can "enjoy boss battles endlessly".

EDIT: It's a design choice, you don't have to like it.

[Santey]

To git gud of course. You should defeat boss on first attempt :D

[Silver]

its so satisfying seeing all of these pretentious losers get proven wrong as fromsoft literally admit its bad game design in elden ring by removing boss runbacks entirely

[Seishisha]

I always viewed it as a mechanic to help players improve, either by putting you through a gauntlet that you can master to the point of it being obsolete, or as a function of spawning enemies for you to grind on. Both facets helps players grow stronger either numerically or technically.

No matter your choice or need it does slow your pace of just wanting to attempt a boss, which may have also been by design, it gives players time to reflect on what they could do better, and it gives you a chance to prepare differently. If you died and spawned at the fog gate most players would just walk back in without hesitating and potentially without learning anything too.

But yeah it can feel like a time waster sometimes, more so to veteran players than newer ones.

[urabe mikoto]

Originally posted by Silver:

its so satisfying seeing all of these pretentious losers get proven wrong as fromsoft literally admit its bad game design in elden ring by removing boss runbacks entirely

That's because ER was designed to be casual-friendly. DS3 is for true gamers only