So, lets take a moment and think.. Why are the Nemesis fights so awful?

[Prophet]

There are a total of 4 boss encounters with Nemesis, and only one of them I actually consider to be kind of good, and that's the first one.

I like the Demolition Sight fight where he attacks you with the flamethrower. Easily identifiable weak spot but can be difficult to access, with clear indication that you are making progress. Flames start to come out of the back of it, it glows yellow, and finally explodes and we go into phase 2. Good fight

Nemesis Clocktower and Nemesis Disposal Room though. So now we've a Bloodborne boss with easily identifiable attacks that you can dodge but the feedback on progress is all but nonexistent. Feels unnecessarily spongy. These aren't hard fights perse (at least on the difficulties that I've tried so far), but they are tedious fights, made worse by the Hide and Seek boss activity.

So.. Nemesis is a BIO Weapon that has the singular purpose of tracking down remaining STARS members. So of course halfway through these fights he just runs around in a circle on the terrain because reasons, all so that he can eventually do a big plunging attack. Why? Why to any of this?

[Dellicious]

Compared to RE2 boss fights, these fights with Nemesis are much better though

[LWRabbit]

Originally posted by Dellicious:

Compared to RE2 boss fights, these fights with Nemesis are much better though

I disagree.

And I think the OP hit upon one reason why - in half of the Nemesis fights - the ones after he mutates (the dog form) is it almost impossible to get any feedback on if what you are doing is working.

In RE2 Remake, Birkin's eye would get more and more red as you damaged him, in the first fight with Nemesis on the rooftop, his tank glows more and more and then explodes.

But in the other fights the game doesn't give good feedback on if you are hurting Nemesis. I've seen multiple Let's Plays on Youtube where the players were unsure if they were wasting ammo or not, or if they were missing some environmental set piece to do damage.

I had the same thought during the Clock Tower fight - after using half a dozen grenade rounds and 9-10 shotgun blasts - Nemesis wasn't really doing anything different. He started running around the walls - but I had no idea if all that ammo I just used DID anything. And that's frustrating and poor game design.

Not to mention, both the 'dog form' fights are just you running in circles. If you are good at dodging they are BORING. There is no way to lose. Just run in circles wondering if you are doing damage.

The only good boss fights with Nemesis are the first one and the last one, and I am being charitable with the last one. It is just more interesting than the dog form fights.

[Dellicious]

Really? that first fight with Birkin you're just running around those steam pipes for 5 minutes, The awful fight on that shipping container couldn't be worse.

The final boss fights in RE2 are cool though

[LWRabbit]

Originally posted by Dellicious:

Really? that first fight with Birkin you're just running around those steam pipes for 5 minutes, The awful fight on that shipping container couldn't be worse.

The final boss fights in RE2 are cool though

I admit the steam pipe fight with Birkin wasn't SUPER interesting, but it was tense, he could appear out of the steam suddenly, you could play cat and mouse, etc.

The shipping container forced you to fight in a VERY small area, and you had to change up your strategies.

The 2nd and 3rd Nemesis fights are functionally identical. And boring. In my FIRST time through the game, I took NO damage in these two fights. Because 'run in circles' equals 'I win'. Super boring.

Compare the 3rd Nemesis fight with the final fight with Birkin in the lab in RE2 Remake. The Birkin fight was SO much more interesting and varied.

Of course, the final fight with Nemesis is much better than the train fight with Birkin.

But it seems like the Capcom team just didn't know what to do with Nemesis's dog form.

[sno0ks]

The steam pipe birkin fight, as weak as it was, is better than every boss fight in 3.

Running away and getting off shots here and there was a very tense/enjoyable experience. The boss animated well and you could easily read him.

The Nemesis fights are just trash all around. Even the flamethrower fight isn't that good. His charge is broken and you just end up unloading everything into him after his tank blows up with zero knowledge of whether or not you're almost done.

[LazyAmerican]

The thing I like about those Nemesis fights is how they drain your ammo if you aren't careful...something that never happened at all in RE2 remake even on Hardcore.

[somekindofpast]

The problem stems from reducing Re:3 to almost a corridor shooter, instead of dungeon exploration with a pursuing enemy. i'm guessing they didn't have the budget/time/development team to pull off what Re2 did, so they went with a shorter, linear game with lots of setpieces, including setpiece heavy bossfights.

Personally, I found the dog form of Nemesis a bad fit for him. He became annoying instead of terrifying. He lost his signature look. He was supposed to be the Pursuer, yet he only does that in the demo portion of the game, which they probably created to sell you on a false idea about what the game will be like.

The second and third fights are almost repeats of each other, that was especially disappointing. The dog form should have been introduced on the 3rd fight, and the clocktower form should have been the damaged humanoid fight where he flails arond with tentacles and maybe the rocket launcher.

But really it's the lack of sprawling levels that hurts the game the most in my opinion. Shame, because the presentation and characters were just as good as Re2.

[BassChamber]

Gameplay wise, RE3R boss fights are way better than RE2R ones. More dinamic, with different phases each one.

In fact, Nemesis dog form have a unique animations that tells you he is damaged and enters in a new phase. But it is true that the first time you fight him you dont really know if you are really hurting him.

[Jebediah Rat]

2nd nemesis fight would be easier if it wasn't near mandatory to use the mine rounds, when many players might have put them away before moving forwards to keep a clean inventory for picking up items.

I typically carried shotgun or grenade launcher. and i used a few mine rounds testing them on the zombie groups after you pick them up to see how they work.

Thinking of inventory, Handgun upgraded, shotgun upgraded, grenade launcher, handgun ammo, shotgun shells, explosive/flame grenades probably loaded in and mine rounds in your inventory, that leaves 3 spaces iirc for you to bring some healing items or grenades, or just keep open so you can pick up stuff on the way. It seems logical that people would choose to drop a weapon and open up 3 slots, and that weapon could very well be the grenade launcher, not knowing that the next fight is literally based around using it.

[Underdog]

Completely agree. Definitely liked the boss fights in re2make a lot more. Partly due to the fact that Nemesis dog is the most ridiculous looking thing, and doesn't belong whatsoever. But the two dog fights are just about the same... not sure why it was done this way. The addition of zombies makes it somewhat more fun on the second dog fight, but Nemesis actually kills all the zombies for you with majority of his attacks...

The final fight on nightmare/inferno is the dumbest boss fight I think I ever had. Yes, it's extremely difficult, and I'm really not one to complain about difficulty, but in a game that never requires you to perfectly dodge on a whim over and over again, it feels extremely off putting to put this fight there that requires you to perfect dodge up to 5 times on some attacks, or else you get chain killed. It's maddening and just doesn't fit this game style. Besides the fact he - again - looks completely ridiculous. I don't know why they felt the need to change his appearance this drastically

[somekindofpast]

This is why I kept most of the ammo materials unmixed until I learned what the boss is weak to. Turns out, its grenades all day, every day. No love for the shotty whatsoever.