What do you like to battle?

[JRolik 1]

I thought of making a poll with this honestly, but I can't decide what types of responses to put in it, so this is gonna be a super open ended question instead....I know it's a very broad question and probably the answer would depend on the game, but what kind of creatures/characters do you like to fight against?

 

There are all sorts of ghouls, goblins and gangsters in RPGs, and some fit some scenes better than others- but some are also just a lot more fun to fight somehow. What makes a battle enemy interesting to you? Do you care, not care, prefer humanoid or jelly blobs? 

 

My main project right now takes place at a school with mostly normal people and a few magical humans whom you can include in your party. I've thought of making some environmental maps to practice, explore and fight on- but even if it's within the school or in nature, I just don't know what kinds of battles would make players really enjoy it. 

 

So, I started thinking about what I like to battle: I really like things that are weird in a way. Jellies aren't weird, but it's hard to figure out what they're based on. Mimics? Funny. Giant cucumbers? You bet. I tend to really love the ones with punny names, too. For me, it's all about what makes me laugh. But I'd feel weird if I had to battle a cucumber in a barn full of cows. They still have to fit.

 

In general, what do you guys like to battle? Or what kind of creatures do you tend to include most in your games? Humanoid, animal-based or none of the above? Mostly physical or elemental movesets? I'm curious what everyone likes. This is both for research and curiosity: What would be the most fun battle to you?

[Tigurus 8]

I think it really depends on the game, setting and story. Though I guess I rather fight humanoids than fish. I only don't really like fighting dogs. Not only because I am a dog person. It's also because they make dogs damn annoying to fight in games.

With my games, I tend to make it everyone a humanoid of some sort, mostly sticking with Humans all together.

But just like you said, it has to fit the setting. (Also, how do you battle a giant cucumber? <_<)

 

I also like "against the odd" battles.

 

[Ardaceus 21]

Well that is a good question.

 

Personally, my favourite kind of thing to fight is all the enemies in Undertale... You don't even know bruh.

Those enemies are pretty awesome, their movesets match their personality and environment. It was fun to fight them because their attacks were creative, and they offered different ways to win the battle. Mostly I just love monsters with lots of flexibility, challenge, and a bit of personality. While this is not applicable in most cases to most games, I really enjoy when I can fight monsters like this.

 

In my own game, I prefer to have animals in the non-civilized environments, mythological creatures in de-civilized areas, and humanoids in civilized areas, so like I'll put foxes and wolves in a forest, undead and wraiths in a dark castle, and bandits in a hideout. When creating their stats, I try to make it realistic as possible, like if there are scorpions and desert tortoises in a desert, I'll make the scorpion more of a weak thing, but blocks attacks and has a high counter rate, and a strong attack with poison effect, while leaving them super weak to magic, and the tortoise would be like a tank, and have high stats overall and a lot of resistances to elements, while having a low attack rate. To make each one a bit unique, you can blind the scorpion, lowering its chance to counter and block, then bombard it with physical attacks, or you can use magic to fight the scorpion though it is not as effective as physical attacks, or you can burn the scorpion to death and defend from its attacks. For the tortoise, you can use mech magic to hurt it super effectively, or you can confuse another target to attack the tortoise, or even just use abilities that ignore defences like gambling or techniques.

 

But in the earlier parts of the game, I don't give as many choices on how to fight the enemies, for you are still collecting party members who all have different movesets, and ways to fight. I try to give as much choice as soon as the opportunity arises.

 

Another thing I do is make sure that the enemies make sense themselves, and try to stay as realistic to what they would actually do in real life. Like I'm not going to make an angry bird use a rocket launcher and a Fashran Boggart summon a dragon from another dimension... or a Sinnous Saint use elemental magic... or a fire hydrant use incinerate (yes, these are all monsters in my game... I'm not joking).

 

One more enemy I should mention, boss monsters. There are many different ways to present a boss monster, but one standard that should be for all boss monsters is to allow preparation for most monsters, unless you are deliberately tying to surprise the player with a battle. Like if you are trying to buildup a spider boss, you can use characters to show a fear of spiders, and have webs getting more intense as you delve further into the place where spiders be lurking. Or if you are trying to make like a super powerful scary undead who will show up at the end of a dungeon, you can use lighting and music buildup to get the player in the mood for the boss battle. And for the bosses themselves, you may want to make it some sense on how to beat it. Like you can leave how to beat it in the level, or you can have an exposure to how to beat it after a certain amount of time, or just have the player use their own logic or tactics. Try not to make it too blatantly obvious unless if you kind of slip it to the player, or do it in a humourous manner. Another thing I should say is the music, try to make it fit as best as possible, and if you can, you can play the theme of the boss later into the battle if you want to have a bit of silence or a buildup.

 

The best example I know of: (Spoiler, do no open if you don't want to spoil Undertale. Play Undertale, or be a little spoiled kid and open this before opening.)

Asgore Dreemurr

This is one of the most best bosses I have ever beat, for it was greatly builtup, greatly executed, and his moveset and music fitted who he was and what he was going through... I had a feels hurricane when fighting him. And how to beat him, he literally shouts in your face how you have to beat him, but the player will try anything else besides what Asgore wants you to do. And I'll tell you something, if you save the butterscotch cinnamon pie from the beginning of the game and eat it during this boss fight, you going have a sad time, I did just that on my first playthrough... ;_;

 

 

Well that was a long opinion.

[JRolik 1]

But just like you said, it has to fit the setting. (Also, how do you battle a giant cucumber? <_<)

 

Have you ever played Dragon Quest? There are all sorts of weird creatures to fight in Sentinels of the Starry Sky. One is basically a giant pickle/cucumber with a pitchfork. Hrm...Odd humans?! Ironically my best friend in a game I play is named Odd. I should totally make him help me think of some. So far my only humanoid idea is like Bullies and Bandits. Bullies would be fun to beat up...xD

 

 

One more enemy I should mention, boss monsters. There are many different ways to present a boss monster, but one standard that should be for all boss monsters is to allow preparation for most monsters, unless you are deliberately tying to surprise the player with a battle. Like if you are trying to buildup a spider boss, you can use characters to show a fear of spiders, and have webs getting more intense as you delve further into the place where spiders be lurking. Or if you are trying to make like a super powerful scary undead who will show up at the end of a dungeon, you can use lighting and music buildup to get the player in the mood for the boss battle. And for the bosses themselves, you may want to make it some sense on how to beat it. Like you can leave how to beat it in the level, or you can have an exposure to how to beat it after a certain amount of time, or just have the player use their own logic or tactics. Try not to make it too blatantly obvious unless if you kind of slip it to the player, or do it in a humourous manner. Another thing I should say is the music, try to make it fit as best as possible, and if you can, you can play the theme of the boss later into the battle if you want to have a bit of silence or a buildup.

 

I love long opinions. It just takes longer to reply to them. xD I have never played Undertale. I have no money to get it, and my friend who originally wanted to get it for me because he feels I'd adore it [irony: It's Odd again]...Can't due to region locking and being in a country with that. So I ended up looking at your spoiler instead [plus I could care less about spoilers].

 

I love your general monster concepts .Fighting a fire hydrant isn't much weirder than a bunch of humans with random weapons fighting a giant tank, which I have had to do in games before. And then you fight the person inside the tank, who's way stronger. THE LOGIC IS NOT STRONG THERE, OKAY? Good thing my motto is destroying logic. But I couldn't destroy that one...-.-

 

Ahem, anywho. Thanks for pointing out the boss monsters- because honestly, I haven't even given those a second of thought. How do you personally decide what kind of bosses to use? Should it be they're similarly related to the other monsters? Should they be totally unrelated but with a backstory that explains it? And what should they be?

 

Honestly I stink with stats and try to keep it logical...ish...but last time I worked on a creature and its stats in a playthrough I ended up having them constantly evading me and it never got anywhere. Best part: They had the lowest stats possible because I was having said problem. 

 

I like the idea of using the fears of the characters as part of choosing monsters. Looks like I'm definitely gonna have some sort of fishy water monster thing. Maybe a mermaid...Or just a giant blob of water. *shrugs*