Instanced Boss battles: They're good but they could be much better
This might be a bit of an odd thread. But I was sitting at my desk, thinking back on all the FFXIV battles from 1.0 and 2.0. They're all good in their own little way. Each have their small gimmicks that make them interesting.
However one battle still sticks to me as my most favorite one: Nael Van Darnus - Fall of a Raven. (Final battle of the 1.0 version for those who didn't play it)
And it's for a good reason that this particular fight remains my favorite one. Because it actually used a full 3D environment. Again for those that didn't play it, the fight area was a circle with stairs on both sides that lead upwards to small platforms that were used by ranged dps to destroy slow falling comets. And going further up, lead to a new central platform used for a particular moment of the fight. I really loved the fight because we were running in all directions. Left, right, back, forth, up and down. And this from a game version where we couldn't jump.
Now we have version 2.0. Jump is introduced. And I keep wondering why isn't height being used more in battles. I'm honestly just hoping that it's S-E not throwing all their thrump cards but I certainly would love to see more of this. And more resourceful and fun fights. Instead of the typical circle fighting arena. Where it's mostly dodge, duck, dip and dive.
Also what happened to bosses with multiple body parts? Looking at Antares for example(spider boss). Heck you can even combine both multiple body parts and height.
Random examples and ideas.
- Garlean machine that walks on multiple legs. Destroy all legs to lower the cockpit.
- A flying boss that plays itself in a tower with spiraling staircases and multiple floors. Need to run up the stairs during a shift in phases. But as you run up, the party needs to hide behind pillars because the boss launches some AoE cone attack. Perhaps even pushing those not hiding off the staircase and forcing them to run back upwards. While also having to take care of adds on the way up. (Could have been Garuda)
- A fighting area with platforms, stairs, bridges and a boss that runs/warps/jumps around. And we need to chase it. Perhaps some bridges are trapped and break off at random. Could be fun with a Kobold like boss who uses tunnels to move all around.
- A giant stationary boss that we need to climb using platforms, staircases, teleporting devices(garlean, magical, allagan) and destroy multiple parts of his body to defeat it.
I'm not saying that all fights should be like this because then it becomes repetitive as well. Just surprised to see a clear lack of this from 2.0 to 2.16. And 2.2 doesn't look like it will bring any of that either. Unless the hard mode dungeons and coil bring surprises.
