Lost Planet

[Matt]

I am playing it on Normal, and the bosses are plenty hard.

I think Concept has hit on a good point there, and maybe that's my biggest problem with Capcom titles - they're appealing to the Difficulty Elitists.

Good for you if you're the type of player who likes a really hard challenge, I used to be like that but real life gives me less gaming time than I used to have Therefore I want my games challenging, but not to the point of frustrating. Wasn't someone saying they're on their 7th hour on one boss or something? Hopefully that's the top difficulty, but with a Capcom title you never can tell.

I want to have boss fights where I feel like I've had to work to win. To me, the ideal boss is the kind you can kill first play, it should feel like a fight though. I don't want a boss who can take off 90% of my life in a single hit, then leave me struggling to see WTF is going on as smoke and explosions engulf my screen. Looks nice but destroys the fun.

Honestly, I think if a good gamer can't kill a boss first time, the boss is too hard. Gaming should be about fun. I just think it's a daft gaming concept that it can take 10+ attempts to kill a boss, learning attack patterns, finding the weakness, that kind of ****.

I'd say it spoils the narrative of the story, but you don't want to get me started on LP's narrative 8)

One last thing I loathe (strong word, but I mean it) in Capcom titles are the boss battles where you shoot the living **** out the enemy, only for them to escape at last minute to return later. It pisses me off big time Really! That destroys the satisfaction of winning the fight, and renders the battle useless. Though LP isn't as bad as that Carlito fella in Dead Rising.

[spagmasterswift]

I do tend to feel a bit miffed having to play through the whole story mode in difficulty A before you can play through on difficulty B - the latter being how Capcom seem to have designed the game to be played but think you need to learn the environments and meths under less stressful conditions first.

I'm just over half way through LP on Normal (should have started it on hard) and would love to be able to play through the first few levels right now on Extreme.

VJ had it right, 'Adults' available from the start with all the challenge there and the harsh lessons for you to learn very early on.

[MikeF]

I'm taking my time with this, just cleared mission 5 but I have been replaying the earleir missions, getting the markers and killing the worm and moth

Online mode is great too

[Kotatsu Neko]

To me, the ideal boss is the kind you can kill first play,

I couldn't disagree more. If you can beat a boss on your first try then he really can't be giving you much trouble. Remember the 8-bit days when games were hard as nails and you actually had to practice to get good...

I'm not saying Capcom should make things that tough, but I really don't think Lost Planet is too difficult for an experienced player. Most of the bosses were easy with only 2 or 3 putting up a good fight. As I said I do think they should have renamed 'normal' into 'experienced' or something like that though, to discourage casual players from choosing it.

[Matt]

Thing is I'd hardly classify myself as a casual gamer, yet I find Capcom bosses too hard!

Honestly, I think games would be better if bosses were destroyed first play. It adds to the story, it gives better continuity to the narrative. In the good-old-days, bosses could be hard as nails as the story wasn't telling a story, or at least not in a real way. Nowadays, every game has a story [usually for the worse!], and getting stalled on a boss doesn't help the narrative, it puts it on hold.

And then, as typical in Capcom games, you don't get a decent resolution after "killing" a boss when they manage to escape after you've pummeled them in to the ground.

If a game wants to tell a story, they need to make things flow better and end these silly boss battles - they're rarely "climatic", they're purely a gaming convention from a bygone era that's still overused.

Bosses belong in games like Ikaruga, that's what shooters are all about. I've had a lot of problems with Capcom bosses, I've written before on this site about it, and it's ****ing infuriating as they're shooting themselves in the foot. I suspect it's something distinctly Japanese, the need for incredibly challenging bosses, and they're appealing to their home market. On this site, of course, Capcom are treated with great reverence. But to the other gamers in the country, the people who I know who are what we'd call "casual", they just don't stick it out with Capcom games because of these ridiculous difficulty curves.

You're right, in this instance Normal should be Hardcore; at least they offer difficulty unlike Dead Rising, a game that literally got better the more you played it as you'd be harder to kill - not through learning the game, but due to levelling.

Sorry for rambling, I just want to take Capcom and shake them by their throats. They have the potential to make the BEST games around, I can see it in every single title, and every time they manage to **** it up with their bosses.

[Kotatsu Neko]

I think you've just been playing too many easy games to be honest! For years now gamers have been weaned off challenging games, so much so they expect to be able to hammer the fire button for a few minutes and win by default.

Capcom bosses aren't that hard, well, most of them anyway. You just have to learn their patterns and exploit their weaknesses. Lost Planet is a perfect example of this - you play the boss the first time and he kicks your ass - you try again and see where his weak point is but he still wins - a few practices later and he's dead on the floor and you've got a fresh achievement.

There's no satisfaction, I think anyway, if a game doesn't put up a fight.

[dataDave]

10+ hours on extreme mission 7 boss and still no victory. He's ****ing rock.

He doesn't even have any weaknesses, all you can do is chip at him with rockets. You have to pray you don't get hit when reloading or changing weapon or else it's all over.

The hardest boss ever by far. Got him to about 5% but my T-ENG ran out. What a ****ty way to die when being so close. I jumped up and started shouting swear words at the top of my voice.

It's pissing me off now.

I'm not coming this far and giving up though. I can't wait until I kill him.

Easy bosses are ****ing gay BTW. And I agree about locked hard modes being ****. Whenever I play a new Metroid Prime game I'm forced to waltz through on normal, it's like watching the full game in spoiler mode. Hard mode prolongs the experience.

I had to stop playing Zelda for a week or else it would have been all out the way in 3 days. **** that.

I think Goldeneye/Perfect Dark, again, hits the nail on the head here. The hardest modes are like the directors cuts of easier modes with more objectives to complete... and give a higher sense of achievement.

[Ajay1986]

I think you've just been playing too many easy games to be honest! For years now gamers have been weaned off challenging games, so much so they expect to be able to hammer the fire button for a few minutes and win by default.

So so true. Whenever i go back to retro games that always becomes clear, i just feel Capcom makes games the way they used to be made. Ive not actually played this one yet im gonna be picking it up tomorrow.

[Matt]

Gonna argue that point, I put some time in to retro titles on my arcade machine - sure they're tougher than most current games, but I can still hold my own

Maybe the problem is the move from tough bosses on say a 2D shooter, to a 3D game like Lost Planet. It can be disorienting being thrown over the screen.

Listen I'm just trying to suggest how Capcom games could appeal to more people. Seriously, everyone I know in real life bought Dead Rising, and almost all sold it immediately due to the difficulty. You can say that's their loss, but it's also Capcoms.

I'm also putting forward the point that in narrative driven games the story needs to flow and not be waylaid by having to replay the same section repeatedly.

Easy bosses are ****ing gay BTW.

OK thanks for that 8)

I think everyone is missing my point - a boss should be challenging but also doable on the first try for the average gamer. Surely in the next-gen, with all the talk of story and writers and narrative, a sense of achievement should come from completing the story and fulfilling a quest, rather than spending hours conquering a boss?

No offense intended to anyone but spending 10 hours on a single boss is just insane. Spend your time doing what you like, but I just couldn't justify that!

Maybe people are getting A Sense Of Achievement mixed up with A Sense Of Relief upon completing a boss that has had you screaming at the screen in frustrating.

Maybe that's the best way to some up my feelings - the bosses shouldn't be frustrating, they shouldn't feel cheap or unbalanced. And Capcom seem to specialise in that! Your character gets bounced around, you lose your sense of direction, one hit can kill you and often if doesn't feel like it was your fault. You're waltzing through the game, enjoying yourself, then they chuck in a hard as nails boss, apparently just to piss me off. Maybe the bosses should be FAR easier at normal skill levels. I've had the same thoughts in all the recent Capcom titles I've played - VJ, RE4, DR, and now this. And I adore each of these games in different ways, which just makes it even more frustrating.

Wouldn't you get more out of a game that didn't need to suddenly ramp up the difficulty on a boss just to make the game last longer? I recently completed Rainbow6, not my most favourite of games but I was happy that when it came to fighting the main bad "boss", she died as every other enemy had in the game up to that point - one or two shots was all it took. Different type of game of course.

I can't believe I'm the only one who feels this way. Don't worry guys, it is OK to not worship Capcom!

[Emir]

Still in the same boat as you, Fallows. I have been racking up the hours on Mission 7 Boss tonight. >_<
I don't agree with all this talk of easy bosses. I can't understand why you'd want to waltz through a Boss battle first time round. Surely it makes the whole concept of a Boss redundant?

[Kevvy Metal]

Love this game. Another wonderful game from Capcom. While of course not being totally flawless, I seriously enjoyed myself playing throught the game that i finished today on Normal difficulty.

Quite possible the finest looking videogame i have set my eyes apon, superior imo to the wonderful looking Gears of War, beauty is in the eye of the beholder of course. Seriously, I never imagined i would play a videogame with this level of visual fidelity, its incredible the animation is dumbfonding. I really feel like my childhood vision of what an insanely beautiful videogame from the future would look like is here and now. Man, love this game.

Last Boss was a little unobvious but when I twigged that you gotta charge....it became childs play. I LOVED the mission 9 boss....or was it mission 10 mid boss?

->Open Spoiler<-

The giant fanny with teeth and tenticles

It reminded me a bit of a Zelda boss which is just about the best complement.

Bosses.....I love boss battles. People do whine like little bitches about the diffeculty of games now adays. I remember when i was a lad...Playing my zx spectrum and my NES. THAT is ****ing hard. games back then used to rape you in the ass then spit on your spent corpse. Now adays most games play themselve for you.

I love bosses.....well i love GOOD boss battles. Bullet sponge bosses are often very boring. Of course a good boss battle usually entails using the new skills you have learn over the course of a level and maximising them to the best use. I like boss battles the make you think, test you puzzle solving as well as your reflexes. Zelda bosses are just about the best, most interesting around and they're pish easy. but the satisfaction of beating them is mantained. Okami too....amazing boss battles.....easiest game ever.

Capcom know how to do bosses, Viewtiful Joes & DMC3 have incredible bosses. They pretty much ARE the game.

Dead Rising though......****E bosses.

[hudson]

I can't say I felt cheated by the bosses in this game. It did take me back though. I found it refreshing to be bummed about and encouraging me to clock a bosses pattern. It was like a puzzle in a way. The only time I started to feel a little boiling point was at Isenberg.

I managed to get through the game on Normal in a few days. I'm revisiting in both Easy (for pickups) and Extreme (for uber challenge).

[Kotatsu Neko]

Listen I'm just trying to suggest how Capcom games could appeal to more people. Seriously, everyone I know in real life bought Dead Rising, and almost all sold it immediately due to the difficulty. You can say that's their loss, but it's also Capcoms.

I can't believe I'm the only one who feels this way. Don't worry guys, it is OK to not worship Capcom!

There is an easy mode in Lost Planet remember. Maybe it's insulting to play an easy mode but if normal is too difficult then surely that's better than not playing the game at all?

And I don't think people are worshipping Capcom without good reason. Truth is to most people here Capcom have been on fire for years, putting out one AAA stunner after the other. They're simply one of the best developers in the world.

[Jebus]

I can't believe I'm the only one who feels this way. Don't worry guys, it is OK to not worship Capcom!

You aren't alone mate. I find it rather patronising to be told I've been playing far too many easy game because I find this one hard.

Ironically I do actually find the bosses in this game easier than the missions themselves, but the bosses ARE incredibly cheap in that they can just rocket you to death. I don't like games where I have to try over and over and over again to kill a boss. I'm not saying I want to just "jump in bash the fire button to win" and I don't mind trying a couple of times. But when you've been knocked down and can't get up, and die, for the sixth time (or whatever) I'm sorry but how is that an enjoyable experience?

The first boss I didn't die on at all, Green Eye was piss easy (died once to learn pattern), the boss at mission 8/9 (the spider-ish mech) I died once on. The rest I didn't die once on up to that point. The ONLY boss I had trouble with was the mission 4 pink/purple mech, where the smoke got in the way (yet they could still see YOU to shoot you whilst you were blinded), and they rocketed me to the ground over and over before I could get up.

This game could have been game of the year, but instead it's an above average game there on merit of it being a visual treat for me. Dead Rising pisses all over this from a great height if you ask me.

I'm playing this on easy mode, I'm not ashamed to say that any more. I might actually play this through again on Normal but I can't really say for sure until it's finished. I am finding easy a bit too easy but normal I found a little too challenging, having to take 5/6 attempts at a boss.

Hey, maybe I've BECOME a casual gamer over the years. I don't have the time I did when I was a teenager to sit down and play games for 5 hours straight. Nowadays I have a family, a job and other things to do (decorating the spare room for baby no2 this week on holiday), maybe I have gone soft. But that doesn't matter, any game I buy should give me pleasure and an enjoyable experience regardless of me being in that elite club of hardcore gamers.

I do however find it amusing that people who are complaining about the bosses being hard are being shot down by people saying "what do you want, piss easy hammer fire bosses" but other people are saying "once you find the weak spot you can kill the bosses, they are so easy".

For the record I love Capcom too, have done for years and this is the first time I can remember not enjoying one of their big titles that much. I absolutely LOVED Dead Rising even with its (few) faults.

Oh and finally, why have an easy mode? Surely easy should be "normal" (yes yes, for casual gamers) and then hard should be for the people wanting a challenge, extreme etc etc and so on.

[EvilBoris]

I've not really had any problems with the bosses, I've been playing it on hard my first time round and only a couple of them needed me to try it 4 or 5 times.

It's just a case of finding out which weapons you have at your disposal are most effective against the boss you are fighting/about to fight.
It just takes a little practive on manuevering yourself around in a mech I found.

The game is pretty flawed, but I wouldn't say the bosses were one of them.