Post Script

How low should a boss go?

Few of the more underhand techniques employed by Black Myth's many bosses will shock those who have played a FromSoftware game in the last decade, or any of their Soulslike disciples. There's the fakeout swing aimed at making you flinch and dodge too soon, and its partner in crime, the leaping slam that pauses improbably in midair. There's the charging lunge where the attacker seems to teleport forwards beyond their reach and momentum, and the multiple combos with different timings almost impossible to tell apart. It's not long before we meet our first 'surprise' double-health-bar boss and greet its second form with a sigh.

Because all of this is part of the dance now.

Designers of third-person boss battles of a kind that are intended to provide a challenge have been working hard to foil expectations, but the bluffs have become the norm. Imagine designing Soulslike bosses for a new game in 2024 you're following countless others, surely hundreds in FromSoftware games alone.