I Guess We All Own An Apology to the Game Bosses
We are about to finish our 16th hour in the game. There are a bottle of yesterday’s beverage, a dirty plate, and a bag of half-eaten nuts on the table. Our eyes are so sore that we swear the bed behind us is calling our name. Apart from having been to the toilet for the last three hours, our ears are as red as the faces of our enemies. But…
The music is rising. Perhaps a voice-over or a supporting character is now starting to tell the biggest secret of the 16-hour story. We need to get out of sleep mode because if our decades of gaming experience is not deceiving us, there is about to be a huge boss fight.
Then, boom! The platform we were standing on suddenly starts to swing. When the music reaches its highest level, we see the game’s worst enemy, that horrible villain spoken about in folk tales. It’s 10 times bigger than our character and it says it will tear us apart soon.
A deep breath. We equip our gun, axe, sword, or whatever else is at our disposal. Our HP is full and we have enough health potions. Ammo? Nice. We are ready for the enemy we have been preparing for sixteen hours.
Let’s see… It doesn’t take damage in the back. Feet? Nope. We die a few times but this is natural. Because we have to memorize its attack patterns. It jumps twice, then ice magic. Then it attacks from the ground with a spear. There is a gap of three seconds after its second attack and the monster’s shoulder is vulnerable during that gap. Here we have to attack, come on!
Yes! It started taking huge amounts of damage. Fortunately, we use the last XP for our main damage skill. Its health is about to be cut in half. That was easy, right?
No, it is not easy. When its health is halfway, the environment becomes dark. Our archenemy mumbles something like “I didn’t think it would hurt me that much.” And then it appears again in its second form with full HP.
The whole set of attacks we have memorized in the last half hour has changed. We struggle for another half hour and die over and over again. But this time we are about the kill it without giving it any chances. It runs, blocks and counter-attacks.
That moment of relief. We attack for the last time with our all power and defeat him for good. Is it over? Yes, it is over. The achievement we earned appears in the upper left corner. The story of 16 hours and hundreds of deaths is now over. We manage to kill our biggest enemy in the last week apart from that old neighbor lady.
We close to game and start telling this experience to our friend on Discord. We tell in the finest detail what a great victory it was. “Thanks to god!” we say; good thing we got the last item before the fight, otherwise we would not to be victorious.
If the game has other endings or stuff to do after final boss, we either play or watch them on YouTube. After that, we’re heading for the next challenge, next stories and bosses. And once again we forget to apologize to all the bosses we beat.
Because it doesn’t matter it’s Dark Souls or God of War, Mario or Resident Evil; no bosses can call us for a rematch after losing. They all are born doomed to defeat no matter how hard they are. So let’s apologize to all bosses we’ve defeated, killed or just ignored so far.
Because winning in something that is predetermined is actually not that enjoyable.
