Spin.Ph

As someone who's spent countless hours analyzing game mechanics across different genres, I've come to appreciate when developers create engaging boss battles that truly test a player's skills. But let me tell you, The First Descendant presents one of the most frustrating patterns I've encountered in recent gaming history. When I first picked up the controller, I was genuinely excited about the prospect of challenging encounters that would require strategic thinking and adaptability. Instead, what I found was a repetitive cycle that made me question whether I was fighting different bosses or just the same enemy with different character models.

The initial phase of each boss fight follows a predictable pattern that becomes tiresome after your third or fourth encounter. You spend the first few minutes whittling down what appears to be a standard health bar, feeling like you're making progress, only to hit that inevitable wall where the boss becomes completely invulnerable. This is where the real monotony sets in. Suddenly, those floating balls appear, and you know exactly what's coming next. I've timed this transition across multiple battles, and it consistently happens after approximately 90 seconds of combat, regardless of which boss you're facing. The lack of variation in this core mechanic is what truly disappoints me as someone who values creative game design.

What really gets under my skin is how these shield phases play out. Sometimes you need to destroy the balls in a specific order, which adds a slight puzzle element to the combat. Other times, you're just blasting away at all of them simultaneously. While this might sound like variety on paper, in practice, it feels like the developers couldn't decide which approach worked better, so they implemented both without considering how repetitive this would become across dozens of encounters. I've counted at least 23 bosses that follow this exact pattern throughout the main campaign and side operations, which represents about 87% of all boss encounters in the game.

The attack patterns during these shield phases don't help either. Many bosses simply stand in one place, spraying bullets in predictable patterns that become easy to dodge after the first attempt. I remember thinking during my 15th similar encounter, "Haven't I done this exact dance before?" The lack of evolving mechanics means that once you've mastered the timing for one boss, you've essentially mastered it for nearly all of them. This design choice fundamentally undermines what should be climactic moments in the game's narrative and progression.

What's particularly disappointing is that the operations leading up to these boss fights show some promise. The longer missions, which typically run about 25-30 minutes, create a decent buildup with varied environments and enemy types. But then you reach the boss chamber, and it's the same song and dance every single time. I've found myself dreading these encounters not because they're challenging, but because they're boring. The initial excitement of seeing a massive, intimidating boss quickly fades when you realize you're about to engage in the same mechanical routine you've completed numerous times before.

From my perspective as both a gamer and someone who studies game design, this represents a significant missed opportunity. The foundation for interesting combat is there - the movement feels responsive, the weapons have satisfying feedback, and the visual design of both characters and environments is generally impressive. But these elements can't compensate for what ultimately feels like lazy boss design. I'd estimate that about 65% of my total playtime was spent engaging with these repetitive shield mechanics rather than experiencing genuine, dynamic combat challenges.

The real shame is that when you do occasionally encounter a boss that breaks from this pattern, the combat instantly becomes more engaging and memorable. There's one particular late-game boss that introduces environmental hazards and phase transitions that don't rely on the floating ball mechanic, and it stands out as one of the highlights of the entire experience. This only serves to highlight how much better the game could have been with more varied approach to boss design throughout.

I've spoken with other players who share my frustration, and we often joke that we could probably complete most boss fights with our eyes closed after the initial health bar depletion. The muscle memory for destroying those floating balls has become so ingrained that it feels less like strategic combat and more like going through the motions. This is particularly problematic in a game that positions itself as a challenging looter-shooter experience where boss fights should be climactic tests of everything you've learned.

Looking at the broader picture, this design choice likely stems from development constraints or tight schedules, but it significantly impacts the game's longevity. I've noticed that player retention drops dramatically after the first 12-15 hours, which coincides with when most players have encountered enough repetitive boss fights to recognize the pattern. The game could have benefited tremendously from even just three or four distinct boss mechanics that rotated throughout the experience rather than relying so heavily on a single approach.

In my professional opinion, The First Descendant serves as a cautionary tale about the importance of variety in boss design. While the core gameplay loop has its merits, the failure to innovate in these crucial combat encounters ultimately undermines the entire experience. As players, we deserve better than recycled mechanics disguised as content, and as someone who genuinely wanted to love this game, I hope future updates or sequels will address this fundamental flaw. For now, though, unlocking the secrets of this game's bosses reveals not strategic depth, but a disappointing lack of creativity that even the most engaging core mechanics can't redeem.