What is the true definition of 'boss'?

[eXodus]

This is not a simple "they are much bigger and/or stronger than normal enemies" thing. ZC is supposed to treat bosses differently, such as never letting them return, or come back if only some of them in the same room were killed (Must kill all bosses Rule). So why, for instance, do Dodongos come back like enemies, and Moldorms only come back in certain rooms?

[ShadowTiger]

The first thing that comes to mind when someone says "Boss," is ..... COOL! That was awesome!

Imagine, if you will, that you enter a boss room. But.. it's empty. You turn to leave, and a huge rock falls on you, smashing the floor in its wake. You fall and fall and fall, (Done via animations of the walls, not tricks.) And you have to dodge falling rocks on the way down. Then you fall into a Gohma den, and this really big Gohma chases you down the hallway trying to step on you. :p Hell, it's possible now, so get ready for something cool. If not now, .. eventually.

Bosses usually tend to be very exciting and awe-inspiring. If not backed by some amazing special effects, it should have some kick@$$ midis AT LEAST to back it up.

[Yoshiman]

Bosses usually look alot tougher and are more dramatic than regular enemies. People who use ZQuest nowadays usually always put some kind of dramatic boss music with it. Bosses always look indimidating. Here's an example:


Enemy


Boss

See how much more intimidating the boss creature is? A little bat would just be laughed at is he were a boss. So reinstating what BH4 said, bosses are AWESOME!

[ShadowTiger]

Aye. Well put, Yoshiman.
However, I suppose that it's also possible for a blank screen to be a boss. You come all the way, unlock the boss door, and come upon a blank room. Wouldn't you expect a boss to be there? Either way, your adrenaline is probably at least slightly pumped by then. I think I'll try that.

[Verbatim]

The answer to your question, eXodus, is that nobody knows what the people at Nintendo were thinking when they made several boss-like non-boss enemies (e.g. moldorms) and some non-boss-like bosses (e.g. dodongos). Maybe they were smoking something funky?

[ShadowTiger]

Heh. No, I don't think they were smokin anything. Perhaps a "real" boss, just raised the bar for them. The "bosses" they had at the time, would have sufficed. I mean, take Dodongos. They're completely immune to the sword. They're walking tanks! If you put a bomb in their vulnerable spot, they will explode after taking a beating. (If you slice them apart before they die, they return some explosives back :p )

And Gleeoks are Dragons. It's fairly intimidating to see a multi-headed Dragon. Their fireballs cannot be blocked by any shield, and take many damage points before they die. Besides, they didn't have a lot of space or system abilities to make the bosses like now back then. :p Can't make lemonade pie if you don't have lemons.

[eXodus]

I say ZQuest needs some kind of distinction between (original)sub-bosses (bosses that are treated as enemies - Dodongo, Moldorm, Lanmola) and real bosses (bosses that are effected by Must Kill All Bosses and never come back otherwise - Aquamentis, Gohma, Patra, Digdogger, Gleeok). Maybe different headings in the enemy selector? And what about Quest rules such as Sub-bosses never return, Bosses count as enemies, or even rules for each one separately?

[Kirby of Doom]

Sounds to me having seperate bosses and minibosses would go along with an enemy editor, which, although really cool, would take a lot of programming and reprogramming.

[eXodus]

You're probably right - that would be a welcome addition to the long suggested enemy editor. Flags for boss and sub-boss can really help, but they could probably be put in now as a place holder. What would be less work though is making the other version of each boss. Imagine coming to a room with a Four-headed Gleeok, and these are the results of coming back after dying: kill one head - they're all back; kill two heads - only two of them are there; kill three heads - still two are there; and kill all four and come back later - two of them are back! This could be done with a Two-headed boss Gleeok and a Two-headed sub-boss Gleeok in the same spot. Now how much more versatile is that?

[redmage777]

I think it should be determined by a Screen Flag. There are many cases where people WANT to see some of these So-called bosses return in thier quests. I've wanted to use Aquamentis as a common foe, but he always dies and never comes back. Once on the 1st Level, I used 6 Vire Tribbles as the boss (They do make for a Boss-Quality Challange if all you have is a Wooden Sword) The Boss Flag would help both ways.