FromSoftware has been making soulslike games for a very long time. Games like Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Sekiro, and Elden Ring have become a part of very serious discussion amongst fans right now. It all started when the director of Stellar Blade announced that development on its boss rush mode was well underway. It’s a very recent game made by a very small new studio, and fans wonder what’s stopping Hidetaka Miyazaki and his team from doing the same.
Shift Up tirelessly worked on Stellar Blade despite people trying to discourage them from making this game. Now that it’s a success, developers have decided to give their fans some bonuses for supporting the game. But fans wonder if FromSoftware should have done this too.
Stellar Blade is getting a boss rush mode; fans suggest soulslike games should do the same.
From the very first game in their library, which was Demon’s Souls, FromSoftware has done one thing. That is making fans fight some relentless bosses—bosses that take a lot of dedication to defeat. They became a unique selling point for all the soulslike titles.
Games like Bloodborne and Sekiro, which, despite not being soulslike, have some very remarkable boss battles, Lady Maria, Ludwig, the Great Shinobi Owl, etc., are still remembered for their creative designs and crushing difficulties.
Yet, despite giving their fans such well-designed boss battles, FromSoftware and Hidetaka Miyazaki decided not to give their fans a boss rush mode. While Sekiro got this mode as a DLC, no other game got this game mode.
It should be pretty straightforward, giving fans a boss mode. Give them a choice of weapons and skills, and see them go crazy on these bosses. Players can choose to use their already leveled-up characters to combat numerous bosses one after another until either they are defeated or they finish off all the bosses.
For Elden Ring, this mode would be especially long. The game features more than 200 bosses. Yes, a large number of them are repeated. It is not the first time fans have wanted FromSoftware to give them such a game mode either.
Now that Stellar Blade is getting it, there’s no excuse for FromSoftware to ignore these requests anymore. Shift Up, the developer of Stellar Blade, is not as big as FromSoftware, yet they are doing this; they are working to give their fans something that gives them some extra time with this game.
It makes sense too; the game’s director, Hyung-Tae Kim, has suggested a number of times how much he loves this game and its protagonist. He is also planning a sequel for it, which he talked about a while ago.
A boss rush mode can be instrumental in increasing the replay value of a game
Games like Elden Ring and Dark Souls are pretty long, as they take numerous hours to complete and even more time to complete those convoluted side quests. Players spend hours getting to them and hours completing those side quests.
Over that, each of their boss battles is not just a test of skill but also a narrative experience. Yet adding a boss rush mode would multiply this experience tenfold. Gamers can go back anytime they feel like and start taking on all the bosses they can.
It can be a test of skill and a very convincing way of increasing the replayability of games that are already pretty long.
